Plot.

The story focuses on Jane Hudson (Katharine Hepburn), a single, middle-aged elementary school secretary (she refers to her position as "a fancy secretary") from Akron, Ohio. She is on her summer vacation and is now enjoying her lifelong dream of a vacation in Venice after saving up money for the past few years for the big trip. During the ride on a vaporetto to the Pensione Fiorini, she meets two fellow Americans, Lloyd (MacDonald Parke) and Edith (Jane Rose) McIlhenny. At the hotel, they are greeted by Signora Fiorini (Isa Miranda), a widow who transformed her home into a pensione after World War II. Also staying at the property are Eddie Yaeger (Darren McGavin), a young American painter studying art, and his wife Phyl (Mari Aldon).  Jane is also pestered off and on during her stay by a friendly young Italian street urchin, Mauro.  That evening, Jane walks to the Piazza San Marco, where the sight of so many couples leaves her slightly depressed. While seated in a café, she becomes aware of a solitary Italian man watching her and quickly leaves.  The following day, Jane goes shopping and sees a red glass goblet in the window of an antiques store. Upon entering she discovers that the owner, Renato de Rossi (Rossano Brazzi), is the very man from whom she fled the night before. He assures her that the goblet is an authentic 18th-century artifact, and she purchases it after he teaches her the art of bargaining. Hoping to see her again, Renato offers to search for a matching goblet. The next morning, Jane returns to the shop with Mauro and is disappointed to discover that Renato is not there. Jane then accidentally steps backward into a canal while filming de Rossi's shop.  That evening, he comes to her pensione and confesses his attraction for her. When Jane resists his advances, he warns her not to waste an opportunity for happiness, and she is about to agree to have dinner with him when the McIlhennys return from a shopping expedition on the island of Murano, during which they purchased a set of new red goblets similar to the one Jane bought. Renato realises that she thinks he has swindled her, but he assures her that some designs have been used for centuries on Murano and he insists that her goblet is an antique.  The two attend a concert at the piazza, where an orchestra plays the overture to "La gazza ladra". When a flower seller approaches them, Renato is surprised when Jane chooses a simple gardenia instead of an orchid. Later, as the couple are wandering through the city, Jane accidentally drops her gardenia into a canal; despite much effort, Renato is unable to retrieve it for her. They return to the pensione, where he kisses her, and she responds passionately and murmurs, "I love you," before rushing off to her room. The next day, she treats herself to salon treatments and new clothes in anticipation of their date that evening. While she waits for him at the piazza, Renato's assistant Vito (Jeremy Spenser) arrives and inadvertently reveals that he is Renato's son. Stunned to discover Renato is married and has several children, Jane takes refuge in a bar where she encounters Phyl, who confides that her marriage is in trouble.  Upon returning to the pensione, Jane discovers Eddie is having an affair with Signora Fiorini. Renato arrives and tells her their relationship is none of her business. He admits he is married, but claims he and his wife are separated, a fact he concealed because he did not want to scare her away. He accuses her of being immature and unwilling to accept what she can have in reality instead of just longing for more. After dinner, Jane and Renato venture to Renato's apartment and their affair is consummated.  After spending time with Renato on the island of Burano, Jane, unwilling to remain in a relationship she knows is destined to end unhappily, decides to return home. Renato begs her to stay, but Jane insists it is better to leave the party before it ends. Although she asks him not to come to the train station, she hopes he will ignore her request. As the train begins to leave the station, Jane is thrilled to see Renato running toward it. He tries to hand her a package but the train is moving too quickly, so he opens it to reveal he had bought her another gardenia.

Production.

Arthur Laurents had written "The Time of the Cuckoo" specifically for Shirley Booth, who starred in the 1952 Broadway production and won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her performance. Producer Hal Wallis expressed interest in purchasing the film rights, but felt Booth was too old for the role, and envisioned Katharine Hepburn and Ezio Pinza in the leads. Ilya Lopert ultimately acquired the rights with the intention of casting Booth and hiring Anatole Litvak to direct. It was later reported that she was negotiating with Daniel Mann instead, and Laurents would be adapting his play for the screen. Laurents' screenplay was allegedly unsatisfactory, and newly hired director David Lean tried to improve it with associate producer Norman Spencer and writers Donald Ogden Stewart and S.N. Behrman, but without success. He finally brought in novelist H.E. Bates to collaborate with him.  Numerous names were mentioned in conjunction with the project before filming finally began. At one point producer Lopert considered casting director-actor Vittorio De Sica as Renato. Roberto Rossellini expressed interest in directing the film with Ingrid Bergman as Jane, and Olivia de Havilland supposedly considered starring in the project.  Government officials initially resisted director David Lean's request to allow his crew to film on location during the summer months, the height of the tourist season, especially when local gondolieri, fearful they would lose income, threatened to strike if he was given permission to do so. The problem was resolved when United Artists made a generous donation to the fund established to finance the restoration of St Mark's Basilica. Lean also was required to promise the cardinal no short dresses or bare arms would be seen in and around the city's holy sites.  In one scene, the character of Jane Hudson falls into a canal when she steps backwards while photographing Di Rossi's shop in "". Leading lady Katharine Hepburn, concerned about her health, was disinclined to do the stunt herself, but Lean felt it would be obvious if he replaced her with a stunt double. He filled the water with a disinfectant that caused it to foam, which added to Hepburn's reluctance, then required her to film the scene four times until he was satisfied with the results. That night, Hepburn's eyes began to itch and water. She was eventually diagnosed with a rare form of conjunctivitis that plagued her for the remainder of her life.  Upon seeing the completed film, Production Code Administration head Geoffrey Shurlock notified United Artists executives that the film would not be approved because of its depiction of adultery. Of particular concern was the scene in which Jane and Renato consummate their relationship. Eighteen feet of footage was deleted, and the PCA granted its approval. The National Catholic Legion of Decency, however, objected to a line of dialogue that was finally trimmed, and the organisation bestowed the film with a B-rating, designating the film "morally objectionable in part".  In later years, Lean described the film as his favourite. He became so enamoured with Venice during filming that he made it his second home.

Preservation.

The Academy Film Archive preserved "Summertime" in 2008.

Critical reception.

Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" observed, "In adapting for the screen Arthur Laurents' stage play "The Time of the Cuckoo", Mr. Lean and H.E. Bates discarded most of the individual shadings and psychological subtleties of that romance. They reduced the complicated pondering of an American woman's first go at love with a middle-aged merchant of Venice to pleasingly elemental terms. And they let the evident inspiration for their heroine's emotional release be little more than the spell cast by the city upon her fitful and lonely state of mind. The challenge thus set of making Venice the moving force in propelling the play has been met by Mr. Lean as the director with magnificent feeling and skill. Through the lens of his color camera, the wondrous city of spectacles and moods becomes a rich and exciting organism that fairly takes command of the screen. And the curious hypnotic fascination of that labyrinthine place beside the sea is brilliantly conveyed to the viewer as the impulse for the character's passing moods...It is Venice itself that gives the flavor and the emotional stimulation to this film. For it can't be denied that the credibility of the brief love affair...is considerably strained in substance. Nor can it be honestly gainsaid that the break-up after a blissful go-round is abrupt and illogical."  "Variety" wrote the film "stacks up as promising entertainment - with some reservations. There is a lack of cohesion and some abruptness in plot transition without a too-clear buildup. Lesser characterizations, too, are on the sketchy side...Rossano Brazzi...scores a triumph of charm and reserve. Hepburn turns in a feverish acting chore of proud loneliness."  Laura Bushell of Channel 4 rated the film four out of five stars and commented, "Hepburn made a career out of playing vibrant heroines with a vulnerable side and it's her portrayal of Jane's insecurity and loneliness that give the film its substance..."Summertime"'s notions of dating etiquette and holiday romance have dated greatly...but as a coming-of-age story it remains touching. As a showcase for Katharine Hepburn, it is superb."

Awards and honours.

The film was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film from any Source.  David Lean won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. Katharine Hepburn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress.

In popular culture.

In the anime based on Naoki Urasawa's manga "Monster", Anna Liebert's employer Mr. Roso states the film as one of his favourites and always cries when it's on. In addition, he talks about the beauty of Venice and its soundtrack as major influences in his life.  In the TV series "Call the Midwife" episode "Episode 1" of series 2, the midwives Jenny, Chummy, Cynthia and Trixie attended the cinema where they watch "Summertime" for Jenny's birthday.

Summertime (released in the UK as Summer Madness) is a 1955 British-American Technicolor romance film directed by David Lean and starring Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi, Darren McGavin, and Isa Miranda. The screenplay by Lean and H.E. Bates is based on the play "The Time of the Cuckoo" by Arthur Laurents.


Series L10A/L10B (1967–1972).

The first Mazda to bear the Cosmo name (called the 110S on models intended for export) was (along with the NSU Ro80) one of the first production cars to feature a 2-rotor Wankel engine. A prototype was presented at the 1964 Tokyo Motor Show, one month before the 1964 Summer Olympics, and after the introduction of the NSU Spider at the Frankfurt Motor Show; 80 pre-production Cosmos were produced for the Mazda test department (20) and for dealership testing (60) between 1965 and 1966. Full production began in May 1967 and lasted through 1972, though Cosmos were built by hand at a rate of only about one per day, for a total of 1,176 (343 Series I cars and 833 Series II cars). The car was also featured in the show "The Return of Ultraman".  Cosmos were built in five batches:

Racing.

In 1968, Mazda went racing with the Cosmo. They selected one of the most grueling tests in Europe to prove the reliability of the rotary engine, the 84-hour "Marathon de la Route" at the legendary Nürburgring circuit in Germany. Two mostly stock Cosmos were entered, along with 58 other cars. One major change to the cars' 10A engines was the addition of a novel side- and peripheral-port intake system: A butterfly valve switched from the side to the peripheral port as RPMs increased. The engines were limited to 130 PS to improve durability.  The cars ran together in fourth and fifth place for most of the race, but the all-Japanese car was retired with axle damage in the 82nd hour. The other car, driven by Belgians, completed the race in fourth overall. This was to be the only racing outing for the Cosmo—the next Mazda race car would be a Familia Rotary (R100).

Series I.

The Series I/L10A Cosmo was powered by a 0810 two-rotor engine with 982 cc of displacement and produced about 110 hp (thus the "110" name). It used a Hitachi four-barrel carburetor and an odd ignition design—two spark plugs per chamber with dual distributors. A four-speed manual transmission and 14-inch wheels were standard.  In Japan, the installation of a rotary engine gave Japanese buyers a financial advantage when it came time to pay the annual road tax in that they bought a car that was more powerful than a traditional inline engine, but without having the penalty for having an engine in the higher above-one-litre tax bracket.  The front suspension was a coil-sprung double-wishbone design with an anti-roll bar. The rear used a leaf-sprung de Dion tube. Unassisted 10 inch (254 mm) disk brakes were found in front with 7.9 inches (201 mm) drum brakes in the rear. Performance in the quarter-mile (400 m) was 16.4 s, with a 115 mph (185 km/h) top speed. The price was lower than the Toyota 2000GT at 1.48 million yen (US$4,100).

Series II.

The Series II/L10B was introduced in July 1968. It had a more-powerful 128 hp (95 kW)/103 lb·ft (140 N·m) 0813 engine, power brakes, 15 inch wheels and a 5-speed manual transmission. The wheelbase had been expanded by 15 inches (38.1 cm) for more room and a better ride. This Cosmo was good for over 120 mph (193 km/h) and could accelerate to cover a quarter-mile (400 m) in 15.8 s.  Visual changes included a larger grille under the front bumper with two additional vents to each side of this "mouth". Only 833 were ever made, and fewer than six Series II models were initially imported into the United States. The price was up a bit to 1.48 million yen (US$4,390).  Comedian and former talk show host Jay Leno owns a 1970 Series II Cosmo which was featured on the North American Speed Channel series "My Classic Car" in March 2006. It was believed to be the only remaining Series II Cosmo in the United States, though the original Cosmo 10a engine was replaced with an RX-7 12a.  However, Mazda's U.S. division "found another in the garage of Phoenix-area car collector Glenn Roberts and made an offer that he couldn't refuse," according to "Car and Driver" magazine's September 2007 issue ("A Tale of Two Rotaries"). There is a Series II Cosmo in a collection in Alberta, Canada as well.  A 1970 Mazda Cosmo Sport Series II L10B Coupe sold in January 2015 for inclusive premium at auction at Bonhams.

Series CD (1975–1981).

The second generation CD Cosmo appeared in 1975 and lasted until 1981. It was known as the Cosmo AP (Anti-Pollution) in Japan, and sold internationally as the Mazda RX-5, though in some export markets its piston-powered counterpart was called the Mazda 121 (a name later applied to Mazda's subcompact model).  Mazda America used the Mazda Cosmo name and offered it from 1976 through 1978, after which the Cosmo was replaced by the Mazda RX-7 as their rotary-powered sports coupe. The CD Cosmo/RX-5 series was positioned as a personal luxury car, offered as a notchback coupe, called the Landau, which included an "opera window" and padded vinyl roof covering, that appeared to be influenced by the 1970s era Lincoln Continental. It was also available as a fastback, but neither body style found many international buyers. It was however an enormous success in Japan where over 55,000 were sold in the first year alone. This new body style competed with the, Nissan Cedric, Nissan Gloria, and the Mitsubishi Galant Lambda coupes newly introduced to Japan.  Due to its poor sales as an export, the Series II version, built from 1979, was not exported and remained a Japanese domestic sale only. RX-4 exported to Europe saw very little competition in the rotary-engine equipped market, with the introduction of the short-lived Citroën GS Birotor, as well as any remaining NSU RO80 sedans.  The Cosmo was Mazda's largest rotary-powered coupe, based on the LA series Mazda Luce floor pan and mechanics, but slightly heavier due to body design and more luxurious appointments, including a five-link rear suspension and rear disc brakes. It was available with the 12A and 13B engines. This series Cosmo was joined by the short-lived Mazda Roadpacer, a large, heavy sedan powered only by a rotary engine.  A piston engine version, the Cosmo 1800, used a 1769 cc (80 x 88 mm) inline-four SOHC engine that produces and. There was also the bigger Cosmo 2000 with.  The rotary engine had financial advantages to Japanese consumers in that the engine displacement remained below 1.5 liters, a significant determination when paying the Japanese annual road tax which kept the obligation affordable to most buyers, while having more power than the traditional inline engines.

Series HB (1981–1989).

The third generation HB Cosmo from 1981 shared the Mazda HB chassis with its twin, the Mazda Luce (marketed overseas as the Mazda 929). The HB Cosmo was offered both as a coupe, and sedan, and was exported to Europe as the 929, alongside the Luce sedan, which shared the 929 export name. The HB Cosmo was the only car in automotive history to offer a choice of both Gasoline and Diesel piston engines and Rotary engines, and this was the last generation Cosmo to be exported.  The Cosmo sedan was a badge engineered version of the Luce sedan, with the Cosmo coupe and sedan sold at an exclusive dealership called "Mazda Auto", while the Luce was available as a sedan only, sold at previously established Japanese Mazda dealerships. All Cosmo-branded vehicles were installed with rotary engines only, while the Luce offered rotary, and piston-driven engines. Later in 1991, "Mazda Auto" locations were renamed Eunos.  When the FC series Mazda Savanna RX-7 was introduced in 1986 internationally, this series Cosmo coupe retained its top position as Mazda's largest rotary powered personal luxury car, with a comfortable backseat, trunk, and every luxury amenity available, while adopting the retractable headlights from the RX-7.  Mazda offered three different rotary engines for the HB series. A 12A-6PI (for "six-port induction"), 12A-turbo and 13B-RESI, with all using electronic multiport fuel injection. The latter available with automatic transmission only. The 1982 12A-turbo Cosmo coupé was officially the fastest production car in Japan until being overtaken by the FJ20ET powered R30 Skyline RS.  The rotary engine had financial advantages to Japanese consumers in that the engine displacement remained below 1.5 litres, a significant determination when paying the Japanese annual road tax which kept the obligation affordable to most buyers, while having more power than the traditional inline engines.  The HB Cosmo & Luce names were used in Japan, with the 929 being the export version (which was not available with the rotary engine options). While the Luce was updated in 1986, the Cosmo variant remained in production at a trickle until 1989.  The Mazda 929 Turbo EGI (Electronic Gasoline Injection) Luxury was available in Australia from 1986 to May 1987 (with these later cars produced in 1986). It used the FET engine and came only with a manual transmission. Not all two-door 929 models used the FET, most used other variants of the FE engine, either Carburetor or EGI with optional four-speed automatic transmission. The 2.0 L (1998 cc) fuel injected, turbocharged FET version of the FE produced 135 hp (100 kW) and 175 lb·ft (237 N·m). It was a water cooled 8-valve SOHC engine featuring a small turbocharger, and no intercooler.

Series JC (Eunos Cosmo, 1990–1996).

The Eunos Cosmo (loosely based on the 1985 MX-03 concept car) started production in 1990 on the new JC platform. The Eunos Cosmo was the top-line touring flagship of the Eunos luxury channel. It is the only Mazda to use a triple-rotor engine. The car was a 2+2 coupé and was loaded with power amenities. Following the Japanese luxury theme, only an electronically controlled 4-speed automatic transmission was available. In Japan, sales were affected by the fact that this series Cosmo no longer complied with Japanese government dimension regulations, and Japanese buyers were liable for yearly taxes for driving a larger car compared to previous generations. Compounding matters further was the Japanese asset price bubble burst.  Two engines were available, the twin turbo 13B-RE and the 20B-REW. The triple rotor 20B had 2 litres (1962 cc) of displacement, making it the largest capacity rotary offered for sale by Mazda. It produced and of torque with twin turbochargers.  The JC series Cosmo set several firsts in automotive history. Its 13B-RE and 20B-REW engines were the first Japanese built, series production twin sequential turbo systems to be offered for sale on a rotary engined car. The internationally known FD series RX-7 didn't receive the twin turbo 13B-REW engine until early 1992. The Eunos Cosmo was the first production car to have a built-in GPS navigation system, and the first in Japan to use the "Palmnet" serial data communication system for ECU-to-ECAT operation.  This 4th generation Cosmo was ahead of its time electronically as well by being offered with "Car Control System", a CRT colour touch-screen controlling climate control, mobile phone, GPS car navigation, NTSC TV, radio and CD player.  The Cosmo was speed limited to to suit Japanese regulations, but the 20B-REW version was capable of if given a free run. With over of torque available at just 1800 RPM, the Cosmo could launch from standstill to freeway speeds quickly; however, this came at the expense of heavy fuel consumption. The JC Cosmo was expensive even by today's standards, as Mazda still has not matched the sales price of this car some 22 years later for anything else in its range.  The Cosmo was manufactured from February 1990 until September 1995, and gathered a total of 8,875 sales. A split of 60/40 sales between 13B-REW and 20B-REW variants made the triple rotor 20B-REW version a rarer car. Although the Cosmo remained a Japanese market-only vehicle (export had been proposed originally under the Eunos sales channel, and under the stillborn Amati brand in the USA), used Cosmos have found their way to various RHD countries thanks to import regulations for private importers from these countries. The Cosmo appears in "Sega GT" and in the "Gran Turismo" and "Gran Turismo 2" games, as well as the arcade game series "Wangan Midnight: Maximum Tune 1", "2", "3", "3DX", "3DX+", "4", and "5".

The Mazda Cosmo is an automobile which was produced by Mazda from 1967 to 1995. Throughout its history, the Cosmo served as a "halo" vehicle for Mazda, with the first Cosmo successfully launching the Mazda Wankel engine. The final generation of Cosmo served as Mazda's flagship vehicle in Japan, being sold as the Eunos Cosmo through its luxury Eunos division in Japan.


Biography.

Benjamin Johnson Lang was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of a piano maker, music teacher and organist. By the age of 12 he was showing sufficient promise as a pianist to play Chopin's Ballade No. 3 in A flat. He began organ lessons at 12, and by 18 he was the organist of the largest instrument in Boston, the First Baptist Church on Somerset Street. He excelled in improvisation. In 1852, he took over his father’s organ teaching business. In 1855 he went to Europe to study in Berlin and elsewhere. He studied mainly under Alfred Jaëll, but also had some instruction from Franz Liszt. He had a lasting friendship with both Liszt and his daughter Cosima. He made his first public appearance as a pianist 1858, in Boston, where he spent the remainder of his life. That year he played the piano in the first Boston performance of Beethoven's Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 1, No. 3, with the Mendelssohn Quintette Club. From 1860 to 1870, Lang built a piano and organ teaching career of great success; he was considered a very thorough teacher and his pupils included Arthur Foote, Ethelbert Nevin, William F. Apthorp, and his own children, Margaret and Malcolm. His debut as a conductor was on May 3, 1862, when he gave Boston's first performance with orchestra of Mendelssohn's "Die erste Walpurgisnacht", which he presented twice in the same concert.  Louis Moreau Gottschalk was so impressed with Lang's piano playing that he hired him as a collaborator for a series of twenty concerts in which compositions for two pianos were featured.  On January 1, 1863, along with Carl Zerrahn, he conducted the jubilee concert in honour of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. The concert was attended by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who read one of his poems. From then on he appeared in public more often as a conductor than as a pianist. He was the founding conductor the Apollo Club, a men's singing society, from 1871 to 1901. He was also the conductor of Caecilia, a mixed voice choir, and of the Handel and Haydn Society from 1895 to 97.  Lang visited Richard Wagner (who was now married to Liszt's daughter Cosima) at Tribschen and Bayreuth in 1871 and offered his assistance in publicizing the Bayreuth Festival in America. In 1876 he and his wife were honored guests at the first performance of the Ring Cycle in Bayreuth. He later introduced many of Wagner’s works to America.  He is perhaps best remembered now for being the conductor of the world premiere of the original version of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, with Hans von Bülow (Cosima's former husband) as soloist, on October 25, 1875. Bülow had initially engaged a different conductor, but quarrelled with him, and Lang was brought in at short notice. George Whitefield Chadwick, who attended the performance, recalled in a memoir years later: "They had not rehearsed much and the trombones got in wrong in the ‘tutti’ in the middle of the first movement, whereupon Bülow sang out in a perfectly audible voice, "The brass may go to hell"". Lang himself appeared as soloist in a performance of the concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on February 20, 1885.  Other first performances he conducted were:  With his experience and credentials, it surprised many that Lang was not named conductor of the newly formed Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). However, Lang appeared as a pianist in twelve concerts during the first years of the orchestra. On December 9, 1876 he was the soloist in the first U.S. performance of Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor with Leopold Damrosch conducting. With the Harvard Musical Association, he played "all the great concertos, many of them for the first time in Boston".  In 1888 Lang became organist of King's Chapel, and remained there until his death in 1909. It was Lang who in 1888 encouraged Edward MacDowell to resettle in Boston, then the centre of concert life in America. The Lang home entertained prominent guests such as Antonín Dvořák and Ignacy Jan Paderewski.  In 1891, at great personal expense he brought the entire New York Metropolitan Opera House Orchestra to Boston to present the first performance in Boston of Wagner's "Parsifal", conducted by Anton Seidl, who had assisted Wagner in the first complete performance of the Ring in 1876 and who in 1889 he led the first complete Ring in America.  His compositions included symphonies, overtures, an oratorio "David", chamber pieces, piano pieces and songs. Most of these were performed, however the only published work was by Chadwick who used a "melodic motive" of Lang's in the first of his "Drei Walzer fur das Pianoforte." He destroyed all his other manuscripts. In 1903, Yale University conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts.  His last appearance as a conductor was on February 12, 1909, when he conducted the BSO and a chorus for a commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. He presented Mendelssohn’s "Lobgesang" ("Hymn of Praise"), which he had also conducted at the Emancipation Jubilee concert in 1862. He died only a few weeks later, on April 3 or 4, in Boston. His estate was valued at over $600,000, an enormous amount for that time. His bequests included a silver box containing Liszt's hair, which he left to his daughter Margaret.

Family life.

In 1861 he married Frances Morse Burrage (1839–1934). Although she never became a professional, she was well regarded as a singer. Their three children inherited their musical aptitudes: Margaret Ruthven Lang (1867–1972), a composer; Rosamond (1878–1971), a pianist; and Malcolm (1881–1972), a pianist and organist.  Many of Margaret's works were presented at concerts under her father's baton. Her "Dramatic Overture", Op. 12, was the first work by a woman played by a major American symphony orchestra (BSO, 1893, Arthur Nikisch).

Benjamin Johnson Lang (December 28, 1837April 3 or 4, 1909) was an American conductor, pianist, organist, teacher and composer. He introduced a large amount of music to American audiences, including the world premiere of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, which he conducted in Boston in 1875.


History of the reaction.

Kazuhiko Takai is a professor of applied chemistry at Okayama University and is the recipient of the 2013 Chemical Society of Japan Award. He primarily studies the use catalytic metals in synthesis reactions. He studied at Kyoto University and the University of California, Berkeley. The Takai olefination reaction was first described in a 1986 paper in the Journal of American Chemical Society, "Simple and selective method for aldehydes--> (E)-haloalkenes (RCH:CHX) conversion by means of a haloform-chromous chloride system." Written by Kazuhiko Takai, Kenji Nitta, and Kiitiro Utimoto, the paper discusses the limitations of existing reagents, such as the Wittig reagent, in creating solely E isomers. Nitta, a graduate student working in the Utimoto group, carried out the reaction.  Similar olefination reactions have been performed, using a variety of reagents such as zinc and lead chloride; however, these olefination reactions often lead to the formation of McMurry diols, not the methylenation or alkylidenation of aldehydes. To circumvent this issue, Takai researched the potential of chromium (II) salts.  The reaction primarily employs the use of aldehydes, but ketones may be used. However, ketones do not react as well as aldehydes; thus, for a compound with both aldehyde and ketone groups, the reaction can target just the aldehyde group and leave the ketone group intact.  The drawbacks to the reaction include the fact that stoichiometrically, 4 equivalents of chromium chloride must be used, since there is a reduction of two halogen atoms. Ways to limit the amount of chromium chloride exist, namely by utilization of zinc equivalent, but this method remains unpopular.

Takai–Utimoto olefination.

In a second publication the scope of the reaction was extended to diorganochromium intermediates bearing alkyl groups instead of halogens:

Takai olefination in organic chemistry describes the organic reaction of an aldehyde with a diorganochromium compound to form an alkene. In the original 1986 publication the aldehyde is benzaldehyde and the organochromium species is generated from iodoform or bromoform and an excess of chromium(II) chloride. The reaction product is a vinyl halide. The main selling point is the E-configuration of the double bond. According to the principal investigator Kazuhiko Takai, existing alternatives such as the Wittig reaction only yield mixtures.


History.

This company was founded in 1945 in southern California by engineer Henry Fuchs. Fuchs had been working with John Almen on new applications for shot peening of automobiles and military equipment companies produced before and during World War II. Fuchs and Almen worked at the Research Laboratory of General Motors Corporation before the start of MIC. The Almen strip or Almen system, a tool for duplicating the shot peening process, was named after John Almen.  Fuchs started in his garage accompanied by his son-in-law, Fred Landecker, with the idea of working in railways car suspensions and assemblies. Nevertheless, the shot peening industry was beginning and the automotive sector was not showing much interest. So it was the aircraft industry which first began to use the beneficial processes.  The company worked, for example, in the early 1950s with the famous Douglas DC-3 aircraft. In the mid-1950s, the company worked on the wing skins of Lockheed Super Constellation aircraft.  In 1968 the company was acquired by Curtiss-Wright which had begun an expansion program at its Buffalo extrusion facility, adding new forging and machining equipment for building aircraft and aerospace components.  In the 1970s, the idea of metal peening with light was explored in the company and in the metal treatment industry. Lawrence Livermore Laboratories at the end of the 1990s, working under a government contract for a laser to illuminate passing satellites, developed a process of peening with light with enough power to use it also for commercial purposes. Metal Improvement Company, under a CRADA agreement with Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, began to develop this technology for commercial customers and in 2003 the company introduced the laser peening to the market.  Henry Fuchs died in 1989. He was a Professor Emeritus of Stanford University. The Society of Automotive Engineers named an award "Henry O. Fuchs" in his honor.  In 2006 NASA worked with the company, and they together presented a study called: "Effects of Laser Peening, and Shot Peening on Friction Stir Welding".  Today, MIC is one of the business units of the Curtiss-Wright Surface Technologies Division. With 70 facilities in North America, Europe and Asia, they provide job shop surface treatments including shot peening, laser peening, thermal spray coatings, solid film lubricant and material testing services.

Metal Improvement Company (MIC) is a company specializing in metal surface treatments. Metal Improvement Company LLC is a business unit of the Surface Technologies Division of Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW).


History.

The predecessor state was founded in 1454 A.D. by Sheikh Sadruddin-i-Jahan, a pious man of the Sherwani tribe of Afghanistan area, and was ruled by his descendants.  Local tradition says that Behlol Lodhi (1451–1517), the Afghan king who had most of western India under his control, desired to rule Delhi and on his way, he was caught in a sand drift. In the darkness the King spotted a dim light of a lamp still burning in the wind. It was the hut of Sheikh Sadruddin and when the king found out he came to the hut to show his respect and asked the holy man to pray for him to bear a son and have victory. During 1451 and 1452, the king married off his daughter Taj Murassa to Shaikh Sadruddin after being enthroned in Delhi, and also gave him the area of Malerkotla as a "jagir".  The descendants of Shaikh Sadruddin branched into two groups. One started ruling the state and were given the title of "Nawab" when the Mughal Empire arose. The other branch lived around the Shrine of Shaikh Sadruddin, controlling its revenue from pilgrims.  The State of Malerkotla was established in 1657 by Bayazid Khan. After saving the life of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in a tiger attack, Bayazid Khan was granted the privilege to build a fort, which he named Malerkotla and eventually gave its name to the state. On 3 May 1809 Maler Kotla became a British protectorate and was made part of the Cis-Sutlej states until 1862. Malerkotla ranked 12th in the Punjab Darbar in 1890. During the 1947 riots when Punjab was in flames, the State of Malerkotla did not witness a single incident of violence; through it all, it remained a lone island of peace.  The roots of communal harmony in the area date back to 1705, when Sahibzada Fateh Singh and Sahibzada Zorawar Singh, 9- and 7-year-old sons of 10th Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, were ordered to be bricked alive by the governor of Sirhind, Wazir Khan. His close relative, Sher Mohammed Khan, Nawab of Malerkotla, who was present in the court, lodged a vehement protest against this inhuman act and said it was against Islam. Wazir Khan nevertheless had the Sahibzadas tortured and bricked into a section of wall while still alive. At this, the Nawab of Malerkotla walked out of the court in protest. Guru Gobind Singh on learning this kind and humanitarian approach profusely thanked the Nawab of Malerkotla and blessed him with his Hukamnama, Kirpan, etc. In recognition of this act, the State of Malerkotla did not witness a single incident of violence during partition. Many local people attribute this peaceful strain to the presence of the shrine of 'Baba Haidar Sheikh', the Sufi saint, who founded the town of Malerkotla more than 500 years ago.  Nawab Sher Mohammed Khan married a lady of Guru Gobind Singh's family who converted to Islam, hence all the succeeding Nawabs descend in the female line from Guru Hargobind Singh.  Following Indian independence and the signing of the instrument of accession to the Indian Union in 1948, Maler Kotla joined the newly established state of Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU) until its merger with Punjab in 1956.

Rulers.

The rulers were titled 'Nawab'. They had the right to an 11 gun salute.

The State of Malerkotla or Maler Kotla was a princely state in the Punjab region during the era of British India. The last ruler of Maler Kotla signed the accession to join the Indian Union on 20 August 1948. Its rulers belonged to a Pathan dynasty, and its capital was in Malerkotla. The state belonged to the Punjab States Agency.


Background.

The double eagle, or twenty-dollar gold piece, was first issued in 1850; its congressional authorization was a response to the increasing amount of gold available as the result of the California Gold Rush. The resulting Liberty Head double eagle, designed by Mint Engraver James Longacre, was struck for the remainder of the 19th century, though the design was modified several times. The double eagle, due to its very high face value, equivalent to several hundred dollars today, did not widely circulate, but was the coin most often used for large international transactions, in which settlement was to be in gold. In the West, where gold or silver coins were preferred to paper money—use of which was illegal in California in the aftermath of the Gold Rush—the coins saw some circulation.  Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens's first association with the Mint was in 1891, when he served on a committee judging entries for the new silver coinage. The Mint had offered only a small prize to the winner, and all invited artists (including St. Gaudens himself) refused to submit entries. The competition was open to the public, and the judging committee (which consisted of Saint-Gaudens, Mint Engraver Charles E. Barber, and commercial engraver Henry Mitchell) found no entry suitable. This came as no surprise to Saint-Gaudens, who told Mint Director Edward O. Leech that there were only four men in the world capable of such work, of whom three were in France and Saint-Gaudens was the fourth. Barber, who had been Chief Engraver since 1879, felt that Saint-Gaudens overstated the case, and there was only one man capable of such coinage work—Barber himself. Leech responded to the failed competition by directing Barber to prepare new designs for the dime, quarter dollar, and half dollar, resulting in the Barber coinage, an issue which attracted considerable public dissatisfaction.  In 1892, Saint-Gaudens was asked to design the official medal of the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago; it would be presented to prizewinning exhibitors. The obverse of Saint-Gaudens's design, showing Columbus coming ashore, was noncontroversial; his reverse, which featured a torch-bearing naked youth carrying wreaths to crown the victors, was attacked by the censoring postal agent, Anthony Comstock, as obscene. The exposition directors hastily withdrew the reverse design and replaced it with one created by Barber which, according to numismatic historian Walter Breen, was "notable only for banality". A furious Saint-Gaudens swore to have nothing more to do with the Mint or its employees, and for the next decade refused all commissions which might involve him with that bureau.

Inception.

On December 27, 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt, a personal friend of Saint-Gaudens, wrote to his Secretary of the Treasury, Leslie Mortier Shaw: "I think the state of our coinage is artistically of atrocious hideousness. Would it be possible, without asking permission of Congress, to employ a man like Saint-Gaudens to give us a coinage which would have some beauty?" Roosevelt had Mint Director George E. Roberts write to Saint-Gaudens, who replied, "I am extremely interested in the matter of the new designs of the coinage... it will I assure you give me great pleasure to assist in the procuring of good work." Roosevelt caused the Mint to engage Saint-Gaudens to redesign some of the coins which could be changed without the need for Congressional approval—the cent and the four gold coins. No U.S. coin had ever been designed by anyone other than a Mint employee.  In November 1905, Roosevelt wrote to Saint-Gaudens to enquire how the gold coinage was progressing. The President mentioned that he had been looking at gold coins of Ancient Greece, and that the most beautiful ones were in high relief. Roosevelt suggested that the new designs could be in high relief, with a high rim to protect them. Saint-Gaudens replied agreeing with Roosevelt, and proposing a design for the double eagle some kind of a (possibly winged) figure of Liberty, striding forward as if on a mountaintop, holding aloft on one arm a shield bearing the stars and stripes with the word Liberty marked across the field; in the other hand perhaps a flaming torch, the drapery [of Liberty's dress] would be flowing in the breeze. My idea is to make it a "living" thing, and typical of progress.  On January 2, 1906, Saint-Gaudens wrote to Shaw, enquiring whether a high relief was practical on coins struck at the Mint. Shaw did not immediately reply, but instead met with Roosevelt, who wrote that there was no objection to have the coins, many of which would be stored in bank vaults and not circulated, "as artistic as the Greeks could desire". Roosevelt secured Shaw's support for the redesign, although as the President wrote to Saint-Gaudens, "of course he thinks I am a crack-brained lunatic on the subject". Shaw wrote to the sculptor on, reproducing a copy of a letter from Roberts which warned, "the judgement of the authority of all countries is that modern coins must be of low relief", but as the President disagreed with Roberts's view, Saint-Gaudens could go ahead with a high-relief design. Numismatic historian Roger W. Burdette commented, "This is also one of those times when the compelling egos of artist and President might have paid greater attention to director Roberts' comments. By continuing with the design in a relief that was not coinable, Saint-Gaudens lost his best chance to explore the limits of artistry on circulation coinage."  Saint-Gaudens wrote to Roosevelt later in January, "Whatever I produce cannot be worse than the inanities now displayed on our coins." However, Saint-Gaudens foresaw resistance from Barber, who "has been in that institution since the foundation of the government, and will be found standing in its ruins". In, the sculptor wrote to Roosevelt that he had sent an assistant to Washington to obtain the technical details of the redesign, but "if you succeed in getting the best of the polite Mr. Barber or the others in charge, you will have done a greater work than putting through the Panama Canal. Nevertheless, I will stick at it, even unto death."  In May 1906, Saint-Gaudens wrote to Secretary Shaw, asking if there was any objection to having the date in Roman numerals. Shaw replied, "While we are making coins for the people of the United States, I think we should confine ourselves to the English language. I have reminded our architects that I will dismiss the first one who puts a V on a public building where a U is intended." However, Roosevelt overruled Shaw, and the sculptor proceeded with the use of Roman numerals. Saint-Gaudens had intended a flying eagle design for the cent, but developed it for the twenty-dollar piece after learning that by law, an eagle was not to appear on the cent. Saint-Gaudens's health worsened through 1906, as the cancer which would kill him forced him to have his assistant, Henry Hering, deal with many of the details of the work. Saint-Gaudens had the models for the coins made in Paris, rather than at the Mint, in order to bypass any obstruction by the Mint. It was not until that Roosevelt was finally given coin-sized models of Saint-Gaudens's work by Hering, and Roosevelt wrote to the ailing sculptor, "I have instructed the Director of the Mint that these dies are to be reproduced just as quickly as possible and just as they are. It is simply splendid. I suppose I shall be impeached for it by Congress, but I shall regard that as a very cheap payment!"  The obverse of Saint-Gaudens's final design shows a female figure of Liberty, who also represents victory. Saint-Gaudens based his design on the female figure he had designed in creating New York City's monument to General William Tecumseh Sherman, but the sculptor's ultimate inspiration was the Nike of Samothrace. The figure for the Sherman monument was modeled by Henrietta Anderson, one of the artist's favorite subjects. On the coin, Liberty holds a torch in one hand, representing enlightenment; an olive branch in the other, a symbol of peace. She strides across a rocky outcrop; behind her are the United States Capitol and the rays of the Sun. The figure is surrounded by 46 stars, one for each of the states in 1907. The reverse is a side view of a flying eagle, seen slightly from below, with a rising Sun and its rays behind it, complementing the obverse design. The edge bears the lettering "E Pluribus Unum". Saint-Gaudens felt he could not place a third line of text on the reverse without unbalancing the composition, and the obverse lacked room for the motto, so it was placed on the edge.

From design to coin.

Mint Engraver Barber had closely followed the progress of the proposed recoinage, and wrote to Acting Mint Director Robert Preston on, 1906: [Saint-Gaudens] talks so much about experiments, it may be to him, but to us it is no experiment, as we are just as certain that the relief of his eagle will never coin, as we are certain that the Sun will rise each morning, and the only object in all this trouble and waste of money is to convince those who will be convinced in no other way... I think our friend [Saint-Gaudens] is playing a game... but our willingness, nay more, our desire to let the work tell its own story has rather called his hand, and he is not prepared to show it, and therefore is sparing for wind, or time. In response to Barber's letter, Preston wrote to Saint-Gaudens, "there are no presses anywhere, in mints or in use among silversmiths, which can bring up your proposed relief at a single stroke." When the models were brought to the Mint, Barber examined and rejected them. It was only after considerable discussion that he agreed to experiment. At that time, the Mint was intensely busy generating designs for new coinage for Cuba and the Philippines, and Barber was reluctant to waste time on what he considered an experimental piece which would never be coined for circulation. Experimental dies were made from the plaster model. Approximately 24 pieces were struck as patterns; even though the Mint used a medal press, set for maximum pressure, it still took up to nine strokes of the press to fully bring out the design. These patterns are today known as the "Ultra High Relief" or "Extra High Relief" pieces, and only about 20 are known—one sold in a 2005 auction for $2,990,000. On, 1907, the President wrote Saint-Gaudens, "It has proved hitherto impossible to strike them by one blow, which is necessary under the conditions of making coins of the present day." On, 1907, Saint-Gaudens replied, "I am grieved that the striking of the die did not bring better results. Evidently it is no trifling matter to make Greek art conform with modern numismatics."  A second set of dies was produced with the relief reduced somewhat, but still proved too high relief for practical coining, requiring three strokes of the press to fully bring out the design. Saint-Gaudens had produced the models for these dies under the misapprehension that the first pieces had been struck on a production press, rather than on the Mint's only medal press, and therefore only slight adjustment need be made. When Saint-Gaudens died on, 1907, Hering was working on a third model. Uncertain where to find Hering, Roosevelt ordered the new Secretary of the Treasury, George Cortelyou, to have the Mint finalize the design and put the coin in circulation by. Barber was recalled from his vacation in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, to comply with the President's order. Barber wrote Philadelphia Mint Superintendent John Landis on that what Roosevelt wanted was impossible; he had no dies nor any clear idea of how Saint-Gaudens had planned to reduce the relief. The Mint chief engraver alleged that he could take no action with respect to the double eagle. On, Hering finally appeared at the Mint with a new set of models, which Barber again quickly rejected. Barber wrote to Preston, "Upon examination it was found that the relief of the models was so great that it would be a waste of time to make reductions for coinage, as it would be quite impossible to coin when the dies are made." Instead, Barber began work on his own low relief version of Saint-Gaudens's design.  In August 1907, Roosevelt nominated San Francisco Mint Superintendent Frank Leach as Director of the Mint; he took office on, 1907. In his memoirs, Leach recalled his initial interview with Roosevelt on the question of the double eagles: Before I had become familiar with my surroundings the President sent for me. In the interview that followed he told me what he wanted, and what the failures and his disappointments had been, and proceeded to advise me as to what I should do to accomplish the purpose determined upon in the way of the new coinage. In this talk he suggested some details of action of a drastic character for my guidance, which he was positive were necessary to be adopted before success could be had. All this was delivered in his usual vigorous way, emphasizing many points by hammering on the desk with his fist.  On November 18, the impatient Roosevelt directed that the second set of dies be used to strike coins, directly ordering the Mint to "begin the new issue, even if it takes you all day to strike one piece!" Over 12,000 of these "High Relief" pieces were struck and were released into circulation in 1907 and 1908. Barber wrote of the High Relief pieces to Landis, "Mr. Hart has put the mill into operation and I send you two pieces showing the result; these are not selected as all the coins now made are the same as these two, which gives me alarm as they are so well made that I fear the President may demand the continuance of this particular coin." Barber completed work on his version of the design, with a greatly lowered relief, and the new coin went into production on a large-scale basis. A total of 361,667 of the revised design were produced by the Mint in 1907; the "Low Relief" coins were released into circulation at the end of. Barber's modifications were denounced both by the sculptor's family and by Hering. Among other alterations, Barber changed the Roman numeral MCMVII for the date to the Arabic numeral "1907". In spite of the modifications, according to R.S. Yeoman in his "A Guide Book of United States Coins", many consider the Saint-Gaudens double eagles the most beautiful of U.S. coins.  In his book discussing the redesigns of U.S. coins between 1905 and 1908, Burdette casts blame on all parties for the delays in the new coin: Responsibility for most of the delays in producing the new coinage must fall on the Saint-Gaudens studio for failing to deliver models in a timely manner. The mint failed in its responsibility to clearly communicate to the President and artist its limitations and technical requirements for large-scale coinage. President Roosevelt, likewise, must bear responsibility for constantly confusing the project with conflicting or incomplete communication to the artist and Mint Bureau. Despite the difficulties with the design, Roosevelt was very pleased with the new double eagle. Mint Director Leach recalled that when "I laid upon his desk a sample of beautifully executed double eagles of the Saint-Gaudens design, he was most enthusiastic in his expressions of pleasure and satisfaction. I certainly believed him when he declared he was 'delighted'. He warmly congratulated me on my success, and was most complimentary in his comments." In, the President wrote to his friend, Dr. William Sturgis Bigelow: I am very much pleased that you like that coin. I shall have all kinds of trouble over it, but I do feel what you say is true: that is, that it is the best coin that has been struck for two thousand years, and that no matter what is its temporary fate, it will serve as a model for future coin makers, and that eventually the difficulties in connection with making such coins will be surmounted.

Production.

Roosevelt had specifically requested Saint-Gaudens not to put "In God We Trust" on the new coin, feeling that the motto's presence on coins was a debasement of God's name, as the coins might be spent to further criminal activities. Saint-Gaudens was quite willing to omit the motto, as he felt the words detracted from the design elements. There was a public outcry about the omission of the motto, and what Breen describes as an "outraged and furious" Congress ordered the motto to appear. Barber duly modified the coin to include the motto, taking the opportunity to make several minor changes to the design, which, according to Breen, do not improve the coin. In 1912, two more stars were added to the obverse to reflect the admission of New Mexico and Arizona to the Union. The existing stars were not adjusted in position; the two new ones were placed on the outcropping at the lower right.  The only major variety of the series occurred in 1909, an overdate in which an 8 shows under the final nine in the date. This most likely happened when a 1908 die was struck by a 1909-dated hub, creating the overdate. Perhaps half of the 161,282 double eagles struck at Philadelphia that year display the overdate.  In 1916, minting of double eagles ceased, as bullion prices were rising because of World War I, which also caused an influx of American gold coins from Europe. Holders of gold coin, such as banks, refused to pay them out at par value, and they vanished from circulation. In the aftermath of the war, international demand for the coin was restored; many Europeans distrusted their local currencies and desired double eagles to hold. The coin was struck in large numbers once coinage was resumed in 1920, but it was now almost exclusively a coin of international trade, or was held by banks as backing for gold certificates. The coin itself rarely circulated in the United States. The onset of the Depression in 1929 did not halt the minting of double eagles, but the coins were for the most part held in Treasury vaults, and few were released. Many of the great rarities of the Saint-Gaudens series stem from its final years. Despite a mintage of almost 1.8 million pieces of the 1929 double eagle, it is estimated that fewer than 2,000 exist today, with all the rest melted by the government in the late 1930s.

End of the series; the 1933 double eagle.

According to numismatic historian Roger Burdette, the first 1933 double eagles were struck on March 2, 1933. On, 1933, 25,000 new double eagles were delivered to Mint Cashier Harry Powell, and by longstanding Mint custom, were available for paying out. On, however, the newly inaugurated president, Franklin Roosevelt, had ordered the Treasury not to pay out any gold, and ordered that banks holding gold transmit it to their Federal Reserve bank. Numismatists and coin dealers were still allowed to possess and deal in gold coins; all others required a special license. The double eagle continued to be struck until May. On, 1933, Acting Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau ordered Americans to turn in all gold coins and gold certificates, with limited exceptions, receiving paper money in payment. Millions of gold coins were melted down by the Treasury in the following years. Two 1933 double eagles were sent by the Mint to the Smithsonian Institution for the National Coin Collection, where they remain today.  Prominent coin dealer and numismatic writer Q. David Bowers suggests that despite the ban on paying out gold, examples of the 1933 double eagle could have been obtained legally from Mint Cashier Powell in an exchange for earlier double eagles. Bowers also notes that Secretary of the Treasury William Woodin was a numismatist who in addition to collecting coins, had written books on the subject. Dealer William Nagy later recalled visiting Secretary Woodin and being shown five 1933 double eagles, with the secretary stating that he had several more.  By the early 1940s, between eight and ten specimens were known; two of them were sold by Texas dealer B. Max Mehl. In 1944, a journalist enquired of the Mint regarding the 1933 double eagles. Mint officials could find no record of any issuance of the coins, and decided those in private hands must have been obtained illegally. Over the next few years, the Secret Service seized a number of specimens, which were subsequently melted. One piece, however, wound up in the hands of King Farouk of Egypt, who even obtained a U.S. export license for the coin. What became of the Farouk specimen after his death is unclear, but the coin resurfaced in the late 1990s. When brought to New York for sale to a prospective buyer, it was seized by U.S. authorities. After litigation, a compromise was reached to allow the coin to be auctioned, with the proceeds to be divided equally between the government and the private owners. In 2002 this coin sold at auction by Sotheby's for $7,590,020. The purchase price included $20 paid to the federal government to monetize a coin it contended had never been officially released.  In 2004, 10 specimens of the 1933 double eagle were submitted to the Mint for authentication by the heirs of a Philadelphia jeweler who may have been involved in obtaining them from the Mint in 1933. The Mint authenticated them, and refused to give them back. The heirs brought suit against the government in 2006, and a federal judge ordered the government to file a forfeiture action regarding the coins. The government brought such a suit in 2009; it was tried in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania beginning on July 7, 2011. On July 21, 2011, a jury decided that the coins had been properly seized by the Federal government. Judge Legrome D. Davis confirmed that jury verdict on August 29, 2012. On April 17, 2015, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that the government had failed to file its forfeiture action in a timely manner, and that the heirs were entitled to the coins. That ruling was vacated by the full court on July 28, 2015, and the case set for further argument. On August 1, 2016, the full Third Circuit ruled in favor of the government, upholding the jury verdict. The heirs, on November 4 of that year, asked the Supreme Court to review the case, which refused to hear it on April 21, 2017, ending the case.

Reuse of the design.

The obverse has appeared on American gold bullion coinage issued since 1986. Saint-Gaudens's original design was reused, with two stars added next to the two which Barber had added in 1912, recognizing the admission of Alaska and Hawaii to the Union. Saint-Gaudens's reverse was not used, yielding its place to sculptor Miley Busiek's depiction of a family of eagles.  In 1907, the Mint had experimented by striking about two dozen pieces of the same weight as the double eagle, bearing Saint-Gaudens's design, but which had a smaller, thicker planchet. These "checker" pieces were destroyed (except two placed in the Mint's coin collection) when it was discovered that the consent of Congress was needed to change the diameter of any coin. In 2009, the Mint struck a similar piece in.999 gold, using Saint-Gaudens's original ultra high relief design for both sides of the coin, though modified to a 50-star obverse. These pieces contain one ounce of gold, slightly more than the original double eagle.

Mintages and rarity.

The mintmark appears above the date between the second and third numbers.  The mintages are in many cases not a true indication of relative rarity. Coins remaining in bank vaults in the United States were melted after 1933; coins in bank vaults overseas were not. Millions of double eagles, of both the Liberty Head and Saint-Gaudens designs, were repatriated for numismatic and investment purposes once it was legal to do so. By way of example, the 1924 Saint-Gaudens double eagle was once thought to be rare although 4,323,500 were struck; when the Mint offered a list of coins available at face value plus postage in 1932, the 1924 was not on that list. Large quantities of 1924 double eagles were found in European bank vaults, and today the 1924 is one of the most common of the series. On the other hand, the 1925-S had 3,776,500 struck, but few were released or exported, remaining in Treasury and bank vaults—but available from the Treasury at face value in 1932. Fewer than a thousand are known to have survived; one, in almost-perfect condition (graded MS-67) sold in 2005 for $287,500.

References.

Explanatory notes  Citations

Bibliography.

Other sources

The Saint-Gaudens double eagle is a twenty-dollar gold coin, or double eagle, produced by the United States Mint from 1907 to 1933. The coin is named after its designer, the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who designed the obverse and reverse. It is considered by many to be the most beautiful of U.S. coins.


Early life and career.

Farmer was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1957. He attended Georgetown University receiving a B.A. degree in 1979 and a J.D. degree in 1986. After law school he worked as a clerk for New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Alan B. Handler. From 1988 to 1990, he was an associate in the law firm of Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland & Perretti in Morristown. From 1990 to 1994 he was an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Whitman administration.

In 1997, Governor Christine Todd Whitman appointed Farmer as Chief Counsel, after having served as Deputy Chief Counsel and Assistant Counsel to the Governor.  Farmer was nominated to be New Jersey Attorney General on March 15, 1999, and was sworn in the following June after being confirmed unanimously by the New Jersey Senate. He continued to serve under Donald DiFrancesco after Whitman's resignation.

Acting Governor.

Farmer served as Acting Governor for 90 minutes on January 8, 2002. Following Governor Christine Todd Whitman's resignation the previous year to become head of the EPA, Farmer was one of four people to serve as acting governor for the one-year period between Whitman's resignation and Jim McGreevey's inauguration, along with three different senate presidents (Donald DiFrancesco, John O. Bennett, and Richard Codey). DiFrancesco served as acting governor for all but the last week of this period, when his term as senate president ended with the mandate of the outgoing senate on January 8, 2002, while newly elected governor Jim McGreevy would not be inaugurated before January 15, 2002.  The state did not have the position of lieutenant governor until 2010, and succession rules specified that the next in line for governor after the Senate President and the Speaker of the Assembly, which both became vacant on January 8, would be the Attorney General until the next Senate President could be sworn in. This automatically made Farmer Acting Governor. Republican Bennett and Democrat Codey became Co-Presidents of the Senate on the same day, because the Senate had been evenly split between the two parties, and then divided the last week of the term among them as Governor, with Bennett serving from January 8, 2002 to January 12, 2002; and Codey serving from January 12, 2002, to January 15, 2002. As a result, the state had five different people serving as governor during a period of eight days.

Later career.

Farmer subsequently acted as Senior Counsel to the 9/11 Commission (officially known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States) chaired by former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean and former Indiana Congressman Lee H. Hamilton.  Most recently, Farmer has served as Dean of Rutgers School of Law–Newark. In his tenure, Farmer, in conjunction with the Rutgers Law Review, planned a multi-day symposium to address the many legal uncertainties in post-9/11 national security policy and practices. The symposium featured Thomas Kean, Michael Chertoff, and Judge John Joseph Gibbons, among other scholars and national security leaders. He has also welcomed two United States Supreme Court Justices-- Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito—to the Law School for exclusive speaking engagements. Prior to his deanship, Farmer practiced law as a partner in a North Jersey firm he founded, and was an adjunct professor of law at the Rutgers School of Law–Newark. He also regularly contributes to "The Star-Ledger" and appears in "The New York Times", among other publications.  Farmer's book, "", was released days before the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. In "The Ground Truth," Farmer made the following controversial statement: "At some level of government," says Dean Farmer, "at some point in time, a decision was made not to tell the truth about the national response to the attacks on the morning of 9/11. We owe the truth to the families of the victims of 9/11. We owe it to the American public as well, because only by understanding what has gone wrong in the past can we assure our nation's safety in the future."  On January 21, 2010, he appeared on "The Colbert Report".  In July 2011 he was appointed the 13th (and tie-breaking) member of New Jersey's Congressional Redistricting Commission by both its Democratic and Republican members. New Jersey lost one Congressional seat in redistricting and the panel redrew the congressional districts, determining which seat was lost.  On April 11, 2013, he was appointed as the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Rutgers University.  On August 19, 2019, Farmer was appointed by Chancellor Christopher J. Molloy to succeed Ruth B. Mandel as the director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.

John J. Farmer Jr. (born June 24, 1957) is an American author, lawyer, politician and jurist. He is the director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics, where he also leads the Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience (CPR). He served as Acting Governor of New Jersey for 90 minutes on January 8, 2002, by virtue of his status as New Jersey Attorney General.


Life.

Four different sources speak of Saint Apollonius of Rome:  These sources present Apollonius as an illustrious Roman, even, it seems, a senator, and an exceedingly talented man, well versed in philosophy. He was denounced as a Christian to the Pretorian Prefect Perennius. Summoned to defend himself, he read to the senate, according to Saint Jerome, "a remarkable volume" in which, instead of recanting, he defended the Christian faith. As a result, he was condemned to death on the basis of the law established by the Emperor Trajan.  The sources say he was subjected to two investigations, the first by the Prefect Perennius, the second, three days later, by a group of senators and jurists. The hearings were conducted in a calm and courteous manner. Apollonius was permitted to speak with only rare interruptions, aimed at getting him to tone down his remarks, which were making him liable to punishment.  Apollonius was not afraid to die, because, he said: "There is waiting for me something better: eternal life, given to the person who has lived well on earth." And he argued for the superiority of Christianity's concepts of death and life.  The sources disagree on the manner of his death. The Greek "Passio" says he died after having his legs crushed, a punishment inflicted also on the slave who denounced him; but in the Armenian account he is decapitated.

Veneration.

Apollonius was not mentioned in the earliest Christian martyrologies, not being at first the object of individual commemoration. In the Middle Ages he was confused with two other saints, Apollo of Alexandria and the Apollonius who was martyred with Saint Valentine and whose feast is on 18 April. As a result, this date was attributed also to Saint Apollonius of Rome, even in editions of the Roman Martyrology, the latest editions of which have, however, restored the date of 21 April.  The account in the Roman Martyrology (21 April) is as follows:

Saint Apollonius the Apologist or Saint Apollonius of Rome (died 21 April 185) was a 2nd-century Christian martyr and apologist (not to be confused with Apollinaris Claudius, another contemporary apologist) who was martyred in 185 under the Emperor Commodus (161-192).


Naming the P76.

The name of the P76 derived from the car's codename while in development (Project 76). The official line was that the P76 was an original Australian designed and built Large Family Car, with no overseas counterpart and that P76 stood for "Project 1976".  The Rover SD1 (released in 1976) shared several engineering features with the P76 — including MacPherson strut front suspension, the aluminium V8 engine and a live rear axle.  The P76 itself was, however, out of production by 1976. An alternative theory is that P76 were simply the first three digits of Lord Stokes' National Service number (Donald Stokes was Chairman of British Leyland at the time).

Automotive forebears.

Before the P76, Leyland Australia and its corporate predecessor BMC (Australia) had not fielded a direct competitor in large-car sector, which then dominated the Australian car market. The P76 was intended to provide that competitor.  Previously, BMC and Leyland had tried to compete in this market segment with the 1958 Morris Marshal (a rebadged Austin A95); the 1962 Austin Freeway and Wolseley 24/80 (the Freeway was an Austin A60 with Riley 4/72 tail lights, a unique full width grille and a 2.4-litre 6-cylinder version of the 1622 cc B-series engine; the Wolseley was a 6-cylinder version of the Wolseley 16/60); and the 1971 Austin "X6" Tasman and Kimberley (facelifted Austin 1800s with the 6-cylinder 2.2-litre E-series engine).  Each of these cars was a compromise, and the motoring public largely rejected as challengers to the dominant local models. Nonetheless, the Freeway, 24/80 and the X6 each developed a loyal following.

Design and engineering.

The shape was penned by Giovanni Michelotti. The entry-level P76 featured an enlarged 2663cc 121 bhp (83kW) version of the 6-cylinder engine from the smaller Austin Kimberley and Austin Tasman. The top-of-the-line 192 bhp (143kW) aluminium 4416 cc V8 unit was unique to the P76, and was a derivative of the ex-Buick V8 that was powering the Rover 3500. Leyland Australia cited a weight advantage approaching for the P76, most of which was attributed to the lighter weight of the aluminium engine block when compared to the cast iron blocks (with bigger displacements) of the V8s from Chrysler, Holden and Ford. It was hoped that the weight advantage would feed through into superior fuel economy and extended tyre life. Nevertheless, the car was a full-size car in Australian terms, for which class leading boot/trunk capacity was claimed.  Safety equipment preceded the forthcoming Australian Design Rules, and featured front discs as standard on all models, recessed door handles and full-length side intrusion reinforcements on all doors.  Transmissions for the car were all bought in from Borg-Warner Australia who were already also supplying transmissions to Ford and Chrysler.  Notwithstanding the advertising slogan ("Anything but average") the P76's engineering followed conventional lines.  It did offer a combination of features which were advanced in this category in Australia at the time: rack and pinion steering, power-assisted disc brakes, MacPherson strut front suspension, front hinged bonnet, glued-in windscreen and concealed windscreen wipers, as well as the familiar Australian-made Borg Warner gearboxes (including 3 speed column shift) and a live rear axle.  Particular attention was paid to structural rigidity, a British Leyland engineering strength. This goal was aided by a conscious effort to reduce the number of panels needed to build the car's body — a remarkably low 215, reportedly only 5 more than for a Mini.  At the time P76 production ceased, Leyland was developing a V6 version to replace the E6 variant. The V6 was derived from the 4.4-litre P76 V8, with the two rear cylinders chopped off.

Performance in the marketplace.

Despite the V8 model winning "Wheels" magazine's Car of the Year for 1973, sales of the P76 were adversely affected by a variety of issues: component manufacturers' strikes limiting parts availability, production problems at Leyland Australia's plant in Zetland all restricted supply of the car; the release of P76 coincided with the first Oil Crisis, when fuel prices increased dramatically. As a result, demand for all larger cars subsided.  Hence, notwithstanding generally favourable press and public reaction to the car, sales did not reach expectations.  British Leyland announced plans to sell P76 in the UK. However, production ceased before these plans could come to fruition.  The car achieved success in the 1974 World Cup Rally- winning the Targa Florio section and placing 13th overall. Leyland Australia celebrated this victory by releasing a limited edition Targa Florio model: the V8 Super with Limited slip Diff, sports wheels and steering wheel, as well as special paintwork, including side stripes.  Gerry Crown and Matt Bryson won the Classic Category of the 2013 Peking to Paris Endurance Rally in their Leyland P76 with a time of 237:30:10  Gerry Crown and Matt Bryson also finished Second on the 2015 Road to Mandalay classic car rally, winning the Malaysian Cup for being the fastest car.

Unreleased P76 derivatives.

Although development had started much earlier - the Force 7 coupé was announced in 1974 but eventually only 10 pre-production coupés survived. By the time of the factory closure in 1974, one Force 7 was already in England for secret testing, Leyland Australia kept one example and finally donated that coupé to an Australian museum with some other components of the P76 production line and the remaining eight coupés were offered for sale to private buyers in an auction after the factory had closed. The handbooks had even been printed and were offered for mail order sale by the auctioneers. There was to have been a base six-cylinder Force 7, a more powerful Force 7V with the V8 unit, and a range-topping Tour de Force. All the surviving cars are the "mid" range Force 7V. It was unusual in that it had full seating for five adults and a large rear hatchback, the first of its kind produced in Australia. It shared few body panels with the sedan.  At the time of launch, the company announced the intention of introducing a station wagon/estate version later that same year, and at least three, prototype station wagons (estate cars), which shared much of the sedan's structure and body panels but with more upright rear door frames, were built: one was broken up by Leyland Australia for examination of the body strength, one was crash tested by Ford Australia for Leyland to gain part of the registration certification and the last and only surviving example was eventually used as a factory hack until it was sold at the same auction as the Force 7s as part of a pair of cars which included the last car made.  The wagon and the "last" car remain in private collections and the wagon is currently undergoing basic restoration. All of the coupés sold at auction did not have registration compliance plates fitted to them as final registration testing and approval had not been completed on either station wagon or coupe bodies. Currently - in 2018 all 10 coupés and the single wagon survive.

New Zealand and the end of the line.

The Leyland plant at Zetland closed in October 1974, and production of the P76 ceased, although CKD (completely-knocked-down) assembly continued in Petone, New Zealand, in exchange for NZ-assembled Rover P6s that were shipped to Australia. In New Zealand the P76 was successfully sold in V8 form only in Deluxe, Super and Executive forms all the way until August 1976. Other P76s were imported into NZ as complete cars. NZ-built P76s can be identified by a 'Z' stamped onto the chassis plate immediately after the 076 model designation - i.e. 076Z. After production ended surplus stock spare V8s were sold off by local distributor NZ Motor Corporation and were popular as boat engines.  Leyland Australia produced some 56 or more Force 7 coupés, the majority of these were crushed at the factory to enhance the value of the 8 that were auctioned off in 1975. Leyland Australia auctioned off the last eight Force 7 coupé prototypes to the public; these all still exist and are owned and indeed regularly driven by their private owners. Another car, an Omega Navy one with white trim, was sent to Britain and was used by Lord Stokes for some time; this was later sold to a private collector, who in the last two years sold the car to a New Zealand collector, which is where it resides now. One is at the National Motor Museum, Birdwood in South Australia which is on permanent loan from Leyland Australia.  A smaller medium-sized car, was also intended called the "P82". Styling for this car became a competition between Michelotti and Leyland Australia's own internal design department. In 1982 - claims were made in some motoring papers that Leyland in Britain had decided on Michelotti's version but at the time the ex-head of Leyland Australia's design department was unaware of such a decision. This car was intended to replace the Morris Marina in Australia but only one prototype car and styling mockups were ever produced. At least two experimental V6 engines were made, with one being based on a cut-down Rover V8 at about 2.6 L and another based on the actual P76 V8 motor at about 3.3 L. Concepted as a high volume/profit car – the P82 was designed to have many body styles placed over the same basic structure and was intended to be offered in 4, V6 and V8 forms dependent on body style. After the Australian plant closed, the prototype car was reported to have been sent to Rover in Britain for examination before being destroyed. Just before the plant closure in 1974 and its subsequent takeover by the Australian military, Leyland Australia's styling department were still working on the P82 styling, and one single 1/5 scale clay model survives of the P82 in the sedan "short front and rear" variant.

P76 today.

The P76 continues to have a loyal following of owners who have great enthusiasm for the car. There are at least seven P76 owners clubs in Australia and New Zealand. The New Zealand P76 Owners' Club was founded in 1983.  After production of the P76 ceased, Leyland Australia limited its local production to the Mini and Mini Moke, both produced at Enfield, along with commercial vehicles and buses.

Total P76 production numbers.

Production Figures provided by James Mentiplay and the Leyland P76 Owners Club of WA.

The Leyland P76 is a large car that was produced by Leyland Australia, the Australian subsidiary of British Leyland. Featuring what was described at the time as the "standard Australian wheelbase of 111 inches", it was intended to provide the company with a genuine rival to large local models like the Ford Falcon, the Holden Kingswood, and the Chrysler Valiant. But, due to the first real fuel crisis and demand far exceeding the supply, Leyland rushed the assembly process with the first of the P76s to come off the assembly line, resulting in poor build quality and some reliability problems. The combination of the rushed assembly, fuel crisis and strikes at the component manufacturers' factories, resulted in the Leyland P76 being labelled a lemon, despite receiving the Wheels magazine Car of the Year in 1973. By 1974, sales of the P76 had slumped and BMC decided to end the production of the P76. Although the P76 has been labelled a lemon in Australian motoring history, it is viewed by some as an iconic Australian car and has a loyal following.


Early life and education.

Tucker described himself as a farm boy. He was born in Plainfield, Indiana, on February 12, 1919, a son of Forrest A. Tucker and his wife, Doris Heringlake. His mother has been described as an alcoholic. Tucker began his performing career at age 14 at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, pushing the big wicker tourist chairs by day and singing "Throw Money" at night. After his family moved to Washington, D.C., Tucker attracted the attention of Jimmy Lake, the owner of the Old Gaiety Burlesque Theater, by winning its Saturday night amateur contest on consecutive weeks. After his second win, Tucker was hired there at full time as Master of Ceremonies, but left when it was soon discovered that he was underage. He graduated from Washington-Lee High School, Arlington, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., in 1938, and, joining the United States Cavalry, was stationed at Fort Myer in Arlington County, Virginia, but discharged for, once again, being underage. He returned to work at the Old Gaiety after his 18th birthday.

Career.

Hollywood.

When Lake's theatre closed for the summer in 1939, Tucker was helped by a wealthy mentor to travel to California and try to break into film acting. He made a successful screen test, and began auditioning for movie roles. In his own estimation, Tucker was in the mold of large "ugly guys" such as Wallace Beery, Ward Bond and Victor McLaglen, rather than a matinee idol. His debut was as a powerfully built farmer who clashes with the hero in "The Westerner" (1940), which starred Gary Cooper. Tucker stood out in a fight scene with Cooper. Tucker had a support role in "The Great Awakening" (1941) for United Artists. Overcoming a feeling in Hollywood that fair hair did not photograph good, he quickly attained leading man status, starring in PRC's "Emergency Landing" (1941). He signed a contract with Columbia Pictures.

Columbia Pictures.

At Columbia Tucker had a support role in one of their Lone Wolf pictures, "Counter-Espionage" (1942), followed by a Boston Blackie entry, "Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood" (1942). He was borrowed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for "Keeper of the Flame" with Tracy and Hepburn.

World War II.

Like many other movie actors at the time, Tucker enlisted in the United States Army during World War II; he earned a commission as a second lieutenant.

Post War.

Tucker resumed his acting career at war's end. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer borrowed him for the classic film "The Yearling" (1946). Warners borrowed him to play Errol Flynn's love rival with Eleanor Parker in "Never Say Goodbye" the same year.  Back at Columbia Pictures, he was in "Coroner Creek" (1948) with Randolph Scott.

Republic Pictures.

In 1948, Tucker left Columbia and signed with Republic Pictures. His first films for them were "Hellfire" (1949) and "The Last Bandit" (1949) with Wild Bill Elliott. He made "Montana Belle" for Republic with Jane Russell; it was sold to RKO.  Tucker had a role in Republic's "Sands of Iwo Jima" (1949), as PFC Thomas, a Marine with a score to settle with John Wayne's Sergeant Stryker. He went back to Columbia to support Scott again in "The Nevadan" (1950).  Tucker was promoted to star roles with "California Passage" (1950). He followed this with "Rock Island Trail" (1950).  Tucker was back to supporting actor for "Hoodlum Empire" (1952) then over at Paramount he co-starred with Sterling Hayden in "Flaming Feather" (1952) and supported Charlton Heston in "Pony Express" (1953).  Tucker went to England in support of British film star Margaret Lockwood in "Laughing Anne" (1953), a co-production with Republic.  Back in the United States, he went back to work for Republic: "San Antone" (1953) with Rod Cameron; "Flight Nurse" (1953) and "Jubilee Trail" (1954) with Joan Leslie.

England and "Crunch and Des".

He returned to England to make another with Lockwood, "Trouble in the Glen" (1954), and stayed on to make "Break in the Circle" (1955) for Hammer Films.  Tucker made some films for Allied Artists, "Paris Follies of 1956" (1955) and "Finger Man" (1955) in support of Frank Lovejoy, and then supported Randolph Scott once more in "Rage at Dawn" (1956).  Tucker had a two-year stint on television playing the well-received role of a charter-boat captain in the Bahamas in the series "Crunch and Des" from 1955 to 1956 with Sandy Kenyon.  He was top billed in Fox's "The Quiet Gun" (1957) and supported Charlton Heston in "Three Violent People" (1957). Hammer Films in Britain asked him back to play the lead in "The Abominable Snowman" (1957). He stayed on in England for "The Strange World of Planet X" (1957), and "The Trollenberg Terror" (1958).

"Auntie Mame".

The year 1958 brought another turning point in his career, when he won the role of Beauregard Burnside, Mame's first husband in "Auntie Mame", the highest grossing U.S. film of the year. Tucker showed a flair for light comedy under the direction of Morton DaCosta that had largely been unexplored in his roles in Westerns and science fiction films.  He supported Joel McCrea in "Fort Massacre" (1958) and had the lead in "Counterplot" (1959).

Stage.

Tucker was cast as Professor Harold Hill in the national touring production of "The Music Man" in 1958 and played the role 2,008 times over the next five years, including a 56-week run at the Shubert Theatre in Chicago.  Following his "Music Man" run, Tucker starred in the Broadway production of "Fair Game for Lovers" (1964).

Television and "F Troop".

In 1961, Tucker appeared on NBC in Audie Murphy's short-lived western series "Whispering Smith". Tucker played the outlaw Bob Dalton in the 1963 episode "Three Minutes to Eternity" of the syndicated Western series, "Death Valley Days", a dramatization of the simultaneous bank robberies by the Dalton gang in Coffeyville, Kansas.. Tucker appeared in CBS's "Appointment with Adventure" in the 1956 series finale titled "Two Falls for Satan"; and ABC's "Channing", a drama about college life that aired during the 1963–64 season.  Tucker turned to television for his most famous role, starring as frontier capitalist Sgt. Morgan O'Rourke in "F Troop" (1965–67). Though "F Troop" lasted only two seasons on ABC, the series has been in constant syndication since, reaching three generations of viewers. (Two of his "Gunsmoke" episodes feature Tucker in his cavalry uniform again, as the comic Sergeant Holly (1970), who in one scene "marries" and spends a hectic night with Miss Kitty.)

Later career.

After the close of "F Troop", Tucker returned to films in character roles like "The Night They Raided Minsky's" (1969), "Barquero" (1970), "Chisum" (1970), "Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol" (1972), and "Cancel My Reservation" (1972). He had the lead in "The Wild McCullochs" (1975), and was a supporting actor in the television movie "A Real American Hero" (1978).  On television, Tucker was a frequent guest star, including a total of six appearances on "Gunsmoke" and the recurring role of Jarvis Castleberry, Flo's estranged father on the 1976-1985 TV series, "Alice" and its spinoff, "Flo".  Tucker was a regular on three series after "F Troop": "Dusty's Trail" (1973) with Bob Denver; "The Ghost Busters" (1975) which reunited him with "F Troop" co-star Larry Storch; guest star on "The Bionic Woman" as J.T. Conners and "Filthy Rich" playing the second Big Guy Beck. (1982–83). He continued to be active on stage as well, starring in the national productions of "Plaza Suite", "Show Boat" and "That Championship Season".  Tucker returned to the big screen, after an absence of several years, in the Cannon Films action film "Thunder Run" (1986), playing the hero, trucker Charlie Morrison. His final film appearance was "Outtakes", a low-budget imitation of "The Groove Tube".

Physique and gossip.

At six feet five inches, Tucker tied Sterling Hayden as the tallest star in Hollywood. Co-star Marie Windsor recalled that she was delighted to play opposite someone her 'own size'.

Personal life.

Tucker married four times:  Tucker was a Republican.

Death.

Tucker, who had battled lung cancer for more than a year, as well as having a series of minor illnesses, collapsed and was hospitalized, for the second time in a week, on his way to the ceremony for his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 21, 1986. He died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital on October 25, 1986, a few months after the theatrical release of "Thunder Run" and "Outtakes". He was interred in Forest Lawn–Hollywood Hills Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills.

Forrest Meredith Tucker (February 12, 1919 – October 25, 1986) was an American actor in both movies and television who appeared in nearly a hundred films. Tucker worked as a vaudeville straight man at the age of only fifteen years old. A mentor provided funds and contacts for a trip to California, where party hostess Cobina Wright persuaded guest Wesley Ruggles to give Tucker a screen test because of Tucker's photogenic good looks, thick wavy hair and height of six feet, five inches. Tucker was a sight reader who needed only one take and his film career started well despite a perception in most Hollywood studios that blond men were not photogenic. He enlisted in the Army during World War II. After twenty years spent mainly in Westerns and action roles, he returned to his roots, showing versatility as a comedic and stage musical actor. In the television series "F Troop", he became identified with the character of Cavalry Sgt. Morgan O'Rourke (a manipulative character quite similar to Phil Silvers' role as MSgt. Ernie Bilko). Tucker struggled with a drinking problem that began to affect his performances in the later years of his career.


Biography.

Robinson was born in Hardwick, Massachusetts where he spent his childhood. In 1761 he moved with his family to Bennington, in what would later become Vermont but was then governed as part of New Hampshire – the New Hampshire Grants. His father Samuel Robinson was an important leader in the New Hampshire Grants, and died in 1767 while in England attempting to resolve a dispute over whether New Hampshire or New York had the right to grant land and town charters there.  Moses Robinson soon became an important citizen of Bennington in his own right, serving as town clerk from 1762 to 1781. He farmed and speculated in land, and became active in the American independence movement, serving as a colonel in the Vermont militia during the American Revolution.

Career.

In 1778, when the government of Vermont was erected after Vermont declared independence in 1777, Robinson became a member of the governor's council and chief justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. In 1782 he was sent to the Continental Congress as a state agent to attempt to solve the ongoing governance dispute with New York. He served on the governor's council until 1785 and as chief justice until 1789, when he became governor of Vermont, replacing Thomas Chittenden. Robinson served as governor until October 1790, almost five months before Vermont was admitted as a state to the United States, and was succeeded by Chittenden.  In 1789 Robinson received the honorary degree of master of arts from Yale University, and in 1790 he received the same honor from Dartmouth College.  Immediately after Vermont's admission to the Union in 1791, Robinson was elected by the Vermont General Assembly to one of Vermont's two United States Senate seats. He served in the Senate for five years of his six-year term, from October 17, 1791, to October 15, 1796, when he resigned. He became associated with the anti-administration faction and, later in his term, with the beginnings of the Democratic-Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson.  After his retirement from the Senate, Robinson moved back to Bennington and resumed farming and land speculation. He served in the Vermont House of Representatives in 1802.

Death.

Robinson died in Bennington and is interred at the Old Bennington Cemetery.

Family.

Robinson married Mary Fay, daughter of Stephen Fay, a leader of Green Mountain Boys, and sister of Joseph Fay and David Fay. They had six sons. His second wife, after Mary's death, was Susanah Howe.  Robinson was the older brother of Jonathan Robinson and Samuel Robinson, who were also prominent in Vermont's political history. Governor John S. Robinson was the son of Nathan Robinson and the grandson of Moses Robinson.

Moses Robinson (March 22, 1741 – May 26, 1813) was a prominent Vermont political figure. When Vermont was an independent republic, he was its first chief justice and served a one-year term as governor. As governor he superintended the negotiations that led to Vermont's admission to the Union as the fourteenth state in the United States. He then served as one of the first two United States Senators from Vermont.


Biography.

Slade was born in Cornwall, Vermont, on May 9, 1786, the son of William Slade and Rebecca Plumb. He attended the public schools and graduated from Middlebury College in 1807 with fellow classmates Daniel Azro Ashley Buck and Stephen Royce. He studied law with Joel Doolittle and was admitted to the bar in 1810. He began the practice of law in Middlebury, Vermont. Slade married Abigail Foot on February 5, 1810, in Middlebury. They had nine children between 1810 and 1829; four died very young. One son, James M. Slade, served as Lieutenant Governor from 1856 to 1857. William Slade was a Democratic-Republican presidential elector in 1812 and 1820.  Slade engaged in editorial work; he established and was editor of the "Columbian Patriot" from 1814 to 1816 and maintained a book store and printing office. He was Vermont Secretary of State from 1815 to 1822, Judge of the Addison County Court from 1816 to 1822, and Clerk in the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., from 1823 to 1829.  In 1831, Slade was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as an Anti-Masonic candidate in a special election to fill the vacancy created by the death of Rollin C. Mallary. He was reelected as an Anti-Masonic candidate to the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses and as a Whig candidate to the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Congresses, serving from November 1, 1831, to March 3, 1843.  On December 20, 1837, Slade played a central role early in the House of Representatives's debate over slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia. A year earlier the House had adopted a rule prohibiting discussion of those subjects as too contentious. Slade asked that a committee be appointed to consider anti-slavery petitions and contended the gag rule did not apply since he was discussing the creation of a committee rather than slavery itself. He nevertheless discussed the history of slavery and its inhumanity at length as groups of congressmen from Southern states tried to shout him down and then left in protest. As a result the House adopted a more extensive gag rule the next day.  Slade was the reporter of decisions of the Vermont Supreme Court in 1843 and 1844. He was elected to a one-year term as Governor of Vermont in 1844, defeating Democratic nominee Daniel Kellogg. The next year no candidate won a majority of votes cast and the legislature elected him to a second term. During his tenure, public schools were successfully reorganized.  After leaving office, Slade was corresponding secretary of the Board of National Popular Education from 1846 to 1859, which he co-founded with Catharine Beecher. The Board worked to place female teachers in schools in western United States.  Slade died in Middlebury, Vermont, on January 18, 1859, and is interred at West Cemetery in Middlebury. Also memorialized on the family burial monument is Eliza Dobson, an African-American girl whom Slade brought to Vermont from Washington. Slade had her buried in his family plot when she died on April 19, 1853, at the age of 18.

William Slade, Jr. (May 9, 1786 – January 18, 1859) was an American Whig and Anti-Masonic politician. He served as a U.S. Representative from Vermont from 1831 to 1843, where he was an outspoken opponent of slavery. He was the seventeenth Governor of Vermont.