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Storting

The Storting (Stortinget ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional representation in nineteen multi-seat constituencies. A member of the Storting is known in Norwegian as a stortingsrepresentant, literally "Storting representative".

The assembly is led by a president and, since 2009, five vice presidents: the presidium. The members are allocated to twelve standing committees as well as four procedural committees. Three ombudsmen are directly subordinate to parliament: the Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight Committee and the Office of the Auditor General.

Parliamentarianism was established in 1884, with the Storting operating a form of "qualified unicameralism", in which it divided its membership into two internal chambers making Norway a de facto bicameral parliament, the Lagting and the Odelsting. Following a constitutional amendment in 2007, this was abolished, taking effect following the 2009 election.

Following the 2021 election, ten parties are represented in parliament: the Labour Party (48), the Conservative Party (36), the Centre Party (28), the Progress Party (21), the Socialist Left Party (13), the Red Party (8), the Liberal Party (8), the Christian Democratic Party (3), the Green Party (3), and the Patient Focus Party (1). Since 2021, Masud Gharahkhani has been President of the Storting.

History
The parliament in its present form was first constituted at Eidsvoll in 1814, although its origins can be traced back to the allting, as early as the 9th century, a type of thing, or common assembly of free men in Germanic societies that would gather at a place called a thingstead and were presided over by lawspeakers. The alltings were where legal and political matters were discussed. These gradually were formalised so that the things grew into regional meetings and acquired backing and authority from the Crown, even to the extent that on occasions they were instrumental in effecting change in the monarchy itself.

As oral laws became codified and Norway unified as a geopolitical entity in the 10th century, the lagtings ("law things") were established as superior regional assemblies. During the mid-13th century, the by then archaic regional assemblies, the Frostating, the Gulating, the Eidsivating and the Borgarting, were amalgamated and the corpus of law was set down under the command of King Magnus Lagabøte. This jurisdiction remained significant until King Frederick III proclaimed absolute monarchy in 1660; this was ratified by the passage of the King Act of 1665, and this became the constitution of the Union of Denmark and Norway and remained so until 1814 and the foundation of the Storting.

The Parliament of Norway Building opened in 1866.

World War II
On 27 June 1940 the presidium signed an appeal to King Haakon, seeking his abdication. (The presidium then consisted of the presidents and vice-presidents of parliament, Odelstinget and Lagtinget. Ivar Lykke stepped in (according to mandate) in place of the president in exile, C. J. Hambro; Lykke was one [of the six] who signed. )

In September 1940 the representatives were summoned to Oslo, and voted in favour of the results of the negotiations between the presidium and the authorities of the German invaders. (92 voted for, and 53 voted against.) However, directives from Adolf Hitler resulted in the obstruction of "the agreement of cooperation between parliament and [the] occupation force".

Qualified unicameralism (1814–2009)
The Storting has always been de jure unicameral, but before a constitutional amendment in 2009 it was de facto bicameral. After an election, the Storting would elect a quarter of its membership to form the Lagting, a sort of "upper house" or revising chamber, with the remaining three-quarters forming the Odelsting or "lower house". The division was also used on very rare occasions in cases of impeachment. The original idea in 1814 was probably to have the Lagting act as an actual upper house, and the senior and more experienced members of the Storting were placed there. Later, however, the composition of the Lagting closely followed that of the Odelsting, so that there was very little that differentiated them, and the passage of a bill in the Lagting was mostly a formality.

Bills were submitted by the Government to the Odelsting or by a member of the Odelsting; members of the Lagting were not permitted to propose legislation by themselves. A standing committee, with members from both the Odelsting and Lagting, would then consider the bill, and in some cases hearings were held. If passed by the Odelsting, the bill would be sent to the Lagting for review or revision. Most bills were passed unamended by the Lagting and then sent directly to the king for royal assent. If the Lagting amended the Odelsting's draft, the bill would be sent back to the Odelsting. If the Odelsting approved the Lagting's amendments, the bill would be signed into law by the King. If it did not, then the bill would return to the Lagting. If the Lagting still proposed amendments, the bill would be submitted to a plenary session of the Storting. To be passed, the bill required the approval of a two-thirds majority of the plenary session. In all other cases a simple majority would suffice. Three days had to pass between each time a chamber voted on a bill. In all other cases, such as taxes and appropriations, the Storting would meet in plenary session.

A proposal to amend the constitution and abolish the Odelsting and Lagting was introduced in 2004 and was passed by the Storting on 20 February 2007 (159–1 with nine absentees). It took effect with the newly elected Storting in 2009.

Number of seats
The number of seats in the Storting has varied over the years. In 1882 there were 114 seats, increasing to 117 in 1903, 123 in 1906, 126 in 1918, 150 in 1921, 155 in 1973, 157 in 1985, 165 in 1989, and 169 as of 2005.

Legislative
The legislative procedure goes through five stages. First, a bill is introduced to parliament either by a member of government or, in the case of a private member's bill, by any individual representative. Parliament will refer the bill to the relevant standing committee, where it will be subjected to detailed consideration in the committee stage. The first reading takes place when parliament debates the recommendation from the committee, and then takes a vote. If the bill is dismissed, the procedure ends. The second reading takes place at least three days after the first reading, in which parliament debates the bill again. A new vote is taken, and if successful, the bill is submitted to the King in Council for royal assent. If parliament comes to a different conclusion during the second reading, a third reading will be held at least three days later, repeating the debate and vote, and may adopt the amendments from the second reading or finally dismiss the bill.

Royal assent
Once the bill has reached the King in Council, the bill must be signed by the monarch and countersigned by the prime minister. It then becomes Norwegian law from the date stated in the Act or decided by the government.

Articles 77–79 of the Norwegian constitution specifically grant the King of Norway the right to withhold Royal Assent from any bill passed by the Storting. This right has never been exercised by any Norwegian monarch since the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905 (though it was exercised by Swedish monarchs before then when they ruled Norway). Should the king ever choose to exercise this privilege, Article 79 provides a means by which his veto may be overridden if the Storting passes the same bill after a general election:

"If a Bill has been passed unaltered by two sessions of the Storting, constituted after two separate successive elections and separated from each other by at least two intervening sessions of the Storting, without a divergent Bill having been passed by any Storting in the period between the first and last adoption, and it is then submitted to the King with a petition that His Majesty shall not refuse his assent to a Bill which, after the most mature deliberation, the Storting considers to be beneficial, it shall become law even if the Royal Assent is not accorded before the Storting goes into recess."

Presidium
The presidium is chaired by the President of the Storting, consisting of the president and five vice presidents of the Storting. The system with five vice presidents was implemented in 2009. Before this there was a single holder of the office.

Standing committees
The members of parliament are allocated into twelve standing committees, of which eleven are related to specific political topics. The last is the Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs. The standing committees have a portfolio that covers that of one or more government ministers.

Other committees
There are four other committees, that run parallel to the standing committees. The Enlarged Committee on Foreign Affairs consists of members of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, the presidium, and the parliamentary leaders. The committee discusses important issues related to foreign affairs, trade policy, and national safety with the government. Discussions are confidential. The European Committee consists of the members of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence and the parliamentary delegation to the European Economic Area (EEA) and the European Free Trade Area (EFTA). The committee conducts discussions with the government regarding directives from the European Union.

The Election Committee consists of 37 members, and is responsible for internal elections within the parliament, as well as delegating and negotiating party and representative allocation within the presidium, standing committees, and other committees. The Preparatory Credentials Committee has 16 members and is responsible for approving the election.

Appointed agencies
Five public agencies are appointed by parliament rather than by the government. The Office of the Auditor General is the auditor of all branches of the public administration and is responsible for auditing, monitoring and advising all state economic activities. The Parliamentary Ombudsman is an ombudsman responsible for public administration. It can investigate any public matter that has not been processed by an elected body, the courts, or within the military. The Ombudsman for the Armed Forces is an ombudsman responsible for the military. The Ombudsman for Civilian National Servicemen is responsible for people serving civilian national service. The Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight Committee is a seven-member body responsible for supervising public intelligence, surveillance, and security services. Parliament also appoints the five members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that award the Nobel Peace Prize.

Administration
Parliament has an administration of about 450 people, led by Director of the Storting Marianne Andreassen, who assumed office in 2018. She also acts as secretary for the presidium.

Party groups
Each party represented in parliament has a party group. It is led by a board and chaired by a parliamentary leader. It is customary for the party leader to also act as parliamentary leader, but since party leaders of government parties normally sit as ministers, governing parties elect other representatives as their parliamentary leaders. The table reflects the results of the September 2021 election.

Elections
Members to the Storting are elected based on party-list proportional representation in plural member constituencies. This means that representatives from different political parties are elected from each constituency. The constituencies are identical to the 19 former counties of Norway. Although county mergers have brought the number of counties down to 11, the 19 constituencies are unchanged. The electorate does not vote for individuals but rather for party lists, with a ranked list of candidates nominated by the party. This means that the person on top of the list will get the seat unless the voter alters the ballot. Parties may nominate candidates from outside their own constituency, and even Norwegian citizens currently living abroad.

The Sainte-Laguë method is used for allocating parliamentary seats to parties. As a result, the percentage of representatives is roughly equal to the nationwide percentage of votes. Still, a party with a high number of votes in only one constituency can win a seat there even if the nationwide percentage is low. This has happened several times in Norwegian history. Conversely, if a party's initial representation in Stortinget is proportionally less than its share of votes, the party may seat more representatives through leveling seats, provided that the nationwide percentage is above the election threshold, currently at 4%. In 2009, nineteen seats were allocated via the leveling system. Elections are held each four years (in odd-numbered years occurring after a year evenly divisible by four), normally on the second Monday of September.

Unlike most other parliaments, the Storting always serves its full four-year term; the Constitution does not allow snap elections. Substitutes for each deputy are elected at the same time as each election, so by-elections are rare.

Norway switched its parliamentary elections from single-member districts decided by two-round run-offs to multi-member districts with proportional representation in 1919.

Members
The parliament has 169 members. If a member of parliament cannot serve (for instance because he or she is a member of the cabinet), a deputy representative serves instead. The deputy is the candidate from the same party who was listed on the ballot immediately behind the candidates who were elected in the last election.

In the plenary chamber, the seats are laid out in a hemicycle. Seats for cabinet members in attendance are provided on the first row, behind them the members of parliament are seated according to county, not party group. Viewed from the president's chair, Aust-Agder's representatives are seated near the front, furthest to the left, while the last members (Østfold) are seated furthest to the right and at the back.

1980s–present

 * List of members of the Parliament of Norway, 1981–1985
 * List of members of the Parliament of Norway, 1985–1989
 * List of members of the Parliament of Norway, 1989–1993
 * List of members of the Parliament of Norway, 1993–1997
 * List of members of the Parliament of Norway, 1997–2001
 * List of members of the Parliament of Norway, 2001–2005
 * List of members of the Parliament of Norway, 2005–2009
 * List of members of the Parliament of Norway, 2009–2013
 * List of members of the Parliament of Norway, 2013–2017
 * List of members of the Parliament of Norway, 2017–2021
 * List of members of the Parliament of Norway, 2021–2025

Code of conduct
Unparliamentary language includes: one-night stand, smoke screen government, pure nonsense, Molbo politics, may God forbid, lie, and "som fanden leser Bibelen".

Building
Since 5 March 1866, parliament has met in the Parliament of Norway Building at Karl Johans gate 22 in Oslo. The building was designed by the Swedish architect Emil Victor Langlet and is built in yellow brick with details and basement in light gray granite. It is a combination of several styles, including inspirations from France and Italy. Parliament do also include offices and meeting rooms in the nearby buildings, since the Parliament building is too small to hold all the current staff of the legislature. The buildings in Akersgata 18, Prinsens Gate 26, Akersgata 21, Tollbugata 31 and Nedre Vollgate 18 also contains parliamentary staff and members of Parliament.

title: Storting


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Dire Straits

Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead vocals and lead guitar), David Knopfler (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar and backing vocals) and Pick Withers (drums and percussion). They were active from 1977 to 1988 and again from 1990 to 1995.

Their first single, "Sultans of Swing", from their 1978 self-titled debut album, reached the top ten in the UK and US charts. It was followed by a series of hit singles including "Romeo and Juliet" (1981), "Private Investigations" (1982), "Twisting by the Pool" (1983), "Money for Nothing" (1985), and "Walk of Life" (1985). Their most commercially successful album, Brothers in Arms (1985), has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide; it was the first album to sell a million copies on CD and is the eighth-best-selling album in UK history. According to the Guinness Book of British Hit Albums, Dire Straits have spent over 1,100 weeks on the UK Albums Chart, the fifth most to date.

Dire Straits drew from influences including country, folk, the blues rock of J. J. Cale, and jazz. Their stripped-down sound contrasted with punk rock and demonstrated a roots rock influence that emerged from pub rock. There were several changes in personnel, with Mark Knopfler and Illsley being the only members who remained with the band for its whole history. After their first breakup in 1988, Mark Knopfler told Rolling Stone: "A lot of press reports were saying we were the biggest band in the world. There's not an accent then on the music, there's an accent on popularity. I needed a rest." They disbanded permanently in 1995, after which Knopfler launched a solo career full-time. He has since declined numerous reunion offers.

Dire Straits were called "the biggest British rock band of the 80s" by Classic Rock magazine; their 1985–1986 world tour, which included a performance at Live Aid in July 1985, set a record in Australasia. Their final world tour from 1991 to 1992 sold 7.1 million tickets. Dire Straits won four Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards (Best British Group twice), two MTV Video Music Awards, and various other awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. Dire Straits have sold between 100 million and 120 million records worldwide, including 51.4 million certified units, making them one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

1977–1979: Early years and first two albums
Brothers Mark and David Knopfler, born in Scotland but raised in Blyth in the northeast of England, and friends John Illsley and Pick Withers, from Leicester in the East Midlands, formed Dire Straits in London in 1977. Withers was already a 10-year music business veteran, having been a session drummer for Dave Edmunds, Gerry Rafferty, Magna Carta and others through the 1970s; he was part of the group Spring, which recorded an album for RCA in 1971. At the time of the band's formation, Mark was working as an English teacher, Illsley was studying at Goldsmiths' College, and David was a social worker. Mark and Withers had both been part of the pub rock group Brewers Droop at different points in and around 1973.

The band was initially known as the Café Racers. The name Dire Straits was coined by a musician flatmate of Withers, allegedly thought up while they were rehearsing in the kitchen of a friend, Simon Cowe, of Lindisfarne. In 1977, the group recorded a five-song demo tape which included their future hit single, "Sultans of Swing", as well as "Water of Love" and "Down to the Waterline". After a performance at the Rock Garden in 1977, they took a demo tape to MCA in Soho but were turned down. They then went to DJ Charlie Gillett, presenter of Honky Tonk on BBC Radio London. The band simply wanted advice, but Gillett liked the music so much that he played "Sultans of Swing" on his show. Two months later, Dire Straits signed a recording contract with the Vertigo division of Phonogram Inc. In October 1977, the band recorded demo tapes of "Southbound Again", "In the Gallery" and "Six Blade Knife" for BBC Radio London; in November, demo tapes were made of "Setting Me Up", "Eastbound Train" and "Real Girl".

The group's first album, Dire Straits, was recorded at Basing Street studios in Notting Hill, London in February 1978, at a cost of £12,500. Produced by Muff Winwood, it was first released in the United Kingdom on Vertigo Records, then a division of Phonogram Inc. It came to the attention of A&R representative Karin Berg, working at Warner Bros. Records in New York City. She felt that it was the kind of music audiences were hungry for, but only one person in her department agreed at first. Many of the songs on the album reflected Mark Knopfler's experiences in Newcastle, Leeds and London. "Down to the Waterline" recalled images of life in Newcastle; "In the Gallery" is a tribute to Leeds sculptor/artist Harry Phillips (father of Steve Phillips); "Wild West End" and "Lions" were drawn from Knopfler's early days in the capital.

That year, Dire Straits began a tour as opening band for Talking Heads, after the re-released "Sultans of Swing" finally started to climb the UK charts. This led to a United States recording contract with Warner Bros. Records; before the end of 1978, Dire Straits had released their self-titled debut worldwide. They received more attention in the US, but also arrived at the top of the charts in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Dire Straits eventually went top 10 in every European country.

The following year, Dire Straits embarked on their first North American tour. They played 51 sold-out concerts over a 38-day period. "Sultans of Swing" scaled the charts to No. 4 in the United States and No. 8 in the United Kingdom. The song was one of Dire Straits' biggest hits and became a fixture in the band's live performances. Bob Dylan, who had seen the band play in Los Angeles, was so impressed that he invited Mark Knopfler and drummer Pick Withers to play on his next album, Slow Train Coming.

Recording sessions for the group's second album, Communiqué, took place in December 1978 at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas. Released in June 1979, Communiqué was produced by Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett and went to No. 1 on the German album charts, with the debut album Dire Straits simultaneously at No. 3. In the United Kingdom, the album peaked at No. 5 in the album charts. Featuring the single "Lady Writer", the second album continued in a similar vein to the first and displayed the expanding scope of Knopfler's lyricism on the opening track, "Once Upon a Time in the West". In the coming year, however, this approach began to change, along with the group's line-up.

1980–1984: Making Movies, Love Over Gold and other side projects
In 1980, Dire Straits were nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Sultans of Swing". In July 1980, the band started recording tracks for their third album. Produced by Jimmy Iovine, with Mark Knopfler also sharing credit, Making Movies was released in October 1980. During the recording sessions, tensions between the Knopfler brothers reached a point where David Knopfler decided to leave the band for a solo career. The remaining trio continued the album, with a session guitarist Sid McGinnis on rhythm guitar, although he was uncredited on the album, and Roy Bittan from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band guesting on keyboards. After the recording sessions were completed, keyboardist Alan Clark and Californian guitarist Hal Lindes joined Dire Straits as full-time members for the On Location tour of Europe, North America, and Oceania.

Making Movies received mostly positive reviews and featured longer songs with more complex arrangements, a style which would continue for the rest of the band's career. The album featured many of Mark Knopfler's most personal compositions. The most successful chart single was "Romeo and Juliet" (number 8 in the UK Singles Chart), a song about a failed love affair, with Knopfler's trademark in keeping personal songs under fictitious names. Although never released as a hit single, "Solid Rock" was featured in all Dire Straits' live shows from this point on for the remainder of their career, while the album's lengthy opening track, "Tunnel of Love", with its intro "The Carousel Waltz" by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, was featured in the 1982 Richard Gere film An Officer and a Gentleman. Although "Tunnel of Love" reached only no. 54 in the UK when released as a single in 1981, it remains one of Dire Straits' most famous and popular songs and immediately became a favourite live staple, entering the band’s concert repertoire from this point onwards. Making Movies stayed in the UK Albums Chart for five years, peaking at No. 4. Rolling Stone ranked Making Movies number 52 on its list of the "100 Best Albums of the Eighties".

Dire Straits' fourth studio album Love Over Gold, an album of songs filled with lengthy passages that featured Alan Clark's piano and keyboard work, was well received when it was released in September 1982, going gold in America and spending four weeks at number one in the United Kingdom. The title was inspired by graffiti seen from the window of Knopfler's old council flat in London. The phrase was taken from the sleeve of an album by Captain Beefheart. Love Over Gold was the first Dire Straits album produced solely by Mark Knopfler, and its main chart hit, "Private Investigations", gave Dire Straits their first top 5 hit single in the United Kingdom, where it reached the number 2 position, despite its almost seven-minute length, and became another of the band's most popular live songs.

In other parts of the world, "Industrial Disease", a song that looks at the decline of the British manufacturing industry in the early 1980s, focusing on strikes, depression and dysfunctionality, was the main single from the album, particularly in Canada, where it became a top 10 hit. As well as the title track and "It Never Rains", Love Over Gold featured the 14-minute epic "Telegraph Road". Also written by Knopfler during this period was "Private Dancer", which did not appear on the album, but was eventually given to Tina Turner for her comeback album of the same name. Love Over Gold reportedly sold two million copies during the first six weeks after its release. Shortly after the release of Love Over Gold, drummer Pick Withers left the band. His replacement was Terry Williams, formerly of Rockpile and a range of other Welsh bands, including Man.

In January 1983, a four-song EP titled ExtendedancEPlay was released while Love Over Gold was still in the album charts. It featured the hit single "Twisting By the Pool", which reached the Top 20 in the UK and Canada. The band won Best British Group at the 1983 Brit Awards. Dire Straits embarked on an eight-month-long Love over Gold Tour, which finished with two concerts at London's Hammersmith Odeon on 22 and 23 July 1983. King Crimson saxophonist Mel Collins and session keyboardist Tommy Mandel, who had played with Bryan Adams since 1981, joined the live line-up to help Clark cover his increasingly detailed keyboard parts and arrangements. The double album Alchemy Live was a recording of excerpts from the final two concerts and was reportedly released without studio overdubs. It was released in March 1984, reaching the Top 3 in the UK Albums Chart.

During 1983 and 1984, Mark Knopfler was also involved with other projects outside of Dire Straits, some of which other band members contributed towards. Knopfler and Terry Williams contributed to Phil Everly´s and Cliff Richard´s UK hit single "She Means Nothing To Me", released in early 1983, and Knopfler had also expressed his interest writing film music, and after producer David Puttnam responded he wrote and produced the music score to the film Local Hero. The album was released in April 1983 and received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Original Film Music the following year. Alan Clark contributed significantly, and other Dire Straits members Illsley, Lindes and Williams played on one track, "Freeway Flyer", while Gerry Rafferty sang lead vocals on "The Way It Always Starts". The closing track on the album and played during the credits in the film is the instrumental "Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero" which was released as a single, and remains very popular among football fans, especially those of Knopfler’s home town club, Newcastle United, as it is played as the team runs out before every home game. The track immediately became a popular live staple for Dire Straits, entering the band's repertoire from 1983 onwards.

"Local Hero" was followed in 1984 by Cal, which was also released on album and to which John Illsley and Terry Williams contributed, and Comfort and Joy, which also featured contributions from Williams. Also, during this time Knopfler produced Bob Dylan's Infidels which also featured Alan Clark, as well as albums for Aztec Camera and Willy DeVille. Also in 1984, John Illsley released his first solo album, Never Told a Soul, to which Knopfler, Clark and Williams all contributed. Knopfler also teamed up with Bryan Ferry to contribute lead guitar to one track from his solo album Boys and Girls, released in June 1985.

1985–1986: Brothers in Arms and international success
Dire Straits returned to recording at the end of 1984 and began recording tracks at George Martin's AIR Studios in Montserrat for their upcoming fifth studio album, to be titled Brothers in Arms, with Mark Knopfler and Neil Dorfsman producing. The recording sessions saw further personnel changes. Taking the place of Tommy Mandel, Guy Fletcher, who had previously worked as a session musician with Roxy Music and had worked with Knopfler on the Cal and Comfort and Joy soundtracks, joined Dire Straits full time so that the band had a permanent second keyboardist. Hal Lindes left the band early on during the recording sessions and was replaced in December 1984 by Jack Sonni, a New York-based guitarist and longstanding friend of Knopfler (although Sonni's contribution to the album was minimal).

According to a Sound on Sound magazine interview with Neil Dorfsman, the drumming style of Terry Williams was considered to be unsuitable for the desired sound of the album during the first month of the recording sessions at Montserrat. Williams was released from the recording sessions and temporarily replaced by jazz session drummer Omar Hakim, who re-recorded the album's drum parts within three days before leaving for other commitments. Both Hakim and Williams are credited on the album, although Williams’ sole contribution on the finished album was the improvised crescendo at the beginning of "Money for Nothing". According to another interview with Neil Dorsman, Williams played toms and tom fills throughout "Money for Nothing", while Omar Hakim played drums on all the remaining tracks on the album. According to Williams, he recorded all his drum parts to a click track which he felt hindered his ability to channel the rhythmic feel he wanted. Around six weeks after the recording sessions started, Williams voiced his disappointment to Mark Knopfler over some of his playing so far after listening to a playback of what was recorded; shortly after this, he was dismissed from the sessions. Williams would however be back in the band as a full time member for the music videos and the 1985–1986 Brothers in Arms world tour that followed.

Released in May 1985, Brothers in Arms entered the UK Albums Chart at number 1 and spent a total of 228 weeks in the charts and sold over 4.3 million copies. It went on to become the best-selling album of 1985 in the UK. Brothers in Arms was similarly successful in the US, peaking at No. 1 on Billboard 200 for nine weeks, going multi-platinum and selling nine million copies there. The album spent 34 weeks at number 1 on the Australian ARIA Charts, and it remains the longest-running number one album in Australia.

The album featured a more lavish production and overall sound than Dire Straits' earlier work and spawned several big chart singles: "Money for Nothing", which reached number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 4 in the UK Singles Chart, "So Far Away" (No. 20 UK, No. 19 US), "Brothers in Arms" (No. 16 UK), "Walk of Life" (No. 2 UK, No. 7 US), and "Your Latest Trick" (No. 26 UK). "Money for Nothing" was the first video to be played on MTV in the UK and featured guest vocals by Sting, who is credited with co-writing the song with Mark Knopfler, although it was the inclusion of the melody from "Don't Stand So Close To Me" that triggered the copyright credit, as no actual lyrics were written by Sting. It also won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in February 1986.

Brothers in Arms was the first album recorded entirely digitally, because of Knopfler pushing for improved sound quality. Written during Britain's involvement in the Falklands War of 1982, the album's title track, "Brothers in Arms", deals with the senselessness of war. In 2007, the 25th anniversary of the war, Knopfler recorded a new version of the song at Abbey Road Studios to raise funds for British veterans who he said "are still suffering from the effects of that conflict." "Brothers in Arms" has become a favourite at military funerals. Reported to be the world's first CD single, it was issued in the UK as a promotional item distinguished with a logo for the tour, Live in '85, while a second to commemorate the Australian leg of the tour marked Live in '86. "Walk of Life", meanwhile, was nearly excluded from the album when co-producer Neil Dorfsman voted against its inclusion, but the band members out-voted him. The result was Dire Straits' most commercially successful hit single in the UK, peaking at number two.

The album is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first compact disc (CD) to sell a million copies, and it has been credited with popularising the CD format. The Guardian ranked the Brothers in Arms CD number 38 in their list of the 50 key events in rock music history. The album featured the full version of the "Money for Nothing" cut, rather than the LP version, and it also includes extended versions of all tracks on the first side of the LP, with the exception of "Walk of Life".

The 1985–1986 Brothers in Arms world tour which followed the album's release was phenomenally successful, with over 2.5 million tickets sold. The tour included dates in Europe, Israel, North America, and Australia and New Zealand. The band, joined by saxophonist Chris White, played 248 shows in over 100 different cities. The tour began on 25 April 1985 in Split, Croatia (then part of Yugoslavia). While playing a 13-night residency at Wembley Arena in London, the band moved down the road to Wembley Stadium on the afternoon of 13 July 1985, to appear in a Live Aid slot, in which their set included "Money For Nothing" with Sting as guest vocalist. John Illsley states, "It was a very special feeling to be part of something so unique. Live Aid was a unique privilege for all of us. It’s become a fabulous memory." The tour ended at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Australia, on 26 April 1986, where Dire Straits still holds the record for consecutive appearances at 21 nights. The band also made an impromptu attempt at the Australian folk song "Waltzing Matilda". With 900,000 tickets sold in Australia and New Zealand, it was the biggest concert tour in Australasian music history, until it was overtaken in 2017–2018 by Ed Sheeran.

Additionally, in 1985, a group that set out from London to Khartoum to raise money for famine relief, led by John Abbey, was called "The Walk of Life". Dire Straits donated the Brothers in Arms Gold disc to the participants in recognition of what they were doing. The band's concert of 10 July 1985 at Wembley Arena, in which they were accompanied by Nils Lofgren for "Solid Rock" and Hank Marvin joined the band at the end to play "Going Home" (the theme from Local Hero), was televised in the United Kingdom on The Tube on Channel 4 in January 1986. (Although never officially released, bootleg recordings of the performance entitled Wembley does the Walk (2005) have been circulated.)

In 1986, Brothers in Arms won two Grammy Awards and also won Best British Album at the 1987 Brit Awards. Q magazine placed the album at number 51 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever in 2000. The album also ranked number 351 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003. Brothers in Arms is also ranked number 3 in the best albums of 1985 and number 31 in the best albums of the 1980s, and as of December 2017, the album was ranked the eighth-best-selling album in UK chart history, and is the 107th-best-selling album in the United States. In August 1986, MTV Europe was launched with Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing".

1987–1990: First break-up
After the Brothers in Arms tour ended, Mark Knopfler took a break from Dire Straits, and, during 1987, he concentrated on solo projects and film soundtracks. Dire Straits regrouped in 1988 for the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert, staged on 11 June 1988 at Wembley Stadium, in which they were the headline act. Guitarist Jack Sonni was unable to play the show as it coincided with the birth of his twin daughters, so Eric Clapton played rhythm guitar with the band, and during the set performed his hit "Wonderful Tonight" with them. Sonni and Terry Williams both officially left the band shortly afterwards.

Mark Knopfler announced the dissolution of Dire Straits in September 1988. He told Rob Tannenbaum in Rolling Stone: "A lot of press reports were saying we were the biggest band in the world. There's not an accent then on the music, there's an accent on popularity. I needed a rest." The tremendous success of the Brothers in Arms album and the tour that went with it left the band members under a significant amount of stress, and Knopfler announced that he wanted to work on more personal projects. A best of / greatest hits compilation, Money for Nothing, was released in October 1988 and reached number one in the UK. The group's first hit single "Sultans of Swing" was re-released as a single in the UK to promote the album. Also in 1988, John Illsley released his second solo album, Glass, which featured Mark Knopfler, Alan Clark, Guy Fletcher and Chris White. During this period, Alan Clark joined Eric Clapton's band for three years, during which time Knopfler also briefly joined.

In May 1989, Dire Straits reunited for a one off charity concert at the Mayfair Ballroom in Newcastle in honour of 11-year-old Joanne Gillespie – the National Children of Courage and North East Personality award winner who published the 1989 book Brave Heart about her fight against cancer. The concert raised more than £35,000. This was the last ever appearance by Terry Williams as the band’s drummer, and Brendan Croker played rhythm guitar in place of Jack Sonni. Also in 1989 over a meal at a Notting Hill wine bar, Knopfler formed the Notting Hillbillies, a country band featuring Guy Fletcher, Brendan Croker, and Steve Phillips, and their manager, Ed Bicknell on drums. The Notting Hillbillies' one album, Missing...Presumed Having a Good Time, with its single "Your Own Sweet Way", was released in 1990. The Notting Hillbillies toured for the remainder of the year and appeared on Saturday Night Live. Knopfler further emphasised his country music influences on his 1990 collaboration with the guitarist Chet Atkins, Neck and Neck.

In 1990, Dire Straits (Knopfler, Illsley, Clark and Fletcher), performed alongside Eric Clapton and his band at the Knebworth Festival, playing "Solid Rock", "Money for Nothing" and "I Think I Love You Too Much". Knopfler explained that the latter was an experimental song and was unsure if they should record it on a following record. The song, a blues rock track with solos by Knopfler and Clapton, also appeared on the 1990 album Hell To Pay as a gift to Canadian blues/jazz artist Jeff Healey from Knopfler. This was prior to the time that Knopfler, Illsley and manager Ed Bicknell decided to reform the band the following year.

1990–1995: On Every Street and final dissolution
In 1990, Dire Straits reunited. Retaining Bicknell as their manager, Mark Knopfler, John Illsley, Alan Clark and Guy Fletcher were joined in the studio by saxophonist Chris White, steel guitarist Paul Franklin, percussionist Danny Cummings and guitarist Phil Palmer, with drums split between Jeff Porcaro of Toto and Manu Katché. The new album was produced by Knopfler, Clark and Fletcher.

Dire Straits released their sixth studio album, On Every Street, in September 1991, which turned out to be their final studio release. It was met with more moderate success and mixed reviews, as well as a significantly reduced audience. Some retrospective reviewers, including the All Music Guide, dubbed On Every Street an "underwhelming" follow-up to Brothers in Arms. However, it had sold 15 million copies by 2008, and on release, it went straight to number 1 in the UK Albums Chart. The album also reached number 1 in numerous European countries and Australia, and was particularly successful in France, where it achieved Diamond certification. In the United States, it peaked at number 12.

Several singles were released from the album, some of which achieved success in Europe, Australasia and the United States; however, none were successful in the UK. An edited version of the opening track "Calling Elvis" was the first single released from the album. With a video based on the 1960s television show Thunderbirds, the track charted at number 21 on its first week in the UK Singles Chart but dropped out of the charts within four weeks. The track fared much better elsewhere, however, reaching the top 10 in Australia, New Zealand and throughout Europe, peaking as high as the number 2 position in several countries, including Denmark and Switzerland, and number 1 in Italy.

The follow-up single, "Heavy Fuel", failed to reach the Top 50 in the UK Singles chart; however, it reached number one in the United States on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, their second song to do so (after "Money for Nothing"). The track reached the top 20 in Canada and Belgium and peaked inside the top 30 in other European countries, as well as Australia. The album's title track was also relatively unsuccessful in the UK, failing to reach the top 40, although it reached the top 25 in France. The final single released in the UK was "The Bug", which reached the top 25 in Canada and contains backing vocals by Vince Gill, who was invited to join the band full-time but declined and pursued a solo career. "You and Your Friend" was also released as a single in France and Germany, but not in the UK.

Dire Straits, with Chris Whitten on drums, embarked on a world tour to promote the album, which lasted until October 1992. The On Every Street Tour featured 300 shows in front of some 7.1 million ticket-buying fans. While musically more elaborate than the previous 1985–86 world tour, the band's gruelling final tour was not as critically acclaimed nor as commercially successful. This proved to be too much for Dire Straits, and by this time Mark Knopfler had enough of such massive operations. This led to the second and final break-up. Bill Flanagan described the sequence of events in GQ: "The subsequent world tour lasted nearly two years, made mountains of money and drove Dire Straits into the ground. When the tour was over, both Knopfler's marriage and his band were gone."

Manager Ed Bicknell also said, "The last tour was utter misery. Whatever the zeitgeist was that we had been part of, it had passed." John Illsley agreed, saying "Personal relationships were in trouble and it put a terrible strain on everybody, emotionally and physically. We were changed by it." The last stop and final touring concert of the group took place on 9 October 1992 in Zaragoza, Spain.

After the end of the tour, Mark Knopfler expressed a wish to give up touring on a big scale and took some time out from the music business. A live album, On the Night, was released in May 1993, which documented the tour, again to very mixed reviews. Nevertheless, it reached the UK Top 5, a rare achievement for a live album. The four track Encores EP was also released and rose to number one in the French and Spanish singles charts and reached number 31 in the UK.

Dire Straits' final album, Live at the BBC, is a collection of live recordings from 1978 to 1981, which mostly feature the original line-up of the band. Released in June 1995, their third and final live album was a contractual release to Vertigo Records (now a division of Mercury Records). At this time, Mark Knopfler quietly disbanded Dire Straits and prepared to work on his first full-fledged solo album (still signed to Mercury Records). Knopfler later recalled that, "I put the thing to bed because I wanted to get back to some kind of reality. It's self-protection, a survival thing. That kind of scale is dehumanizing." Knopfler spent two years recovering from the experience, which had taken a toll on his creative and personal life.

1996–present: Reunion speculations and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction
After disbanding Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler started his career as a solo artist, releasing his first solo album, Golden Heart, in March 1996 after nearly 20 years of collaborations. Brothers in Arms was certified nine times platinum in the US in August 1996. During that year, the entire Dire Straits catalogue was remastered by Bob Ludwig and re-released on CD on Mercury Records, in most of the world outside the United States. The remasters were released in September 2000 in the United States, on Warner Bros.

Knopfler, John Illsley, Alan Clark, and Guy Fletcher reunited for one last time on 19 June 1999, with Ed Bicknell on drums, playing five songs, including a performance of Chuck Berry's "Nadine" for Illsley's wedding. In July 2002, Mark Knopfler was joined by John Illsley, Guy Fletcher, Danny Cummings and Chris White for four charity concerts under the name of "Mark Knopfler and friends". Brendan Croker joined Knopfler during the first half, playing mainly material composed with The Notting Hillbillies. Illsley came on for a Dire Straits session, toward the end of which, at a Shepherd's Bush concert, Jimmy Nail came on to provide backing vocals for Knopfler's solo composition, "Why Aye Man". The song appears in the 2002 album The Ragpicker's Dream, an album that contains numerous other references to Knopfler's home area in North East England.

The most recent compilation, The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations, was released in November 2005 and reached the UK Top 20. Featuring material from the majority of Dire Straits' studio albums as well as Mark Knopfler's solo and soundtrack material, it was released in two editions, a single CD with a grey cover and a double CD in a blue cover. The only previously unreleased track on the album, "All the Roadrunning", is a duet with singer Emmylou Harris. The album was well received. Also in 2005, Brothers in Arms was re-released in a limited 20th anniversary edition, which was a success, winning a Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album at the 48th Grammy Awards ceremony.

Since the break-up of Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler has shown no interest in re-forming the band and is quoted as saying "Oh, I don't know whether to start getting all that stuff back together again," and telling reporters that "I would only do that for a charity. I'm glad I've experienced it all – I had a lot of fun with it – but I like things the way they are." However, keyboardist Guy Fletcher has been associated with almost every piece of Knopfler's solo material to date, and Danny Cummings has frequently contributed, notably to three of Knopfler's most recent solo album releases: All the Roadrunning (with Emmylou Harris), Kill to Get Crimson and Get Lucky.

In 2007, Knopfler said he did not miss the global fame that came his way at the height of the band's success, explaining that "It just got too big." In October 2008, John Illsley told the BBC that he wanted Knopfler to agree to re-form Dire Straits for a comeback tour. Knopfler declined, saying that he was often reluctant to re-form the group, and insisted that he "isn't even a fan of Dire Straits' early hits." In the same interview, Illsley also suggested that Knopfler is enjoying his continued success as a solo artist, saying that "He's doing incredibly well as a solo artist, so hats off to him. He's having a perfectly good time doing what he's doing." Guy Fletcher stated on his website that Knopfler has no interest in re-forming Dire Straits.

In December 2009, the band were commemorated with a Heritage Award from PRS for Music. A plaque was placed on a block of flats in Deptford, London, the location where Dire Straits played their first gig. In 2011, Alan Clark, Chris White, and Phil Palmer, along with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' drummer Steve Ferrone, formed a new band, the Straits, to perform at a charity show at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

On 13 December 2017, Dire Straits were announced as inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for 2018. Speaking to Billboard magazine, John Illsley stated, "It fills me with a lot of pleasure to be recognized and to be included in the thing that we love doing best, which is making music and playing rock n' roll." On a possible reunion performance, he added, "Mark is quite sort of restrained about things like this. We have spoken about [the induction], and he just said, 'Oh, that's nice.' I think it would probably be important if Mark and I were there. I'll definitely be there, and I'll definitely talk Mark into coming as well. It's essentially up to him if he wants to do anything, and I completely respect his feelings about it. He doesn't want too much white light." Knopfler did not appear at the ceremony, with Illsley stating, "I'll assure you it's a personal thing. Let's just leave it at that."

In 2009, Illsley and Clark performed several Dire Straits songs in an open air concert in San Vigilio, and since then, Clark, Palmer, Illsley, Cummings, Collins, Sonni and Withers, in various line-ups, have toured as the Dire Straits Legends and continue to this day as the Dire Straits Legacy. They also released an album, 3 Chord Trick. In a 2018 US tour, they were joined by Trevor Horn on bass and Steve Ferrone on drums.

In September 2021, Alan Clark released his piano solo album Backstory, while in November 2021 John Illsley published his autobiography My Life in Dire Straits. Former guitarist Jack Sonni died on 30 August 2023, at the age of 68.

In November 2023, John Illsley reiterated in an interview that he and Mark Knopfler have no interest in reforming Dire Straits, in spite of receiving major financial offers to get back together. He reflected that the band members had "reached the end of the road" after the end of their final world tour in 1992, and that he was "pretty happy" when the band’s run came to an end, recalling feeling "mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted" by the time Dire Straits disbanded. At the time, Illsley also said "I can openly admit to you that I really enjoyed the success of the band, I’m speaking for Mark as well, we both really enjoyed [it]. It comes with a certain amount of stress, obviously. You’ve got to really dig deep sometimes to keep it working. I think Mark said – and I hope I’m quoting him correctly here – but he said that success is great, but fame is what comes out of the exhaust pipe of a car. It’s something you don’t really want".

Dire Straits remains one of the most popular British rock bands as well as one of the world's most commercially successful artists, with total worldwide album sales of more than 120 million.

Band members
Final members Former members
 * Mark Knopfler – lead vocals, lead & rhythm guitar (1977–1995)
 * John Illsley – bass, backing vocals (1977–1995)
 * Alan Clark – keyboards (1980–1995)
 * Guy Fletcher – keyboards, backing vocals (1984–1995)
 * Pick Withers – drums, occasional backing vocals (1977–1982)
 * David Knopfler – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1977–1980)
 * Hal Lindes – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1980–1984)
 * Terry Williams – drums (1982–1988)
 * Jack Sonni – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1984–1988; died 2023)

Discography

 * Dire Straits (1978)
 * Communiqué (1979)
 * Making Movies (1980)
 * Love over Gold (1982)
 * Brothers in Arms (1985)
 * On Every Street (1991)

Honoured and inducted

 * PRS for Music Heritage Award 2009
 * Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2018

Won

 * Brit Awards 1983 – British Group
 * Brit Awards 1986 – British Group
 * Grammy Award 1986 – Best Rock Performance by a Duo Or Group (for "Money for Nothing")
 * Grammy Award 1986 – Brothers in Arms Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical (for Brothers in Arms, Mark Knopfler Neil Dorfsman engineer)
 * Juno Award 1986 – International Album of the Year
 * MTV Video Music Award 1986 – Video of the Year (for "Money for Nothing")
 * MTV Video Music Award 1986 – Best Group Video (for "Money for Nothing")
 * Brit Awards 1987 – British Album of the Year (for Brothers in Arms)
 * Grammy Award 1987 – Best Music Video (for "Brothers in Arms")
 * Grammy Award 2006 – Best Surround Sound Album (for his surround sound production for Brothers in Arms—20th Anniversary Edition, Chuck Ainlay, surround mix engineer; Bob Ludwig, surround mastering engineer; Chuck Ainlay and Mark Knopfler, surround producers)

Nominated

 * Grammy Award 1980 – Best New Artist
 * Grammy Award 1980 – Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group (for "Sultans of Swing")
 * American Music Award 1986 – Favorite Pop/Rock Single (for "Money for Nothing")
 * Brit Awards 1986 – British Album of the Year (for Brothers in Arms)
 * Brit Awards 1986 – British Single (for "Money for Nothing")
 * Brit Awards 1986 – British Video (for "Money for Nothing")
 * Grammy Award 1986 – Album of the Year (for Brothers in Arms)
 * Grammy Award 1986 – Record of the Year (for "Money for Nothing")
 * Grammy Award 1986 – Song of the Year (for "Money for Nothing")
 * MTV Video Music Award 1986 – Best Concept Video (for "Money for Nothing")
 * MTV Video Music Award 1986 – Most Experimental Video (for "Money for Nothing")
 * MTV Video Music Award 1986 – Best Stage Performance in a Video (for "Money for Nothing")
 * MTV Video Music Award 1986 – Best Overall Performance in a Video (for "Money for Nothing")
 * MTV Video Music Award 1986 – Best Direction in a Video (for "Money for Nothing")
 * MTV Video Music Award 1986 – Best Visual Effects in a Video (for "Money for Nothing")
 * MTV Video Music Award 1986 – Best Art Direction in a Video (for "Money for Nothing")
 * MTV Video Music Award 1986 – Best Editing in a Video (for "Money for Nothing")
 * MTV Video Music Award 1986 – Viewer's Choice (for "Money for Nothing")
 * Brit Awards 1987 – British Group
 * Brit Awards 1992 – British Group
 * Grammy Award 1992 – Best Music Video (for "Calling Elvis")
 * Brit Awards 2010 – British Album of Thirty Years (for Brothers in Arms)

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

title: Dire Straits


text:
Walt Disney Pictures

Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit, and is based at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. Animated films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios are also released under the studio banner. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures distributes and markets the films produced by Walt Disney Pictures.

Disney began producing live-action films in the 1950s. The live-action division became Walt Disney Pictures in 1983, when Disney reorganized its entire studio division; which included the separation from the feature animation division and the subsequent creation of Touchstone Pictures. At the end of that decade, combined with Touchstone's output, Walt Disney Pictures elevated Disney to one of Hollywood's major film studios.

Walt Disney Pictures is currently one of five live-action film studios within the Walt Disney Studios, alongside 20th Century Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and Searchlight Pictures. The 2019 remake of The Lion King is the studio's highest-grossing film worldwide with $1.6 billion, and Pirates of the Caribbean is the studio's most successful film series, with five films earning a total of over $4.5 billion in worldwide box office gross.

Predecessor unit
The studio's predecessor (and the modern-day The Walt Disney Company's as a whole) was founded as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, by filmmaker Walt Disney and his business partner and brother, Roy, in 1923.

The creation of Mickey Mouse and subsequent short films and merchandise generated revenue for the studio which was renamed as The Walt Disney Studio at the Hyperion Studio in 1926. In 1929, it was renamed again to Walt Disney Productions. The studio's streak of success continued in the 1930s, culminating with the 1937 release of the first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which becomes a huge financial success. With the profits from Snow White, Walt relocated to a third studio in Burbank, California.

In the 1940s, Disney began experimenting with full-length live-action films, with the introduction of hybrid live action-animated films such as The Reluctant Dragon (1941) and Song of the South (1946). That same decade, the studio began producing nature documentaries with the release of Seal Island (1948), the first of the True-Life Adventures series and a subsequent Academy Award winner for Best Live-Action Short Film.

Walt Disney Productions had its first fully live-action film in 1950 with the release of Treasure Island, considered by Disney to be the official conception for what would eventually evolve into the modern-day Walt Disney Pictures. By 1953, the company ended their agreements with such third-party distributors as RKO Radio Pictures and United Artists and formed their own distribution company, Buena Vista Distribution. By the 1950s, the company had purchased the rights to his work of L. Frank Baum.

1980s–2000s
The live-action division of Walt Disney Productions was incorporated as Walt Disney Pictures on April 1, 1983, to diversify film subjects and expand audiences for their film releases. In April 1983, Richard Berger was hired by Disney CEO Ron W. Miller as film president. Touchstone Films was started by Miller in February 1984 as a label for the studio's PG-13 and R-rated films with an expected half of Disney's yearly 6-to-8-movie slate, which would be released under the label. That same year, newly named Disney CEO Michael Eisner pushed out Berger, replacing him with Eisner's own film chief from Paramount Pictures, Jeffrey Katzenberg. and Frank Wells from Warner Bros. Pictures. Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures were formed within that unit on February 15, 1984, and February 1, 1989, respectively.

The Touchstone Films banner was used by then new Disney CEO Michael Eisner in the 1984–1985 television season with the short lived western, Wildside. In the next season, Touchstone produced a hit in The Golden Girls.

David Hoberman was promoted to president of production at Walt Disney Pictures in April 1988. In April 1994, Hoberman was promoted to president of motion picture production at Walt Disney Studios and David Vogel was appointed as Walt Disney Pictures president. The following year, however Hoberman resigned from the company, and instead began a production deal with Disney and his newly formed production company, Mandeville Films. In addition to Walt Disney Pictures, Vogel added the head position of Hollywood Pictures in 1997, while Donald De Line remained as head of Touchstone. Vogel was then promoted in 1998 to the head of Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, the newly formed division that oversaw all live-action production within the Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone, and Hollywood labels. The move was orchestrated by Walt Disney Studios chairman Joe Roth, as an effort to scale back and consolidate the studio's film production. As a result of the restructuring, De Line resigned.

That same year, Nina Jacobson became executive vice-president of live-action production for Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group. Jacobson remained under this title until May 1999, when Vogel resigned from the company, and Jacobson was appointed by Roth to the role of president of production. During her tenure, Jacobson oversaw the production of films at Walt Disney Pictures, including Pirates of the Caribbean, The Chronicles of Narnia, Bridge to Terabithia, National Treasure, Remember the Titans, and The Princess Diaries, and was responsible for establishing a first-look deal with Jerry Bruckheimer Films. In 2006, Jacobson was fired by studio chairman Dick Cook, and replaced with by Oren Aviv, the head of marketing. In July 2007, Disney CEO Bob Iger banned the depiction of smoking and tobacco products from Walt Disney Pictures films.

After two films based on Disney theme park attractions, Walt Disney Pictures selected it as a source of a line of films starting with The Country Bears (2002) and The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (both 2003). The latter film—the first film produced by the studio to receive a PG-13 rating—began a film series that was followed by four sequels, with the franchise taking in more than $5.4 billion worldwide from 2003 to 2017. On January 12, 2010, Aviv stepped down as the studio's president of live-action production.

2010s–present
In January 2010, Sean Bailey was appointed the studio's president of live-action production, replacing Aviv. Bailey had produced Tron: Legacy for the studio, which was released later that same year. Under Bailey's leadership and with support from then Disney CEO Bob Iger—and later studio chairman Alan Horn—Walt Disney Pictures pursued a tentpole film strategy, which included an expanded slate of original and adaptive large-budget tentpole films. Beginning in 2011, the studio simplified the branding in its production logo and marquee credits to just "Disney". Concurrently, Disney was struggling with PG-13 tentpole films outside of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, with films such as John Carter (2012) and The Lone Ranger (2013) becoming major box office bombs. However, the studio had found particular success with live-action fantasy adaptations of properties associated with their animated films, which began with the commercial success of Alice in Wonderland (2010), that became the second billion-dollar-grossing film in the studio's history. With the continued success of Maleficent (2014) and Cinderella (2015), the studio saw the potential in these fantasy adaptations and officiated a trend of similar films, which followed with The Jungle Book (2016) and Beauty and the Beast (2017). In March 2015, Iger expanded the studio's smoking and tobacco prohibition to include all films released by the studio—including PG-13 rated films and below—unless such depictions are historically pertinent, such as the case in Saving Mr. Banks (2013) and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).

By July 2016, Disney had announced development of nearly eighteen of these films consisting of sequels to existing adaptations, origin stories and prequels. Although Walt Disney Pictures produced several successful smaller-budgeted genre films throughout the 2010s, such as The Muppets (2011), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), and Into the Woods (2014), the studio shifted its production model entirely on tentpole films as they had found that a majority of the smaller genre films were becoming financially unsustainable in the theatrical market.

In 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced it was creating its own streaming service platform. The new service, known as Disney+, would feature original programming created by the company's vast array of film and television production studios, including Walt Disney Pictures. As part of this new distribution platform, Bailey and Horn confirmed that Walt Disney Pictures would renew development on smaller-budgeted genre films that the studio had previously stopped producing for the theatrical exhibition market a few years prior. In 2018, nine films were announced to be in production or development for the service. These films would be budgeted between $20 million and $60 million. The studio is expected to produce approximately 3–4 films per year exclusively for Disney+, alongside its theatrical tentpole slate. Disney+ was launched on November 12, 2019, in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands, with subsequent international expansions. Within the first two months of the service's launch, Walt Disney Pictures had released three films (Lady and the Tramp, Noelle, and Togo) exclusively for Disney+.

On March 12, 2020, Fox Family president Vanessa Morrison was named president of live-action development and production of streaming content for both Disney and 20th Century Studios, reporting directly to Bailey. That same day, Philip Steuer and Randi Hiller were also appointed as president of the studio's physical, post-production and VFX, and executive vice president for casting, respectively–overseeing these functions for both Walt Disney Pictures and 20th Century Studios. In 2023, Walt Disney Pictures celebrated its centennial alongside Walt Disney Animation Studios and their corporate parent company. That same year, it was confirmed that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny would mark the studio's first official co-production with Lucasfilm.

On February 26, 2024, Disney announced a leadership change, with Bailey stepping down as president and replaced by David Greenbaum, who formerly co-led Searchlight Pictures. Greenbaum will lead Walt Disney Pictures and co-lead 20th Century Studios with current 20th Century president Steve Asbell.

Logo
Until 1983, instead of a traditional production logo, the opening credits of Disney films used to feature a title card that read "Walt Disney Presents", and later, "Walt Disney Productions Presents".

Beginning with the release of Return to Oz in 1985, Walt Disney Pictures introduced its fantasy castle logo. The version with its accompanying music premiered with The Black Cauldron. The logo was created by Walt Disney Productions in traditional animation and featured a white silhouette of Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle against a blue background, with the studio's name in Walt Disney’s signature style and underscored by "When You Wish Upon a Star", in arrangement composed by John Debney. A short rendition of the logo was used as a closing logo as well as in the movie Return to Oz, although the film was released months before The Black Cauldron was released. An animated RenderMan variant appeared before every Pixar Animation Studios film from Toy Story until Ratatouille, featuring an original fanfare composed by Randy Newman, based on the opening score cue from Toy Story, called "Andy's Birthday". Beginning with Dinosaur (2000), an alternative logo featuring an orange castle and logo against a black background, was occasionally presented with darker tone and live-action films, though a few animated films such as Brother Bear, the 2003 re-release of The Lion King and The Wild (the final film to use this logo) used this logo.

In 2006, the studio's vanity card logo was updated with the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at the behest of then-Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook and studio marketing president Oren Aviv. Designed by Disney animation director Mike Gabriel and producer Baker Bloodworth, the modernized logo was created completely in computer animation by Wētā FX and yU+co and featured a 3D Walt Disney logo. The final rendering of the logo was done by Cameron Smith and Cyrese Parrish. In addition, the revamped logo includes visual references to Pinocchio, Dumbo, Cinderella, Peter Pan and Mary Poppins, and its redesigned castle incorporates elements from both the Cinderella Castle and the Sleeping Beauty Castle, as well as fireworks and Walt Disney's family crest on the flag. Mark Mancina wrote a new composition and arrangement of "When You Wish Upon a Star" to accompany the 2006 logo. It was co-arranged and orchestrated by David Metzger. In 2011, starting with The Muppets, the sequence was modified to truncate the "Walt Disney Pictures" branding to "Disney", which has mainly been used originally in home media releases in 2007. The new logo sequence has been consistently modified for high-profile releases including Tron: Legacy, Maleficent, Tomorrowland, The Jungle Book, and Beauty and the Beast.

In 2022, a new vanity card logo was introduced for the studio's 100th anniversary in 2023, which premiered at the 2022 D23 Expo. The new castle logo features an updated opening sequence in computer animation created by Industrial Light & Magic and an arrangement of "When You Wish Upon a Star" composed by Christophe Beck and conducted by Tim Davies. The magical arc that usually flies from right to left above the castle now flies from left to right. A byline appeared below the Disney100 logo during the studio's 100th anniversary in 2023, reading "100 Years of Wonder", which was later removed starting with Chang Can Dunk but returned with the international prints of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in theaters. While containing the same visual references as the previous logo, new references added to it include Pocahontas, Up, Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Little Mermaid, Tangled, Brave and Beauty and the Beast, with the addition of Disneyland's Matterhorn from Third Man on the Mountain and Pride Rock from The Lion King in the background beyond the castle. Its first film appearance was with the release of Strange World. The logo received widespread praise from critics and audiences and won Gold in the "Theatrical | Film: Design" medium at the 2023 Clio Entertainment Awards in November 2023. The standard version was unveiled on the "Disney" hub of the Disney+ app on December 23, 2023 and made its official debut in 2024 on the second trailer for Inside Out 2, with the full version premiering on the documentary film The Beach Boys.

Film library
The studio's first live-action film was Treasure Island (1950). Animated films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar are also released by Walt Disney Pictures. The studio has released four films that have received an Academy Award for Best Picture nomination: Mary Poppins (1964), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Up (2009), and Toy Story 3 (2010).

Highest-grossing films
Walt Disney Pictures has produced five live-action films that have grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), Alice in Wonderland (2010), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Aladdin (2019); and has released nine animated films that have reached that milestone: Toy Story 3 (2010), Frozen (2013), Zootopia, Finding Dory (both 2016), Incredibles 2 (2018), The Lion King, Toy Story 4, Frozen II (three in 2019), and Inside Out 2 (2024).

 * {{legend|#B6FCB6|Indicates films playing in theatres in the week commencing .|text=}}

‡—Includes theatrical reissue(s).

title: Walt Disney Pictures


text:
Talk:Futurama (New York World's Fair)

TV series > Fair exhibit
This should be renamed to Futurama (New York World's Fair) or something similar. Futurama should redirect to Futurama (TV series), which is by far the more common usage. --Poiuyt Man (talk)  11:14, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * I agree, or if that's not possible, make Futurama a disambig. - Vague | Rant 13:02, May 5, 2005 (UTC)

 * Futurama (the cartoon) mentions "not being related to Futurama" (referring to the movie) in the beginning of one episode. Oddly enough, General Motors' rendition of 1960's Detroit looks like Toronto in 2005, or "New New York" in 2999. --Tokachu 06:09, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

Should we add a pic?

Pic added
Good news - the copyright on NBG's book Magic Motorways was allowed to lapse hence the images of Futurama in that book are free use - I checked.

Also reformatted some of the external links as references and got rid of the references tag.--Travelplanner (talk) 09:43, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

I suggest recaptioning the pic to include a date. It's not immediately clear which of the New York World's Fair's it is. Imogenne (talk) 17:52, 30 August 2009 (UTC). Done Travelplanner (talk) 11:34, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Social impacts?
No mention of modern commuting and trolleys? 174.22.191.171 (talk) 08:40, 20 September 2016 (UTC)

title: Talk:Futurama (New York World's Fair)


text:
OpenEXR

OpenEXR is a high-dynamic range, multi-channel raster file format, released as an open standard along with a set of software tools created by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), under a free software license similar to the BSD license.

It is notable for supporting multiple channels of potentially different pixel sizes, including 32-bit unsigned integer, 32-bit and 16-bit floating point values, as well as various compression techniques which include lossless and lossy compression algorithms. It also has arbitrary channels and encodes multiple points of view such as left- and right-camera images.

Overview
A full technical introduction of the format is available on the OpenEXR website.

OpenEXR, or EXR for short, is a deep raster format developed by ILM and broadly used in the computer-graphics industry, both visual effects and animation.

OpenEXR's multi-resolution and arbitrary channel format makes it appealing for compositing, as it alleviates several painful elements of the process. Since it can store arbitrary channels—specular, diffuse, alpha, RGB, normals, and various other types—in one file, it takes away the need to store this information in separate files. The multi-channel concept also reduces the necessity to "bake" in the aforementioned data to the final image. If a compositor is not happy with the current level of specularity, they can adjust that specific channel.

OpenEXR's API makes tools development a relative ease for developers. Since there are almost never two identical production pipelines, custom tools always need to be developed to address problems (e.g. image-manipulation issue). OpenEXR's library allows quick and easy access to the image's attributes such as tiles and channels.

The OpenEXR library is developed in C++ and is available in source format as well as compiled format for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux. Python bindings for the library are also available for version 2.x.

History
OpenEXR was created by ILM in 1999 and released to the public in 2003 along with an open source software library. It soon received wide adoption by software used in computer graphics, particularly for film and television production. The format has been updated several times, adding support for tiles, mipmaps, new compression methods, and other features. In 2007, OpenEXR was honored with an Academy Award for Technical Achievement.

OpenEXR 2.0 was released in April 2013, extending the format with support for deep image buffers and multiple images embedded in a single file. Version 2.2, released August 2014, added the lossy DWA compression format.

Distribution
The OpenEXR software distribution includes:
 * libraries
 * Half, a C++ class for manipulating half values as if they were a built-in C++ data type
 * exrdisplay, a sample application for viewing OpenEXR images on a display at various exposure settings

Libraries

 * IlmImf = library made by Industrial Light & Magic (Ilm) for low-level operations on the files with OpenEXR  image format (Imf)
 * libIlmImf on linux
 * IlmImf.dll on windows
 * IlmImfUtil
 * Imath

Color depth
OpenEXR has support for color depth using:
 * 16-bit floating-point (half)
 * 32-bit floating-point
 * 32-bit unsigned integer

Compression methods
There are three general types of lossless compression built into OpenEXR, with two different methods of Zip compressing. For most images without a lot of grain, the two Zip compression methods seem to work best, while the PIZ compression algorithm is better suited to grainy images. The following options are available:

 * None: Disables all compression.
 * Run Length Encoding (RLE): This is a basic form of compression that is comparable to that used by standard Targa files.
 * Zip (per scanline): deflate compression with zlib wrapper applied to individual scanlines (not based on the ZIP file format despite its name).
 * Zip (16 scanline blocks): deflate compression applied to blocks of 16 scanlines at time. This tends to be the most effective style of compression to use with rendered images that do not have film grain applied.
 * PIZ (wavelet compression): This lossless method uses a new combined wavelet / Huffman compression. This form of compression is quite effective when dealing with grainy images, and will often surpass any of the other options under grainy conditions.
 * PXR24 (24-bit data conversion then deflate compression): This form of compression from Pixar Animation Studios converts 32-bit floats to 24 bits then uses deflate compression. It is lossless for half and 32-bit integer data and slightly lossy for 32-bit float data.
 * B44: This form of compression is lossy for half data and stores 32-bit data uncompressed. It maintains a fixed compression size of either 2.28:1 or 4.57:1 and is designed for realtime playback. B44 compresses uniformly regardless of image content.
 * B44A: An extension to B44 where areas of flat color are further compressed, such as alpha channels.
 * DWAA: JPEG-like lossy compression format contributed by DreamWorks Animation. Compresses 32 scanlines together.
 * DWAB: Same as DWAA, but compresses blocks of 256 scanlines.

Credits
From OpenEXR.org's Technical Introduction:

"The ILM OpenEXR file format was designed and implemented by Florian Kainz, Wojciech Jarosz, and Rod Bogart. The PIZ compression scheme is based on an algorithm by Christian Rouet. Josh Pines helped extend the PIZ algorithm for 16-bit and found optimizations for the float-to-half conversions. Drew Hess packaged and adapted ILM's internal source code for public release and maintains the OpenEXR software distribution. The PXR24 compression method is based on an algorithm written by Loren Carpenter at Pixar Animation Studios."

title: OpenEXR


text:
Hardiman's History of Galway

James Hardiman's History of Galway (full title: The History of the Town and County of the Town of Galway. From the Earliest Period to the Present Time) is considered to be the definitive history of Galway city and county from the earliest of times until the early 19th century.

The book was originally published in Dublin by W. Folds & Sons (1820) and twice reprinted in Galway by the Connacht Tribune Printing and Publishing Co. (1958 and 1985) and by Kenny's of Galway (1975). It is now out of copyright and is available on the web.

title: Hardiman's History of Galway


text:
House of Windsor

The House of Windsor is a British royal house, and currently the reigning house of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. The royal house's name was inspired by the historic Windsor Castle estate. Since it was founded on 17 July 1917, there have been five British monarchs of the House of Windsor: George V, Edward VIII, George VI, Elizabeth II, and Charles III. The children and male-line descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip also genealogically belong to the House of Oldenburg since Philip was by birth a member of the Glücksburg branch of that house.

The monarch is head of state of fifteen sovereign states. These are the United Kingdom, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu. As well as these separate monarchies, there are also three Crown Dependencies, fourteen British Overseas Territories, two associated states of New Zealand, and one territory.

History
In 1701, succession to the throne was given to Sophia of Hanover, who was born into the House of Wittelsbach, married into the House of Hanover, and was a granddaughter of James VI and I of the House of Stuart. Succession was passed to her son who became George I in 1714, marking the start of a long ruling period by the Hanoverian royal house. Eventually in 1901, a line of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha succeeded the House of Hanover to the British monarchy with the accession of King Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. In 1917, the name of the British royal house was changed from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor, taking its name from the royal residence in Berkshire.

King Edward VII and, in turn, his son, George V, were members of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha branch of the House of Wettin by virtue of their descent from Albert, Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria, the last British monarch from the House of Hanover. High anti-German sentiment amongst the people of the British Empire during the First World War reached a peak in March 1917, when the Gotha G.IV, a heavy aircraft capable of crossing the English Channel, began bombing London directly and became a household name. In the same year, on 15 March, King George's first cousin Emperor Nicholas II of Russia was forced to abdicate, which raised the spectre of the eventual abolition of all the monarchies in Europe. The king and his family were finally persuaded to abandon all titles held under the German Crown and to change German titles and house names to anglicised versions. Hence, on 17 July 1917, a royal proclamation issued by George V declared:

The name had a long association with monarchy in Britain, through the town of Windsor, Berkshire, and Windsor Castle; the link is alluded to in the Round Tower of Windsor Castle being the basis of the badge of the House of Windsor. It was suggested by Arthur Bigge, 1st Baron Stamfordham. Upon hearing that his cousin had changed the name of the British royal house to Windsor and in reference to Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, German Emperor Wilhelm II remarked jokingly that he planned to see "The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha".

George V also restricted the use of British princely titles to his nearest relations, and in 1919, he stripped three of his German relations of their British titles and styles under the Titles Deprivation Act 1917.

The children and male-line descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip also genealogically belong to the House of Oldenburg since Philip was by birth a member of the Glücksburg branch of that house.

Members
The 1917 proclamation stated that the name of the Royal House and all British descendants of Victoria and Albert in the male line were to bear the name of Windsor, except for women who married into other families.

Descendants of Elizabeth II
In 1947, Princess Elizabeth (who would become Queen Elizabeth II), heir presumptive to King George VI, married Philip Mountbatten (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark), a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a branch of the House of Oldenburg. A few months before his marriage, Philip abandoned his princely titles and adopted the surname Mountbatten, which was that of his maternal uncle and mentor, the Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and had itself been adopted by Lord Mountbatten's father (Philip's maternal grandfather), Prince Louis of Battenberg, in 1917. It is the literal translation of the German Battenberg, which refers to Battenberg, a small town in Hesse.

Soon after Elizabeth became Queen in 1952, Lord Mountbatten observed that because it was the standard practice for the wife in a marriage to adopt her husband's surname, the House of Mountbatten now reigned. When Elizabeth's grandmother, Queen Mary, heard of this comment, she informed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and he later advised the Queen to issue a royal proclamation declaring that the royal house was to remain known as the House of Windsor. This she did on 9 April 1952, officially declaring it her "Will and Pleasure that I and My children shall be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, and that My descendants, other than female descendants who marry and their descendants, shall bear the name of Windsor." Philip privately complained, "I am nothing but a bloody amoeba. I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children."

On 8 February 1960, some years after both the death of Queen Mary and the resignation of Churchill, the Queen confirmed that she and her children would continue to be known as the "House and Family of Windsor", as would any agnatic descendants (through the male line of succession, or patrilineality) who enjoy the style of Royal Highness and the title of prince or princess. Still, Elizabeth also decreed that her agnatic descendants who do not have that style and title would bear the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.

This came after some months of correspondence between the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and the constitutional expert Edward Iwi. Iwi had raised the prospect that the royal child due to be born in February 1960 would bear "the Badge of Bastardy" if it were given its mother's maiden name (Windsor) rather than its father's name (Mountbatten). Macmillan had attempted to rebuff Iwi, until the Queen advised Rab Butler in January 1960 that for some time she had her heart set on a change that would recognise the name, Mountbatten. She wished to make this change before the birth of her child. The issue did not affect Prince Charles or Princess Anne, as they had been born Mountbatten before the Queen's accession to the throne. Prince Andrew was born 11 days later, on 19 February 1960.

Any future monarch can change the dynastic name through a similar royal proclamation, as the royal prerogative in the United Kingdom covers it.

Family tree

 * Red-framed persons are living
 * Black-framed persons are deceased
 * Bold borders indicate children of British monarchs

States reigned over
At the creation of the House of Windsor, its head reigned over the British Empire. Following the end of the First World War, however, shifts took place that saw the emergence of the Dominions of the British Commonwealth as independent states. The shift was recognised in the Balfour Declaration of 1926, the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927,  and the Statute of Westminster 1931. The Windsors became recognised as the royal family of multiple independent countries, a number that shifted over the decades, as some Dominions became republics and Crown colonies became realms, republics, or monarchies under a different sovereign. Since 1949, three monarchs of the House of Windsor, George VI, Elizabeth II and Charles III, have also been Head of the Commonwealth of Nations, comprising most parts of the former British Empire and some states that were never part of it.

title: House of Windsor


text:
Talk:Frank Oz

Labyrinth
Is it fair to say that Labyrinth "starred" David Bowie? Seems irrelevant anyway... 63.226.217.107 (talk) 06:26, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

Picture
Think we can use this picture? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:MuppetShw.jpg —Preceding unsigned comment added by Khono (talk • contribs) 21:27, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

formatting
The chronological format seemed confusing. I have formatted and restructured the info into puppeteer, actor, and director. also added new detail. BarkingDoc

"Oz is best known for his work as a puppeteer performing with Jim Henson's Muppets." ... "Possibly Oz's most famous character is the diminutive Jedi Master Yoda"

^ Seems a bit strange, contradictory, etc. Am I misreading it? --24.76.141.132 05:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Accent
Is it just me, folks, or isn't it even Mr. Oz who speaks this Muppet in the 'EXIT' episode, or does he really have a foreign accent?

Grover definitely doesn't speak with a British, nor a Yankee or a Southern accent, he really sounds like an Arabian speaking English. As these are speculations of mine, I aren't yet going to put this into the article.

 * I don't like correcting grammar, but it's "I ain't", I aren't is a plural/singular mishmash. Carry on.--T. Anthony 11:51, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

 * "I amn't"? Keep on carrying on. Lindsay H. 18:05, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

source: trademarks
I added source tags on the page for the following line: "After Jim Henson's death, Frank put a reference to Jim in every movie he directs. He sees it as a tribute to Jim as well as a 'thank you' to him for making Frank a star." -- scarecroe 00:25, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

 * I have a possible lead on a source for that quote. Should be coming soon. —scarecroe 16:35, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

source: Chocolate Factory
Regarding the "trivia" for Oz's involvement here, I've placed a "citation needed" tag for this info. IMDb is not a useful source as their information is frequently wrong and the data is not fact checked. In addition, I have serious doubts about the speculation on the performers. Not just because that sort of casting sounds more like a fan dream, but also because of the added line "and he [Frank Oz] as Miss Piggy would have voiced Grandma Georgina" which I've removed. —scarecroe 03:51, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

 * In addition, this contribution was made by User:DaffyDuck619 who has since been banned for questionable edits. —scarecroe 03:52, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

trivia
I cleaned up the Trivia section some. The information about his appearances in John Landis films is worth of it's own section. I'll leave that to someone who's more familiar with it. —scarecroe 16:33, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Birth mame
Is it "Frank Richard Oznowicz" or "Richard Frank Oznowicz"? This suggests it could be either one - - is there a definitive source? Tell-Tale Ghost 21:54, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

 * I just checked a couple Henson biographies and couldn't find a source for either one. However, this interview cites "Richard Frank Oznowicz" as his birthname. I've never seen it cited with the middle and first names swapped. I would take an educated guess and say that whoever did, assumed that their source was mixed up and switched them considering his more famous stage name. But again, I've never seen it done that way, and I would trust the rather extensive Plume interview. —scarecroe 01:52, 16 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Sounds reasonable. Tell-Tale Ghost 17:39, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

I believe Frank Oz also played the booking officer in the 1983 Eddie Murphy/Dan Akroyd film "Trading Places"...This is verifiable at mutiple movie sites... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.121.19.254 (talk) 22:30, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

From the UK FreeBMD ancestry site, https://www.freebmd.org.uk, he was registered as Frank R Oznowicz. He has a older brother, Ronald, born in the Wolverhampton Registration district in Quarter 3 (Jul-Sep) 1942. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:C7F:880E:4E00:F857:6041:93C6:804A (talk) 20:46, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

Oz's mother
I am not sure how much fighting Oz's mother did. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.182.160.20 (talk) 17:34, 20 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Plenty of women were involved in resistance groups. – Dyolf87 (talk) 16:17, 4 November 2021 (UTC)

Nationality and Lead
Some users continue to insert the term "British" in the lead and in the infobox. These are two separate issues I will address. First, per WP:Ethnicity, we do not include previous nationalities, ethnicity, or place of birth in the lead unless directly relevant to notability. This individual's notability occurred in the USA as a U.S. citizen. We have a source for his U.S. citizenship as included in the infobox. Secondly, we have no source that he retains his U.K. citizenship. Even if he were a U.K. citizen along with being a U.S. citizen, this would need to be sourced and then included in the infobox, but does not still warrant inclusion in the lead. Apoorva Iyer (talk) 21:12, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

 * @Apoorva Iyer but he looks English Utter Donkey (talk) 12:24, 20 August 2023 (UTC)

NYTimes source for early life and family
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/13/arts/design/frank-oz-father-puppet.html

PK-WIKI (talk) 18:12, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Royal Netherlands Motorized Infantry Brigade
Th eBrigade was formed in England and fought since 1944. Xx236 (talk) 10:39, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Frank Oz


text:
Monkey's Audio

Monkey's Audio is an algorithm and file format for lossless audio data compression. Lossless data compression does not discard data during the process of encoding, unlike lossy compression methods such as Advanced Audio Coding, MP3, Vorbis, and Opus. Therefore, it may be decompressed to a file that is identical to the source material.

Similar to other lossless audio codecs, files encoded to Monkey's Audio are typically reduced to about half of the original size, with data transfer time and storage requirements being reduced accordingly.

Comparisons
Like any lossless compression scheme, Monkey's Audio format takes up several times as much space as lossy compression formats (For example, an MP3 file of Walkin' On the Sun by Smash Mouth is 4.7MB while an APE file of the same song is 23.8MB.) - typically, about twice as much as a 320 kbit/s bitrate MP3 file. The upside is that no data is lost compared to the input file, making lossless codecs suitable for transcoding, or simply taking up approximately half as much space as raw PCM data.

Relative to FLAC, Apple Lossless Audio Codec, or WavPack, Monkey's Audio is slow to encode or decode files.

While Monkey's Audio can achieve high compression ratios, the cost is a dramatic increase in requirements on the decoding end. Many older portable media players, and even older smartphones, have difficulty handling this. In comparison, most lossless codecs are asymmetric, meaning that the work done to achieve higher compression ratios, if selected by the user, slows down the encoding process, but has essentially no effect on the decoding requirements.

Licensing
On 10 August 2023, with the release of version 10.18, Monkey's Audio switched to the Open Source Initiative-approved 3-Clause BSD Licence.

Other lossless codecs such as FLAC and WavPack are also available under open source licences, and are well supported in Linux distributions and in many applications. Since all of these formats are lossless, users can transcode between formats without generation loss.

Supported platforms
Officially, Monkey's Audio is available only for the Microsoft Windows platform. As of version 4.02 (19 January 2009) a DirectShow filter is distributed with the installer, allowing for compatibility with most media players running on the Windows operating system.

Monkey's Audio is also supported on Linux and OS X using JRiver Media Center or Plex.

A GPL-licensed version of the Monkey's Audio decoder has been independently written for Rockbox and is included in FFmpeg. This code also provides playback support in applications that use GStreamer, as well as DeaDBeeF.

A number of Mac OS X players and rippers support the format as well. It is also available as a port and package on FreeBSD.

Monkey's Audio files can be encoded and decoded on any platform which has a J2SE implementation, by the means of the unofficial JMAC library, which is free software licensed under the GNU LGPL.

Hardware support
Monkey's Audio is supported natively on all modern Cowon multimedia media players, the FiiO X Series and some Cayin digital audio players.

On other hardware platforms, the open source firmware project Rockbox supports playback of Monkey's Audio files on most of its supported targets, but many lack sufficient processing power to play them on the higher compression settings.

title: Monkey's Audio