title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Based on the popular twelve-hundred page historical romance by Hervey Allen, Warner's "Anthony Adverse" (1936) was LeRoy's most prestigious undertaking to date. Only two-thirds of the vast and unwieldy picaresque tale, set during the Napoleonic era, is depicted onscreen (a sequel was planned but abandoned). The sheer scale of the project remains impressive, and Leroy's ability to handle a film with high production values that possessed a "Metro-like glossiness" recommended him to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a prospective executive producer.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: The "lively performances" from a large cast including Fredric March, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains, Anita Louise and Gale Sondergaard, as well as LeRoy's "technical excellence" was rewarded with five academy award nominations.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy reports in his 1974 memoir that "by the time 1936 arrived, I was slowing my pace somewhat. Gone were the assembly-line tactics, the grinding-them-out methods of a few years before...I was working slower, trying to achieve more beauty on film, looking for cinematic perfection."


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: In 1936, Warners began tasking LeRoy with both directing and producing assignments. LeRoy served as producer-director on "Three Men on a Horse" (1936), a "madcap" comedy starring Frank McHugh and a screenplay co-written by Groucho Marx. This was followed in 1937 with The King and the Chorus Girl, starring French actor Fernand Gravet . Both films costarred Joan Blondell.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Leroy also produced director James Whale's "The Great Garrick" (1937), a historical comedy with Brian Aherne who plays the renowned English actor.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy's penultimate film for Warners was "They Won't Forget" (1937), a harsh indictment of lynch law based on the Ward Greene novel, "Death in the Deep South" (1936). According to critic Kingsley Canham, LeRoy's handling of tracking and low-angle shots, overhead composition, close-ups and dissolves possess a "visual power" that "retains its impact for modern audiences." LeRoy's unmitigated condemnation of lynching rejects misanthropy and adopts a tone of "righteous anger", in which there "is no forgiveness" for the instigators of mob law.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy was poised to move to M-G-M as head of production in 1938, with the fulsome support of the studio's Louis B. Mayer where "[LeRoy] would establish himself as a major force in Forties cinema." Before departing Warners, Leroy directed and produced his final film "Fools for Scandal" (1938), the studio's second – and failed attempt – to launch the American film career of French actor Fernand Gravet. Comedienne Carol Lombard costars.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy arrived at M-G-M fully expecting to finish his career as the studio's chief production executive. His first assignments were modest:


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "Dramatic School" (1938) directed by Robert B. Sinclair: A romantic drama starring Luise Rainer and Paulette Goddard and LeRoy's first picture at M-G-M. Biographer John Baxter attributes Rainer's "coherent, moving and truthful" performance to producer LeRoy and "a fitting to [the filmmakers] rich Thirties career."


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "Stand Up and Fight" (1938), directed by W. S. Van Dyke: A Wallace Beery vehicle, with costars Robert Taylor and Florence Rice. The screenplay was co-written by crime fiction writer James M. Cain, and Jane Murfin, who wrote the adaption of Booth Tarkington's novel the Katharine Hepburn vehicle "Alice Adams" (1935).


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Leroy's last picture as M-G-M's production executive was an adaption of L. Frank Baum's children's book "The Wizard of Oz".


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: In 1938, LeRoy proposed a film version of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (1900). Louis B. Mayer purchased the rights to the property from Samuel Goldwyn for $50,000. Mayer limited LeRoy's role to producer and ultimately Victor Fleming was enlisted as credited director. LeRoy recalled the scope of the project:


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy added that "it took six months to prepare the picture, six months to shoot it, and then a lengthy post-production schedule for editing and scoring. Altogether "The Wizard of Oz" was many months in the making..."


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Though LeRoy was earning $3000 week ($600,000 per year), after completing "The Wizard of Oz", he requested a release from his contract so as to return to directing, and Mayer complied:


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy accepted a cut in salary to $4000 a week as a director at M-G-M and "never again functioned only as a producer."


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: The onset of war in Europe in 1939 created anxiety in the Hollywood film industry as the overseas movie market contracted and currency restrictions mounted in Great Britain. Hollywood studios implemented salary reductions and limits on film content were imposed, particularly at M-G-M. Film historians Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg describe these developments persisting "almost to the end of the decade":


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Critic Andrew Sarris disparages the "sentimental piety and conformist cant" that characterized M-G-M studios, as well as Warner Brothers in Hollywood's Golden Age


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy limited himself to directing features at M-G-M for the next 9 years, delivering 11 pictures. The quality of his output during this period is generally viewed as a decline creatively compared to his early work at Warner Brothers during the Thirties.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: He resumed directorial duties with an adaption of Robert E. Sherwood's romantic play "Waterloo Bridge" (1930).


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased the rights to "Waterloo Bridge" from Universal Studios, which had produced an adaption filmed in 1931 by James Whale and starring Mae Clarke as the fallen woman, Myra.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy's "Waterloo Bridge" (1940), served as a vehicle to capitalize upon the meteoric rise of Vivien Leigh, heroine of David O. Selznick's epic "Gone with the Wind" (1939). In a period when foreign markets were in jeopardy, profitable films were at a premium.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: A silent film era technician and director in his early Hollywood career, LeRoy utilized silent film methods to film a key nightclub love scene with Leigh and costar Robert Taylor. LeRoy describes his epiphany:


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy directed Robert Taylor, Norma Shearer and Conrad Veidt in the 1940 "Escape", the first of a number of anti-Nazi features suppressed by Hitler and which ultimately led to the banning of all M-G-M pictures in Germany.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy completed four features with English actress Greer Garson, an enormously profitable property cultivated by M-G-M to appeal to their British markets during WWII.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Blossoms in the Dust (1941): The screenplay by Anita Loos portrays the struggle by social reformer Edna Gladney to redeem children stigmatized by illegitimacy. Termed "highly romanticized" and "shamelessly sentimental" by film historian Kingley Canham, LeRoy defended the picture as virtuous and socially significant:


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: The pairing of Garson with Walter Pidgeon proved particularly appealing to their fans. They would appear together in a number of pictures, including LeRoy's 1943 biopic of Madame Curie.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: As Leroy's first color film, "Blossoms in the Dust" demonstrates an aesthetically pleasing and an adroit handling of the new Technicolor technology.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "Random Harvest" (1942): Leroy and producer Sydney Franklin paired Garson with fellow Briton Ronald Colman in a romance that dramatizes clinical amnesia suffered by a WWI combat veteran. Garson's genteel and largely desexualized screen image – "M-G-M's First Lady of Saintly Virtue" – favored by Louis B. Mayer, is countered by LeRoy's less inhibited Garson as the "impulsive Scottish lass" Paula.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy's leisurely narrative pace, the lavishness of the settings, the fulsome musical score and the balanced editing demonstrate his embrace of M-G-M production values and distinguishing the stylish "Random Harvest" from his work at Warner Brothers.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "Madame Curie" (1943): Apropos LeRoy's "lavish and lengthy biography" portraying the Nobel prize-winning scientist Marie Curie, critics Higham and Greenberg make these observations:


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy and producer Sydney Franklin made a genuine effort to make the "highbrow" subject of the film – the heroic discovery of radium isotopes – engaging to the public, resorting to romanticizing and simplifying the topic.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "Madame Curie" was one of nine pictures in which Garson was cast with leading man Pidgeon. Married to Buddy Fogelson, Garson earned the title "the daytime Mrs. Pidgeon" on M-G-M sets.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Desire Me (1946): LeRoy attempted to reshoot an uncompleted George Cukor project starring Garson and Robert Mitchum, "Desire Me", but abandoned the film, disparaging the "rotten script, a script that made absolutely no sense.". Neither Cukor nor LeRoy appeared in the credits.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Strange Lady in Town (1955): LeRoy's first film after returning to Warner Brothers studios as a director-producer. Garson, passed over by M-G-M to star as opera diva Marjorie Lawrence in Interrupted Melody (1955), signed with Warners to make "Strange Lady in Town", a western set in Santa Fe, New Mexico and endowed to Garson's satisfaction "with horses and sunsets." Dana Andrews co-stars.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: In the final years of World War II, LeRoy directed propaganda films dramatizing the American war efforts at home and overseas.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) recounts the 1942 U.S. bombing mission over Tokyo by sixteen B-25s, coordinated by Lieutenant-Colonel James H. Doolittle (played by Spencer Tracy). LeRoy employs flashbacks in an effort to present the personal lives of the airmen and their spouses, including an emotionally wrought scene in which the wounded Lieutenant Ted W. Lawson (played by Van Johnson) has his leg amputated.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Conceived as a morale-builder for the homefront, "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo", with a script written by Dalton Trumbo "lacks the scope and organization" and compares unfavorably to director John Cromwell's 1943 Since You Went Away according to critic Kingsley Canham. The rescue sequences of the downed American flyers' by Chinese guerrillas was designed "to foster closer relations 'between the American People and their courageous Chinese allies'" and includes a scene with Chinese children at a mission hospital honoring the airmen with a rendition of Katherine Lee Bates' patriotic anthem America the Beautiful.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "The House I Live In" (1945), Documentary short: LeRoy reports in his memoir "Take One" that Frank Sinatra approached him in 1945 with the idea of making a short movie version based on the song by Abel Meeropol "The House I Live In". LeRoy thought it a worthy project and "a good thing to do during the wartime years." The script was written by Albert Maltz and produced by Frank Ross and Leroy, who also directed.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "The House I Live In" garnered LeRoy a special Oscar for his role as producer in the short film, the only Academy Award he would ever receive. In appreciation for LeRoy's contributions to "The House I Live In," Frank Sinatra presented him with a medallion bearing the Jewish Star of David on one side and a Saint Christopher medal on the obverse.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: The Hollywood film industry reached its zenith in productivity, profitability, and popularity at the end of World War II. The studios collectively enjoyed their most lucrative year in 1946, with gross earnings reaching 1.75 billion dollars. In the closing years of the decade, organized labor won wage increases of 25% through protracted strikes. Overseas markets imposed substantial taxes on Hollywood films. Studios reacted by cutting expenses on film production and ordering mass layoffs. Historians Higham and Greenberg describe the qualitative impact on Hollywood films:


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: The formerly "glossy" productions were often replaced with lower budget black-and-white films, employing smaller casts and using indoor stages, rather than expensive on location sites.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Compounding the financial crisis was the Red Scare launched against purported Communist influence in Hollywood. The leading studio executives expelled many of the most talented figures in collaboration with House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Accused of introducing Communist content into productions, the departure of Leftist screenwriters, directors and actors removed a creative element that had for years contributed to the high calibre and profitability of Hollywood pictures. These purgings were considered, in some financial circles and the anti-Communist establishment, a necessary corrective to labor militancy in the industry: "To some observers, [the blacklist] represented a long overdue housecleaning process; to others it meant the beginning of an era of fear, betrayal and witch-hunting hysteria."


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: By the close of the Forties, the drain of artistic talent, the emerging television industry, and litigation that led to the weakening of studio monopolies destabilized the film industry, initiating a decline in the heretofore unlimited power and profitability of the Hollywood movie empire.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Without Reservations (1946): LeRoy's post-war pictures began with a Claudette Colbert vehicle (reminiscent of her role in "It Happened One Night" (1934)), with John Wayne as "Rusty" in an uncharacteristic romantic-comedic role. Colbert, as "Kit", utters the memorable and mildly impious phrase "Thanks, God. I'll take it from here". This is also the title of the book, by Jane Allen and Mae Livingston on which the movie is based.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "Homecoming" (1948): Like director William Wyler's 1946 "The Best Years of Our Lives", LeRoy's Homecoming dramatizes an ex-servicemen's readjustment to civilian life. The gravity of the treatment is established in the title of Sidney Kingsley novel on which the film is based, "The Homecoming of Ulysses" (1944), invoking Homer's ancient Greek epic. Clark Gable plays Ulysses "Lee" Johnson, a recently discharged war surgeon whose self-complacency is shaken by his personal and professional combat experiences, softening his misanthropy and easing a nexus with his estranged wife. Anne Baxter. In the third of her three film pairings with Gable, Lane Turner plays an "uncharacteristically unglamorous" Lt. Jane "Snapshot" McCall.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "Little Women": One of several film adaptations of Louisa May Alcott's Civil War era literary classic. The M-G-M Technicolor production offers "a picture postcard prettiness" in lieu of credible performances by June Allyson, Janet Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor and Margaret O'Brien.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Any Number Can Play (1949): Based on an Edward Harris Heth novel, the film describes the personal and professional crisis of a casino owner of high rectitude Clark Gable who also plays for high stakes, with his family relations in the balance. LeRoy was perplexed that the compelling screenplay by Richard Brooks and excellent performances delivered by Gable and Alexis Smith did not register at the box-office. LeRoy reflected on the picture: "I don't know what went wrong. You start out with what you think is a good script and you get a good cast...[but] you end up with a film that is less than you expect. Something happened or, more likely, something didn't happen – the chemistry didn't work and the emotions didn't explode. Whatever the reason, "Any Number Can Play" was a disappointment to me."


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "East Side, West Side" (1949): A "dramatic social melodrama", the east-side, west-side refers to the class differences that define and divide the "superlative cast" in this M-G-M "high gloss" production. Barbara Stanwyck, plays the betrayed spouse, supported by co-stars James Mason, Ava Gardner and Van Heflin.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's "Quo Vadis" (1950) dramatizes an episode in the apocrypha Acts of Peter. The Latin title translates as "Where are you going?", adapted from a novel by Nobel Laureate author Henryk Sienkiewicz.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy's recognized that the Hollywood film industry would be best served by "accommodating" the emerging popularity of television, envisioning a division of mass entertainment function: TV would do small scale, low-budget productions dealing with "intimate things", while the motion picture studios would provide "the bigger, broader type of film." LeRoy's turn to "gigantic spectacle" coincided with the early onset of Hollywood's relative decline, as described by film historians Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg:


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Logistically, Quo Vadis presented an "enormity." Filmed at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome, the production required the mobilization of tens-of thousands of extras, over nine months of shooting and an immense financial risk for M-G-M.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: The huge investment in time and money paid off: Second only to "Gone with the Wind" (1939) in gross earnings, "Quo Vadis" garnered eight Academy Award nominations in 1952.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Leroy welcomed the services of an American Jesuit priest assigned to act as a technical advisor on the production. The director was granted a personal audience with Pope Pius XII and upon LeRoy's request, the Pope blessed the script of "Quo Vadis".


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: In the aftermath of his successful epic "Quo Vadis", LeRoy turned away from spectacles to lighter productions:


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Lovely to Look At (1952): A re-make of the 1935 Astaire-Rogers musical scored by Jerome Kern, "Roberta", directed by William A. Seiter. Vincente Minnelli organized the extravagant fashion show finale, with costumes by Adrian


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Million Dollar Mermaid (1952): An aquatic-themed biopic loosely based on the life of Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman, portrayed by Esther Williams and aided by LeRoy's "competent direction." Busby Berkeley stages his lavishly produced underwater Oyster ballet.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "Rose Marie" (1954): An adaption of a stage operetta by Otto Harbach and previously filmed by M-G-M in silent and sound versions, the Leroy adaption starred Ann Blyth and Howard Keel. his final effort with M-G-M before he returned to Warner Brothers.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy attributes his disaffection from M-G-M to a professional incompatibility with Dore Schary, who had recently replaced Louis B. Mayer as head of production: "[Schary] and I never really did see eye-to-eye on most things...since he was then running the studio, it didn't seem to make much sense for me to stick around."


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: After completing his last production featuring Greer Garson in "Strange Lady in Town" (1955), LeRoy turned largely to adapting Broadway successes, serving as producer and director and often enlisting casts from the original stage productions.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Warners tasked LeRoy and Joshua Logan with completing "Mister Roberts" after the original director John Ford was hospitalized with a gallbladder disorder and removed from the production. Ford's departure and substitution proved to be fortuitous. Henry Fonda, who played the lead character, was a screen star in several Ford pictures as well as the lead actor in the highly acclaimed "Mister Roberts") 1948 Broadway production, was at odds with Ford's film adaptation: the two engaged in a demoralizing contretemps that threatened to undermine the project.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "Mister Roberts" enjoyed immense popular and financial film success for Warners and earned supporting actor Jack Lemmon his first Oscar.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy assumed the dual role of director-producer in the late Fifties and Sixties- the declining period of the Hollywood Golden Age, primarily serving at Warner Studios, but also 20th Century Fox, Columbia and Universal. Critic Kingsley Canham offers the following appraisal of LeRoy's work in this period:


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "The Bad Seed" (1956): The film is based on a story by William March about a disturbed eleven-year-old girl whose murderous behavior is credited to her genetic heritage: she is the granddaughter of a notorious serial killer. Maxwell Anderson's 1954 stage production enjoyed success and Leroy imported most of the cast for his film adaption, including child actor Patty McCormick. The Motion Picture Production Code required that the child murderess perish for her crimes, and LeRoy dispatches her with a lightning bolt. Leroy recounts his struggle with censors:


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: The highly profitable "Bad Seed" garnered Academy Award nominations for several of the principal cast and cinematographer Harold Rosson.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Toward the Unknown (1956): A sympathetic dramatization post-Korean War of a former Korean war POW William Holden, who struggles to recover from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and return to service as a test pilot in the U.S. Air Force.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "No Time for Sergeants" (1958): Novelist Mac Hyman's hillbilly protagonist Will Stockdale gained popularity in comic book form and was adapted to the stage by Ira Levin. Andy Griffith played the lead and Nick Adams his sidekick in LeRoy's film adaption.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "Home Before Dark" (1958): Based on a story and screenplay by Robert and Eileen Bassing, LeRoy examines the struggle of a former mental patient (Jean Simmons) to normalize her relationships with her husband (Dan O'Herlihy) who she suspects of having an affair with her half-sister (Rhonda Fleming).


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: The FBI Story (1959): A hagiographic review of federal law enforcement figure Chip Hardesty, vetted by the LeRoy's close personal friend and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and starring James Stewart. For his services in directing and producing "The FBI Story," the agency honored LeRoy with its Distinguished Service Award.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "Wake Me When It's Over" (1960), 20th Century Fox: A comedy-of-errors involving the appropriation of post-WWII era army surplus to build a resort on a remote Japanese island occupied by US troops. Starring Ernie Kovacs and Dick Shawn.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: The Devil at 4 O'Clock (1961), Columbia Pictures: A priest (Spencer Tracy) and a convict (Frank Sinatra) join forces to rescue children from a leper colony when a volcano eruption threatens their Polynesian island.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "A Majority of One" (1961): Warner Brothers: An adaption of the successful Leonard Spigelgass play directed by Dore Schary. Stage actors Gertrude Berg and Cedric Hardwicke were replaced by producer Jack L. Warner with film stars Rosalind Russell and Alec Guinness as the romantic leads, set in Japan.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: "Gypsy" (1962), Warner Brothers: LeRoy returned to musicals with a portrayal of the young Gypsy Rose Lee in her early career as a burlesque stripper, played by Natalie Wood and Rosalind Russell as her domineering stage mother.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Moment to Moment (1965), Universal: LeRoy's last credited directorial effort, "Moment to Moment" starring Jean Seberg and Honor Blackman.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Following "Moment to Moment", disputes with Universal production head Edward Muhl over studio-proposed screenplays led to Leroy's return to Warner Brothers under Jack Warner's auspices. There he embarked on several projects, including preproduction for an adaption of James Thurber's "The 13 Clocks", a tale that Leroy believed "had the makings of another The Wizard of Oz." When Warners was purchased by The McKinney Company, executives cancelled the project and Leroy quit the studio.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy served for over five months as an uncredited advisor on the 1968 "The Green Berets", co-directed by Ray Kellogg and John Wayne and based on Robin Moore's 1965 collection of short stories.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: The studio producing "The Green Berets", Seven Arts, after recently acquiring Warners, were concerned that Wayne's dual role as actor-director was beyond his abilities. LeRoy describes his enlistment in the project and the suggests the extent of his contribution:


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Leroy added that he "was on the picture for five and a half months...I didn't do it for nothing of course, but I wouldn't let them put my name on it, as I didn't think that would be fair to Duke." LeRoy retired from Warners-Seven Arts shortly after completing "The Green Berets", representing his directorial swan song.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy received an honorary Oscar in 1946 for "The House I Live In", "for tolerance short subject", and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1976.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: A total of eight movies Mervyn LeRoy directed or co-directed were nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, one of the highest numbers among all directors.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: On February 8, 1960, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street, for his contributions to the motion pictures industry.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy has been credited with launching or advancing the careers of numerous actors in Hollywood films when he served as director or producer at Warner Brothers and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. Biographer Kingsley Canham makes these observations:


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Loretta Young: LeRoy's discovery of Loretta Young (then Gretchen Young) presents at least two distinct origin tales: Ronald L. Bowers in "Film Review" [April 1969]) reported that Leroy had directly solicited the 13-year-old Young in 1926 to play a juvenile part in "Naughty but Nice" (1927), a Colleen Moore vehicle for which Young received $80.00.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy, in his memoir "Take One," offers a variation of this origin story: In 1930, Leroy reports that he recruited Young through the auspices of her mother. Leroy needed a leading lady to play opposite Grant Withers in "Too Young to Marry" (1931). Young's older half-sister (stage name Sally Blane) was engaged on another film, and her mother offered the younger daughter, Gretchen, as a substitute. LeRoy agreed, but changed her name to Loretta.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Clark Gable: Warner Brothers studio cast Edward G. Robinson in the role of gangster Rico Bandello in Little Caesar (1930), but Leroy was anxious to cast the part of racketeer Joe Masara. Rejecting Warners offer of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., LeRoy spotted Gable in a touring production of The Last Mile at the Majestic Theatre in Los Angeles in the role of Killer Mears, and arranged a screen test with the stage actor. Pleased with the results, LeRoy championed Gable to producers Darryl Zanuck and Jack L. Warner for the part: they emphatically rejected the prospect, objecting to his relatively large ears. LeRoy declined the opportunity to sign Gable in a personal contract, which he would later regret. Despite this, Gable credited LeRoy for elevating his prospects in Hollywood: "He always gave me credit for discovering him." As Leroy shared in an interview with John Gillett in 1970: "I always tried to help young players- Clark Gable would have been in "Little Caesar", but the front office thought his ears were too big."


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Jane Wyman: LeRoy claims Wyman as one of his discoveries, though she had already been signed by Jack L. Warner at the age of 16, though not yet cast in a production. She was selected by LeRoy to play a bit part in his 1933 "Elmer, the Great". LeRoy recalled his first encounter with the actress:


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Lana Turner: At age fifteen, the then Judy Turner was auditioned by LeRoy in his effort to cast an actor to play Mary Clay in the 1937 social drama "They Won't Forget". According to LeRoy's recollections, Turner was introduced to him as a prospect by Warner Brothers casting director Solly Baianno. LeRoy changed her name to Lana (pronounced LAW-nuh) Turner and personally groomed Turner for stardom. Leroy would also direct Turner in his 1948 Homecoming co-starring Clark Gable.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Audrey Hepburn: During casting for M-G-M's 1950 biblical epic "Quo Vadis" LeRoy sought an unknown actress for the role of Lygia, the young Christian loved by centurion Marcus Vinicius, played by (Robert Taylor). Audrey Hepburn was among hundreds of aspirants who were tested for the part. LeRoy reports in his memoir that he personally championed Hepburn as a "sensational" pick for the role, but the studio declined.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Robert Mitchum: LeRoy singled out 27-year-old Mitchum among the extras during the shooting of "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (1944), casting him to play one of the crew of the "Ruptured Duck", a B-25 bomber. This was Mitchum's first role on screen, but M-G-M declined to sign him, despite LeRoy's urging. Mitchum starred with Greer Garson in "Desire Me" (1947), for which LeRoy's directorial contribution went uncredited.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: Sophia Loren: According to LeRoy, actress Sophia Loren credits him with launching her film career. LeRoy had noticed the 16-year-old Loren among the extras assembled for a crowd scene in "Quo Vadis", placing her in a prominent position where his cameras would "pick up this tall, Italian dark-eyed beauty." Years later, Loren personally thanked him: "My Mother and I needed the money and you hired us. None of [my film career] would have happened except for you."


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: LeRoy married three times and had many relationships with Hollywood actresses. He was first married to Elizabeth Edna Murphy in 1927, which ended in divorce in 1933. During their separation, LeRoy dated Ginger Rogers, but they ended the relationship and stayed lifelong friends. In 1934, he married Doris Warner, the daughter of Warner Bros. founder, Harry Warner. The couple had one son, Warner LeRoy and one daughter, Linda LeRoy Janklow, who is married to Morton L. Janklow. His son, Warner LeRoy, became a restaurateur. The marriage ended in divorce in 1942. In 1946, he married Kathryn "Kitty" Priest Rand, who had been previously married to Sidney M. Spiegel (the co-founder of Essaness Theatres and grandson of Joseph Spiegel); and to restaurateur Ernie Byfield. They remained married until his death. LeRoy also sold his Bel Air, Los Angeles, home to Johnny Carson.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: A fan of thoroughbred horse racing, Mervyn LeRoy was a founding member of the Hollywood Turf Club, operator of the Hollywood Park Racetrack and a member of the track's board of directors from 1941 until his death in 1987. In partnership with father-in-law, Harry Warner, he operated a racing stable, W-L Ranch Co., during the 1940s/50s.


title: Mervyn LeRoy

text: After being bed ridden for six months, LeRoy died of heart issues complicated by Alzheimer's disease in Beverly Hills, California on September 13, 1987, at the age of 86. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.


title: Karakalpaks

text: The Karakalpaks or Qaraqalpaqs (; ), are a Turkic ethnic group native to Karakalpakstan in Northwestern Uzbekistan. During the 18th century, they settled in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya and in the (former) delta of Amu Darya on the southern shore of the Aral Sea. The name "Karakalpak" comes from two words: "qara" meaning "black" and "qalpaq" meaning "hat". The Karakalpaks number nearly 620,000 worldwide, out of which about 500,000 live in the Uzbek Republic of Karakalpakstan.


title: Karakalpaks

text: The word Karakalpak is derived from the Russian Cyrillic spelling of their name and has become the accepted name for these people in the West. The Karakalpaks endonymically refer to themselves as "Qaraqalpaqs", whilst the Uzbeks call them "Qoraqalpoqs". The word means "black hat" and has caused much confusion in the past, since historians linked them with other earlier peoples (such as Cherniye Klobuki), who have borne the appellation "black hat" in Slavic vernacular. The Qaraqul hat is made from the fur of the Qaraqul breed of sheep which originated in Central Asia with archaeological evidence pointing to the breed being raised there continuously since 1400 BCE. The breed is named after Qorako‘l which is a city in Bukhara Province in Uzbekistan.


title: Karakalpaks

text: Many accounts continue to link the present-day Karakalpaks with the Turkic confederation known as the Cherniye Klobuki of the 11th century, whose name also means "black hat" in Russian. Cherniye Klobuki were mercenary military troops of the Kievan Rus. Apart from the fact that their names have the same meaning, there is no archaeological or historical evidence to link these two groups.


title: Karakalpaks

text: The Karakalpaks, Uzbeks, and Kazakhs are regarded to be subgroups of the same Uzbek Confederation that arose in the fifteenth century following the breakdown of Genghis Khan's empire and the collapse of the Golden Horde. The Karakalpak group was formed in the seventeenth century as a result of a split from the Kazakh confederation.


title: Karakalpaks

text: Recent archaeological evidence indicates that the Karakalpaks may have formed as a confederation of different tribes at some time in the late 15th or the 16th centuries at some location along the Syr Darya or its southern Zhany Darya outlet, in proximity to the Kazakhs of the Lesser Horde. This would explain why their language, customs, and material culture are so similar to that of the Kazakhs.


title: Karakalpaks

text: The Karakalpak population is mainly confined to the central part of Karakalpakstan that is irrigated by the Amu Darya. The largest communities live in Nukus, the capital of Karakalpakstan and the surrounding large towns, such as Khodzheli, Shimbay, Takhtaitash, Shomanay and Kungrad. Although their homeland bears their name, the Karakalpaks are not the largest ethnic group living in Karakalpakstan. They are increasingly being outnumbered by Uzbeks, many of whom are being encouraged to move into the rich agricultural region around Turtkul and Beruniy.


title: Karakalpaks

text: Rural Karakalpaks mainly live on former collective or state farms, most of which have been recently privatised. Many rural Karakalpaks have been seriously affected by the desiccation of the Aral Sea, which has destroyed the local fishing industry along with much of the grazing and agricultural land in the north of the delta. Karakalpaks have nowhere to go. The majority of Karakalpakstan is occupied by desert: the Kyzyl Kum on the eastern side, the barren Ustyurt Plateau to the west and now the growing Aralkum to the north, once the bed of the former Aral Sea.


title: Karakalpaks

text: The Karakalpak language belongs to the Kipchak–Nogai group of Turkic languages, which also includes Kazakh and Nogai. Spoken Karakalpak has two dialects: Northeastern and Southwestern. Written Karakalpak uses both a modified form of the Cyrillic alphabet and Latin alphabet, with the former being standard during the Soviet Union and the latter modelled on Uzbekistan's alphabet reform for Uzbek. Before the Soviet Union, Karakalpak was rarely written, but when it was it used a modified form of the Perso-Arabic alphabet.


title: Karakalpaks

text: Due to the geography and history of the Karakalpak people, Karakalpak has been influenced by Uzbek, Mongol, Tajik and Russian. A Karakalpak-Uzbek pidgin language is often spoken by those bilingual in both languages.


title: Karakalpaks

text: Karakalpaks are primarily followers of the Hanafi School of Sunni Islam. It is probable they adopted Islam between the 10th and 13th centuries, a period when they first appeared as a distinct ethnic group.


title: Karakalpaks

text: Dervish orders such as the Naqshbandi, Kubrawiya, Yasawi and Qalandari are fairly common in the region. The religious order that established the strongest relationship with the people of the region is the Kubrawiya, which has Shi'i adherents.


title: Karakalpaks

text: Of 553 mosques recorded in 1914, a few remain in No'kis, Törtkül, Xojeli, and Shimbay. Many Karakalpak mullahs use their homes for Friday prayers.


title: Hugo (cocktail)

text: The Hugo is a slightly alcoholic aperitif, originating in South Tyrol, but widespread in Triveneto, Austria, Switzerland and Germany, based of prosecco, elderflower syrup (or lemon balm syrup), seltzer (or sparkling water) and mint leaves.


title: Hugo (cocktail)

text: As reported by the magazines "Mixology" and "Der Spiegel", the Hugo was conceived in 2005 by Naturns barman Roland Gruber, as an alternative to Spritz Veneziano, and quickly spread beyond the borders of South Tyrol. Initially, the recipe provided for the use of lemon balm syrup, then in practice replaced by elderflower syrup, more easily available.


title: Hugo (cocktail)

text: The name was chosen at random by its creator: initially he chose the name "Otto", but he changed his mind because he did not think it was appropriate.


title: Shardlake series

text: The "Shardlake series" is a series of historical mystery novels by C. J. Sansom, set in the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century.


title: Shardlake series

text: Sansom has said that he plans to write further Shardlake novels taking the lawyer into the reign of Elizabeth I.


title: Shardlake series

text: The series' protagonist is the hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake, who is assisted in his adventures by Mark Poer and then Jack Barak. Shardlake works on commission initially from Thomas Cromwell in "Dissolution" and "Dark Fire", Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in "Sovereign" and "Revelation", Queen Catherine Parr in "Heartstone" and "Lamentation", and Princess Elizabeth in "Tombland". The seventh book, "Tombland", was published in October 2018.


title: Shardlake series

text: BBC Radio 4 has adapted novels in the Shardlake series as part of its "15-Minute Drama" series. In 2012, "Dissolution" was adapted into a 10-part radio serial by Colin MacDonald, starring Jason Watkins as Shardlake and Mark Bonnar as Cromwell. BBC Radio 4 later broadcast "Dark Fire" in 2014, with Justin Salinger taking over the role of Shardlake and Bryan Dick playing Barak, "Sovereign" in 2015, "Revelation" in 2017, "Heartstone" in 2018, and "Lamentation" in 2021, all adapted by Colin MacDonald as 10-part serials.


title: Shardlake series

text: In 2007, the BBC commissioned an adaptation of "Dissolution", with Kenneth Branagh set to star as Shardlake. Branagh chose instead to star as the eponymous protagonist in the BBC series "Wallander".


title: Anjum Chopra

text: Anjum Chopra (born 20 May 1977) is an Indian former cricketer and current cricket commentator. The first time she stepped onto the cricket ground was at the age of 9. She played her first friendly match with the college girls' team at the inter-college level, scoring 20 runs and taking 2 wickets. Later the same year she was selected to play for New Delhi in the under −15 tournament.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: She played various sports at an early age, representing her school and college in athletics, basketball, and swimming. She was also a member of the Delhi State basketball team that competed at nationals.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: Anjum made her debut in one-day internationals at the age of 17, on 12 February 1995 against New Zealand at Christchurch, New Zealand, and made her debut in Test cricket a few months later against England at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on 17 November 1995. In only her second series for India the same year, she was awarded player of the series in the one-day internationals against the visiting England cricket team, scoring runs at an average of 67.5.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: She played as a left-handed batter who bowled right-arm medium pace. She played in 12 Tests, 127 ODIs and 18 T20Is. She was coached by Sunita Sharma, Hardeep Dua and Tarak Sinha from Sonnet Club. She was also the first woman to score 1,000 runs in ODIs for India.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: Carving out a niche in the male-dominated sport in the country, Anjum has begun to be recognized as the face of women's cricket in India as a player, captain, consultant, commentator, motivational speaker, author, and actor.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: Anjum Chopra is both a Test and One Day International cricketer who represented India's national women's cricket team. She is currently working as a cricket commentator. She made her One Day International debut in 1995 against New Zealand at Christchurch. In the first ODI she opened the bowling for India, giving 14 runs in her 4 overs. Going in to bat at No 10 for India, she had a crucial partnership of 11 runs to secure the victory for India.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: She made her Test match debut in November 1995 against England in Calcutta. She was sent in as a nightwatchman against the English team in her very first Test match for India. Living up to her coach's confidence in her she successfully batted till the next morning till lunch scoring 27 runs for her team.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: She was made Vice Captain of the Indian team in 2000 Cricinfo World Cup in New Zealand. With two player of the match awards and the highest scorer from India, Anjum led the batting charts at the World Cup until the Indian team lost in the semi-finals to eventual winners New Zealand.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: Anjum was made the Captain of the Indian team in 2002. In her first series as skipper, she led India with 7 debutants to a whitewash win over visiting England side, a record victory. The Indian team's first tour of South Africa saw them record their first overseas Test win, with Anjum Chopra scoring a match-winning 80. Her astute captaincy and using the part-time bowlers got the team 20 South African wickets at Paarl.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: In 2005 World Cup in South Africa, India reached the finals of the World Cup for the first time. She was the top scorer from India and was also the Player of the Match against England.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: In 2009 World Cup in Australia, in a must-win game for India, Anjum scored 76 match-winning runs and bagged the player of the match award. India finished third at the World Cup behind England and New Zealand.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: She has played 6 World Cups for India, including four 50-over World Cups and two T20 World Cups. She is the first player to play 100 ODIs for India. One of the strong fielders on the team and a safe pair of hands, she has held the highest number of slip catches for India. A right arm medium pace bowler, Anjum made her debut as an all-rounder, opening the bowling in her first ODI and batting at No 10. She is the eighth-highest run-getter in women's ODIs.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: Anjum has batted at almost all positions for her team, including opening, when needed. She has scored against some of the best of bowling attacks in the world, and is known to occupy the crease and bat for long hours. For example, batting in the 2000 World Cup in New Zealand against Ireland, India was reeling at 3 wickets down with 1 run on the board. She played a patient knock of 70 runs and won the match.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: She is known to bat well under pressure and has played numerous knocks to perfection to get the victory. A quick runner between the wickets, her ability to convert ones to twos had been an outstanding feature of Anjum's batting style.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: After attending Delhi Public School R.K. Puram and St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, Anjum completed her Master's in Business Administration from FORE School of Management with a dual specialisation in Marketing and Human Resources.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: In the corporate world, Anjum is a motivational and corporate speaker/consultant. Also an MBA, Anjum has conducted training programs for globally recognised brands such as General Electric, Standard Chartered, Goldman Sachs, Vodafone, and various schools and colleges.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: Anjum Chopra is a Delhi native who has played for the state since her Under-15 days. She has also represented Air India (her employers) for domestic matches where she emerged as the most successful skipper for the women's team.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: The 2011–12 cricket season saw her achieving victories for Delhi State. Captaining the team, Delhi won the national championship for the first time in history of the women's game. She also went on to lead the North Zone team that won the Zonal championships the same year. In the T20 format, Delhi state finished as runner-up, ending the year as the "Best State Team".


title: Anjum Chopra

text: Anjum Chopra co-authored the coffee table book titled "Women's Cricket World – A Journey from 1745- 2013". The book showcases the world history of the sport to its present-day under the International Cricket Council.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: She has also acted in a docudrama, "Poor Cousins of Million Dollar Babies". The film received national acclaim at the Arnold Sports Film Festival in Ohio in 2011. It talks about that despite the disparities between men's and women's cricket, the girls are very happy playing the sport and enjoy the camaraderie.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: To promote the game, Anjum has also participated in a reality show, Fear Factor 'Khatron ke Khiladi' season 4, aired on the Colors channel. She has also walked the ramp with leading names of the fashion industry promoting the women's game.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: Anjum is a commentator/subject expert with Doordarshan and other leading news and sports channels. A sportscaster she represents women's cricket on television analysing the game from a player's perspective. She has also forayed into other sports, acting as a commentator for the World Kabaddi League in 2014 on Sony Six.


title: Anjum Chopra

text: Anjum Chopra is the first woman cricketer from India to be awarded an honorary life membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is the provincial police service of Ontario, Canada. Under its provincial mandate, the OPP patrols provincial highways and waterways, protects provincial government buildings and officials, patrols unincorporated areas, and provides support to other agencies. The OPP also has a number of local mandates through contracts with municipal governments, where it acts as the local police force and provides front-line services.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: With an annual budget of nearly $1.2 billion, the OPP employed 5,500 uniformed officers, 700 auxiliary officers, and 2,500 civilian employees in 2020, making it the largest police service in Ontario and the second-largest in Canada (after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police). The OPP's operations are directed by its commissioner (Thomas Carrique) and it is a part of the Ministry of the Solicitor General.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: At the First Parliament of Upper Canada in Niagara-on-the-Lake on 17 September 1792, a provision was made for the formation of a "police system". Initially, policing jurisdictions were limited to districts, townships, and parishes. In 1845, a mounted police service was created to keep the peace in areas surrounding the construction of public works. It became the Ontario Mounted Police Force after Canadian Confederation.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: In 1877, the "Constables Act" extended jurisdiction and gave designated police members authorization to act throughout the province. The first salaried provincial constable appointed to act as detective for the government of Ontario was John Wilson Murray, hired on a temporary appointment in 1875 and made permanent upon passage of the 1877 act. Murray was joined by two additional detectives in 1897, marking the beginnings of the Criminal Investigation Branch. However, for the most part, policing outside of Ontario's cities was non-existent.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: With the discovery of silver in Cobalt and gold in Timmins, lawlessness was increasingly becoming a problem in northern Ontario. Police constables were gradually introduced in various areas, until an Order in Council decreed the establishment of a permanent organization of salaried constables designated as the Ontario Provincial Police Force on 13 October 1909. It consisted of 45 men under the direction of Superintendent Joseph E. Rogers. The starting salary for constables was $400 per annum, increased to $900 in 1912. There were many detachments simultaneously founded including Bala, Muskoka, and Niagara Falls.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: In the 1920s, restructuring was undertaken with the passing of the "Provincial Police Force Act, 1921". The title of the commanding officer was changed to "commissioner" and given responsibility for enforcing the provisions of the "Ontario Temperance Act" and other liquor regulations. Major-General Harry Macintyre Cawthra-Elliot was appointed as the first commissioner.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The OPP's first death in the line of duty occurred in 1923, when escaped convict Leo Rogers shot and killed Sergeant John Urquhart near North Bay. Rogers, who was later killed in a shootout with OPP officers, had already mortally wounded North Bay City constable, Fred Lefebvre.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The first OPP motorcycle patrol was introduced in 1928, phased out in 1942, and then reintroduced in 1949. The first marked OPP patrol car was introduced in 1941.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: During World War II, the Veterans Guard was formed. This was a body of volunteers (primarily World War I veterans) whose duty was to protect vulnerable hydroelectric plants and the Welland Ship Canal under the supervision of regular police members.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: In the late 1940s, policing functions were reorganized in Ontario, with the OPP given responsibility for all law enforcement in the province outside areas covered by municipal police forces, together with overall authority for law enforcement on the King's Highways, enforcement of the provincial liquor laws, aiding the local police, and maintaining a criminal investigation branch. In March 1969, a meeting took place at the Ontario Securities Commission to incorporate a separate but included group of the Ontario Provincial Police Association. Women joined the uniformed ranks in 1974.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: In 1994, as part of a tripartite agreement between the government of Canada, the Province of Ontario, and the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, the OPP began the process of relinquishing a majority of northern policing duties to the newly created Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service (NAPS). The transition was complete on 1 April 1999, when the OPP's Northwest Patrol was transferred to NAPS. The OPP still administers First Nations policing for Big Trout Lake, Weagamow, Muskrat Dam, and Pikangikum.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The Ontario Provincial Police provide policing services to areas of Ontario not policed by a regional or municipal police service. Municipalities can also be policed by the OPP under contract, with 323 as of 2019. Some detachments also host satellite detachments that provide policing to a local area, covering more than one million square kilometres, approximately 128,000 kilometres of provincial highway, and a population of over 13 million people. The OPP General Headquarters is currently located at 777 Memorial Avenue in Orillia at the Lincoln M. Alexander Building. The relocation of general headquarters to Orillia was part of a government move to decentralize ministries and operations to other parts of Ontario. Previously, from 1973 to 1995, the headquarters were located in Toronto at 90 Harbour Street, the site of the former Workmen's Compensation Board building.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The OPP also works with other provincial agencies, including the Ministry of Transportation and Ministry of Natural Resources, to enforce highway safety and conservation regulations, respectively. Finally, OPP officers provide security at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in Toronto.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: Previously, the OPP was divided into seventeen different regions. In 1995, OPP operations were amalgamated into six regions, with five providing general policing services, and one providing traffic policing services on provincial highways in the Greater Toronto Area (general police in the GTA are provided by regional/municipal police forces namely in Toronto, York, Durham, Peel, Halton, Waterloo, Barrie, Hamilton, South Simcoe) following recommendations by the Ipperwash Inquiry. OPP police stations are known as "detachments".


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The rank structure within the OPP is paramilitary or quasi-military in nature, like most North American law enforcement services, with several "non-commissioned" ranks leading to the "officer" ranks. Detective ranks fall laterally with the uniform ranks and is not a promotion above. Police constables in the OPP are uniquely known as "provincial constables".


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The Commissioner's Own Pipes and Drums serves as the OPP's officially recognised pipe band. Formed as the Ontario Provincial Pipes and Drums in 1968 by two constables, the band saw active service to wide acclaim in the 1970s and 80s before being disbanded in 1991 due to department financial constraints. The band was shortly re-formed three years after, and is now composed of volunteer officers, auxiliary officers, and civilian volunteers.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The Legislative Security Service is a division of the OPP consisting of sworn officers who provide security services to Ontario's Legislative Precinct (Legislature Building at Queen's Park and the adjacent Whitney Block) in Toronto. While administratively part of the OPP, they report to the sergeant-at-arms, an officer appointed by the legislature (and not the government of Ontario), who commands the service. Within the service, there are two classes of legislative protection personnel: unarmed special constables (who patrol the precinct when not in session) and armed peace officers (on duty when the legislature is in session, and during special occasions such as public demonstrations).


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: Special constable uniforms consist of a white shirt, black tactical vest, radio, black pants with yellow stripe and peaked cap. Peace officers wear similar uniforms, but with black shirts and black pants with single red stripes. They also carry the OPP's standard issue sidearm – a Glock 17M pistol in 9x19mm – for protection. In the event of a dangerous incident, tactical assistance is provided by the Emergency Service Unit of the Toronto Police Service, whose headquarters is proximate to the precinct on College Street. For an immediate response, officers may also access tactical weaponry from the Queen's Park armoury located within the legislature building.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The majority of policing services are provided by uniformed front-line police constables, who attend the Ontario Police College in Aylmer, Ontario, for thirteen weeks to obtain their Basic Constable Training Diploma. The OPP also mandates additional training before and after attendance at the Ontario Police College, resulting in the longest training period among Ontario police services. After this, probationary police constables are assigned to a detachment within the OPP's six regions with a coach officer for a year of field training. At the end of probation, a decision is made regarding retention.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The OPP conducts training at the Provincial Police Academy in Orillia, Ontario. The current academy was opened in 1998 on the site of the former Huronia Regional Centre. Previously, training was conducted at the OPP Training and Development Centre in Brampton, Ontario, from 1981 to 1998. Uniquely, the OPP also has the mandate to train First Nations constables from the OPP administered First Nations police services. Members of these services undergo the same training as OPP constables, save a different uniform. Academy attendance is not open to the general public.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: Uniformed non-commissioned OPP officers wear dark blue uniforms with gold lettering and shoulder flashes. Commissioned officers wear different shoulder flashes, and white shirts. Since 1985, wide, light blue stripes down the side of issued trousers have been standard, and forage caps are banded with hat bands of the same colour. Officers wear duty belts with issued equipment, and have the option of wearing either an internal ballistic vest, or an external tactical vest with MOLLE webbing and large placards indicating "police" on their chest and back. The OPP was the first major police service in Canada to issue tourniquets and trauma equipment to each officer. Previously, officer were issued light blue shirts instead of their current navy blue shirts. These shirts are now reserved for use by special constables, security officers, and auxiliary police constables. From 1997 to 2008, the official headdress of the OPP was the stetson, though commissioned ranks were still issued the forage cap. Starting in 2008, the OPP returned to the peaked cap for all officers. Officers in a specialized role are issued different equipment, such as baseball caps. Officers serving with specialty tactical units may also be issued cargo pants without the distinctive stripe, utility tops, and subdued placards for their external tactical vests. Officers serving with the Tactics and Rescue Unit are issued olive green uniforms.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: Auxiliary members have no police authority. They must rely on the same arrest provisions as regular citizens. There are some instances when an auxiliary member may have the authority of a police officer. This can occur in an emergency situation, or where the OPP requires additional strength to assist with a special event. Auxiliary officers are unpaid, however are compensated for travel and meals. They are required to attend routine training administered by the OPP, and must contribute a certain number of hours monthly. The auxiliary is made up of people from diverse backgrounds.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: Auxiliary members are trained at the Provincial Police Academy and qualified with all use of force options.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The auxiliary uniform is distinct from the uniform of a regular OPP officer. Auxiliary officers wear light blue shirts, checkered hat bands, and have their own cap badges. They wear slip-ons with the word "auxiliary" embroidered on them, and their jackets and dress uniforms have tabs sewn on that indicates that they are auxiliary officers.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: Following the disbanding of World War II auxiliary forces, growing Cold War tension and fear of a nuclear attack led to the belief that police services should "recruit and train volunteers to augment their strength in times of emergency". As a result, in 1954, the Provincial Civil Defence Auxiliary was created, but the need to more closely associate the auxiliary with the OPP soon became apparent.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: On 14 January 1960, the Provincial Civil Defence Organization was dissolved. A new oversight body known as the Emergency Measures Organization—Ontario (EMO) came into being. Each department of the government became responsible for its own operational planning. The organization of auxiliary police forces became the responsibility of all interested municipal police forces, as well as the OPP.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: In April 1960, a new organization more closely affiliated with the OPP came into being. The Ontario Auxiliary Police were organized in 12 of the 17 OPP districts and by the end of the year, 376 volunteers had signed up to be equipped and trained by experienced OPP personnel. Two OPP inspectors were assigned to work with Emergency Measures Ontario as liaison officers for the volunteers. This close connection continues today with the OPP auxiliary playing a critical role in emergency and disaster planning and occurrences. By 1961 there were 466 auxiliary volunteers who accompanied regular provincials on traffic and law enforcement patrols and during the year logged more than twenty-six thousand hours of volunteer duty.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The vehicle fleet consists of 2,290 vehicles, 114 marine vessels, 286 snow and all-terrain vehicles, two helicopters, and two fixed-wing aircraft.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The OPP has approximately 1,200 cruisers in service across the province. Officers use all-wheel drive versions of the Ford Taurus Police Interceptor, Ford Explorer Police Utility, Ford F-150 Police Responder, Dodge Charger Pursuit, Dodge Durango Special Service Package and Chevrolet Tahoe for front line patrol. For specialized roles, a variety of vehicles are used, such as the Chevrolet Suburban, Ford F250 Super Duty, and the Cambli International Thunder 1 armoured rescue vehicles used by the Tactics and Rescue Unit, as well as an International-based truck used by the Highway Safety Division and Mobile Support Units. Previously, models of the Ford Crown Victoria and Chevrolet Impala were used.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: Historically, from 1941 to 1989, the OPP livery was black and white. In 1989, in response to manufacturers no longer offering dual tone vehicles, the OPP switched to an all-white livery with blue and gold striping. Vehicles of this era were equipped with Federal Signal's Vector light bars with integrated traffic advisers. In 2007, the OPP announced that it would return to a black and white colour scheme. The colour scheme is accomplished with the use of vinyl wraps during in-house vehicle outfitting. The change was implemented starting in March 2007 and was completed in 2009. Vehicles of this era had detachment markings on the rear quarter panel and used Federal Signal Arjent S2 light bars. Current vehicles have eschewed the detachment markings and are equipped with Whelen Legacy light bars. Unmarked vehicles are generally white, black, grey or dark blue. All marked cruisers are equipped with pushbars, also generally have black steel rims, and spotlights mounted on the driver side. Licence plates on the cruisers are generally the standard Ontario licence plates with a special validation sticker denoting permanent registration.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: Ontario Provincial Police officers carry a variety of use of force equipment in the performance of their duties. The current sidearm of the OPP is the Glock 17M pistol in 9x19mm. Previously, officers were issued either the Sig Sauer P229 DAO, or the P229R DAK in .40S&W. Patrol vehicles are also equipped with the Colt Canada C8 patrol rifle in 5.56x45mm NATO, with the option of the Remington 870 in 12 gauge. All uniformed officers carry TASER X2 conducted energy weapons


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The Caledonia land dispute began in 2006 when members of the Six Nations of the Grand River began an occupation of land that they believed belonged to them, to bring light to their land claims, and to the plight of aboriginal land claims across Canada. The land at the centre of the dispute was owned by a corporation planning to build a subdivision known as the Douglas Creek Estates. The Ontario Provincial Police were called in to keep the peace. Tensions led to violence and over the span of several years, the Ontario Provincial Police were criticized for perceived inaction against the native protesters by local residents. In 2011, a class-action lawsuit against the government of Ontario was settled.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The Ipperwash Provincial Park is a former provincial park in Lambton County, Ontario. On 4 September 1995, first nations people occupied the park to bring attention to decades-old land claims that had not been recognized, resulting in the Ipperwash Crisis. The park had been expropriated from the Stoney Point Ojibway during World War II. The protest increased in tensions, resulting in the shooting and subsequent death of a protestor, Anthony O'Brien "Dudley" George, by Acting Sergeant Ken Deane of the Tactics and Rescue Unit. Deane was subsequently convicted of criminal negligence causing death. In 2003, an inquiry called the Ipperwash Inquiry, into the events at Ipperwash was convened, and concluded in 2007. The OPP now uses a variety of different methods in resolving conflicts at major events, most notably by the use of the Provincial Liaison Teams (PLT), formerly known as the Major Event Liaison Team (MELT)


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: In 1993 an Ontario Divisional Court case, "John Doe v. Ontario" (Information and Privacy Commissioner), Judge Matlow of the Ontario Divisional Court, suspected that four officers of the Toronto Police Service engaged in a fabrication of evidence and harassment of an accused party. Judge Matlow under the Ontario Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), sought access to the report of the Ontario Provincial Police exonerating the officers, but was denied access to it by the OPP. Access was later granted by the FIPPA commissioner, but a judicial review of the FIPPA commissioner's order to release the report resulted in publication of the OPP report being banned.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The OPPA was established in 1954 to represent sworn and civilian members of the OPP, as well as OPP retirees. In March 2015, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced they were investigating fraud allegations against three top executives of the OPPA.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: In 2018, Toronto Police Superintendent Ron Taverner, was nominated to replace outgoing Commissioner Vince Hawkes. The appointment of Taverner brought about controversy given the personal relationship between him and Premier Doug Ford, potential nepotism, and the OPP's role in investigating political corruption. It was also discovered that the requirements of the position were changed to allow someone in rank equivalent to Taverner to apply. Ultimately, Taverner rescinded his interest in the position, resulting in the appointment York Regional Police Deputy Chief Thomas Carrique as the OPP's new commissioner.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: The Beatles's 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" contains cover art with Paul McCartney wearing an OPP patch on his fictional uniform (more easily seen in the gatefold picture). In January 2016 the origins of the patch was confirmed as a gift from an OPP corporal on 28 September 1964, at Malton Airport as the Beatles were on their way to Montreal.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: On the online social networking website Habbo Hotel Canada, OPP officers and spokespersons visit the online application to talk to teens on board the web site's "Infobus". During the weekly sessions, users of the Habbo service are able to ask the officers and spokespersons questions, primarily regarding online safety.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: In the television series "Cardinal", the OPP is fictionalized as the Ontario Police Department (OPD), with a shoulder patch similar to that of the actual OPP except that the top element is replaced by three stylized maple leaves on a branch. OPP cruisers in the series are marked similar to actual cruisers, however the Queen's crown is replaced with a stylized beaver, and the vehicles are marked "O.P.D." instead of "O.P.P." In 2016, the Discovery Channel aired the reality TV series "", following members of the OPP and local heavy tow operators, profiling their efforts during events and routine operations on Highway 401, a highway that crosses southern Ontario.


title: Ontario Provincial Police

text: In the Canadian horror film "Pontypool", the OPP is called into the eponymous town to control a zombie outbreak, ultimately resulting in a massacre. The response of the government to this outbreak draws many parallels to Canadian separatist movements. The film's lead character, Grant Mazzy, vocally denounces the OPP's actions on the radio.


title: Shrinathji

text: Shrinathji is a form of Krishna, manifested as a seven-year-old child ("Balak"). The principal shrine of Shrinathji is the Shrinathji Temple in the temple town of Nathdwara, 48 kilometres north-east of Udaipur city in Rajasthan,India. Shrinathji is the central presiding deity of the Vaishnava sect known as Pushtimarg ("the way of grace") or the Vallabha Sampradaya, established by Vallabhacharya. Shrinathji is worshipped mainly by the followers of Bhakti Yoga and the Vaishnavas in Gujarat and Rajasthan, and Bhatias amongst others.


title: Shrinathji

text: Vitthal Nathji, son of Vallabhacharya institutionalised the worship of Shrinathji at Nathdwara. On account of the popularity of Shrinathji, Nathdwara town itself is referred to as ‘Shrinathji’. People also call it Bava's (Shreenathji Bava) Nagri.


title: Shrinathji

text: Initially, the child Krishna deity was referred to as Devdaman (""the conqueror of Gods"" referring to the over-powering of Indra by Krishna in the lifting of Govardhan hill). Vallabhacharya named him as Gopala and the place of his worship as ‘Gopalpur’. Later, Vitthal Nathji named the deity as Shrinathji. Shrinathji's seva is performed in 8 parts of the day.


title: Shrinathji

text: Shrinathji appeared to Shri Vallabhacharya, in the Hindu Vikram Samvat year 1549 (1672 A.D.) and directed Vallabhacharyaji to proceed to the Govardhan Hill to begin worship. Vallabhacharyaji appointed Madhavendra Puri for the deity's seva .


title: Shrinathji

text: After the death of Madhavendra Puri, this tradition was carried forward by shri Mahaprabhuji's eldest son who was the next gadi pati, shri gopinathji and then his younger brother and the one with whose effort seva became more efficient and awareness for saving cows came among people of 16th century, shri Gusainji Vitthalanatha.


title: Shrinathji

text: Nathdwara is the epicentre of the Pushti Margiya Vaishnav community and Shrinathji is their prime deity. For centuries now, the seat of the Tilakayat Maharaj has ruled over Nathdwara. He is the head pontiff, taking the seat of Shri Vallabhacharyaji and Shri Gusainji.


title: Shrinathji

text: The contemporary head pontiff of Nathdwara is Go. Ti. Shri 108 Shri Indradamanji (Rakeshji) Maharaj, who is the 17th descendant of Shri Vallabhacharya Mahaprabhuji. He is called the Tilakayat of Nathdwara and is a steward of the town as well as the head gadipati of Shrinathji.


title: Shrinathji

text: The Heir Apparent of Nathdwara, by the age old tradition of Shri Gusainji, is the son of the current Tilakayat Maharaj — Go. Chi. Shri Vishal (Bhupeshkumarji) Bawa sahab. He is proactive in religious as well as social affairs of the town and serves as the ‘Paricharak’ or assistant to his father in the temple. He is known as Goswami Vishal Nathdwara (GVN) on social media and has revolutionised the way of ‘religious living’ to his young audience.


title: Shrinathji

text: According to the legend, the Srinathji deity self-manifested from stone and emerged from the Govardhan Hills. Historically, the image of Shrinathji was first worshipped at Govardhan hill, near Mathura. The image was initially shifted from Mathura in 1672 A.D. along river Yamuna and was retained at Agra for almost six months, in order to safeguard it from, according to legend, the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb, who wished to keep the prestigious deity with him in Agra. Subsequently, the image was transferred further south on a chariot to a safer place to protect it from barbarian destruction unleashed by Mughal ruler Aurangzeb. When the icon reached the spot at village Sihad or Sinhad in Mewar, the wheels of the chariot in which the icon was being transported sank into mud and could not be moved any farther. The accompanying priests realised that the place was the Shrinathji's chosen spot and, accordingly, the icon was installed in a temple there under the rule and protection of the then Maharana Raj Singh of Mewar. No other Hindu ruler was ready to take the image in his kingdom as it would mean to oppose the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who was the most powerful man in Asia at that time.


title: Shrinathji

text: In the anomical environment of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the temple of Shrinathji was attacked by the Medas and the Pindaris. Accordingly, the icon was shifted again and was protected at Udaipur and Ghasiyar under the patronage of Maharana Bheem Singh of Mewar.


title: Shrinathji

text: Shrinathji was brought to Mewar region of Rajasthan through Agra and Gwalior, during the oppressive reign of Aurangazeb, because devotes like Ajab Kunwarbai called him. The chariot carrying the image is believed to have stuck in mud at Sihad village of Mewar while traveling, and hence the idol was established in a temple built with the permission of the current Rana of Mewar.


title: Shrinathji

text: As per the religious myths, the shrine at Nathdwara was built in the 17th century at the spot as ordained by Shrinathji himself.


title: Shrinathji

text: The temple is also popularly called "Shrinathji ki Haveli" (House of Shrinathji) because like a regular household it has a chariot for movement (In fact the original chariot in which Shrinathji was brought to Singhar), a store room for milk (Doodhghar), a store room for betel (Paanghar), a store room for sugar and sweetmeats (Mishrighar and Pedaghar), a store room for flowers (Phoolghar), a functional kitchen (Rasoighar), a jewellery chamber (Gahnaghar), a treasury (Kharcha bhandaar), a stable for horses of chariot (Ashvashala), a drawing room (Baithak), a gold and silver grinding wheel (Chakki).


title: Shrinathji

text: There are several prominent temples around the world that pay homage to Shrinathji. The "Nathdwara" of the western hemisphere is known as Vraj. It is located in Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania. Over 100,000 Hindus visit Vraj in a year.


title: Shrinathji

text: The priests and servants within the temple are not paid any cash salaries, receiving simply prasad as a reward for their duties by the tilkayat maharaj. Often this prasad is given or sold to guests who visit the temple for darshan.


title: Shrinathji

text: The holy icon is carved in bas-relief out of a monolithic black marble stone, with images of two cows, one lion, one snake, two peacocks and one parrot engraved on it and three sages placed near it. The idol of Shrinathji wears exquisitely worked jewels, some dating back to pre-Mughal period. Shinathji is adorned with intricately woven "shaneels" and silk clothes having original "zari" and embroidery works. This is to be noted that once the cloth(vastra) is being used by the idol is never taken in use again and every day 8 times the idol changes it's cloth(vastras), and during special occasions like janmashtmi, Holi & Diwali the idol wears dresses which are literally woven by gold wires and diamond studded embroideries. Once the vastras which the idol wears, is then given to the devotees. Even the sacred flag above the temple which is changed every day is also woven by gold and silver wires.


title: Shrinathji

text: The Shrinathji temple at Nathdwara celebrates, on an average, three festivals in a week. As regards to daily routine, the inner sanctum is opened 8 times a day for the devotees undertake sacred darshan of the deity.


title: Shrinathji

text: Very elaborate and complex rituals have emerged around the worship of Shrinathji due to confluence and inter-mixing of cult of Krishna as well as that of Pushti Margi Shri Vallabhacharya.


title: Shrinathji

text: The main attractions of Shrinathji are the Aartis and the "Shringar", "i.e." the dressing and beautifying of the idol of Shrinathji, treating it as a living child, adorning it with the appropriate dresses commensurate with the time of day or night. The formal prayers are offered with "diya", flowers, fruit and other offerings, with local instruments and devotional songs of the Shrinathji, according to the demand of the time and occasion. The view of the idol after the "parda" (curtain) is removed is called "jhakhi".


title: Shrinathji

text: The gadipatis and acharyas in the Havelis of Shrinathji are believed to be from the "kul" (descendants) of shri mahaprabhuji, Vallabhacharya, the founder of this deity's idol at Govardhan hill, near Mathura. Presently, Shrinathji is worshipped by priests from this "kul" (genealogical descendants) of Vallabh Acharya. In the rest of the world, a Gurjar of a special sect who has initiation and agya (permission) perform the worship of Shrinathji.


title: Shrinathji

text: Devotees throng to the shrine in large numbers during occasions of Krishna Janmashtami, Radhashtami, Sharad Purnima, Holi and Diwali. The deity is treated like a living image, and is attended with daily normal functions, like bathing, dressing, meals called "Prasad" and the resting times in regular intervals. Since, the deity is believed to be a child form of Krishna, special care is taken and attention is given to the deity, the same way a mother would to her child.


title: Shrinathji

text: Shrikrishna Janmashtami, the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna is celebrated with the salute of cannons and guns at Nathdwara temple of Shrinathji in Rajasthan.


title: Shrinathji

text: People not only from the internal regions of Rajasthan but also from Gujarat and Maharashtra, visit Nathdwara to witness Lord Krishna’s seraphic festival. Here, important arrangements are made by the temple trust for security at the police and administrative level. The temple is decorated with attractive light decoration for the festival. The entire city of Nathdwara reverberates owing to the melodious sound of drum, trumpet, and clarinet at the main entrance of the temple. A series of congratulatory exchanges began pouring in a month earlier from the Ashtami of Shravan of the Lord Krishna.


title: Shrinathji

text: According to the confirmation order, Shri Krishna Janmotsav is not celebrated as a public exhibition in the night, but on the second day, as the Nandamahotsav, that is, by affirming 'Nand Gher Anand Bhayo, Jai Kanhaiya Lal ki’ in the presence of Tilakayat Maharaj Shree and his family, Brajvasi Sevakgan (Brigadian staff), Mukhiyaji (Headman), and Lord Shrinathji along with spattering of milk and curd while dancing in front of them.


title: Shrinathji

text: The gopies of Vraj used to love the Lord so much, they would be at Yashoda’s door at all hours, finding any excuse to see their beloved Nanda Gopal. Mother Yashoda was very protective of her darling child. Concerned that with all these adoring gopis, hanging around her house at all hours of the day, her darling child will never get any time to rest or play properly with his friends. So she decided that all those who wish to visit her beloved Bala Gopal, could do so after He had finished a snack or a meal, and was resting before going out again.


title: Shrinathji

text: Taking a legend as his cue, Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya decided to open the haveli, his own version of the Nandalay (House / Palace of Nanda, foster father of Krishna), at specific times of the day only. Acharya set aside eight times of the day when the doors of the inner sanctum would be left open for the people to catch a glimpse ("jakhi") of the Lord. Rest of the time, the Lord was allowed to go out and play with His friends—gopas and gopies of Vraj.


title: Shrinathji

text: The outline of darshans given above is a general layout. Over the centuries, different Goswamis have interpreted the "bhavas" and "lilas" differently, resulting in a mixture of oral and ritual traditions followed by the various havelies of Pushti Marg. For example, Shrinathji, having left His beloved Vraj, misses it so dearly, that for six months of the year, He runs back to Vraj for the shayan darshan. So, from Mangala to Sandhya arti, the Lord is reckoned to be in Nathadwara. After the arti, He rushes over, in His spiritual form, to play with the gopis of Vraj. Hence, Shayan arti takes place at Mount Govardhan for the warm half of the year. During the cold months, running over to Vraj is not such a practical option, and hence the shayan darshan takes place at Nathadwara. Here the bhava of gopijan’s viraha and Raasa-Rasika’s unique lila are of paramount importance.


title: Shrinathji

text: Shrinathji followers have significant influence on Hindu art in the form of the Pichhwais, which are intricate and colourful paintings on cloth, paper, walls and temple hangings which portray Shrinathji. These are devotional textiles that centre on the image of Shrinathji. Nathdwara is the hub of the pichhwai art, Nathdwara Paintings.


title: Shrinathji

text: Nathdwara is known for the Rajasthani style of the city, which is called "pichhwai Paintings" These pichhwai paintings have been painted on the wall around the Nathdwara temple by famous contemporary artists of Nathdwara.


title: Shrinathji

text: Preachers have founded Shrinathji temples in present-day Pakistan (Dera Ghazi Khan), earlier a part of undivided India and not far from Nathdwara. This was done by Shri Lalji Maharaj who was sent to Sindh by Shri Vithalnathji to spread Pushti Marg. Shrinathji is also worshipped at Russia (in the lower Volga region) and other places on the Central Asian trade routes. In the United States, there are eleven Shrinathji temples; New Haven, Connecticut, Parlin, New Jersey, Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania, Phoenix, Arizona, one in the midwest, Florida and California, Houston ( Texas), Lowell, Massachusetts Atlanta, Georgia Charlotte, North Carolina Baltimore, Maryland.


title: Shrinathji

text: In 2013 the first Shrinathji haveli was inaugurated under the guidance of Shri Dwarkeshlalji (kadi kalol) in Melbourne Australia. Vrajdham Haveli located in Margao, Goa was inaugurated in 2013 for the benefit of all the Vaishnavas residing in Goa.


title: Shrinathji

text: There is a Shrinathji Temple in Bahrain, which was constructed in 1817 and is used by the Hindu community of Bahrain.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: Lúthien and Beren are characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world Middle-earth. Lúthien is an elf, daughter of the elf-king Thingol and goddess-like Melian. Beren is a mortal man. The complex tale of their love for each other and the quest they are forced to embark upon, triumphing against overwhelming odds but ending in tragedy, appears in "The Silmarillion", the epic poem "The Lay of Leithian", the Grey Annals section of "The War of the Jewels", and in other legendarium texts conflated into the 2017 book "Beren and Lúthien", where it plays a central part. Their story is told to Frodo by Aragorn in "The Lord of the Rings".


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: The story of Lúthien and Beren, immortal elf-maiden marrying a mortal man and choosing mortality for herself, is mirrored in Tolkien's "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen". The names Beren and Lúthien appear on the grave of Tolkien and his wife Edith.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: Lúthien was a Telerin (Sindarin) princess, the only child of Elu Thingol, king of Doriath, and his queen, Melian the Maia, making her half-royal, half-divine. She was born in the Years of the Trees, according to the Grey Annals. At her birth, the white flower "niphredil" bloomed for the first time in Doriath.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: Lúthien's romance with the mortal man Beren is considered the "chief" of the Silmarillion tales by Tolkien himself; he called it "the kernel of the mythology". Elrond was Lúthien's great-grandson and Aragorn was descended from her via Elros and the Royal Family of Númenor. She is described as the Morning Star of the Elves and as the most beautiful daughter of the one god, Ilúvatar. Beren was the son of Emeldir and Barahir, a man of the royal House of Bëor of Dorthonion.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: In contrast, Lúthien's descendant Arwen was called "Evenstar", the Evening Star of the Elves, meaning that her beauty reflects that of Lúthien Tinúviel. Lúthien was first cousin once removed of Galadriel, whose mother, Eärwen of Alqualondë, was the daughter of Thingol's brother. The story of Lúthien and Beren is mirrored in "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen".


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: The name "Lúthien" appears to mean "daughter of flowers" in a Beleriandic dialect of Sindarin, but it can also be translated "blossom". "Tinúviel" was a name given to her by Beren. It literally means "daughter of the starry twilight", which signifies "nightingale". The name "Beren" means "brave" in Sindarin.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: Beren saw Lúthien dancing under moonrise in her father's forest, and fell in love with her, for she was the most beautiful of Elves and Men. He stood in the shadows wishing to be near enough to Lúthien to touch her, but Daeron, her childhood friend and partner in music and dance, noticed Beren and, believing him to be a wild animal, shouted for Lúthien to flee. She saw Beren's shadow and ran away. One day in summer when Lúthien was dancing on a green hill surrounded by hemlocks, she sang, awakening Beren. He ran to her, and again she tried to escape and he cried "Tinúviel" ("nightingale"). When Lúthien gazed upon him she reciprocated his love. He kissed her, but she slipped away and he fell into a deep sleep. In his hour of despair, she appeared before him, and in the Hidden Kingdom set her hand in his and cradled his head against her breast. From then on they met secretly.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: Though Melian warned her husband against it, Thingol was determined not to let Beren marry his daughter, and set a seemingly impossible task as the bride price: Beren had to bring him one of the Silmarils from Morgoth's Iron Crown.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: Lúthien had a vision of Beren lying suffering in the pits of the Lord of Wolves. Her mother who told her that Beren was captive in Sauron's dungeons. Lúthien decided to save Beren, asking Daeron for help, but he betrayed her to Thingol. Thingol then had her guarded in the high branches of a beech tree. Daeron was filled with remorse; Lúthien forgave him and devised a plan to escape. She enchanted her hair into a cloak to lull her guards to sleep, and ran from her prison.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: On her way to rescue Beren, she found Huan, the Hound of Valinor, and was taken to his master Celegorm. He, plotting to force her to marry him, offered to help her, asking her to follow him to Nargothrond. When she arrived, Celegorm held her hostage and forbade her to talk to anyone else. Huan took pity on her, betraying his master, and freed her. Huan was granted the power to speak, and together they escaped from Nargothrond.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: They came to Sauron's Isle, and Lúthien sang a call to Beren. He answered, but Sauron heard her song and sent wolves to slay Huan, but Huan killed them, one by one. Finally, Sauron transformed himself into the most powerful of all werewolves and went out. Huan flinched, but Lúthien smothered Sauron's lunge in her enchanted cloak. Sauron changed into different shapes, but Huan bested him. Lúthien forced Sauron to surrender the keys of his tower; he fled in the shape of a vampire. Lúthien destroyed the Tower. Finding the seemingly-dead Beren, she fell down beside him in grief, but with the rising sun he awoke and they were reunited. Huan returned to Celegorm.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: Beren pleaded with Lúthien to return to her father, but she refused. As they were about to embrace, Celegorm and Curufin appeared, exiled because of Lúthien's escape from Nargothrond. Seeking revenge, they fought Beren, and Huan again fought on Lúthien's side. Beren defeated them, but spared their lives at Lúthien's request. Beren stole one of their horses, and the couple fled. As she slept, he went to Angband to get the Silmaril.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: Lúthien and Huan disguised themselves as Morgoth's vampire Thuringwethil and the werewolf Draugluin. She found Beren and they reached the throne of Morgoth, but he saw through Lúthien's disguise. She declared herself and offered to sing for Morgoth. Filled with an evil lust, he accepted, but she put him and his entire court into a deep sleep. She awakened Beren, and he cut a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown. As he tried for another Silmaril, his blade snapped, striking Morgoth's cheek. Lúthien and Beren fled to the gates, where the werewolf Carcharoth attacked them. Beren thrust the Silmaril into its face, but it bit off Beren's hand, swallowing it and the Silmaril. Lúthien sucked out the venom, and with her failing power tried to restore Beren. Huan summoned the Eagles of Manwë, who carried them to Doriath.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: Lúthien healed Beren, and together they stood before her father's throne. Beren told Thingol that the quest was fulfilled, and that he held a Silmaril in his hand. When Thingol demanded to see it, Beren showed him his stump. The couple then explained what had happened. They were married before Thingol's throne that day. Meanwhile, Carcharoth slaughtered all the living beings he came across in his frenzied flight, both empowered and tormented by the jewel burning his stomach. Beren, Thingol, Huan, and other Elves went to defeat the beast. Beren was attacked by the wolf; Huan killed the beast, but died of his wounds. Beren was carried to Doriath, where he died in Lúthien's arms.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: In grief, Lúthien lay down and died, going to the Halls of Mandos. There she sang a song of the suffering of Elves and Men, the greatest ever sung. It moved Mandos to pity for the only time. He summoned Beren from the houses of the dead, and Lúthien's spirit met his by the shores of the sea. Mandos consulted with Manwë, King of Arda. Even Manwë could not change the fate of Men, and so he gave Lúthien a choice: to live in Valinor, but without Beren; or to return to Middle-earth with Beren as a mortal herself, accepting the Doom of Men. She chose Beren and mortality.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: Lúthien and Beren dwelt together in Ossiriand until after the sack of Menegroth. Their abode was "Dor Firn-i-Guinar": the "Land of the Dead that Lived". They had a son, Dior.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: Thingol received the Nauglamír from Húrin, who had recovered it from the ruins of Nargothrond. Thingol decided to unite the greatest works of the Dwarves and the Elves - the Nauglamír and the Silmaril - and hired Dwarf smiths from Nogrod. The Dwarves murdered Thingol and took the Nauglamír. Beren and an army of Green Elves and Ents waylaid the returning Dwarves. Beren reclaimed the Nauglamír, and Lúthien kept the necklace and the great jewel all her life. This hastened Beren's and Lúthien's end, since her beauty enhanced by the jewel was too bright for mortal lands to bear.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: Elrond and Arwen were descendants of Lúthien, as was Aragorn, a descendant of Elrond's brother Elros.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: In the various versions of "The Tale of Tinúviel", Tolkien's earliest form of his tale, as published in "The Book of Lost Tales", her original name is "Tinúviel". Beren is, in this earlier version, an "Elf" (specifically a Noldo, or "Gnome"), and Sauron has not yet emerged. In his place, they face "Tevildo", the Prince of Cats, a monstrous cat who is the principal enemy of the Valinorean hound Huan. However Tolkien initially created the character of Beren as a mortal man before this in an even earlier but erased version of the tale.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: The story is also told in an epic poem in "The Lays of Beleriand", upon which most of the finer details of her life and relationship to Beren is extracted from in this article, since "The Silmarillion" provides only a generalization of the tale.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: In a letter to his son Christopher, dated 11 July 1972, Tolkien requested the inscription below for his wife Edith's grave "for she was (and knew she was) my Lúthien." He added, "I never called Edith "Luthien" – but she was the source of the story... It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Roos in Yorkshire where ... she was able to live with me for a while." In a footnote to this letter, Tolkien added "she knew the earliest form of the legend...also the poem eventually printed as Aragorn's song." Particularly affecting for Tolkien was Edith's conversion to the Catholic Church from the Church of England for his sake upon their marriage; this was a difficult decision for her that caused her much hardship, paralleling the difficulties and suffering of Lúthien from choosing mortality.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: "The Tale of Beren and Lúthien" also shares an element with folktales such as the Welsh Culhwch and Olwen and others — namely, the disapproving parent who sets a seemingly impossible task (or tasks) for the suitor, which is then fulfilled.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: The Tolkien scholar John Garth, writing in the "New Statesman", notes that it took a century for "The Tale of Beren and Lúthien", mirroring the tale of Second Lieutenant Tolkien watching Edith dancing in a woodland glade far from the "animal horror" of the trenches, to reach publication. Garth finds "much to relish", as the tale changes through "several gears" until finally it "attains a mythic power". Beren's enemy changes from a cat-demon to the "Necromancer" and eventually to Sauron. Garth comments that if this was supposed to be the lost ancestor of the Rapunzel fairytale, then it definitely portrays a modern "female-centred fairy-tale revisioning" with a Lúthien who may be fairer than mortal tongue can tell, but is also more resourceful than her lover.


title: Lúthien and Beren

text: Edith and J. R. R. Tolkien lie in Wolvercote Cemetery in north Oxford. Their gravestone shows the association of Lúthien with Edith, and Tolkien with Beren. The stone reads:


title: John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame

text: The John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame is a presidential memorial at the gravesite of assassinated United States President John F. Kennedy, in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. This permanent site replaced a temporary grave and eternal flame used at the time of Kennedy's state funeral on November 25, 1963, three days after his assassination. The site was designed by architect John Carl Warnecke, a long-time friend of Kennedy. The permanent John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame grave site was consecrated and opened to the public on March 15, 1967.


title: John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame

text: Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Dignitaries from 92 countries attended his state funeral on November 25.


title: John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame

text: Initial press reports indicated that Kennedy would be buried at Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts, where his son Patrick Bouvier Kennedy (who had died on August 9, 1963, two days after his premature birth) was buried. But the site for Kennedy's grave was quickly changed to the hillside just below Arlington House in Arlington National Cemetery; some months earlier Kennedy had admired the location's peaceful atmosphere while visiting it with his friend, architect John Carl Warnecke. The initial suggestion to bury Kennedy at Arlington appears to have been made by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy agreed to the change. Although Kennedy's sisters and many of his long-time associates from Massachusetts were opposed to burial at Arlington, his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy visited the site with McNamara on Saturday, November 23, and concluded that Jacqueline Kennedy's wishes should be honored.


title: John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame

text: On Sunday, November 24, 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy requested an eternal flame for Kennedy's grave. According to several published accounts, she drew inspiration from a number of sources. One was the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which she and Kennedy had seen during a visit to France in 1961. She also took inspiration from the novel "The Candle in the Wind" (the fourth book from the collection "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White), which was part of the inspiration for the 1960 stage musical "Camelot" (the cast recording was a favorite of the Kennedys). Her brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, counseled against an eternal flame, worried that it might appear ostentatious or that it would compete with other such memorials at Arlington National Cemetery; but she remained adamant.


title: John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame

text: Kennedy's funeral was set for Monday, November 25, which left very little time to manufacture and install an eternal flame. Overnight, Colonel Clayton B. Lyle and a United States Army Corps of Engineers team built the eternal flame: A propane gas-fueled tiki torch was procured from the Washington Gas and Light Company, tested, and slightly modified for emplacement. The Corps also installed a gas line to a propane tank away to feed the torch. A mound of evergreens was placed around the base of the flame to cover the tubing and torch mechanism, and the head of the grave dug in front of the flame.


title: John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame

text: The grave was set in a plot of grass roughly on each side. The site was about halfway up the hill on which Arlington House stands. The grave was placed so that it had a view of the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, and was aligned with them. Jacqueline Kennedy lit a taper from a candle held by a nearby soldier, and then brought the eternal flame to life at the end of the burial service. Kennedy's brothers, Robert and Ted, symbolically lit the flame after her.