title: Representation theory

text: Linear algebraic groups (or more generally, affine group schemes) are analogues in algebraic geometry of Lie groups, but over more general fields than just R or C. In particular, over finite fields, they give rise to finite groups of Lie type. Although linear algebraic groups have a classification that is very similar to that of Lie groups, their representation theory is rather different (and much less well understood) and requires different techniques, since the Zariski topology is relatively weak, and techniques from analysis are no longer available.


title: Representation theory

text: Invariant theory studies actions on algebraic varieties from the point of view of their effect on functions, which form representations of the group. Classically, the theory dealt with the question of explicit description of polynomial functions that do not change, or are "invariant", under the transformations from a given linear group. The modern approach analyses the decomposition of these representations into irreducibles.


title: Representation theory

text: Invariant theory of infinite groups is inextricably linked with the development of linear algebra, especially, the theories of quadratic forms and determinants. Another subject with strong mutual influence is projective geometry, where invariant theory can be used to organize the subject, and during the 1960s, new life was breathed into the subject by David Mumford in the form of his geometric invariant theory.


title: Representation theory

text: The representation theory of semisimple Lie groups has its roots in invariant theory and the strong links between representation theory and algebraic geometry have many parallels in differential geometry, beginning with Felix Klein's Erlangen program and Élie Cartan's connections, which place groups and symmetry at the heart of geometry. Modern developments link representation theory and invariant theory to areas as diverse as holonomy, differential operators and the theory of several complex variables.


title: Representation theory

text: Automorphic forms are a generalization of modular forms to more general analytic functions, perhaps of several complex variables, with similar transformation properties. The generalization involves replacing the modular group PSL (R) and a chosen congruence subgroup by a semisimple Lie group "G" and a discrete subgroup "Γ". Just as modular forms can be viewed as differential forms on a quotient of the upper half space H = PSL (R)/SO(2), automorphic forms can be viewed as differential forms (or similar objects) on "Γ"\"G"/"K", where "K" is (typically) a maximal compact subgroup of "G". Some care is required, however, as the quotient typically has singularities. The quotient of a semisimple Lie group by a compact subgroup is a symmetric space and so the theory of automorphic forms is intimately related to harmonic analysis on symmetric spaces.


title: Representation theory

text: Before the development of the general theory, many important special cases were worked out in detail, including the Hilbert modular forms and Siegel modular forms. Important results in the theory include the Selberg trace formula and the realization by Robert Langlands that the Riemann–Roch theorem could be applied to calculate the dimension of the space of automorphic forms. The subsequent notion of "automorphic representation" has proved of great technical value for dealing with the case that "G" is an algebraic group, treated as an adelic algebraic group. As a result, an entire philosophy, the Langlands program has developed around the relation between representation and number theoretic properties of automorphic forms.


title: Representation theory

text: In one sense, associative algebra representations generalize both representations of groups and Lie algebras. A representation of a group induces a representation of a corresponding group ring or group algebra, while representations of a Lie algebra correspond bijectively to representations of its universal enveloping algebra. However, the representation theory of general associative algebras does not have all of the nice properties of the representation theory of groups and Lie algebras.


title: Representation theory

text: When considering representations of an associative algebra, one can forget the underlying field, and simply regard the associative algebra as a ring, and its representations as modules. This approach is surprisingly fruitful: many results in representation theory can be interpreted as special cases of results about modules over a ring.


title: Representation theory

text: Hopf algebras provide a way to improve the representation theory of associative algebras, while retaining the representation theory of groups and Lie algebras as special cases. In particular, the tensor product of two representations is a representation, as is the dual vector space.


title: Representation theory

text: The Hopf algebras associated to groups have a commutative algebra structure, and so general Hopf algebras are known as quantum groups, although this term is often restricted to certain Hopf algebras arising as deformations of groups or their universal enveloping algebras. The representation theory of quantum groups has added surprising insights to the representation theory of Lie groups and Lie algebras, for instance through the crystal basis of Kashiwara.


title: Representation theory

text: A "set-theoretic representation" (also known as a group action or "permutation representation") of a group "G" on a set "X" is given by a function "ρ" from "G" to "X", the set of functions from "X" to "X", such that for all "g", "g" in "G" and all "x" in "X":


title: Representation theory

text: This condition and the axioms for a group imply that "ρ"("g") is a bijection (or permutation) for all "g" in "G". Thus we may equivalently define a permutation representation to be a group homomorphism from G to the symmetric group S of "X".


title: Representation theory

text: Every group "G" can be viewed as a category with a single object; morphisms in this category are just the elements of "G". Given an arbitrary category "C", a "representation" of "G" in "C" is a functor from "G" to "C". Such a functor selects an object "X" in "C" and a group homomorphism from "G" to Aut("X"), the automorphism group of "X".


title: Representation theory

text: In the case where "C" is Vect, the category of vector spaces over a field F, this definition is equivalent to a linear representation. Likewise, a set-theoretic representation is just a representation of "G" in the category of sets.


title: Representation theory

text: For another example consider the category of topological spaces, Top. Representations in Top are homomorphisms from "G" to the homeomorphism group of a topological space "X".


title: Representation theory

text: Since groups are categories, one can also consider representation of other categories. The simplest generalization is to monoids, which are categories with one object. Groups are monoids for which every morphism is invertible. General monoids have representations in any category. In the category of sets, these are monoid actions, but monoid representations on vector spaces and other objects can be studied.


title: Representation theory

text: More generally, one can relax the assumption that the category being represented has only one object. In full generality, this is simply the theory of functors between categories, and little can be said.


title: Representation theory

text: One special case has had a significant impact on representation theory, namely the representation theory of quivers. A quiver is simply a directed graph (with loops and multiple arrows allowed), but it can be made into a category (and also an algebra) by considering paths in the graph. Representations of such categories/algebras have illuminated several aspects of representation theory, for instance by allowing non-semisimple representation theory questions about a group to be reduced in some cases to semisimple representation theory questions about a quiver.


title: Tracy Scoggins

text: Tracy Dawn Scoggins (born in 1953 in Dickinson, Texas or November 13, 1959, in Galveston, Texas) is an American actress known for her roles as Monica Colby in the 1980s primetime soap opera "Dynasty" and its spin-off series "The Colbys", Cat Grant in the first season of the 1993–1997 television series "", and as Captain Elizabeth Lochley during the final season of "Babylon 5" in 1998.


title: Tracy Scoggins

text: An only child, Scoggins is the daughter of John Scott Scoggins and Lou Cille Scoggins. Her father was a trial lawyer, and her mother graduated from law school and was a tennis champion. She attributes her own success to their influence.


title: Tracy Scoggins

text: At the age of nine, Scoggins won a diving championship; by 13, she was accumulating swimming medals. At Dickinson High School, Scoggins was an athlete, excelling in various sports such as cheerleading, gymnastics, and diving. She graduated from Dickinson High School at age 16 and enrolled at Southwest Texas State University in 1970. As a student-athlete there, she was on the varsity gymnastics team and graduated with a bachelor's degree in physical education. While at Southwest Texas State, Scoggins nearly qualified for a spot on the 1980 Olympic diving team.


title: Tracy Scoggins

text: After graduation, Scoggins briefly taught physical education before being recruited by John Casablancas of the Elite Model Management agency. Elite sent Scoggins to New York, where she worked for a year before embarking on a European fashion modeling circuit that included Italy, Germany, and France.


title: Tracy Scoggins

text: Scoggins returned to the United States and studied with the Herbert Berghof Studio and the Wynn Hanmann Studio in hopes of launching an acting career.


title: Tracy Scoggins

text: Scoggins' first role was as a fake deputy sheriff in the fourth season "Dukes of Hazzard" episode "New Deputy in Town" in 1981; she then appeared in the TV movie "Twirl". She was cast as a regular in the short-lived 1983 TV series "Renegades". The following year, she was cast as a regular on the 1984 ABC television series "Hawaiian Heat", which lasted 11 episodes.


title: Tracy Scoggins

text: After guest roles in TV series such as "Remington Steele", "T. J. Hooker", "Blue Thunder", and "The A-Team", Scoggins had a role on the "Dynasty" spin-off series "The Colbys", playing Monica Colby, the daughter of Charlton Heston's character. Following the cancellation of "The Colbys" after two seasons, Scoggins reprised the role in the final season of "Dynasty".


title: Tracy Scoggins

text: Scoggins landed recurring or short-term parts on TV series during the 1980s and 1990s, including the role of Cat Grant in "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman", Amanda Carpenter on "", Elizabeth Lochley on " Babylon 5" and its two spin-offs "Crusade" and "" (in 2007), Cassandra in three episodes of "", Marie-Diane on "The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne", and Anita Smithfield in two "Dallas" TV movies ("" and ""). This was not her first role in "Dallas", as she had played a small part as another character in a 1983 episode. Scoggins appeared on a 1996 episode of "Wings" and in the "" episode ""'.


title: Tracy Scoggins

text: Scoggins starred in the 1992 straight-to-video production "Demonic Toys". She was in the 1995 3DO game "Snow Job".


title: Tracy Scoggins

text: Alan Spencer cast Scoggins in a pilot for CBS called "Galaxy Beat". The pilot did not sell. Spencer said that she is "one of the funniest people on Earth".


title: Tracy Scoggins

text: In 2005, Scoggins landed a role as a main character, Grace Neville, on the gay supernatural series "Dante's Cove". In 2006, she had a guest role in the fourth-season premiere of the TV show "Nip/Tuck", and returned to the role of Elizabeth Lochley in the direct-to-DVD production "". Her recent television credits include "NCIS" and "Castle".


title: Ruyi Jingu Bang

text: Ruyi Jingu Bang (), or simply Ruyi Bang or Jingu Bang, is the poetic name of a magical staff wielded by the immortal monkey Sun Wukong in the 16th-century classic Chinese novel "Journey to the West". Anthony Yu translates the name simply as "The Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod," while W.J.F. Jenner translates it as the "As-You-Will Gold-Banded Cudgel."


title: Ruyi Jingu Bang

text: The staff first appears in the third chapter when the Monkey King goes to the underwater kingdom of Ao Guang (), the Dragon King of the East Sea, looking for a magic weapon to match his strength and skill. When all of the traditional magic weapons—swords, spears, and halberds weighing thousands of pounds each—fail to meet his standards, the dragon queen suggests to her husband that they give Sun a useless iron pillar taking up space in their treasury. He claims that the ancient shaft had started producing heavenly light days prior and suggests that the monkey is fated to own it. The novel never explains how the pillar was made, only that it was originally used by Yu the Great to measure the depths of the world flood during times immemorial.


title: Ruyi Jingu Bang

text: The staff is initially described as a pillar of black iron twenty feet in height and the width of a barrel. It is only when Monkey lifts it and suggests that a smaller size would be more manageable that the staff complies with his wishes and shrinks. After this, it is only a little taller than him, and as thick as a rice bowl. This is when Sun sees that the weapon is banded with a gold ring on each end, as well as the inscription along the body reading "The Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod. Weight: thirteen thousand five hundred catties" (如意金箍棒重一萬三千五百斤). The inscription indicates that the staff follows the commands of its owner, shrinking or growing to his whim, make copies of itself, and that it is immensely heavy, weighing 17,550 lbs (7,960 kg).


title: Ruyi Jingu Bang

text: The oldest edition of "Journey to the West", the 13th-century Kōzanji Version (高山寺) published during the late Song Dynasty, diverges in many points from the final version published during the Ming. For instance, the episode where Monkey acquires the staff is completely different, as is the staff itself. Sun takes the monk Tang Sanzang to heaven to meet the supreme god Mahabrahma Deva. After the monk impresses the gods with his lecture on the "Lotus Sutra", Monkey is given a golden monk's staff (among other items) as a magical weapon against the evils they will face on their journey to India. Sun later uses the staff in a battle with a white-clad woman who transforms into a tiger demon. He changes the staff into a titanic red-haired, blue-skinned Yaksha with a club, showing that the predecessor of the Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod has more magical abilities.


title: Ruyi Jingu Bang

text: A weapon that predates the Compliant Rod from the Ming version is mentioned in passing early on in the tale. Monkey mentions that the Queen Mother of the West had flogged him with an "Iron Cudgel" (鐵棒) on his left and right sides for stealing 10 peaches from her heavenly garden. He later borrows the cudgel to use in tandem with the monk's staff to battle 9 dragons. The rings on the latter may have influenced the bands on the former.


title: Show trial

text: A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of both the accusation and the verdict to the public so they will serve as both an impressive example and a warning to other would-be dissidents or transgressors.


title: Show trial

text: Show trials tend to be retributive rather than corrective and they are also conducted for propagandistic purposes. When aimed at individuals on the basis of protected classes or characteristics, such trials are examples of political persecution. The term was first recorded in 1928.


title: Show trial

text: During the Land Reform Movement, between 1 and 2 million landlords were executed as counterrevolutionaries during the early years of Communist China. After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, show trials were given to "rioters and counter-revolutionaries" involved in the protests and the subsequent military massacre.


title: Show trial

text: Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo was given a show trial in 2009. Chinese writer and dissident Ma Jian argued that Gu Kailai, the wife of purged Communist Chinese leader Bo Xilai, was given a show trial in 2012.


title: Show trial

text: After a drop in acquittal rates in the 2000s, in 2014, the Chinese judicial system reached a conviction rate of 90%. In a report to the National People's Congress, Supreme People's Court Justice Zhou Qiang said "The rulings in some cases were not fair... which harmed the interests of the litigants and undermined the credibility of the law."


title: Show trial

text: Japan has a conviction rate of over 99.8%, even higher than contemporary authoritarian regimes. Various human rights organizations alleged that the high conviction rate is due to the rampant use of conviction solely based on forced confessions, including those that are innocent. Confessions are often obtained after long periods of questioning by police, as those arrested may be held for up to 23 days without trial. During this time the suspect is in detention and is prevented from contacting family or even a lawyer.


title: Show trial

text: Studies have shown that Japanese judges can be penalized if they rule in ways the judicial office dislikes, and thus face biased incentives to convict. Using data on the careers and opinions of 321 Japanese judges, it was found that judges who engage in acquittals experience less rewarding careers.


title: Show trial

text: In October 2007, the BBC published a feature giving examples and an overview of forced confessions in Japan. In the , 13 people were arrested and interrogated, but were found innocent in court after the presiding judge ruled that those who confessed did so "in despair while going through marathon questioning." In a different case, a man named Hiroshi Yanagihara was convicted in November 2002 of rape and attempted rape after a forced confession and apparent identification by the victim, despite an alibi based on phone records. He was only cleared five years later in October 2007 when the true culprit was arrested for an unrelated crime. These two cases damaged the international credibility of the Japanese police.


title: Show trial

text: The issue of the extremely high conviction rates were brought into international scrutiny once again after the former CEO of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, was arrested in 2018 over allegations of false accounting. Ghosn subsequently fled Japan on 30 December 2019 while awaiting trial, and brought the very topic up in an interview as to why he had to flee the country – stating he will never have a right to fair trial. In a statement, Ghosn stated that he would "no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant and basic human rights are denied." At a subsequent press conference, Ghosn added that "I did not escape justice. I fled injustice and persecution, political persecution".


title: Show trial

text: Judiciary in countries such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia is completely dependent on the wishes and wants of the governing regimes. During their show trials, Human rights activists and opposition figures are routinely given harsh verdicts in predetermined rulings by the kangaroo courts.


title: Show trial

text: The United Nations human rights office and various NGOs expressed "deep alarm" after an Egyptian Minya Criminal Court sentenced 529 people to death in a single hearing on 25 March 2014. The judgment was condemned as a violation of international law. By May 2014, approximately 16,000 people (and as high as more than 40,000 by one independent count) have been imprisoned after the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état in July 2013. Egypt's ousted President Mohamed Morsi was sentenced to death on 16 May 2015, along with 120 others.


title: Show trial

text: After the failed coup attempt in 2016, the government of Turkey blamed the Gülen movement for the coup and authorities have arrested thousands of soldiers and judges. This was followed by the dismissal, detention or suspension of over 160,000 officials.


title: Show trial

text: As early as 1922 Lenin advocated staging several "model trials" ("показательный процесс", literally "demonstrative trial", "a process showing an example") in Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine.


title: Show trial

text: Show trials became common during Joseph Stalin's political repressions, such as the Moscow Trials of the Great Purge period (1937–38). Such trials paralleled the institution of self-criticism within Communist Party cadres and Soviet society.


title: Show trial

text: The Soviet authorities staged the actual trials meticulously. If defendants refused to "cooperate"—i.e., to admit guilt for their alleged and mostly fabricated crimes—they did not go on public trial, but suffered execution nonetheless. This happened, for example during the prosecution of the so-called , a "party" invented in the late 1920s by the OGPU, which, in particular, assigned the notable economist Alexander Chayanov (1888–1937, arrested in 1930) to it.


title: Show trial

text: Some public evidence of actual events during the Moscow Trials came to the West through the Dewey Commission (1937). After the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991), more information became available. This discredited the "New York Times" reporter Walter Duranty, who claimed at the time that these trials were actually fair.


title: Show trial

text: Following some dissent within ruling communist parties throughout the Eastern Bloc, especially after the 1948 Tito–Stalin split, several party purges occurred, with several hundred thousand members purged in several countries. In addition to rank-and-file member purges, prominent communists were purged, with some subjected to public show trials. These were more likely to be instigated, and sometimes orchestrated, by the Kremlin or even Stalin himself, as he had done in the earlier Moscow Trials.


title: Show trial

text: Such high-ranking party show trials included those of Koçi Xoxe in Albania and Traicho Kostov in Bulgaria, who were purged and arrested. After Kostov was executed, Bulgarian leaders sent Stalin a telegram thanking him for the help. In Romania, Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, Ana Pauker and Vasile Luca were arrested, with Pătrășcanu being executed. The Soviets generally directed show trial methods throughout the Eastern Bloc, including a procedure in which confessions and evidence from leading witnesses could be extracted by any means, including threatening to torture the witnesses' wives and children. The higher-ranking the party member, generally the more harsh the torture that was inflicted upon him. For the show trial of Hungarian Interior Minister János Kádár, who one year earlier had attempted to force a confession of Rajk in his show trial, regarding "Vladimir" the questioner of Kádár:


title: Show trial

text: The evidence was often not just non-existent but absurd, with Hungarian George Paloczi-Horváth's party interrogators claiming "We knew all the time—we have it here in writing—that you met professor Szentgyörgyi not in Istanbul, but in Constantinople." In another case, the Hungarian ÁVH secret police also condemned another party member as a Nazi accomplice with a document that had been previously displayed in a glass cabinet at the Institute of the Working Class Movement as an example of a Gestapo forgery. The trials themselves were "shows", with each participant having to learn a script and conduct repeated rehearsals before the performance. In the Slánský trial in Czechoslovakia, when the judge skipped one of the scripted questions, the better-rehearsed Slánský answered the one which should have been asked.


title: Show trial

text: As of 2022, court cases in Belarus are often scheduled ten minutes apart from one another and can conclude in as little three minutes, and have been criticized for being "not a court". Consistently from 2016 through 2020, trials resulting in a guilty verdict occurred at a frequency of 99.7% and 99.8%.


title: Show trial

text: In 1946, Draža Mihailović and a number of other prominent figures of the Chetnik movement during World War II were tried for high treason and war crimes committed during WWII. The trial opened in the presence of about 60 foreign journalists. Mihailović and ten others were sentenced to death by a firing squad (two in absentia); the others in the process were convicted to penalties ranging from 18 months to 20 years in prison.


title: Show trial

text: In 2015, a Serbian court invalidated Mihailović's conviction. The court held that it had been a Communist political show trial that was controlled by the government. The court concluded that Mihailović had not received a fair trial. Mihailović was, therefore, fully rehabilitated.


title: Show trial

text: Stalin's NKVD emissary coordinated with Hungarian General Secretary Mátyás Rákosi and his ÁVH head the way the show trial of Hungarian Minister of Interior László Rajk should go, and he was later executed.


title: Show trial

text: The Rajk trials in Hungary led Moscow to warn Czechoslovakia's parties that enemy agents had penetrated even high into party ranks, and when a puzzled Rudolf Slánský and Klement Gottwald inquired what they could do, Stalin's NKVD agents arrived to help prepare subsequent trials.


title: Show trial

text: First, these trials focused on people outside the Czechoslovak Communist party. General Heliodor Píka was arrested without a warrant in early May 1948 and accused of espionage and high treason, damaging the interests of the Czechoslovak Republic and the Soviet Union, and undermining the ability of the state to defend itself, Píka was not allowed to present a defence, and no witnesses were called. He was sentenced to death and hanged. During the Prague Spring of 1968, Píka's case was reopened at the request of Milan Píka (son of Heliodor) and the elder Píka's lawyer, and a military tribunal declared Heliodor Píka innocent of all charges.


title: Show trial

text: Milada Horáková, a Czech politician focused on social issues and women's rights, who was jailed during the German occupation for her political activity, was accused of leading a conspiracy to commit treason and espionage at the behest of the United States, Great Britain, France and Yugoslavia. Evidence of the alleged conspiracy included Horáková's presence at a meeting of political figures from the National Socialist, Social Democrat and People's parties, in September 1948, held to discuss their response to the new political situation in Czechoslovakia. She was also accused of maintaining contacts with Czechoslovak political figures in exile in the West. The trial of Horáková and twelve of her colleagues began on 31 May 1950 and he State's prosecutors were led by Dr. Josef Urválek and included Ludmila Brožová-Polednová. The trial proceedings were carefully orchestrated with confessions of guilt secured from the accused, though a recording of the event, discovered in 2005, revealed Horáková's defence of her political ideals. Horáková was sentenced to death, along with three co-defendants (Jan Buchal, Oldřich Pecl, and Záviš Kalandra), on 8 June 1950. Many prominent figures in the West, notably Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and Eleanor Roosevelt, petitioned for her life, but the sentences were confirmed. She was executed by hanging in Prague's Pankrác Prison on 27 June 1950.


title: Show trial

text: The trials then turned to the communist party itself (Slánský trial). In November 1952 Rudolf Slánský and 13 other high-ranking Communist bureaucrats (Bedřich Geminder, Ludvík Frejka, Josef Frank, Vladimír Clementis, Bedřich Reicin, Karel Šváb, Rudolf Margolius, Otto Šling, André Simone, Artur London, Vavro Hajdů and Evžen Löbl), 10 of whom were Jews, were arrested and charged with being Titoists and Zionists, official USSR rhetoric having turned against Zionism. Party rhetoric asserted that Slánský was spying as part of an international western capitalist conspiracy to undermine socialism and that punishing him would avenge the Nazi murders of Czech communists Jan Šverma and Julius Fučík during World War II. The trial of the 14 national leaders began on 20 November 1952, in the Senate of the State Court, with the prosecutor being Josef Urválek. It lasted eight days. It was notable for its strong anti-Semitic overtones. All were found guilty, with three being sentenced to life imprisonment while the rest were sentenced to death. Slánský was hanged at Pankrác Prison on 3 December 1952. His body was cremated and the ashes were scattered on an icy road outside of Prague.


title: Show trial

text: As the end of the 1989 Romanian Revolution neared, General Secretary of the Communist Party Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena were condemned to death and executed by firing squad after a Stalinist-style trial in a kangaroo court.


title: Show trial

text: Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany established a large number of Sondergerichte that were frequently used to prosecute those hostile to the regime. The People's Court was a kangaroo court established in 1934 to handle political crimes after several of the defendants at the Reichstag fire Trial were acquitted. Between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 12,000 Germans were killed on the orders of the "special courts" set up by the Nazi regime.


title: Show trial

text: The trial of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was marred by allegations of lack of impartiality and political bias due to proximity of the trial and Lula's arrest to the 2018 Brazilian general election.


title: Show trial

text: Federal judge Sergio Moro, who would later become minister of justice in during the early stage of Jair Bolsonaro's presidency, was frequently accused of speeding up corruption charges against Lula in a clear attempt at preventing Lula from running to office again and harm public trust on the Workers' Party. In early 2019, news website "The Intercept" published leaked messages from Telegram that confirmed the political bias allegations and Moro's speeding up of charges against Lula with the clear intent at preventing him from running for office in 2018.


title: Show trial

text: In 2019 Lula was released from prison after a Supreme Federal Court ruling that declared that defendants could only be arrested after all appeals to higher courts were exhausted.


title: Show trial

text: In 2021 Lula was acquitted of most charges after Supreme Federal Court judges confirmed that Lula's trial was unfair and politically biased.


title: Show trial

text: Nevertheless, there are still ongoing investigations to establish corruption and money bribery charges, linked to Odebrecht Case.


title: Wiradjuri

text: The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, and many still use knowledge of hunting and gathering techniques as part of their customary life.


title: Wiradjuri

text: In the 21st century, major Wiradjuri groups live in Condobolin, Peak Hill, Narrandera and Griffith. There are significant populations at Wagga Wagga and Leeton and smaller groups at West Wyalong, Parkes, Dubbo, Forbes, Cootamundra, Darlington Point, Cowra and Young.


title: Wiradjuri

text: The Wiradjuri autonym is derived from , meaning "no" or "not", with the comitative suffix or meaning "having". That the Wiradjuri said , as opposed to some other word for "no", was seen as a distinctive feature of their speech, and several other tribes in New South Wales, to the west of the Great Dividing Range, are similarly named after their own words for "no". A similar distinction was made between Romance languages in medieval France, with the "langues d'oc" and the "langues d'oïl" distinguished by their word for "yes".


title: Wiradjuri

text: In his book "Aboriginal tribes of Australia" (1974), Norman Tindale wrote that "Wiradjuri" was one of several terms coined later, after the 1890s had seen a "rash of such terms", following the publication of a work by ethnologist John Fraser. In 1892, Fraser had published a revised and expanded edition of Lancelot Threlkeld's 1834 work on the Awabakal language, "An Australian Grammar", in which he created his own names for groupings, such as Yunggai, Wachigari and Yakkajari.


title: Wiradjuri

text: Tindale says that some of the later terms had entered the literature, although not based on fieldwork and lacking Aboriginal support, as artificial, collective names for his "Great Tribes" of New South Wales. He writes that there was such a "literary need for major groupings that [Fraser] set out to provide them for New South Wales, coining entirely artificial terms for his 'Great tribes'. These were not based on field research and lacked aboriginal support. His names such as Yunggai, Wachigari and Yakkajari can be ignored as artifacts...During the 1890s the idea spread and soon there was a rash of such terms...Some of these have entered, unfortunately, into popular literature, despite their dubious origins."


title: Wiradjuri

text: (Pangerang) (Vic.); Booandik (Vic. & SA); Barkunjee (Barkindji) (NSW), Kurnai (Vic.), Thurrawal (Dharawal) (NSW), Wiradjuri (NSW) and Malegoondeet (?) (Vic.) as some of these names, and mentions R. H. Mathews, A. W. Howitt and John Mathew as promulgators of the "nations" concept. However, Tindale refers to Wiradjuri in his own work (p. 200): "Wiradjuri 'Wiradjuri (Wi'raduri)".


title: Wiradjuri

text: Wiradjuri is a Pama–Nyungan family and classified as a member of the small Wiradhuric branch of Australian languages of Central New South Wales.


title: Wiradjuri

text: The Wiradjuri language is effectively extinct, but attempts are underway to revive it, with a reconstructed grammar, based on earlier ethnographic materials and wordlists and the memories of Wiradjuri families, which is now used to teach the language in schools. This reclamation work was originally propelled by elder Stan Grant and John Rudder who had previously studied Australian Aboriginal languages in Arnhem Land.


title: Wiradjuri

text: The Wiradjuri are the largest Aboriginal group in New South Wales. They once occupied a vast area in central New South Wales, on the plains running north and south to the west of the Blue Mountains. The area was known as "the land of the three rivers", the "Wambuul" (Macquarie), the "Kalare" later known as the Lachlan and the Murrumbidgee, or "Murrumbidjeri".


title: Wiradjuri

text: Norman Tindale estimated the territorial range of the Wiradjuri tribal lands at . Their eastern borders ran from north to south from above Mudgee, down to the foothills of the Blue Mountains east of Lithgow and Oberon, and east of Cowra, Young and Tumut and south to the upper Murray at Albury and east to about Tumbarumba. The southern border ran to Howlong. Its western reaches went along Billabong Creek to beyond Mossgiel. They extended southwest to the vicinity of Hay and Narrandera. Condobolin southwards to Booligal, Carrathool, Wagga Wagga, Cootamundra, Parkes, Trundle; Gundagai, Boorowa, and Rylstone, Wellington, and Carcoar all lay within Wiradjuri territory.


title: Wiradjuri

text: The Murray River forms the Wiradjuri's southern boundary and the change from woodland to open grassland marks their eastern boundary.


title: Wiradjuri

text: The Wiradjuri were organised into bands. Norman Tindale quotes Alfred William Howitt as mentioning several of these local groups of the tribe:


title: Wiradjuri

text: The Wiradjuri, together with the Gamilaraay (who however used them in bora ceremonies), were particularly known for their use of carved trees which functioned as taphoglyphs, marking the burial site of a notable medicine-man, ceremonial leader, warrior or orator of a tribe. On the death of a distinguished Wiradjuri, initiated men would strip the bark off a tree to allow them to incise symbols on the side of the trunk which faced the burial mound. The craftsmanship on remaining examples of this funeral artwork displays notable artistic power. Four still stand near Molong at the Grave of Yuranigh.


title: Wiradjuri

text: They are generally to be found near rivers where the softer earth allowed easier burial. Alfred William Howitt remarked that these trees incised with taphoglyphs served both as transit points to allow mythological cultural heroes to ascend to, and descend from, the firmament as well as a means for the deceased to return to the sky.


title: Wiradjuri

text: The Wiradjuri diet included yabbies and fish such as Murray cod from the rivers. In dry seasons, they ate kangaroos, emus and food gathered from the land, including fruit, nuts, yam daisies ("Microseris lanceolata"), wattle seeds, and orchid tubers. The Wiradjuri travelled into Alpine areas in the summer to feast on Bogong moths.


title: Wiradjuri

text: The Wiradjuri were also known for their handsome possum-skin cloaks stitched together from several possum furs. Governor Macquarie was presented with one of these cloaks by a Wiradjuri man when he visited Bathurst in 1815.


title: Wiradjuri

text: Wiradjuri territory was first penetrated by British colonists in 1813. In 1822 George Suttor took up an extensive lot of land, later known as Brucedale Station, after Wiradjuri guides showed him an area with ample water sources. Suttor learnt their language, and befriended Windradyne, nicknamed "Saturday", and attributed conflict to the harshness of his own people's behaviour, since the Wiradjuri were in his view, fond of white people, as they would call them. Clashes between the British settlers and the Wiradjuri however multiplied as the influx of colonist increased, and became known as the Bathurst Wars. The occupation of their lands and their cultivation began to cause famine among the Wiradjuri, who had a different notion of what constituted property. In the 1850s there were still corroborees around Mudgee, but there were fewer clashes.


title: Wiradjuri

text: The short story "Death in the Dawntime", originally published in "The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives" (Mike Ashley, editor; 1995), is a murder mystery that takes place entirely among the Wiradjuri people before the arrival of Europeans in Australia.


title: Wiradjuri

text: In Bryce Courtenay's novel "Jessica", the plot is centred in Wiradjuri region. Jessica's best friend (Mary Simpson) was from Wiradjuri.


title: Wiradjuri

text: Noel Beddoe's novel "The Yalda Crossing" also explores Wiradjuri history from an early settler perspective, bringing to life a little-known massacre that occurred in the 1830s. Andy Kissane's poem, "The Station Owner's Daughter, Narrandera" tells a story about the aftermath of that same massacre, and was the inspiration for Alex Ryan's short film, "Ngurrumbang".


title: Wiradjuri

text: The variety of spellings for the name Wiradjuri is extensive, with over 60 ways of transcribing the word registered.


title: Bruce Altman

text: Bruce Altman (born July 3, 1955) is an American film and television actor. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: Chanda Kochhar ( Advani, born 17 November 1961) is the former managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of ICICI Bank. Due to a case of conflict of interest, she resigned from her position in 2018. Subsequently, she was fired by ICICI Bank – a decision which was later upheld by the Supreme Court of India. After her exit, Sandeep Bakhshi, who was the interim MD and CEO, became the full-time MD and CEO of ICICI Bank.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: Kochhar was born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan in a Hindu Sindhi family. She was educated at St. Angela Sophia School, Jaipur. She moved to Mumbai, where she joined Jai Hind College and earned a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Mumbai. After graduating in 1982, she studied cost accountancy at the Institute of Cost Accountants of India, and obtained a master of management studies degree at the University of Mumbai from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. She received the Wockhardt Gold Medal for Excellence in Management Studies as well as the J. N. Bose Gold Medal in Cost Accountancy.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: In 1984, Kochhar joined the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) as a management trainee. During her early year at ICICI, she handled project appraisal and monitoring and evaluated projects in industries such as textile, paper and cement.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: Kochhar was instrumental in establishing ICICI Bank during the 1990s. In 1993, Kochhar was appointed as one of the core team members who were assigned the responsibility of setting up the bank. She was promoted to assistant general manager (AGM) in 1994 and then to deputy general manager (DGM) in 1996.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: In 1996, Kochhar headed the newly formed Infrastructure Industry Group of ICICI Bank, which aimed to create dedicated industry expertise in the areas of power, telecom and transportation.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: In 1998, she was promoted as the General Manager (GM) and headed ICICI Bank's major client group, which handled relationships with ICICI's top 200 clients. In 1999, she also handled the strategy and e-commerce divisions of ICICI Bank.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: Under Kochhar's leadership, ICICI Bank started building the nascent retail business in 2000 focusing largely on technology, innovation, process engineering and expansion of distribution and scale. In April 2001, she took over as executive director.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: In 2006, Kochhar was appointed as deputy managing director of ICICI Bank. In 2006–07, Kochhar handled the international and corporate businesses of the bank. From 2007 to 2009, she was the bank's chief financial officer (CFO) and joint managing director.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: In 2009 Kochhar was appointed as managing director and chief executive officer of the bank and has been responsible for the bank's diverse operations in India and overseas. She also chairs the boards of most of the bank's subsidiaries, which include India's leading private sector life and general insurance companies.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: Kochhar is a member of the India–Russia Business Leaders Forum and the US-India CEO Forum. She was the president of the International Monetary Conference, an organisation that annually brings together the chief executives of approximately 70 of the world's largest financial institutions from 30 countries, along with officials from government institutions in 2015–16. She is the deputy chairman of the Indian Banks Association. Kochhar is the chairperson of the board of governors at IIIT Vadodara. She is also on the boards of the National Institute of Securities Markets and Institute of International Finance. Kochhar has been a member of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade & Industry, the Board of Trade and High-Level Committee on Financing Infrastructure. She was co-chair of the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in 2011.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: Kochhar received an honorary doctorate from Carleton University, Canada in 2014, in recognition of her pioneering work in the financial sector, effective leadership in a time of economic crisis and support for engaged business practices. She was conferred with the Padma Bhushan, one of India's highest civilian honours, in 2011.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: Acting on a 2016 allegation of a shareholder of Videocon Group over a possible conflict of interest of Kochhar, ICICI Bank's board reviewed its credit approval process and found them strong and cleared Kochhar of the allegations. On 4 October 2018 she stepped down from her position as Managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank, following a fresh complaint from an anonymous whistleblower. After an enquiry concluded that she had violated the bank's code of conduct regarding conflict of interest  and due disclosure or recusal requirements, she was terminated from service. She tried to contest the termination by going to Supreme Court but it denied to oppose the petition contesting the High Court order which dismissed it


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: Under Kochhar's leadership, ICICI Bank won the "Best Retail Bank in India" award in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005 and "Excellence in Retail Banking Award" in 2002; both awards were given by "The Asian Banker". Kochhar personally was awarded "Retail Banker of the Year 2004 (Asia-Pacific region)" by the "Asian Banker", "Business Woman of the Year 2005" by "The Economic Times" and "Rising Star Award" for Global Awards 2006 by "Retail Banker International". Kochhar has also consistently figured in "Fortune"'s list of "Most Powerful Women in Business" since 2005. She climbed up the list debuting with the 47th position in 2005, moving up 10 spots to 37 in 2006 and then to 33 in 2007. In the 2008 list, Kochhar features at the 25th spot. In 2009, she debuted at number 20 in the Forbes "World's 100 Most Powerful Women list". She is the second Indian in the list behind the Indian National Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi at number 13. In 2010, she fell to number 92 in the Forbes list, but in 2011 bounced back to 43. As of 2014, she ranks at #43. And in 2015 she climbed up to #35 again. In 2017, she was ranked at # 32 and she ranked the highest among the 5 Indian woman who made it on the list, which included #57 Roshni Nadar Malhotra, #71 Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, #92 Shobhana Bhartia and #97 Priyanka Chopra.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: Kochhar has also consistently figured in "Fortune"'s list of "Most Powerful Women in Business" since 2005. In 2009, she debuted at number 20 in the Forbes "World's 100 Most Powerful Women list", and climbed to the 10th spot in 2010. In 2011, she featured in "Business Today"'s list of the "Most Powerful Women – Hall of Fame". In 2011, she also featured in the "50 Most Influential People in Global Finance" List of "Bloomberg Markets". Chanda Kochhar was awarded with ASSOCHAM Ladies League Mumbai Women of the Decade Achievers Award on 2 January 2014.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: In 2011, Kochhar was awarded the "ABLF Woman of Power Award (India)" at the Asian Business Leadership Forum Awards.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: Kochhar was ranked as the most powerful businesswoman in India in Forbes' list of 'The World's 100 Most Powerful Women 2013'. Kochhar was also featured in the Power List 2013 of 25 most powerful women in India by India Today, for the third year in a row.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: Kochhar was selected in "Time" magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World 2015. In 2015, she was ranked first in the Fortune List of 100 Most Powerful Women in Asia Pacific.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: Kochhar ranked 40th on India Today's 'High and Mighty Power List 2016' in 2016. In the same year, she was 22nd in the Forbes Asia's '50 Power Businesswomen List 2016'. She was also listed in Forbes list of 'The World's Most Powerful Women in Finance 2016' at number 10.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: In 2017, Kochhar was featured in Business World magazine's 'BW's Most Influential Women' list as an evergreen woman leader. In May of the same year, she received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Global Corporate Citizenship from the Woodrow Wilson Centre located in Washington, US. She is the first leader to receive an award in this category. In the same year, Kochhar was ranked 5th in Fortune's list of 'Most Powerful Women in business outside the U.S.'.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: Kochhar allegedly favoured Videocon Group in lending practices. ICICI Bank said it has decided to institute an independent enquiry into the allegations. On 29 March 2018, The Indian Express first reported that Videocon group promoter Venugopal Dhoot provided crores of rupees allegedly to NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRPL), a firm he had set up with Chanda Kochhar's husband Deepak Kochhar and two relatives six months after the Videocon group got ₹3,250 crore as loan from ICICI Bank in 2012.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: He allegedly transferred proprietorship of the company to a trust owned by Deepak Kochhar for ₹9 lakh, six months after he received the loan from ICICI Bank. The Videocon account was declared an NPA (Non-performing Assets) or a bad loan in 2017 according to the report. "The Income Tax department is also probing the acquisition of the swanky family residence of Chanda Kochhar, the CEO and MD of ICICI Bank, in South Mumbai by her husband Deepak Kochhar in a complex transaction involving firms linked to Videocon Group", reported the Indian Express.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: The Indian Express also reported similar transactions and favourable loans granted by Kochhar allegedly to Essar Group which was also later classified as NPAs. Chanda Kochhar subsequently quit ICICI bank following these allegations and is currently being investigated.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: On 24 January 2019, Chanda, her husband Deepak, and industrialist Venugopal Dhoot were named in a CBI FIR for cheating and defrauding ICICI Bank to the tune of ₹1,730 crore. CBI detailed the modus operandi and charged them with offences punishable under Section 120B (conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of IPC, section 7 (taking gratification) and 13(2) (criminal misconduct) read with 13(1)(d) (pecuniary advantage) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: Following CBI action, the Enforcement Directorate lodged a case of money laundering against Chanda Kochhar in connection with loans disbursed by bank to the Videocon Group which later turned into NPAs. There are several public complaints sent to the Ministry of Finance, particular to the Union Finance Minister suggesting to withdraw esteemed civilian awards such as Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awarded to Chanda by the Union Government of India. The Enforcement Directorate attached the properties of Chanda Kochhar and her family in connection with the money laundering case on 10 January 2020. The book value of the attached assets was ₹78 crore according to ED. Chanda Kochhar was granted bail by the special PMLA court in February following her appearance before the court and honouring the summons issued against her. She has never been arrested in the case. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 24 August 2021, Tuesday, submitted draft charges against Chanda Kochhar, her businessman-husband and other accused in a special PMLA court in connection with a money laundering case. The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) provided interim relief to Chanda Kochhar, against an order by markets regulator Sebi on June 14, 2022, for not supplying the requisite documents to Kochhar. SAT directed Kochhar to file a fresh application before Sebi indicating the documents being sought for inspection.


title: Chanda Kochhar

text: Kochhar resides in Mumbai, and is married to Deepak Kochhar, a wind energy entrepreneur and her business schoolmate. They have two children, a daughter and a son.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: Ryman Auditorium (also known as Grand Ole Opry House and Union Gospel Tabernacle) is a 2,362-seat live-performance venue located at 116 Rep. John Lewis Way North, in Nashville, Tennessee. It is best known as the home of the "Grand Ole Opry" from 1943 to 1974. It is owned and operated by Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. Ryman Auditorium was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was later designated as a National Historic Landmark on June 25, 2001, for its pivotal role in the popularization of country music.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: The auditorium opened as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892. Its construction was spearheaded by Thomas Ryman (1843–1904), a Nashville businessman who owned several saloons and a fleet of riverboats. Ryman conceived the idea of the auditorium as a tabernacle for the influential revivalist Samuel Porter Jones. He had attended one of Jones' 1885 tent revivals with the intent to heckle, but was instead converted into a devout Christian who pledged to build the tabernacle so the people of Nashville could attend large-scale revivals indoors. It took seven years to complete and cost . Jones held his first revival at the site on May 25, 1890, when only the building's foundation and walls had been completed.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: Architect Hugh Cathcart Thompson designed the structure. Exceeding its construction budget, the tabernacle opened in debt. Jones sought to name the tabernacle in Ryman's honor, but Ryman denied the request several times. When Ryman died in 1904, his memorial service was held at the tabernacle, with Jones officiating. During the service, Jones proposed the building be renamed as Ryman Auditorium, which was met with the overwhelming approval of the attendees. Jones died less than two years later in 1906.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: The building was originally designed to contain a balcony, but a lack of funds delayed its completion. The balcony was built and opened in time for the 1897 gathering of the United Confederate Veterans, with funds provided by members of the group. As a result, the balcony was once called the Confederate Gallery. Upon completion of the balcony, the Ryman's capacity rose to 6,000. A stage was added in 1901 that reduced the capacity to just over 3,000.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: Though the building was designed as a house of worship – a purpose it continued to serve throughout most of its early years – it was often leased to promoters for nonreligious events in an effort to pay off its debts and remain open. In 1904, Lula C. Naff, a widow and mother who was working as a stenographer, began to book and promote speaking engagements, concerts, boxing matches, and other attractions at the Ryman in her free time. In 1914, when her employer went out of business, Naff made booking these events her full-time job. She eventually transitioned into a role by 1920 as the Ryman's official manager. She preferred to use the name "L.C. Naff" in an attempt to avoid initial prejudices as a female executive in a male-dominated industry. Naff gained a reputation for battling local censorship groups, who had threatened to ban various performances deemed too risqué. In 1939, Naff won a landmark lawsuit against the Nashville Board of Censors, which was planning to arrest the star of the play "Tobacco Road" due to its provocative nature. The court declared the law creating the censors to be invalid.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: Naff's ability to book stage shows and world-renowned entertainers in the city's largest indoor gathering place kept the Ryman at the forefront of Nashville's consciousness and enhanced the city's reputation as a cultural center for the performing arts, even as the building began to age. Harry Houdini in 1924, W.C. Fields, Will Rogers in 1925, Charlie Chaplin, Bob Hope with Doris Day in 1949, and John Philip Sousa (among others) performed at the venue over the years, earning the Ryman the nickname "The Carnegie Hall of the South". The Ryman also hosted lectures by U.S. presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft in 1907 and 1911, respectively. Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso appeared in concert there in 1919. It also hosted the inaugurations of three governors of the state of Tennessee.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: The Ryman through the mid-1960s hosted many musicians: Marian Anderson in 1932, Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys in 1945, Little Jimmy Dickens in 1948, Hank Williams in 1949, The Carter Sisters with Mother Maybelle Carter in 1950, Elvis in 1954, Johnny Cash in 1956, trumpeter Louis Armstrong in 1957, Patsy Cline in 1960, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs (bluegrass) in 1964, and Minnie Pearl in 1964.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: The first event to sell out the Ryman was a lecture by Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy in 1913. While being a trailblazer for working women, Naff also championed the cause of racial diversity. The building was used as a regular venue for the Fisk Jubilee Singers (they performed there in 1913) from nearby Fisk University, a historically black college. The state's Jim Crow laws required Ryman audiences to be segregated, with some shows designated for "White Audiences Only" and others for "Colored Audiences Only". But period photographs show that, in practice, Ryman audiences were often integrated. Naff retired in 1955 and died in 1960.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: After debuting in 1925, the local country music radio program known as the "Grand Ole Opry" (originally called the "WSM Barn Dance") became a Nashville institution. Broadcast over clear-channel AM radio station WSM, it could be heard in 30 states across the eastern part of the nation. Although not originally a stage show, the "Opry" began to attract listeners from around the region who would go to the WSM studio to see it live. When crowds got too large for the studio, in 1934 WSM began broadcasting the show from the Hillsboro Theatre (now Belcourt Theatre). The "Opry" moved to East Nashville's Dixie Tabernacle in 1936 and then to War Memorial Auditorium in 1939.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: After four years – and several reports of upholstery damage caused by its rowdy crowds – the "Opry" was asked to leave War Memorial and sought a new home yet again. Thanks to the Ryman auditorium's wooden pews and central location, Naff and other institution leaders thought the auditorium would be a perfect venue for such an audience. They began renting the venue to WSM for its shows. The "Grand Ole Opry" was first broadcast from the Ryman on June 5, 1943, and it originated there every week for nearly 31 years thereafter. Every show sold out, and hundreds of fans were often turned away.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: During its tenure at Ryman Auditorium, the "Opry" hosted the major country music stars of the day and became a show known around the world. In addition to its home on WSM, portions of the show (at various times throughout its history) were also broadcast on network radio and television to a wider audience. Melding its then-current usage with the building's origins as a house of worship, the Ryman got the nickname "The Mother Church of Country Music", which it holds to this day.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: Because of the period during which it was constructed and because it was not designed to be a performance venue, the Ryman lacked a true backstage area. It had only one dressing room for the men, and women were relegated to an inadequate ladies' restroom. The shortage of space forced performers to wait in the wings, the narrow hallways, and the alley behind the building's south wall. Thus, many performers often ventured across the alley to Tootsie's Orchid Lounge and other bars, where they drank alongside patrons and sometimes performed. This practice enhanced the popularity and appeal of the honky-tonk bars along Nashville's Lower Broadway.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: Prior to September 27, 1963, Ryman Auditorium had no singular owner; it was an independent entity governed by a board of directors. That changed when WSM, Inc., purchased the building for . When WSM assumed total control of the auditorium, it renamed the building as the Grand Ole Opry House. Many people continued to refer to it by the familiar Ryman name, well-known after 60 years in use.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: WSM financed minor upgrades to the Opry House in 1966 to maintain its functionality, but soon began making plans to move the "Opry" to a new location altogether. Despite the building's deteriorating condition, the lack of air conditioning, and the abundance of unsavory surroundings in its urban neighborhood, the show's increasing popularity often attracted crowds too large to fit inside the venue. Plans announced in 1969 centered around a larger, custom-built auditorium that would provide a more controlled and comfortable atmosphere for audiences and performers alike, as well as better radio and television production facilities.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: The company purchased a large tract of land in a then-rural area a few miles away. The new "Opry" theater served as the anchor of a grand entertainment complex. The development became known as Opryland USA. It eventually included the Opryland theme park and the Opryland Hotel.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: The amusement park opened on May 27, 1972, and the new venue (also called the Grand Ole Opry House) debuted on Saturday, March 16, 1974. The last "Opry" show at the Ryman occurred the previous evening, on Friday, March 15. The final shows downtown were emotional. Sarah Cannon, performing as Minnie Pearl, broke character and cried on stage. In an effort to maintain continuity with the "Opry"'s storied past, a large circle was cut from the floor of the Ryman stage and inlaid into the center of the new "Opry" stage. In another traditional holdover, the new Opry House was also designed to feature pew seating, although (unlike the Ryman) they are cushioned.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: Eventually and without fanfare, the building downtown resumed using the Ryman Auditorium name to differentiate it from the new Grand Ole Opry House.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: When the plans for Opryland USA were announced, WSM president Irving Waugh also revealed the company's intent to demolish the Ryman and use its materials to construct a chapel called "The Little Church of Opryland" at the amusement park. Waugh brought in a consultant to evaluate the building, noted theatrical producer Jo Mielziner, who had staged a production at the Ryman in 1935. He concluded that the Ryman was "full of bad workmanship and contains nothing of value as a theater worth restoring." Mielziner suggested the auditorium be razed and replaced with a modern theater. But Waugh's plans were met with resounding resistance from the public, including many influential musicians of the time. Architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable ridiculed the decision in "The New York Times", writing: "First prize for the pious misuse of a landmark, and a total misunderstanding of the principles of preservation. Gentlemen, for shame." (She had won a Pulitzer Prize for her writing.)


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: However, Roy Acuff, an "Opry" stalwart and a major stakeholder of Opryland USA, reportedly said, "I never want another note of music played in that building." He led the unsuccessful charge to tear down the Ryman. Acuff, a staunch supporter of moving the "Opry" to a modern home, told "The Washington Post" in 1974, "Most of my memories of the Ryman auditorium are of misery, sweating out here on this stage, the audience suffering too... We've been shackled all of my career." Acuff notably hated the dressing room situation at the Ryman so much that he bought a nearby building just to have a bigger one. A life-sized statue of Acuff (alongside one of Sarah Cannon as Minnie Pearl) has been installed in the lobby of the preserved Ryman Auditorium.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: Members of historic preservation groups argued that WSM, Inc. (and Acuff, by proxy) exaggerated the Ryman's poor condition, saying the company was worried that attachment to the old building would hurt business at the new Opry House. Preservationists emphasized the building's importance to regional religious history and gained traction for their case as a result. The building was formally assessed and approved for the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. In 1974, United States Senators from Tennessee Howard Baker and Bill Brock, together with officials of the United States Department of the Interior, pleaded with WSM, Inc. (and its parent company, NLT Corporation) to preserve the building. The company tabled the decision on the Ryman's fate. The building was ultimately saved from demolition, although no active efforts were made to improve its condition.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: Following the departure of the "Opry", the Ryman failed to attract new performers. It was mostly vacant and deteriorating for nearly 20 years. In that period, the surrounding neighborhood also declined. Despite its regressing condition and the absence of performances, Ryman Auditorium was never closed. It remained a destination for heritage tourism in the city.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: On August 30, 1979, following a tip from a citizen, the Nashville bomb squad discovered and disarmed a massive car bomb that could have damaged or destroyed a three-block area of downtown Nashville that included the Ryman. A nearby strip club was found to be the bomber's target. The device was disarmed less than 20 minutes before it was timed to detonate.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: In September 1983, soon after NLT Corporation was acquired in a hostile takeover bid by American General Insurance, the building was included in the sale of all the WSM and Opryland properties to Oklahoma-based Gaylord Broadcasting Company for . (The WSM assets were organized into a subsidiary holding company called Opryland USA, Inc., which would change its name to Gaylord Entertainment Company following a 1991 corporate spin-off.) The company's chief executive, Ed Gaylord, had become acquainted with many of the "Opry" stars during his involvement with the long-running television series "Hee Haw". His fondness for the "Opry" and friendships with its figures – particularly Sarah Cannon – are often cited as reasons for his interest in the acquisition. Ryman Auditorium was included in the sale almost as an afterthought, but Gaylord's appreciation of its history helped preserve it.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: In 1986, as part of the "Grand Ole Opry" 60th-anniversary celebration, CBS aired a special program that featured some of the "Opry"'s legendary stars performing at the Ryman. While the auditorium was dormant, major motion pictures continued to be filmed on location there, including John Carpenter’s "Elvis" (1979), "Coal Miner's Daughter" (1980 – Loretta Lynn Oscar-winning biopic), "Sweet Dreams" (1985 – story of Patsy Cline), and Clint Eastwood’s "Honkytonk Man" (1982). A 1979 television special, "Dolly & Carol in Nashville", included a segment featuring Dolly Parton performing a gospel medley on the Ryman stage.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: In 1989, Opryland USA, Inc. began work to beautify the Ryman's exterior. The structure of the building was also improved, as the company installed a new roof, replaced broken windows, and repaired broken bricks and wood. The building's interior, however, was left mostly untouched.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: From April 30 to May 2, 1991, Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers performed three acoustic concerts at the dilapidated building, during which no one was allowed to sit on or beneath the balcony due to safety concerns. Capacity was limited to around 200. Some of the recordings were released as an album entitled "At the Ryman", which won the Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards in 1993. The concerts and album's high acclaim are given near-universal credit for renewed interest in reviving Ryman Auditorium as an active venue.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: The Ryman hosted a concert and one-act play entitled "The Ryman: The Tabernacle Becomes A Shrine" on May 18, 1992, to celebrate the building's centennial. In October 1992, executives of Gaylord Entertainment announced plans to renovate the entire building and expand it to create modern amenities for performers and audiences alike. This was part of their larger initiative to invest in the city's revitalization of the downtown area.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: In September 1993, renovations were begun to develop it as a world-class concert hall. Building systems were upgraded, such as air conditioning for the first time. The auditorium's original wooden pews were removed, refurbished, and returned to the building to serve as the auditorium's seating. Both far-reaching ends of the U-shaped balcony (which had previously extended all the way to the building's south wall) were removed. New backstage facilities were built inside the original building. An addition containing a lobby, restrooms, concessions, offices, and a grand staircase leading to the balcony was constructed and attached to the east side of the auditorium. With this change, the Ryman's main entrance was moved from the west side of the building (Fifth Avenue North) to the east side (Fourth Avenue North). An outdoor entry plaza was also added here, and a large statue of Thomas Ryman was installed.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: The first performance at the newly renovated Ryman was a broadcast of Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" on June 4, 1994. Keillor said he was inspired to create "A Prairie Home Companion" while reporting on the final "Opry" show at the Ryman in 1974 for "The New Yorker". Following that, the Ryman hosted an extended residency of the original musical "Always... Patsy Cline," which starred Mandy Barnett in the titular role about the life of the legendary singer.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: On Sunday, October 18, 1998, the "Opry" held a benefit show at Ryman Auditorium, marking its return to the venue for the first time since its final show on March 15, 1974. The show was well received by fans, performers, and management alike, so the decision was made to host the "Opry"'s regular shows there on January 15 and 16, 1999, as part of the celebration to commemorate 25 years at the new venue.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: Given the success of the January shows that year, beginning in November 1999, the "Opry" was produced at Ryman Auditorium for three months. In addition, this enabled them to avoid performance conflicts from construction of the Opry Mills shopping mall (which replaced the Opryland USA theme park in 2000) next door to the Grand Ole Opry House. The "Opry" returned to the Ryman annually for all of its November, December, and January shows until 2019–20. This enabled the production to acknowledge its roots while taking advantage of a smaller venue during the off-peak season for tourism. It also freed the Grand Ole Opry House for special holiday presentations. The Ryman also served as the primary venue for the "Opry" in the summer of 2010, while the Grand Ole Opry House was undergoing repairs after damage from a devastating flood.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: The annual winter season at the Ryman was suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the "Opry" performed abbreviated shows for broadcast in front of an empty Grand Ole Opry House. The Winter Ryman residency was not revived in 2021 although pandemic-related attendance restrictions were lifted. "Opry" shows, however, are scheduled to return to Ryman for a one-month run in January 2023. While still officially the "Grand Ole Opry", the shows there have been billed as "Opry at the Ryman".


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: In January 2012 plans were announced to replace the Ryman's 61-year-old stage with one of medium-brown Brazilian teak. The new stage floor, the facility's third, retained an 18-inch lip of its predecessor's blonde oak at its front edge, similar to the way the Ryman stage had been commemorated with an inlaid circle of wood at the new Opry House. The stage's original hickory support beams were reinforced with concrete foundations, crossbeams, and joist work that helped triple the stage's load capacity, ensuring it would remain viable for performances in the decades to come.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: Gaylord Entertainment Company, the venue's owner since 1983, adopted the Ryman's name as its own when it transitioned into a real estate investment trust in 2012. The company is now known as Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. Ryman Auditorium is managed within its Opry Entertainment Group division.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: In 2015, the Ryman underwent another renovation and expansion. Much of the 1994 expansion was gutted and remodeled. The original building received only minor touch-ups and remained in use throughout the construction. The renovation and expansion includes more lobby space, plus expanded restrooms, concessions, and a gift shop. A new quick-service restaurant was added, called "Cafe Lula" and named in memory of Lula C. Naff. (The cafe closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was not reopened.)


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: Also added in the 2015 renovations was a 100-seat theater. Here a short holographic film is shown that serves as the first exhibit on the building's daily self-guided tours. Entitled "The Soul Of Nashville", the film features an actress portraying Naff in presenting the history of the Ryman. It also features an original song performed by Darius Rucker, Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: Prior to the pandemic, Opry Entertainment Group staged weekly shows at the Ryman year-round. In addition to the "Opry at the Ryman" shows in the winter, the auditorium hosted "Opry Country Classics" each spring and autumn, and "Bluegrass Nights at the Ryman" each summer. Due to the scheduling of concerts postponed during the pandemic, those Opry spin-off shows were canceled or moved to the Grand Ole Opry House in 2021, with Bluegrass Nights returning to the Ryman in 2022.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: The Ryman has also served as a gathering place for the memorial services of many prominent country music figures. Tammy Wynette, Chet Atkins, Skeeter Davis, Harlan Howard, Bill Monroe, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Billy Block, George Hamilton IV, Earl Scruggs, Jim Ed Brown, and Naomi Judd have all been memorialized from the Ryman stage.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: The renovation of the Ryman, combined with the construction of other attractions such as Bridgestone Arena and Wildhorse Saloon, helped revitalize Nashville's downtown district into a destination for tourists and locals alike in the mid-1990s. Since then, the Ryman has become one of the most venerable performance venues in Nashville. Experts have praised Ryman Auditorium's acoustics, calling them among the best in the world.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: In 2017, as part of the Ryman's 125th anniversary celebration, Little Big Town became its first artist-in-residence, performing 10 shows there over the course of the year.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: The Ryman features prominently in the music video of the 2021 song "Where Have You Gone" by Alan Jackson.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: Ryman Auditorium was unharmed in the 2010 Tennessee floods and the 2020 Nashville bombing, both of which resulted in major damage to parts of the downtown neighborhood.


title: Ryman Auditorium

text: The venue hosts alternative rock, bluegrass, blues, country, classical, folk, gospel, jazz, pop, hip hop, and rock concerts, as well as musical theater and stand-up comedy.


title: Bradford Dillman

text: Bradford Dillman was born on April 14, 1930, in San Francisco, the son of Dean Dillman, a stockbroker, and Josephine (née Moore). Bradford's paternal grandparents were Charles Francis Dillman and Stella Borland Dean. He studied at Town School for Boys and St. Ignatius High School. He later attended the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, where he became involved with school theatre productions. While at Yale University, he enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1948. While a student, he was a member of the Yale Dramatic Association, Fence Club, Torch Honor Society, The Society of Orpheus and Bacchus, WYBC and Berzelius. He graduated from Yale in 1951 with a BA in English Literature.


title: Bradford Dillman

text: After graduation, he entered the United States Marine Corps as an officer candidate, training at Parris Island. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps in September 1951. As he was preparing to deploy to the war in Korea, his orders were changed, and he spent the rest of his time in the Marine Corps, from 1951 to 1953, teaching communication in the Instructors' Orientation Course. He was discharged in 1953 with the rank of first lieutenant.


title: Bradford Dillman

text: Studying with the Actors Studio, Dillman spent several seasons apprenticing with the Sharon, Connecticut Playhouse before making his professional acting debut in "The Scarecrow" in 1953.


title: Bradford Dillman

text: Dillman first performed in a Broadway play as part of the U.S. premiere cast of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey into Night" in November 1956. He portrayed the author's alter-ego character Edmund Tyrone and won a Theatre World Award for his performance. The production also featured Fredric March, Florence Eldridge and Jason Robards Jr., and played for 390 performances until March 1958.


title: Bradford Dillman

text: During 1955 he appeared in an episode of the television series "The Big Picture" as an MP patrolling the city of Augusta, Georgia. In 1957, Katharine Cornell cast him in a "Hallmark Hall of Fame" television production of Robert E. Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize winning 1940 play, "There Shall Be No Night".


title: Bradford Dillman

text: Dillman was cast in the movie melodrama "A Certain Smile" (1958). He followed this with "In Love and War" (1958), a war movie featuring many of 20th Century Fox's young contract players, for which he earned a Golden Globe award. It was a financial success. So too was "Compulsion" (1959), featuring Dillman, Dean Stockwell and Orson Welles for producer Richard Zanuck and director Richard Fleischer.


title: Bradford Dillman

text: Dillman shared an award for Best Actor with Stockwell and Welles at the Cannes Film Festival. After making the movie "A Circle of Deception" (1960) in London, Dillman was reunited with Welles, Fleischer and Zanuck for "Crack in the Mirror" (1960), filmed in Paris. It was unsuccessful. Back in Hollywood, Fox cast Dillman in support of Yves Montand and Lee Remick in "Sanctuary" (1961). They also had him in the title role in "Francis of Assisi" (1961).


title: Bradford Dillman

text: When he quit Fox, Dillman mostly concentrated on television. He guest-starred in a 1963 episode of "The Virginian", titled: "Echo of Another Day". He co-featured with Diana Hyland in the "Alfred Hitchcock Hour" episode "To Catch A Butterfly" in February 1963, and with Barbara Barrie in the 1964" Hitchcock Hour" episode "Isabel". He appeared in seven episodes of "Dr. Kildare" (1964–66) and 26 of "Court Martial" (1965–66). He guest-featured in television series such as "The F.B.I." (six episodes), "Ironside" (two episodes), "Shane", "The Name of the Game", "Columbo", "Wild Wild West", "The Eleventh Hour", "Wagon Train", "The Greatest Show on Earth", "Breaking Point", "" (two episodes), "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "Cannon", "Barnaby Jones" (six episodes), "Three for the Road", "Wonder Woman" and a two-part episode of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", which was made into the feature movie "The Helicopter Spies" (1968).


title: Bradford Dillman

text: Dillman appeared twice in the Western television series "The Big Valley" (1965–69), once in season two, episode 15, titled "Day of the Comet", broadcast December 26, 1966; and the second time in season three, episode 9, titled "A Noose is Waiting", which was broadcast November 13, 1967. He appeared in occasional movies during this period, including "A Rage to Live" (1965), "Sergeant Ryker" (1968), and "The Bridge at Remagen" (1969).


title: Bradford Dillman

text: Dillman played painter Richard Pickman in the television adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's 1926 story, "Pickman's Model", presented as the opening act of a December 1971 "Night Gallery" episode. He starred as Tony Goodland in "the Greenhouse Jungle", the second episode of the second season of "Columbo" (initially aired on October 15, 1972).


title: Bradford Dillman

text: Dillman appeared in made-for-television movies such as "Fear No Evil" (1969), "Moon of the Wolf" (1972), and "Deliver Us from Evil" (1973). His film work included "Escape from the Planet of the Apes" (1971), "The Way We Were" (1973), "Gold" (1974), "Bug" (1975), "The Enforcer" (1976), "The Swarm" (1978), "Piranha" (1978), "Sudden Impact" (1983), and "Lords of the Deep" (1989). He appeared in 10 episodes of "Falcon Crest" (1982–83), and 2 of "Dynasty" (1984). His last known acting appearance was an episode of "Murder, She Wrote" in 1995, his eighth guest appearance on the series.


title: Bradford Dillman

text: Dillman's football fan book, "Inside The New York Giants", was published in 1995. An autobiography, "Are You Anybody?: An Actor's Life", was published in 1997.


title: Bradford Dillman

text: From 1956 to 1962, Dillman was married to Frieda Harding and had two children (Jeffrey and Pamela) with her. He met actress and model Suzy Parker during the production of "A Circle of Deception" (1960). The couple married on April 20, 1963 and had three children, Dinah, Charles, and Christopher. The marriage lasted until Parker's death on May 3, 2003.


title: Bradford Dillman

text: Dillman lived for many years in Montecito, California, and helped raise money for medical research. He died in Santa Barbara, California on January 16, 2018, aged 87, due to complications of pneumonia.


title: Bradford Dillman

text: Bradford Dillman was the actor's real name. He said "Bradford Dillman sounded like a distinguished, phony, theatrical name -- so I kept it."


title: Home Box Office, Inc.

text: Home Box Office, Inc. (HBO) is an American multinational media and entertainment company operating as a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.


title: Home Box Office, Inc.

text: Founded by Charles Dolan and based out of WarnerMedia's former corporate headquarters at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in the West Side of Manhattan, its main properties include its namesake pay television network Home Box Office (HBO), sister service Cinemax, HBO Films, and the international HBO Go streaming service. (A secondary HBO-branded service, HBO Max, is operated under sister subsidiary Warner Bros. Discovery Global Streaming and Interactive Entertainment, which shares principal management with Home Box Office, Inc.) It has also licensed or maintained ownership interests in international versions of HBO and Cinemax, most of which are managed by Home Box Office, Inc. through sister division Warner Bros. Discovery International.


title: Home Box Office, Inc.

text: The company has achieved several pioneering innovations in the cable television industry, including its satellite uplink of HBO as the first television network in the world to transmit through that technology, and the development of original programming for pay television.


title: Home Box Office, Inc.

text: HBO, Inc.'s origins trace to December 1, 1965, when Charles Dolan—who had already done pioneering work in the commercial use of cables—was granted a franchise permit by the New York City Council to build a cable television system encompassing the Lower Manhattan section of New York City (traversing southward from 79th Street on the Upper East Side to 86th Street on the Upper West Side). Along with Dolan, TelePrompTer Corporation (which was assigned most of Upper Manhattan) and CATV Enterprises Inc. (which was assigned part of the city's Upper West Side, extending north of the Harlem River, and The Bronx's Riverdale neighborhood) were also awarded cable franchise permits on that date. Dolan's maiden television venture was Teleguide, a closed-circuit television system started by his initial company, Sterling Movies U.S.A., in June 1962; it distributed a schedule of tourist information, news, interview segments and feature interstitials to hotels, and by 1964, apartment buildings and office buildings in the New York metropolitan area.


title: Home Box Office, Inc.

text: Through Dolan's Sterling Information Services subsidiary, Manhattan Cable TV Services began limited cable service in September 1966. Manhattan Cable (renamed Sterling Manhattan Cable Television in January 1971) was the first urban underground cable television system to operate in the United States. Rather than string up cable on telephone poles or use microwave antennas to receive the signals, Sterling had laid new cable lines beneath the streets of and into buildings throughout Manhattan, and repurposed Teleguide's existing cable infrastructure for use by the new operation. Sterling's use of underground cables complied with a longstanding New York City Council ordinance—originally implemented to prevent broad-scale telephone and telegraph outages, after a severe blizzard affecting the Northeastern United States in March 1888 had caused widespread damage to above-ground utility lines in the area—requiring all electrical and telecommunication wiring to be laid underground to limit weather-related service disruptions, and because the multitude of tall buildings on Manhattan Island subjected television signals to reception impairments. Dolan curried the financial backing of Time-Life, Inc. (then the book publishing unit of Time Inc.), resulting in Manhattan Cable becoming one of its first cable system properties. Despite the investments from Time-Life's share of Sterling (initially 20% at the beginning of operations), Sterling Manhattan consistently lost money throughout its first six years of operation; the company incurred much of its debt from underground wiring expenses (costing as much as $300,000 per mile), and its difficulties attracting new subscribers to generate income (Manhattan Cable managed to receive only around 400 customers by 1967). On August 27, 1969, Sterling Communications consolidated ownership of the cable assets: it acquired Time-Life's 49% share in Sterling Manhattan, in exchange for stock and other assets worth $1.84 million. (Time-Life's interest in Sterling Communications concurrently increased from 25% to 44.5%.)


title: Home Box Office, Inc.

text: Dolan was looking for a way to help his struggling cable company grow to become financially viable. In the summer of 1971, during a family vacation to France aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2, Dolan conceived "The Green Channel", a codenamed concept for a cable-originated television channel that would be distributed via Sterling Manhattan and other participating cable systems. The proposed service would offer unedited theatrical movies licensed from the major Hollywood film studios and live sporting events, all presented without interruptions by advertising and sold for a flat monthly fee to prospective subscribers. Dolan wanted to offset the service's start-up costs by having Sterling enter into carriage agreements with other cable television providers to transmit and sell the service to their customers, and draw revenue from fees charged to subscribers who added the channel onto their existing cable service (which then consisted exclusively of local and imported broadcast stations). Dolan later presented his idea to management at Time-Life, who, despite the potential benefit to the company's cable assets, were initially hesitant to consider the "Green Channel" proposal. In the early 1970s, the cable television industry was not very profitable, and was under constant scrutiny from FCC regulators and the major broadcast television networks (CBS, NBC and ABC), who saw cable as a threat to their viability. Attempts to launch pay television services had been done on an experimental basis in the United States dating to 1951 (among them, Phonevision in New York City, Chicago and Hartford; SubscriberVision in New York City; Telemeter in Palm Springs, California; and Telemovies in Bartlesville, Oklahoma) with little to no success, muzzled by campaigns backed by movie theater chains and commercial broadcasters to assuage television viewers to the supposed threat of pay television to the movie industry and free-to-air television access, limited user interest, and FCC restrictions on the types of programming that could be offered to subscription services. Undeterred, Dolan managed to persuade Time-Life to assist him in backing the project.


title: Home Box Office, Inc.

text: After the Federal Communications Commission ruled that local governments could not restrict the operation of subscription television services in cable franchise terms, in July 1971, Sterling Communications—now consisting of Sterling Manhattan; its Long Island-based sister system, Sterling Nassau Cable Television; production firm Allegro Films; and direct-to-cable programming firm Television Presentations Inc.—informed the FCC that it planned to operate a cable-originated pay television service. Because Sterling's New York City Council franchise grant specifically required FCC approval for that purpose, Time/Sterling filed an FCC request to authorize pay television operations. Sterling indicated that a subscription television operation would also help Sterling Manhattan fund its fledgling local origination channel, which had incurred $1 million in start-up debt on top of annual company operating losses of $250,000. On September 10, 1971, the FCC gave preemptive authorization to Time-Life and Sterling Manhattan Cable to begin a pay television operation. On November 2, 1971, Time Inc.'s board of directors approved the "Green Channel" proposal, agreeing to give Dolan a $150,000 development grant for the project.


title: Home Box Office, Inc.

text: The namesake Home Box Office (HBO) pay television network was founded by Dolan—as a joint venture between Sterling Communications and its co-partner, Time Life Broadcast Inc.—in 1972. The service—originally to have been called the "Sterling Cable Network", before Dolan and his development team settled on naming it "Home Box Office", originally intended as a placeholder name to meet publishing deadlines for the service's announcement memorandum and research brochures—launched on November 8, 1972, over Teleservice Cable (now Service Electric)'s Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, system. Time Life originally planned for HBO to debut on a Teleservice system in Allentown, but, per an agreement with Teleservice president John Walson, moved the launch system to the company's Wilkes-Barre system to avoid blackouts of NBA games (specifically those featuring the Philadelphia 76ers, with which HBO was unable to materialize a television agreement to accompany its planned broadcasts of New York Knicks games) that were scheduled to air on the service. Programming on HBO initially consisted of theatrical films and event programming (much of which was sourced to the service through an agreement with Madison Square Garden that dated to 1969, and was extended to allow regional broadcasts one week before HBO launched), arranged in the form of a double feature, or a single movie presentation paired with either a sports or special event (often bridged by a short film or other interstitial content); by 1974, when the service began offering programming during the l concert specials and other music programs, daytime children's programs and various instructional series were added to the schedule. Originally headquartered from the Time-Life Building on Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) in Midtown Manhattan, HBO initially relayed its programming via a network of microwave relay towers throughout the Northeastern United States to participating cable systems carrying the channel;


title: Home Box Office, Inc.

text: On February 28, 1973, Sterling Communications announced it would spin-out HBO and associated assets into Home Box Office, Inc., a new subsidiary created in accordance with the sale of 9% of Sterling's HBO equity to Time Inc. (expanding its controlling shares to around 75% of HBO's equity) and a $3-million direct investment. Sterling also raised Time's equity in the company to 66.4% in exchange for the added HBO stake, through the purchase of additional stock and a converted $6.4-million note obligation. Dolan—who reportedly had major disagreements with Time-Life management on policy issues, claims which the company denied—subsequently resigned as chief executive officer of Sterling Communications and Home Box Office, accepting a $675,000 buyout of a portion of his stock while remaining on the board of directors at both companies in the interim; Dolan used portions of the sale's proceeds to repurchase Time's share of the Sterling Nassau systems and to start the Long Island Cable Community Development Co. (the forerunner to Cablevision Systems Corporation, that would be combined with the Sterling/Cablevision systems on Long Island) as the system's parent company. Gerald M. Levin—an entertainment industry attorney previously with New York City-based law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, who had been with Home Box Office since it began operations as its director of finance, and later as its vice president and director of programming—replaced Dolan as the company's president and CEO; by September, he was joined by Time Life vice president J. Richard Munro as chairman of Home Box Office as well as Time-Life Broadcast's other subsidiaries, Manhattan Cable Television and NBC affiliate WOTV (now WOOD-TV) in Grand Rapids, Michigan (which became the company's lone conventional broadcasting property, after Time sold its other broadcast television properties as it began expanding into cable system ownership).


title: Home Box Office, Inc.

text: On May 9, 1973, reportedly because of high start-up and operating costs for HBO and other Sterling cable assets, Time announced it would sell its controlling share of Sterling to Warner Communications for $20 million. Time intended to convert the 260,000 convertible notes it held in Warner's cable television unit, Warner Cable Communications, into common stock shares totaling up to 20% in interest. Sterling would then maintain oversight of Home Box Office under Warner's purview. The Time-Warner cable deal was terminated on June 27, after both companies failed to reach a definitive agreement to sell HBO and the other Sterling subsidiaries to Warner; financial arrangements made between Sterling and the New York City Council as part of their 20-year noncompete franchise agreement were alleged to have curtailed the sale.


title: Home Box Office, Inc.

text: On July 19, 1973, Time Inc. reached an agreement to purchase and assume financial liabilities of Sterling Communications for $6.2 million (including $3.1‐million in redeemed public debentures). Time completed its acquisition of Sterling on September 18, 1973, formally dissolving the Sterling holding company and transferring Home Box Office and Sterling Manhattan Cable to its Time-Life division. The "Sterling" name was subsequently removed from the Manhattan and Long Island systems, with the Manhattan unit being renamed "Manhattan Cable Television". (Time's purchase of Sterling was the subject of a $97-million class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on November 28, 1973, by 15 former Sterling stockholders who accused Time and its corporate board of "conspiracy" to depress the value of Sterling stock in order to "force" the sale at below market value "far less than its true value.") As the acquisition was being completed, the service had struggled to grow to complete viability: by October, it had around 8,000 subscribers and was carried on 13 cable systems in Pennsylvania and southern New York State with a combined 110,095 subscribers, and it was suffering from a significant churn rate as subscribers who found the channel's program scheduling repetitive, because of the limited allotment of movies outside of special events, decided to cancel their service.


title: Home Box Office, Inc.

text: On April 11, 1975, Levin and Time-Life unveiled plans to distribute the HBO signal via satellite under a transponder leasing agreement with RCA Americom Communications, intending to distribute its programming to cable systems and multipoint distribution services throughout the United States. Levin reached an agreement to distribute the HBO satellite feed on eight UA-Columbia Cablevision systems in California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Arkansas and Washington State, and build earth station receivers to intercept and relay the signal to the UA-Columbia systems' headends. HBO also signed a $7.5-million agreement (including $6.5 million allocated by Levin) with RCA Americom to lease a transponder on the then-under construction Satcom I, which was expected to be launched at the end of 1975, for a five-year term. Cable television equipment manufacturer Scientific Atlanta (through a client arrangement with Transcommunications Corp.) also intended to build earth-based satellite transmitting stations for setup outside of HBO's Manhattan headquarters and at the headend sites of the client cable systems that reached agreements to receive the signal ahead of the satellite launch.