Early life.

Plimpton was born in New York City on March 18, 1927, and spent his childhood there, attending St. Bernard's School and growing up in an apartment duplex on Manhattan's Upper East Side located at 1165 Fifth Avenue. During the summers, he lived in the hamlet of West Hills, Huntington, Suffolk County on Long Island.  He was the son of Francis T. P. Plimpton and the grandson of Frances Taylor Pearsons and George Arthur Plimpton. His father was a successful corporate lawyer and partner of the law firm Debevoise and Plimpton; he was appointed by President John F. Kennedy as U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, serving from 1961 to 1965.  His mother was Pauline Ames, the daughter of botanist Oakes Ames and artist Blanche Ames. Both of Plimpton's maternal grandparents were born with the surname Ames; his mother was the granddaughter of Medal of Honor recipient Adelbert Ames (1835-1933), an American sailor, soldier, and politician, and Oliver Ames, a US political figure and the 35th Governor of Massachusetts (1887–1890). She was also the great-granddaughter on her father's side of Oakes Ames (1804–1873), an industrialist and congressman who was implicated in the Crédit Mobilier railroad scandal of 1872; and Governor-General of New Orleans Benjamin Franklin Butler, an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts.  George had three siblings: Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton Jr., Oakes Ames Plimpton, and Sarah Gay Plimpton.

Education.

Plimpton attended St. Bernard's School, Phillips Exeter Academy (from which he was expelled just shy of graduation), and Mainland High School, where he received his high school diploma before entering Harvard College in July 1944. He wrote for the "Harvard Lampoon", was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, Pi Eta, the Signet Society, and the Porcellian Club. He majored in English. Plimpton entered Harvard as a member of the Class of 1948, but did not graduate until 1950 due to intervening military service. He was also an accomplished birdwatcher.  Plimpton's studies were interrupted by military service lasting from 1945 to 1948, during which he served as a tank driver in Italy for the U.S. Army. After graduating from Harvard, he attended King's College at Cambridge University in England. He studied there from 1950 to 1952 and graduated with third class honors, BA in English.

Career.

Literary criticism.

In 1953, Plimpton joined the influential literary journal "The Paris Review", founded by Peter Matthiessen, Thomas H. Guinzburg, and Harold L. "Doc" Humes, becoming its first editor in chief. This periodical has carried great weight in the literary world, but has never been financially strong; for its first half-century, it was allegedly largely financed by its publishers and by Plimpton. Peter Matthiessen took the magazine over from Humes and ousted him as editor, replacing him with Plimpton, using it as his cover for his CIA activities. Jean Stein became his co-editor. Plimpton was associated with the literary magazine in Paris, "Merlin", which folded because the State Department withdrew its support. Future Poet Laureate Donald Hall, who had met Plimpton at Exeter, was Poetry Editor. One of the magazine's most notable discoveries was author and screenplay writer Terry Southern, who was living in Paris at the time and formed a lifelong friendship with Plimpton, along with writer Alexander Trocchi and future classical and jazz pioneer David Amram.

Sports journalism.

Outside the literary world, Plimpton was famous for competing in professional sporting events and then recording the experience from the point of view of an amateur. In 1958, prior to a post-season exhibition game at Yankee Stadium between teams managed by Willie Mays (National League) and Mickey Mantle (American League), Plimpton pitched against the National League. His experience was captured in the book "Out of My League". (He intended to face both line-ups, but tired badly and was relieved by Ralph Houk.) Plimpton sparred for three rounds with boxing greats Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson while on assignment for "Sports Illustrated".  In 1963, Plimpton attended preseason training with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League as a backup quarterback, and he ran a few plays in an intrasquad scrimmage. These events were recalled in his best-known book "Paper Lion", which was later adapted into a 1968 feature film starring Alan Alda. Plimpton revisited pro football in 1971, this time joining the Baltimore Colts and seeing action in an exhibition game against his previous team, the Lions. These experiences served as the basis of another football book, "Mad Ducks and Bears", although much of the book dealt with the off-field escapades and observations of football friends Alex Karras ("Mad Duck") and John Gordy ("Bear"). Another sports book, "Open Net", saw him train as an ice hockey goalie with the Boston Bruins, even playing part of a National Hockey League preseason game.  Plimpton's "The Bogey Man" chronicles his attempt to play professional golf on the PGA Tour during the Nicklaus and Palmer era of the 1960s. Among other challenges for "Sports Illustrated", he attempted to play top-level bridge, and spent some time as a high-wire circus performer. Some of these events, such as his stint with the Colts, and an attempt at stand-up comedy, were presented on the ABC television network as a series of specials.  In 1994 Plimpton appeared several times in the Ken Burns series "Baseball", in which he shared some personal baseball experiences as well as other memorable events throughout the history of baseball.

Sidd Finch.

In the April 1,1985 issue of "Sports Illustrated", Plimpton pulled off a widely reported April Fools' Day prank. With the help of the New York Mets organization and several Mets players, Plimpton wrote a convincing account of a new unknown pitcher in the Mets spring training camp named Siddhartha Finch who threw a baseball over 160 mph, wore a heavy boot on one foot, and was a practicing Buddhist with a largely unknown background. The prank was so successful that many readers believed the story, and the ensuing popularity of the joke resulted in Plimpton writing an entire book on Finch.

Other writing.

A personal friend of the New England Sedgwick family, Plimpton edited "Edie: An American Biography" with Jean Stein in 1982. He also appeared in a brief interview footage about Edie Sedgwick in the DVD extra for the film "Ciao! Manhattan". In addition, he appeared in the PBS "American Masters" documentary on Andy Warhol. Plimpton also appeared in the closing credits of the 2006 film "Factory Girl".  Between 2000 and 2003, Plimpton wrote the libretto to a new opera, Animal Tales, commissioned by Family Opera Initiative, with music by Kitty Brazelton directed by Grethe Barrett Holby. He wrote, "I suppose in a mild way there is a lesson to be learned for the young, or the young at heart – the gumption to get out and try one's wings."

Acting.

Plimpton also appeared in a number of feature films as an extra and in cameo appearances. He had a small role in the Oscar-winning film "Good Will Hunting", playing a psychologist. Plimpton played Tom Hanks's antagonistic father in "Volunteers". He was also notable for his appearance in television commercials during the early 1980s, including a memorable campaign for Mattel's Intellivision. In this campaign, Plimpton aggressively touted the superiority of Intellivision video games over those of competitors such as the Atari 2600.  He hosted Disney Channel's "Mouseterpiece Theater" (a "Masterpiece Theatre" spoof which featured Disney cartoon shorts). In the "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can" episode of "The Simpsons", he hosts the "Spellympics" and attempts to bribe Lisa Simpson to lose with the offer of a scholarship at a Seven Sisters College and a hot plate; "it's perfect for soup!" He had a recurring role as the grandfather of Dr. Carter on the NBC series "ER". He also appeared in an episode of the NBC sitcom "Wings".  Plimpton appeared in the 1989 documentary "The Tightrope Dancer" which featured the life and the work of the artist Vali Myers. He was one of her original supporters and had published an article about her work in "The Paris Review". He also appeared in the 1996 documentary "When We Were Kings" about the "Rumble in the Jungle" 1974 Ali-Foreman Championship fight opposite Norman Mailer crediting Muhammad Ali as a poet who composed the world's shortest poem: "Me? Whee!!"  Plimpton was a member of the cast of the A&E TV series "A Nero Wolfe Mystery" (2001–02). In 2013, the documentary "Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself", directed by Tom Bean and Luke Poling, was released. The film used archival audio and video of Plimpton lecturing and reading to create a posthumous narration.

Fireworks.

Plimpton was a demolitions expert in the post-World War II Army. After returning to New York from Paris, he routinely fired off fireworks at his evening parties.  His enthusiasm for fireworks grew, and he was appointed Fireworks Commissioner of New York by Mayor John Lindsay, an unofficial post he held until his death.  In 1975, in Bellport, Long Island, Plimpton, with Fireworks by Grucci attempted to break the record for the world's largest firework. His firework, a Roman candle named "Fat Man", weighed and was expected to rise to or more and deliver a wide starburst. When lit, the firework remained on the ground and exploded, blasting a crater wide and deep. A later attempt, fired at Cape Canaveral, rose approximately into the air and broke 700 windows in Titusville, Florida.  With Felix Grucci, Plimpton competed in the 16th International Fireworks Festival in 1979 in Monte Carlo. After several problems with transporting and preparing the fireworks, Plimpton and Grucci became the first competitors from the United States to win the event. Plimpton later wrote the book "Fireworks", and hosted an A&E Home Video with the same name featuring his many fireworks adventures with the Gruccis of New York in Monte Carlo and for the 1983 Brooklyn Bridge Centennial.

Parodies of Plimpton's career.

A November 6, 1971, cartoon in "The New Yorker" by Whitney Darrow Jr. shows a cleaning lady on her hands and knees scrubbing an office floor while saying to another one: "I'd like to see George Plimpton do "this" sometime." In another cartoon in "The New Yorker", a patient looks up at the masked surgeon about to operate on him and asks, "Wait a minute! How do I know you're not George Plimpton?" A feature in "Mad" titled "Some Really Dangerous Jobs for George Plimpton" spotlighted him trying to swim across Lake Erie, strolling through New York's Times Square in the middle of the night, and spending a week with Jerry Lewis.

Personal life.

Plimpton was married twice. His first wife, whom he married in 1968 and divorced in 1988, was Freddy Medora Espy, a photographer's assistant. She was the daughter of writers Willard R. Espy and Hilda S. Cole, who had, earlier in her career, been a publicity agent for Kate Smith and Fred Waring. They had two children: Medora Ames Plimpton and Taylor Ames Plimpton, who has published a memoir entitled "Notes from the Night: A Life After Dark".  In 1992, Plimpton married Sarah Whitehead Dudley, a graduate of Columbia University and a freelance writer. She is the daughter of James Chittenden Dudley, a managing partner of Manhattan-based investment firm Dudley and Company, and geologist Elisabeth Claypool. The Dudleys established the Highstead Arboretum in Redding, Connecticut. Plimpton and Dudley were the parents of twin daughters Laura Dudley Plimpton and Olivia Hartley Plimpton.

Friendship with Robert Kennedy.

At Harvard, Plimpton was a classmate and close personal friend of Robert F. Kennedy. Plimpton, along with former decathlete Rafer Johnson and American football star Rosey Grier, was credited with helping wrestle Sirhan Sirhan to the floor when Kennedy was assassinated following his victory in the 1968 California Democratic primary at the former Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Kennedy died the next day at Good Samaritan Hospital.

Death and tributes.

Plimpton died on September 25, 2003, in his New York City apartment from a heart attack later determined to have been caused by a catecholamine surge. He was 76.  An oral biography titled "George, Being George" was edited by Nelson W. Aldrich Jr., and released on October 21, 2008. The book offers memories of Plimpton from among other writers, such as Norman Mailer, William Styron, Gay Talese and Gore Vidal, and was written with the cooperation of both his ex-wife and his widow.  In the movie "Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton As Himself", the writer James Salter said of Plimpton that "he was writing in a genre that really doesn't permit greatness."  In 2006, the musician Jonathan Coulton wrote the song entitled "A Talk with George", a part of his 'Thing A Week' series, in tribute to Plimpton's many adventures and approach to life.  Plimpton is the protagonist of the semi-fictional "George Plimpton's Video Falconry", a 1983 ColecoVision game postulated by humorist John Hodgman and recreated by video game auteur Tom Fulp.  Researcher and writer Samuel Arbesman filed with NASA to name an asteroid after Plimpton; NASA issued the certificate 7932 Plimpton in 2009. His final interview appeared in The New York Sports Express of Oct. 2, 2003 by journalist Dave Hollander.

George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found "The Paris Review", as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was also famous for "participatory journalism" which included competing in professional sporting events, acting in a Western, performing a comedy act at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and playing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and then recording the experience from the point of view of an amateur.

George Plimpton (né le et mort le à New York) est un journaliste, essayiste, acteur et scénariste américain. Il fut l'un des trois fondateurs du périodique littéraire The Paris Review dont il fut l'éditeur de sa fondation en 1953 jusqu'à sa mort.


Localities.

For statistical purposes the municipality is divided into two non-administrative urban areas (tätort). The southern built-up area constituted until 2014 the multimunicipal urban area Täby which was partly situated in Danderyd Municipality. From 2015 it is considered part of Stockholm urban area  The northern built-up area, (Täby kyrkby) is part of the bimunicipal Vallentuna urban area, of which the main part constitutes the seat of Vallentuna Municipality.

Demography.

Income and education.

Täby is one of the wealthiest municipalities in Sweden, with the 2nd highest median income per capita. The share of highly educated persons, according to Statistics Sweden's definition: persons with post-secondary education that is three years or longer, is 43.9% and the 6th highest in the country.

Residents with a foreign background.

On 31 December 2017 the number of people with a (persons born outside of Sweden or with two parents born outside of Sweden) was 15 429, or 21.91% of the population (70 405 on 31 December 2017). On 31 December 2002 the number of residents with a foreign background was (per the same definition) 9 760, or 16.21% of the population (60 198 on 31 December 2002). On 31 December 2017 there were 70 405 residents in Täby, of which 12 183 people (17.30%) were born in a country other than Sweden. Divided by country in the table below – the Nordic countries as well as the 12 most common countries of birth outside of Sweden for Swedish residents have been included, with other countries of birth bundled together by continent by Statistics Sweden.

Public transportation.

The municipality is served by the Stockholm public transport system through SL. There are twelve stops on all the three branches of the narrow gauge Roslagsbanan suburban railway. There is also bus connection with the Stockholm metro as well as an extensive internal bus network.

History.

During the first millennium, Täby was part of the lands of the Svear, known as Svitjod. Remains from this period can be found in more than 37 runestones found in the municipality. In the north of the municipality can be found, the remains of the 11th-century causeway known as "Jarlabankes bro". The cross on Täby's coat of arms is found on the Risbylestenen, a runestone, in the northern part of the municipality. It is said that this runestone shows the first signs of Christianity reaching this part of Europe. During the Middle Ages, Täby was part of the Attundaland region. Täby remained a rural community until the 19th century. Most of the land was owned by the noble families. During the 16th and 17th centuries, most of the land in eastern Täby was owned by the Brahe family of Rydboholm Manor ("Rydboholms slott"). Other noble families owning land in Täby at different times during this period were Banér, Bååth, Roos, Sparre, Gyllenstierna and Meijerfeldt.  The latter two owned, at different times, Näsby Manor ("Näsby Slott") in the southeast of the municipality. By 1790 Täby had a population of approximately 900 people, most of them living on one of the 36 farms. By the end of the 19th century the population had grown to approximately 1,250. In 1885, the Roslagsbanan narrow-gauge railway was built, connecting Täby with the city of Stockholm. Täby experienced a population expansion. People settled near the railway stations. In 1902 the wealthy engineer Carl Robert Lamm (1856–1938), acquired the burned down Näsby Manor and rebuilt it.  Around the time of the First World War many city dwellers in Stockholm acquired small summer residences in the eastern part of Täby, what is now the district of Näsbypark. By 1919 Täby's population had grown to 3,000. Some years after Second World War Täby increasingly became a suburb of Stockholm, and by 1947 the population had increased to 8,584, concentrated in the southern and eastern parts of the municipality.  In 1948 Täby acquired the title of a "merchant town" (), valid until the reform of 1971. This was also the beginning of the large scale development of Täby, led by the mayor Gustaf Berg. By 1975 the population had increased to 41,307 people.  Today, Täby is considered an attractive suburb to Stockholm with one of the highest median incomes in Sweden.

Politics.

Täby has for a long period of time been run by a coalition of centre-right parties. Filippa Reinfeldt, ex-wife of Fredrik Reinfeldt (the former Swedish Prime Minister and former leader of the Moderate Party), had been mayor of Täby for a long time, until Jan Rosenberg, of the Moderate Party, became the current mayor of Täby Municipality.  The slogan of the municipality is today in translation "Täby, the city on the countryside".

Sister towns.

Täby is twinned with the following municipalities:

Täby Municipality ("Täby kommun") is a municipality north of Stockholm in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Täby. Täby Municipality can be characterized as a suburb of Stockholm.

La commune de Täby est une commune suédoise du comté de Stockholm. personnes y vivent. Son chef-lieu se situe à Täby. Une des attractions de la ville est son centre commercial, Täby Centrum, l'un des plus grands de Suède.


Career.

Vega did reasonably well in Operacion Triunfo, but was not one of the finalists. At the end of the series, each contestant not in the final was asked to release their own original'single'. This was a smart move by the programme makers, as it introduced a further element of competition: contestants who sold more than 200,000 copies of their single won a recording contract for a debut album. Vega's single was "Quiero Ser Tú" (I want to be you) - a bewitching, unusual and sophisticated track which she wrote herself - and it sold well enough to allow her to win her recording contract. The result, India, featured 11 self-written tracks, including covers of Frank Sinatra (That's life) and K's Choice's (Believe). "Grita!" ('Shout!') was the first single and was followed by "La verdad" ('The Truth'), which was a duet with Elena Gadel, also a contestant from Operacion Triunfo. Grita! reached number 1 in Spain, receiving airplay also in Belgium, Russia, and the United Kingdom. The last single was "Directo al Sol" ('Straight to the Sun'). The album contained a hidden track, "Mi Habitacion" (My room). India was one of the best-selling albums of 2004, and went Gold, largely due to its daring and original approach to songwriting and production: for instance, the title track is a 6 and a half minute piano and voice only; and the album's final track ends with Vega stringing lines from all the earlier tracks on the album into one exhilarating, extended riff.  In 2006, after various wrangles with unsympathetic A&R in her new record company Universal Spain, Vega released her second album : Circular, with the first single being 'Una Vida Contigo' (A Life With You). All but one of the tracks ("Solo Quiero Amanecer" written by Dani from El Canto Del Loco) were written by Vega. The album stalled at #40 in the Spanish charts, although the single received huge radio play. After a period of little activity, things began to pick up. 'Una Vida Contigo' earned Vega an "Autora Revelación a Los Premios de la Musica" nomination. Her recording company then decided to re-release Circular with the subtitle "Como Girar Sin Dar La Vuelta" (How to go round without going back). The release included two new songs, including the second single "Y Llueve.." (And it's raining) and the song "Clave De Sol" (Key of G). The album also featured different artwork/graphics. Songs from the album are featured regularly on the Spanish TV version of Ugly Betty (Yo Soy Bea). Vega spent the first months of 2007 on a nationwide tour to support the new album.  Her album, "Metamorfosis", was released in 2009.

Mercedes Mígel Carpio (born 18 February 1979, in Córdoba, Spain), better known as Vega, is a Spanish singer-songwriter. Her interest in music started when she was a child. She studied Advertising and Public Relations in Segovia, where she also worked as a waitress. She left her university career to be a contestant in Operación Triunfo 2002, her springboard to fame. Her musical style can be defined as the classical Spanish canción de autor or singer-songwriter, but it shows influences of Frank Sinatra, K's Choice and Los Planetas.

Mercedes Mígel Carpio, alias Vega (née le à Cordoue, Espagne) est une auteur-compositrice-interprète espagnole. Son intérêt pour la musique est né dès l'enfance.


Early life.

Montgomery was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia to Nicola (née Montgomery), an executive and market researcher, and Phil Donaghue, a restaurateur. She is one of six children. Her parents named all their daughters after flowers – Poppy, Rosie, Daisy, Lily and Marigold, and their son Jethro Tull, after the rock band Jethro Tull.  Montgomery disliked school, being expelled from six private academies before finally dropping out at the age of 15 to pursue stage acting and to travel around Bali with her then boyfriend. Montgomery emigrated to the United States at the age of 18, arriving in Florida to meet a boyfriend whom she had met when he was an exchange student. After five days, she realized that "[she] couldn't stand him" and took a bus to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.

Career.

When Montgomery moved to Los Angeles, she stayed with two of her brother's friends while sending a head shot every day to Julia Roberts' former manager, Bob McGowan, until he signed her. She appeared in several small television roles through the late-1990s, including "NYPD Blue".  Her first big break was when she won the role of Marilyn Monroe in the 2001 CBS miniseries "Blonde", based on a Joyce Carol Oates novel. The next role she was offered was a starring role as Samantha Spade on the CBS mystery drama "Without a Trace". The series revolved around a missing-persons unit of the FBI in New York City. On being offered the part, she later said, "They (the producers) called me up and said, 'Will you do it?' I said, 'Um' and they said, 'Anthony LaPaglia is in it' and I said,'sure'. It was that simple." Montgomery portrayed Samantha Spade for seven seasons, from when the show began on 26 September 2002 until it ended on 19 May 2009.  In April 2011, Montgomery completed filming a television biographical film "Magic Beyond Words", appearing as Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling.  That same year, she began to star in the CBS police drama "Unforgettable" as Carrie Wells, a former homicide detective with hyperthymesia which allows her to have perfect recall, who is convinced to join the NYPD in Queens by her ex-boyfriend, after leaving Syracuse because of the investigation into her sister's murder being shut down. She uses her memory to solve crimes. The first season ran from 20 September 2011 until 8 May 2012, and the show was initially cancelled by CBS on 12 May 2012. It was later renewed for a second season of 13 episodes, which ran from 28 July 2013 to 9 May 2014, and the third season ran from 29 June 2014 to 14 September 2014. In October 2014, CBS cancelled the series again after the third season. In February 2015, A&E Network picked up the series for a fourth season of 13 episodes. The season ran on A&E from 27 November 2015 to 22 January 2016, and the series was cancelled in February 2016.  Montgomery posed in a series of provocative photographs on "Maxim"'s website in their "Girls of "Maxim"" feature.

Personal life.

Montgomery met actor Adam Kaufman in 2005 in Mexico while working on the independent film "Between" and in 2010, they worked together again in the TV film "Lying to be Perfect". In 2007, Kaufman began a recurring role on "Without a Trace" in the season-five episode "At Rest" as Brian Donovan, Samantha's love interest for the rest of the series. In June 2007, Montgomery announced her pregnancy with Kaufman, which was written into season six. In December 2007, she gave birth to their son Jackson Phillip. Montgomery's "Without a Trace" co-star Anthony LaPaglia became Jackson's godfather. On 10 October 2011 in "Life & Style", Montgomery and Kaufman were reported to have separated.  In late 2011, Montgomery began dating Shawn Sanford, director of lifestyle marketing for Microsoft, whom she met in Puerto Rico. In April 2013, she gave birth to their daughter, Violet Grace. In November 2014, she gave birth to their son, Gus Monroe. On the 4 April 2014 episode of "Live! with Kelly and Michael", Montgomery revealed that on Chinese New Year, she and Sanford were married at Disneyland in a ceremony with their children present.  Montgomery holds both Australian and American citizenship. She moved from Los Angeles to New York City in 2013 to continue filming "Unforgettable".

Poppy Montgomery (born Poppy Petal Emma Elizabeth Deveraux Donaghue; 1972) is an Australian-American actress. She played FBI agent Samantha Spade on the CBS mystery drama "Without a Trace" from 2002 to 2009, and played Detective Carrie Wells on the CBS/A&E police drama "Unforgettable" from 2011 to 2016.

Poppy Montgomery (née Poppy Petal Emma Elizabeth Deveraux Donahue) est une actrice australienne, née le à Sydney. Elle est surtout connue pour le rôle de Carrie Wells dans "Unforgettable". Elle s'est aussi fait connaître dans la série "" où elle incarne le rôle de Samantha Spade.


Origins.

Historical context and music backgrounds.

In the era when the Wrecking Crew was in demand, session players were usually active in local recording scenes concentrated in places such as New York City, Nashville, Memphis, Detroit, and Muscle Shoals, as well as Los Angeles, the Wrecking Crew's base of operations.<ref name="Memphis/Nashville/Muscle Shoals">Source A: Source B: Source C: </ref> Each local scene had its circle of "A-list" session musicians, such as The Nashville A-Team that played on numerous country and rock hits of the era, the two groups of musicians in Memphis, the Memphis Boys and the musicians who backed Stax/Volt recordings, and the Funk Brothers in Detroit, who played on many Motown recordings.  At the time, multi-tracking equipment, though common, was less elaborate, and instrumental backing tracks were often recorded "hot" with an ensemble playing live in the studio. Musicians had to be available "on call" when producers needed a part to fill a last-minute time slot. Los Angeles was then considered the top recording destination in the United States—consequently studios were constantly booked around the clock, and session time was highly sought after and expensive.<ref name="JazzWax (Byrds/studio expense)"></ref> Songs had to be recorded quickly in the fewest possible takes. In this environment, Los Angeles producers and record executives had little patience for needless expense or wasted time and depended on the service of reliable standby musicians who could be counted on to record in a variety of styles with minimal practice or takes, and deliver hits on short order.  The Wrecking Crew were the "go to" session musicians in Los Angeles during this era. Its members were musically versatile but typically had formal backgrounds in jazz or classical music, and were exceptional at sight reading. The talent of this group of "first call" players was used in almost every style of recording, including television theme songs, film scores, advertising jingles and many genres of American popular music from the Monkees to Bing Crosby. Several of the Los Angeles recording studios in which the Wrecking Crew regularly appeared were Gold Star Studios, United Western Recorders built by Bill Putnam, Capitol Records' studios located at their tower on Vine Street, Columbia Records' Los Angeles complex, and the RCA recording facility, which was located on Sunset Boulevard near Wallichs Music City, a music store that often supplied instruments for L.A. session players. Like all session musicians who worked in Los Angeles, the Wrecking Crew's members belonged to the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), Local 47, which represented their interests in areas such as pay scale and enforcement of regulations.

Name.

The name "Wrecking Crew" was popularized by drummer and member Hal Blaine in his 1990 memoir, "Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew". Though the unit did not have an official moniker during their years of activity, Blaine has stated that the term was sometimes used disparagingly in the early 1960s by members of the industry's old guard of "coat and tie" session players, who felt that, with their penchant for wearing "t-shirts and jeans" to sessions and their embrace of rock and roll, they were going to "wreck" the music industry. According to biographer Kent Hartman, "Some of the studio musicians I interviewed swear they heard it applied to themselves as early as 1963; others say it was later. One says it was never used at all". Blaine's memoirs, and the attention that followed, cast new light on the Wrecking Crew's role in many famous recordings.  Guitarist and bassist Carol Kaye has disputed Blaine's account of the name and stated, "We were never known as that. Sometimes we were called 'the Clique', but [the Wrecking Crew is] a Hal Blaine invented name for his own self-promotion in 1990..." Songfacts stated: "We couldn't find any references to 'The Wrecking Crew' in any publications from the era." In response to Kaye's contention, Blaine denied that anyone had ever heard the name "The Clique".

Formation.

The beginnings of the group can be traced to session musicians of the late 1950s including Earl Palmer, Hal Blaine and a group headed by bassist and guitarist Ray Pohlman, sometimes referred to as the "First Call Gang". Earl Palmer was originally from New Orleans and had recorded with many Crescent City rhythm and blues musicians, such as Fats Domino. He moved to Los Angeles in 1957, and in the 1960s played on hit records by artists such as Ike and Tina Turner, Glen Campbell, Jan and Dean, Righteous Brothers, the Beach Boys, the Ronettes, the Everly Brothers, and Sonny & Cher. Pohlman was one of the first session musicians in Los Angeles to use an electric bass in recordings, and by the early 1960s became highly sought after in rock recordings, playing on many records by Jan and Dean and the Beach Boys.  In 1962, Spector started a new label, Philles Records, and recorded the song "He's a Rebel", which would be credited to the Crystals. He enlisted the aid of his high-school friend, saxophonist Steve Douglas, who was also working as a contractor in charge of recruiting musicians for recording sessions. Douglas helped him corral the backing unit, which included Pohlman, guitarists Howard Roberts and Tommy Tedesco, pianist Al De Lory, upright bassist Jimmy Bond, and Hal Blaine on drums. They booked Studio A at Gold Star Studios, known for its deeply reverberant echo chambers, which became the preferred recording facility for Spector. The unit became an essential component in developing his "Wall of Sound" style, starting with "He's a Rebel" and a series of several more hits by the Crystals ("Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me") and other girl groups, such as the Ronettes ("Be My Baby" and "Baby, I Love You"). It was on these recordings that the Wrecking Crew emerged in their most recognizable form and became the most coveted session players in Los Angeles's thriving recording scene. With them, Spector went on to produce other records by the Righteous Brothers ("You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", "Ebb Tide", and "Unchained Melody") and Ike and Tina Turner ("River Deep – Mountain High").

Associated producers.

The Wrecking Crew proceeded to work with dozens of other producers, such as Brian Wilson, Terry Melcher, Lou Adler, Bones Howe, Jimmy Bowen, and Mike Post. As side players, they were teamed with artists as diverse as Jan & Dean, Bobby Vee, Nancy Sinatra, the Grass Roots, Simon & Garfunkel, Glen Campbell, the Partridge Family, David Cassidy (in his solo work), the Carpenters, John Denver and Nat King Cole.<ref name="Niesel (Scene/Artits/Crew)"></ref> During this heady period the unit worked long hours—15-hour days were not unusual—but they were paid exceedingly well.<ref name="Jagger (Crew/15-hrs)"></ref> Carol Kaye commented, "I was making more money than the President". Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys produced and co-wrote many of their most famous tracks, and used the Wrecking Crew's talents extensively in the mid-1960s, including on songs such as "Help Me, Rhonda", "California Girls", and "Good Vibrations" as well as several of their album projects of the period, including "Pet Sounds" and the original sessions for "Smile".<ref name="Hartman (Beach Boys/Crew/Esquire)"></ref>  Members of the Wrecking Crew served as "ghost players" on the first single by the Byrds, "Mr. Tambourine Man", because Columbia Records—namely, producer Terry Melcher—did not feel that the group (except for Roger McGuinn) were seasoned enough to deliver the kind of perfect take needed, particularly in light of the limited time and budget allocated to the newly signed and unproven group—on a label that was only just beginning to embrace rock. Lou Adler was one of Los Angeles' top music executives and produced records by acts such as Jan and Dean and The Mamas & the Papas, which were often backed by the Wrecking Crew, as on "California Dreamin'" and "Monday Monday". Bones Howe had worked as an engineer under Adler and used the Wrecking Crew when he produced hits by the Association (including "Windy", "Everything That Touches You", and "Never My Love") and the 5th Dimension (including "Up, Up and Away", "Stoned Soul Picnic", and "Aquarius"). Sonny and Cher recorded several Wrecking Crew-backed hits including "I Got You Babe" and "The Beat Goes On", which were produced by Sonny Bono, who had previously worked as Phil Spector's aide. Many of Cher's solo records in the 1960s and early 1970s featured the backing of the Wrecking Crew, such as "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" produced by Snuff Garrett in 1971. Jimmy Bowen produced Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" in 1966 and Mike Post produced Mason Williams' 1968 hit "Classical Gas", both of which were backed by members of the Wrecking Crew.

Musicians.

Bass, drums, and percussion.

Carol Kaye provided an exception to the predominantly male world of Los Angeles session work in the 1960s. Originally a guitarist, she began doing session work in Los Angeles in the late 1950s, playing behind Ritchie Valens on "La Bamba" and in the 1960s becoming a regular contributor on Phil Spector's recordings as well as on Beach Boys songs, such as "Help Me, Rhonda" and their subsequent "Pet Sounds" and "Smile" LPs. Ray Pohlman, who had assumed an early leadership position in the Wrecking Crew, became the musical director for the "Shindig!" TV show in 1965, resulting in reduced studio work from that point on. After Pohlman's move to television, Kaye increasingly concentrated on the electric bass, becoming one of the few female "first call" players on the L.A. scene. She supplied the signature bass line in Sonny and Cher's "The Beat Goes On" released in 1967. Kaye was often teamed with Pohlman on pop music sessions (e.g. those for the Beach Boys) since it was a common practice at that time to reinforce the sound by "doubling" certain instruments like the bass, and producers and arrangers often recorded the bass parts with an acoustic and an electric bass playing together. Kaye would become known as one of the most prolific and widely heard bass guitarists, playing on an estimated 10,000 recordings in a career spanning more than 50 years.  Joe Osborn played bass on numerous Wrecking Crew-backed songs, such as Glen Campbell's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", The Mamas & the Papas' "California Dreamin'", Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park", and the 5th Dimension's "Up, Up and Away". Other notable electric bassists who played with the Wrecking Crew were Bill Pitman, Max Bennett, Red Callender, Chuck Rainey, and Bob West, as well as Jimmy Bond, Lyle Ritz, Chuck Berghofer, who played acoustic upright bass.  Drummer Earl Palmer contributed to a handful of hits in the 1960s with the Wrecking Crew, including Phil Spector-produced tracks such as Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" in 1964, and Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep – Mountain High" in 1966. Hal Blaine, with his abundance of musical skills, personality, and charisma, is also mentioned as having a prominent role in the Wrecking Crew's success during their heyday.<ref name="Miller (Blaine/Palmer)"></ref> Though he had played primarily big band and jazz, he took a job in Tommy Sands' rockabilly group in the late 1950s, discovering a newfound appreciation for rock and roll, which by the beginning of the new decade led to session work in Los Angeles studios, where he became acquainted with Earl Palmer and saxophonist Steve Douglas. Blaine played on Elvis Presley's 1961 hit "Can't Help Falling in Love". Shortly thereafter, he began playing on sessions for Phil Spector, quickly becoming the producer's preferred drummer, and, along with Earl Palmer, became one of the two top session drummers in Los Angeles. Blaine is reputed to have played on over 140 top ten hits including approximately 40 No. 1 hits, such as "I Got You Babe" by Sonny & Cher, "Mr Tambourine Man" by the Byrds, and "Strangers in the Night" by Frank Sinatra, as well as numerous others and has been mentioned by Drummerworld as perhaps the most prolific recording drummer in history. Jim Gordon began as an understudy of Blaine, but with the passage of time emerged as a first call player in the Wrecking Crew, playing on parts of the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" album and on hits such as "Classical Gas" and "Wichita Lineman".  Other drummers who played in the Wrecking Crew were Frank Capp, John Clauder, and Joe Porcaro. Gary Coleman played vibraphone and a variety of percussion instruments and contributed to works such as the soundtrack of the musical "Hair" and Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" album. Some of the other Wrecking Crew percussionists were Julius Wechter, Milt Holland, Gene Estes, and Victor Feldman. Drummer Jim Keltner is sometimes mentioned in connection with the Wrecking Crew, because he befriended Hal Blaine in the 1960s and would later play with the Wrecking Crew on John Lennon's "Rock 'n' Roll" album recorded in 1973, but he is more often associated with the later generation of session players who eclipsed the Wrecking Crew in terms of popularity during the 1970s.

Guitars and keyboards.

Guitarist and sometimes bassist Bill Pitman factored prominently in much of the Wrecking Crew's work. For a brief time in the late 1950s he provided guitar lessons for a young Phil Spector, before Spector formed the Teddy Bears, who went on to record the surprise hit "To Know Him Is to Love Him" in 1958. Pitman ended up playing on Spector-produced records in the 1960s such as "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes. He can be heard on numerous hits from the period such as "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" by Jan & Dean, and "Mr. Tambourine Man" by the Byrds. Tommy Tedesco, born in an Italian family in Niagara Falls, New York, was another one of the Wrecking Crew's most renowned guitarists, playing along with Pitman on "Be My Baby" and "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)", as well as on the Champs "Limbo Rock". He provided the flamenco-influenced guitar licks in the 5th Dimension's "Up and Away" as well as the guitar intro to the popular "M*A*S*H" theme. Billy Strange was one of the top guitarists with the Wrecking Crew and played on hits such as "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" and the Beach Boys' version of "Sloop John B". In addition to playing sessions in Memphis, guitarist James Burton often recorded with the Wrecking Crew in Los Angeles in the 1960s.  Though Glen Campbell became better known as a highly successful country music artist in his own right, he played guitar in the Wrecking Crew during the 1960s and appeared along with them on several of the Beach Boys' classics of the period such as "I Get Around" and "Help Me Rhonda". In 1965 he toured with the Beach Boys, and in 1966 he and the Wrecking Crew played on the "Pet Sounds" album. Campbell enlisted the Wrecking Crew as a backup unit on many of his own solo records during the 1960s, such as on "Gentle on My Mind", and on two songs written by Jimmy Webb, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and his single "Wichita Lineman".  The Wrecking crew's ranks included a circle of keyboardists who contributed piano and organ parts to many of the famous songs of the era. Larry Knechtel, later in Bread, was a multi-instrumentalist who played keyboards on "California Dreamin'", "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "Classical Gas", as well as upright bass on "Eve of Destruction" and electric bass on Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man". Mike Melvoin, a classically trained pianist with an English degree from Dartmouth College, played organ and piano on many tracks on the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds", played organ on "Good Vibrations", and performed on keyboards on many of the sessions for the Beach Boys' never-completed "SMiLe" album. Don Randi contributed the piano part on Barry McGuire's 1965 hit "Eve of Destruction". Before becoming a solo artist, Leon Russell was a regular member of the Wrecking Crew and played in the Ronettes' "Be My Baby", and Jan & Dean's "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)". New Orleans' Mac Rebennack (later Dr. John) did session work with the Wrecking crew while living in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. Mike (Michel) Rubini was the son of Jan Rubini, a classical violinist, and initially played concert piano, but later became enamored with R&B and switched to playing popular music, eventually becoming a member of the Wrecking Crew and playing on hits such as Sonny & Cher's "The Beat Goes On" and Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night".

Brass, woodwinds, harmonica, and backing vocals.

Saxophonist Steve Douglas, who attended Fairfax High School with Phil Spector in the 1950s, got a call in 1962 to play on Spector's debut recording as a producer, "He's a Rebel", and would, from then on, become a regular fixture with the Wrecking Crew. Years later, in 1978, Douglas played on Bob Dylan's 1978 "Street-Legal" album and accompanied Dylan on tour that year as part of his eight piece backing band. Jim Horn played both saxophone and flute, and contributed parts to numerous tracks with Wrecking Crew, such as in the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin" and Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night". He played flute in the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" and "Good Vibrations" and would later become a member of John Denver's backing band. Plas Johnson provided the saxophone line in "The Pink Panther Theme" in the Champs' 1962 instrumental version of "Limbo Rock". Nino Tempo, who along with his sister Carol (under her stage name April Stevens) had scored a U.S. number 1 hit song in 1963, "Deep Purple", was also a member of the Wrecking Crew and played saxophone in the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and later appeared on John Lennon's "Rock 'n' Roll" album.  Other saxophonists who played sessions with the Wrecking Crew were Jackie Kelso, Jay Migliori, Gene Cipriano, Bill Green, and Allan Beutler. On trombone were Richard "Slyde" Hyde, Lew McCreary, and Dick Nash and on trumpet Bud Brisbois, Roy Caton, Chuck Findley, Ollie Mitchell, and Tony Terran. Tommy Morgan played harmonica on Wrecking Crew-backed tracks such as "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)". When backing vocals were needed the Ron Hicklin Singers were called in.

"T.A.M.I. Show" (1964).

Several members of the Wrecking Crew played in the house band for 1964's "T.A.M.I. Show", which was captured on film and sent to theaters around the country. Seen in camera shots showing the right-hand side of the stage are musical director Jack Nitzsche, Hal Blaine, Jimmy Bond, Tommy Tedesco, Bill Aken, Glen Campbell, Lyle Ritz, Leon Russell, Plas Johnson, among others, all providing incidental music and backing for many of acts such as Chuck Berry, the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, and Lesley Gore.

1970s–2010s.

Diminished output.

The Wrecking Crew's level of success could not be maintained indefinitely, and their services eventually fell out of demand. Kent Harman cites several factors in the Wrecking Crew's demise, beginning as far back as 1968 when the unit was at their peak of popularity: "By the middle of 1968, popular music was changing once again. In fact it was getting downright heavy. In the aftermath of the recent Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. slayings, the bloody Tet Offensive in Viet Nam, and the ever-growing level of campus unrest at universities around the country, Top 40 radio gradually began to lose step with the times". Hartman mentions that the runaway success that year of Richard Harris' elaborate seven-minute epic hit, "MacArthur Park", written by Jimmy Webb and featuring the Wrecking Crew's intricate backing, might have been another seed in their eventual decline:  The Wrecking Crew remained in demand in the early 1970s, even enjoying several hits, but by the end of 1973 they began to experience a downturn in bookings, as a series of changes in the recording industry began to take hold. Unlike earlier bands/artists such as the Monkees, the Grass Roots, The Partridge Family and David Cassidy that often utilized the Wrecking Crew for backing tracks (and as a backing band for Cassidy's earliest concert tours of America in 1971/2), rock groups in the early to mid 1970s began to stipulate in their recording contracts that they be allowed to play their own instruments on records. Younger session players such as Larry Carlton, Andrew Gold, Danny Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel, Russ Kunkel, Jeff Porcaro, Leland Sklar, and Jim Keltner had a more contemporary sound, better-suited to the changing musical tastes of the decade. By the mid-1970s, technological advances such as 16-track and 24-track tape recording machines and automated large-format multi-channel consoles made it viable for instruments to be recorded, often close-miked, onto separate tracks individually, reducing the need to hire ensembles to play live in the studio.<ref name="Rumsey/McCromick (70s record. auto.)"></ref> Synthesizers could approximate the sound of practically any instrument. Eventually, drum machines would become the norm, which could be specially programmed to keep beats in place of a drummer or be used for click tracks played in musicians' headphones, making it easier to overdub or re-record any part in-synch and achieve a more uniform and consistent tempo.

Post-Wrecking Crew careers.

In 1969, after scoring hits as a solo artist such as "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and "Wichita Lineman", Glen Campbell left the Wrecking Crew. Carol Kaye, exhausted from the constant pressure of the L.A. recording scene, went on to other musical endeavors. According to guitarist Bill Pitman, "You leave the house at seven o'clock in the morning, and you're at Universal at nine till noon; now you're at Capitol Records at one, you just got time to get there, then you got a jingle at four, then we're on a date with somebody at eight, then the Beach Boys at midnight, and you do that five days a week... jeez, man, you get burned out". Campbell went on to become one of country music's most popular performers during the 1970s with hits such as "Rhinestone Cowboy" and the Allen Toussaint-penned "Southern Nights".  By the mid-1970s many of the Wrecking Crew's members scattered and drifted into different spheres. Some members, such as Carol Kaye, Tony Terran, Gary Coleman, Earl Palmer and Tommy Tedesco, switched to television and motion picture soundtrack work. Leon Russell and Mac Rebennack (as Dr. John) both went on to become successful solo artists and songwriters, enjoying hit singles and albums during the 1970s. Jim Keltner went on to a successful career as a session drummer for much of the 1970s–90s; he played in Ringo Starr's All-Starr band and was the drummer on both albums by the supergroup Traveling Wilburys, where he is credited as "Buster Sidebury". Beginning in 1973 he hosted a regular weekly jam session at Los Angeles clubs called "the Jim Keltner Fan Club" frequented by many of the younger L.A. session musicians of the time (Danny Kortchmar, Russ Kunkel, Waddy Wachtel, Leland Sklar, and Jeff and Steve Porcaro, etc.).  The unit did a brief, but ill-fated reunion session with Phil Spector in 1992. In 2001, members of The Wrecking Crew reunited in the studio with David Cassidy to recreate Cassidy's hit songs from the 1970s, both solo and with The Partridge Family. These recordings resulted in the album "Then and Now" which was hugely successful internationally and went platinum in 2002. More recently, they backed Glen Campbell in his song "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" taken from the soundtrack of the 2015 documentary "".<ref name="Ayers (Campbell/Crew)"></ref>

Legacy.

The Wrecking Crew backed dozens of popular acts and were one of the most successful groups of studio musicians in music history. According to Kent Hartman, "... if a rock-and-roll song came out of an L.A. recording studio from between about 1962 and 1972, the odds are good that some combination of the Wrecking Crew played the instruments. No single group of musicians has ever played on more hits in support of more stars than this superbly talented—yet virtually anonymous group of men (and one woman)". According to "The New Yorker", "The Wrecking Crew passed into a history that it largely created, imperfectly acknowledged but perfectly present in hundreds of American pop songs known to all". In 2008, the Wrecking Crew were featured in the documentary film "The Wrecking Crew", directed by Tommy Tedesco's son, Denny Tedesco. In 2014, its musicians were depicted in the Brian Wilson biopic "Love & Mercy".  Two of their members, drummers Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer, were among the inaugural "sidemen" inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, and the entire Wrecking Crew was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2010, Blaine was elected into the "Modern Drummer" Hall of Fame.

List of members.

Sources: Kent Hartman ("The Wrecking Crew") and Robert Lloyd ("Time of the Session"; "LA Weekly")

The Wrecking Crew was a loose collective of session musicians based in Los Angeles whose services were employed for thousands of studio recordings in the 1960s and 1970s, including several hundred Top 40 hits. The musicians were not publicly recognized in their era, but were viewed with reverence by industry insiders. They are now considered one of the most successful and prolific session recording units in music history.

Les compétences de ces musiciens ont été utilisées sur pratiquement tous les styles d'enregistrements, y compris les bandes sonores de séries télévisées ou de films, les musiques de publicité et pratiquement tous les genres de musique populaire américaine, des Monkees à Bing Crosby. Les personnalités les plus souvent associées au Wrecking Crew sont notamment Phil Spector qui a utilisé le groupe pour créer son fameux effet dit du "Wall of Sound", et Brian Wilson — membre principal des Beach Boys — sur beaucoup de ses productions du milieu des années 1960, y compris les chansons "California Girls", "Good Vibrations" et l'album décisif "Pet Sounds".


Biography.

Paléologue was born in Paris as the son of Alexandru Paleologu, a Wallachian Romanian revolutionary who had fled to France after attempting to assassinate Prince Gheorghe Bibescu during the 1848 Wallachian revolution. Alexandru was one of three illegitimate children of Elisabeta Văcărescu of the Văcărescu family of boyars. He and his siblings were later adopted by Zoe Văcărescu, Elisabeta's mother, who gave the children her Greek maiden name "Paleologu". The name became "Paléologue" in French language spellings. The family's relation to the Palaiologos Byzantine Imperial family is doubtful, though Alexandru's ancestors claimed it at the end of the 17th century.

Diplomat.

After graduating in law, Paléologue obtained a position with the French Foreign Ministry in 1880 and moved on to become Embassy Secretary at Tangiers in the Morocco Protectorate and then in Beijing (China) and later in Italy. A Minister Plenipotentiary in 1901, he represented France in Bulgaria (1907–1912) and Imperial Russia (1914–1917). He became General Secretary of the Foreign Ministry in the Alexandre Millerand cabinet.  An Austrian diplomat described his personality in 1911:  The British ambassador to Moscow in 1914 provided a similar description:  His most important and controversial role came when he was the French ambassador to Russia in July 1914. He hated Germany and believed that when war broke out, France and Russia had to be close allies against Germany. His approach agreed with French President Raymond Poincaré, who trusted him. He promised unconditional French support to Russia in the unfolding crisis with Germany and Austria.  Historians debate whether he exceeded his instructions and thereby helped hasten the war. There is agreement that he failed to inform Paris of exactly what was happening and the implications of the Russian mobilisation in launching a world war.

Later life.

Paléologue published essays and novels, and wrote contributions for the "Revue des deux mondes". He also wrote several works on the history of Russia in the wake of World War I that included an intimate portrait of the last tsaritsa, Alexandra Fyodorovna. He had been present at meetings between her and Grigori Rasputin, among others. He was called on to give his testimony during the Dreyfus Affair and left important notes on the topic.  Paléologue was elected a member of the Académie française in 1928. He died in Paris in 1944, a few months after the city's liberation.

Maurice Paléologue (13 January 1859 – 23 November 1944) was a French diplomat, historian, and essayist. He played a major role in the French entry into the First World War, when he was the French ambassador to Russia and supported the Russian mobilization against Germany that led to world war.

Maurice Paléologue, né le à Paris et mort le 18 novembre 1944 à son domicile parisien situé rue de Téhéran, est un diplomate, historien et essayiste français.


Early life and education.

Roland David Smith was born on March 9, 1906 in Decatur, Indiana and moved to Paulding, Ohio in 1921, where he attended high school. From 1924-25, he attended Ohio University in Athens (one year) and the University of Notre Dame, which he left after two weeks because there were no art courses. In between, Smith took a summer job working on the assembly line of an automobile factory. He then briefly studied art and poetry at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.  Moving to New York in 1926, he met Dorothy Dehner (to whom he was married from 1927 to 1952) and, on her advice, joined her painting studies at the Art Students League of New York. Among his teachers were the American painter John Sloan and the Czech modernist painter Jan Matulka, who had studied with Hans Hofmann. Matulka introduced Smith to the work of Picasso, Mondrian, Kandinsky, and the Russian Constructivists. In 1929, Smith met John D. Graham, who later introduced him to the welded-steel sculpture of Pablo Picasso and Julio González.

Work.

Early work.

Smith’s early friendship with painters such as Adolph Gottlieb and Milton Avery was reinforced during the Depression of the 1930s, when he participated in the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project in New York. Through the Russian émigré artist John Graham, Smith met avant-garde artists such as Stuart Davis, Arshile Gorky and Willem de Kooning. He also discovered the welded sculptures of Julio González and Picasso, which led to an increasing interest in combining painting and construction.  In the Virgin Islands in 1931–32, Smith made his first sculpture from pieces of coral. In 1932, he installed a forge and anvil in his studio at the farm in Bolton Landing that he and Dehner had bought a few years earlier. Smith started by making three-dimensional objects from wood, wire, coral, soldered metal and other found materials but soon graduated to using an oxyacetylene torch to weld metal heads, which are probably the first welded metal sculptures ever made in the United States. A single work may consist of several materials, differentiated by varied patinas and polychromy. In 1940, the Smiths distanced themselves from the New York art scene and moved permanently to Bolton Landing near Lake George in Upstate New York. At Bolton Landing, he ran his studio like a factory, stocked with large amounts of raw material. The artist would put his sculptures in what is referred to as an upper and lower field, and sometimes he would put them in rows, "as if they were farm crops".  During World War II, Smith worked as a welder for the American Locomotive Company, Schenectady, NY assembling locomotives and M7 tanks. He taught at Sarah Lawrence College.

After 1945.

After the war, with the additional skills that he had acquired, Smith released his pent-up energy and ideas in a burst of creation between 1945 and 1946. His output soared and he went about perfecting his own, very personal symbolism.  Traditionally, metal sculpture meant bronze casts, which artisans produced using a mold made by the artist. Smith, however, made his sculptures from scratch, welding together pieces of steel and other metals with his torch, in much the same way that a painter applied paint to a canvas; his sculptures are almost always unique works.  Smith, who often said, "I belong with the painters", made sculptures of subjects that had never before been shown in three dimensions. He made sculptural landscapes (e.g. "Hudson River Landscape"), still life sculptures (e.g. "Head as Still Life") and even a sculpture of a page of writing ("The Letter"). Perhaps his most revolutionary concept was that the only difference between painting and sculpture was the addition of a third dimension; he declared that the sculptor's "conception is as free as a that of the painter. His wealth of response is as great as his draftsmanship."  Smith was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 1950, which was renewed the following year. Freed from financial constraints, he made more and larger pieces, and for the first time was able to afford to make whole sculptures in stainless steel. He also began his practice of making sculptures in series, the first of which were the "Agricolas" of 1951-59. He steadily gained recognition, lecturing at universities and participating in symposia. He separated from Dehner in 1950, with divorce in 1952. During his time as a visiting artist at Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1955 and 1956, Smith produced the "Forgings", a series of eleven industrially forged steel sculptures. To create the "Forgings", he cut, plugged, flattened, pinched and bent each steel bar, later polishing, rusting, painting, lacquering or waxing its surface.  Beginning in the mid-1950s, Smith explored the technique of burnishing his stainless steel sculptures with a sander, a technique that would find its fullest expression in his "Cubi" series (1961–65). The scale of his works continued to increase - "Tanktotem III" of 1953 is 7' tall; "Zig I" from 1961 is 8'; and "5 Ciarcs" from 1963 is almost 13' tall. Finally, in the late 1950s Smith began using spray paint - then still a new medium - to create stenciled shapes out of negative space, in works closely tied to his late-career turn toward geometric planes and solids.  His family was also getting bigger; he remarried and had two daughters, Rebecca (born 1954) and Candida (born 1955). He named quite a few of his later works in honor of his children (e.g., "Bec-Dida Day", 1963, "Rebecca Circle", 1961, "Hi Candida", 1965).  The February 1960 issue of "Arts" magazine was devoted to Smith’s work; later that year he had his first West Coast exhibition, a solo show at the Everett Ellin Gallery in Los Angeles. The following year he rejected a third-place award at the Carnegie International, saying “the awards system in our day is archaic.”  In 1962, Gian Carlo Menotti invited Smith to make sculptures for the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. Given open access to an abandoned steel mill and provided with a group of assistants, he produced an amazing 27 pieces in 30 days. Not yet finished with the themes he developed, he had tons of steel shipped from Italy to Bolton Landing, and over the next 18 months he made another 25 sculptures known as the "Voltri-Bolton" series.  He died in a car crash near Bennington, Vermont on May 23, 1965. He was 59 years old.

Paintings and drawings.

Smith continued to paint and draw throughout his life. By 1953, he was producing between 300 and 400 drawings a year. His subjects encompassed the figure and landscape, as well as gestural, almost calligraphic marks made with egg yolk, Chinese ink and brushes and, in the late 1950s, the "sprays". He usually signed his drawings with the ancient Greek letters delta and sigma, meant to stand for his initials. In the winter of 1963-64, he began a series known as the "Last Nudes". The paintings in this series are essentially drawings of nudes on canvas. He drew with enamel paint squeezed from syringes or bottles onto a canvas spread onto the floor. "Untitled" ("Green Linear Nude") is painted in a metallic olive green enamel, and exemplifies the artist's late action paintings.

Major works.

Smith often worked in series. He is perhaps best known for the "Cubis", which were among the last pieces he completed before his death. The sculptures in this series are made of stainless steel with a hand-brushed finish reminiscent of the gestural strokes of Abstract Expressionist painting. The "Cubi" works consist of arrangements of geometric shapes, which highlight his interest in balance and the contrast between positive and negative space.  Prior to the "Cubis", Smith gained widespread attention for his sculptures often described as "drawings in space". He was originally trained as a painter and draftsman, and sculptures such as "Hudson River Landscape" (1950) and "The Letter" (both 1950) blurred the distinctions between sculpture and painting. These works make use of delicate tracery rather than solid form, with a two-dimensional appearance that contradicts the traditional idea of sculpture in the round.  As with many artists from the Modernist period, including Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, much of Smith's early work was heavily influenced by Surrealism. Some of the best examples are seen in the "Medals for Dishonor", a series of bronze reliefs that speak out against the atrocities of war. Images from these medals are strange, nightmarish, and often violent. His own descriptions give a vivid picture of the medals and strongly express condemnation of these acts, such as this statement about "Propaganda for War" (1939–40):  The rape of the mind by machines of death – the Hand of God points to atrocities. Atop the curly bull the red cross nurse blows the clarinet. The horse is dead in this bullfight arena – the bull is docile, can be ridden.

Legal controversy.

In the fall of 2013, Smith's estate became aware of a series of recent sculptures by the artist Lauren Clay, in which Clay appropriated the central geometrical motifs from Smith's "Cubi". Before Clay's sculptures were to be exhibited at the New Jersey sculpture park Grounds for Sculpture in October 2013, the estate contacted her and demanded an "accounting" of the work. Smith's estate accused Clay of copyright infringement and, at various points, demanded that she destroy her sculptures, or at least stop selling them. Smith's estate also threatened to sue Grounds for Sculpture if the sculptures were exhibited. However, Clay understood her works—much smaller in scale and produced out of colored paper—as critical commentary on Smith's iconic metal sculptures. As such, Clay felt that her sculptures constituted fair use under US copyright law. Eventually, the estate and Clay were able to reach an out-of-court settlement. Clay's exhibition at Grounds for Sculpture was initially canceled and then eventually rescheduled a year later. The estate agreed to allow Clay to exhibit and even sell the seven works, while Clay agreed that she would not add to the series or begin new works that referenced Smith's sculptures without mutual consent. Clay also agreed not to make multiples of her works, and to furnish an exhibition artist statement, when possible, attributing Smith.

Exhibitions.

Smith’s first solo show of drawings and welded-steel sculpture was held at the Willard Gallery in New York in 1938. In 1941, Smith sculptures were included in two traveling exhibitions organized by the Museum of Modern Art and were shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art's Annual exhibition in New York.  Smith represented the United States in the 1951 São Paulo Art Biennial and at the Venice Biennale in 1954 and 1958. Six of his sculptures were included in an exhibition organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, that traveled to Paris, Zurich, Düsseldorf, Stockholm, Helsinki, and Oslo in 1953-54; he was given a retrospective exhibition by MoMA in 1957. In 1961, the MoMA organized an exhibition of fifty Smith sculptures that traveled throughout the United States until the spring of 1963. At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, "David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy" took a thematic look at the sculpture Smith produced between the Depression years and his death.

Collections.

Works by David Smith are included in major collections worldwide, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Storm King Art Center has 13 Smith sculptures in its collection. The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection includes 5 Smith sculptures in is collection.

Recognition.

He received a Creative Arts Award from Brandeis University in 1964, and in February 1965 was appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson to the National Council on the Arts.

Roland David Smith (March 9, 1906 – May 23, 1965) was an American abstract expressionist sculptor and painter, best known for creating large steel abstract geometric sculptures.

David Smith (1906-1965) est un sculpteur américain, membre du mouvement expressionniste abstrait. Il fut bien connu pour ses grandes sculptures abstraites aux formes géométriques rigoureuses réalisées en acier inoxydable (les "Cubis").


Description.

A distinctive landmark in the Helsinki cityscape, with its tall, green dome surrounded by four smaller domes, the building is in the neoclassical style. It was designed by Carl Ludvig Engel as the climax of his Senate Square layout: it is surrounded by other, smaller buildings designed by him.  The church's plan is a Greek cross (a square centre and four equilateral arms), symmetrical in each of the four cardinal directions, with each arm's façade featuring a colonnade and pediment. Engel originally intended to place a further row of columns on the western end to mark the main entrance opposite the eastern altar, but this was never built.

History.

The cathedral was built on the site of the smaller Ulrika Eleonora Church, which was dedicated to its patroness, Ulrika Eleonora, Queen of Sweden. A facsimile of this church, made entirely from snow, was constructed on Senate Square in the early 2000s. Helsinki Old Church was built between 1824 and 1826 in nearby Kamppi to serve the parish while the Ulrika Eleonora Church was being demolished and until the consecration of the new cathedral.  The building was later altered by Engel's successor Ernst Lohrmann, whose four small domes emphasise the architectural connection to the cathedral's models, Saint Isaac's Cathedral and Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Lohrmann also erected two free-standing bell towers, as well as larger-than-life sized zinc statues of the Twelve Apostles at the apexes and corners of the roofline. The altarpiece was painted by Carl Timoleon von Neff and donated to the church by emperor Nicholas I. The cathedral crypt was renovated in the 1980s by architects Vilhelm Helander and Juha Leiviskä for use in exhibitions and church functions; Helander was also responsible for conservation repairs on the cathedral in the late 1990s.  Today, the cathedral is one of Helsinki's most popular tourist attractions. More than 350,000 people visit the church each year, some to attend religious events, but mostly as tourists. The church is in regular use for services of worship and special events such as weddings.

In popular culture.

The opening sequence of the music video for "Sandstorm" by Darude was filmed on Senate Square, prominently featuring the Cathedral in the background.

Helsinki Cathedral (, ;, ) is the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran cathedral of the Diocese of Helsinki, located in the neighborhood of Kruununhaka in the centre of Helsinki, Finland. The church was originally built from 1830-1852 as a tribute to the Grand Duke of Finland, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. It was also known as St Nicholas' Church until the independence of Finland in 1917. It is a major landmark of the city.

La Cathédrale d'Helsinki ("Helsingin tuomiokirkko" en finnois et" Helsingfors domkyrka" en suédois) est une cathédrale de l'Église évangélique-luthérienne de Finlande située au centre d'Helsinki, la capitale finlandaise. Avant l'indépendance en 1917, elle était appelée l'église Saint-Nicolas. Plus de personnes visitent la cathédrale chaque année.


Sightings and legends.

Historically, decorative drawings of heraldic dolphins and sea monsters were frequently used to illustrate maps, such as the "Carta marina". This practice died away with the advent of modern cartography. Nevertheless, stories of sea monsters and eyewitness accounts which claim to have seen these beasts persist to this day. Sea monster accounts are found in virtually all cultures that have contact with the sea. For example, Avienus relates of Carthaginian explorer Himilco's voyage "...there monsters of the deep, and beasts swim amid the slow and sluggishly crawling ships." (lines 117-29 of "Ora Maritima"). Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed to have encountered a lion-like monster with "glaring eyes" on his return voyage after formally claiming St. John's, Newfoundland (1583) for England. Another account of an encounter with a sea monster comes from July 1734. Hans Egede, a Dano-Norwegian missionary, reported that on a voyage to Godthåb on the western coast of Greenland he observed:  a most terrible creature, resembling nothing they saw before. The monster lifted its head so high that it seemed to be higher than the crow's nest on the mainmast. The head was small and the body short and wrinkled. The unknown creature was using giant fins which propelled it through the water. Later the sailors saw its tail as well. The monster was longer than our whole ship. Ellis (1999) suggested the Egede monster might have been a giant squid.  There is a Tlingit legend about a sea monster named Gunakadeit (Goo-na'-ka-date) who brought prosperity and good luck to a village in crisis, people starving in the home they made for themselves on the southeastern coast of Alaska.  Other reports are known from the Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans (e.g. see Heuvelmans 1968). Some hypotheses suggest that modern-day monsters are surviving specimens of giant marine reptiles, such as an ichthyosaur or plesiosaur, from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods, or extinct whales like "Basilosaurus". Ship damage from Tropical cyclones such as hurricanes or typhoons may also be another possible origin of sea monsters.  In 1892, Anthonie Cornelis Oudemans, then director of the Royal Zoological Gardens at The Hague,saw the publication of his "The Great Sea Serpent", which suggested that many sea serpent reports were best accounted for as a previously unknown giant, long-necked pinniped.  It is likely that many other reports of sea monsters are misinterpreted sightings of shark and whale carcasses (see below), floating kelp, logs or other flotsam such as abandoned rafts, canoes and fishing nets.

Alleged sea monster carcasses.

Sea monster corpses have been reported since recent antiquity (Heuvelmans 1968). Unidentified carcasses are often called globsters. The alleged plesiosaur netted by the Japanese trawler "Zuiyō Maru" off New Zealand caused a sensation in 1977 and was immortalized on a Brazilian postage stamp before it was suggested by the FBI to be the decomposing carcass of a basking shark. Likewise, DNA testing confirmed that an alleged sea monster washed up on Newfoundland in August 2001, was a sperm whale.  Another modern example of a "sea monster" was the strange creature washed up in Los Muermos on the Chilean sea shore in July 2003. It was first described as a "mammoth jellyfish as long as a bus" but was later determined to be another corpse of a sperm whale. Cases of boneless, amorphic globsters are sometimes believed to be gigantic octopuses, but it has now been determined that sperm whales dying at sea decompose in such a way that the blubber detaches from the body, forming featureless whitish masses that sometimes exhibit a hairy texture due to exposed strands of collagen fibers. The analysis of the "Zuiyō Maru" carcass revealed a comparable phenomenon in decomposing basking shark carcasses, which lose most of the lower head area and the dorsal and caudal fins first, making them resemble a plesiosaur.

Historically reported sea monsters.

Sea monsters actually reported first or second hand include

Sea monsters are beings from folklore believed to dwell in the sea and often imagined to be of immense size. Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or multi-armed beasts. They can be slimy and scaly and are often pictured threatening ships or spouting jets of water. The definition of a "monster" is subjective; further, some sea monsters may have been based on scientifically accepted creatures, such as whales and types of giant and colossal squid.

Les monstres marins sont des créatures imaginaires monstrueuses vivant dans le monde marin. Ils sont présents dans les mythologies et les folklores, et dans de nombreuses fictions.


Etymology.

English "spade" is from Old English'(f.) or'(m.). The same word is found in Old Frisian'and Old Saxon '. High German "" only appears in Early Modern German, probably loaned from Low German. In the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway the word is "spade" as well. Other Scandinavian forms are in turn loaned from German. The term may thus not originate in Common Germanic and appears to be a North Sea Germanic innovation or loaned. Closely related is Greek, whence Latin "".

Designs of spades.

Spades are made in many shapes and sizes, for a variety of different functions and jobs, and there are many different designs used in spade manufacturing. People often mistakenly use the term "shovel" interchangeably with spade—but, strictly speaking, shovels are broad-bottomed tools for moving loose materials, whereas spades tend to have an edge better designed for digging.  The most common spade is a "garden spade," which typically has a long handle, is wide, and is treaded (has rests for the feet to drive the spade into the ground). An "Irish spade" is similar to a common garden spade, with the same general design, although it has a much thinner head. A "sharpshooter" is a narrow spade. A "turfing iron" has a short, round head, and is used for cutting and paring off turf. A "digging fork," or "grape," is forked much like a pitchfork, and is useful for loosening ground and gardening. There can also be toy spades for children.

Loy ploughing.

Loy ploughing was a form of manual ploughing carried out in Ireland using a form of spade called a loy. It took place on very small farms or on very hilly ground, where horses couldn't work or where farmers couldn't afford them. It was used up until the 1960s on poorer land. This suited the moist climate of Ireland as the trenches formed by turning in the sods providing drainage. It also allowed the growing of potatoes on mountain slopes where no other cultivation could take place.

Digging tool.

In gardening, a spade is a hand tool used to dig or loosen ground, or to break up lumps in the soil. Together with the fork it forms one of the chief implements wielded by the hand in agriculture and horticulture. It is sometimes considered a type of shovel. Its typical shape is a broad flat blade with a sharp lower edge, straight or curved. The upper edge on either side of the handle affords space for the user's foot, which drives it into the ground. The wooden handle ends in a cross-piece, sometimes T-shaped and sometimes forming a kind of loop for the hand.  A small, narrow one-hand shovel for gardening is called a transplanter.  Small and/or plastic toy versions of the same tool are used to dig sand castles on a beach or in a sand-box.

Currency.

The blade of the spade was used as currency in ancient China. Later, they were miniaturized and then stylized into a flat piece. The Qin Dynasty replaced them with round coins.

A spade is a tool primarily for digging, comprising a blade – typically stunted and less curved than that of a shovel – and a long handle. Early spades were made of riven wood or of animal bones (often shoulder blades). After the art of metalworking was developed, spades were made with sharper tips of metal. Before the introduction of metal spades manual labor was less efficient at moving earth, with picks being required to break up the soil in addition to a spade for moving the dirt. With a metal tip, a spade can both break and move the earth in most situations, increasing efficiency.

La bêche est un outil manuel du jardinier servant à retourner et à ameublir la terre sur de petites surfaces. Sa fonction est d'ameublir en profondeur (de l'ordre de ) la terre en la retournant. L'opération de retournement permet aussi d'enfouir de la fumure pour enrichir le sol en matière organique. La bêche sert aussi à couper des racines, et à aider à l'arrachage de certains légumes (carottes, poireaux). Elle est constituée d'une pièce de travail métallique, le « fer », et d'un manche en bois.


Early life.

Taksony was the son of Zoltán, according to the "Gesta Hungarorum" (written around 1200). The same source adds that Taksony's mother was an unnamed daughter of Menumorut, a local ruler defeated by the conquering Hungarians shortly before 907. Its unknown author also says that Taksony was born "in the year of Our Lord's incarnation 931". The "Gesta Hungarorum" reports that Zoltán abdicated in favor of Taksony in 947, three years before his own death.  However, modern historians have challenged existing information on Taksony's early life. A nearly-contemporaneous sourceLiudprand of Cremona's "Retribution"narrates that Taksony led a plundering raid against Italy in 947, which suggests that he was born considerably earlier than 931. His father's reign was preserved only in the "Gesta Hungarorum"; its anonymous author lists Zoltán among the grand princes, and all later Hungarian monarchs were descended from him. The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus wrote around 950 that Fajsz, Taksony's cousin, was grand prince of the Hungarians at that time.

Reign.

A later source, Johannes Aventinus, writes that Taksony fought in the Battle of Lechfeld on August 10, 955. There, future Holy Roman Emperor Otto I routed an 8,000-strong Hungarian army. If this report is reliable, Taksony was one of the few Hungarian leaders to survive the battlefield. Modern historians, including Zoltán Kordé and Gyula Kristó, suggest that Fajsz abdicated in favor of Taksony around that time. After that battle the Hungarians' plundering raids in Western Europe stopped, and they were forced to retreat from the lands between the Enns and Traisen rivers. However, the Hungarians continued their incursions into the Byzantine Empire until the 970s.  According to the "Gesta Hungarorum", "a great host of Muslims" arrived in Hungary "from the land of Bular" under Taksony. The contemporaneous Abraham ben Jacob also recorded the presence of Muslim merchants from Hungary in Prague in 965. Anonymous also writes of the arrival of Pechenegs during Taksony's reign; he granted them "a land to dwell in the region of Kemej as far as the Tisza". The only sign of a Hungarian connection with Western Europe under Taksony is a report by Liudprand of Cremona. He writes about Zacheus, whom Pope John XII consecrated bishop and "sent to the Hungarians in order to preach that they should attack" the Germans in 963. However, there is no evidence that Zacheus ever arrived in Hungary. Taksony arranged the marriage of his elder son Géza to Sarolt, daughter of Gyula of Transylvania, before his death during the early 970s.

Family.

Taksony's marriage to a woman "from the land of the Cumans" was arranged by his father, according to the "Gesta Hungarorum". Although this reference to the Cumans is anachronistic, modern historians argue that the "Gesta" seems to have preserved the memory of the TurkicKhazar, Pecheneg or Volga Bulgarianorigin of Taksony's wife. Historian György Györffy proposes that a Pecheneg chieftain, Tonuzoba, who received estates from Taksony near the river Tisza, was related to Taksony's wife. The names of two of Taksony's sons (Géza and Michael) have been preserved. The following family tree presents Taksony's ancestry and his offspring.  <nowiki>*</nowiki>Whether Menumorut is an actual or an invented person is debated by modern scholars.
<nowiki>**</nowiki>A Khazar, Pecheneg or Volga Bulgarian woman
<nowiki>***</nowiki>Kristó writes that she may have been a member of the Rurik dynasty from Kievan Rus'

Taksony (, also Taxis or Tocsun; before or around 931 – early 970s) was the Grand Prince of the Hungarians after their catastrophic defeat in the 955 Battle of Lechfeld. In his youth he had participated in plundering raids in Western Europe, but during his reign the Hungarians only targeted the Byzantine Empire. The "Gesta Hungarorum" recounts that significant Muslim and Pecheneg groups settled in Hungary under Taksony.

Taksony ou Toxun (latin : "Toscus") (v. 905 - v. 972) fut "fejedelem", c'est-à-dire prince souverain de Hongrie de 955 à sa mort.


History.

Origin.

"Countdown" is based on the French game show "Des chiffres et des lettres" ("Numbers and Letters"), created by Armand Jammot. The format was brought to Britain by Marcel Stellman, a Belgian record executive, who had watched the French show and believed it could be popular overseas. Yorkshire Television purchased the format and commissioned a series of eight shows under the title "Calendar Countdown", which was to be

"Junior Countdown".

Channel 4 originally planned a parallel "Junior Countdown" in which the contestants were children. The pilot episode was filmed on 26 November 1982, less than a month after the first adult version was

Presenters.

"Calendar Countdown" was presented by Richard Whiteley, with Cathy Hytner and Denise McFarland-Cruickshanks managing the numbers and letters rounds respectively. When "Countdown" was commissioned for Channel 4, the number of hostesses expanded further: Cathy Hytner and Beverley Isherwood selected the letters and numbers tiles respectively, and calculations in the numbers rounds were checked by Linda Barrett or Carol Vorderman. Vorderman, a Cambridge graduate and member of Mensa, was appointed as one of the numbers experts after responding to an advertisement in a national newspaper which asked for a young woman who would like to become a game show hostess. Unlike almost any other game show hostess of the time, however, the advertisement also made it clear that an applicant's appearance would be less important than their talent as

Character.

"Countdown" quickly established cult status within British television – an image which it maintains today, despite numerous changes of rules and personnel. The programme's audience comprises mainly students, homemakers and pensioners, owing to the "teatime" broadcast slot and inclusive appeal of its format and presentation. "Countdown" has been one of Channel 4's most-watched programs for over twenty years, but has never won a major television award. When Des Lynam became the new presenter after Whiteley's death in 2005, the show regularly drew an average 1.7 million viewers every day—which was around half a million more than in the last few years of Richard Whiteley presenting—and the Series 54 final, on 26 May 2006, attracted 2.5 million viewers. From 3–4 million viewers had watched the show daily in its previous 16:15 slot. The drop in viewers following the scheduling change, coupled with the show's perceived educational benefits, even caused Labour MP Jonathan Shaw to table a motion in the UK Parliament, requesting that the show be returned to its later time. Minor scheduling changes have subsequently seen the show move

Celebrations.

The first episode of "Countdown" was repeated on 1 October 2007, on More4, and also on 2 November 2007, on Channel 4, as part of "Channel 4 at 25", a season of celebratory Channel 4 programmes, as it celebrated its 25th birthday.  On 2 November 2007 "Countdown" celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary and aired a special 'birthday episode'. The two players were 2006 winner Conor Travers

Departures of Vorderman and O'Connor.

On 23 July 2008 it was announced that O'Connor would be leaving the show at the end of the 59th series, in December 2008, to concentrate on other projects.  ITV Studios announced, on 25 July 2008, that Carol Vorderman would also be leaving at the end of the same series.  Vorderman had been willing to accept a 33% salary decrease, in line with a 33% budget cut being imposed on the show, but felt she was 'forced' to leave after being asked to accept a 90%

Format.

"Countdown" has occupied a tea-time broadcast slot since its inception, originally in a 30-minute format. Since 2001, an episode lasts around 45 minutes including advertising breaks. During the normal series, the winner of each game returns for the next day's show. A player who wins eight games is declared an "octochamp" and retires until the series finals. At the end of the series, the eight players with most wins (or the highest total score in the event of a tie) are invited back to compete in the series finals. They are seeded in a knockout tournament, with the first seed playing the eighth seed, the second playing the seventh, and so on. The winner of this knockout, which culminates in the Grand Final, becomes the series champion. Each series lasts around six months, with about 125 episodes.  Approximately every four series, a Champion of Champions tournament takes place. For this, sixteen of the best players to have appeared since the previous Championship are invited back for another knockout tournament. The producer, former contestant Damian Eadie, decides which players to include, but typically the tournament includes the series winners and other noteworthy contestants. Series 33 was designated a "Supreme Championship", in which 56 of the best contestants from all the previous series returned for another knockout tournament. Series 10 champion Harvey Freeman was declared Supreme Champion after beating Allan Saldanha in the final. There are also occasional special episodes, in which past contestants return for themed matches. For example, David Acton and Kenneth Michie returned for a rematch of their Series 31 final, while brothers and former contestants Sanjay and Sandeep Mazumder played off against each other on 20 December 2004.  Since the change to 45 minute episodes, the game has been split into three sections, separated by advertising breaks. The first section contains two letters rounds and a numbers round, the second has two letters rounds and a numbers round followed by the anecdote from the Dictionary Corner guest and then a further two letters rounds and a numbers round, while the last section has two letters rounds, Susie Dent's "Origins of Words" item, two further letters rounds, a numbers round and a final "Conundrum" puzzle. With the exception of the Conundrum, the contestants swap control after every round so that each of them has control for five letters rounds and two numbers rounds.  At the end of the first two sections, Hewer poses a "Teatime Teaser" for the viewers, giving a set of short words and a cryptic clue to a single word that can be anagrammed from them. The solution is revealed at the start of the next section. (Example: Given the words SAD MOODY and the clue "We'll all be sad and moody when this arrives," the solution would be DOOMSDAY.) When the Teatime Teaser was first introduced, the anagrams were seven letters long; they were later extended to eight, and then to nine in late 2016.

Notable contestants.

Since "Countdown"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s debut in 1982, there have been over 7,000 televised games and 79 complete series. There have also been fifteen "Champion of Champions" tournaments, with the most recent held in January 2019.  Several of "Countdown"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s most successful contestants have received national media coverage. Teenager Julian Fell set a record score of 146 in December 2002. In 2006, 14-year-old Conor Travers became the youngest series champion in the show's history, and 11-year-old Kai Laddiman became the youngest octochamp for 20 years. Conor Travers went on to win the 30th Anniversary Champion of Champions series in March 2013 with a record equalling top score of 146. On 17 January 2019, in the quarter-final of the 15th "Champion of Champions" tournament Zarte Siempre, who eventually won that tournament, set a new record score of 150. This record was beaten in May 2019 by Elliott Mellor's score of 152.  At eight years old, Tanmay Dixit was the youngest player ever to appear on the show, where he achieved two wins in March 2005. He also received press attention for his offerings in the letters round, which included "fannies" and "farted".  On Christmas Day, 1987, Nic Brown set the highest score difference ever achieved in a standard 14-round game, beating Joel Salkin 108–36, a margin of 72 points. Brown also went on to become one of the only two contestants to ever achieve an undefeated 'grand slam' – becoming

In popular culture.

"Countdown" is often referenced and parodied in British culture.

Assorted allusions.

The "Doctor Who" episode "Bad Wolf" (2005) mentions a futuristic version of "Countdown", in which the goal is to stop a bomb from exploding in 30 seconds. "Countdown" was referenced again in a later series in "Last of the Time Lords"

Outtakes.

"Countdown" has also generated a number of widely viewed outtakes, with the letters occasionally producing a word that was deemed unsuitable for the original broadcast. A round in which Dictionary Corner offered the word "gobshite" featured in "TV's Finest Failures" in 2001 (the actual episode aired on 10 January 2000), and in one episode from 1991, contestants Gino Corr and Lawrence Pearse both declared the word "wankers". This was edited out of the programme but has since appeared on many outtakes shows. When contestant Charlie Reams declared "wankers" on 21 October 2008 edition, the declaration was kept in but the word itself was bleeped.

Humour.

The programme is mentioned in an episode of Irish sitcom "Father Ted" entitled "The Old Grey Whistle Theft", "Still Game" (in the episode "Wireless") and is also referenced in the very first episode of "Little Britain" from 2003. BBC impression sketch show, "Dead Ringers", parodies "Countdown" numerous times, and another television programme, "The Big Breakfast", parodied "Countdown" in a feature called "Countdown Under". In a sketch "Countdown to Hell" from the comedy show "A Bit of Fry and Laurie", Stephen Fry lampooned Richard Whiteley's punning style and Hugh Laurie played one of the contestants, while Gyles Brandreth (played by Steve Steen), presented with the letters "", got the (non-)word

Non-canon games.

The game has also been played on a number of different programs, notably as the first challenge in "What's Next" on "Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway", featuring the pair versus one of

Merchandise.

Several boardgames, books and video games have been released under the franchise. Many boardgames have been developed to replicate the rules and game play of the television show. The boardgame will often consist of a board to place letters and number on, several scorecards, a selection of numbers and letters, a number generator and a timing device (older models use an hourglass whilst newer models contain a battery powered timer).  In the late 80s/early 90s, LexiBook released digital handheld version of Countdown. These contained LCD black and white displays and a variety of physical controls. Many of

World record.

In 2014, "Countdown" entered the "Guinness World Records" for the most series of a TV game show broadcast.

Countdown is a British game show involving word and number tasks. It is broadcast on Channel 4 and presented by Nick Hewer, assisted by Rachel Riley, with regular lexicographer Susie Dent. It was the first programme to be aired on Channel 4, and 81 series have been broadcast since its debut on 2 November 1982. With over 7,000 episodes, "Countdown" is one of the longest-running game shows in the world, along with the original French version, "Des chiffres et des lettres" (Numbers & Letters), which has been running on French television continuously since 1965. "Countdown" was initially recorded at The Leeds Studios for 27 years, before moving to Manchester-based Granada Studios in 2009. Following the development of MediaCityUK, "Countdown" moved again in 2013 to the new purpose-built studios at Dock10, Greater Manchester.

Countdown est la version britannique du jeu télévisé français "Des chiffres et des lettres". L'émission passe depuis le 2 novembre 1982 sur Channel 4 et plus de épisodes ont déjà été diffusés. Ce fut la première émission de la chaîne.