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 villages to larger cities to avoid being exploited or trafficked. In 1935, Čiurlionienė returned to the League and became a member of the Fist Committee (legal and constitutional questions) and Sixth Committee (mandates, slavery and political questions), but returned to the Fifth Committee in 1936. In 1937, participated in the Second Congress of Lithuanian Women organized by the Lithuanian Women's Council where she read a paper on the causes for marriage failures. The Lithuanian Women's Council unsuccessfully suggested her to the State Council of Lithuania and to run as a candidate to the Fourth Seimas.In 1930–1936, she was the leader of the Lithuanian girl scouts. From around 1926 to 1942, she organized Saturday gatherings in her home that attracted famous writers, poets, linguists. Frequent visitors included Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas, Balys Sruoga, Salomėja Nėris, . These gatherings resulted in the magazine Gimtoji kalba (Mother Tongue; 1933–1941) which was edited by Čiurlionienė for the first year. She also published numerous articles on language, education, and culture in various periodicals. Later life

Due to poor health, she resigned from her teaching position in 1938, but continued to be active delivering guest lectures. During World War II, together with her daughter and son-in-law, she helped rescue Esther, one-year old daughter of the Jewish writer .They worked with Petras Baublys, director of an orphanage, and saved children and others from the Kovno Ghetto. They were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 1991. In 1954, Čiurlionienė petitioned Justas Paleckis, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR, on behalf of Juozas Urbšys, the last Minister of Foreign Affairs of independent Lithuania, and his wife Marija Mašiotaitė-Urbšienė, childhood friend of Čiurlionienė and daughter of writer Pranas Mašiotas. Urbšys had served a prison sentence in Siberia but was not allowed to return to Lithuania. Čiurlionienė asked Paleckis to allow them to return and promised to house them at her home. They returned in 1956 and lived with Čiurlionienė. To earn some money, Urbšys translated from French to Lithuanian.In public, these translations were attributed to Čiurlionienė. One of such translations was the novel Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert published in 1958. Čiurlionienė suffered two heart attacks and died in 1958. She was buried in the Petrašiūnai Cemetery. Works
Her first literary works, a poem and an impression, was published in Gabija, the first Lithuanian almanac, dedicated to Antanas Baranauskas and published in 1907 in Kraków. She later published her literary works and critical essays in various anthologies and periodicals, including Naujoji Romuva, Lietuva, Aušrinė. When her criticism of Sudrumsta ramybė (Disturbed Peace), a 1925 play by , was not well received, she stopped publishing her reviews.Her first book Lietuvoje (In Lithuania) was published in 1910. It contained seven essays by Čiurlionienė and one essay on music by Čiurlionis which she translated from Polish. The book provides a critical evaluation of Lithuanian culture and society. Influenced by ideas of fin de siècle and Young Poland movements, she was dissatisfied with realism which was prevalent at the time and supported symbolism that sought deeper and more significant meaning, explored spiritual life and longing. In her various essays on art and literature, she urged creators not to copy foreign examples but to look within oneself, to explore the national character and spirit embodied in the Lithuanian folklore, and to create more modern works. In this light, she praised plays by  and Vidūnas. Most of her literary works are theater plays making her one of the first Lithuanian women playwrights.Her first play was Kalinys (Prisoner) about the escape of Grand Duke Vytautas from the Kreva Castle in 1382. Her most popular works were comedies Pinigėliai (Money; 1919; translated to Polish) and Vilos puošmena (Decoration of a Villa; 1932). These comedies by contrasting idealism with materialism showed the society's flaws and poked fun at greed and desire for profit. Another comedy Didžioji mugė (The Great Fair; 1939) explored families of the new capitalist elite – husbands chasing money and fame and their vain wives launching charitable initiatives and flirting with the Americans. Her drama Aušros sūnūs (Sons of Aušra; 1922) depicted the lives of book smugglers during the Lithuanian press ban. Her allegorical drama Riteris budėtojas (Knight the Watchman; 1934) was staged but she was dissatisfied with the production and had it canceled. In 1941, she wrote drama Tie metai (That Year) about the first Soviet deportation from Lithuania; it was first published in 1992.She also wrote plays for school theaters; the first collection was published in 1918. Her works were highly influenced by the Lithuanian folklore. In particular, her poem dedicated to Čiurlionis Giria žalioji (The Green Forest; 1915–1945), children's play Dvylika brolių, juodvarniais laksčiusių (Twelve Brothers Flying as Ravens; 1932), poem Mūsų jauja (Our Barn; 1910–1954) borrowed plot, symbols, and myths from Lithuanian folktales. For example, in Giria žalioji, a maiden searches for a fern flower. Her autobiographical novel Šventmarė (1937) is an example of literary realism even though she criticized realism in her essays. It depicts one parish in Samogitia during the Lithuanian press ban and paints a picture of social and cultural life at the time. The main protagonist is a Catholic priest, but despite her upbringing in the household of her Catholic priest uncle, Čiurlionienė does not dwell on Catholic morality and paints the young priest as a herald of the Lithuanian National Revival.The novel was adapted to theater stage by Liucija Armonaitė and staged in Alytus in 2013. The National Revival is also explored in the novel Bundanti žemė (Awakening Earth; 1913–1934) which depicts the lives of two young friends, one from the nobility, the other from the peasantry, and their paths to active cultural work. Čiurlionienė planned to continue the novel, but it was not written. A few of her works were written in the Samogitian dialect, including her last unfinished novel Žemaitiška poema (Samogitian Poem). She also translated French comedies Tartuffe and The Miser by Molière (both in 1928) and, together with others, translated and edited Greek epic Iliad (1930). Legacy
Three volumes of Čiurlionienė's selected works were published in 1956 on the occasion of her 70th birthday. A comprehensive collection of her works in eight volumes was published in 1986–2013 by the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore.Her life has been a subject of monographs published by Ramutis Karmalavičius in 1992, Viktorija Daujotytė in 2016, and Nida Gaidauskienė in 2019. In 1996 and 2007, her only daughter published two volumes of memoirs about her. Her portraits were painted by Antanas Žmuidzinavičius, , and others. Čiurlionienė burned her letters to her husband Čiurlionis; his letters to her were published in 1973 (57 letters) and 2011 (expanded edition with new letters, memoirs by contemporaries) – both volumes were compiled and edited by Vytautas Landsbergis. A biographical film about their love story, Letters to Sofija directed by Robert Mullan, was released in 2013. She is also depicted in the theater play Svajonių piligrimas (Pilgrim of Dreams; 1975) by Jonas Vaitkus and  and film Žalčio karūna (Crown of Grass Snake; 1986) directed by . In 2017,  who played Čiurlionis in the 1986 film established an annual art and music festival named Sofija in her honor.In 1932, Čiurlionienė moved to her own house in Kaunas designed by architect Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis. Financed by funds from the sale of Čiurlionis paintings in 1922, it is an example of the modernist architecture that has earned Kaunas the European Heritage Label and that is included on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Her room has been preserved as a memorial by her family. Officially opened in 1971, it displays original furniture, old books, photographs, personal belongings. The house where she and Čiurlionis stayed in while in Palanga was added to the Registry of Cultural Property; a memorial plaque was affixed in 1969. A street in Aleksotas, a district of Kaunas, was named in her honor in 1993. The house in Joniškis where Čiurlionienė was born was identified in 2016.The house received some necessary repairs and photos of her were installed on its outside in 2019. References

1958 deaths
1886 births
Lithuanian writers
Lithuanian women writers
People from Joniškis
Jagiellonian University alumni
Vytautas Magnus University faculty
Lithuanian women poets
Lithuanian literary critics
Women literary critics
Lithuanian educators
Lithuanian dramatists and playwrights
Lithuanian activists
Lithuanian feminists
People associated with Scouting
Lithuanian Righteous Among the Nations
Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Vytis
Burials at Petrašiūnai


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<mask> (22 October 1884 – 13 June 1928) was a record-breaking swimmer, and both a highly successful player and coach of Australian rules football in the early 20th century, chiefly in Western Australia. Family
The son of <mask> (1842-1915), and his wife Emma (1854-1928), née Duffield, <mask>, was born at Port Adelaide on 22 October 1884. <mask> was educated at state school in Adelaide before moving to Western Australia as a youth. Lifestyle
Away from football, <mask>'s working was varied and somewhat inconsistent. He had stints as a miner, a tramway motorman, a farmer, a navvy on the trans-Australian railway, a lumper, a storeman and a 'Spot-Lager' retailer. Early in his career, he was a teetotaller but eventually became a "social" drinker and was well known for his gambling habit. His unconventional approach to life caused problems within his family, who were sometimes compelled to live in a tent.<mask> offered to enlist during World War I; however, when rejected he opted to live as a licensed Swan River fisherman and involve himself more heavily in gambling. He operated two-up schools at Subiaco and Pelican Point, SP books in some city hotels, and later an illegal gaming house in Perth. For a number of years, he held a trotting bookmaker's licence. Swimming
He worked as a navvies' water-boy in Western Australia, and began swimming competitively in 1902 and playing Australian football. He had been encouraged to take up football by his swimming trainer, William Howson (who had, himself, established a world-record in 1904, swimming underwater for 110 yards), to  "harden himself" for his swimming. During his swimming career, he held Western Australian freestyle titles from 100 yards (91 m) to a mile (1.6 km) using the now-obsolete trudgen stroke, and won the 220-yard breaststroke at the Australasian championships in three consecutive years (1905, 1906, and 1907). On 19 February 1908, swimming at the Australian championships, conducted by the West Australian Amateur Swimming Association  at Claremont, Western Australia, <mask> set a world record time for the 220-yard breaststroke: three minutes and fourteen seconds, winning by a length (having touched equal first at the last turn).Seven days later, on 26 February 1908, swimming at a swimming carnival in Kalgoorie, <mask> broke his own world record by another three and two-fifths seconds, when he swam the distance in three minutes and ten and three-fifths of a second. However, because a surveyor's certificate could not be produced that precisely verified the dimensions of the pool (i.e., the exact length of the swim) the governing body, the New South Wales Amateur Swimming Association, refused to ratify the new record. Because his playing professional football at the same time precluded him from being considered for the Olympic Games, he turned professional for a £20 stake in 1909. Football
"[<mask>] himself was a wonderful footballer. His name has been bracketed with that of the late Albert Thurgood as the best player of all time. Grim, relentless, shrewd, strong as a lion, courageous and trier from start to finish, <mask> was a great figure on the field." — The Sporting Globe, 20 July 1928."All up, <mask> played and/or coached nine clubs and was involved in 13 premiership (five as a player, four as player/coach and four as coach) and four runner-up teams in 25 completed seasons." — Peter Carter. A fast, vigorous and versatile utility with an ability to take the big mark (despite being only 179 cm), he played at half-back and half-forward and took turns in the ruck. He played for both South Australia (1909–10) and Western Australia (1908, 1911, 1914) and captained the South Australian team at the 1914 interstate carnival. Professional
<mask> supported himself playing football during an era when the game was supposedly an amateur sport. He moved clubs frequently, playing outside the main leagues if the price was right. Over 20 seasons he played for:
 South Bunbury Football Club (Western Australia): 1904–1905.Boulder City Football Club (Western Australia): 1906–1908. Sturt (South Australia): 1909–1910. North Fremantle Football Club (Western Australia): 1911. Subiaco Football Club (Western Australia): 1912–1917. East Perth Football Club (Western Australia): 1918–1923. Coaching career

East Perth
Aged 33, <mask> found his calling when he was appointed as coach of East Perth Football Club in 1918. <mask> worked on the players' confidence and garnered their respect with a methodical approach to his coaching.He was lauded for his ability to outwit opponents and exploit weaknesses. <mask>'s dominant personality helped recruit some excellent players and a dynasty was rapidly built. In nine seasons between 1919 and 1927, East Perth won seven premierships and dominated Western Australian football. In total, he played in twelve premiership teams and, in the last ten years of his career, coached teams into nine finals. WAFL
He was an essential part of the state team, as a selector for the successful 1921 Western Australian interstate carnival team, and as the coach of the 1924, and the 1927 teams that lost narrowly to Victoria. Controversially, he openly criticised Victorian officials in 1924 for encouraging violence against his team. This outburst came back to haunt him.Castlemaine (BFL)
In 1925, <mask> accepted an offer to coach the Castlemaine Football Club, in the Victorian goldfields, in the club's first year in the Bendigo Football League competition. He was cleared as both player (he played in 2 or 3 games) and as coach to Castlemaine in April 1925. With <mask>'s coaching, Castlemaine made the 1925 Grand Final, but lost to South Bendigo by 14 Points: 7.12 (54) to 6.4 (40). Richmond (VFL)
Impressed with his effort in lifting the team into the Grand Final, Richmond officials approached <mask> with an offer to succeed Dan Minogue as the Tigers' coach for 1926. <mask> accepted and relocated to Melbourne. However, the Victorian Football League (VFL) refused <mask> a permit to take up the job, which incensed both the club and prospective coach. It was variously suggested that the VFL officials had not forgotten <mask>'s outburst two years earlier, or that they disapproved of his "unconventional" lifestyle.Western Australia
<mask> returned to Perth in time for the football season, and was re-appointed to coach East Perth. He took them to successive premierships. <mask> had revenge on the VFL officials by inspiring Western Australia to two "spiteful, vicious, brutal" victories over Victoria in 1926. Death
He died on 13 June 1928, from a fractured skull — an injury he sustained on 11 June 1928 (as the only passenger) in an accident on Hampden Road in Nedlands, when a truck driven by his former team-mate Horrie Bant, careered off the road, crashed through the bush, and collided with a post carrying overhead tram wires. Both men were thrown from the vehicle. Although injured, Bant survived the crash, and died in 1957. <mask> struck the post with his head.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39351520 Gay, Tasman, "<mask> is Remembered: Star footballer and outstanding football personality, his accidental death was a great blow to his many friends and admirers", The Westen Mail, (Thursday, 12 June 1952), p.21.]</ref>

Survived by his former wife, their two sons (Glenn and Cliff), and his de facto wife Catherine Thompson, née Owens,Public Notices: Re the Late <mask><mask>, The West Australian, (Saturday, 18 August 1928), p.13. he was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery on 15 June 1928.The Last Tribute: A Scene from Yesterday's Funeral (of <mask>), The (Perth) Mirror, (Saturday, 16 June 1928), p.4.Harry Kneebone's World of Sport: Unmarked, The (Adelaide) Advertiser, (Friday, 25 June 1948), p.8. Legacy
He played an important role in the process of making Australian football professional by openly negotiating fees that made him the highest paid Western Australian player and coach of the time. Subiaco Football Club
He was selected at centre half-forward in Subiaco's "Team of the Century". East Perth Football Club
He was selected as coach of East Perth's (1906-1944) "Team of the Century". Western Australia Sesquicentennial
In 1979 he was honoured with the bronze tablet for 1926, set into the footpath along St Georges Terrace, Perth as part of the WAY '79 sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) celebrations of the colonisation of Western Australia by Europeans. Western Australian Hall of Champions
In 1986, <mask> was inducted into the Western Australian Institute of Sport's "Western Australian Hall of Champions".West Australian Football Hall of Fame
In 2004 he was an inaugural inductee into the WAFL Hall of Fame. Australian Football Hall of Fame
Inducted into the coaching division of the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2004, <mask>'s citation reads:

See also
 1908 Melbourne Carnival
 1911 Adelaide Carnival
 1914 Sydney Carnival
 1924 Hobart Carnival
 1927 Melbourne Carnival
 Australian Football Hall of Fame
 West Australian Football Hall of Fame
 Western Australian Hall of Champions

Footnotes

References
 Glossop, Matthew (ed), East Perth 1906–1976, Matthew Glossop, (Perth), 1976. Hunt, Lyall, "<mask>, <mask> (1884–1928)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, 1986. Stannage, Tom (ed), A New History of Western Australia, University of Western Australia Press, (Nedlands), 1981. Western Australian National Football League, Football 150'', Promotional Graphics, (Perth), 1979. External links

 WAFL Hall of Fame
 Australian Football Hall of Fame

1884 births
1928 deaths
Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees
Sturt Football Club players
West Perth Football Club players
East Perth Football Club players
Subiaco Football Club players
North Fremantle Football Club players
Boulder City Football Club players
East Perth Football Club coaches
Subiaco Football Club coaches
Australian rules footballers from South Australia
Australian rules footballers from Western Australia
South Bunbury Football Club players
West Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees
World record setters in swimming
Australian male freestyle swimmers
Road incident deaths in Western Australia
Burials at Karrakatta Cemetery

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was a Japanese martial artist and founder of the martial art of aikido. He is often referred to as "the founder"   or , "Great Teacher". The son of a landowner from Tanabe, <mask> studied a number of martial arts in his youth, and served in the Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War. After being discharged in 1907, he moved to Hokkaidō as the head of a pioneer settlement; here he met and studied with Takeda Sōkaku, the founder of Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu. On leaving Hokkaido in 1919, <mask> joined the Ōmoto-kyō movement, a Shinto sect, in Ayabe, where he served as a martial arts instructor and opened his first dojo. He accompanied the head of the Ōmoto-kyō group, Onisaburo Deguchi, on an expedition to Mongolia in 1924, where they were captured by Chinese troops and returned to Japan. The following year, he had a profound spiritual experience, stating that, "a golden spirit sprang up from the ground, veiled my body, and changed my body into a golden one."After this experience, his martial arts skill appeared to be greatly increased. <mask> moved to Tokyo in 1926, where he set up what would become the Aikikai Hombu Dojo. By now he was comparatively famous in martial arts circles, and taught at this dojo and others around Japan, including in several military academies. In the aftermath of World War II the Hombu dojo was temporarily closed, but <mask> had by this point left Tokyo and retired to Iwama, and he continued training at the dojo he had set up there. From the end of the war until the 1960s, he worked to promote aikido throughout Japan and abroad. He died from liver cancer in 1969. After <mask>'s death, aikido continued to be promulgated by his students (many of whom became noted martial artists in their own right).It is now practiced around the world. Tanabe, 1883–1912
<mask> <mask> was born in Nishinotani village (now part of the city of Tanabe), Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, on December 14, 1883, the fourth child (and only son) born to Yoroku <mask> and his wife Yuki. The young <mask> was raised in a somewhat privileged setting. His father Yoroku was a wealthy gentleman farmer and minor politician, being an elected member of the Nishinotani village council for 22 consecutive years. His mother Yuki was from the Itokawa clan, a prominent local family who could trace their lineage back to the Heian period. <mask> was a rather weak, sickly child and bookish in his inclinations. At a young age his father encouraged him to take up sumo wrestling and swimming and entertained him with stories of his great-grandfather Kichiemon, who was considered a very strong samurai in his era.The need for such strength was further emphasized when the young <mask> witnessed his father being attacked by followers of a competing politician. A major influence on <mask>'s early education was his elementary schoolteacher Tasaburo Nasu, who was a Shinto priest and who introduced <mask> to the religion. At the age of six <mask> was sent to study at the Jizōderu Temple, but had little interest in the rote learning of Confucian education. However, his schoolmaster Mitsujo Fujimoto was also a priest of Shingon Buddhism, and taught the young Ueshiba some of the esoteric chants and ritual observances of the sect, which <mask> found intriguing. His interest in Buddhism was sufficiently great that his mother considered enrolling him in the priesthood, but his father Yoroku vetoed the idea. <mask> went to Tanabe Higher Elementary School and then to Tanabe Prefectural Middle School, but left formal education in his early teens, enrolling instead at a private abacus academy, the Yoshida Institute, to study accountancy. On graduating from the academy, he worked at a local tax office for a few months, but the job did not suit him and in 1901 he left for Tokyo, funded by his father.Ueshiba Trading, the stationery business which he opened there, was short-lived; unhappy with life in the capital, he returned to Tanabe less than a year later after suffering a bout of beri-beri. Shortly thereafter he married his childhood acquaintance Hatsu Itokawa. In 1903, Ueshiba was called up for military service. He failed the initial physical examination, being shorter than the regulation . To overcome this, he stretched his spine by attaching heavy weights to his legs and suspending himself from tree branches; when he re-took the physical exam he had increased his height by the necessary half-inch to pass. He was assigned to the Osaka Fourth Division, 37th Regiment, and was promoted to corporal of the 61st Wakayama regiment by the following year; after serving on the front lines during the Russo-Japanese War he was promoted to sergeant. He was discharged in 1907, and again returned to his father's farm in Tanabe.Here he befriended the writer and philosopher Minakata Kumagusu, becoming involved with Minakata's opposition to the Meiji government's Shrine Consolidation Policy. He and his wife had their first child, a daughter named Matsuko, in 1911. <mask> studied several martial arts during his early life, and was renowned for his physical strength during his youth. During his sojourn in Tokyo he studied Kitō-ryū jujutsu under Takisaburo Tobari, and briefly enrolled in a school teaching Shinkage-ryū. His training in Gotō-ha Yagyū-ryu under Masakatsu Nakai started in 1903 and continued until 1908, though was sporadic due to his military service, yet he was granted a Menkyo Kaiden (certificate of "Total Transmission") in 1908. In 1901 he received some instruction from Tozawa Tokusaburōin in Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū jujutsu and he studied judo with Kiyoichi Takagi in Tanabe in 1911, after his father had a dojo built on the family compound to encourage his son's training. In 1907, after his return from the war, he was also presented with a certificate of enlightenment (shingon inkyo) by his childhood teacher Mitsujo Fujimoto.Hokkaidō, 1912–1920

In the early part of the 20th century, the prefectural government of Hokkaidō, Japan's northernmost island, were offering various grants and incentives for mainland Japanese groups willing to relocate there. At the time, Hokkaidō was still largely unsettled by the Japanese, being occupied primarily by the indigenous Ainu. In 1910, <mask> travelled to Hokkaidō in the company of his acquaintance Denzaburo Kurahashi, who had lived on the northern island before. His intent was to scout out a propitious location for a new settlement, and he found the site at Shirataki suitable for his plans. Despite the hardships he suffered on this journey (which included getting lost in snowstorms several times and an incident in which he nearly drowned in a freezing river), <mask> returned to Tanabe filled with enthusiasm for the project, and began recruiting families to join him. He became the leader of the Kishū Settlement Group, a collective of eighty-five pioneers who intended to settle in the Shirataki district and live as farmers; the group founded the village of Yubetsu (later Shirataki village) in August, 1912. Much of the funding for this project came from <mask>'s father and his brothers-in-law Zenzo and Koshiro Inoue.Zenzo's son Noriaki was also a member of the settlement group. Poor soil conditions and bad weather led to crop failures during the first three years of the project, but the group still managed to cultivate mint and farm livestock. The burgeoning timber industry provided a boost to the settlement's economy, and by 1918 there were over 500 families residing there. A fire in 1917 razed the entire village, leading to the departure of around twenty families. <mask> was attending a meeting over railway construction around 50 miles away, but on learning of the fire travelled back the entire distance on foot. He was elected to the village council that year, and took a prominent role in leading the reconstruction efforts. In the summer of 1918, Hatsu gave birth to their first son, Takemori.The young <mask> met Takeda Sōkaku, the founder of Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu, at the Hisada Inn in Engaru, in March 1915. <mask> was deeply impressed with Takeda's martial art, and despite being on an important mission for his village at the time, abandoned his journey to spend the next month studying with Takeda. He requested formal instruction and began studying Takeda's style of jūjutsu in earnest, going so far as to construct a dojo at his home and inviting his new teacher to be a permanent house guest. He received a kyōju dairi certificate, a teaching license, for the system from Takeda in 1922, when Takeda visited him in Ayabe. Takeda also gave him a Yagyū Shinkage-ryū sword transmission scroll. <mask> then became a representative of Daitō-ryū, toured with Takeda as a teaching assistant and taught the system to others. The relationship between <mask> and Takeda was a complicated one.<mask> was an extremely dedicated student, dutifully attending to his teacher's needs and displaying great respect. However, Takeda overshadowed him throughout his early martial arts career, and <mask>'s own students recorded the need to address what they referred to as "the Takeda problem". Ayabe, 1920–1927

In November 1919, <mask> learned that his father Yoroku was ill, and was not expected to survive. Leaving most of his possessions to Takeda, <mask> left Shirataki with the apparent intention of returning to Tanabe to visit his ailing parent. En route he made a detour to Ayabe, near Kyoto, intending to visit Onisaburo Deguchi, the spiritual leader of the Ōmoto-kyō religion (<mask>'s nephew Noriaki Inoue had already joined the religion and may have recommended it to his uncle). <mask> stayed at the Ōmoto-kyō headquarters for several days, and met with Deguchi, who told him that, "There is nothing to worry about with your father". On his return to Tanabe, Ueshiba found that Yoroku had died.Criticised by family and friends for arriving too late to see his father, <mask> went into the mountains with a sword and practised solo sword exercises for several days; this almost led to his arrest when the police were informed of a sword-wielding madman on the loose. Within a few months, <mask> was back in Ayabe, having decided to become a full-time student of Ōmoto-kyō. In 1920 he moved his entire family, including his mother, to the Ōmoto compound; at the same time he also purchased enough rice to feed himself and his family for several years. That same year, Deguchi asked <mask> to become the group's martial arts instructor, and a dojo—the first of several that <mask> was to lead—was constructed on the centre's grounds. <mask> also taught Takeda's Daitō-ryū in neighbouring Hyōgo Prefecture during this period. His second son, Kuniharu, was born in 1920 in Ayabe, but died from illness the same year, along with three-year-old Takemori. Takeda visited Ueshiba in Ayabe to provide instruction, although he was not a follower of Ōmoto and did not get along with Deguchi, which led to a cooling of the relationship between him and <mask>.<mask> continued to teach his martial art under the name "Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu", at the behest of his teacher. However, Deguchi encouraged <mask> to create his own style of martial arts, "Ueshiba-ryū", and sent many Ōmoto followers to study at the dojo. He also brought <mask> into the highest levels of the group's bureaucracy, making <mask> his executive assistant and putting him in charge of the Showa Seinenkai (Ōmoto-kyō's national youth organisation) and the Ōmoto Shobotai, a volunteer fire service. His close relationship with Deguchi introduced <mask> to various members of Japan's far-right; members of the ultranationalist group the Sakurakai would hold meetings at Ueshiba's dojo, and he developed a friendship with the philosopher Shūmei Ōkawa during this period, as well as meeting with Nisshō Inoue and Kozaburō Tachibana. Deguchi also offered <mask>'s services as a bodyguard to Kingoro Hashimoto, the Sakurakai's founder. Ueshiba's commitment to the goal of world peace, stressed by many biographers, must be viewed in the light of these relationships and his Ōmoto-kyō beliefs. His association with the extreme right-wing is understandable when one considers that Ōmoto-kyō's view of world peace was of a benevolent dictatorship by the Emperor of Japan, with other nations being subjugated under Japanese rule.In 1921, in an event known as the , the Japanese authorities raided the compound, destroying the main buildings on the site and arresting Deguchi on charges of lèse-majesté. Ueshiba's dojo was undamaged and over the following two years he worked closely with Deguchi to reconstruct the group's centre, becoming heavily involved in farming work and serving as the group's "Caretaker of Forms", a role which placed him in charge of overseeing Ōmoto's move towards self-sufficiency. His son Kisshomaru was born in the summer of 1921. Three years later, in 1924, Deguchi led a small group of Ōmoto-kyō disciples, including <mask>, on a journey to Mongolia at the invitation of retired naval captain Yutaro Yano and his associates within the ultra-nationalist Black Dragon Society. Deguchi's intent was to establish a new religious kingdom in Mongolia, and to this end he had distributed propaganda suggesting that he was the reincarnation of Genghis Khan. Allied with the Mongolian bandit Lu Zhankui, Deguchi's group were arrested in Tongliao by the Chinese authorities—fortunately for <mask>, whilst Lu and his men were executed by firing squad, the Japanese group were released into the custody of the Japanese consul. They were returned under guard to Japan, where Deguchi was imprisoned for breaking the terms of his bail.During this expedition <mask> was given the Chinese alias Wang Shou-gao, rendered in Japanese as "Moritaka" – he was reportedly very taken with this name and continued to use it intermittently for the rest of his life. After returning to Ayabe, <mask> began a regimen of spiritual training, regularly retreating

masks: Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Morihei Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba


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 to the mountains or performing misogi in the Nachi Falls. As his prowess as a martial artist increased, his fame began to spread. He was challenged by many established martial artists, some of whom later became his students after being defeated by him. In the autumn of 1925 he was asked to give a demonstration of his art in Tokyo, at the behest of Admiral Isamu Takeshita; one of the spectators was Yamamoto Gonnohyōe, who requested that <mask> stay in the capital to instruct the Imperial Guard in his martial art. After a couple of weeks, however, <mask> took issue with several government officials who voiced concerns about his connections to Deguchi; he cancelled the training and returned to Ayabe. Tokyo, 1927–1942

In 1926 Takeshita invited <mask> to visit Tokyo again.<mask> relented and returned to the capital, but while residing there was stricken with a serious illness. Deguchi visited his ailing student and, concerned for his health, commanded <mask> to return to Ayabe. The appeal of returning increased after <mask> was questioned by the police following his meeting with Deguchi; the authorities were keeping the Ōmoto-kyō leader under close surveillance. Angered at the treatment he had received, <mask> went back to Ayabe again. Six months later, this time with Deguchi's blessing, he and his family moved permanently to Tokyo. This move allowed <mask> to teach politicians, high-ranking military personnel, and members of the Imperial household; suddenly he was no longer an obscure provincial martial artist, but a sensei to some of Japan's most important citizens. Arriving in October 1927, the <mask> family set up home in the Shirokane district.The building proved too small to house the growing number of aikido students, and so the Ueshibas moved to larger premises, first in Mita district, then in Takanawa, and finally to a purpose-built hall in Shinjuku. This last location, originally named the Kobukan (), would eventually become the Aikikai Hombu Dojo. During its construction, <mask> rented a property nearby, where he was visited by Kanō Jigorō, the founder of judo. During this period, <mask> was invited to teach at a number of military institutes, due to his close personal relationships with key figures in the military (among them Sadao Araki, the Japanese Minister of War). He accepted an invitation from Admiral Sankichi Takahashi to be the martial arts instructor at the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, and also taught at the Nakano Spy School, although aikido was later judged to be too technical for the students there and karate was adopted instead. He also became a visiting instructor at the Imperial Japanese Army Academy after being challenged by (and defeating) General Makoto Miura, another student of Takeda Sōkaku's Daitō-ryū. Takeda himself met <mask> for the last time around 1935, while <mask> was teaching at the Osaka headquarters of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.Frustrated by the appearance of his teacher, who was openly critical of <mask>'s martial arts and who appeared intent on taking over the classes there, <mask> left Osaka during the night, bowing to the residence in which Takeda was staying and thereafter avoiding all contact with him. Between 1940 and 1942 he made several visits to Manchukuo (Japanese occupied Manchuria) where he was the principal martial arts instructor at Kenkoku University. Whilst in Manchuria, he met and defeated the sumo wrestler Tenryū Saburō during a demonstration. The "Second Ōmoto Incident" in 1935 saw another government crackdown on Deguchi's sect, in which the Ayabe compound was destroyed and most of the group's leaders imprisoned. Although he had relocated to Tokyo, <mask> had retained links with the Ōmoto-kyō group (he had in fact helped Deguchi to establish a paramilitary branch of the sect only three years earlier) and expected to be arrested as one of its senior members. However, he had a good relationship with the local police commissioner Kenji Tomita and the chief of police Gīchi Morita, both of whom had been his students. As a result, although he was taken in for interrogation, he was released without charge on Morita's authority.In 1932, <mask>'s daughter Matsuko was married to the swordsman Kiyoshi Nakakura, who was adopted as <mask>'s heir under the name Morihiro <mask>. The marriage ended after a few years, and Nakakura left the family in 1937. <mask> later designated his son Kisshomaru as the heir to his martial art. The 1930s saw Japan's invasion of mainland Asia and increased military activity in Europe. <mask> was concerned about the prospect of war, and became involved in a number of efforts to try and forestall the conflict that would eventually become World War II. He was part of a group, along with Shūmei Ōkawa and several wealthy Japanese backers, that tried to broker a deal with Harry Chandler to export aviation fuel from the United States to Japan (in contravention of the oil embargo that was currently in force), although this effort ultimately failed. In 1941 <mask> also undertook a secret diplomatic mission to China at the behest of Prince Fumimaro Konoe.The intended goal was a meeting with Chiang Kai-shek to establish peace talks, but <mask> was unable to meet with the Chinese leader, arriving too late to fulfil his mission. Iwama, 1942–1969

From 1935 onwards, <mask> had been purchasing land in Iwama in Ibaraki Prefecture, and by the early 1940s had acquired around  of farmland there. In 1942, disenchanted with the war-mongering and political manoeuvring in the capital, he left Tokyo and moved to Iwama permanently, settling in a small farmer's cottage. Here he founded the Aiki Shuren Dojo, also known as the Iwama dojo, and the Aiki Shrine, a devotional shrine to the "Great Spirit of Aiki". During this time he travelled extensively in Japan, particularly in the Kansai region, teaching his aikido. Despite the prohibition on the teaching of martial arts after World War II, <mask> and his students continued to practice in secret at the Iwama dojo; the Hombu dojo in Tokyo was in any case being used as a refugee centre for citizens displaced by the severe firebombing. It was during this period that <mask> met and befriended Koun Nakanishi, an expert in kotodama.The study of kotodama was to become one of <mask>'s passions in later life, and Nakanishi's work inspired <mask>'s concept of takemusu aiki. The rural nature of his new home in Iwama allowed <mask> to concentrate on the second great passion of his life: farming. He had been born into a farming family and spent much of his life cultivating the land, from his settlement days in Hokkaidō to his work in Ayabe trying to make the Ōmoto-kyō compound self-sufficient. He viewed farming as a logical complement to martial arts; both were physically demanding and required single-minded dedication. Not only did his farming activities provide a useful cover for martial arts training under the government's restrictions, it also provided food for Ueshiba, his students and other local families at a time when food shortages were commonplace. The government prohibition (on aikido, at least) was lifted in 1948 with the creation of the Aiki Foundation, established by the Japanese Ministry of Education with permission from the Occupation forces. The Hombu dojo re-opened the following year.After the war <mask> effectively retired from aikido. He delegated most of the work of running the Hombu dojo and the Aiki Federation to his son Kisshomaru, and instead chose to spend much of his time in prayer, meditation, calligraphy and farming. He still travelled extensively to promote aikido, even visiting Hawaii in 1961. He also appeared in a television documentary on aikido: NTV's The Master of Aikido, broadcast in January 1960. <mask> maintained links with the Japanese nationalist movement even in later life; his student Kanshu Sunadomari reported that <mask> temporarily sheltered Mikami Taku, one of the naval officers involved in the May 15 Incident, at Iwama. In 1969, <mask> became ill. He led his last training session on March 10, and was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with cancer of the liver.He died suddenly on April 26, 1969. His body was buried at Kozan-ji Temple Tanabe-shi Wakayama Japan, and he was given the posthumous Buddhist title "Aiki-in Moritake En'yū Daidōshi" (); parts of his hair were enshrined at Ayabe, Iwama and Kumano. Two months later, his wife Hatsu ( <mask> Hatsu, née Itokawa Hatsu; 1881–1969) also died. Development of aikido

Aikido—usually translated as the Way of Unifying Spirit or the Way of Spiritual Harmony—is a fighting system that focuses on throws, pins and joint locks together with some striking techniques. It emphasises protecting the opponent and promotes spiritual and social development. The technical curriculum of aikido was derived from the teachings of Takeda Sōkaku; the basic techniques of aikido stem from his Daitō-ryū system. In the earlier years of his teaching, from the 1920s to the mid-1930s, <mask> taught the Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu system; his early students' documents bear the term Daitō-ryū.Indeed, Ueshiba trained one of the future highest grade earners in Daitō-ryū, Takuma Hisa, in the art before Takeda took charge of Hisa's training. The early form of training under <mask> was noticeably different from later forms of aikido. It had a larger curriculum, increased use of strikes to vital points (atemi) and a greater use of weapons. The schools of aikido developed by <mask>'s students from the pre-war period tend to reflect the harder style of the early training. These students included Kenji Tomiki (who founded the Shodokan Aikido sometimes called Tomiki-ryū), Noriaki Inoue (who founded Shin'ei Taidō), Minoru Mochizuki (who founded Yoseikan Budo) and Gozo Shioda (who founded Yoshinkan Aikido). Many of these styles are therefore considered "pre-war styles", although some of these teachers continued to train with Ueshiba in the years after World War II. During his lifetime, <mask> had three spiritual experiences that impacted greatly on his understanding of the martial arts.The first occurred in 1925, after <mask> had defeated a naval officer's bokken (wooden katana) attacks unarmed and without hurting the officer. <mask> then walked to his garden, where he had the following realisation:

His second experience occurred in 1940 when engaged in the ritual purification process of misogi. His third experience was in 1942 during the worst fighting of World War II, when <mask> had a vision of the "Great Spirit of Peace". After these events, <mask> seemed to slowly grow away from Takeda, and he began to change his art. These changes are reflected in the differing names with which he referred to his system, first as aiki-jūjutsu, then Ueshiba-ryū, Asahi-ryū, and aiki budō. In 1942, when <mask>'s group joined the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai, the martial art that <mask> developed finally came to be known as aikido. As <mask> grew older, more skilled, and more spiritual in his outlook, his art also changed and became softer and more gentle.Martial techniques became less important, and more focus was given to the control of ki. In his own expression of the art there was a greater emphasis on what is referred to as kokyū-nage, or "breath throws" which are soft and blending, utilizing the opponent's movement in order to throw them. <mask> regularly practiced cold water misogi, as well as other spiritual and religious rites, and viewed his studies of aikido as part of this spiritual training. Over the years, <mask> trained a large number of students, many of whom later became famous teachers in their own right and developed their own styles of aikido. Some of them were uchi-deshi, live-in students. <mask> placed many demands on his uchi-deshi, expecting them to attend him at all times, act as training partners (even in the middle of the night), arrange his travel plans, massage and bathe him, and assist with household chores. There were roughly four generations of students, comprising the pre-war students (training 1921–1935), students who trained during the Second World War (c.1936–1945), the post-war students in Iwama (c.1946–1955) and the students who trained with <mask> during his final years (c.1956–c.1969).As a result of <mask>'s martial development throughout his life, students from each of these generations tend to have markedly different approaches to aikido. These variations are compounded by the fact that few students trained with <mask> for a protracted period; only Yoichiro Inoue, Kenji Tomiki, Gozo Shioda, Morihiro Saito, Tsutomu Yukawa and Mitsugi Saotome studied directly under <mask> for more than five or six years. After the war, Ueshiba and the Hombu Dojo dispatched some of their students to various other countries, resulting in aikido spreading around the world. Honors
 Medal of Honor (Purple Ribbon) (Japan), 1960
 Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, 1964
 Order of the Sacred Treasure (Japan), 1968

Works
 <mask> <mask>, The Secret Teachings of Aikido (2008), Kodansha International,
 <mask> <mask>, Budo: Teachings of the Founder of Aikido (1996), Kodansha International,
 <mask> <mask>, The Essence of Aikido: Spiritual Teachings of Morihei <mask> (1998), Kodansha International,
 Morihei Ueshiba, The Art of Peace (2007), Shambhala,  - selection from Morihei's talks, poems, calligraphy and oral tradition, including excerpt from Budo, Aikido: The Spiritual Dimension, and Aiki Shinzui compiled and translated by John Stevens

References

1883 births
1969 deaths
Deaths from cancer in Japan
Deaths from liver cancer
Japanese aikidoka
Japanese Shintoists
Martial arts school founders
People from Tanabe, Wakayama
Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon
Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class
20th-century philanthropists
Imperial Japanese Army soldiers
Japanese military personnel of the Russo-Japanese

masks: Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Ueshiba Morihei Ueshiba Morihei Ueshiba Morihei Ueshiba Ueshiba


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<mask> (born April 13, 1987) is an American comedic performer and actor Hardesty posts original comedy videos as well as "uncanny" recreations of scenes from movies, playing every part himself. The Village Voice writer Julian Dibbell has called his works "web culture at its finest." Personal life
Hardesty was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the youngest child in the family. He is the son of Susan and <mask>, who is a pianist. Hardesty's mother collected silly hats and placed a suit of armor in the dining room "just for fun;" his father wrote jingles in addition to teaching music and directing the church choir. Hardesty's parents described him as sweet-natured, funny, and introverted. His parents withdrew him from his small Christian elementary school in second grade, fearing that the attending was too rigid for their son.Instead, he was home-schooled until middle school. While at Baltimore Lutheran School, a teacher convinced Hardesty into acting in the school's theater productions, though he was too self-conscious to allow his family to attend his performances. He practiced his social skills while working as a cashier at Weis Markets, a nearby grocery store where he worked on weekends and after school. In college, Hardesty majored in film, while making YouTube videos on the side. After attracting attention with his video, Strange Faces and Noises I Can Make III, a producer, Edwin Marshall, expressed interest in professionally representing Hardesty. The same video got national attention from a popular Geico commercial in 2007 and 2008. In late 2007, Hardesty auditioned for a role in the film Bart Got a Room.Shortly thereafter, Beverly Strong of Strong Management took over as Hardesty's manager, and represents him to this day, along with Nic De Armendi of JLA Talent. Hardesty no longer resides in Los Angeles. He currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland where he makes videos for IMDb and his film/TV commentary YouTube Channel "The Back Focus." Career

YouTube
On YouTube, Hardesty goes by the username "ArtieTSMITW," which is an abbreviation for "Artie: The Strongest Man in the World," a character from one of his favorite childhood shows, The Adventures of Pete and Pete. His most popular videos are his Re-enactment videos, in which he chooses a movie scene, and re-enacts it, playing all the characters. One of his most popular and strikingly real performances is the drill instructor from Full Metal Jacket, originally portrayed by R. Lee Ermey. Another popular series is Strange Faces and Noises I Can Make, in which he demonstrates the strange faces and noises he can make.He has parodied the Internet sensation 2 Girls 1 Cup with "1 guy 1 lunchable". To date, Hardesty has had seven of his videos featured on the front page of YouTube: his reenactment of a scene from The Princess Bride, his reenactment of a scene from Uncle Buck, a video dubbed "Three Impressions" which features three of Hardesty's celebrity impersonations, his "Strange Faces and Noises I Can Make III" video, which has had over 7.2 million views, a video entitled "The 30-Second Video," a video called "Request a Reenactment for YouTube Live," and a video called "Movies on YouTube? Huzzah!" In April 2007, Geico Auto Insurance used "Strange Faces and Noises I Can Make III" in their television commercial. After a portion of the video plays, apparently on a computer screen, a narrator says, "There may be better ways to spend 15 minutes online." Hardesty's Strange Faces and Noises I Can Make video was parodied in the MTV sketch show Human Giant. In the sketch, Aziz Ansari portrayed a character who made a similar funny faces video like Hardesty's.In November 2008, Hardesty participated in YouTube's first live show: YouTube Live. He asked his fans to request a scene for him to reenact, promising that the #1 most requested scene would air on YouTube Live. It ended up being a popular scene from The Dark Knight, and received over 150,000 views on YouTube in the first week. Hardesty was also interviewed briefly by fellow YouTuber, William Sledd. In May 2014, Hardesty started a second YouTube channel, No Small Parts, a documentary web series about character actors in the entertainment industry. As of June 2018, the channel has over 1.8 million video views. Some of the actors covered in the series include: Warwick Davis, Harry Dean Stanton, Richard Kiel, Crispin Glover and Pete Postlethwaite amongst others.As of June 18, 2018, Hardesty has made all of his previous videos on his "ArtieTSMITW" YouTube channel private and changed its name to "UndoTube." However, he brought those previous videos back up. In July 2018, Hardesty sold the brand of "No Small Parts" to IMDb and rebranded his "No Small Parts" channel to "The Back Focus," a channel "about discovering and commenting on under-appreciated and forgotten elements in entertainment." Acting career
In September 2007, upon seeing Hardesty's YouTube videos, a producer of the film Bart Got a Room e-mailed Hardesty expressing interest in casting him for a supporting role. Hardesty auditioned, got the part, and spent three weeks in Florida for the shoot. After the film Hardesty continued to audition for films and TV shows eventually landing a lead role in American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, as well as a supporting role in the film Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star, both filmed in 2009. From 2009 to 2012, Hardesty was cast as a lead in a CBS pilot entitled Living On A Prayer and posted a YouTube video doing a celebration dance, but it was not picked up by the network.He was cast as a lead in a short film "Ham Sandwich," directed by David Green. In 2013 <mask> has been cast in roles in the film Seven Minutes as well as The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power, the fourth installment in the Mummy film franchise. Filmography

References

External links

1987 births
21st-century American male actors
American men podcasters
American podcasters
Living people
Male actors from Baltimore
Stevenson University alumni
Towson University alumni
Male YouTubers
American YouTubers
Comedy YouTubers
YouTube filmmakers
YouTube vloggers
Entertainment-related YouTube channels
Commentary YouTubers

masks:
Brandon Allan Hardesty
Brent Hardesty
Hardesty


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<mask> (born February 4, 1962) is an American country music singer, songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and actor. Signed to RCA Nashville in 1989, <mask>'s debut album [[Killin' Time (<mask> album)|Killin' Time]] produced four straight number one singles on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. Although his momentum gradually slowed throughout the 1990s, <mask> consistently charted hit songs into the 2000s. He has had more than 30 singles on the US Billboard country charts, twenty-two of which have reached number one, in addition to having released twelve studio albums and several compilation albums. In 2003, <mask> founded his own record label, Equity Music Group. <mask> has also ventured into acting, having made appearances in a 1993 episode of the TV series Wings and in the 1994 film Maverick, as well as a starring role in 1998's Still Holding On: The Legend of Cadillac Jack. <mask> has been nominated for 4 Grammy Awards for best Country Male Vocal Performance (1990 - Killin' Time, 1997 - Like the Rain, 1998 - Something That We Do, 1999 - Nothin' but the Taillights), he was also nominated for 6 Grammy Awards with 1 win in the category of Best Country Collaboration with Vocals  - "Hold On Partner" in 1991 (w/ Roy Rogers), "A Bad Goodbye" in 1993 (w/ Wynonna), "Still Holding On" in 1997 (w/ Martina McBride), "Same Old Train" in 1998 which got the Grammy Award (with Joe Diffie, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Patty Loveless, Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, Pam Tillis, Randy Travis, Travis Tritt & Dwight Yoakam), "When I Said I Do" in 1999 (w/ wife Lisa Hartman Black), and "Hey Good Lookin'" in 2004 (Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, and George Strait).Early life
<mask> was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, the youngest of four children of Ann (Scherma) and Gwin Augusta "G.A." <mask>, Jr., and lived in nearby Red Bank. His maternal great-grandfather was of Italian descent, with roots in Palermo, Sicily. The family moved back to Texas, where G.A<mask> had been born and raised, before <mask> was one year old. He was raised in Katy, Texas. Music was always present in the house.<mask> taught himself to play harmonica before he was 13, and at 14 wrote his first song. His father remarked that it was at that age that the parents "first noticed that he had a great voice". By 15, <mask> had learned to play guitar. As a teenager <mask> joined his elder brothers, Mark, Kevin and Brian, in their small band. On Saturday afternoons, the family would host backyard barbecues and invite the neighborhood to listen to the boys sing. Some weekends would attract up to 70 people. <mask> eventually dropped out of high school to play with his brothers, before becoming a solo act.Music career

1983–88: Early career
<mask> was initially drawn to a variety of musical genres. According to his father, he chose to focus on country music in the early 1980s, after singers George Strait and Reba McEntire moved the genre back toward the more traditional; in the style kept alive by George Jones and Merle Haggard. For six years, <mask> supported himself as a construction worker, bait cutter, and fishing guide, while singing at various lounges as a solo singer and guitarist. In 1987, at one of the gigs he met another guitarist, Hayden Nicholas. The two men connected musically and began a song writing partnership that would last decades. In the late 1980s, <mask> delivered a demo of their collaboration "Nobody's Home" to record promoter Sammy Alfano. Within two days of that delivery, <mask> was invited to a meeting with Bill Ham, who managed ZZ Top.1989–91: Breakthrough
<mask> soon signed with RCA at that time considered one of the "most aggressive" labels in country music. His first album, Killin' Time, was released in 1989. Each song on the album was penned at least in part by <mask>; four of them were attributed solely to him, while the rest were collaborations with Nicholas. In a departure from most other country albums, <mask> used his road band instead of session musicians to record Killin' Time. The album was a critical and commercial success, reaching number one on the Billboard Country Albums chart and certified platinum in 1990. He made his debut in 1989 with the single, "A Better Man", which reached number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs in early June. This marked the first time in 14 years that a debut single by a male artist had peaked at the top of the chart.In total, five singles off of his debut album reached number one, the first time any country artist had accomplished this feat. <mask> won the Country Music Association's Horizon Award for best newcomer in 1989. At the end of the year, his singles, "A Better Man" and "Killin' Time" place number one and number two on the year-end country singles charts. It had been 36 years since another artist had claimed both top spots in a single year. Looking back at the early stages of his career, <mask> recalled: "'At one point, I knew I crossed this line out of obscurity and I felt like no matter what happened from that point on I would always be remembered for "Killin' Time." There was this kind of mixed feeling of remorse and excitement.'" In late 1990, the Los Angeles Times surveyed country music industry insiders to determine which acts could be expected to sell the most records over the next seven years.<mask> placed second in the poll, two votes behind Garth Brooks. The survey results were surprising in that 10 of the top 20 artists named were relative newcomers to the industry; in the past, country music had been dominated by artists with several decades experience. The plethora of new acts confused some reviewers, however. Many reviewers lumped many of the new acts together; as Newsweeks David Gates wrote: "Good song, good voice, hot band: who cares which one it is this time?" <mask> soon became known as one of Nashville's "hat acts"; like other country artists such as Tracy Lawrence, Alan Jackson, and John Michael Montgomery, <mask> was a relative newcomer who wore a hat, and had "clean, neotraditional sound with pop appeal". Killin' Time was certified platinum in 1990. <mask>'s second album, Put Yourself in My Shoes, was released in November 1990.It reached number two on the country chart and was in the top 20 on the pop album charts. This success on the pop charts resulted from a change in the way Billboard calculated album sales; a new reliance on Nielsen SoundScan instead of information from selected record stores showed that sales of country albums had previously been under counted. The album did not meet with as much critical acclaim as his debut, but nonetheless still included several hit singles. He began touring with Alabama. <mask> has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1991. 1992: Lawsuits and The Hard Way
In March 1992, <mask> sued his manager, Bill Ham, for breach of contract; <mask> sought $2 million in damages and requested that Ham return $4 million in royalties. Under the terms of their initial contract, Ham controlled all publishing royalties for any song that <mask> wrote or co-wrote for his first eight albums.Because <mask> wrote all of his own music, this amounted to a fee of 20 to 30 cents per album sold. Industry standards generally counseled songwriters to form their own publication companies, so they would be able to retain more of the royalties. Ham promptly countersued, blaming the initial lawsuit on poor advice <mask> received from his new personal assistant, his mother-in-law Jonni Hartman. His lawyer told the press that "Mr. Ham invested $1 million of his own money in <mask>'s career at a time when nobody else would do so. For that commitment, Mr. <mask> should show a little gratitude and honor his contracts". By mid-1992, <mask>'s first two albums had sold a combined 5 million copies. The difficulties with Ham caused a delay in the release of <mask>'s third album, The Hard Way, which was released on July 14.The album had been expected the year previously, and during the delay the country music scene changed. Both Alan Jackson and Travis Tritt achieved greater success, and Billy Ray Cyrus became a teen idol. The competition that <mask> faced was now much stiffer than with his earlier albums. According to <mask>, he and producer James Stroud spent more time putting this album together than either of those preceding and were "a lot more aggressive in the way we cut and mixed the album". <mask> was also more satisfied with the vocals on this album. Several of the songs on The Hard Way, including "Burn One Down", were initially reported to be <mask>'s responses to his situation with Ham. Co writer Nicholas refuted the rumors, maintaining that most of those songs were written in the late 1980s.To promote the album, <mask> launched The Hard Way Tour on June 26, 1992. The tour ran for 11 months. Reviewers noticed that with this album <mask> presented a "new, sexier image", wearing tighter clothing and in many cases leaving behind his trademark hat. <mask> commented simply that he was bored wearing the hat all the time. 1993–99: Continued success
<mask>'s fourth album, No Time to Kill was released almost a year after The Hard Way. The album received mixed reviews. The Houston Chronicle noted that <mask>'s duet with Wynonna Judd, "A Bad Goodbye", was "precisely the kind of radio-ready, big-production ballad that record companies tend to force on their artists when they sense that their careers are in trouble....[I]t sticks out like a sore thumb in his body of work."On the other hand, a review in Time magazine thought the duet helped <mask> show his emotions more intensely. Some reviewers also noted that in some of the more serious songs on the album, <mask>'s voice sounded strained. One Emotion followed in late 1994. Also a platinum certified album in the US, this album accounted for five straight top five hits. First was the number four "Untanglin' My Mind", a Merle Haggard co-write. After it came the number three "Wherever You Go", three-week number one "Summer's Comin'", the number two title track and finally the number four "Life Gets Away." The latter two were also number one country hits in Canada.In 1996, <mask> became the fourth country music singer to earn a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.The first three were Gene

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 Autry, Roy Rogers, and Garth Brooks. Later that year, he released his first greatest-hits package. This was led off by the chart-topper "Like the Rain", which spent three weeks at number one. After it came the number six "Half Way Up", his first single since "One More Payment" to miss the top five. <mask>'s next album, 1997's Nothin' but the Taillights, was released to mediocre reviews. Thom Owens of AllMusic said that the album made no attempt to change his sound, and was "sturdy" but less country than his previous efforts. Lead-off single "Still Holding On", a duet with labelmate Martina McBride, became his first single to land outside the top 10, with a number 11 peak that year.He soon recovered his chart momentum with the number two "Something That We Do" followed by two straight chart-toppers in the album's Steve Wariner-penned title track and "The Shoes You're Wearing". The next two singles – the number 12 "Loosen Up My Strings" and number 29 "You Don't Need Me Now" – were less successful. In 1998, he ventured slightly into Big Band Jazz when he recorded a cover of the Christmas song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" for the soundtrack of the animated movie of the same name. In 1999, <mask> released D'lectrified, which relied completely on acoustic instruments. Nevertheless, USAToday thought the "album sounds as full and brash as an electric album since he used creative arrangements and horn sections". Three of the songs on the albums were remakes of previous Black singles. Several others featured guest appearances by some of <mask>'s idols, including Waylon Jennings, Kenny Loggins, and Eric Idle.The songs tended to be longer than most of those played on country radio, with many stretching more than five minutes. 1999–2013: Later career

<mask> and Hartman welcomed their first child, Lily Pearl <mask>, in May 2001. <mask> took a three-year break from the music industry to stay home with his daughter. He explained that "it ended up not being a smart career move, but it was a real smart dad move. …  I wouldn't go back and try to do anything for my career in exchange for that." During his sabbatical, <mask> spent time reassessing his career. After deciding he was unwilling to work within the current recording industry system, he formed his own record label, Equity Music Group.<mask> admitted that it was difficult to leave RCA. In his 14 years with the label, he had sold over 20 million records. The new label operated under very different rules than those <mask> had begun his own career under. Artists were guaranteed ownership of their songs and were granted an equity stake in the label. The first release from the new label was <mask>'s next album, Spend My Time; his eighth studio album was <mask>'s first release in five years. The Houston Chronicle called it "arguably the most adventurous of his career". In 2005 <mask> released Drinkin' Songs and Other Logic.<mask> chose the title of the album to limit himself to simple topics in his past. He explained: "I went out and bought all the music I grew up on that I didn't already have and spent three months listening to only that. Only stuff from before I started making records, so it was pre-1989—Waylon, Willie, Buck Owens, Haggard, Don Williams, Jim Croce. And what I discovered was a simplicity in song that I had moved away from. It was quite an emotional journey because these were all the songs that moved me and inspired me to do what I've been doing ever since." <mask> has continued to record new material, however. In 2007, he released the single "The Strong One" the first original song he has recorded that he did not write.The song was included on his first digital EP, released on March 11, 2008. Titled "The Long Cool EP," the collection features <mask>'s single, "Long Cool Woman", "The Strong One" and a duet with his wife titled "You Still Get to Me". Equity Music Group closed its doors in December 2008 due to economic difficulties. <mask> was also a judge for the 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists. 2013–present: Return to music
Since the closure of his label in 2008, <mask> had intermittently hinted at a new album that never materialized. In 2013, he issued a Cracker Barrel-exclusive album which featured re-recorded versions of some of his biggest hits as well as three new songs. <mask> stated that he hired the same musicians that had played on the original versions to perform the new ones, and that some songs were approached from a "fresh angle" while others were made to be as close to the originals as possible.In early 2015, <mask> appeared with Joe Nichols on the ACM Superstar Duets special, which featured modern artists teaming up with older icons that had influenced their music. In July 2015, it was reported that <mask> had signed a new record deal with independent label Thirty Tigers to release an album of new studio material in the Fall. The record title was revealed shortly thereafter as On Purpose, with a release date of September 25. <mask>'s next album, Out of Sane, was released in 2020. Songwriting
Few country singers fill their albums primarily with their own material, and although RCA Records often pushed <mask> to record the material of other artists, he refused. <mask> recorded only his own songs until 2007, when he released the single "The Strong One". Many of his songs were the result of a collaboration with Hayden Nicholas.Their first collaboration, "Straight From the Factory", took them only 20 minutes to write, although Nicholas would later comment that "most of 'em weren't that easy". Many listeners were incredulous that such a young man (27 at the release of his first album) could have such "a remarkably mature perspective". According to <mask>, "To me, a song is more than just something to sing. It's something to learn from. It's somebody else's true feeling. I'm always trying to get at the meaning. ...When I write a line, I'm doing the same thing. I'm looking at it from the perspective of if I was driving down the road listening to it, what am I gonna get out of it?" Many of his songs make clever use of puns and other creative turns of phrase. While the wordplay in many of the songs on his earlier albums was widely appreciated, by the fourth album reviewers felt that the songs were not as high in quality. Rick Mitchell of the Houston Chronicle stated his opinion that The Hard Way "clever wordplay is no substitute for heartfelt emotion". Film and television
Shortly after his music career took off, he began receiving offers for acting roles. He turned down every request until 1994, when he was offered a bit part in the star-studded comedy film Maverick.Although the part required very little actual acting, after the movie's release <mask> received an increasing number of calls from directors who thought he would be perfect for a particular role. <mask> has appeared in several television shows, including Wings and The Larry Sanders Show. He has since starred in the 1998 television film, Still Holding On: The Legend of Cadillac Jack, based on the rodeo star Jack Favor, who was falsely accused of double murders in Haughton, Louisiana, in 1967. Lisa Hartman <mask> portrayed Ponder I. Favor, Jack's wife. <mask> had a major role in another television movie Going Home, and appeared briefly in the 2003 film Anger Management. He has also had a presence on various reality television shows.In 2003, <mask> appeared on Nashville Star, where he acted as a mentor to the contestants. Later that year, <mask> also appeared on the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith in the episode "Hope and Faith Get Randy". He later produced the debut album of series winner Buddy Jewell. In 2004, <mask> appeared as himself in the TV show Las Vegas. In 2008, <mask> was a contestant on a short-lived CBS reality show, Secret Talents of the Stars, in which he practiced stand-up comedy. The following year, he competed on the second season of Celebrity Apprentice. He was fired after the eleventh task, placing himself in fifth place, although he returned as a member of Joan Rivers's victorious team in the season finale.In 2009, <mask> appeared on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. <mask> has enjoyed his television experiences, describing acting as "another way for me to expand my creative canvas. ... I love to challenge myself." He believes that most of his fans "just see me as a musician who is stepping into [television and film] temporarily and either doing it alright or not". More recently, he appeared in the movies Flicka 2 in 2010 and Flicka: Country Pride in 2012. On July 4, 2012, <mask> appeared on an episode of Lifetime's reality series, Coming Home, which documents servicemen and women returning to their loved ones in surprise reunions.In the episode, he is featured helping two children write a song about their Army captain father, who is returning from Afghanistan to surprise his family. On July 24, 2012, <mask> is surprised by History Detectives on PBS. In the episode, the show pays a visit to his Nashville residence, to uncover the story behind an artifact given to him by his wife decades ago. In 2020, <mask> and Lisa appeared on the fourth season of The Masked Singer as "Snow Owls", notably competing as the series' first duet competitors while riding in an egg-shaped vehicle. <mask> participated in the seventh season of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. His episode aired in 2021. Musical styles and legacy
Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, George Strait, and Willie Nelson are <mask>'s biggest musical influences. His style is traditional country.His voice is described as a smooth baritone and was initially compared to Merle Haggard's. <mask> was self-taught on harmonica, guitar and bass at an early age. On his studio albums he plays acoustic and electric guitars as well as harmonica. In concert he plays primarily guitar, but does play drums and harmonica. Personal life
<mask> began dating actress Lisa Hartman in 1990. The couple kept their relationship very quiet. The first picture of the two of them together was not published until the week they were engaged.The couple married in Katy, Texas, in October 1991. <mask> and Lisa Hartman <mask> have a daughter, Lily Pearl <mask>, born in 2001. As of 2002, he and his wife reside in Nashville, Tennessee, after living in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles,

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<mask> (September 15, 1921 – January 1, 2004) was an American arts educator and the founder of the National Center of Afro-American Artists  and The Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts. She was one of the first recipients of a MacArthur Fellows Grant, in 1981, and received a Presidential Medal for the Arts by President Ronald Reagan in 1983. She is also an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Early life and education

<mask> was born September 15, 1921, in Boston to parents Clairmont and <mask> who had immigrated from Barbados. <mask> had two older brothers, Darnley and George from her mother’s previous marriage. She attended the Ruggles Street Nursery School in 1924 where she was told her IQ was higher than it would be when she grew older. That memory stayed with her and would eventually prompt her to start her own school later on.Her parents were followers of Marcus Garvey to whose ideas she attributes her racial pride and desire to promote African culture. <mask> attended Roxbury Memorial High School for Girls where she studied voice, piano, and dance. She worked her way through college by acting in local theatre productions and graduated from Emerson College (B.L.I., 1943), and Boston University School of Education (M.Ed., 1944). After graduating from Boston University, <mask> taught speech therapy at Massachusetts Mental Health Center, the New England Hospital, and the Habit Clinic of Boston. She also taught dance and drama at the Cambridge Community Center and fine arts at the Harriet Tubman House. At age 23, <mask> and her parents moved from Dudley street in Roxbury to a house on Homestead street where she lived until her death. In 1951 <mask>’s mother, Edwardine died.Her brother Darnley then moved into the downstairs section of the house with his wife and kids. Arts education

The Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts (ELSFA)

In 1950 <mask> founded The Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts to provide arts education for the African-American community in Boston with a comprehensive program across the visual and performing arts. The teaching program at the school was focused on building character and multidisciplinary arts instruction through performance and exhibitions. Her school attracted many top professionals in the fine arts resulting in a very rigorous program. At its peak, the school enrolled 700 students and employed 100 teachers. Many of the school's graduates went on to a successful career in entertainment. Many attribute the notoriety of <mask>’s school to the political culture of the time.Boston experienced a desegregation crisis in the mid 1970s after court-ordered desegregation of schools. Due to financial problems, enrollment in the school begin to dwindle. After years of battling financial crisis, and owing back taxes the school’s site was foreclosed on in 1997. National Center of Afro-American Artists (NCAAA)

<mask> founded the National Center of Afro-American Artists which served as an umbrella organization for the school, local arts groups, and a museum. The site which overlooked Franklin Park, was previously the Temple Mishkan Tefila and adjoining school. It was turned over to <mask>' organized by Jewish Philanthropists as part of the process of Jews leaving the city of Boston. Before acquiring this site, the school had passed through multiple locations which caused financial problems.By the 1980s, the center was in debt up to $720,000. The annual production of Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity became a staple of the organization and was directed every year by <mask> herself. Technical Theatre Program
<mask> developed the Technical Theatre Program at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute. The 750 inmates at the Norfolk Prison who were enrolled in the program put on performances and learned skills such as musical composition. In 1972 the book “Black Voices from Norfolk Prison” describing their experiences was published with a foreword by <mask>. Later life

Awards and affiliations

<mask> was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1977. She was involved in promoting African American culture through art forms.She served as a board member for various organizations, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Congressional Black Caucus, Metropolitan Cultural Alliance, and NAACP <mask> also received the Commonwealth Award, Massachusetts’ highest award in the arts, and myriad other honors including nearly thirty honorary doctorates from various universities. In October 2003, the National Visionary Leadership Project in ceremonies at Washington’s J. F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, named Miss <mask>, along with Ray Charles and John Hope Franklin, as a Visionary Elder." She is commemorated on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail. <mask> received a $350,000 grant from the Rockefeller foundation to update the school and pay the salaries of the school's staff. In 1981, <mask> was awarded the genius grant by the John D. and Catherine MacArthur Foundation. This grant was part of a five-year program where 21 MacArthur Prize Fellows would be awarded a yearly sum for their achievements in creativity. In 1983 she received the Presidential Medal for Arts from President Reagan.In 1986 <mask> received the Monarch Award from the National Council for Culture and Art. Each year the Council awarded two individuals for live achievements in the performing and visual arts. Community Involvement

<mask> became known as the Grande Dame of Arts in Roxbury due to her school, achievements in performing arts, and her community involvement. <mask> often traveled around the world to speak at conferences and inform on the state of African-American culture as well as her experiences in running the NCAAA. In 1980, <mask> was diagnosed with diabetes. She continued to spearhead cultural programs throughout Boston. She started the Elma Lewis Playhouse in Franklin Park during the summer months which boasted artists such as Duke Ellington and Arthur Fiedler.She further launched a clean-up campaign remove debris and drug paraphenalia from Franklin Park. The Elma Lewis Playhouse was renamed the Elma Lewis Theater at Franklin Park in 2003. In September 1996, Roxbury hosted a salute to the “Grande Dame,” which was a three day birthday celebration of <mask>’s achievements and life. It included events at many venues around the city and attracted prominent members of society including poet Maya Angelou and the UN Ambassador. <mask> was beginning to suffer from severe complications of diabetes. For her 76th birthday, she collected papers, photographs, musical notes, and other memorabilia to give to Northeastern University for a living archive. Death

On January 1, 2004, <mask> <mask> died at the age of 82 in her Boston home from pulmonary complications stemming from diabetes.References

External links
The Elma Lewis records are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA. The Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts records, 1954-1992 are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA. The National Center of Afro–American Artists records 1924–1998 are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA. The Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists records, 1966-1998 are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA. The John Ross papers, 1963-2006 are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA. 1921 births
2004 deaths
20th-century American educators
Boston University School of Education alumni
Emerson College alumni
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
MacArthur Fellows
People from Boston
United States National Medal of Arts recipients
Museum founders
20th-century women educators
20th-century philanthropists
20th-century African-American educators
21st-century African-American people

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<mask> (; 9 October 1947 – 7 January 2018), known professionally as <mask>, was a French yé-yé singer. In 1965, aged 17, she won the Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg. Between 1973 and 1992, she collaborated with singer-songwriter Michel Berger. Early years
<mask> was born in Paris on 9 October 1947, to a highly musical family. Her father, the lyricist <mask>, wrote songs for Édith Piaf and Charles Aznavour. Her mother, Cécile Berthier, was a singer as well and the daughter of Paul Berthier, the co-founder of Les Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois. The only daughter of her family, France had two brothers: Patrice and Philippe.In spring 1963, <mask> encouraged his daughter to record songs and send the demos to the music publisher Denis Bourgeois. That July, she auditioned for Bourgeois at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, after which Bourgeois wanted to sign her immediately. France was subsequently signed to Philips. At the time, Bourgeois was working for the label as artistic director for Serge Gainsbourg and assumed this role for <mask> as well. He encouraged her to record four tracks with the French jazz musician, arranger and composer Alain Goraguer. Early career
The first airplay of France's first single, "Ne sois pas si bête" ("Don't Be So Stupid"), occurred on her 16th birthday. It was released in November and became a hit, selling 200,000 copies.Gainsbourg, who had released several albums and written songs for singers including Michèle Arnaud and Juliette Gréco, was asked by Bourgeois to write songs for <mask>. Gainsbourg's "N'écoute pas les idoles" ("Don't listen to the idols") was <mask>'s second single; it reached the top of the French charts in March 1964 and stayed there for three weeks. At the same time, <mask> made her live debut, opening for Sacha Distel in Belgium. She teamed up with Distel's business manager, Maurice Tézé, a lyricist, which allowed her to create an original repertoire, unlike the majority of her contemporaries who sang adaptations of Anglophone hits. Elaborate orchestrations by Alain Goraguer blended styles, permitting her to navigate between jazz, children's songs, and anything in between. Examples of this mixed-genre style included "Jazz à gogo" (by Alain Goraguer and <mask>) and "Mes premières vraies vacances" (by Jacques Datin and Maurice Vidalin). Gall and Gainsbourg's association produced many popular singles, continuing through the summer of 1964 with the hit song "Laisse tomber les filles" ("Leave the girls alone") followed by "Christiansen" by Datin-Vidalin.Gainsbourg also secretly recorded <mask>'s laughter to use on "", a track on his 1964 album Gainsbourg Percussions. 1965
Having previously resisted, <mask> gave in to her managers at the end of 1964 and recorded a single intended for children. The song "Sacré Charlemagne", written by her father, and set to the music of George Liferman, was a hit in 1965, peaking at number one in France and number five in Turkey. Eurovision

<mask> was then selected to represent Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest 1965. From the ten songs proposed to her, she chose Gainsbourg's "Poupée de cire, poupée de son". On 20 March 1965, Gainsbourg, <mask>, and Goraguer attended the finals of the song contest in Naples, where the song was "allegedly booed in rehearsals for straying so far from the sort of song usually heard in the Contest at this point." Although the delivery during the live show may not have been <mask>'s strongest performance — one critic wrote that <mask>'s performance was "far from perfect," another noted that her voice was out of tune and her complexion pale, and when <mask> called Claude François, her lover at the time, immediately after the performance, he shouted at her, "You sang off key.You were terrible!" — the song impressed the jury and it took the Grand Prix. Success at Eurovision ensured that <mask> became even more known outside Europe and she recorded "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" in French, German, Italian and Japanese. There appears to be no English version released by France <mask>, although there was an English cover version by the English 1960s star Twinkle. Summer tour
In 1965, <mask> toured France for several months with "Le Grand Cirque de France" ("The Great Circus of France"), a combination of radio show and live circus. Her singles continued to chart successfully, including the Gainsbourg-penned "Attends ou va-t'en" ("Wait for me, or go away") and "Nous ne sommes pas des anges" ("We are not angels"). She also had a hit with the song "L'Amérique" ("America") by Eddy Marnay and Guy Magenta.Stewart Mason sums up this early period of <mask>'s career, culminating in the Eurovision win:[A]lthough many dismissed <mask> as a Francophone Lesley Gore, making fluffy and ultra-commercial pop hits with little substance, <mask>'s hits from this era stand up far better than most. Only Françoise Hardy was consistently making records up to these standards during this era. Though <mask>'s high, breathy voice was admittedly somewhat limited, she made the most of it. Even dopey hits like "Sacré Charlemagne", a duet with a pair of puppets who were the stars of a children's show on French TV, have an infectious, zesty charm; meatier tunes, like the sultry jazz-tinged ballad "Pense a Moi" and the brilliant rocker "Laisse tomber les filles", were as good as any single produced in the U.S. or Great Britain at the time. Film opportunities
After a TV film directed by Jean-Christophe Averty and dedicated to the songs of <mask> was distributed in the United States in 1965, <mask> was sought by Walt Disney to appear as Alice in a musical film version of Alice in Wonderland, after having already made  Alice into a cartoon in 1951. Although <mask> had insisted she did not want to become involved in film work, this was the only project which appealed to her. The project was cancelled after Disney's death in 1966.In 1966, <mask> appeared in the television film Viva Morandi, made in the same psychoanalytical mould as the (1965) Federico Fellini film Giulietta degli Spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits). She played "La Grâce" alongside Christine Lebail, who played "La Pureté", both singing "Les Sucettes" in a segment which was prominently labelled "Fantasy", in a clear reference to the song's sexual undertones. In 1993, she considered appearing on screen for a cinematographic collaboration with her best friend, screenwriter Telsche Boorman. This planned project was never completed due to Boorman's death in 1996. In January 2010, <mask> was portrayed by Sara Forestier in a feature film released in France, Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque), based on the graphic novel by writer-director Joann Sfar. 1966
In 1966, her children's song "Les Leçons particulières" ("Private lessons") was the subject of public notoriety and displeasure; the same occurred when Jean-Christophe Averty choreographed a troupe of men on all fours to illustrate another of her children's songs, "J'ai retrouvé mon chien" ("I've found my dog"), on his television programme, Les Raisins verts. Also in 1966, <mask> released another successful song written by Gainsbourg called “Les Sucettes” (Lollipops).Though the song was superficially about a young girl, Annie, who likes aniseed flavoured lollipops, plays on words within the song revealed it to be about oral sex.<ref name="European">"SPOTLIGHT THIS WEEK: France Gall", The New European, 18 January 2018</ref> <mask> was only 18 at the time the song was released and maintained that she was ignorant about the song's double entendre. She said she had sung “with an innocence of which I’m proud” and later said that her humiliation led her to avoid going out in public after being “betrayed by the adults around me”. She then refused to sing the song afterwards. She left France for a tour in Japan shortly after the song was released and was reportedly not able to trust another producer again until meeting Michel Berger. Psychedelic era and transition to adulthood
At the beginning of 1967, <mask> sang a duet with Maurice Biraud, "La Petite", which describes a young girl coveted by a friend of her father. The controversy over this performance overshadowed her release that year of Gainsbourg's poetic Néfertiti. Her next single was recorded with the orchestration of the English composer David Whitaker.New authors Frank Thomas and  were brought on board. They wrote "Bébé requin" ("Baby Shark"), a song which was a success for <mask> at the end of 1967, her last one for 6 years . This was followed by "Teenie Weenie Boppie", an anti-LSD song by Gainsbourg, which has been described as "a bizarre tune about a deadly LSD trip that somehow involves Mick Jagger". Gainsbourg then sang an anti-capital punishment song with <mask>, "Qui se souvient de Caryl Chessman?" ("Anyone remember Caryl Chessman? "), about the death row prisoner. Stewart Mason wrote about this period, "The psychedelic era found <mask>, under Gainsbourg's guidance, singing increasingly strange songs ... set to some of Gainsbourg's most out-there arrangements."Her next record "C'est toi que je veux", again with Whitaker, also failed to make an impact. With this string of recordings in the late 1960s, none of them an unmitigated success, and making the transition from teen-age to adult performer, <mask> faced some challenges in this period through the early 1970s. Mason wrote,No longer a teenager, but without a new persona to redefine herself with, (and without the help of Gainsbourg, whose time was taken by his own albums and those of his wife Jane Birkin), <mask> floundered both commercially and artistically. A label change from Philips to BASF in 1972 didn't help matters ..."

German-language career

Although struggling in her home country, <mask> regularly recorded in Germany from 1966 to 1972, in particular with the composer and orchestrator Werner Müller. She had a successful German career with songs by Horst Buchholz and Giorgio Moroder: "Love, l'amour und Liebe" (1967), "Hippie, hippie" (1968), "Ich liebe dich, so wie du bist" ("I love you the way you are") (1969) and "Mein Herz kann man nicht kaufen" ("My heart is not for sale") (1970). Her other German hits included "Haifischbaby (Bébé requin)", "Die schönste Musik, die es gibt" ("The most beautiful music there

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