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Mel Blanc

Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy radio programs, including those of Jack Benny, Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, The Great Gildersleeve, Judy Canova, and his own short-lived sitcom.

However, he became known worldwide for his work in the Golden Age of American Animation as the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, the Tasmanian Devil, and numerous other characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoons. Blanc also voiced the Looney Tunes characters Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd after replacing their original performers Joe Dougherty and Arthur Q. Bryan, respectively, although he occasionally voiced Elmer during Bryan's lifetime as well. He later voiced characters for Hanna-Barbera's television cartoons, including Barney Rubble and Dino on The Flintstones, Mr. Spacely on The Jetsons, Secret Squirrel on The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show, the title character of Speed Buggy, and Captain Caveman on Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels and The Flintstone Kids.

Referred to as "The Man of a Thousand Voices", he is regarded as one of the most influential people in the voice acting industry, and as one of the greatest voice actors of all time.

Early life
Blanc was born on May 30, 1908, in San Francisco, California, to Eva (née Katz), a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant, and Frederick Blank (born in New York to German Jewish parents), the younger of two children. He grew up in San Francisco's Western Addition neighborhood, and later in Portland, Oregon, where he attended Lincoln High School. He had an early fondness for voices and dialect, which he began practicing at the age of 10. He claimed that he changed the spelling of his name when he was 16, from Blank to Blanc, because a teacher told him that he would amount to nothing and be like his name, a "blank". He joined the Order of DeMolay as a young man, and was eventually inducted into its Hall of Fame. After graduating from high school in 1927, he divided his time between leading an orchestra, becoming the youngest conductor in the country at the age of 19; and performing shtick in vaudeville shows around Washington, Oregon and northern California.

Radio work
Blanc began his radio career at the age of 19 in 1927, when he made his acting debut on the KGW program The Hoot Owls, where his ability to provide voices for multiple characters first attracted attention. He moved to Los Angeles in 1932, where he met Estelle Rosenbaum (1909–2003), whom he married a year later, before returning to Portland. He moved to KEX in 1933 to produce and co-host his Cobweb and Nuts show with his wife Estelle, which debuted on June 15. The program played Monday through Saturday from 11:00 pm to midnight, and by the time the show ended two years later, it appeared from 10:30 pm to 11:00 pm.With his wife's encouragement, Blanc returned to Los Angeles and joined Warner Bros.–owned KFWB in Hollywood in 1935. He joined The Johnny Murray Show, but the following year switched to CBS Radio and The Joe Penner Show.

Blanc was a regular on the NBC Red Network show The Jack Benny Program in various roles, including voicing Benny's Maxwell automobile (in desperate need of a tune-up), violin teacher Professor LeBlanc, Polly the Parrot, Benny's pet polar bear Carmichael and the train announcer. The first role came from a mishap when the recording of the automobile's sounds failed to play on cue, prompting Blanc to take the microphone and improvise the sounds himself. The audience reacted so positively that Benny decided to dispense with the recording altogether and have Blanc continue in that role. One of Blanc's characters from Benny's radio (and later TV) programs was "Sy, the Little Mexican", who spoke one word at a time. He continued to work with Benny on radio until the series ended in 1955 and followed the program into television from Benny's 1950 debut episode through guest spots on NBC specials in the 1970s.

Radio Daily magazine wrote in 1942 that Blanc "specialize[d] in over fifty-seven voices, dialects, and intricate sound effects", and by 1946, he was appearing on over fifteen programs in various supporting roles. His success on The Jack Benny Program led to his own radio show on the CBS Radio Network, The Mel Blanc Show, which ran from September 3, 1946, to June 24, 1947. Blanc played himself as the hapless owner of a fix-it shop, as well as his young cousin Zookie. Blanc also appeared on such other national radio programs as The Abbott and Costello Show, the Happy Postman on Burns and Allen, and as August Moon on Point Sublime. During World War II, he appeared as Private Sad Sack on various radio shows, including G.I. Journal. Blanc recorded a song titled "Big Bear Lake".

Animation voice work during the golden age of Hollywood
In December 1936, Mel Blanc joined Leon Schlesinger Productions, which was producing theatrical cartoon shorts for Warner Bros. After sound man Treg Brown was put in charge of cartoon voices, and Carl Stalling became music director, Brown introduced Blanc to animation directors Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng, and Frank Tashlin, who loved his voices. The first cartoon Blanc worked on was Picador Porky (1937) as the voice of a drunken bull. He soon after received his first starring role when he replaced Joe Dougherty as Porky Pig's voice in Porky's Duck Hunt, which marked the debut of Daffy Duck, also voiced by Blanc.

Following this, Blanc became a very prominent vocal artist for Warner Bros., voicing a wide variety of the "Looney Tunes" characters. Bugs Bunny, as whom Blanc made his debut in A Wild Hare (1940), was known for eating carrots frequently (especially while saying his catchphrase "Eh, what's up, doc?"). To follow this sound with the animated voice, Blanc would bite into a carrot and then quickly spit into a spittoon. One often-repeated story is that Blanc was allergic to carrots, which Blanc denied.

In Disney's Pinocchio, Blanc was hired to perform the voice of Gideon the Cat. However, it was eventually decided to have Gideon be a mute character (similar to Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), so all of Blanc's recorded dialogue was deleted except for a solitary hiccup, which was heard three times in the finished film.

Blanc also originated the voice and laugh of Woody Woodpecker for the theatrical cartoons produced by Walter Lantz for Universal Pictures, but stopped voicing Woody after the character's first three shorts when he was signed to an exclusive contract with Warner Bros. Despite this, his laugh was still used in the Woody Woodpecker cartoons until 1951, when Grace Stafford recorded a softer version, while his "Guess who!?" signature line was used in the opening titles until the end of the series and closure of Walter Lantz Productions in 1972.

During World War II, Blanc served as the voice of the hapless Private Snafu in a series of shorts produced by Warner Bros. as a way of training recruited soldiers through the medium of animation.

Throughout his career, Blanc, aware of his talents, protected the rights to his voice characterizations contractually and legally. He, and later his estate, never hesitated to take civil action when those rights were violated. Voice actors at the time rarely received screen credits, but Blanc was an exception; by 1944, his contract with Warner Bros. stipulated a credit reading "Voice characterization(s) by Mel Blanc". According to his autobiography, Blanc asked for and received this screen credit from studio boss Leon Schlesinger after he was denied a salary raise. Initially, Blanc's screen credit was limited only to cartoons in which he voiced Bugs Bunny. This changed in March 1945 when the contract was amended to also include a screen credit for cartoons featuring Porky Pig and/or Daffy Duck. This however, excluded any shorts with the two characters made before that amendment occurred, even if they released after the fact (Book Revue and Baby Bottleneck are both examples of this). By the end of 1946, Blanc began receiving a screen credit in any subsequent Warner Bros. cartoon for which he provided voices.

Voice work for Hanna-Barbera and others
In 1960, after the expiration of his exclusive contract with Warner Bros., Blanc continued working for them, but also began providing voices for the TV cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera; his roles during this time included Barney Rubble of The Flintstones and Cosmo Spacely of The Jetsons. His other voice roles for Hanna-Barbera included Dino the Dinosaur, Secret Squirrel, Speed Buggy, and Captain Caveman, as well as voices for Wally Gator and The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.

Blanc also worked with former "Looney Tunes" director Chuck Jones, who by this time was directing shorts with his own company Sib Tower 12 (later MGM Animation/Visual Arts), doing vocal effects for the Tom and Jerry series from 1963 to 1967. Blanc was the first voice of Toucan Sam in Froot Loops commercials.

Blanc reprised some of his Warner Bros. characters when the studio contracted him to make new theatrical cartoons in the mid- to late 1960s. For these, Blanc voiced Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales, the characters who received the most frequent use in these shorts (later, newly introduced characters such as Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse were voiced by Larry Storch). Blanc also continued to voice the "Looney Tunes" for the bridging sequences of The Bugs Bunny Show, as well as in numerous animated advertisements and several compilation features, such as The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979). He also voiced Granny on Peter Pan Records in 4 More Adventures of Bugs Bunny (1974) and Holly-Daze (1974), in place of June Foray, and replaced the late Arthur Q. Bryan as Elmer Fudd's voice during the post-golden age era.

Car accident and aftermath
On January 24, 1961, Blanc was driving alone when his sports car was involved in a head-on collision on Sunset Boulevard; his legs and his pelvis were fractured as a result. He was in a coma and completely non-responsive. About two weeks later, one of Blanc's neurologists at the UCLA Medical Center tried a different approach than just trying to address the unconscious Blanc — address his characters instead. Blanc was asked, "How are you feeling today, Bugs Bunny?" After a slight pause, Blanc answered, in a weak voice, "Eh ... just fine, Doc. How are you?" The doctor then asked Tweety if he was there, too. "I tawt I taw a puddy tat", was the reply. Blanc returned home on March 17. Four days later, Blanc filed a US$500,000 lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles. His accident, one of 26 in the preceding two years at the intersection known as Dead Man's Curve, resulted in the city funding the restructuring of curves at the location. Years later, Blanc revealed that during his recovery, his son Noel "ghosted" several Warner Bros. cartoons' voice tracks for him. Warner Bros. had also asked Stan Freberg to provide the voice for Bugs Bunny, but Freberg declined, out of respect for Blanc. At the time of the accident, Blanc was also serving as the voice of Barney Rubble in The Flintstones. His absence from the show was relatively brief; Daws Butler provided the voice of Barney for a few episodes, after which the show's producers set up recording equipment in Blanc's hospital room and later at his home to allow him to work from there. Some of the recordings were made while he was in full-body cast as he lay flat on his back with the other Flintstones co-stars gathered around him. He returned to The Jack Benny Program to film the program's 1961 Christmas show, moving around by crutches and a wheelchair.

Later years
On January 29, 1962, Mel and his son Noel formed Blanc Communications Corporation, a media company which produced over 5000 commercials and public service announcements, which remains in operation. Mel and Noel appeared with many stars, including Kirk Douglas, Lucille Ball, Vincent Price, Phyllis Diller, Liberace, and The Who.

In the 1970s, Blanc gave a series of college lectures across the US and appeared in commercials for American Express. Mel's production company, Blanc Communications Corporation, collaborated on a special with the Boston-based Shriners' Burns Institute called Ounce of Prevention, which became a 30-minute TV special.

Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, Blanc performed his "Looney Tunes" characters for bridging sequences in various compilation films of Golden Age-era Warner Bros. cartoons, such as The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales, Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island, and Daffy Duck's Quackbusters. His final performance of his "Looney Tunes" roles was in Bugs Bunny's Wild World of Sports (1989). After spending most of two seasons voicing the diminutive robot Twiki in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Blanc's last major original character was Heathcliff, who he voiced from 1980 to 1988.

In the live-action film Strange Brew (1983), Blanc voiced the father of Bob and Doug MacKenzie, at the request of comedian Rick Moranis. In the live-action/animated movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Blanc reprised several of his roles from Warner Bros. cartoons (Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Tweety, and Sylvester), but left Yosemite Sam to Joe Alaskey (who later became one of Blanc's regular replacements until his death in 2016). The film was one of the few Disney projects in which Blanc was involved. Blanc died just a year after the film's release. His final recording session was for Jetsons: The Movie (1990).

Personal life
Blanc and his wife Estelle Rosenbaum were married on January 4, 1933, and remained married until his death in 1989. Their son, Noel Blanc, was also a voice actor.

Blanc was a Freemason as a member of Mid Day Lodge No. 188 in Portland, Oregon. He held membership at the lodge for 58 years. Blanc was also a Shriner.

Death

Blanc began smoking at least one pack of cigarettes per day at the age of nine and continued up through 1985, having quit smoking after being diagnosed with emphysema. He was later diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), after his family checked him into the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on May 19, 1989 when they noticed he had been coughing profusely while shooting a commercial. He was originally expected to recover, but doctors later discovered that he had advanced coronary artery disease after his health had worsened. He also fell from his bed and broke his femur during the stay.

Blanc died at the age of 81 from complications related to both illnesses on July 10, 1989 at 2:30 p.m., nearly two months after being admitted into the hospital. He is interred in Hollywood Forever Cemetery section 13, Pinewood section, plot #149 in Hollywood. His will specified that his gravestone read ""—the phrase with which Blanc's character, Porky Pig, concluded Warner Bros. cartoons from 1937 to 1946.

Legacy
Blanc is regarded as the most prolific voice actor in entertainment history. He was the first voice actor to receive on-screen credit.

Blanc's death was considered a significant loss to the cartoon industry because of his skill, expressive range, and the sheer number of the continuing characters he portrayed, whose roles were subsequently assumed by several other voice talents. As film critic Leonard Maltin observed, "It is astounding to realize that Tweety Bird and Yosemite Sam are the same man!"

Blanc said that Sylvester the Cat was the easiest character for him to voice, because "[he's] just my normal speaking voice with a spray at the end"; and that Yosemite Sam was the hardest, because of his loudness and raspyness.

A doctor who examined Blanc's throat found that he possessed unusually thick, powerful vocal cords that gave him an exceptional range, and compared them to those of opera singer Enrico Caruso.

After his death, Blanc's voice continued to be heard in newly released productions, such as recordings of Dino the Dinosaur in the live-action films The Flintstones (1994) and The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000). Similarly, recordings of Blanc as Jack Benny's Maxwell were featured in Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003). More recently, archive recordings of Blanc have been featured in new computer-generated imagery-animated "Looney Tunes" theatrical shorts; I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat (shown with Happy Feet Two) and Daffy's Rhapsody (shown with Journey 2: The Mysterious Island).

For his contributions to the radio industry, Blanc has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6385 Hollywood Boulevard. His character Bugs Bunny was also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on December 10, 1985.

Blanc trained his son Noel in the field of voice characterization. Noel performed his father's characters (particularly Porky Pig) on some programs, but did not become a full-time voice artist. Warner Bros. expressed reluctance to have a single voice actor succeed Blanc, and employed multiple new voice actors to fill the roles since the 1990s, including Noel Blanc, Jeff Bergman, Joe Alaskey, Greg Burson, Billy West and Eric Bauza.

Discography

 * Yah, Das Ist Ein Christmas Tree and I Tan't Wait Til Quithmuth Day (Capitol, 1950, Album CAS-3191)
 * Clink, Clink, Another Drink (Bluebird, 1942) as Drunk
 * Bugs Bunny Stories for Children (Capitol, 1947) as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, additional voices
 * The Woody Woodpecker Song (Capitol, 1948) as Woody Woodpecker
 * Bugs Bunny and the Tortoise (Capitol, 1948) as Bugs Bunny, Cecil Turtle, Daffy Duck, Henery Hawk, additional voices
 * That's All Folks! (Capitol, 1948) as Porky Pig
 * Won't You Ever Get Together With Me (Capitol, 1948) as Tweety, Sylvester
 * Bugs Bunny in Storyland (Capitol, 1949) as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Beaky Buzzard, Old King Cole, Fiddlers Three, Mary's Lamb, Bo Peep's Sheep, Big Bad Wolf
 * "Clink, Clink, Another Drink" (with Spike Jones and His City Slickers) (Bluebird Records, 1949), sings the bridge and hiccups
 * Woody Woodpecker and His Talent Show (Capitol, 1949) as Woody Woodpecker, Stanley Squirrel, Billy Goat, Plato Platypus, Fido, Happy Hedgehog, Harry Humbug
 * Bugs Bunny Sings with Daffy Duck, Tweety Pie, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester (Capitol, 1950) as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Tweety, Sylvester
 * Bugs Bunny Meets Hiawatha (Capitol, 1950) as Bugs Bunny
 * Daffy Duck Meets Yosemite Sam (Capitol, 1950) as Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam
 * Tweety Pie (Capitol, 1950) as Tweety, Sylvester
 * Woody Woodpecker's Picnic (Capitol, 1951) as Woody Woodpecker, Tommy Turtle, English Bulldog, German Shepherd, Irish Setter, Scotty
 * Henery Hawk (Capitol, 1951) as Henery Hawk, Foghorn Leghorn, Daffy Duck
 * Tweety's Puddy Tat Twouble (Capitol, 1951) as Tweety, Sylvester
 * Tweet, Tweet, Tweety (Capitol, 1952) as Tweety, Sylvester
 * Bugs Bunny and the Grow-Small Juice (Capitol, 1952) as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck
 * Henery Hawk's Chicken Hunt (Capitol, 1952) as Henery Hawk, Foghorn Leghorn, additional voices
 * Bugs Bunny and Aladdin's Lamp (Capitol, 1952) as Bugs Bunny, Genie
 * Woody Woodpecker and the Scarecrow (Capitol, 1952) as Woody Woodpecker, additional voices
 * Daffy Duck's Feathered Friend (Capitol, 1952) as Daffy Duck
 * Sylvester and Hippety Hopper (Capitol, 1952) as Sylvester, Sylvester Jr., additional voices
 * Woody Woodpecker and the Animal Crackers (Capitol, 1953) as Woody Woodpecker, additional voices
 * Woody Woodpecker and the Lost Monkey (Capitol, 1953) as Woody Woodpecker, additional voices
 * Bugs Bunny and Rabbit Seasoning (Capitol, 1953) as Bugs Bunny
 * Snowbound Tweety (Capitol, 1953) as Tweety, Sylvester
 * Woody Woodpecker and His Spaceship (Capitol, 1953) as Woody Woodpecker, additional voices
 * Wild West Henery Hawk (Capitol, 1953) as Henery Hawk, Foghorn Leghorn, additional voices
 * Pied Piper Pussycat (Capitol, 1953) as Sylvester, additional voices
 * Daffy Duck's Duck Inn (Capitol, 1954) as Daffy Duck, Dog
 * Bugs Bunny and the Pirate (Capitol, 1954) as Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam
 * Woody Woodpecker and the Truth Tonic (Capitol, 1954) as Woody Woodpecker, additional voices
 * Tweety's Good Deed (Capitol, 1954) as Tweety, Sylvester, additional voices
 * Woody Woodpecker's Fairy Godmother (Capitol, 1955) as Woody Woodpecker, additional voices
 * Woody Woodpecker in Mixed-Up Land (Capitol, 1955) as Woody Woodpecker, additional voices
 * Woody Woodpecker Meets Davy Crockett (Capitol, 1955) as Woody Woodpecker, additional voices
 * Woody Woodpecker's Family Album (Decca, 1957) as Pepito, Sailor, Malamute, Andy Panda, Fluten Bluten, Heinie the Hyena, Homer Pigeon, Cuckoo, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
 * "There's a Hole in the Iron Curtain" (with Mickey Katz and His Orchestra) (Capitol, 1960, Album 45-5425)
 * Bugs Bunny Songfest (Golden, 1961) as Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, Tweety, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Henery Hawk, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, Hippety Hopper, Foghorn Leghorn, Cicero Pig
 * Speedy Gonzales (Dot, 1962) as Speedy Gonzales
 * Magilla Gorilla and His Pals (Golden, 1964) as Droop-A-Long
 * The Flintstones: Flip Fables (Hanna-Barbera, 1965) as Barney Rubble, Chubby, Tubby, Stubby, Landlord, Beowolfe
 * The Flintstones: Hansel and Gretel (Hanna-Barbera, 1965) as Barney Rubble, Hansel, Gretel, Strudelmeyer, Fang, Witch, Reporter
 * Treasure Island Starring Sinbad, Jr. (Hanna-Barbera, 1965) as Salty
 * Secret Squirrel and Morocco Mole in: Super Spy (Hanna-Barbera, 1965) as Secret Squirrel, Tyrone
 * The New Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (Hanna-Barbera, 1966) as Barney Rubble, March Hare, Prosecuting Attorney/King's Son
 * The Flintstones Meet the Orchestra Family (Sunset, 1968) as Barney Rubble
 * The New Adventures of Bugs Bunny (Peter Pan, 1973) as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Petunia Pig, Speedy Gonzales, Pablo, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, additional voices
 * Four More Adventures of Bugs Bunny (Peter Pan, 1974) as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Petunia Pig, Tweety, Sylvester, Granny, additional voices
 * Holly Daze (Peter Pan, 1974) as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Speedy Gonzales, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Granny, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester, Junior, Santa Claus, Narrator, Radio Announcer
 * Looney Tunes Learn About Numbers (Warner Audio Publishing, 1986) as Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, additional voices
 * Looney Tunes Learn About The Alphabet (Warner Audio Publishing, 1986) as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, additional voices
 * Looney Tunes Learn About Going To School (Warner Audio Publishing, 1986) as Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, Sylvester Jr., Tweety, additional voices
 * Looney Tunes Learn About Sing-Along Songs (Warner Audio Publishing, 1986) as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety, Sylvester, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, additional voices
 * Looney Tunes Learn About Colors (Warner Audio Publishing, 1986) as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, additional voices
 * Looney Tunes Learn About Shapes and Sizes (Warner Audio Publishing, 1986) as Bugs Bunny, Cecil Turtle, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, additional voices

title: Mel Blanc


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In Old Arizona

In Old Arizona is a 1928 American pre-Code Western film directed by Raoul Walsh and Irving Cummings, nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film, which was based on the character of the Cisco Kid in the 1907 story "The Caballero's Way" by O. Henry, was a major innovation in Hollywood. It was the first major Western to use the new technology of sound and the first talkie to be filmed outdoors. It made extensive use of authentic locations, filming in Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park in Utah, and the Mission San Juan Capistrano and the Mojave Desert in California. The film premiered in Los Angeles on December 25, 1928, and went into general release on January 20, 1929.

In Old Arizona contributed to creating the image of the singing cowboy, as its star, Warner Baxter, does some incidental singing. Baxter went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance. Other nominations included Best Director for Irving Cummings, Best Writing for Tom Barry, Best Cinematography for Arthur Edeson, and Best Picture. The film entered the public domain on January 1, 2024.

Plot
In Arizona, a bandit known as the Cisco Kid robs a stagecoach. Word of this deed reaches to Sergeant Micky Dunn, who is tasked by his superior to bring in the Cisco Kid dead or alive, with a $5,000 reward promised once he succeeds. They meet in a barber shop, though Dunn is unaware of the Cisco Kid's true identity and passes him off as a friendly civilian. When he leaves, the local blacksmith tells him that was the Cisco Kid, much to Dunn's chagrin.

The Cisco Kid is in a relationship with Tonia Maria, and visits her often. He loves her, but she has frequent affairs without his knowledge. Dunn and Maria meet each other and begin an affair. Dunn tells Maria that once he takes down the Cisco Kid, he will give the $5,000 reward to Maria, making her fall in love with him. They express their love for each other while the Cisco Kid secretly watches and listens nearby, learning of her betrayal.

She writes a secret letter to Dunn telling him to come that evening to take down the Cisco Kid before he makes his escape. However, the Cisco Kid finds this letter and replaces it with a fake letter "from Maria" which he has written himself. His letter says that he will be dressed up in Maria's clothes in an effort to disguise himself from Dunn, while Maria is actually in the Cisco Kid's clothes riding away. Dunn receives this fake letter, believing it to be from Maria. When the Cisco Kid leaves her house, Dunn shoots Maria, believing her to be the Cisco Kid in disguise. Now farther away, the Cisco Kid laments that "[Maria's] flirting days are over, and she can finally settle down". He then makes his escape.

Cast

 * Warner Baxter as the Cisco Kid
 * Edmund Lowe as Sergeant Mickey Dunn
 * Dorothy Burgess as Tonia Maria

Production

Raoul Walsh was set to direct the film and star as the Cisco Kid, but had to abandon the project when a jackrabbit jumped through the windshield of a vehicle he was driving; the resulting wreck cost Walsh an eye. He never acted again, but continued his successful career as a film director.

Music
The film features a theme song entitled "My Tonia" which was composed by B. G. De Sylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson.

Awards and nominations
At the 2nd Academy Awards, the film was nominated for five awards—Outstanding Picture; Best Director (Irving Cummings); Best Actor (Warner Baxter); Best Writing (Tom Barry)—tied for the most of the year with The Patriot; and Best Cinematography (Arthur Edeson). In a ceremony where no film won more than one award, only Warner Baxter's Best Actor nomination was successful.

Preservation
The Academy Film Archive preserved In Old Arizona in 2004.

Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, this movie entered the public domain on January 1, 2024.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: In Old Arizona


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Driftwood

Driftwood is wood that has been washed onto a shore or beach of a sea, lake, or river by the action of winds, tides or waves. It is part of beach wrack.

In some waterfront areas, driftwood is a major nuisance. However, the driftwood provides shelter and food for birds, fish and other aquatic species as it floats in the ocean. Gribbles, shipworms and bacteria decompose the wood and gradually turn it into nutrients that are reintroduced to the food web. Sometimes, the partially decomposed wood washes ashore, where it also shelters birds, plants, and other species. Driftwood can become the foundation for sand dunes.

Most driftwood is the remains of trees, in whole or part, that have been washed into the ocean, due to flooding, high winds, or other natural occurrences, or as the result of logging. There is also a subset of driftwood known as drift lumber. Drift lumber includes the remains of man-made wooden objects, such as buildings and their contents washed into the sea during storms, wooden objects discarded into the water from shore, dropped dunnage or lost cargo from ships (jetsam), and the remains of shipwrecked wooden ships and boats (flotsam). Erosion and wave action may make it difficult or impossible to determine the origin of a particular piece of driftwood.

Driftwood can be used as part of decorative furniture or other art forms, and is a popular element in the scenery of fish tanks.

History
According to Norse mythology, the first humans, Ask and Embla, were formed out of two pieces of driftwood, an ash and an elm, by the god Odin and his brothers, Vili and Vé. The Vikings would cast wood into the sea before making landfall. The location of the wood would be an indication as to where to build their mead halls. The wood used would found the high-seat pillars of the new hall.

Driftwood carried by Arctic rivers was the main, or sometimes only, source of wood for some Inuit and other Arctic populations living north of the tree line until they came into regular contact with European traders. Traditional Inuit boats such as the kayak were fashioned from driftwood frames covered in skins. The Inuit classified driftwood into seven different types, each possessing its own unique material and visual properties. Driftwood could be used to make bows if it was straight grained and in reasonably good condition; these were reinforced with sinew cables. The Inuit even made arrows from driftwood; these were often short and fitted with bone or antler foreshafts. Dry scrapings produced by working this material were collected, stored and used for the starting of fires year-round by Inuit. Wood that is burned today in these regions mainly consists of the remains of condemned wooden structures. Driftwood is still used as kindling by some. Woods with resinous qualities, such as cedar, are preferred for their lengthier burning times.

The "Old Man of the Lake" in Crater Lake, Oregon is a full-size tree that has been bobbing vertically in the lake for more than a century. Due to the cold water of the lake, the tree has been well preserved.

Alice Gray, the legendary "Diana of the Dunes", who fought to preserve the Indiana Dunes which contain quantities of driftwood named her college "Driftwood", and made all her furniture from driftwood.

Firewood
The EPA includes driftwood in its list of "Items You Should Never Burn in Your [Wood-Burning] Appliance," because it will "release toxic chemicals when burned".

The government of British Columbia also advises against burning driftwood, as dioxins may be released from the reaction of chloride ions with other materials in the smoke.

Sculptures

Driftwood sculptures are sculptures that are made of driftwood found on beaches or along riverbanks.
 * At Kullaberg, Sweden, Lars Vilks created Nimis a driftwood artwork in the year 1980. This sculpture and two others led to the declaration of Ladonia as an independent nation.
 * Sculptures were created on the Emeryville, California mudflat and marsh area of San Francisco Bay in the late 1960s.
 * The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy (sometimes called the "Green Oscars") are sculpted out of driftwood.
 * Artist Deborah Butterfield is known for her sculptures of horses, initially rendered from driftwood before being cast in bronze.
 * In January the annual Driftwood and Sand festival is held in Hokitika, New Zealand.

Forts
Driftwood is commonly used to make a temporary shelter on beaches.

As a habitat

Large diameter Sequoia sempervirens logs spent enough time exposed to wave action to round their contours before being driven into the mouth of a narrow ravine by storm surf. Sequoia's high tannin content is resistant to decay, so these logs retain structural strength for decades. Storm flows within Shorttail Gulch are insufficient to move the logs back to sea. This unique habitat at the mouths of small estuaries of the California coast is threatened by the diminished quantity of large redwood logs available in flood waters since the logging of native forests.

Decline
With the advent of industrial logging practices, the global quantity of driftwood has declined. Early accounts indicate that driftwood was once more plentiful. Early photographs of the pacific coast reveal greater amounts of driftwood on the beaches than is present today. Likewise, when traveling in Dixon Entrance in the late 1800s, George A. Dorsey recorded that many beaches were "piled high with drift, often to a height of sixty feet or more. " Melting polar ice may also contribute to the decline of Siberian driftwood in the Atlantic as the sea ice enabled driftwood to travel greater distances without becoming waterlogged.

title: Driftwood


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Talk:Pearl Index

Safety
I changed the word 'safety' to 'effectiveness' because the Pearl Index evidently concerns itself only with how well unwanted pregnancies are avoided. Rating various methods for safety would involve measuring the number and severity of unhealthy side effects. Wesley

List of values
This article really needs a list of values for various methods. Those should also be added to the repective articles, as it has been in Oral contraceptive. --Apoc2400 01:18, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

Sexual activity
Maybe it is just me being stupid, but how come there is no mentioning of the relation to the amount of sexual activity the involved persons have? And in particular, how that correlate with the choice of method of birth control?

A special case of the above could also be the effect on the sexual lust that some methods have, which may indeed decrease the chance/risk of getting pregnant, but not really in the way you would normally want.

213.112.173.167 16:53, 17 June 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)

 * Pregnancy rates based on where a woman is in her menstrual cycle are discussed at fertility awareness. During the least fertile portions of the menstrual cycle, couples could go twice a day or more and have a less than 1% chance of pregnancy per year.  On the most fertile day, a single act of intercourse results in pregnancy about 2/3 of the time.  This is a huge variation in fertility.  Combined with the fact that most women do not track their fertility signals, I believe that makes any "sex per year" stats completely useless for birth control purposes.
 * As far as hormonal contraception making women not have any sex at all (yes, abstinence is an effective method of birth control), see Combined oral contraceptive pill for Wikipedia's current coverage of this issue. Because it is specific to hormonal contraception, this possible side effect is covered on those pages, not on the general topic of "Pearl Index". Lyrl Talk C 15:15, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

 * I can only agree to that, but my point was more that I think it could (would?) be valid criticism of the Pearl Index to state that the figures are potentially affected by such factors in a systematic way.

 * I suppose that there is (or may be) a correlation between the level of sexual activity and choice of birth control method. This can then pop up in the PI values as an indication that method A is better than method B, while in practice it is rather so that method B is better liked by those having an active sexual life. The other way aorund, the choice of birth control method may affect the sexual activity (not only in the case of hormonal methods), and hence affect the likelihood of pregnancy in a more indirect way. This would clearly cause very hard to interpret results. 213.112.173.167 17:30, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

 * You may be right. The correlation between contraceptive method and sexual activity is something that has to be examined in research. I also want to respond to the idea that a single act of unprotected intercourse on the most fertile day leads to pregnancy in 2/3 of the cases. That is not true. The available research shows it's only 10 to 24%.193.67.185.234 09:47, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Random intercourse throughout the menstrual cycle results in pregnancy 10-24% of the time.   Women monitoring their fertility signs and deliberately timing intercourse have much higher rates of pregnancy.  See  (probability of conception .667 from a single act of intercourse on Peak day from WHO study) and  (76% pregnancy rate first cycle of fertility-focused intercourse). Lyrl  Talk C 02:25, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Criticism Section
This section takes up more than half the article and a lot of it looks like OR. I think that for reasons of WP:WEIGHT it should be cut down. TallNapoleon (talk) 20:56, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

title: Talk:Pearl Index


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Grand Hotel (1932 film)

Grand Hotel is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The screenplay by William A. Drake is based on the 1930 play of the same title by Drake, who had adapted it from the 1929 novel Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum. To date, it is the only film to have won the Academy Award for Best Picture without being nominated in any other category.

MGM remade the film as Week-End at the Waldorf in 1945. The German remake Menschen im Hotel was released in 1959, and it served as the basis for the 1989 Tony Award-winning stage musical Grand Hotel. In 1977, MGM announced a musical remake, to take place at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Hotel and directed by Norman Jewison, but the production was cancelled.

Grand Hotel has proven influential in the years since its release. The iconic line "I want to be alone", famously delivered by Greta Garbo, placed number 30 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes. In 2007, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot
Doctor Otternschlag, a disfigured veteran of World War I and a permanent resident of the Grand Hotel in Berlin, observes "People coming, going. Nothing ever happens" — after which a great deal transpires.

Baron Felix von Gaigern, who squandered his fortune and supports himself as a card player and occasional jewel thief, befriends Otto Kringelein, a dying accountant who has decided to spend his remaining days in the lap of luxury. Kringelein's former employer, industrialist General Director Preysing, is at the hotel to close an important deal, and he hires stenographer Flaemmchen to assist him. She aspires to be an actress and shows Preysing some magazine photos for which she posed.

Another guest is Russian ballerina Grusinskaya, whose career is on the wane. When the baron is in her room to steal her jewelry and she returns from the theatre, he hides in her room and overhears her contemplating suicide. He comes out of hiding and engages her in conversation. The two fall in love and spend the night together. The following morning, the baron returns Grusinskaya's jewels, and she forgives his crime. She invites him to accompany her to Vienna, an offer he accepts.

The baron is desperate for money to pay his way out of the criminal group he has been working with. He and Kringelein start a card game, and Kringelein wins everything, then becomes intoxicated. When he drops his wallet, the baron stashes it in his pocket, intending to keep not only the winnings but the funds that will see Kringelein through the last weeks of his life. However, moved by the sight of Kringelein's despair, the baron – who desperately needs the money, but has become very fond of Kringelein – pretends to have discovered the wallet and returns it to him.

As part of a desperate merger plan, Preysing must travel to England, and he asks Flaemmchen to accompany him. Later, when the two are in her room—which opens onto his—Preysing sees the shadow of the baron rifling through his belongings. He confronts the baron; the two struggle, and Preysing bludgeons the baron with the telephone, killing him. Flaemmchen sees what happened and tells Kringelein, who confronts Preysing. He insists he acted in self-defense, but Kringelein summons the police, and Preysing is arrested.

Grusinskaya departs for the train station, expecting to find the baron waiting for her there. Meanwhile, Kringelein offers to take care of Flaemmchen, who suggests they seek a cure for his illness. As they leave the hotel, Doctor Otternschlag again observes "Grand Hotel. Always the same. People come. People go. Nothing ever happens."

Cast

 * Greta Garbo as Grusinskaya, the dancer
 * John Barrymore as Baron Felix von Gaigern
 * Joan Crawford as Flaemmchen, the stenographer
 * Wallace Beery as General Director Preysing
 * Lionel Barrymore as Otto Kringelein
 * Lewis Stone as Dr. Otternschlag
 * Jean Hersholt as Senf, the porter
 * Robert McWade as Meierheim
 * Purnell B. Pratt as Zinnowitz
 * Ferdinand Gottschalk as Pimenov
 * Rafaela Ottiano as Suzette
 * Morgan Wallace as Chauffeur
 * Tully Marshall as Gerstenkorn
 * Frank Conroy as Rohna
 * Murray Kinnell as Schweimann
 * Edwin Maxwell as Dr. Waitz
 * Allen Jenkins as Hotel Meat Packer

Production
Producer Irving Thalberg purchased the rights to Vicki Baum's novel Menschen im Hotel for $13,000 and then commissioned William A. Drake to adapt it for the stage. It opened on Broadway at the National Theatre on November 13, 1930, and ran for 459 performances. Pleased with its success, Thalberg had Drake and Béla Balázs write the screenplay, and had a budget at $700,000. There was some controversy about Greta Garbo, with her strong Swedish accent, playing a Russian.

The film was seen as an artistic achievement in its art direction and production design. The lobby scenes were extremely well done, portraying a 360° front desk. This set allowed audiences to watch the hotel action from all around the characters. It changed the way sets were made from that point onward.

It was the first film to feature brothers Lionel and John Barrymore together. Thalberg initially cast Marie Dessler for the role of Suzette, but replaced her with Rafaela Ottiano, the only cast member from the Broadway production.

"I want to be alone"
As Grusinskaya, Greta Garbo delivers the line "I want to be alone", and, immediately following, she says "I just want to be alone." Soon after, in conversation with Baron Felix von Geigern, she says "And I want to be alone." Referring to its legendary use as a characterization of her reclusive personal life, Garbo later insisted "I never said I want to be alone; I only said, 'I want to be let alone.' There is all the difference."

Box office
Grand Hotel was a massive commercial success upon its release. According to MGM records, the film earned $1,235,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $1,359,000 in other markets, resulting in a profit of $947,000.

Critical reception
Alfred Rushford Greason of Variety comparing the film to the stage production, wrote "[it] may not entirely please the theatregoers who were fascinated by its deft stage direction and restrained acting, but it will attract and hold the wider public to which it is now addressed". He added, "The drama unfolds with a speed that never loses its grip, even for the extreme length of nearly two hours, and there is a captivating pattern of unexpected comedy that runs through it all, always fresh and always pat."

Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times praised the performances of Greta Garbo and John Barrymore, in a mostly positive review. "The picture adheres faithfully to the original", he said, "and while it undoubtedly lacks the life and depth and color of the play, by means of excellent characterizations it keeps the audience on the qui vive."

Film Daily called it an "engrossing drama" that "never lags", and "one of the classiest moving picture affairs you've seen in a long time".

John Mosher of The New Yorker called it a "tricky, clever film", praising Goulding as "a director at last to give Garbo her due" and for his "ingenious" camera work, "relishing, I suspect, the advantages the screen offers in these respects over the stage, where the awkward constant shifting of scenes clogged the action of the play".

Legacy
The film holds an 88% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 50 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's consensus reads: "Perhaps less a true film than a series of star-studded vignettes, Grand Hotel still remains an entertaining look back at a bygone Hollywood era."

Writing in 2009, Blake Goble of The Michigan Daily called it "the original Ocean's Eleven for its star power", and compared it to Gosford Park "for its dense structure and stories". He added "[T]he pacing is quick, the acting is eloquent, and the stories are actually interesting. It's pure theatricality. But Hotel lasted thanks to its simplicity, and the star power doesn't hurt either. This is grand, old Hollywood captured on film."

In 2022, Leila Jordan of Paste magazine noted the film as highly influential: "Recognizable names, intersecting stories and a cast that makes you go “wait they’re in this too?” Grand Hotel didn’t invent the genre, but it was the first to assemble the pieces into a sensational hit."

Aborted late 1970s musical remake
In his memoir Adventures in the Screen Trade, screenwriter William Goldman recalls being contacted by director Norman Jewison about doing a remake of the film as a musical, to be set at the original MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas (now Bally's). It would also be filmed at the hotel, named for the film and opened just four years earlier, where MGM had not yet allowed any filming of its luxurious interiors. Goldman was very enthusiastic, since even though movie musicals were not very popular with studios or audiences at the time, he believed Grand Hotel could be an exception, recalling the classic Hollywood movie musicals of the 1940s and 1950s, with the real interiors of the Grand, never before seen on screen, as their setting. Goldman also worried that he was being seen too much as a screenwriter of thrillers and wanted to show that he was not a genre writer.

MGM executives, initially cooperative, began to have second thoughts about the project once one of them remembered that Jewison had final cut in his contract, meaning the studio could not force him to make changes to the film before release. Goldman characterized their perception of the hotel as "Pristine. Unsullied. The diamond in the Metro crown", and believed they feared the film would not depict the Grand this way, instead focusing on the less glamorous aspects of Las Vegas. Goldman wrote a draft of the script with far more detail than he normally added to make clear that this was not his or Jewison's intention, but the studio was not sufficiently persuaded. As a compromise, they offered Jewison final cut on any material filmed outside the hotel, but not inside. Jewison was unwilling to accept that, and the project fell through.

Four years later, Jewison called Goldman again and said the hotel, now under separate management from the studio, was again interested. Staff at the hotel took Goldman on tours of the building as part of his research. While visiting the suites on the uppermost floors, never rented but instead comped to heavy gamblers and their entourages, he was told that director Hal Ashby had used one for a scene in the then-unreleased Lookin' to Get Out, apparently after Caesar's Palace had refused him permission to use one of their suites.

Goldman and Jewison learned that in the scene Ashby filmed at the Grand, one of the main characters goes into the suite with a prostitute while his friend waits outside. This was at odds with the image of the Grand management had gone to great lengths to avoid projecting in 1977. After the 1981 MGM film ...All the Marbles, set in the world of women's professional wrestling, staged its climax at the MGM Grand in Reno, Nevada, Goldman felt the Grand had lost its mystique and so lost his enthusiasm for working on the film; the project was dropped.

Home media
Warner Home Video released the first Region 1 DVD on February 3, 2004. The film is in 4:3 frame format, with audio tracks in English and French, and subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. Bonus features include Checking Out: Grand Hotel, a documentary about the making of the film; a 1932 newsreel with highlights of the Hollywood premiere; Nothing Ever Happens, a 1933 Vitaphone short film spoofing Grand Hotel; and theatrical trailers.

The 2013 Warner Home Video Blu-ray release of Grand Hotel contains an audio commentary track by film historians Jeffrey Vance and Mark A. Vieira.

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Akiko Yano

Akiko Yano (矢野 顕子) is a Japanese pop and jazz musician and singer born in Tokyo and raised in Aomori and later began her singing career in the mid-1970s. She has been called "one of the major musical talents of the Japanese popular music world", and her vocals and singing style have been compared to English singer Kate Bush.

She has recorded with Yellow Magic Orchestra and its members Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, as well as with Swing Out Sister, Pat Metheny, The Chieftains, Lyle Mays, members of Little Feat, David Sylvian, Mick Karn, Kenji Omura, Gil Goldstein, Toninho Horta, Mino Cinelu, Jeff Bova, Charlie Haden, Peter Erskine, Anthony Jackson, David Rhodes, Bill Frisell, Thomas Dolby, the band Quruli, Rei Harakami as Yanokami and her daughter Miu Sakamoto.

Early life
Akiko Yano was born Akiko Suzuki in Tokyo in 1955. She grew up in Aomori, Japan, and learned to play the piano when she was three. She dropped out of high school and moved to Tokyo at the age of fifteen to become a professional musician, quickly became involved in the jazz scene, and by seventeen was working as a studio recording artist for hire. She also performed with the band Tin Pan Alley.

Solo career
Yano's debut album, Japanese Girl, was released on July 25, 1976, was a major hit in Japan, and gave Yano overnight success. The album was recorded in Los Angeles with Little Feat, and of the album's ten tracks, she wrote nine of them. The album has been praised for its unique blend of different musical styles such as jazz, pop, blues, and traditional Japanese folk music, and "still sounds fresh today", according to Paul Bowler of Record Collector magazine. The success led to her self-producing the second album, Iroha Ni Konpeitou, which was released in 1977. It was recorded primarily in Japan, and features Yano improvising on a variety of instruments, backed up by prominent musicians such as Rick Marotta and Haruomi Hosono. Around this time, Yano started collaborating with Yellow Magic Orchestra and joined them on two world tours. They also played as the backing band for her 1980 album Gohan Ga Dekitayo, which translates to "Dinner's Ready", and marked a shift in her musical style towards electro-pop. The album was also one of the earliest CDs ever released in 1982.

1981's Tadaima ("I'm Home") has become the most beloved of Yano's discography, and also her personal favorite. The record company asked for an album that would be a commercial success, so Yano gave them what they wanted on side one, but took side two in a different avant-garde direction, composed around nine short stories that were written by children. The album once again featured the Yellow Magic Orchestra, as well as a cartoonish heta-uma cover designed by Teruhiko Yumura, but was only released in Japan. The album's single "Harusaki Kobeni" was released before the album was recorded, and reached the top 40 chart after being used in cosmetics commercials.

Yano was introduced to British band, Japan, by Ryuichi Sakamoto of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, and in 1982 they met at the AIR Studios in London to record an album, Ai Ga Nakucha Ne ("There Must Be Love"). The record company, Japan Record, released the album as a set with a book of photography and at a lower price, as requested by Yano. After her 1984 album Oh Hisse, Oh Hisse, Yano took a one-year break from recording music to raise her children, and decided to refocus her career on jazz, which led to the 1989 album Welcome Back featuring Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden and Peter Erskine. She relocated to New York City in 1990.

Other projects
Yano's credits extend beyond her album projects. She was showcased by Japanese animation film company Studio Ghibli, which is known for works such as Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. Yano composed the music for the film My Neighbors the Yamadas (as well as performing a minor role as Fujihara-sensei) and created and performed the sound effects using only her voice for two short films Yadosagashi and Mizugumo Monmon by animation director Hayao Miyazaki. Both films were shown at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo. More recently in 2008, Yano performed as a voiceover actress on Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea as Ponyo's sisters. In addition, Yano composed music for Toei's animated feature, Atashin'chi and piano-based soundtrack for the film Tagatameni.

As an international artist, Yano has toured Europe extensively, performing at The Montreux Jazz Festival, Café de la Danse, and Cité de la Musique in Paris. In 2002, she also performed a week of special concerts at Pizza Express in London. In the United States, Yano has performed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and New York City where she periodically plays concerts throughout the year at Joe's Pub at the New York Public Theater. In July 2009, she performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival along with fellow pianist Hiromi Uehara. In recent years she has appeared at the Blue Note in New York as a guest performer for Janis Siegel of The Manhattan Transfer, and as part of a trio with Anthony Jackson on bass and Cliff Almond on drums in concerts at the Blue Note Tokyo since 2003. In 2008, New York guitarist Marc Ribot joined Yano for sold-out shows at the Blue Note Tokyo.

Yano joined with Rei Harakami to create the duo Yanokami, and in 2007 they released their first studio album Yanokami. In 2009, Will Lee and Chris Parker joined her to form the Akiko Yano Trio.

Discography

 * Solo studio albums
 * Japanese Girl (1976)
 * Iroha ni Konpeitō (1977)
 * To Ki Me Ki (1978)
 * Gohan ga Dekitayo (1980)
 * Tadaima. (1981)
 * Ai ga Nakuchane. (1982)
 * OSOS (1984)
 * Tōge No Wagaya (1986)
 * Brooch (1986)
 * Granola (1987)
 * Welcome Back (1989)
 * Love Life (1991)
 * Super Folk Song (1992)
 * Love Is Here (1993)
 * Elephant Hotel (1994)
 * Piano Nightly (1996)
 * Oui Oui (1997)
 * Go Girl (1999)
 * Home Girl Journey (2000)
 * Reverb (2002)
 * Honto No Kimochi (2004)
 * Akiko (2008)
 * Ongakudo (2010)
 * Yano Akiko, Imawano Kiyoshirō o Utau (2013)
 * Tobashite Ikuyo (2014)
 * Welcome to Jupiter (2015)
 * Soft Landing (2017)
 * Futaribocchi de Ikou (2018)
 * Asteroid and Butterfly (2020)
 * Music is a gift (2021)

Personal life
Yano married and soon after divorced Makoto Yano, the producer of her first recording. In 1975, her son Fuuta Yano was born. She later married fellow musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, with whom she had a daughter, Miu Sakamoto. The young couple can be seen playing a duet on the piano at home in the 1985 documentary Tokyo Melody. Yano separated from him in 1992, and they divorced in August 2006. Yano is Christian.

title: Akiko Yano


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William of Tyre

William of Tyre (Willelmus Tyrensis; c. 1130 – 29 September 1186) was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from his predecessor, William I, the Englishman, a former prior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, who was Archbishop of Tyre from 1127 to 1135. He grew up in Jerusalem at the height of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had been established in 1099 after the First Crusade, and he spent twenty years studying the liberal arts and canon law in the universities of Europe.

Following William's return to Jerusalem in 1165, King Amalric made him an ambassador to the Byzantine Empire. William became tutor to the king's son, the future King Baldwin IV, whom William discovered to be a leper. After Amalric's death, William became chancellor and archbishop of Tyre, two of the highest offices in the kingdom, and in 1179 William led the eastern delegation to the Third Council of the Lateran. As he was involved in the dynastic struggle that developed during Baldwin IV's reign, his importance waned when a rival faction gained control of royal affairs. He was passed over for the prestigious Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and died in obscurity, probably in 1186.

William wrote an account of the Lateran Council and a history of the Islamic states from the time of Muhammad, neither of which survives. He is famous today as the author of a history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. William composed his chronicle in excellent Latin for his time, with numerous quotations from classical literature. The chronicle is sometimes given the title Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum ("History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea") or Historia Ierosolimitana ("History of Jerusalem"), or the Historia for short. It was translated into French soon after his death, and thereafter into numerous other languages. Because it is the only source for the history of twelfth-century Jerusalem written by a native, historians have often assumed that William's statements could be taken at face value. However, more recent historians have shown that William's involvement in the kingdom's political disputes resulted in detectable biases in his account. Despite this, he is considered the greatest chronicler of the crusades, and one of the best authors of the Middle Ages.

Early life
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was founded in 1099 at the end of the First Crusade. It was the third of four Christian territories to be established by the crusaders, following the County of Edessa and the Principality of Antioch, and followed by the County of Tripoli. Jerusalem's first three rulers, Godfrey of Bouillon (1099–1100), his brother Baldwin I (1100–1118), and their cousin Baldwin II (1118–1131), expanded and secured the kingdom's borders, which encompassed roughly the same territory as modern-day Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon. During the kingdom's early decades, the population was swelled by pilgrims visiting the holiest sites of Christendom. Merchants from the Mediterranean city-states of Italy and France were eager to exploit the rich trade markets of the east.

William's family probably originated in either France or Italy, since he was very familiar with both countries. His parents were likely merchants who had settled in the kingdom and were "apparently well-to-do", although it is unknown whether they participated in the First Crusade or arrived later. William was born in Jerusalem around 1130. He had at least one brother, Ralph, who was one of the city's burgesses, a non-noble leader of the merchant community. Nothing more is known about his family, except that his mother died before 1165.

As a child William was educated in Jerusalem, at the cathedral school in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The scholaster, or school-master, John the Pisan, taught William to read and write, and first introduced him to Latin. From the Historia it is clear that he also knew French and possibly Italian, but there is not enough evidence to determine whether he learned Greek, Persian, and Arabic, as is sometimes claimed.

Around 1145 William went to Europe to continue his education in the schools of France and Italy, especially in those of Paris and Bologna, "the two most important intellectual centers of twelfth-century Christendom." These schools were not yet the official universities that they would become in the 13th century, but by the end of the 11th century both had numerous schools for the arts and sciences. They were separate from the cathedral schools, and were established by independent professors who were masters of their field of study. Students from all over Europe gathered there to hear lectures from these masters. William studied liberal arts and theology in Paris and Orléans for about ten years, with professors who had been students of Thierry of Chartres and Gilbert de la Porrée. He also spent time studying under Robert of Melun and Adam de Parvo Ponte, among others. In Orléans, one of the pre-eminent centres of classical studies, he read ancient Roman literature (known simply as "the Authors") with Hilary of Orléans, and learned mathematics ("especially Euclid") with William of Soissons. For six years, he studied theology with Peter Lombard and Maurice de Sully. Afterwards, he studied civil law and canon law in Bologna, with the "Four Doctors", Hugo de Porta Ravennate, Bulgarus, Martinus Gosia, and Jacobus de Boragine. William's list of professors "gives us almost a who's who of the grammarians, philosophers, theologians, and law teachers of the so-called Twelfth-Century Renaissance", and shows that he was as well-educated as any European cleric. His contemporary John of Salisbury had many of the same teachers.

Religious and political life in Jerusalem
The highest religious and political offices in Jerusalem were usually held by Europeans who had arrived on pilgrimage or crusade. William was one of the few natives with a European education, and he quickly rose through the ranks. After his return to the Holy Land in 1165, he became canon of the cathedral at Acre. In 1167 he was appointed archdeacon of the cathedral of Tyre by Frederick de la Roche, archbishop of Tyre, with the support of King Amalric.

Amalric had come to power in 1164 and had made it his goal to conquer Egypt. Egypt had been invaded by King Baldwin I fifty years earlier, and the weak Fatimid Caliphate was forced to pay yearly tribute to Jerusalem. Amalric turned towards Egypt because Muslim territory to the east of Jerusalem had fallen under the control of the powerful Zengid sultan Nur ad-Din. Nur ad-Din had taken control of Damascus in 1154, six years after the disastrous siege of Damascus by the Second Crusade in 1148. Jerusalem could now expand only to the southwest, towards Egypt, and in 1153 Ascalon, the last Fatimid outpost in Palestine, fell to the crusaders. Nur ad-Din, however, also wished to acquire Egypt, and sent his army to hinder Amalric's plans. This was the situation in the east when William returned from Europe. In 1167 Amalric married Maria Comnena, grand-niece of Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus, and in 1168 the king sent William to finalize a treaty for a joint Byzantine-crusader campaign against Egypt. The expedition, Amalric's fourth, was the first with support from the Byzantine navy. Amalric, however, did not wait for the fleet to arrive. He managed to capture Damietta, but within a few years he was expelled from Egypt by one of Nur ad-Din's generals, Saladin, who would later become Jerusalem's greatest threat.

Meanwhile, William continued his advancement in the kingdom. In 1169 he visited Rome, possibly to answer accusations made against him by Archbishop Frederick, although if so, the charge is unknown. It is also possible that while Frederick was away on a diplomatic mission in Europe, a problem within the diocese forced William to seek the archbishop's assistance. On his return from Rome in 1170 he may have been commissioned by Amalric to write a history of the kingdom. He also became the tutor of Amalric's son and heir, Baldwin IV. When Baldwin was thirteen years old, he was playing with some children, who were trying to cause each other pain by scratching each other's arms. "The other boys gave evidence of pain by their outcries," wrote William, "but Baldwin, although his comrades did not spare him, endured it altogether too patiently, as if he felt nothing ...  It is impossible to refrain from tears while speaking of this great misfortune." William inspected Baldwin's arms and recognized the possible symptoms of leprosy, which was confirmed as Baldwin grew older.

Amalric died in 1174, and Baldwin IV succeeded him as king. Nur ad-Din also died in 1174, and his general Saladin spent the rest of the decade consolidating his hold on both Egypt and Nur ad-Din's possessions in Syria, which allowed him to completely encircle Jerusalem. The subsequent events have often been interpreted as a struggle between two opposing factions, a "court party" and a "noble party." The "court party" was led by Baldwin's mother, Amalric's first wife Agnes of Courtenay, and her immediate family, as well as recent arrivals from Europe who were inexperienced in the affairs of the kingdom and were in favour of war with Saladin. The "noble party" was led by Raymond III of Tripoli and the native nobility of the kingdom, who favoured peaceful co-existence with the Muslims. This is the interpretation offered by William himself in the Historia, and it was taken as fact by later historians. Peter W. Edbury, however, has more recently argued that William must be considered extremely partisan as he was naturally allied with Raymond, who was responsible for his later advancement in political and religious offices. The accounts of the 13th-century authors who continued the Historia in French must also be considered suspect, as they were allied to Raymond's supporters in the Ibelin family. The general consensus among recent historians is that although there was a dynastic struggle, "the division was not between native barons and newcomers from the West, but between the king's maternal and paternal kin."

Miles of Plancy briefly held the regency for the underaged Baldwin IV. Miles was assassinated in October 1174, and Raymond III was soon appointed to replace him. Raymond named William chancellor of Jerusalem, as well as archdeacon of Nazareth, and on 6 June 1175, William was elected archbishop of Tyre to replace Frederick de la Roche, who had died in October 1174. William's duties as chancellor probably did not take up too much of his time; the scribes and officials in the chancery drafted documents and it may not have even been necessary for him to be present to sign them. Instead he focused on his duties as archbishop. In 1177 he performed the funeral services for William of Montferrat, husband of Baldwin IV's sister Sibylla, when the patriarch of Jerusalem, Amalric of Nesle, was too sick to attend.

In 1179, William was one of the delegates from Jerusalem and the other crusader states at the Third Lateran Council; among the others were Heraclius, archbishop of Caesarea, Joscius, bishop of Acre and William's future successor in Tyre, the bishops of Sebastea, Bethlehem, Tripoli, and Jabala, and the abbot of Mount Sion. Patriarch Amalric and Patriarch of Antioch Aimery of Limoges were unable to attend, and William and the other bishops did not have sufficient weight to persuade Pope Alexander III of the need for a new crusade. William was, however, sent by Alexander as an ambassador to Emperor Manuel, and Manuel then sent him on a mission to the Principality of Antioch. William does not mention exactly what happened during these embassies, but he probably discussed the Byzantine alliance with Jerusalem, and Manuel's protectorate over Antioch, where, due to pressure from Rome and Jerusalem, the emperor was forced to give up his attempts to restore a Greek patriarch. William was absent from Jerusalem for two years, returning home in 1180.

Patriarchal election of 1180
During William's absence a crisis had developed in Jerusalem. King Baldwin had reached the age of majority in 1176 and Raymond III had been removed from the regency, but as a leper Baldwin could have no children and could not be expected to rule much longer. After the death of William of Montferrat in 1177, King Baldwin's widowed sister Sibylla required a new husband. At Easter in 1180, the two factions were divided even further when Raymond and his cousin Bohemond III of Antioch attempted to force Sibylla to marry Baldwin of Ibelin. Raymond and Bohemond were King Baldwin's nearest male relatives in the paternal line, and could have claimed the throne if the king died without an heir or a suitable replacement. Before Raymond and Bohemond arrived, however, Agnes and King Baldwin arranged for Sibylla to be married to a Poitevin newcomer, Guy of Lusignan, whose older brother Aimery of Lusignan was already an established figure at court.

The dispute affected William, since he had been appointed chancellor by Raymond and may have fallen out of favour after Raymond was removed from the regency. When Patriarch Amalric died on 6 October 1180, the two most obvious choices for his successor were William and Heraclius of Caesarea. They were fairly evenly matched in background and education, but politically they were allied with opposite parties, as Heraclius was one of Agnes of Courtenay's supporters. It seems that the canons of the Holy Sepulchre were unable to decide, and asked the king for advice; due to Agnes' influence, Heraclius was elected. There were rumours that Agnes and Heraclius were lovers, but this information comes from the partisan 13th-century continuations of the Historia, and there is no other evidence to substantiate such a claim. William himself says almost nothing about the election and Heraclius' character or his subsequent patriarchate, probably reflecting his disappointment at the outcome.

Death
William remained archbishop of Tyre and chancellor of the kingdom, but the details of his life at this time are obscure. The 13th-century continuators claim that Heraclius excommunicated William in 1183, but it is unknown why Heraclius would have done this. They also claim that William went to Rome to appeal to the Pope, where Heraclius had him poisoned. According to {{Q{11815922}} and John Rowe, the obscurity of William's life during these years shows that he did not play a large political role, but concentrated on ecclesiastical affairs and the writing of his history. The story of his excommunication, and the unlikely detail that he was poisoned, were probably an invention of the Old French continuators. William remained in the kingdom and continued to write up until 1184, but by then Jerusalem was internally divided by political factions and externally surrounded by the forces of Saladin, and "the only subjects that present themselves are the disasters of a sorrowing country and its manifold misfortunes, themes which can serve only to draw forth lamentations and tears."

His importance had dwindled with the victory of Agnes and her supporters, and with the accession of Baldwin V, infant son of Sibylla and William of Montferrat. Baldwin was a sickly child and he died the next year. In 1186 he was succeeded by his mother Sibylla and her second husband Guy of Lusignan, ruling jointly. William was probably in failing health by this point. Rudolf Hiestand discovered that the date of William's death was 29 September, but the year was not recorded; whatever the year, there was a new chancellor in May 1185 and a new archbishop of Tyre by 21 October 1186. Hans E. Mayer concluded that William died in 1186, and this is the year generally accepted by scholars.

William's foresight about the misfortunes of his country was proven correct less than a year later. Saladin defeated King Guy at the Battle of Hattin in 1187, and went on to capture Jerusalem and almost every other city of the kingdom, except the seat of William's archdiocese, Tyre. News of the fall of Jerusalem shocked Europe and plans were made to send assistance. According to Roger of Wendover, William was present at Gisors in France in 1188 when Henry II of England and Philip II of France agreed to go on crusade: "Thereupon the king of the English first took the sign of the cross at the hands of the Archbishop of Rheims and William of Tyre, the latter of whom had been entrusted by our lord the pope with the office of legate in the affairs of the crusade in the western part of Europe." Roger was however mistaken; he knew that an unnamed archbishop of Tyre was present and assumed it must have been the William whose chronicle he possessed, although the archbishop in question was actually William's successor Joscius.

Latin chronicle
"In the present work we seem to have fallen into manifold dangers and perplexities. For, as the series of events seemed to require, we have included in this study on which we are now engaged many details about the characters, lives, and personal traits of kings, regardless of whether these facts were commendable or open to criticism. Possibly descendants of these monarchs, while perusing this work, may find this treatment difficult to brook and be angry with the chronicler beyond his just deserts. They will regard him as either mendacious or jealous—both of which charges, as God lives, we have endeavored to avoid as we would a pestilence."

- William of Tyre, prologue to the Historia

William's great work is a Latin chronicle, written between 1170 and 1184. It contains twenty-three books; the final book, which deals with the events of 1183 and the beginning of 1184, has only a prologue and one chapter, so it is either unfinished or the rest of the pages were lost before the whole chronicle began to be copied. The first book begins with the conquest of Syria by Umar in the seventh century, but otherwise the work deals with the advent of the First Crusade and the subsequent political history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It is arranged, but was not written, chronologically; the first sections to be written were probably the chapters about the invasion of Egypt in 1167, which are extremely detailed and were likely composed before the Fatimid dynasty was overthrown in 1171. Much of the Historia was finished before William left to attend the Lateran Council, but new additions and corrections were made after his return in 1180, perhaps because he now realized that European readers would also be interested in the history of the kingdom. In 1184 he wrote the Prologue and the beginning of the twenty-third book.

August C. Krey thought William's Arabic sources may have come from the library of the Damascene diplomat Usama ibn Munqidh, whose library was looted by Baldwin III from a shipwreck in 1154. Alan V. Murray, however, has argued that, at least for the accounts of Persia and the Turks in his chronicle, William relied on Biblical and earlier medieval legends rather than actual history, and his knowledge "may be less indicative of eastern ethnography than of western mythography." William had access to the chronicles of the First Crusade, including Fulcher of Chartres, Albert of Aix, Raymond of Aguilers, Baldric of Dol, and the Gesta Francorum, as well as other documents located in the kingdom's archives. He used Walter the Chancellor and other now-lost works for the history of the Principality of Antioch. From the end of Fulcher's chronicle in 1127, William is the only source of information from an author living in Jerusalem. For events that happened in William's own lifetime, he interviewed older people who had witnessed the events about which he was writing, and drew on his own memory.

William's classical education allowed him to compose Latin superior to that of many medieval writers. He used numerous ancient Roman and early Christian authors, either for quotations or as inspiration for the framework and organization of the Historia. His vocabulary is almost entirely classical, with only a few medieval constructions such as "loricator" (someone who makes armour, a calque of the Arabic "zarra") and "assellare" (to empty one's bowels). He was capable of clever word-play and advanced rhetorical devices, but he was prone to repetition of a number of words and phrases. His writing also shows phrasing and spelling which is unusual or unknown in purely classical Latin but not uncommon in medieval Latin, such as:
 * confusion between reflexive and possessive pronouns;
 * confusion over the use of the accusative and ablative cases, especially after the preposition in;
 * collapsed diphthongs (i.e. the Latin diphthongs ae and oe are spelled simply e);
 * the dative "mihi" ("to me") is spelled "michi";
 * a single "s" is often doubled, for example in the adjectival place-name ending which he often spells "-enssis"; this spelling is also used to represent the Arabic "sh", a sound which Latin lacks, for example in the name Shawar which he spells "Ssauar".

Literary themes and biases
Despite his quotations from Christian authors and from the Bible, William did not place much emphasis on the intervention of God in human affairs, resulting in a somewhat "secular" history. Nevertheless, he included much information that is clearly legendary, especially when referring to the First Crusade, which even in his own day was already considered an age of great Christian heroes. Expanding on the accounts of Albert of Aix, Peter the Hermit is given prominence in the preaching of the First Crusade, to the point that it was he, not Pope Urban II, who originally conceived the crusade. Godfrey of Bouillon, the first ruler of crusader Jerusalem, was also depicted as the leader of the crusade from the beginning, and William attributed to him legendary strength and virtue. This reflected the almost mythological status that Godfrey and the other first crusaders held for the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the late twelfth century.

William gave a more nuanced picture of the kings of his own day. He claimed to have been commissioned to write by King Amalric himself, but William did not allow himself to praise the king excessively; for example, Amalric did not respect the rights of the church, and although he was a good military commander, he could not stop the increasing threat from the neighbouring Muslim states. On a personal level, William admired the king's education and his interest in history and law, but also noted that Amalric had "breasts like those of a woman hanging down to his waist" and was shocked when the king questioned the resurrection of the dead.

About Amalric's son Baldwin IV, however, "there was no ambiguity". Baldwin was nothing but heroic in the face of his debilitating leprosy, and he led military campaigns against Saladin even while still underaged; William tends to gloss over campaigns where Baldwin was not actually in charge, preferring to direct his praise towards the afflicted king rather than subordinate commanders. William's history can be seen as an apologia, a literary defense, for the kingdom, and more specifically for Baldwin's rule. By the 1170s and 1180s, western Europeans were reluctant to support the kingdom, partly because it was far away and there were more pressing concerns in Europe, but also because leprosy was usually considered divine punishment.

William was famously biased against the Knights Templar, whom he believed to be arrogant and disrespectful of both secular and ecclesiastical hierarchies, as they were not required to pay tithes and were legally accountable only to the Pope. Although he was writing decades later, he is the earliest author to describe the actual foundation of the Templar order. He was generally favourable towards them when discussing their early days, but resented the power and influence they held in his own time. William accused them of hindering the siege of Ascalon in 1153; of poorly defending a cave-fortress in 1165, for which twelve Templars were hanged by King Amalric; of sabotaging the invasion of Egypt in 1168; and of murdering Assassin ambassadors in 1173.

Compared to other Latin authors of the twelfth century, William is surprisingly favourable to the Byzantine Empire. He had visited the Byzantine court as an official ambassador and probably knew more about Byzantine affairs than any other Latin chronicler. He shared the poor opinion of Alexius I Comnenus that had developed during the First Crusade, although he was also critical of some of the crusaders' dealings with Alexius. He was more impressed by Alexius' son John II Comnenus; he did not approve of John's attempts to bring the crusader Principality of Antioch under Byzantine control, but John's military expeditions against the Muslim states, the common enemy of both Greeks and Latins, were considered admirable. Emperor Manuel, whom William met during his visits to Constantinople, was portrayed more ambivalently, much like King Amalric. William admired him personally, but recognized that the Empire was powerless to help Jerusalem against the Muslim forces of Nur ad-Din and Saladin. William was especially disappointed in the failure of the joint campaign against Egypt in 1169. The end of the Historia coincides with the massacre of the Latins in Constantinople and the chaos that followed the coup of Andronicus I Comnenus, and in his description of those events, William was certainly not immune to the extreme anti-Greek rhetoric that was often found in Western European sources.

As a medieval Christian author William could hardly avoid hostility towards the kingdom's Muslim neighbours, but as an educated man who lived among Muslims in the east, he was rarely polemical or completely dismissive of Islam. He did not think Muslims were pagans, but rather that they belonged to a heretical sect of Christianity and followed the teachings of a false prophet. He often praised the Muslim leaders of his own day, even if he lamented their power over the Christian kingdom; thus Muslim rulers such as Mu'in ad-Din Unur, Nur ad-Din, Shirkuh, and even Jerusalem's ultimate conqueror Saladin are presented as honourable and pious men, characteristics that William did not bestow on many of his own Christian contemporaries.

Circulation of the chronicle
After William's death the Historia was copied and circulated in the crusader states and was eventually brought to Europe. In the 13th century, James of Vitry had access to a copy while he was bishop of Acre, and it was used by Guy of Bazoches, Matthew Paris, and Roger of Wendover in their own chronicles. However, there are only ten known manuscripts that contain the Latin chronicle, all of which come from France and England, so William's work may not have been very widely read in its original form. In England, however, the Historia was expanded in Latin, with additional information from the Itinerarium Regis Ricardi, and the chronicle of Roger Hoveden; this version was written around 1220.

It is unknown what title William himself gave his chronicle, although one group of manuscripts uses Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum and another uses Historia Ierosolimitana. The Latin text was printed for the first time in Basel in 1549 by Nicholas Brylinger; it was also published in the Gesta Dei per Francos by Jacques Bongars in 1611 and the Recueil des historiens des croisades (RHC) by Auguste-Arthur Beugnot and Auguste Le Prévost in 1844, and Bongars' text was reprinted in the Patrologia Latina by Jacques Paul Migne in 1855. The now-standard Latin critical edition, based on six of the surviving manuscripts, was published as Willelmi Tyrensis Archiepiscopi Chronicon in the Corpus Christianorum in 1986, by R. B. C. Huygens, with notes by Hans E. Mayer and Gerhard Rösch. The RHC edition was translated into English by Emily A. Babcock and August C. Krey in 1943 as "A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea," although the translation is sometimes incomplete or inexact.

Old French translation
A translation of the Historia into Old French, made around 1223, was particularly well-circulated and had many anonymous additions made to it in the 13th century. In contrast to the surviving Latin manuscripts, there are "at least fifty-nine manuscripts or fragments of manuscripts" containing the Old French translation. There are also independent French continuations attributed to Ernoul and Bernard le Trésorier. The translation was sometimes called the Livre dou conqueste; it was known by this name throughout Europe as well as in the crusader Kingdom of Cyprus and in Cilician Armenia, and 14th-century Venetian geographer Marino Sanuto the Elder had a copy of it. The French was further translated into Spanish, as the Gran conquista de Ultramar, during the reign of Alfonso the Wise of Castile in the late 13th century. The French version was so widespread that the Renaissance author Francesco Pipino translated it back into Latin, unaware that a Latin original already existed. A Middle English translation of the French was made by William Caxton in the 15th century.

Other works
William reports that he wrote an account of the Third Council of the Lateran, which does not survive. He also wrote a history of the Holy Land from the time of Muhammad up to 1184, for which he used Eutychius of Alexandria as his main source. This work seems to have been known in Europe in the 13th century but it also does not survive.

Modern assessment
William's neutrality as an historian was often taken for granted until the late twentieth century. August C. Krey, for example, believed that "his impartiality ...  is scarcely less impressive than his critical skill." Despite this excellent reputation, D. W. T. C. Vessey has shown that William was certainly not an impartial observer, especially when dealing with the events of the 1170s and 1180s. Vessey believes that William's claim to have been commissioned by Amalric is a typical ancient and medieval topos, or literary theme, in which a wise ruler, a lover of history and literature, wishes to preserve for posterity the grand deeds of his reign. William's claims of impartiality are also a typical topos in ancient and medieval historical writing.

His depiction of Baldwin IV as a hero is an attempt "to vindicate the politics of his own party and to blacken those of its opponents." As mentioned above, William was opposed to Baldwin's mother Agnes of Courtenay, Patriarch Heraclius, and their supporters; his interpretation of events during Baldwin's reign was previously taken as fact almost without question. In the mid twentieth century, Marshall W. Baldwin, Steven Runciman, and Hans Eberhard Mayer were influential in perpetuating this point of view, although the more recent re-evaluations of this period by Vessey, Peter Edbury and Bernard Hamilton have undone much of William's influence.

An often-noted flaw in the Historia is William's poor memory for dates. "Chronology is sometimes confused, and dates are given wrongly", even for basic information such as the regnal dates of the kings of Jerusalem. For example, William gives the date of Amalric's death as 11 July 1173, when it actually occurred in 1174.

Despite his biases and errors, William "has always been considered one of the greatest medieval writers." Runciman wrote that "he had a broad vision; he understood the significance of the great events of his time and the sequence of cause and effect in history." Christopher Tyerman calls him "the historian's historian", and "the greatest crusade historian of all," and Bernard Hamilton says he "is justly considered one of the finest historians of the Middle Ages". As the Dictionary of the Middle Ages says, "William's achievements in assembling and evaluating sources, and in writing in excellent and original Latin a critical and judicious (if chronologically faulty) narrative, make him an outstanding historian, superior by medieval, and not inferior by modern, standards of scholarship."

Primary

 * William of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea, trans. E.A. Babcock and A.C. Krey. Columbia University Press, 1943.

Secondary

 * John Carl Andressohn, The Ancestry and Life of Godfrey of Bouillon. Indiana University Publications, Social Science Series 5, 1947.
 * Susan M. Babbitt, "William of Tyre." Dictionary of the Middle Ages, ed. Joseph Strayer. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989, vol. 12.
 * Marshall W. Baldwin, "The Decline and Fall of Jerusalem, 1174–1189." A History of the Crusades (gen. ed. Kenneth M. Setton), vol. 1: The First Hundred Years (ed. Marshall W. Baldwin). University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.
 * Malcolm Barber, The Trial of the Templars. Cambridge University Press, 1993.
 * Frederic Duncalf, "The First Crusade: Clermont to Constantinople." A History of the Crusades (gen. ed. Kenneth M. Setton), vol. 1: The First Hundred Years (ed. Marshall W. Baldwin). University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.
 * Peter W. Edbury and John G. Rowe, "William of Tyre and the Patriarchal election of 1180." The English Historical Review 93 (1978), repr. Kingdoms of the Crusaders: From Jerusalem to Cyprus (Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum Collected Series Studies, 1999), pp. 1–25.
 * Peter W. Edbury and John G. Rowe, William of Tyre: Historian of the Latin East. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
 * Peter W. Edbury, "Propaganda and faction in the Kingdom of Jerusalem: the background to Hattin." Crusaders and Muslims in Twelfth-Century Syria, ed. Maya Shatzmiller (Leiden: Brill, 1993), repr. in Kingdoms of the Crusaders: From Jerusalem to Cyprus (Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum Collected Series Studies, 1999), pp. 173–189.
 * Bernard Hamilton, The Leper King and his Heirs. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
 * Charles Homer Haskins, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century. Harvard University Press, 1927; repr. Meridian Books, 1966.
 * R. B. C. Huygens, "Guillaume de Tyr étudiant: un chapître (XIX, 12) de son Histoire retrouvé." Latomus 21 (1962), pp. 811–829.
 * R. B. C. Huygens, "Editing William of Tyre." Sacris Erudiri 27 (1984), pp. 461–473.
 * G. A. Loud and J. W. Cox, "The 'Lost' Autobiographical Chapter of William of Tyre's Chronicle (Book XIX.12)." The Crusades: An Encyclopedia, ed. Alan V. Murray (ABC-Clio, 2006), vol. 4, Appendix: Texts and Documents #4, pp. 1305–1308.
 * Hans E. Mayer, The Crusades, 2nd ed., trans. John Gillingham. Oxford University Press, 1988.
 * Alan V. Murray, "William of Tyre and the origin of the Turks: on the sources of the Gesta Orientalium Principum," in Dei gesta Per Francos: Études sur les crioisades dédiées à Jean Richard/Crusade Studies in Honour of Jean Richard, edd. Michel Balard, Benjamin Z. Kedar and Jonathan Riley-Smith (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001), pp. 217–229.
 * Alan V. Murray, "William of Tyre." The Crusades: An Encyclopedia, ed. Alan V. Murray (ABC-Clio, 2006), vol. 4.
 * Helen J. Nicholson, "William of Tyre." Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, ed. Kelly Boyd. Taylor & Francis, 1999, vol. 2.
 * Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, volume 1: The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press, 1951.
 * Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, volume 2: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East. Cambridge University Press, 1952.
 * R. C. Schwinges, "William of Tyre, the Muslim enemy, and the problem of tolerance." Tolerance and Intolerance. Social Conflict in the Age of the Crusades, ed. Michael Gervers and James M. Powell, Syracuse University Press, 2001.
 * Christopher Tyerman, The Invention of the Crusades. University of Toronto Press, 1998.
 * Christopher Tyerman, God's War: A New History of the Crusades. Penguin, 2006.
 * Jacques Verger, "The birth of the universities". A History of the University in Europe, vol. 1: Universities in the Middle Ages, ed. Hilde de Ridder-Symoens. Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 47–55.
 * D. W. T. C. Vessey, "William of Tyre and the art of historiography." Mediaeval Studies 35 (1973), pp. 433–455.

title: William of Tyre


text:
List of national parks of Sweden

National parks of Sweden are managed by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Naturvårdsverket) and owned by the state. The goal of the national park service is to create a system of protected areas that represent all the distinct natural regions of the country. In 1909, Sweden became the first country in Europe to establish such parks when nine were opened following the Riksdag passing of a law on national parks that year. This was followed by the establishment of seven parks between 1918 and 1962 and thirteen between 1982 and 2009, with the latest being Åsnen National Park in 2018. there are 30 national parks in Sweden, comprising a total area of 743238 ha.

According to the EPA, Swedish national parks must represent unique landscape types and be effectively protected and used for research, recreation, and tourism without damaging nature. Mountain terrain dominates approximatively 90% of the parks' combined area. The reason for this is the extensive mountain areas taken up by the large northern parks—Sarek National Park and Padjelanta National Park each cover approximately 200000 ha. Many of the northern parks are part of the Laponian area, one of Sweden's UNESCO World Heritage Sites due to its preserved natural landscape and habitat for the native reindeer-herding Sami people. The southernmost parks—Söderåsen National Park, Dalby Söderskog National Park and Stenshuvud National Park—are covered with broadleaf forest and together cover approximately 2000 ha. Fulufjället National Park is part of PAN Parks, a network founded by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to provide better long-term conservation and tourism management of European national parks.

National parks

{{legend|#B3E0E4|This along with * indicates that the national park is part of a World Heritage Site|border=solid 1px #AAAAAA}} {{legend|#F7D0CD|This along with ** indicates that the national park is a Protected Area Network Park|border=solid 1px #AAAAAA}}

Future national parks
In 2008, after investigations and interviews with the participating counties, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency laid down a plan to establish 13 new national parks in the near future. According to the plan, seven of the parks will be established between 2009 and 2013, the first being Kosterhavet National Park which was inaugurated in September 2009. It is currently unknown when the six remaining parks will be established.

title: List of national parks of Sweden