title: Panzer I

text: Although the Panzer I would participate in almost every major Nationalist offensive of the war, the Nationalist army began to deploy more and more captured T-26 tanks to offset their disadvantage in protection and firepower. At one point, von Thoma offered up to 500 pesetas for each T-26 captured. Although the Panzer I was initially able to knock out the T-26 at close range—150 meters (165 yd) or less—using an armor-piercing 7.92 millimeter bullet, the Republican tanks began to engage at ranges where they were immune to the machine guns of the Panzer I.


title: Panzer I

text: The Panzer I was upgraded in order to increase its lethality. On 8 August 1937, Major General García Pallasar received a note from Generalísimo Francisco Franco that expressed the need for a Panzer I (or "negrillo", as their Spanish crews called them) with a 20-millimeter gun. Ultimately, the piece chosen was the Breda Model 1935, due to the simplicity of the design over competitors such as the German Flak 30. Furthermore, the 20 mm Breda was capable of perforating 40 millimeters of armour at 250 meters (1.57 in at 275 yd), which was more than sufficient to penetrate the frontal armour of the T-26. Although originally 40 Italian CV.35 light tanks were ordered with the Breda in place of their original armament, this order was subsequently canceled after it was thought that the adaptation of the same gun to the Panzer I would yield better results. Prototypes were ready by September 1937 and an order was placed after successful results. The mounting of the Breda in the Panzer I required the original turret to be opened at the top and then extended by a vertical supplement. Four of these tanks were finished at the Armament Factory of Seville, but further production was canceled as it was decided sufficient numbers of Republican T-26 tanks had been captured to fulfill the Nationalist leadership's request for more lethal tanks. The Breda modification was not particularly liked by German crews, as the unprotected gap in the turret, designed to allow the tank's commander to aim, was found to be a dangerous weak point.


title: Panzer I

text: In late 1938, another Panzer I was sent to the Armament Factory of Seville in order to mount a 45 mm gun, captured from a Soviet tank (a T-26 or BT-5). A second was sent sometime later in order to exchange the original armament for a 37-millimeter Maklen anti-tank gun, which had been deployed to Asturias in late 1936 on the Soviet ship A. Andreiev. It remains unknown to what extent these trials and adaptations were completed, although it is safe to assume neither adaptation was successful beyond the drawing board.


title: Panzer I

text: In 1937, around ten Panzer I Ausf. A's were sold to the Republic of China (ROC) during a period of strong co-operative ties between the ROC and Nazi Germany, which were subsequently fielded in the Battle of Nanjing by the 3rd Armoured Battalion of the ROC's National Revolutionary Army (NRA) to fight against the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA).


title: Panzer I

text: Following the fall of Nanking, the Chinese Panzer I Ausf. A's were captured by the Japanese and put on display at the Yasukuni Shrine. Because of the close relationship between Hitler's Germany and Imperial Japan by that time, the Chinese Panzer I Ausf. A was instead labelled as "Made in the USSR" (the USSR being the common enemy of these two strongly anti-communist nations).


title: Panzer I

text: During the initial campaigns of World War II, Germany's light tanks, including the Panzer I, formed the bulk of its armoured strength. In March 1938, the German Army marched into Austria, experiencing a mechanical breakdown rate of up to thirty percent. However, the experience revealed to Guderian several faults within the German "Panzerkorps" and he subsequently improved logistical support. In October 1938, Germany occupied Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, and the remainder of the country in March 1939. The capture of Czechoslovakia allowed several Czech tank designs, such as the Panzer 38(t), and their subsequent variants and production, to be incorporated into the German Army's strength. It also prepared German forces for the invasion of Poland.


title: Panzer I

text: On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland using seventy-two divisions (including 16 reserve infantry divisions in OKH reserves), including seven panzer divisions (1., 2., 3., 4., 5., 10., "Kempf") and four light divisions (1., 2., 3., 4.). Three days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany. The seven panzer and four light divisions were arrayed in five armies, forming two army groups. The battalion strength of the 1st Panzer Division included no less than fourteen Panzer Is, while the other six divisions included thirty-four. A total of about 2,700 tanks were available for the invasion of Poland, but only 310 of the heavier Panzer III and IV tanks were available. Furthermore, 350 were of Czech design—the rest were either Panzer Is or Panzer IIs. The invasion was swift and the last Polish pockets of resistance surrendered on 6 October. The entire campaign had lasted five weeks (with help of the Soviet forces, which attacked on 17 September), and the success of Germany's tanks in the campaign was summed up in response to Hitler on 5 September: when asked if it had been the dive bombers who destroyed a Polish artillery regiment, Guderian replied, "No, our panzers!"


title: Panzer I

text: Some 832 German tanks (including 320 PzI, 259 PzII, 40 Pz III, 76 PzIV, 77 Pz35(t), 13 PzBef III, 7 PzBef 38(t), 34 other PzBef and some Pz38(t)) were lost during the campaign, approximately 341 of which were never to return to service. This represented about a third of Germany's armor deployed for the Polish campaign. During the campaign, no less than half of Germany's tanks were unavailable due to maintenance issues or enemy action, and of all tanks, the Panzer I proved the most vulnerable to Polish anti-tank weapons.


title: Panzer I

text: Furthermore, it was found that the handling of armoured forces during the campaign left much to be desired. During the beginning of Guderian's attack in northern Poland, his corps was held back to coordinate with infantry for quite a while, preventing a faster advance. It was only after Army Group South had its attention taken from Warsaw at the Battle of Bzura that Guderian's armour was fully unleashed. There were still lingering tendencies to reserve Germany's armour, even if in independent divisions, to cover an infantry advance or the flanks of advancing infantry armies. Although tank production was increased to 125 tanks per month after the Polish Campaign, losses forced the Germans to draw further strength from Czech tank designs, and light tanks continued to form the majority of Germany's armored strength.


title: Panzer I

text: Despite its obsolescence, the Panzer I was also used in the invasion of France in May 1940. Of 2,574 tanks available for the campaign, no fewer than 523 were Panzer Is, while there were 627 Panzer IIIs and IVs, 955 Panzer II, 106 Czech Panzer 35(t), and 228 Panzer 38(t). For their defense, the French boasted up to 4,000 tanks, including 300 Char B1, armed with a 47 mm (1.7 in) gun in the turret and a larger 75 mm (2.95 in) low-velocity gun in the hull. The French also had around 250 Somua S-35, widely regarded as one of the best tanks of the period, armed with the same 47 mm main gun and protected by almost 55 mm (2.17 in) of armour at its thickest point. Nevertheless, the French also deployed over 3,000 light tanks, including about 500 World War I-vintage FT-17s. German armor enjoyed multiple advantages: Radios allowed them to coordinate faster than their British or French counterparts, while the Germans also had superior tactical doctrine and markedly faster speed.


title: Panzer I

text: Italian setbacks in Egypt and their colony of Libya caused Hitler to dispatch aircraft to Sicily, and a blocking force to North Africa. This blocking force was put under the command of Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel and included the motorized 5th Light Division and the 15th Panzer Division. This force landed at Tripoli on 12 February 1941. Upon arrival, Rommel had around 150 tanks, about half Panzer III and IV. The rest were Panzer I's and IIs, although the Panzer I was soon replaced. On 6 April 1941, Germany attacked both Yugoslavia and Greece, with fourteen divisions invading Greece from neighboring Bulgaria, which by then had joined the Tripartite Pact. The invasion of Yugoslavia included six panzer divisions which still fielded the Panzer I. Yugoslavia surrendered 17 April 1941, and Greece fell on 30 April 1941.


title: Panzer I

text: The final major campaign in which the Panzer I formed a large portion of the armoured strength was "Operation Barbarossa", 22 June 1941. The 3,300 German tanks included about 410 Panzer I's. By the end of the month, a large portion of the Red Army found itself trapped in the Minsk pocket, and by 21 September Kiev had fallen, thereby allowing the Germans to concentrate on their ultimate objective, Moscow. Despite the success of Germany's armour in the Soviet Union, between June and September most German officers were shocked to find their tanks were inferior to newer Soviet models, the T-34 and KV series. As seen during the Spanish Civil War only 5 years earlier, the Panzer I was clearly no match for even the weakest of Soviet armour it encountered, with even armoured cars such as the BA-10 proving capable of defeating the Panzer I when fitted with medium-caliber anti-tank weapons. Army Group North quickly realized that none of the tank guns currently in use by German armor could reliably penetrate the thick frontal armour of the KV-1. The performance of the Red Army during the Battle of Moscow and the growing numbers of new Soviet tanks made it obvious the Panzer I was not largely suitable for this front of war. Some less battle-worthy Panzer Is were tasked with towing lorries and other light (mainly wheeled) vehicles through the thick Russian-autumn mud to alleviate logistical and transportation issues and problems at the frontlines, whilst other Panzer Is were relegated for anti-partisan actions or rear-guard protection duties (such as defending airfields or other vital military installations on occupied enemy territory).


title: Panzer I

text: After Germany, Spain fielded the largest number of Panzer I tanks. A total of 122 were exported to Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and, as late as 1945, Spain's "Brunete Armored Division" fielded 93. The Panzer I remained in use in Spain until aid arrived from the United States in 1954 when they were replaced by the relatively modern M47 Patton. Between 1935 and 1936, an export version of the Panzer I Ausf. B, named the L.K.B. ("Leichte Kampfwagen B"), was designed for export to Bulgaria. Modifications included up-gunning to a 20-millimeter gun and fitting a Krupp M 311 V-8 gasoline engine. Although three examples were built, none were exported to Bulgaria, although a single Panzer I Ausf. A had previously been sold.


title: Panzer I

text: A final order was supplied to Hungary in 1942, totalling eight Ausf. B's and six command versions. These were incorporated into the 1st Armoured Division and saw combat in late 1942. At least 1 Panzer I Ausf. B was sent to the Army of the Independent State of Croatia.


title: Panzer I

text: Between 1934 and the mid-1940s, several variants of the Panzer I were designed, especially during the later years of its combat history. Because they were obsolescent from their introduction, incapable of defeating foreign armor, and outclassed by newer German tanks, the Panzer I chassis were increasingly adapted as tank destroyers and other variants. One of the best-known variants was the "kleiner Panzerbefehlswagen" ("small armoured command vehicle"), built on the Ausf. A and Ausf. B chassis—200 of these were manufactured. The Panzer I Ausf. B chassis was also used to build the German Army's first tracked tank destroyer, the Panzerjäger I. This vehicle was armed with a Czech 47-millimeter (1.85 in) anti-tank gun.


title: Zero Mostel

text: Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel (February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977) was an American actor, comedian, and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in "Fiddler on the Roof", Pseudolus on stage and on screen in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", and Max Bialystock in the original film version of Mel Brooks' "The Producers" (1967). Mostel was a student of Don Richardson, and he used an acting technique based on muscle memory. He was blacklisted during the 1950s; his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee was well publicized. Mostel later starred in the Hollywood Blacklist drama film "The Front" (1976) alongside Woody Allen, for which Mostel was nominated for the British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actor.


title: Zero Mostel

text: Mostel was an Obie Award and three-time Tony Award winner. He is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame, inducted posthumously in 1979.


title: Zero Mostel

text: Mostel was born in Brooklyn, to Israel Mostel, who was of Eastern European Jewish origin, and Cina "Celia" Druchs, a Polish Jew who was raised in Vienna. The two immigrated to the United States separately – Israel in 1898 and Cina in 1908 – where they met and married. Israel already had four children from his first wife; he had four more children with Cina. Samuel, later known as Zero, was Israel's seventh child.


title: Zero Mostel

text: According to his brother, Bill Mostel, their mother coined the nickname "Zero", noting that if he continued to do poorly at school, he would amount to a zero.


title: Zero Mostel

text: Initially living in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, the family moved to Moodus, Connecticut, where they bought a farm. The family's income in those days came from a winery and a slaughterhouse. The farm failed, and the family moved back to New York, where his father obtained work as a wine chemist. Mostel was described by his family as outgoing and lively, and with a developed sense of humor. He showed an intelligence and perception that convinced his father he had the makings of a rabbi, but Mostel preferred painting and drawing, a passion he was to retain for life. According to Roger Butterfield, his mother sent him to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to copy paintings while dressed in a velvet suit. Mostel had a favorite painting, John White Alexander's "", which he copied every day, to the delight of the gallery crowds. One afternoon, while a crowd was watching over his velvet-clad shoulder, he solemnly copied the whole painting upside down, delighting his audience.


title: Zero Mostel

text: He attended Public School 188, where he was an A student. He also received professional training as a painter through The Educational Alliance. He completed his high school education at Seward Park High School, where his yearbook noted: "A future Rembrandt... or perhaps a comedian?".


title: Zero Mostel

text: Mostel attended the City College of New York, a public college that allowed many poor students to pursue higher education. He later claimed that he was on the swimming team and the Reserve Officers Training Corps, though the claim is dubious. As only beginner classes were available in art, Mostel took them repeatedly to be able to paint and receive professional feedback. During that time he worked odd jobs. He graduated in 1935 with a bachelor's degree. He then continued studying towards a master's degree at New York University before leaving after a year to find work. He then joined the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), which paid him a stipend to teach art.


title: Zero Mostel

text: In 1939 he married Clara Sverd, and the couple moved to an apartment in Brooklyn. The marriage did not last, however, since Clara could not accept the many hours Mostel spent in his studio with his fellow artists, and he did not seem to be able to provide for her at the level to which she had been accustomed. They separated in 1941 and divorced in 1944, Clara only agreeing to the divorce in return for a percentage of Mostel's earnings for the rest of his life. The arrangement lasted until the mid-1950s.


title: Zero Mostel

text: Part of Mostel's duty with the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was to give gallery talks at New York's museums. Leading groups of students through the many paintings, Mostel could not suppress his comedic nature, and his lectures were noted less for their artistic content than for his sense of humor. As his reputation grew, he was invited to entertain at parties and other social occasions, earning three to five dollars per performance. Labor union social clubs followed, where Mostel mixed his comic routine with social commentary. These performances played a large role in his eventual blacklisting in the next decade.


title: Zero Mostel

text: In 1941, the Café Society, a downtown Manhattan nightclub, approached Mostel with an offer to become a professional comedian and play a regular spot. Mostel accepted, and in the next few months he became the Café Society's main attraction. It was here that he adopted the stage name Zero (Zee to his friends), created by press agent Ivan Black at the behest of Barney Josephson, the proprietor, who felt that "Sam Mostel" was not appropriate for a comic.


title: Zero Mostel

text: Thus, at the age of 27, Mostel dropped every other job and occupation to start his show business career.


title: Zero Mostel

text: Mostel's rise professionally was rapid. In 1942, his salary at the Café Society went up from $40 a week to $450; he appeared on radio shows, opened in two Broadway shows ("Keep Them Laughing", "Top-Notchers"), played at the Paramount Theatre, appeared in an MGM movie ("Du Barry Was a Lady"), and booked into "La Martinique" at $4,000 a week. He also made cameo appearances at the Yiddish theatre, which influenced his performance style. In 1943 "Life" magazine described him as "just about the funniest American now living".


title: Zero Mostel

text: In March 1943, Mostel was drafted by the US Army. Although Mostel gave varying accounts of his Army service, records show he was honorably discharged in August 1943 because of an unspecified physical disability. He subsequently entertained servicemen through the USO until 1945.


title: Zero Mostel

text: Mostel married Kathryn (Kate) Cecilia Harkin, an actress and dancer, on July 2, 1944, after two years of courtship. The pair met at Radio City Music Hall where she was a Rockette. The marriage caused problems in his relationship with his Orthodox Jewish parents: his new wife was not Jewish. His mother never met Kate or her grandsons. The marriage had problems at times, again mostly due to Mostel's spending most of his time in his art studio. Their relationship was described by friends of the family as complicated, with many fights but having mutual adoration. The couple stayed together until Mostel's death and had two children: film actor Josh Mostel in 1946 and Tobias in 1948.


title: Zero Mostel

text: After Mostel's discharge from the Army, his career resumed. He appeared in a series of plays, musicals, operas, and movies. In 1946 he even made an attempt at serious operatic acting in "The Beggar's Opera", but received lukewarm reviews. Critics saw him as a versatile performer.


title: Zero Mostel

text: Mostel made notable appearances on New York City television in the late 1940s. He had his own show in 1948 called "Off The Record" on WABD with comedian partner Joey Faye. Simultaneously, Mostel had a live TV show on WPIX, "Channel Zero". He also appeared in the May 11, 1949 "Toast of the Town" broadcast hosted by Ed Sullivan.


title: Zero Mostel

text: Mostel had been a leftist since college and his nightclub routine included political jabs at right-wingers. His MGM contract was terminated, and his role in "Du Barry Was a Lady" was truncated, because studio executives were upset that he participated in protests against another MGM film, "Tennessee Johnson", which protesters believed had downplayed the racism of former US President Andrew Johnson. According to biographer Arthur Sainer, "MGM blacklisted Zero Mostel way before the days of the blacklist".


title: Zero Mostel

text: During his Army service he was under investigation for alleged Communist Party membership. The Military Intelligence Division of the U.S. War Department said it was "reliably reported" that he was a Communist Party member. The Post Intelligence Officer at the Army's Camp Croft, where Mostel served, believed that Mostel was "definitely a Communist." As a result of that, his application to be an entertainment director with the US Army Special Services unit was denied. Mostel had lobbied hard to transfer to Special Services, at one point traveling to Washington to request a transfer.


title: Zero Mostel

text: It was not until 1950 that Mostel again acted in movies, for a role in the Oscar-winning film "Panic in the Streets", at the request of its director, Elia Kazan. Kazan describes his attitude and feelings during that period, where


title: Zero Mostel

text: Mostel played supporting roles in five movies for Twentieth Century Fox in 1950, all in films released in 1951. Fox then abruptly cancelled his contract. Mostel learned this after he was loaned out to Columbia for a film role but not permitted on the set. The studio may have received word that he was about to be named as a Communist in Congressional testimony.


title: Zero Mostel

text: On January 29, 1952, Martin Berkeley identified Mostel to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) as having been a member of the Communist Party. After the testimony he was effectively blacklisted. He was subpoenaed to appear before HUAC on August 14, 1955. Mostel declined to name names and jousted with the members of Congress, invoked the Fifth Amendment, while standing up for his right to the privacy of his personal political beliefs.


title: Zero Mostel

text: His testimony won him admiration in the blacklisted community, and in addition to not naming names he also confronted the committee on ideological matters, something that was rarely done. Among other things, he referred to Twentieth Century Fox as "18th Century Fox" (due to its collaboration with the committee), and manipulated the committee members to make them appear foolish. Mostel later commented: "What did they think I was going to do – sell acting secrets to the Russians?"


title: Zero Mostel

text: The admiration he received for his testimony did nothing to take him off the blacklist, however, and the family had to struggle throughout the 1950s with little income. Mostel used this time to work in his studio. Later he said that he cherished those years for the time it had afforded him to do what he loved most. Mostel's appearance before the HUAC (as well as others) was incorporated into Eric Bentley's 1972 play "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been...?" During this period he also appeared in many regional productions of shows like "Peter Pan" (as Captain Hook) and "Kismet" (as the Wazir), with his name seen prominently in the advertising.


title: Zero Mostel

text: In 1957, Toby Cole, a New York theatrical agent who strongly opposed the blacklist, contacted Mostel and asked to represent him. Mostel agreed, and the partnership led to the revival of Mostel's career and made him a household name. Mostel accepted the role of Leopold Bloom in "Ulysses in Nighttown", a play based on the novel "Ulysses", which he had greatly admired in his youth. It was an Off-Off-Broadway play produced in a small Houston Street theater, but the reviews Mostel received were overwhelmingly favorable. Most notably, "Newsweek"s Jack Kroll compared him to Laurence Olivier, writing, "Something unbelievable happened. A fat comedian named Zero Mostel gave a performance that was even more astonishing than Olivier's". Mostel received the Obie award for best Off Broadway performance of the 1958–59 season.


title: Zero Mostel

text: After the success of "Ulysses", Mostel received many offers to appear in classic roles, especially abroad; however, he declined the offers because of artistic differences with the directors and the low salaries associated with the roles. By this time the effects of the blacklist were lessening, and in 1959 and 1961 he appeared in two episodes of TV's "The Play of the Week".


title: Zero Mostel

text: On January 13, 1960, while exiting a taxi on his way back from rehearsals for the play "The Good Soup", Mostel was hit by a number 18 (now the M86) 86th Street crosstown bus, and his leg was crushed. The doctors wanted to amputate the leg, which would have effectively ended his stage career. Mostel refused, accepting the risk of gangrene, and remained hospitalized for four months. The injury took a huge toll; for the rest of his life, the massively-scarred leg gave him pain and required frequent rests and baths. He sought compensation for the injury by retaining the famous Harry Lipsig (the 5'3" self-described "King of Torts") as his attorney. The case was settled for an undisclosed sum. From this time forward, whenever he attended the Metropolitan Opera, Mostel carried a cane to go along with the cape that he also favored.


title: Zero Mostel

text: Later that year Mostel took on the role of Estragon in a TV adaptation of "Waiting for Godot." In 1961, he played Jean in "Rhinoceros" to very favorable reviews. "The New Republic's" Robert Brustein said that he had "a great dancer's control of movement, a great actor's control of voice, a great mime's control of facial expressions." His transition onstage from man to rhinoceros became a thing of legend; he won his first Tony Award for Best Actor, even though he was not in the lead role.


title: Zero Mostel

text: In 1962 Mostel began work on the role of Pseudolus in the Broadway musical "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," which was to be one of his best-remembered roles. The role of Pseudolus was originally offered to Phil Silvers, who declined it, saying he did not want to do this "old shtick". Mostel did not originally want to do the role either, which he thought below his capabilities, but was convinced by his wife and agent. The reviews were excellent, and, after a few slow weeks after which the play was partially rewritten with a new opening song, "Comedy Tonight", which became the play's most popular piece, the show became a great commercial success, running 964 performances and conferring star status on Mostel (he also won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for this role). A film version was produced in 1966, also starring Mostel – and Silvers.


title: Zero Mostel

text: On September 22, 1964, Mostel opened as Tevye in the original Broadway production of "Fiddler on the Roof." Because of Mostel's respect for the works of Sholem Aleichem he insisted that more of the author's mood and style be incorporated into the musical, and he made major contributions to its shape. He also created the cantorial sounds made famous in the song "If I Were a Rich Man". "The New York Times" wrote "Zero Mostel's Tevye is so penetrating and heartwarming that you all but forget that it is a performance." In later years, the actors who followed Mostel in the role of Tevye invariably followed his staging. The show received rave reviews and was a great commercial success, running 3,242 performances, a record at the time. Mostel received a Tony Award for it and was invited to a reception in the White House, officially ending his status as a political pariah.


title: Zero Mostel

text: Mostel in 1967 appeared as Potemkin in "Great Catherine," and the next year he took the role of Max Bialystock in "The Producers." Mostel refused to accept the role of Max at first, but director Mel Brooks persuaded him to show the script to his wife, who then talked Mostel into doing it. His performance originally received mixed reviews, and the film overall was not a great success at the time of its release. The comedy, however, has since achieved classic status in the decades after its premiere. Reflecting on that rising popularity, Roger Ebert, longtime critic for the "Chicago Sun-Times", wrote in 2000, "This is one of the funniest movies ever made", adding that Mostel's performance "is a masterpiece of low comedy."


title: Zero Mostel

text: He lived in a large rented apartment in The Belnord on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and built a summer house on Monhegan Island in Maine.


title: Zero Mostel

text: In his last decade, Mostel's star dimmed as he appeared in movies that were received with indifference by both critics and the general audience. These titles include "The Great Bank Robbery" and "Once Upon a Scoundrel". In the 1970s, he often played supporting rather than lead roles.


title: Zero Mostel

text: His more notable films in these years include the movie version of "Rhinoceros" (appearing with his "Producers" costar Gene Wilder), "The Hot Rock" and "The Front" (where he played Hecky Brown, a blacklisted performer whose story bears a similarity to Mostel's own, and for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor). Screenwriter Walter Bernstein loosely based the character of Hecky Brown on television actor Philip Loeb, who was a friend of Mostel. On Broadway, he starred in revivals of "Ulysses in Nighttown" (receiving a Tony nomination for Best Actor) and "Fiddler on the Roof". He also made memorable appearances in children's shows such as "Sesame Street", "The Electric Company" (for which he performed the Spellbinder in the Letterman cartoons), and gave voice to the boisterous seagull Kehaar in the animated film "Watership Down". He also appeared as a guest star during Season 2 of ""The Muppet Show"", taped during mid-1977 and broadcast after his death.


title: Zero Mostel

text: In the last four months of his life, Mostel took on a nutritionally unsound diet (later described by his friends as a starvation diet) that reduced his weight from to . During rehearsals for Arnold Wesker's new play "The Merchant" (in which Mostel played a re-imagined version of Shakespeare's Shylock) in Philadelphia, he collapsed in his dressing room and was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He was diagnosed with a respiratory disorder and it was believed he was in no danger and would be released soon. However, on September 8, 1977, Mostel complained of dizziness and lost consciousness. The attending physicians were unable to revive him, and he was pronounced dead that evening. It is believed that he suffered an aortic aneurysm.


title: Zero Mostel

text: Wesker wrote a book chronicling the out-of-town tribulations that beset the play and culminated in Zero's death called "The Birth of Shylock and the Death of Zero Mostel".


title: Zero Mostel

text: In accordance with his final requests, his family did not stage any funeral or other memorial service. Mostel was cremated following his death; the location of his ashes is not publicly known.


title: Zero Mostel

text: Mostel often collided with directors and other performers in the course of his professional career. He was described as irreverent, believing himself to be a comic genius (many critics agreed with him) and showed little patience for incompetence. He often improvised, which was received well by audiences but which often left other performers (who were not prepared for his ad-libbed lines) confused and speechless during live performances. He often dominated the stage whether or not his role called for it. Norman Jewison stated this as a reason for preferring Chaim Topol for the role of Tevye in the movie version of "Fiddler on the Roof". Mostel took exception to these criticisms:


title: Zero Mostel

text: Other producers, such as Jerome Robbins and Hal Prince, preferred to hire Mostel on short contracts, knowing that he would become less faithful to the script as time went on. His exuberant personality, though largely responsible for his success, had also intimidated others in his profession and prevented him from receiving some important roles.


title: Zero Mostel

text: In his autobiography "Kiss Me Like a Stranger", actor Gene Wilder describes being initially terrified of Mostel. However, just after being introduced, Mostel got up, walked over to Wilder, hugged him, and planted a big kiss on his lips. Wilder claims to be grateful to Mostel for teaching him such a valuable lesson, and for picking Wilder up every day so that they could ride to work together. He also tells the story of a dinner celebrating the release of "The Producers". Mostel switched Wilder's place card with Dick Shawn's, allowing Wilder to sit at the main table. Mostel and Wilder later worked together in "Rhinoceros" and the Letterman cartoons for the children's show "The Electric Company". The two remained close friends until Mostel's death.


title: Zero Mostel

text: Mostel was the subject of the 2006 retrospective play "Zero Hour", written and performed by actor/playwright Jim Brochu. The play recounts events from Mostel's life and career, including his HUAC testimony, his professional relationships, and his theatrical work.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Ryan Steven Lochte ( ; born August 3, 1984) is an American professional swimmer and 12-time Olympic medalist. Along with Natalie Coughlin, Dara Torres, and Jenny Thompson, he is the second-most decorated swimmer in Olympic history measured by total number of medals, behind only Michael Phelps. Lochte's seven individual Olympic medals rank second in history in men's swimming (again to Michael Phelps), tied for second among all Olympic swimmers. He currently holds the world records in the 200-meter individual medley (long and short course). As part of the American teams, he also holds the world record in the 4×200-meter freestyle (long course) and 4×100-meter freestyle (mixed) relay.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Lochte's success has earned him SwimSwam's Swammy Award for U.S. Male Swimmer of the Year in 2013, the World Swimmer of the Year Award, and the American Swimmer of the Year Award twice. He has also been named the FINA Swimmer of the Year three times. He has won a total of 90 medals in major international competition (54 gold, 22 silver, and 14 bronze) spanning the Olympics, the World Championships, Pan American Games, and Pan Pacific Championships, including six Olympic gold medals and 39 world championship titles.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Lochte specializes in the backstroke and individual medley, but is also a freestyle and butterfly swimmer. He is noted for the speed and distance he attains while kicking underwater. Lochte is also known for his dominance in the short course format (25-yard and 25-meter-long pools). Lochte swam the 100-meter individual medley in 50.71 seconds on December 15, 2012, at the FINA World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. At this same event, he is also credited with swimming the fastest 200-meter individual medley, finishing in 1 minute 49.63 seconds.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: In 2016, Lochte generated international controversy when he claimed that he and three other American swimmers had been pulled over and robbed by armed men with police badges while in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the 2016 Summer Olympics. While initial news stories reported that Lochte and three other US swimmers had been robbed at gunpoint after a night out in Rio, later details emerged that the "armed robbers posing as police" were actually security guards at a gas station where the swimmers had urinated outside the bathroom and Lochte allegedly vandalized a framed poster, and ended with the swimmers providing money to the guards. Some of the swimmers were detained in Brazil as witnesses. Ultimately, the athletes each released statements, and one swimmer paid a fine of approximately $10,800 to a Brazilian charity in order to get his passport back. Lochte apologized for not being more candid about the gas station dispute, and subsequently lost four major sponsorships. On September 8, both the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Swimming suspended Lochte for 10 months and Bentz, Conger, and Feigen for four months. Additionally, Lochte was required to complete 20 hours of community service, and Bentz was required to complete 10 hours. All were made ineligible for financial support during their suspensions, removed from the U.S. Olympic delegation to the White House, barred from U.S. Olympic training centers, and blocked from attending USA Swimming's year-end Golden Goggles celebration. Lochte was charged in Brazil with falsely reporting a crime. The scandal gained significant media attention both during the games and after their conclusion. In July 2017, the court in Brazil dismissed the charges against Lochte, saying his actions "did not rise to the level of filing a false crime report."


title: Ryan Lochte

text: On July 23, 2018, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency imposed a 14-month suspension from competition on Lochte because he had received a "prohibited intravenous infusion." Lochte immediately accepted the sanction. On May 24, 2018, the same day he had received the infusion, Lochte had posted a picture - since deleted - on Instagram "showing him receiving an intravenous injection of what he says were 'vitamins'," even though the USADA bans "intravenous infusions of permitted substances at volumes greater than in a 12-hour period without a special 'Therapeutic Use Exemption'," "Vox" reported.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Lochte was born in Rochester, New York, the son of Ileana "Ike" ("née" Aramburu) and Steven R. Lochte. His mother is Cuban and was born and raised in Havana, while his father is of Dutch, English, and German descent. He has two older sisters, Kristin and Megan, and two younger brothers, Devon and Brandon. During his early childhood, his family lived in Bristol, New York where he attended Bloomfield Central Schools. The family moved to Florida when Ryan was 12 so his father could coach swimming.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Lochte only began taking swimming seriously when he was in junior high school. His father said, "I would send him to go shower when he was messing around. He spent more time in the showers than he did in the pool." At 14 years old, his loss at the Junior Olympics changed his attitude. He later commented: "I suddenly said, 'I'm sick of losing'. After that I trained hard and I never lost there again."


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Lochte attended the University of Florida and graduated in 2007, majoring in sport management. As a member of the Florida Gators swimming and diving team, he swam for coach Gregg Troy in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and Southeastern Conference (SEC) competition from 2004 to 2007. At Florida, Lochte was the NCAA Swimmer of the Year twice, a seven-time NCAA champion, a seven-time SEC champion, and a 24-time All-American. At the 2006 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, during his senior year, Lochte won national titles in all three of his individual events, setting U.S. Open and American records in the 200-yard individual medley and 200-yard backstroke. He also broke Tom Dolan's nearly decade-old NCAA record in the 400-yard individual medley.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Lochte qualified for his first Olympics after finishing second to Michael Phelps in the 200-meter individual medley at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. He also qualified for the 4×200-meter freestyle relay team after finishing fourth in the 200-meter freestyle final. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, Lochte swam with Phelps, Klete Keller, and Peter Vanderkaay to upset the Australian team and capture the gold medal in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. It was the first loss for the Australian team in six years. He also narrowly edged out George Bovell and László Cseh in the 200-meter individual medley to win the silver medal behind Phelps.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Later that year, at the 2004 FINA Short Course World Championships in Indianapolis, Lochte won the silver medal in the 200-meter individual medley and the bronze in the 200-meter freestyle. He also won the gold medal in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay with Chad Carvin, Dan Ketchum, and Justin Mortimer.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: At the 2005 World Aquatics Championships in Montreal, Lochte won the bronze medals in both the 200-meter backstroke and 200-meter individual medley. In the 4×200-meter freestyle relay, Lochte teamed with Phelps, Vanderkaay, and Keller to win gold ahead of Canada and Australia.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: At the 2006 FINA Short Course World Championships in Shanghai, held just two weeks after the 2006 NCAA Championships, Lochte won three individual titles, one silver, and one bronze. He won the 200-meter individual medley and the 200-meter backstroke, setting new world records in both events. He also set another world record in the 100-meter backstroke in the opening leg of the 4×100-meter medley relay, becoming the first man to complete the distance in under 50 seconds. He won his third gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley, setting a new championship record.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: At the 2007 World Aquatics Championships in Melbourne, Australia, Lochte won his first individual gold medal at a long course world championships in the 200-meter backstroke against compatriot Aaron Peirsol, breaking Peirsol's world record and his seven-year win streak in the event. This was Lochte's first world record in a long course event. A little more than 90 minutes later, Lochte went on to set a world record in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay with Phelps, Keller and Vanderkaay. He also won silver medals in the 100-meter backstroke, and 200-meter and 400-meter individual medley, making his medal total for the meet second only to Phelps.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Within a week of the world championships, Lochte competed in the annual Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool where he again beat Peirsol. In the 100-meter backstroke, he broke Peirsol's other seven-year winning streak in the shorter of the backstroke races, edging out Peirsol by 0.06 seconds.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: At the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, Lochte competed in six individual events and qualified to swim in three individual events at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Also, with his third-place finish in the 200-meter freestyle, Lochte was ensured a spot on the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. In his first event, Lochte finished second to Phelps in the 400-meter individual medley. Both Lochte and Phelps finished below Phelps' previous world record in the event. In his second event, the 200-meter freestyle, Lochte finished in third place behind Phelps and Vanderkaay. Less than 30 minutes after the 200-meter freestyle final, Lochte finished in third place behind Aaron Peirsol and Matt Grevers in the 100-meter backstroke final. The next day, Lochte competed in the 100-meter freestyle but withdrew after the semifinals. Two days later, in the 200-meter backstroke, Lochte finished in second place behind Peirsol, who equalled Lochte's world record. Less than 30 minutes after the 200-meter backstroke final, Lochte finished second to Phelps in the 200-meter individual medley.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: In his first event at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Lochte won the bronze medal in the 400-meter individual medley behind Phelps and Cseh. His time of 4:08.09 was two seconds slower than the time he swam in Omaha. In his second event, Lochte swam the second leg of the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. With Phelps, Ricky Berens, and Vanderkaay, he won his first gold medal and set his first world record as the American team finished first with a time of 6:58.56. The Americans were the first team to break the seven-minute mark in the relay, and broke the previous record, set in Melbourne, Australia, by more than four and a half seconds. In his third event, the 200-meter backstroke, Lochte won his first individual gold medal and set the world record, beating defending champion Peirsol. Twenty-seven minutes after the final of the 200-meter backstroke, Lochte went on to win the bronze in the 200-meter individual medley, finishing behind Phelps and Cseh.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: At the 2009 National Championships, the selection meet for the 2009 World Aquatics Championships, Lochte won individual titles in the 200 and 400-meter individual medley. Lochte also qualified to swim in the 4×100 and 4×200-meter freestyle relay. In the 200-meter backstroke final, Lochte placed second behind Aaron Peirsol, and lost his world record he set in Beijing when Peirsol recorded a time of 1:53.08.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: In his first event at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships in Rome, Lochte swam the second leg of the men's 4×100-meter freestyle relay in a time of 47.03. He earned a gold medal in the event along with Phelps, Matt Grevers, and Nathan Adrian. The final time of 3:09.21 was a championship record and just ahead of Russia (3:09.52) and France (3:09.89). With Phelps not competing in the 200 or 400-meter individual medley at these championships, Lochte won the gold in both events. In the 200-meter individual medley, Lochte broke Phelps' world record of 1:54.23 with a time of 1:54.10. In the 200-meter backstroke, Lochte won the bronze medal, finishing behind Peirsol and Ryosuke Irie of Japan. In the 4×200-meter freestyle relay final, Lochte swam the anchor leg in 1:44.46. Combined with Phelps, Berens, and David Walters, Lochte won the gold medal and his team broke the previous world record by one-hundredth of a second with a time of 6:58.55.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: At the 2010 National Championships, the selection meet for the 2010 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships and 2011 World Aquatics Championships, Lochte won individual titles in the 200-meter backstroke, 200-meter individual medley, and the 400-meter individual medley. He also placed second in the 100 and 200-meter freestyle. Lochte's win in the 200-meter individual medley was the first time he defeated Phelps in a major national or international meet. At the 2010 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Irvine, California, Lochte won a total of six gold medals. His wins included the 200-meter backstroke, 200-meter freestyle, 200 and 400-meter individual medleys, and 4×100 and 4×200-meter freestyle relays.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: At the 2010 FINA Short Course World Championships in Dubai, Lochte became the first individual in history to win seven medals at the Short Course Worlds and was the only person to set a world record individually since body-length swimsuits were banned. In Dubai, Lochte won gold in the 200-meter backstroke, 200-meter freestyle, all individual medleys (100, 200, 400), and 4×100-meter medley relay. He also won silver in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. Lochte's world records in Dubai came on consecutive days, first in the 400-meter individual medley, then in the 200-meter individual medley. Both world records were broken by considerable margins.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: At year's end, Lochte was named the World Swimmer of the Year and American Swimmer of the Year by "Swimming World Magazine". He was also named FINA male swimmer of the year for 2010 by "FINA Aquatics World Magazine". 2010 saw Lochte win a total of 13 international medals, 12 of them gold.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: At the 2011 World Aquatics Championships, Lochte won a total of six medals, five golds and one bronze. Lochte won his first medal, a bronze, in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay for his contributions in the heats. In the heats, Lochte recorded a time of 48.28, off from the 47.98 he recorded last year in Irvine. In his second event, the 200-meter freestyle, Lochte won the gold with a time of 1:44.44, finishing ahead of Michael Phelps who recorded a time of 1:44.79. It was Lochte's first gold in the event in the long course World Championships. Lochte won the 200-meter individual medley event in a world record time of 1:54.00, finishing ahead of Michael Phelps time of 1:54.16. In the 200-meter backstroke, Lochte dominated the competition with a time of 1:52.96, over a second ahead of second-place finisher Ryosuke Irie. Shortly after completing the 200-meter backstroke, Lochte competed in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay with Michael Phelps, Peter Vanderkaay, and Ricky Berens. Swimming the anchor leg in 1:44.56, Lochte was able to make up a deficit from France for the win. The final time for the relay was 7:02.67. In his last event, the 400-meter individual medley, Lochte continued his dominance with a win in a time of 4:07.13. His closest competitor, Tyler Clary, finished in 4:11.17, over four seconds behind.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Lochte said he was pleased with his performance at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships but feels that he can improve his times before the 2012 Olympics. "Getting five gold medals is definitely great, but the times that I went, I know I could go a lot faster," he said. "There are a lot of places in my races that I messed up on that I could have changed and gone faster, but I guess I have a whole year to make sure I have those perfect swims."


title: Ryan Lochte

text: At year's end, Lochte was named the World Swimmer of the Year and American Swimmer of the Year by "Swimming World Magazine", and defended his titles from 2010. He was also named FINA male swimmer of the year for 2011 by "FINA Aquatics World Magazine" and also defended this title.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: At the 2012 United States Olympic Trials, the qualifying meet for the 2012 Summer Olympics, Lochte qualified for the Olympic team by finishing first in the 200-meter backstroke and 400-meter individual medley, and second in the 200-meter freestyle and 200-meter individual medley. Lochte also narrowly missed a spot competing in the individual 100-meter butterfly by finishing third.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: At the Olympics in London, Lochte won his first gold medal of the games in the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:05.18. Commenting on his first medal of the 2012 Olympics and head-to-head competition with fellow American and world record holder, Michael Phelps, Lochte acknowledged Phelps' greatness while positioning himself as the best today.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Lochte won a silver medal with the U.S. 4×100-meter freestyle relay team, losing out to the French team with a 47.74 split, a full second slower than the French finishing swimmer Yannick Agnel and six tenths of a second slower than teammate Phelps.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Lochte placed fourth in the 200-meter freestyle race. He followed that performance, however, by winning gold with the U.S. 4×200-meter freestyle team. Lochte swam the first split and provided the U.S. team a commanding lead, which it never relinquished.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: On the sixth night of the Games, Lochte swam his last two finals, with only 30 minutes in between. First, he won the bronze medal in the 200m backstroke, finishing behind compatriot Tyler Clary and Japan's Ryosuke Irie. His time of 1.53.94 tied the time he swam four years ago when he won the gold medal at the 2008 Games, which was then a world record. Half an hour later, Lochte took on Phelps in the 200m individual medley. He won a silver medal behind Phelps in what was thought at the time to be the last head-to-head race of their careers, as Phelps retired after the Games. This was the third consecutive Olympics in which Lochte won a medal in the 200m individual medley.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: His five medals brought his total to 11 Olympic medals, tied for second among male swimmers with compatriots Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi, behind only Phelps. His seven individual Olympic medals are the second-most in men's Olympic swimming, surpassing Zoltán Halmay and Mark Spitz, who won six.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Lochte has announced he intends to continue swimming through the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He is also considering exploring new events.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: In his first event at the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, Lochte combined with Nathan Adrian, Anthony Ervin, and Jimmy Feigen in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, with the team finishing behind France. Swimming the second leg, Lochte recorded a split of 47.80, and the team finished with a final time of 3:11.44. In his first individual event, the 200-meter freestyle, Lochte was unsuccessful in defending his title and placed fourth in the final with a time of 1:45.64. Lochte won his first individual medal of the competition, a gold, by defending his title in the 200-meter individual medley, recording a time of 1:54.98. The day following his 200 medley gold, Lochte also defended his title in the 200-meter backstroke, recording a time of 1:53.79 in the final. On the same day of winning the 200-meter backstroke (and swimming in the 100-meter butterfly semifinals where he set a personal best and qualified for the final), Lochte combined with Conor Dwyer, Charlie Houchin, and Ricky Berens, to win the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. Swimming the second leg, Lochte recorded a split of 1:44.98, and the team finished with a final time of 7:01.72. In winning the 4×200 relay, Lochte became the first swimmer to win 5 consecutive gold medals at the World Championships in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay (while also being the first swimmer, along with compatriot Michael Phelps, to win the 4×200-meter freestyle relay Olympic Gold Medal on 3 successive occasions).


title: Ryan Lochte

text: The next day, Lochte competed in the 100-meter butterfly and finished 6th in the final with a time of 51.58, just off his semifinal time of 51.48.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Lochte competed in his sixth World Championships in Kazan in 2015. He made history upon his win in the 200-meter individual medley by becoming the only person other than Grant Hackett to successfully win an event in four consecutive world championships. However, he finished a disappointing fourth in the 200-meter freestyle in 1:45.83, just off the podium. In addition, Lochte also won three relay medals. Lochte led off the 4×200-meter freestyle relay in 1:45.71, but the US team could not hold on as Great Britain pulled off a great upset and beat the US team 7:04.33 to 7:04.75. Alongside Nathan Adrian, Simone Manuel, and Missy Franklin, he was also part of the winning and world record-breaking 4×100-meter mixed freestyle relay. Lochte also anchored the prelim team for the 4×100-meter medley relay and received a gold medal for his efforts since the finals team won.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: At the 2016 United States Olympic Trials, the U.S. qualifying meet for the Rio Olympics, Lochte finished third in the 400-meter individual medley, just missing out on an Olympic berth. In the 200-meter freestyle, he missed his second chance at making the team in an individual event by placing fourth; nonetheless, he earned a relay spot in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. Lochte finally qualified for an individual event by finishing second in the 200-meter individual medley behind Phelps.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Lochte's first event in Rio was the 4×200 meter freestyle relay, where he swam both the morning heats and the finals. In the finals, Lochte swam the third leg after Conor Dwyer and Townley Haas. After Lochte's leg, the U.S. had a commanding lead. Phelps anchored the relay to touch the wall first at 7:00.66. This brought Lochte's Olympic medal count up to 12 total, making him the second most decorated male Olympic swimmer of all time, second only to Phelps.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Lochte finished 5th in the 200-meter individual medley. This was his 4th consecutive final in the event, and the first time he did not win a medal.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: On the morning of August 14, 2016, Lochte and Jimmy Feigen claimed that they and teammates Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger were robbed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the 2016 Summer Olympics after men forced them out of their taxi at gunpoint in the early morning hours. Lochte also alleged that a gun had been put up against his head. A police report stated that one or more of the athletes had vandalized the gas station bathroom and damaged a sign on the premises, though investigative reporters found that the athletes had damaged the sign but had neither entered the bathroom nor damaged items in the bathroom. Lochte later stated in an interview that he had been drunk and that he "over-exaggerated that story". However, his amended story raised concerns about the facts, and a witness who also translated between the security guards and the athletes claimed that the swimmers had stopped to use the fuel station's bathroom, damaged the sign on the premises, and that he stepped in when it was obvious that events could get out of control. He noted that all sides understood that the money was being paid to cover the damage done, but also that Lochte was drunk or ”very altered” at the time of the incident.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: In August 2016, Lochte was charged with providing a false claim of a robbery during the 2016 Olympic Games, and if convicted could be jailed up to 18 months. The charges were later dismissed by a court, which stated that Lochte's actions "did not rise to the level of filing a false crime report." On August 30, 2016, when appearing on "Good Morning America", he said that he was unsure how he would classify the incident, stating, "I don't know if I would consider it as a robbery, or extortion, or us just paying up for the poster being ripped." Investigative reporting by "USA Today", which reviewed the security camera tapes, showed that Lochte and the other swimmers did not enter the bathroom that they were accused of vandalizing, and that the items purportedly damaged inside the bathroom were neither damaged nor recently replaced.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Lochte apologized for the gas station dispute. In the aftermath of the incident, USA Swimming suspended Lochte from domestic and international competitions for 10 months. Lochte was also dropped by all four of his major sponsors. However, by January 2017, TYR announced an apparel deal with Lochte.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: On July 23, 2018, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) imposed a 14-month suspension from competition on Lochte because, on May 24 of that year, he received a 'prohibited intravenous infusion.' "I have never taken a prohibitive ["sic"] substance," Lochte told the media, "I have never attempted to gain any advantage by putting anything illegal in my body...I may be on the sideline from competition, but I'll continue to train every day...I want nothing more than to earn the privilege to swim for my country in my fifth Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020."


title: Ryan Lochte

text: On May 24, 2018, the same day he had received the infusion, Lochte had posted a picture - since deleted - on Instagram "showing him receiving an intravenous injection of what he says were 'vitamins'," even though the USADA bans "intravenous infusions of permitted substances at volumes greater than in a 12-hour period without a special 'Therapeutic Use Exemption'," "Vox" reported.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: On June 17, 2021, the fifth day of competition at the 2020 USA Swimming Olympic Trials, Lochte swam a 1:58.48 in the morning prelims of the 200-meter individual medley, ranking second and qualifying for the semifinals. In the evening semifinals, he swam a 1:58.65 ranking sixth and qualifying for the final. In the final, Lochte finished seventh with a time of 1:59.67 and not qualifying for the 2020 Summer Olympics in the event. In Michael Andrew's post-win interview for the 200-meter individual medley final, Lochte joined Andrew and called him family along with the swimming community. Lochte also said missing out on the Olympic Team was not the end of the road for him.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: A few days after the end of the US Olympic Trials, Lochte confirmed he was still committed to the sport of swimming, both in terms of competing and growing the sport, and he was not retiring. He added that one of his swimming pursuits moving forward included teaching youth how to swim.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Before the 2012 Summer Olympics, "Fortune" magazine estimated that Lochte earned $2.3 million from endorsement deals with Speedo, Mutual of Omaha, Gillette, Gatorade, Procter and Gamble, Ralph Lauren, Nissan, and AT&T. Lochte has also appeared in commercials for the Nissan Altima and been featured on the covers of "Vogue", "Time", "Men's Health", and "Men's Journal".


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Comedian Seth MacFarlane parodied Lochte in the 2012 season premiere of "Saturday Night Live", after which Lochte said he would be open to doing a cameo appearance on the show.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Lochte appeared as an exaggerated version of himself in the "30 Rock" episode "Stride of Pride", which aired October 18, 2012. He also had a guest appearance on "90210" in late 2012.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: "What Would Ryan Lochte Do?" began airing April 21, 2013, on E! and was cancelled after only one season, five weeks later. Lochte's public persona and character have inspired a series of unflattering Internet memes.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: On August 30, 2016, Lochte was announced as one of the celebrities who would compete on season 23 of "Dancing with the Stars". He was partnered with professional dancer Cheryl Burke. Lochte and Burke were eliminated on Week 8 of competition, finishing in 7th place.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: On January 13, 2019, the reality game show "Celebrity Big Brother" announced that Lochte would be a houseguest in the second American season of the show. He finished in 10th place after 13 days.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: On the "Family Guy" season 17 episode "Griffin Winter Games", Peter Griffin meets Lochte at a party for the athletes of the Korean winter Olympics where he asks him, "wait, aren't you a summer sport guy?" As Lochte offers him a beer, a narrator imitating Morgan Freeman refers to him as an 'international bozo' and notes that Peter partied with him all night.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: On September 22, 2019, Lochte appeared on "Celebrity Family Feud" along with his wife Kayla. Lochte won the family be family round, and between Kayla and himself they scored over 200 points in the final round to win the game.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: On November 13, 2019, Ryan appeared on an episode of "Back in the Game" with Alex Rodriguez. The series focuses on Rodriguez mentoring athletes and entertainers who have fallen on hard times. In the episode Alex helps Lochte get his finances back on track.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: On August 1, 2012, Lochte filed an application to trademark his personal catchphrase, "Jeah", with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. He abandoned the application before it was finalized.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: In January 2017, active-wear maker TYR Sport, Inc. signed Lochte to his first major professional swimming sponsorship deal since the Lochtegate scandal.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: In November 2019, Lochte revealed to Alex Rodriguez on an episode of CNBC's "Back In The Game" that he once made "well over $1 million" a year and also earned $75,000 from a single sponsor. However, he also stated to Rodriguez that his scandalswhich resulted in his suspension and losing his sponsorsand lavish spending resulted in him suffering significant financial losses. He was forced to sell his home and now resides in a apartment. He also estimated that he had only about $20,000 in savings.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: In July 2021, Lochte spoke about his stance not supporting protests at athletic events in advance of the 2020 Summer Olympics. This reiterated sentiments Lochte shared concerning the safety and security of individuals after protesters targeting him stormed the stage during one of his performances on the television show "Dancing with the Stars" in September 2016.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: Despite rumors in the Australian press linking Lochte with Australian swimmer Blair Evans, Lochte's mother, Ileana, confirmed to "Us Weekly" in a July 28, 2012, interview that her son was "too busy" to be in a relationship.


title: Ryan Lochte

text: During the 2016 Summer Olympics, Lochte revealed that he was in a relationship with Playboy Playmate of the Month for July 2015 Kayla Rae Reid, whom he first got in touch with via Instagram. They became engaged in October 2016, and Reid gave birth to a son named Caiden Zane Lochte on June 8, 2017. Lochte and Reid married in an at-home civil ceremony in January 2018, and followed it with a formal wedding ceremony in front of family and friends on September 9, 2018. On November 30, 2018, they announced they were expecting their second child. On December 23, 2018, they announced they were having a girl. Their daughter, Liv Rae, was born on June 17, 2019. On December 9, 2022, they announced they were expecting their third child.


title: Hibiscus tea

text: Hibiscus tea is a herbal tea made as an infusion from crimson or deep magenta-colored calyces (sepals) of the roselle ("Hibiscus sabdariffa") flower. It is consumed both hot and cold. It has a tart, cranberry-like flavor.


title: Hibiscus tea

text: The roselle hibiscus used to make the tea likely originated in Africa. In Africa, hibiscus tea is commonly sold in markets and the dried flowers can be found throughout West and East Africa. Variations on the drink are popular in West Africa and parts of Central Africa. In Senegal, "bissap" is known as the "national drink of Senegal". Hibiscus tea is often flavored with mint or ginger in West Africa. In Ghana it is known as "sobolo", and "zobo" in Nigeria.


title: Hibiscus tea

text: "Karkadé" is served hot or chilled with ice. It is consumed in some parts of North Africa, especially in Egypt and Sudan. In Egypt and Sudan, wedding celebrations are traditionally toasted with a glass of hibiscus tea. On a typical street in central Cairo, many vendors and open-air cafés sell the drink.


title: Hibiscus tea

text: "Agua de flor de Jamaica", also called "agua de Jamaica" and "rosa de Jamaica", is popular in Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America and the Caribbean. It is one of several common "aguas frescas", which are inexpensive beverages typically made from fresh juices or extracts. Jamaica and other "aguas frescas" are commonly found in taquerias or other Mexican restaurants. It is usually prepared by steeping the calyces, in boiling water, straining the mixture, pressing the calyces (to squeeze all the juice out), adding sugar, and stirring. It is served chilled, and in Jamaica, this drink is a tradition at Christmas, served with fruitcake or sweet potato pudding.


title: Hibiscus tea

text: In Panama, both the flowers and the drink are called "saril" (a derivative of the English word "sorrel"). It is prepared by picking and boiling the calyces with chopped ginger, sugar, clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg. It is traditionally drunk around Christmas and Chinese New Year, diverging from Mexico and Central America and much more in line with the Caribbean, due to the strong West Indian influence in Panamanian culture especially in Panama City and most of Panama's Caribbean coast.


title: Hibiscus tea

text: In the English-speaking Caribbean, the drink, called sorrel, is made from the calyces, and it is considered an integral part of Christmas celebrations. The Caribbean Development Company, a Trinidad and Tobago brewery, produces a Sorrel Shandy in which the tea is combined with beer.


title: Hibiscus tea

text: In American soul food cuisine, hibiscus tea is included in a category of "red drinks" associated with West Africa and is commonly served in soul food restaurants and at African-American social events.


title: Hibiscus tea

text: In Thailand, most commonly, roselle is prepared as a cold beverage, heavily sweetened and poured over ice, similar to sweetened fruit juices. Plastic bags filled with ice and sweetened 'grajeab' can be found outside of most schools and in local markets. It is less commonly made into a wine, sometimes combined with Chinese tea leaves, in the ratio of 4:1 by weight (1/5 Chinese tea). The beverage is consumed in Malaysia, Cambodia and Indonesia as well.


title: Hibiscus tea

text: In Italy, hibiscus tea, known as "carcadè" or "karkadè" (from the Arab word كَرْكَديه [karkaˈdeː]), is usually consumed hot, often with the addition of sugar and lemon juice. First introduced from Eritrea, it was widely used as a tea substitute when the country was hit by trade sanctions for its invasion of Abyssinia. In other European countries, it is often as an ingredient in mixed herbal teas, (especially with malva flowers or rose hips in the mix, to enhance colouring), and as such, more commonly used than recognized.


title: Hibiscus tea

text: Reviews have concluded that hibiscus tea consumption appears to modestly lower blood pressure in people with high blood pressure. Hibiscus tea was generally well tolerated, and did not adversely affect liver or kidney function at lower doses, but may be hepatotoxic at high doses.


title: Mood disorder

text: A mood disorder, also known as an affective disorder, is any of a group of conditions of mental and behavioral disorder where a disturbance in the person's mood is the main underlying feature. The classification is in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM) and International Classification of Diseases (ICD).


title: Mood disorder

text: Mood disorders fall into seven groups, including; abnormally elevated mood, such as mania or hypomania; depressed mood, of which the best-known and most researched is major depressive disorder (MDD) (alternatively known as clinical depression, unipolar depression, or major depression); and moods which cycle between mania and depression, known as bipolar disorder (BD) (formerly known as manic depression). There are several sub-types of depressive disorders or psychiatric syndromes featuring less severe symptoms such as dysthymic disorder (similar to MDD, but longer lasting and more persistent, though often milder) and cyclothymic disorder (similar to but milder than BD).


title: Mood disorder

text: In some cases, more than one mood disorder can be present in an individual, like bipolar disorder and depressive disorder. If a mood disorder and schizophrenia are both present in an individual, this is known as schizoaffective disorder. Mood disorders may also be substance induced, or occur in response to a medical condition.


title: Mood disorder

text: English psychiatrist Henry Maudsley proposed an overarching category of "affective disorder". The term was then replaced by "mood disorder", as the latter term refers to the underlying or longitudinal emotional state, whereas the former refers to the external expression observed by others.


title: Mood disorder

text: A minority of people with bipolar disorder have high creativity, artistry or a particular gifted talent. Before the mania phase becomes too extreme, its energy, ambition, enthusiasm and grandiosity often bring people with this type of mood disorder life's masterpieces.


title: Mood disorder

text: A mood disorder can be classified as substance-induced if its etiology can be traced to the direct physiologic effects of a psychoactive drug or other chemical substance, or if the development of the mood disorder occurred contemporaneously with substance intoxication or withdrawal. Also, an individual may have a mood disorder coexisting with a substance abuse disorder. Substance-induced mood disorders can have features of a manic, hypomanic, mixed, or depressive episode. Most substances can induce a variety of mood disorders. For example, stimulants such as amphetamine, methamphetamine, and cocaine can cause manic, hypomanic, mixed, and depressive episodes.


title: Mood disorder

text: High rates of major depressive disorder occur in heavy drinkers and those with alcoholism. Controversy has previously surrounded whether those who abused alcohol and developed depression were self-medicating their pre-existing depression. Recent research has concluded that, while this may be true in some cases, alcohol misuse directly causes the development of depression in a significant number of heavy drinkers. Participants studied were also assessed during stressful events in their lives and measured on a "Feeling Bad Scale." Likewise, they were also assessed on their affiliation with " deviant " peers, unemployment, and their partner's substance use and criminal offending. High rates of suicide also occur in those who have alcohol-related problems. It is usually possible to differentiate between alcohol-related depression and depression that is not related to alcohol intake by taking a careful history of the patient. Depression and other mental health problems associated with alcohol misuse may be due to distortion of brain chemistry, as they tend to improve on their own after a period of abstinence.


title: Mood disorder

text: Benzodiazepines, such as alprazolam, clonazepam, lorazepam and diazepam, can cause both depression and mania.


title: Mood disorder

text: Benzodiazepines are a class of medication commonly used to treat anxiety, panic attacks and insomnia, and are also commonly misused and abused. Those with anxiety, panic and sleep problems commonly have negative emotions and thoughts, depression, suicidal ideations, and often have comorbid depressive disorders. While the anxiolytic and hypnotic effects of benzodiazepines disappear as tolerance develops, depression and impulsivity with high suicidal risk commonly persist. These symptoms are "often interpreted as an exacerbation or as a natural evolution of previous disorders and the chronic use of sedatives is overlooked". Benzodiazepines do not prevent the development of depression, can exacerbate preexisting depression, can cause depression in those with no history of it, and can lead to suicide attempts. Risk factors for suicide and suicide attempts while using benzodiazepines include high dose prescriptions (even in those not misusing the medications), benzodiazepine intoxication, and underlying depression.


title: Mood disorder

text: The long-term use of benzodiazepines may have a similar effect on the brain as alcohol, and are also implicated in depression. As with alcohol, the effects of benzodiazepine on neurochemistry, such as decreased levels of serotonin and norepinephrine, are believed to be responsible for the increased depression. Additionally, benzodiazepines can indirectly worsen mood by worsening sleep (i.e., benzodiazepine-induced sleep disorder). Like alcohol, benzodiazepines can put people to sleep but, while asleep, they disrupt sleep architecture: decreasing sleep time, delaying time to REM sleep, and decreasing deep sleep (the most restorative part of sleep for both energy and mood). Just as some antidepressants can cause or worsen anxiety in some patients due to being activating, benzodiazepines can cause or worsen depression due to being a central nervous system depressant—worsening thinking, concentration and problem solving (i.e., benzodiazepine-induced neurocognitive disorder). However, unlike antidepressants, in which the activating effects usually improve with continued treatment, benzodiazepine-induced depression is unlikely to improve until after stopping the medication.


title: Mood disorder

text: In a long-term follow-up study of patients dependent on benzodiazepines, it was found that 10 people (20%) had taken drug overdoses while on chronic benzodiazepine medication despite only two people ever having had any pre-existing depressive disorder. A year after a gradual withdrawal program, no patients had taken any further overdoses.


title: Mood disorder

text: Just as with intoxication and chronic use, benzodiazepine withdrawal can also cause depression. While benzodiazepine-induced depressive disorder may be exacerbated immediately after discontinuation of benzodiazepines, evidence suggests that mood significantly improves after the acute withdrawal period to levels better than during use. Depression resulting from withdrawal from benzodiazepines usually subsides after a few months but in some cases may persist for 6–12 months.


title: Mood disorder

text: "Mood disorder due to a general medical condition" is used to describe manic or depressive episodes which occur secondary to a medical condition. There are many medical conditions that can trigger mood episodes, including neurological disorders (e.g. dementias), metabolic disorders (e.g. electrolyte disturbances), gastrointestinal diseases (e.g. cirrhosis), endocrine disease (e.g. thyroid abnormalities), cardiovascular disease (e.g. heart attack), pulmonary disease (e.g. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), cancer, and autoimmune diseases (e.g. multiple sclerosis).


title: Mood disorder

text: Mood disorder not otherwise specified (MD-NOS) is a mood disorder that is impairing but does not fit in with any of the other officially specified diagnoses. In the DSM-IV MD-NOS is described as "any mood disorder that does not meet the criteria for a specific disorder." MD-NOS is not used as a clinical description but as a statistical concept for filing purposes. The diagnosis of MD-NOS does not exist in the DSM-5, however the diagnoses of unspecified depressive disorder and unspecified bipolar disorder are in the DSM-5.


title: Mood disorder

text: Most cases of MD-NOS represent hybrids between mood and anxiety disorders, such as mixed anxiety-depressive disorder or atypical depression. An example of an instance of MD-NOS is being in minor depression frequently during various intervals, such as once every month or once in three days. There is a risk for MD-NOS not to get noticed, and for that reason not to get treated.


title: Mood disorder

text: Meta-analyses show that high scores on the personality domain neuroticism are a strong predictor for the development of mood disorders. A number of authors have also suggested that mood disorders are an evolutionary adaptation ("see also evolutionary psychiatry"). A low or depressed mood can increase an individual's ability to cope with situations in which the effort to pursue a major goal could result in danger, loss, or wasted effort. In such situations, low motivation may give an advantage by inhibiting certain actions. This theory helps to explain why negative life incidents precede depression in around 80 percent of cases, and why they so often strike people during their peak reproductive years. These characteristics would be difficult to understand if depression were a dysfunction.


title: Mood disorder

text: A depressed mood is a predictable response to certain types of life occurrences, such as loss of status, divorce, or death of a child or spouse. These are events that signal a loss of reproductive ability or potential, or that did so in humans' ancestral environment. A depressed mood can be seen as an adaptive response, in the sense that it causes an individual to turn away from the earlier (and reproductively unsuccessful) modes of behavior.


title: Mood disorder

text: A depressed mood is common during illnesses, such as influenza. It has been argued that this is an evolved mechanism that assists the individual in recovering by limiting their physical activity. The occurrence of low-level depression during the winter months, or seasonal affective disorder, may have been adaptive in the past, by limiting physical activity at times when food was scarce. It is argued that humans have retained the instinct to experience low mood during the winter months, even if the availability of food is no longer determined by the weather.


title: Mood disorder

text: Much of what is known about the genetic influence of clinical depression is based upon research that has been done with identical twins. Identical twins have exactly the same genetic code. It has been found that when one identical twin becomes depressed the other will also develop clinical depression approximately 76% of the time. When identical twins are raised apart from each other, they will both become depressed about 67% of the time. Because both twins become depressed at such a high rate, the implication is that there is a strong genetic influence. If it happened that when one twin becomes clinically depressed the other always develops depression, then clinical depression would likely be entirely genetic.


title: Mood disorder

text: Bipolar disorder is also considered a mood disorder and it is hypothesized that it might be caused by mitochondrial dysfunction.


title: Mood disorder

text: Mood disorders, specifically stress-related mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, have been shown to have differing rates of diagnosis based on sex. In the United States, women are two times more likely than men to be diagnosed with a stress-related mood disorder. Underlying these sex differences, studies have shown a dysregulation of stress-responsive neuroendocrine function causing an increase in the likelihood of developing these affective disorders. Overactivation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis could provide potential insight into how these sex differences arise. Neuropeptide corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is released from the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus, stimulating adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) release into the blood stream. From here ACTH triggers the release of glucocorticoids such as cortisol from the adrenal cortex. Cortisol, known as the main stress hormone, creates a negative feedback loop back to the hypothalamus to deactivate the stress response. When a constant stressor is present, the HPA axis remains overactivated and cortisol is constantly produced. This chronic stress is associated with sustained CRF release, resulting in the increased production of anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors and serving as a potential mechanism for differences in prevalence between men and women.


title: Mood disorder

text: The "DSM-5", released in May 2013, separates the mood disorder chapter from the "DSM-TR-IV" into two sections: Depressive and related disorders and bipolar and related disorders. Bipolar disorders fall in between depressive disorders and schizophrenia spectrum and related disorders "in recognition of their place as a bridge between the two diagnostic classes in terms of symptomatology, family history and genetics" (Ref. 1, p 123). Bipolar disorders underwent a few changes in the "DSM-5", most notably the addition of more specific symptomology related to hypomanic and mixed manic states. Depressive disorders underwent the most changes, the addition of three new disorders: disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, persistent depressive disorder (previously dysthymia), and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (previously in appendix B, the section for disorders needing further research). Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is meant as a diagnosis for children and adolescents who would normally be diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a way to limit the bipolar diagnosis in this age cohort. Major depressive disorder (MDD) also underwent a notable change, in that the bereavement clause has been removed. Those previously exempt from a diagnosis of MDD due to bereavement are now candidates for the MDD diagnosis.


title: Mood disorder

text: There are different types of treatments available for mood disorders, such as therapy and medications. Behaviour therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy and interpersonal therapy have all shown to be potentially beneficial in depression. Major depressive disorder medications usually include antidepressants; a combination of antidepressants and cognitive behavioral therapy has shown to be more effective than one treatment alone. Bipolar disorder medications can consist of antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, anticonvulsants and/or lithium. Lithium specifically has been proven to reduce suicide and all causes of mortality in people with mood disorders. If mitochondrial dysfunction or mitochondrial diseases are the cause of mood disorders like bipolar disorder, then it has been hypothesized that N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), acetyl-L-carnitine (ALCAR), S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe), coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), alpha-lipoic acid (ALA), creatine monohydrate (CM), and melatonin could be potential treatment options. In determining treatment, there are many types of depression scales that are used. One of the depression scales is a self-report scale called Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Another scale is the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD). HAMD is a clinical rating scale in which the patient is rated based on clinician observation. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) is a scale for depression symptoms that applies to the general population. This scale is typically used in research and not for self-reports. The PHQ-9 which stands for Patient-Health Questionnaire-9 questions, is a self-report as well. Finally, the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) evaluates bipolar disorder.


title: Mood disorder

text: According to a substantial number of epidemiology studies conducted, women are twice as likely to develop certain mood disorders, such as major depression. Although there is an equal number of men and women diagnosed with bipolar II disorder, women have a slightly higher frequency of the disorder.


title: Mood disorder

text: The prevalence of depressive symptoms has increased over the years with recent generations reporting a 6% increase in symptoms of depression compared to individuals from older generations.


title: Mood disorder

text: In 2011, mood disorders were the most common reason for hospitalization among children aged 1–17 years in the United States, with approximately 112,000 stays. Mood disorders were top principal diagnosis for Medicaid super-utilizers in the United States in 2012. Further, a study of 18 States found that mood disorders accounted for the highest number of hospital readmissions among Medicaid patients and the uninsured, with 41,600 Medicaid patients and 12,200 uninsured patients being readmitted within 30 days of their index stay—a readmission rate of 19.8 per 100 admissions and 12.7 per 100 admissions, respectively. In 2012, mood and other behavioral health disorders were the most common diagnoses for Medicaid-covered and uninsured hospital stays in the United States (6.1% of Medicaid stays and 5.2% of uninsured stays).


title: Mood disorder

text: A study conducted in 1988 to 1994 amongst young American adults involved a selection of demographic and health characteristics. A population-based sample of 8,602 men and women ages 17–39 years participated. Lifetime prevalence were estimated based on six mood measures:


title: Mood disorder

text: Kay Redfield Jamison and others have explored the possible links between mood disorders – especially bipolar disorder – and creativity. It has been proposed that a "ruminating personality type may contribute to both [mood disorders] and art."


title: E. E. Cummings

text: Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings and e e cummings (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobiographical novels, four plays, and several essays. He is often regarded as one of the most important American poets of the 20th century. Cummings is associated with modernist free-form poetry. Much of his work has idiosyncratic syntax and uses lower-case spellings for poetic expression.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: Edward Estlin Cummings was born on October 14, 1894, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Edward Cummings and the former Rebecca Haswell Clarke, a well-known Unitarian couple in the city. His father was a professor at Harvard University who later became nationally known as the minister of South Congregational Church (Unitarian) in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother, who loved to spend time with her children, played games with Cummings and his sister, Elizabeth. From an early age, Cummings' parents supported his creative gifts. Cummings wrote poems and drew as a child, and he often played outdoors with the many other children who lived in his neighborhood. He grew up in the company of such family friends as the philosophers William James and Josiah Royce. Many of Cummings' summers were spent on Silver Lake in Madison, New Hampshire, where his father had built two houses along the eastern shore. The family ultimately purchased the nearby Joy Farm where Cummings had his primary summer residence.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: He expressed transcendental leanings his entire life. As he matured, Cummings moved to an "I, Thou" relationship with God. His journals are replete with references to ""le bon Dieu"", as well as prayers for inspiration in his poetry and artwork (such as "Bon Dieu! may i some day do something truly great. amen."). Cummings "also prayed for strength to be his essential self ('may I be I is the only prayer—not may I be great or good or beautiful or wise or strong'), and for relief of spirit in times of depression ('almighty God! I thank thee for my soul; & may I never die spiritually into a mere mind through disease of loneliness')".


title: E. E. Cummings

text: Cummings wanted to be a poet from childhood and wrote poetry daily from age 8 to 22, exploring assorted forms. He graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree "magna cum laude" and Phi Beta Kappa in 1915 and received a Master of Arts degree from the university in 1916. In his studies at Harvard, he developed an interest in modern poetry, which ignored conventional grammar and syntax, while aiming for a dynamic use of language. Upon graduating, he worked for a book dealer.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: In 1917, with the First World War ongoing in Europe, Cummings enlisted in the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps. On the boat to France, he met William Slater Brown and they would become friends. Due to an administrative error, Cummings and Brown did not receive an assignment for five weeks, a period they spent exploring Paris. Cummings fell in love with the city, to which he would return throughout his life.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: During their service in the ambulance corps, the two young writers sent letters home that drew the attention of the military censors. They were known to prefer the company of French soldiers over fellow ambulance drivers. The two openly expressed anti-war views; Cummings spoke of his lack of hatred for the Germans. On September 21, 1917, five months after starting his belated assignment, Cummings and William Slater Brown were arrested by the French military on suspicion of espionage and undesirable activities. They were held for three and a half months in a military detention camp at the "Dépôt de Triage", in La Ferté-Macé, Orne, Normandy.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: They were imprisoned with other detainees in a large room. Cummings' father failed to obtain his son's release through diplomatic channels, and in December 1917 he wrote a letter to President Woodrow Wilson. Cummings was released on December 19, 1917, and Brown was released two months later. Cummings used his prison experience as the basis for his novel, "The Enormous Room" (1922), about which F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "Of all the work by young men who have sprung up since 1920 one book survives—"The Enormous Room" by e.e. cummings ... Those few who cause books to live have not been able to endure the thought of its mortality."


title: E. E. Cummings

text: Cummings returned to the United States on New Year's Day 1918. Later in 1918 he was drafted into the army. He served a training deployment in the 12th Division at Camp Devens, Massachusetts, until November 1918.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: Cummings returned to Paris in 1921 and lived there for two years before returning to New York. His collection "Tulips and Chimneys" was published in 1923 and his inventive use of grammar and syntax is evident. The book was heavily cut by his editor. "XLI Poems" was published in 1925. With these collections, Cummings made his reputation as an avant garde poet.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: During the rest of the 1920s and 1930s, Cummings returned to Paris a number of times, and traveled throughout Europe, meeting, among others, artist Pablo Picasso. In 1931 Cummings traveled to the Soviet Union, recounting his experiences in "Eimi", published two years later. During these years Cummings also traveled to Northern Africa and Mexico. He worked as an essayist and portrait artist for "Vanity Fair" magazine (1924–1927).


title: E. E. Cummings

text: In 1926, Cummings' parents were in a car crash; only his mother survived, although she was severely injured. Cummings later described the crash in the following passage from his "i: six nonlectures" series given at Harvard (as part of the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures) in 1952 and 1953:


title: E. E. Cummings

text: His father's death had a profound effect on Cummings, who entered a new period in his artistic life. He began to focus on more important aspects of life in his poetry. He started this new period by paying homage to his father in the poem "my father moved through dooms of love".


title: E. E. Cummings

text: In the 1930s Samuel Aiwaz Jacobs was Cummings' publisher; he had started the Golden Eagle Press after working as a typographer and publisher.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: In 1952, his alma mater, Harvard University, awarded Cummings an honorary seat as a guest professor. The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures he gave in 1952 and 1955 were later collected as "i: six nonlectures".


title: E. E. Cummings

text: Cummings spent the last decade of his life traveling, fulfilling speaking engagements, and spending time at his summer home, Joy Farm, in Silver Lake, New Hampshire. He died of a stroke on September 3, 1962, at the age of 67 at Memorial Hospital in North Conway, New Hampshire. Cummings was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. At the time of his death, Cummings was recognized as the "second most widely read poet in the United States, after Robert Frost".


title: E. E. Cummings

text: Cummings' papers are held at the Houghton Library at Harvard University and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: Cummings was married briefly twice, first to Elaine Thayer, then to Anne Minnerly Barton. His longest relationship lasted more than three decades with Marion Morehouse.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: In 2020, it was revealed that in 1917, before his first marriage, Cummings had shared several passionate love letters with a Parisian prostitute, Marie Louise Lallemand. Despite Cummings' efforts, he was unable to find Lallemand upon his return to Paris after the front.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: Cummings' first marriage, to Elaine Orr, his cousin, began as a love affair in 1918 while she was still married to Scofield Thayer, one of Cummings' friends from Harvard. During this time he wrote a good deal of his erotic poetry. After divorcing Thayer, Orr married Cummings on March 19, 1924. The couple had a daughter together out of wedlock. However, the couple separated after two months of marriage and divorced less than nine months later.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: Cummings married his second wife Anne Minnerly Barton on May 1, 1929. They separated three years later in 1932. That same year, Minnerly obtained a Mexican divorce; it was not officially recognized in the United States until August 1934. Anne died in 1970 aged 72.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: In 1934, after his separation from his second wife, Cummings met Marion Morehouse, a fashion model and photographer. Although it is not clear whether the two were ever formally married, Morehouse lived with Cummings until his death in 1962. She died on May 18, 1969, while living at 4 Patchin Place, Greenwich Village, New York City, where Cummings had resided since September 1924.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: According to his testimony in "EIMI", Cummings had little interest in politics until his trip to the Soviet Union in 1931. He subsequently shifted rightward on many political and social issues. Despite his radical and bohemian public image, he was a Republican and later an ardent supporter of Joseph McCarthy.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: Despite Cummings' familiarity with avant-garde styles (likely affected by the "Calligrammes" of French poet Apollinaire, according to a contemporary observation), much of his work is quite traditional. Many of his poems are sonnets, albeit often with a modern twist. He occasionally used the blues form and acrostics. Cummings' poetry often deals with themes of love and nature, as well as the relationship of the individual to the masses and to the world. His poems are also often rife with satire.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: While his poetic forms and themes share an affinity with the Romantic tradition, Cummings' work universally shows a particular idiosyncrasy of syntax, or way of arranging individual words into larger phrases and sentences. Many of his most striking poems do not involve any typographical or punctuation innovations at all, but purely syntactic ones.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: As well as being influenced by notable modernists, including Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound, Cummings in his early work drew upon the imagist experiments of Amy Lowell. Later, his visits to Paris exposed him to Dada and Surrealism, which he reflected in his work. He began to rely on symbolism and allegory, where he once had used simile and metaphor. In his later work, he rarely used comparisons that required objects that were not previously mentioned in the poem, choosing to use a symbol instead. Due to this, his later poetry is "frequently more lucid, more moving, and more profound than his earlier". Cummings also liked to incorporate imagery of nature and death into much of his poetry.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: While some of his poetry is free verse (with no concern for rhyme or meter), many have a recognizable sonnet structure of 14 lines, with an intricate rhyme scheme. A number of his poems feature a typographically exuberant style, with words, parts of words, or punctuation symbols scattered across the page, often making little sense until read aloud, at which point the meaning and emotion become clear. Cummings, who was also a painter, understood the importance of presentation, and used typography to "paint a picture" with some of his poems.


title: E. E. Cummings

text: The seeds of Cummings' unconventional style appear well established even in his earliest work. At age six, he wrote to his father:


title: E. E. Cummings

text: Following his autobiographical novel, "The Enormous Room", Cummings' first published work was a collection of poems titled "Tulips and Chimneys" (1923). This work was the public's first encounter with his characteristically eccentric use of grammar and punctuation.