text:
Cole Porter

Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in Hollywood films.

Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, Porter defied his grandfather's wishes for him to practice law and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn to musical theatre. After a slow start, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Unlike many successful Broadway composers, Porter wrote the lyrics as well as the music for his songs.

After a serious horseback riding accident in 1937, Porter was left disabled and in constant pain, but he continued to work. His shows of the early 1940s did not contain the lasting hits of his best work of the 1920s and 1930s, but in 1948 he made a triumphant comeback with his most successful musical, Kiss Me, Kate. It won the first Tony Award for Best Musical.

Porter's other musicals include Fifty Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a Lady, Anything Goes, Can-Can and Silk Stockings. His numerous hit songs include "Night and Day", "Begin the Beguine", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "Well, Did You Evah!", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" and "You're the Top". He also composed scores for films from the 1930s to the 1950s, including Born to Dance (1936), which featured the song "You'd Be So Easy to Love"; Rosalie (1937), which featured "In the Still of the Night"; High Society (1956), which included "True Love"; and Les Girls (1957).

Early years
Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, the only surviving child of a wealthy family. His father, Samuel Fenwick Porter, was a pharmacist by trade. His mother, Kate, was the indulged daughter of James Omar "J. O." Cole, "the richest man in Indiana", a coal and timber speculator who dominated the family. J. O. Cole built the couple a house on his Peru-area property, known as Westleigh Farms. After high school, Porter returned to his childhood home only for occasional visits.

Porter's strong-willed mother doted on him and began his musical training at an early age. He learned the violin at age six, the piano at eight, and wrote his first operetta (with help from his mother) at ten. She falsified his recorded birth year, changing it from 1891 to 1893 to make him appear more precocious. His father, a shy and unassertive man, played a lesser role in Porter's upbringing, although as an amateur poet, he may have influenced his son's gifts for rhyme and meter. Porter's father was also a talented singer and pianist, but the father-son relationship was not close.

J. O. Cole wanted his grandson to become a lawyer, and with that in mind, sent him to Worcester Academy in Massachusetts in 1905. Porter brought an upright piano with him to school and found that music, and his ability to entertain, made it easy for him to make friends. Porter did well in school and rarely came home to visit. He became class valedictorian and was rewarded by his grandfather with a tour of France, Switzerland and Germany. Entering Yale College in 1909, Porter majored in English, minored in music, and also studied French. He was a member of Scroll and Key and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and contributed to campus humor magazine The Yale Record. He was an early member of the Whiffenpoofs a cappella singing group and participated in several other music clubs; in his senior year, he was elected president of the Yale Glee Club and was its principal soloist.

Porter wrote 300 songs while at Yale, including student songs such as the football fight songs "Bulldog" and "Bingo Eli Yale" (aka "Bingo, That's The Lingo!") that are still played at Yale. During college, Porter became acquainted with New York City's vibrant nightlife, taking the train there for dinner, theater, and nights on the town with his classmates, before returning to New Haven, Connecticut, early in the morning. He also wrote musical comedy scores for his fraternity, the Yale Dramatic Association, and as a student at Harvard – Cora (1911), And the Villain Still Pursued Her (1912), The Pot of Gold (1912), The Kaleidoscope (1913) and Paranoia (1914) – which helped prepare him for a career as a Broadway and Hollywood composer and lyricist. After graduating from Yale, Porter enrolled in Harvard Law School in 1913, where he roomed with future Secretary of State Dean Acheson. He soon felt that he was not destined to be a lawyer, and, at the suggestion of the dean of the law school, switched to Harvard's music department, where he studied harmony and counterpoint with Pietro Yon. His mother did not object to this move, but it was kept secret from J. O. Cole.

In 1915, Porter's first song on Broadway, "Esmeralda", appeared in the revue Hands Up. The quick success was immediately followed by failure: his first Broadway production, in 1916, See America First, a "patriotic comic opera" modeled on Gilbert and Sullivan, with a book by T. Lawrason Riggs, was a flop, closing after two weeks. Porter spent the next year in New York City before going overseas during World War I.

WWI, Paris and marriage
In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, Porter moved to Paris to work with the Duryea Relief organization. Some writers have been skeptical about Porter's claim to have served in the French Foreign Legion, but the Legion lists Porter as one of its soldiers and displays his portrait at its museum in Aubagne. By some accounts, he served in North Africa and was transferred to the French Officers School at Fontainebleau, teaching gunnery to American soldiers. An obituary notice in The New York Times stated that, while in the Legion, "he had a specially constructed portable piano made for him so that he could carry it on his back and entertain the troops in their bivouacs." Another account, given by Porter, is that he joined the recruiting department of the American Aviation Headquarters, but, according to his biographer Stephen Citron, there is no record of his joining this or any other branch of the forces.

Porter maintained a luxury apartment in Paris, where he entertained lavishly. His parties were extravagant and scandalous, with "much gay and bisexual activity, Italian nobility, cross-dressing, international musicians and a large surplus of recreational drugs". In 1918, he met Linda Lee Thomas, a rich, Louisville, Kentucky-born divorcée eight years his senior. She was beautiful and well-connected socially; the couple shared mutual interests, including a love of travel, and she became Porter's confidante and companion. The couple married the following year. She was in no doubt about Porter's homosexuality, but it was mutually advantageous for them to marry. For Linda, it offered continued social status and a partner who was the antithesis of her abusive first husband. For Porter, it brought a respectable heterosexual front in an era when homosexuality was not publicly acknowledged. They were, moreover, genuinely devoted to each other and remained married from December 19, 1919, until her death in 1954. Linda remained protective of her social position and, believing that classical music might be a more prestigious outlet than Broadway for her husband's talents, tried to use her connections to find him suitable teachers, including Igor Stravinsky, but was unsuccessful. Finally, Porter enrolled at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, where he studied orchestration and counterpoint with Vincent d'Indy. Meanwhile, Porter's first big hit was the song "Old-Fashioned Garden" from the revue Hitchy-Koo of 1919. In 1920, he contributed the music of several songs to the musical A Night Out.

Marriage did not diminish Porter's taste for extravagant luxury. The Porter home on the rue Monsieur near Les Invalides was a palatial house with platinum wallpaper and chairs upholstered in zebra skin. In 1923, Porter came into an inheritance from his grandfather, and the Porters began living in rented palaces in Venice. He once hired the entire Ballets Russes to entertain his guests, and for a party at Ca' Rezzonico, which he rented for $4,000 a month ($0 in current value), he hired 50 gondoliers to act as footmen and had a troupe of tightrope walkers perform in a blaze of lights. In the midst of this extravagant lifestyle, Porter continued to write songs with his wife's encouragement.

Porter received few commissions for songs in the years immediately after his marriage. He had the occasional number interpolated into other writers' revues in Britain and the U.S. For a C. B. Cochran show in 1921, he had two successes with the comedy numbers "The Blue Boy Blues" and "Olga, Come Back to the Volga". In 1923, in collaboration with Gerald Murphy, he composed a short ballet, originally titled Landed and then Within the Quota, satirically depicting the adventures of an immigrant to America who becomes a film star. The work, written for the Ballets suédois, lasts about 16 minutes. It was orchestrated by Charles Koechlin and shared the same opening night as Milhaud's La création du monde. Porter's work was one of the earliest symphonic jazz-based compositions, predating George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue by four months, and was well received by both French and American reviewers after its premiere at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in October 1923.

After a successful New York performance the following month, the Ballets suédois toured the work in the U.S., performing it 69 times. A year later the company disbanded, and the score was lost until it was reconstructed from Porter's and Koechlin's manuscripts between 1966 and 1990, with help from Milhaud and others. Porter had less success with his work on The Greenwich Village Follies (1924). He wrote most of the original score, but his songs were gradually dropped during the Broadway run, and by the time of the post-Broadway tour in 1925, all his numbers had been deleted. Frustrated by the public response to most of his work, Porter nearly gave up songwriting as a career, although he continued to compose songs for friends and perform at private parties.

Broadway and West End success
At the age of 36, Porter reintroduced himself to Broadway in 1928 with the musical Paris, his first hit. It was commissioned by E. Ray Goetz at the instigation of Goetz's wife and the show's star, Irène Bordoni. She had wanted Rodgers and Hart to write the songs, but they were unavailable, and Porter's agent persuaded Goetz to hire Porter instead. In August 1928, Porter's work on the show was interrupted by the death of his father. He hurried back to Indiana to comfort his mother before returning to work. The songs for the show included "Let's Misbehave" and one of his best-known list songs, "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love", which was introduced by Bordoni and Arthur Margetson. The show opened on Broadway on October 8, 1928. The Porters did not attend the first night because Porter was in Paris supervising another show for which he had been commissioned, La Revue, at a nightclub. This was also a success, and, in Citron's phrase, Porter was finally "accepted into the upper echelon of Broadway songwriters". Cochran now wanted more from Porter than isolated extra songs; he planned a West End extravaganza similar to Ziegfeld's shows, with a Porter score and a large international cast led by Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale and Tilly Losch. The revue, Wake Up and Dream, ran for 263 performances in London, after which Cochran transferred it to New York in 1929. On Broadway, business was badly affected by the 1929 Wall Street crash, and the production ran for only 136 performances. From Porter's point of view, it was nonetheless a success, as his song "What Is This Thing Called Love?" became immensely popular. Porter's new fame brought him offers from Hollywood, but because his score for Paramount's The Battle of Paris was undistinguished, and its star, Gertrude Lawrence, was miscast, the film was not a success. Citron expresses the view that Porter was not interested in cinema and "noticeably wrote down for the movies."

Still on a Gallic theme, Porter's last Broadway show of the 1920s was Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929), for which he wrote 28 numbers, including "You Do Something to Me", "You've Got That Thing" and "The Tale of the Oyster". The show received mixed notices. One critic wrote, "the lyrics alone are enough to drive anyone but P. G. Wodehouse into retirement", but others dismissed the songs as "pleasant" and "not an outstanding hit song in the show". As it was a lavish and expensive production, nothing less than full houses would suffice, and after only three weeks, the producers announced that they would close it. Irving Berlin, who admired and championed Porter, took out a paid press advertisement calling the show "The best musical comedy I've heard in years. ... One of the best collections of song numbers I have ever listened to". This saved the show, which ran for 254 performances, considered a successful run at the time.

1930s
Ray Goetz, producer of Paris and Fifty Million Frenchmen, the success of which had kept him solvent when other producers were bankrupted by the post-crash slump in Broadway business, invited Porter to write a musical show about the other city that he knew and loved: New York. Goetz offered the team with whom Porter had last worked: Herbert Fields writing the book and Porter's old friend Monty Woolley directing. The New Yorkers (1930) acquired instant notoriety for including a song about a streetwalker, "Love for Sale". Originally performed by Kathryn Crawford in a street setting, critical disapproval led Goetz to reassign the number to Elisabeth Welch in a nightclub scene. The lyric was considered too explicit for radio at the time, though it was recorded and aired as an instrumental and rapidly became a standard. Porter often referred to it as his favorite of his songs. The New Yorkers also included the hit "I Happen to Like New York".

Next came Fred Astaire's last stage show, Gay Divorce (1932). It featured a hit that became Porter's best-known song, "Night and Day". Despite mixed press (some critics were reluctant to accept Astaire without his previous partner, his sister Adele), the show ran for a profitable 248 performances, and the rights to the film, retitled The Gay Divorcee, were sold to RKO Pictures. Porter followed this with a West End show for Gertrude Lawrence, Nymph Errant (1933), presented by Cochran at the Adelphi Theatre, where it ran for 154 performances. Among the hit songs Porter composed for the show were "Experiment" and "The Physician" for Lawrence, and "Solomon" for Elisabeth Welch.

In 1934, producer Vinton Freedley came up with a new approach to producing musicals. Instead of commissioning book, music and lyrics and then casting the show, Freedley sought to create an ideal musical with stars and writers all engaged from the outset. The stars he wanted were Ethel Merman, William Gaxton and comedian Victor Moore. He planned a story about a shipwreck and a desert island, and for the book he turned to P. G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton. For the songs, he decided on Porter. By telling each of these that he had already signed the others, Freedley gathered his ideal team together. A drastic last-minute rewrite was necessitated by a major shipping accident that dominated the news and made Bolton and Wodehouse's book seem tasteless. Nevertheless, the show, Anything Goes, was an immediate hit. Porter wrote what many consider his greatest score of this period. The New Yorker magazine's review said, "Mr. Porter is in a class by himself", and Porter subsequently called it one of his two perfect shows, along with the later Kiss Me, Kate. Its songs include "I Get a Kick Out of You", "All Through the Night", "You're the Top" (one of his best-known list songs), and "Blow, Gabriel, Blow", as well as the title number. The show ran for 420 performances in New York (a particularly long run in the 1930s) and 261 in London. Porter, despite his lessons in orchestration from d'Indy, did not orchestrate his musicals. Anything Goes was orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett and Hans Spialek. Now at the height of his success, Porter was able to enjoy the opening night of his musicals; he made grand entrances and sat in front, apparently relishing the show as much as any audience member. Russel Crouse commented "Cole's opening-night behaviour is as indecent as that of a bridegroom who has a good time at his own wedding."

Anything Goes was the first of five Porter shows featuring Merman. He loved her loud, brassy voice and wrote many numbers that displayed her strengths. Jubilee (1935), written with Moss Hart while on a cruise around the world, was not a major hit, running for only 169 performances, but it featured two songs that have since become standards, "Begin the Beguine" and "Just One of Those Things". Red, Hot and Blue (1936), featuring Merman, Jimmy Durante and Bob Hope, ran for 183 performances and introduced "It's De-Lovely", "Down in the Depths (on the Ninetieth Floor)", and "Ridin' High". The relative failure of these shows convinced Porter that his songs did not appeal to a broad enough audience. In an interview, he said "Sophisticated allusions are good for about six weeks ... more fun, but only for myself and about eighteen other people, all of whom are first-nighters anyway. Polished, urbane and adult playwriting in the musical field is strictly a creative luxury."

Porter also wrote for Hollywood in the mid-1930s. His scores include those for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Born to Dance (1936), with James Stewart, featuring "You'd Be So Easy to Love" and "I've Got You Under My Skin", and Rosalie (1937), featuring "In the Still of the Night". He wrote the score of the short film Paree, Paree, in 1935, using some of the songs from Fifty Million Frenchmen. Porter also composed the cowboy song "Don't Fence Me In" for Adios, Argentina, an unproduced movie, in 1934, but it did not become a hit until Roy Rogers sang it in the 1944 film Hollywood Canteen. Bing Crosby, The Andrews Sisters, and other artists also popularized it in the 1940s. The Porters moved to Hollywood in December 1935, but Porter's wife did not like the movie environment, and Porter's closeted homosexual acts, formerly very discreet, became less so; she retreated to their Paris house. When his film assignment on Rosalie was finished in 1937, Porter hastened to Paris to make peace with Linda, but she remained cool. After a walking tour of Europe with his friends, Porter returned to New York in October 1937 without her. They were soon reunited by an accident Porter suffered.

On October 24, 1937, Porter was riding with Countess Edith di Zoppola and Duke Fulco di Verdura at Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley, New York, when his horse rolled on him and crushed his legs, leaving him substantially crippled and in constant pain for the rest of his life. Though doctors told Porter's wife and mother that his right leg would have to be amputated, and possibly the left one as well, he refused to have the procedure. Linda rushed from Paris to be with him, and supported him in his refusal of amputation. He remained in the hospital for seven months before being allowed to go home to his apartment at the Waldorf Towers. He resumed work as soon as he could, finding it took his mind off his perpetual pain.

Porter's first show after his accident was not a success. You Never Know (1938), starring Clifton Webb, Lupe Vélez and Libby Holman, ran for only 78 performances. The score included the songs "From Alpha to Omega" and "At Long Last Love". He returned to success with Leave It to Me! (1938); the show introduced Mary Martin, singing "My Heart Belongs to Daddy", and other numbers included "Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love" and "From Now On". Porter's last show of the 1930s was DuBarry Was a Lady (1939), a particularly risqué show starring Merman and Bert Lahr. After a pre-Broadway tour, during which it ran into trouble with Boston censors, it achieved 408 performances, beginning at the 46th Street Theatre. The score included "But in the Morning, No" (which was banned from the airwaves), "Do I Love You?", "Well, Did You Evah!", "Katie Went to Haiti" and another of Porter's up-tempo list songs, "Friendship". At the end of 1939, Porter contributed six songs to the film Broadway Melody of 1940 for Fred Astaire, George Murphy and Eleanor Powell.

Meanwhile, as political unrest increased in Europe, Porter's wife closed their Paris house in 1939, and the next year bought a country home in the Berkshire mountains, near Williamstown, Massachusetts, which she decorated with elegant furnishings from their Paris home. Porter spent time in Hollywood, New York and Williamstown.

1940s and postwar
Panama Hattie (1940) was Porter's longest-running hit so far, running in New York for 501 performances despite the absence of any enduring Porter songs. It starred Merman, Arthur Treacher and Betty Hutton. Let's Face It! (1941), starring Danny Kaye, had an even better run, with 547 performances in New York. This, too, lacked any numbers that became standards, and Porter always counted it among his lesser efforts. Something for the Boys (1943), starring Merman, ran for 422 performances, and Mexican Hayride (1944), starring Bobby Clark, with June Havoc, ran for 481 performances. These shows, too, are short of Porter standards. The critics did not pull their punches, complaining about the lack of hit tunes and the generally low standard of the scores. After two flops, Seven Lively Arts (1944) (which featured the standard "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye") and Around the World (1946), many thought that Porter's best period was over.

Between Broadway musicals, Porter continued to write for Hollywood. His film scores of this period were You'll Never Get Rich (1941) with Astaire and Rita Hayworth, Something to Shout About (1943) with Don Ameche, Janet Blair and William Gaxton, and Mississippi Belle (1943–44), which was abandoned before filming began. He also cooperated in the making of the film Night and Day (1946), a largely fictional biography of Porter, with Cary Grant implausibly cast in the lead. The critics scoffed, but the film was a huge success, chiefly because of the wealth of vintage Porter numbers in it. The biopic's success contrasted starkly with the failure of Vincente Minnelli's film The Pirate (1948), with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly, in which five new Porter songs received little attention.

From this low spot, Porter made a conspicuous comeback in 1948 with Kiss Me, Kate. It was by far his most successful show, running for 1,077 performances in New York and 400 in London. The production won the Tony Award for Best Musical (the first Tony awarded in that category), and Porter won for best composer and lyricist. The score includes "Another Op'nin', Another Show", "Wunderbar", "So In Love", "We Open in Venice", "Tom, Dick or Harry", "I've Come to Wive It Wealthily in Padua", "Too Darn Hot", "Always True to You (in My Fashion)", and "Brush Up Your Shakespeare".

Porter began the 1950s with Out of This World (1950), which had some good numbers but too much camp and vulgarity, and was not greatly successful. His next show, Can-Can (1952), featuring "C'est Magnifique" and "It's All Right with Me", was another hit, running for 892 performances. Porter's last original Broadway production, Silk Stockings (1955), featuring "All of You", was also successful, with a run of 477 performances. Porter wrote two more film scores and music for a television special before ending his Hollywood career. The film High Society (1956), starring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly, included Porter's last major hit song "True Love". It was adapted as a stage musical of the same name. Porter also wrote numbers for the film Les Girls (1957), which starred Gene Kelly. His final score was for the CBS television special Aladdin (1958).

Last years
Porter's mother died in 1952, and his wife died of emphysema in 1954. By 1958, Porter's injuries caused a series of ulcers on his right leg. After 34 operations, it had to be amputated and replaced with an artificial limb. His friend Noël Coward visited him in the hospital and wrote in his diary, "The lines of ceaseless pain have been wiped from his face...I am convinced that his whole life will cheer up and that his work will profit accordingly." In fact, Porter never wrote another song after the amputation and spent the remaining six years of his life in relative seclusion, seeing only intimate friends. He continued to live in the Waldorf Towers in New York in his memorabilia-filled apartment. On weekends, he often visited an estate in the Berkshires, and he stayed in California during the summers.

Porter died of kidney failure at age 73 on October 15, 1964, in Santa Monica, California. He is interred in Mount Hope Cemetery in his native Peru, Indiana, between his wife and father.

Tributes and legacy
Many artists have recorded Porter songs, and dozens have released entire albums of his songs. In 1956, jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald released Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook. In 1972, she released another collection, Ella Loves Cole. Among the many album collections of Porter songs are the following: Oscar Peterson Plays the Cole Porter Songbook (1959); Anita O'Day Swings Cole Porter with Billy May (1959); All Through the Night: Julie London Sings the Choicest of Cole Porter (1965); Rosemary Clooney Sings the Music of Cole Porter (1982); Anything Goes: Stephane Grappelli & Yo-Yo Ma Play (Mostly) Cole Porter (1989) and Love for Sale (Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, 2021). In 1990 Dionne Warwick released Dionne Sings Cole Porter. In that same year, Red Hot + Blue was released as a benefit CD for AIDS research and featured 20 Cole Porter songs recorded by artists such as U2 and Annie Lennox.

Additional recording collections include Frank Sinatra Sings the Select Cole Porter (1996) and John Barrowman Swings Cole Porter (2004); Barrowman played "Jack" in the 2004 film De-Lovely. Other singers who have paid tribute to Porter include the Swedish pop music group Gyllene Tider, which recorded a song called "Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång" ("That Girl from the Cole Porter Song") in 1982. He is referenced in the merengue song "The Call of the Wild" by David Byrne on his 1989 album Rei Momo. He also is mentioned in the song "Tonite It Shows" by Mercury Rev on their 1998 album Deserter's Songs. After Can-Can was adapted as a film, the soundtrack won the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Sound Track Album.

In 1965, Judy Garland performed a medley of Porter's songs at the 37th Academy Awards shortly after Porter's death. In 1980, Porter's music was used for the score of Happy New Year, based on the Philip Barry play Holiday. The cast of The Carol Burnett Show paid a tribute to Porter in a humorous sketch in their CBS television series. You're the Top: The Cole Porter Story, a video of archival material and interviews, and Red, Hot and Blue, a video of artists performing Porter's music, were released in 1990 to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of Porter's birth. In contrast to the highly embellished 1946 screen biography Night and Day, Porter's life was chronicled more realistically in De-Lovely, a 2004 Irwin Winkler film starring Kevin Kline as Porter and Ashley Judd as Linda. The soundtrack to De-Lovely includes Porter songs sung by Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Diana Krall and Natalie Cole, among others. Porter also appears as a character in Woody Allen's 2011 film Midnight in Paris.

Many events commemorated the centenary of Porter's birth, including the halftime show of the 1991 Orange Bowl. Joel Grey and a large cast of singers, dancers and marching bands, performed a tribute to Porter in Miami, Florida during the 57th King Orange Jamboree parade, whose theme was "Anything Goes". The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra performed a program of Cole Porter music at the Circle Theatre in Indianapolis, which also featured clips of Porter's Hollywood films. "A Gala Birthday Concert" was held at New York City's Carnegie Hall, with more than 40 entertainers and friends paying tribute to Porter's long career in theater and film. In addition, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative postage stamp honoring Porter's birth. The Indiana University Opera performed Porter's musical, Jubilee, in Bloomington, Indiana.

In May 2007, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was dedicated to Porter. In December 2010, his portrait was added to the Hoosier Heritage Gallery in the office of the Governor of Indiana. Numerous symphony orchestras have paid tribute to Porter in the years since his death including Seattle Symphony Orchestra, with Marvin Hamlisch as conductor and the Boston Pops, both in 2011. In 2012, Marvin Hamlisch, Michael Feinstein, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra honored Porter with a concert that included his familiar classics. The Cole Porter Festival is held every year in June in his hometown of Peru, Indiana, to foster music and art appreciation. Costumed singers in the cabaret-style Cole Porter Room at the Indiana Historical Society's Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center in Indianapolis take requests from visitors and perform Porter's hit songs. Since Porter's death, except for a brief time at the New York Historical Society, his 1908 Steinway grand piano, which he had used when composing since the mid-1930s, has been displayed and often played in the lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Porter is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame and Great American Songbook Hall of Fame, which recognized his "musically complex [songs] with witty, urbane lyrics". In 2014, Porter was honored with a plaque on the Legacy Walk in Chicago, which celebrates LGBT achievers.

Notable songs
Shows listed are stage musicals unless otherwise noted. Where the show was later made into a film, the year refers to the stage version. A complete list of Porter's works is in the Library of Congress in its Cole Porter Collection.

 * (1916) See America First
 * (1919) Hitchy-Koo of 1919 – "Old-Fashioned Garden"
 * (1928) Paris – "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love"
 * (1929) Wake Up and Dream – "What Is This Thing Called Love?"
 * (1929) Fifty Million Frenchmen – "You Do Something to Me"
 * (1930) The New Yorkers – "Love for Sale", "I Happen to Like New York", "Where Have You Been?"
 * (1932) Gay Divorce – "After You, Who?", "Night and Day" (adapted as The Gay Divorcee, 1934)
 * (1933) Nymph Errant – "Experiment", "The Physician", "It's Bad for Me"
 * (1934) Hi Diddle Diddle (revue) — "Miss Otis Regrets"
 * (1934) Anything Goes – "All Through the Night", "Anything Goes", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "You're the Top"
 * (1934) Adios Argentina (un-produced film) – "Don't Fence Me In"
 * (1935) Jubilee – "Begin the Beguine", "Just One of Those Things"
 * (1936) Red, Hot and Blue – "Down in the Depths (on the Ninetieth Floor)", "Ridin' High", "It's De-Lovely"
 * (1936) Born to Dance (film) – "You'd Be So Easy to Love", "I've Got You Under My Skin"
 * (1937) Rosalie (film) – "In the Still of the Night"
 * (1937) You Never Know – "At Long Last Love", "From Alpha to Omega", "Let's Misbehave"
 * (1938) Leave It to Me! – "From Now On", "Get Out of Town", "My Heart Belongs to Daddy"
 * (1939) Broadway Melody of 1940 (film) – "Between You and Me", "I Concentrate on You", "I've Got My Eyes on You", "I Happen to Be in Love", "Begin the Beguine"
 * (1939) DuBarry Was a Lady – "But in the Morning No", "Do I Love You?", "Well, Did You Evah!", "Friendship"

 * (1940) Panama Hattie – "I've Still Got My Health", "Let's Be Buddies"
 * (1941) You'll Never Get Rich (film) – "Dream Dancing", "So Near and Yet So Far"
 * (1941) Let's Face It! – "I Hate You, Darling", "Ace in the Hole"
 * (1942) Something for the Boys – "Could It Be You"
 * (1942) Something to Shout About – "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To"
 * (1943) Mexican Hayride – "I Love You"
 * (1944) Seven Lively Arts – "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye"
 * (1946) Around the World – "Look What I Found"
 * (1947) The Pirate (film) – "Be a Clown", "Mack the Black", "You Can Do No Wrong"
 * (1948) Kiss Me, Kate – "Always True to You in My Fashion", "Another Op'nin', Another Show", "Brush Up Your Shakespeare", "I Hate Men", "Why Can't You Behave?", "So in Love", "Tom, Dick or Harry", "Too Darn Hot", "Wunderbar"
 * (1950) Out of This World – "From This Moment On", "I Am Loved"
 * (1950) Stage Fright (film) – "The Laziest Gal in Town"
 * (1953) Can-Can – "I Am in Love", "I Love Paris", "C'est Magnifique", "It's All Right With Me"
 * (1954) Silk Stockings – "All of You", "Paris Loves Lovers"
 * (1955) High Society (film) – "Mind if I Make Love to You?", "True Love", "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", "You're Sensational"
 * (1956) Les Girls (film) – "Ça, C'est L'amour", "You're Just Too, Too"
 * (1958) Aladdin (television) – "Come to the Supermarket (In Old Peking)"

title: Cole Porter


text:
User:MP~enwiki

Don't ask... Best thing to do, if you're curious about who would call themselves MP, is go and search for postings by MP on groups.google.com. You might limit it to alt.*.pratchett ones for a quicker experience... :-}

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

title: User:MP~enwiki


text:
Reconnaissance satellite

A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications.

The first generation type (i.e., Corona and Zenit) took photographs, then ejected canisters of photographic film which would descend back down into Earth's atmosphere. Corona capsules were retrieved in mid-air as they floated down on parachutes. Later, spacecraft had digital imaging systems and downloaded the images via encrypted radio links.

In the United States, most information available about reconnaissance satellites is on programs that existed up to 1972, as this information has been declassified due to its age. Some information about programs before that time is still classified information, and a small amount of information is available on subsequent missions.

A few up-to-date reconnaissance satellite images have been declassified on occasion, or leaked, as in the case of KH-11 photographs which were sent to Jane's Defence Weekly in 1984, or US President Donald Trump tweeting a classified image of the aftermath of a failed test of Iran's Safir rocket in 2019.

History
On 16 March 1955, the United States Air Force officially ordered the development of an advanced reconnaissance satellite to provide continuous surveillance of "preselected areas of the Earth" in order "to determine the status of a potential enemy’s war-making capability".

During the mid-late 1950s, both the United States and the Soviet Union took interest into reconnaissance satellites. The United States began the CORONA project, which encompassed several series of launches starting in 1959 and ending in 72. This program was made a priority to photograph denied areas, replace the U-2, and due to public concern about a technological gap between the West and the Soviet Union. It was expedited significantly after the shooting of a U-2 in 1960.

Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, a decree that authorized the development of sputnik apparently authorized a program for a satellite to be used for photo reconnaissance. This design evolved into Vostok, while another version became Zenit, which was an unmanned reconnaissance satellite. Zenit was launched from 1961 to 1994, however the last flight in 1994 was as a test payload.

Both the CORONA and Zenit satellites had to be recovered and used film, making them distinct from future reconnaissance satellites that could transmit photos without returning film to earth.

Types
There are several major types of reconnaissance satellite.

 * Missile early warning

 * Provides warning of an attack by detecting ballistic missile launches. Earliest known are Missile Defense Alarm System.

 * Nuclear explosion detection
 * Detects nuclear detonation from space. Vela is the earliest known.

 * Electronic reconnaissance
 * Signals intelligence, intercepts stray radio waves. SOLRAD is the earliest known.

 * Optical imaging surveillance
 * Earth imaging satellites. Satellite images can be a survey or close-look telephoto. Corona is the earliest known. Spectral imaging is commonplace.

 * Radar imaging surveillance
 * Most space-based radars use synthetic-aperture radar. Can be used at night or through cloud cover. Earliest known are the Soviet US-A series.

Missions
Examples of reconnaissance satellite missions:
 * High resolution photography (IMINT)
 * Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT)
 * Communications eavesdropping (SIGINT)
 * Covert communications
 * Monitoring of nuclear test ban compliance (see National Technical Means)
 * Detection of missile launches

On 28 August 2013, it was thought that "a $1-billion high-powered spy satellite capable of snapping pictures detailed enough to distinguish the make and model of an automobile hundreds of miles below" was launched from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base using a Delta IV Heavy launcher, America's highest-payload space launch vehicle at the time.

On 17 February 2014, a Russian Kosmos-1220 originally launched in 1980 and used for naval missile targeting until 1982, made an uncontrolled atmospheric entry.

Benefits
During the 1950s, a Soviet hoax had led to American fears of a bomber gap. In 1968, after gaining satellite photography, the United States' intelligence agencies were able to state with certainty that "No new ICBM complexes have been established in the USSR during the past year". President Lyndon B. Johnson told a gathering in 1967:

"I wouldn't want to be quoted on this ... We've spent $35 or $40 billion on the space program. And if nothing else had come out of it except the knowledge that we gained from space photography, it would be worth ten times what the whole program has cost. Because tonight we know how many missiles the enemy has and, it turned out, our guesses were way off. We were doing things we didn't need to do. We were building things we didn't need to build. We were harboring fears we didn't need to harbor."

During his 1980 State of the Union Address, President Jimmy Carter explained how all of humanity benefited from the presence of American spy satellites:

"...photo-reconnaissance satellites, for example, are enormously important in stabilizing world affairs and thereby make a significant contribution to the security of all nations."

Reconnaissance satellites have been used to enforce human rights, through the Satellite Sentinel Project, which monitors atrocities in Sudan and South Sudan.

Additionally, companies such as GeoEye and DigitalGlobe have provided commercial satellite imagery in support of natural disaster response and humanitarian missions.

In fiction
Spy satellites are commonly seen in spy fiction and military fiction. Some works of fiction that focus specifically on spy satellites include:
 * The OMAC Project
 * Enemy of the State
 * Body of Lies
 * Ice Station Zebra
 * Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran
 * Patriot Games

title: Reconnaissance satellite


text:
Clinton County, New York

Clinton County is a county in the north-easternmost corner of the state of New York, in the United States and bordered by the Canadian province of Quebec. It is the northeastern most county in New York. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 79,843. Its county seat is the city of Plattsburgh. The county lies just south of the border with the Canadian province of Quebec and to the west of the State of Vermont. The county is named for George Clinton, the first Governor of New York, who later was elected as Vice President. He had been a Founding Father who represented New York in the Continental Congress. Clinton County comprises the Plattsburgh, New York Micropolitan statistical area. The county is part of the North Country region of the state.

History
When counties were established in New York State in 1683, the present Clinton County was part of Albany County. This was an enormous county, including the northern part of New York State as well as all of the present state of Vermont and, in theory, extending westward to the Pacific Ocean. This county was reduced in size on July 3, 1766, by the creation of Cumberland County, and further on March 16, 1770, by the creation of Gloucester County, both containing territory now in Vermont. On March 12, 1772, what was left of Albany County was split into three parts, one remaining under the name Albany County. One of the other pieces, Charlotte County, contained the eastern portion.

In 1784, the name "Charlotte County" was changed to Washington County to honor George Washington, the American Revolutionary War General and later the first President of the United States of America.

In 1788, Clinton County split off from Washington County.

In 1799, Essex County split from Clinton County.

In 1802, parts of Clinton, Herkimer, and Montgomery counties formed the new St. Lawrence County.

In 1808, Franklin County split from Clinton County.

Geography
Clinton County lies at the northeast corner of New York state. Its northern border abuts the Canadian province of Quebec. Its eastern border abuts the state of Vermont (across Lake Champlain). The encompassing region is referred to as the Adirondack Coast.

The Saranac River flows easterly through the central part of the county, discharging into Lake Champlain at Plattsburgh, and the Great Chazy River flows northeastward through the upper part of the county, discharging into Lake Champlain at Coopersville. The Ausable River forms a large part of the southern county line. The county's highest point is Lyon Mountain, in the town of Dannemora, at 3,830 ft ASL. According to the US Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1117.53 sqmi, of which 1037.85 sqmi is land and 79.67 sqmi (7.1%) is water.

Adjacent counties and municipalities

 * Grand Isle County, Vermont — east
 * Chittenden County, Vermont — southeast
 * Essex County — south
 * Franklin County — west
 * Le Haut-Richelieu Regional County Municipality, Quebec — north
 * Le Haut-Saint-Laurent Regional County Municipality, Quebec — north
 * Les Jardins-de-Napierville Regional County Municipality, Quebec — north

Protected areas

 * Adirondack Park (part)
 * Ausable Marsh Wildlife Management Area
 * Cadyville State Forest
 * Chazy Fossil Reef National Natural Landmark (part)
 * Dannemora State Forest
 * Dunkin's Reserve State Forest
 * Flat Rock State Forest
 * Kings Bay Wildlife Management Area
 * Macomb State Forest
 * Miner Lake State Park
 * Monty's Bay Wildlife Management Area
 * Point au Roche State Park
 * Valcour Island
 * Valcour Island Primitive Area

Lakes

 * Chazy Lake
 * Fern Lake
 * Lake Champlain (along east border)
 * Mead Reservoir
 * Military Pond
 * Miner Lake
 * Mud Pond
 * Newberry Pond
 * Patterson Reservoir
 * Silver Lake
 * Slush Pond
 * Taylor Pond
 * Union Falls Pond (part)
 * Upper Chateaugay Lake

Government and politics

 * }

Like much of the North Country region, Clinton County has historically been a Republican county. However, it has voted for Democratic candidates at the state and national level in recent times. Since 1996, it has voted for the Democratic candidate for president in every election. In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Barack Obama carried the county by a 22.9% margin over John McCain (Obama won every municipality in the county), and won by a 26.9% margin over McCain statewide. In 2006, both Eliot Spitzer and Hillary Clinton carried the county, winning 63% and 64% of vote, respectively. In 2010, Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand won the county, each receiving more than 60% of the vote.

Republicans still win most local races. The county's Congressional district did not elect a Democrat to Congress until 2009 when Bill Owens defeated Doug Hoffman in the special election to replace John McHugh, who resigned to serve as the Obama Administration's Secretary of the Army. The special election received nationwide attention due to Hoffman, a third-party candidate and Tea Party favorite, polling higher than the Republican nominee, Dede Scozzafava, which ultimately led to her dropping out of the race and supporting Owens. It had not elected a Democrat to the State Senate or State Assembly in over a half-century until Billy Jones was elected to the State Assembly in 2016.

The Clinton County Legislature is the lawmaking body of the county. It consists of 10 members, each elected from single member districts. As of 2021, the County Legislature consists of five Republicans and four Democrats and a vacancy.

2000 census
As of the 2000 United States Census, there were 79,894 people, 29,423 households, and 19,272 families in the county. The population density was 77.0 /mi2. There were 33,091 housing units at an average density of 31.9 /mi2. The racial makeup of the county was 93.33% White, 3.58% Black or African American, 0.36% Native American, 0.67% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.10% from other races, and 0.93% from two or more races. 2.46% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 23.7% were of French, 15.0% French Canadian, 12.5% American, 11.8% Irish, 7.6% English and 5.5% German ancestry according to Census 2000. 94.1% spoke English, 2.8% French and 1.7% Spanish as their first language.

There were 29,423 households, out of which 32.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.00% were married couples living together, 10.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.50% were non-families. 26.30% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 2.98.

The county population contained 23.00% under the age of 18, 12.40% from 18 to 24, 30.60% from 25 to 44, 22.10% from 45 to 64, and 11.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 104.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.60 males.

The median household income was $37,028, and the median income for a family was $45,732. Males had a median income of $33,788 versus $25,520 for females. The per capita income for the county was $17,946. About 9.40% of families and 13.90% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.30% of those under age 18 and 11.40% of those age 65 or over.

Education
The State University of New York at Plattsburgh is located in the City of Plattsburgh. The county is also served by Clinton Community College, which is located in the Town of Plattsburgh.

Infrastructure
Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison is located in the village of Dannemora. Altona Correctional Facility is a medium-security prison in the town of Altona.

Highways

 * Interstate 87 - runs N-S, to the Canada–United States border
 * US-2
 * US-9
 * US-11
 * NY-3
 * NY-9N
 * NY-22
 * NY-22B
 * NY-190
 * NY-191
 * NY-374
 * NY-442
 * NY-456

Airports

 * Plattsburgh International Airport (PBG) – Plattsburgh
 * Clinton County Airport (PLB) – Plattsburgh
 * Rouses Point Seaplane Base (K21) – Rouses Point

Rail
Amtrak's Adirondack Train travels through the county, connecting Montreal to New York City. Two trains a day (one north and one south) stop in the county in Plattsburgh and Rouses Point.

Mass transit
The Clinton County Public Transit runs bus routes that branch from Plattsburgh to towns in the county.

Larger settlements
† - County seat

†† - Former village

‡ - Not wholly in this county

Towns

 * Altona
 * Au Sable
 * Beekmantown
 * Black Brook
 * Champlain
 * Chazy
 * Clinton
 * Dannemora
 * Ellenburg
 * Mooers
 * Peru
 * Plattsburgh
 * Saranac
 * Schuyler Falls

Hamlets

 * Churubusco
 * Coopersville
 * Swastika
 * Morrisonville

title: Clinton County, New York


text:
Costantino Nivola

Costantino (also known as Antine, in Sardinia, or Tino, in the US)   Nivola (July 5, 1911 – May 6, 1988) was an Italian sculptor, architectural sculptor, muralist, designer, and teacher.

Born in Sardinia, Nivola had already started his career when he fled Fascism for Paris in 1938, going to the U.S. in 1939. His major sculptural work is abstract, large-scale architectural reliefs in concrete, made in his own sandcasting and cement carving processes. These were erected in and on American buildings between the late 1950s and early 1970s. Creatively busy and while remaining active in Italy, Nivola also taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Columbia University, UC Berkeley, and elsewhere. The Nivola Museum in Orani, Sardinia is dedicated to his life and sculpture, and hosts the largest collection of his smaller scale work.

Early career
Nivola was born and grew up poor in Orani, a village in Sardinia. As an adolescent, he worked as an apprentice stonemason. In Sassari in 1926, Nivola served as apprentice to fellow painter Mario Delitala, executing frescoes for the aula magna of the local university.

In 1931 Nivola enrolled in the ISIA (Istituto superiore per le industrie artistiche, the State Institute of Industrial Arts) in Monza. Through one of his teachers, the architect Giuseppe Pagano, he contributed work to the 1936 Milan Triennial VI and the Italian Pavilion at the 1937 Paris Exposition. This drew the attention of Adriano Olivetti, who named him art director of his company's Publicity Department, where Nivola "made a significant contribution to... 'the Olivetti style'.

United States
Nivola married fellow ISIA student Ruth Guggenheim in 1938, and left together for the United States via Paris in 1939. He established a home in Greenwich Village (first at Waverly Place, then at No. 47 West Eighth Street ) to rebuild a social circle and a career despite speaking no English.

Nivola resumed a close friendship with artist Saul Steinberg from Milan, attended meetings of the anti-fascist Italian-American Mazzini Society in 1941, and by the 1940s Nivola was presiding over a weekly gathering of artists at Del Pezzo's restaurant described by Peter Blake (architect) as comparable to the Algonquin Round Table. One key friendship was Le Corbusier. Introduced in 1945 by Josep Lluís Sert, Nivola became warm lifelong friends with the Swiss architect, his houseguest on Corbu's rare trips to America.

Supported by small exhibitions and a progression of jobs in factories, for Bonwit Teller, and for architectural magazines, the Nivolas bought a modest property in Springs, East Hampton, Long Island. It would expand to 35 acres. Their garden landscape, a series of outdoor rooms and a roofless solarium, was co-designed by the Nivolas and architect Bernard Rudofsky; in 1950 Le Corbusier impulsively painted murals on two walls of their kitchen. On the nearby beach Nivola developed the principle of his distinctive concrete sandcasting technique while playing with his children. They sculpted wet sand, then poured a slurry of plaster or concrete into the form.

In 1951 Nivola was one of the artists shown in the pivotal 9th Street Art Exhibition, hung by Leo Castelli.

Once more Olivetti provided the sculptor with a major commission, for an interior wall in their stylish Fifth Avenue showroom in 1953. Nivola executed it with a refined, scaled-up version of the beach process, in a sequence of panels. The resulting attention and publicity started a successful career in large-scale architecture work which lasted for decades. One project, involving two thousand and ten cast-concrete panels for the McCormick Place Exposition Center in Chicago in 1959, was touted as the largest such installation ever.

In 1954 Nivola was named to direct the Design Workshop at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he stayed until 1957. He was also visiting professor or artist in residence at Columbia University (1961), Harvard (1970 and 1973), Dartmouth (1978), UC Berkeley (1978–79 and 1982), and the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (1982). The American Institute of Graphic Arts awarded him its Certificate of Excellence. In 1972 the American Academy of Arts and Letters admitted Nivola as its first non-American member.

Nivola died of a heart attack in Southampton Hospital, Long Island, in May 1988. He was the father of children's book author Claire Nivola, and the grandfather of actor Alessandro Nivola. A foundation and museum dedicated to Nivola's work opened in his hometown in 1995, in a building partly designed by architect Peter Chermayeff.

Work
The Sardinian town of Ulassai decided, in the early 1980s, to rehabilitate its neglected municipal laundry building dating from 1903. It was turned into an open-air contemporary museum with a number of artists represented – Maria Lai, Luigi Veronesi, Guido Strazza. Nivola's contribution, a sculptural sound fountain, was completed in 1987 as his final work.

Nivola's public work includes:

 * sgraffito exterior mural wall, Gagarin House I, Litchfield, Connecticut, with architect Marcel Breuer, 1952
 * interior sand-cast relief wall, Olivetti showroom, Fifth Avenue, New York City, with architects BBPR, 1953 (razed)
 * exterior panel for the William E. Grady CTE High School, Brooklyn, New York, 1957
 * Untitled, an interior cast-concrete mural of 132 panels in the former Mutual Insurance Company of Hartford (later Covenant Mutual Insurance Company), 95 Woodland Street, Hartford, Connecticut, with Sherwood, Mills & Smith, architects, 1957
 * over 2000 cast-concrete panels for the exterior of McCormick Place Exposition Center, Chicago, for Shaw, Metz & Associates, 1959 (destroyed 1967)
 * Untitled, a cast-concrete abstract exterior wall for the Mutual Insurance Company of Hartford, with Sherwood, Mills & Smith, architects, 1960
 * 18 polychrome cast stone horses and an 80-foot sgraffito mural wall, for the Stephen Wise Towers housing development play area, with architect Richard G. Stein for the New York City Housing Authority, 1964
 * 20 concrete panels for the Connecticut Post Building, Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1966
 * monument to poet Sebastiano Satta, Nuoro, Sardinia, 1966
 * Family of Man, two cast-concrete abstract bas-reliefs with forms suggesting family groupings, entry to the Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, Harbeson, Hough, Livingston & Larson architects. Building, 1962; sculpture, 1969
 * Dedicated to the American Secretary, 14 abstract panels of sand-cast steel-reinforced concrete in the lobby, with a companion free-standing figure in the courtyard, Continental Bank, 400 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1970
 * 33 sculpted panels on the history of communications theme, Janesville Gazette Building, Janesville, Wisconsin, 1970
 * work at the Palazzo del Consiglio Regionale (House of the Regional Council), Cagliari, with architect Mario Fiorentino, 1987

Books

 * G. Altea e A. Camarda, “Formal Autonomy versus Public Participation: The Modernist Monument in Costantino Nivola’s work”, in I. Ben-Asher Gitler (ed.), Monuments, Site-Specific Sculpture and Urban Space, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017, pp. 134–162
 * G. Altea and A. Camarda, Costantino Nivola. La sintesi delle arti, Ilisso, 2015
 * A. Mereu, Il Nivola ritrovato. Un artista tra l’America e il Mugello, Firenze, Nardini editore, 2012.
 * Renato Miracco (ed.), Costantino Nivola. 100 Years of Creativity, Milano, Charta, 2012.
 * Maddalena Mameli, Le Corbusier e Costantino Nivola. New York 1946–1953, Franco Angeli, Milano 2012.
 * G. Altea (a cura di), Seguo la traccia nera e sottile. I disegni di Costantino Nivola, Agave, Sassari 2011.
 * Nivola. L’investigazione dello spazio, ed. by C. Pirovano, Nuoro, Ilisso, 2010.
 * G. Altea, Costantino Nivola, Ilisso, Nuoro 2004.
 * U. Collu et al., Museo Nivola, Nuoro, Ilisso, 2004.
 * S. Forrestier, Nivola Terrecotte. Opere dello studio Nivola, Amagansett, USA, Milano, Jaca Book, 2004.
 * R. Cassanelli, U. Collu, O.Selvafolta (eds), Nivola Fancello Pintori. Percorsi del moderno, Jaca Book, Milano 2003.
 * Costantino Nivola in Springs, ed. by M. Martegani, New York-Nuoro, The Parrish Art Museum-Ilisso, 2003.
 * Nivola, Fancello, Pintori. Percorsi del moderno, eds R. Cassanelli, U. Collu, O. Selvafolta, Milano, Jaca Book, 2003.
 * Nivola. Biografia per immagini, with texts by R. Venturi, D. Ashton and D. Mormorio, Nuoro, Ilisso, 2001
 * Marika Herskovic, New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, (New York School Press, 2000.) ISBN 0-9677994-0-6. p. 18; p. 38; p. 266–269.
 * Costantino Nivola. Sculture dipinti disegni, a cura di L. Caramel, C. Pirovano, Milano, Electa, 1999.
 * A. Crespi, F. Licht, S. Naitza, Nivola. Dipinti e grafica, Milano, Jaca Book, 1995.
 * U. Collu et al., Nivola dipinti e grafica, Milano, Jaca Book, 1995.
 * Museo Nivola, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1995.
 * S. Naitza (ed. by), Nivola, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1994.
 * F. Licht, A. Satta, R. Ingersoll, Nivola: sculture, Milano, Jaca Book, 1991.
 * R. Bossaglia, P. Cherchi, Nivola, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1990.

title: Costantino Nivola


text:
Chenango County, New York

Chenango County is a county located in the south-central section U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 47,220. Its county seat is Norwich. The county's name originates from an Oneida word meaning 'large bull-thistle'. The county is part of the Southern Tier region of the state.

History
This was long the territory of the Oneida people, one of the first Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy or Haudenosaunee. They occupied the area until after the Revolutionary War, when they were forced off the land, although they had been allies of the patriot colonists. They were granted a small reservation, which settlers continued to encroach on.

When English colonists organized counties in 1683 in what is now New York, the present Chenango County was part of Albany County. This was an enormous county, including the northern part of New York State as well as all of the present State of Vermont and, in theory, extending westward to the Pacific Ocean. However, territories located to the west of present-day Pennsylvania were under effective French control as part of New France. Albany County was reduced in size on July 3, 1766, by the creation of Cumberland County, and further on March 16, 1770, by the creation of Gloucester County, both containing territory now in Vermont.

On March 12, 1772, what was left of Albany County was split into three parts, one remaining under the name Albany County. One of the other pieces, Tryon County, contained the western portion (and thus, since no western boundary was specified, theoretically still extended west to the Pacific). The eastern boundary of Tryon County was approximately five miles west of the present city of Schenectady, and the county included the western part of the Adirondack Mountains and the area west of the West Branch of the Delaware River. The area then designated as Tryon County has since been organized as 37 counties of New York State. The county was named for William Tryon, the British colonial governor of New York.

In the years prior to 1776, during the increasing tensions most of the Loyalists in Tryon County fled to Fort Niagara on the Western Frontier. In 1784, following the peace treaty that ended the American Revolutionary War, the Americans renamed Tryon County as Montgomery County in honor of the US general, Richard Montgomery. He had captured several places in Canada and died attempting to capture the city of Quebec. The US residents replaced the name of the former British governor.

In 1788, the Oneida Reservation was considerably reduced by what is known as Clinton's Purchase, when land was sold off west of the Unadilla River to create what are now 20 towns. (See map to the right.) Settlers from eastern New York and New England entered the area and began farming.

In 1789, Montgomery County was reduced in size by the splitting-off of Ontario County. The area split off from Montgomery County was much larger than the present Ontario County, as it included the present Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Orleans, Steuben, Wyoming, Yates, and part of Schuyler and Wayne counties. It was the practice to establish a large geographic county and divide it as settlement increased.

In 1791, Herkimer, Otsego and Tioga counties were organized from land separated from Montgomery County.

Chenango County was formed on March 15, 1798, from 1610 sqmi of Tioga and Herkimer counties. Its eastern border is formed by the Unadilla River. The land had been purchased the previous year from the Oneida, who were forced into a smaller reservation to the north.

On April 4, 1804, 70 sqmi of Chenango County was partitioned to expand Oneida County; the communities of Waterville and Sangerfield were assigned to the new Oneida County.

On March 21, 1806, 650 sqmi of Chenango County was partitioned to produce Madison County. This established the current borders of Chenango County, which have been maintained to the early 21st century. This area was developed for agriculture in the nineteenth century and is still largely rural.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 899 sqmi, of which 894 sqmi is land and 5.1 sqmi (0.6%) is water.

Chenango County is in the approximate center of the state, located west of Albany, north of Binghamton, and southeast of Syracuse. The county is considered to be in the Southern Tier region of New York State.

The Chenango River, a tributary of the Susquehanna River, flows southward through the county.

Adjacent counties

 * Madison County - north
 * Otsego County - northeast
 * Delaware County - southeast
 * Broome County - south
 * Cortland County - west

2000 Census
As of the census of 2000, there were 51,401 people, 19,926 households, and 13,549 families residing in the county. The population density was 58 /mi2. There were 23,890 housing units at an average density of 27 /mi2. The racial makeup of the county was 97.65% White, 0.82% Black or African American, 0.27% Native American, 0.28% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.22% from other races, and 0.74% from two or more races. 1.07% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 20.2% were of English, 14.5% German, 13.8% Irish, 12.3% American and 8.9% Italian ancestry according to Census 2000. 96.7% spoke English and 1.3% Spanish as their first language.

There were 19,926 households, out of which 32.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.10% were married couples living together, 9.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.00% were non-families. 26.10% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.01.

In the county, the population was spread out, with 26.20% under the age of 18, 7.00% from 18 to 24, 27.50% from 25 to 44, 24.40% from 45 to 64, and 14.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 97.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.70 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $33,679, and the median income for a family was $39,711. Males had a median income of $30,363 versus $22,429 for females. The per capita income for the county was $16,427. About 10.70% of families and 14.40% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.50% of those under age 18 and 8.70% of those age 65 or over.

Government

 * }

Chenango County has a Board of Supervisors that consists of 23 Town/City elected officials, serving as representatives at the County level. The term for each Supervisor is based on the term set by each particular Town. A Supervisor holds office for either two or four years.

In 21st-century United States politics, Chenango County is considered to be a Republican-leaning county, where the majority of voters elect national Republican candidates. In 2004, Republican George Bush won by an 11% margin over Democrat John Kerry. For state and congressional offices, voters sometimes elect Democratic candidates. In 2006 both Eliot Spitzer and Hillary Clinton carried it, winning 57% and 54% of the vote for governor and US Senator, respectively. In 2008, John McCain carried Chenango County over Barack Obama in the presidential election by a close margin of 49.59%-48.45% or a difference of 237 votes. In 2010, Democrat Andrew Cuomo for governor, and Democrats Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand for the US Senate each carried it. In 2012, Republican Mitt Romney narrowly won the county over Obama, but like most of the Upstate, swung sharply towards the Republicans in 2016 and 2020, with Donald Trump receiving over 60% of the vote in 2020 making him the first Republican to do so since 1984.

Education
Morrisville State College has a branch in Norwich.

Communities
Norwich, the county seat, is the only city in Chenango County.

In addition to the city of Norwich, the county has the following named settlements:

Towns
In New York, a "town" is a political subdivision (synonymous with township). The towns in northern Chenango County originated from the Twenty Townships ceded by the Oneida tribe to the State of New York.

 * Afton
 * Bainbridge
 * Columbus
 * Coventry
 * German
 * Greene
 * Guilford
 * Lincklaen
 * McDonough
 * New Berlin
 * North Norwich
 * Norwich
 * Otselic
 * Oxford
 * Pharsalia
 * Pitcher
 * Plymouth
 * Preston
 * Sherburne
 * Smithville
 * Smyrna

Villages

 * Afton
 * Bainbridge
 * Earlville
 * Greene
 * New Berlin
 * Oxford
 * Sherburne
 * Smyrna

Census-designated places

 * Guilford
 * Smithville Flats

Hamlets

 * Holmesville
 * Mount Upton
 * Rockdale
 * South Plymouth

Notable people

 * Allen Aaron Cook an architect, was born here in 1832
 * Nancy Matthews Elliott was born here in 1810 and became the mother of Thomas Edison.
 * Serranus Clinton Hastings, U.S. Congressman and founder of the Hastings College of the Law at University of California

title: Chenango County, New York


text:
Chemung County, New York

Chemung County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. The population was 84,148 as of the 2020 census. Its county seat is Elmira. Its name is derived from a Delaware Indian village whose name meant "big horn". The county is part of the Southern Tier region of the state.

Chemung County comprises the Elmira, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Elmira-Corning, NY Combined Statistical Area.

Many signs posted along roads in Chemung County refer to the area as "Mark Twain Country," because the noted author lived and wrote for many years in Elmira.

History

Chemung County was formed from 520 sqmi of Tioga County in 1836.

In 1854, Chemung County was divided and 110 sqmi became Schuyler County, reducing Chemung to 410 sqmi, its current size.

In the late 1870s, the Greenback Party became prominent in Chemung and nearby counties in western New York. Here it was primarily allied with labor in a critique of capital, reaching its peak in 1878, the year following the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the Scranton General Strike in Pennsylvania. There were also strikes that year in Albany, Syracuse and Buffalo, starting with the railroad workers. In Steuben and Chemung counties, Greenbackers were elected to county councils in 1878 instead of Democrats, and others were elected from there and nearby counties to the state legislature, gaining votes of more than 25 percent in several of the Southern Tier counties. It gradually declined after that, due to internal dissension and the strength of the two major parties.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 411 sqmi, of which 407 sqmi is land and 3.4 sqmi (0.8%) is water.

Chemung County is in the southwestern part of New York State, along the Pennsylvania border, in a part of New York called the Southern Tier and is also part of the Finger Lakes Region.

The Southern Tier Expressway runs through the County east-west near the Pennsylvania border, between Waverly, New York and Corning, New York via Elmira, New York.

Major highways

 * I-86.svg NY-17.svg Interstate 86 / New York State Route 17 (Southern Tier Expressway)
 * NY-13.svg New York State Route 13
 * NY-14.svg New York State Route 14
 * NY-34.svg New York State Route 34
 * NY-223.svg New York State Route 223
 * NY-328.svg New York State Route 328
 * NY-352.svg New York State Route 352
 * NY-367.svg New York State Route 367
 * NY-414.svg New York State Route 414
 * NY-427.svg New York State Route 427

Airport

 * Elmira Corning Regional Airport

2000 Census
As of the 2000 census, there were 91,070 people, 35,049 households and 23,272 families residing in the county. The population density was 223 /mi2. There were 37,745 housing units at an average density of 92 /mi2. The racial makeup of the county was 90.96% White, 5.82% Black or African American, 0.23% Native American, 0.78% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.75% from other races, and 1.44% from two or more races. 1.77% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 16.4% were of German, 15.7% Irish, 12.5% English, 11.8% Italian, 7.8% American and 6.3% Polish ancestry according to Census 2000. Most of those claiming to be of "American" ancestry are of English descent and, in upstate New York, also in some cases of Dutch descent, but have family that has been in the country for so long, in many cases since the early seventeenth century, that they choose to identify simply as "American". 96.2% spoke English and 1.6% Spanish as their first language.

There were 35,049 households, of which 31.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.80% were married couples living together, 12.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.60% were non-families. 27.90% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.20% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 2.97.

Age distribution was 24.40% under the age of 18, 8.80% from 18 to 24, 28.30% from 25 to 44, 22.90% from 45 to 64, and 15.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 97.70 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.30 males.

The median household income was $36,415, and the median family income was $43,994. Males had a median income of $35,076 versus $24,215 for females. The per capita income for the county was $18,264. About 9.10% of families and 13.00% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.40% of those under age 18 and 6.80% of those age 65 or over.

Government
Before 1974, Chemung County was governed by a board of supervisors. On January 1, 1974, executive and legislative powers were split between a county executive and a 15-seat legislature. All 15 members are elected from single-member districts. As of 2024, the Chemung County Legislature includes 13 Republicans and 2 Democrats. Chemung County is a part of the 23rd congressional district, represented by Republican Nick Langworthy.

 * }

In presidential elections, Chemung County tends to vote Republican. Only two Democrats (Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and Bill Clinton in 1996) have carried the county since 1920. It voted for George W. Bush in 2004 by a 10.85% margin. In 2008, the margin was much closer, but voters still gave John McCain a 1.23% win over Barack Obama. In 2012, Mitt Romney carried the county by 2.33%. In 2016, Donald Trump carried Chemung County with 55.64% of the vote compared to Hillary Clinton's 38.09%. Trump carried the county again in 2020 with over 55% of the vote.

Education
Education in Chemung County is provided by various private and public institutions. High school students and adults have access to GST BOCES. BOCES provides vocation-style training in a wide range of fields as well as adult education.

Public school districts

 * Horseheads Central School District
 * Elmira City School District
 * Elmira Heights Central School District

Private schools

 * Chemung Valley Montessori School
 * Elmira Christian Academy
 * Holy Family Middle School
 * Saint Mary Our Mother School
 * Notre Dame High School
 * Twin Tiers Christian Academy

Higher education

 * Arnot Ogden School of Nursing
 * Corning Community College (off-campus sites)
 * Elmira College
 * Elmira Business Institute

Public libraries
Chemung County Library District
 * Steele Memorial Library
 * Horseheads Free Library
 * Big Flats Library
 * West Elmira Library
 * Van Etten Library
 * Chemung County Bookmobile

Larger Settlements
† - County Seat

†† - Former Village

Towns

 * Ashland
 * Baldwin
 * Big Flats
 * Catlin
 * Chemung
 * Elmira
 * Erin
 * Horseheads
 * Southport
 * Van Etten
 * Veteran

Hamlet

 * Lowman

title: Chemung County, New York


text:
Emil von Behring

Emil von Behring (Emil Adolf von Behring: born Emil Adolf Behring; 15 March 1854 – 31 March 1917), was a German physiologist who received the 1901 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first one awarded in that field, for his discovery of a diphtheria antitoxin. He was widely known as a "saviour of children", as diphtheria used to be a major cause of child death. His work with the disease, as well as tetanus, has come to bring him most of his fame and acknowledgment. He was honoured with Prussian nobility in 1901, henceforth being known by the surname "von Behring".

Biography
Behring was born in Hansdorf, Kreis Rosenberg, Province of Prussia (now Ławice, Iława County, Poland). His father was a schoolmaster; the family had 13 children.

Between 1874 and 1878, he studied medicine at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Akademie in Berlin, an academy for military doctors, since his family could not afford the university. As a military doctor, he studied the action of iodoform. Due to his work on Neurotomia opticociliaris (or optociliary neurotomy), Behring became a doctor from the institute and later was able to pass his exam for licensed work in his area of Marburg. In 1878, his service required him to be sent to Poland where he focused on septic diseases. His potential was becoming well known to many. This led to his commanded return to Prussia to study with Robert Koch. He was employed by the military as he received his grants and money from the Prussian army. For each semester of education, he owed one year of service as a military surgeon. This accumulated to two years, from 1881 to 1883 as he served under the Second Hussar regiment. A lesser known part of his studies was his research in ophthalmology and how he furthered the understanding of the eye and its diseases. He wrote a paper during his time at Wicherkiewicz's hospital in Poznan from 1881 to 1883 on an eye tumor case that ended up with the patient dying from leukemia, but it did allow for much needed research on treatments for the eye and what the preferred pathways for surgery would be. He learned under some of the great ophthalmologists such as Carl Ernst Schweigger and Wilhelm Uhthoff, leading to his interest in the subject and his writing his doctoral dissertation on it.

In 1890 he published an article with Kitasato Shibasaburō reporting that they had developed "antitoxins" against both diphtheria and tetanus. They had injected diphtheria and tetanus toxins into guinea-pigs, goats and horses; when these animals developed immunity, they derived antitoxins (now known to contain antibodies) from their serum. This process would be called serum therapy by him at the time as he described it as a way to induce permanent immunity or "to stimulate the body's internal disinfection". These antitoxins could protect against and cure the diseases in non-immunized animals. In 1892 he started the first human trials of the diphtheria antitoxin, but they were unsuccessful. Successful treatment started in 1894, after the production and quantification of antitoxin had been optimized. During 1894, Behring was also awarded the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh.

In 1895 he became Professor of Hygienics within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Marburg, a position held for the rest of his life. He and the pharmacologist Hans Horst Meyer had their laboratories in the same building, and Behring stimulated Meyer's interest in the mode of action of tetanus toxin.

Behring won the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901 for the development of serum therapies against diphtheria. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1902.

In 1904 he founded the Behringwerke in Marburg, a company to produce antitoxins and vaccines.

At the International Tuberculosis Congress in 1905 he announced that he had discovered "a substance proceeding from the virus of tuberculosis". This substance, which he designated "T C", plays the important part in the immunizing action of his "bovivaccine", which prevents bovine tuberculosis. He tried unsuccessfully to obtain a protective and therapeutic agents for humans.

Behring died at Marburg, Hessen-Nassau, on 31 March 1917. His name survived in the Dade Behring organisation (now part of the Siemens Healthineers), in CSL Behring, a manufacturer of plasma-derived biotherapies, in Novartis Behring and in the Emil von Behring Prize of the University of Marburg, the highest endowed medicine award in Germany.

His Nobel Prize medal is now kept on display at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva.

Controversy
Von Behring is believed to have cheated Paul Ehrlich out of recognition and financial reward in relation to collaborative research in diphtheria. The two men developed a diphtheria serum by repeatedly injecting the deadly toxin into a horse. The serum was used effectively during an epidemic in Germany. A chemical company preparing to undertake commercial production and marketing of the diphtheria serum offered a contract to both men, but von Behring manoeuvered to claim all the considerable financial rewards for himself. To add insult to injury, only Behring received the first Nobel Prize in Medicine, in 1901, for his contributions. However, Ehrlich went on to win the 1908 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his contribution to immunology.

Personal life
On 29 December 1896 Behring married the then twenty-year-old Else Spinola (1876–1936), who was a daughter of Bernhard Spinola, the director of the Charité hospital in Berlin, and a Jewish-born mother – Elise Spinola, born Bendix – who had converted to Christianity upon her marriage. They had six sons. They held their honeymoon at villa "Behring" on Capri 1897, where Behring owned a vacation home. In 1909–1911, the Russian writer Maxim Gorky lived at this villa.

Publications

 * Die Blutserumtherapie (1892)
 * Die Geschichte der Diphtherie (1893)
 * Bekämpfung der Infektionskrankheiten (1894)
 * Beiträge zur experimentellen Therapie (1906)
 * E. v. Behring's Gesammelte Abhandlungen (1915) Digital edition by the University and State Library Düsseldorf

title: Emil von Behring