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Eddie Cochran

Ray Edward Cochran (October 3, 1938 – April 17, 1960) was an American rock and roll musician. His songs, such as "Twenty Flight Rock", "Summertime Blues", "C'mon Everybody" and "Somethin' Else", captured teenage frustration and desire in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. Cochran experimented with multitrack recording, distortion techniques, and overdubbing, even on his earliest singles. Cochran played the guitar, piano, bass, and drums. His image as a sharply dressed and attractive young man with a rebellious attitude epitomized the stance of the 1950s rocker, and in death, Cochran achieved iconic status.

Cochran was involved with music from an early age, playing in the school band and teaching himself to play blues guitar. In 1955, Cochran formed a duo with the guitarist Hank Cochran (no relation) and became known as the Cochran Brothers. When they split the following year, Eddie began a song-writing career with Jerry Capehart. His first success came when he performed the song "Twenty Flight Rock" in the film The Girl Can't Help It, starring Jayne Mansfield. Soon afterward, he signed a recording contract with Liberty Records and his first record for the label, "Sittin' in the Balcony", rose to number 18 on the Billboard charts.

Cochran died at the age of 21 in St Martin's Hospital, Bath, Somerset, after a car accident in Chippenham, Wiltshire, at the end of his British tour with Gene Vincent in April 1960. On April 16, after they had just performed at the Bristol Hippodrome, on their way to their next venue, Vincent, Cochran and the songwriter Sharon Sheeley were involved in a high-speed traffic accident in a private-hire taxi. The other two passengers survived with major injuries, but Cochran, who had been thrown from the vehicle, suffered serious brain injuries and died the next day.

Though Cochran's best-known songs were released during his lifetime, more of his songs were released posthumously. In 1987, Cochran was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His songs have been recorded by a wide variety of recording artists. Paul McCartney himself chose Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock" as his audition piece, assured to impress John Lennon by his performance of it, which he did and was hired as a member of Lennon's skiffle group The Quarrymen, which later was renamed The Beatles.

Early life
Cochran was born on October 3, 1938, in Albert Lea, Minnesota, to Alice and Frank R. Cochran. He was of Scottish descent. Cochran's parents were from Oklahoma. Cochran took music lessons in school but quit the band to play drums. Additionally, rather than taking piano lessons, he began learning guitar, playing country and other music he heard on the radio.

In 1952, Cochran's family moved to Bell Gardens, California. As his guitar playing improved, Cochran formed a band with two friends from his junior high school. In January 1955, Cochran dropped out of Bell Gardens High School in his first year to become a professional musician.

The Cochran Brothers (1955–1956)
During a show featuring many performers at an American Legion hall, Cochran met Hank Cochran, a songwriter. Although they were not related, they recorded as the Cochran Brothers and began performing together. They recorded a few singles for Ekko Records that were fairly successful and helped to establish them as a performing act. Eddie Cochran also worked as a session musician and began writing songs, making a demo with Jerry Capehart, his future manager.

Solo and film appearances (1956–1959)
In July 1956, Eddie Cochran's first "solo artist" single was released by Crest Records. It featured "Skinny Jim", now regarded as a rock-and-roll and rockabilly classic. In the spring of 1956, Boris Petroff asked Cochran if he would appear in the musical comedy film The Girl Can't Help It (1956). Cochran agreed and performed the song "Twenty Flight Rock" in the movie. In 1957, Cochran starred in his second film, Untamed Youth (1957), and had yet another hit, "Sittin' in the Balcony", one of the few songs he recorded that was written by other songwriters (in this case John D. Loudermilk). "Twenty Flight Rock" was written by AMI staff writer Ned Fairchild (a pen name—her real name is Nelda Fairchild). Fairchild, who was not a rock and roll performer, merely provided the initial form of the song; the co-writing credit reflects Cochran's major changes and contributions to the final product.

Singin' to My Baby (1957)
In the summer of 1957, Liberty Records issued Cochran's only studio album released during his lifetime, Singin' to My Baby. The album included John D. Loudermilk's "Sittin' in the Balcony". For the album, Cochran worked with manager and songwriter Jerry Capehart, and wrote the songs "Completely Sweet", "Undying Love", "When I'm Mad", and Cochran original "One Kiss".

In 1958, Cochran seemed to find his stride in the famous teenage anthem "Summertime Blues" (co-written with Jerry Capehart). With this song, Cochran was established as one of the most important influences on rock and roll in the 1950s, both lyrically and musically. The song, released by Liberty recording no. 55144, charted at number 8 in 1958.

Originally, Cochran toured with The Kelly Four as his backing band, guitarist Mike Deasy, saxophonist Mike Henderson, bassist Dave Shriver, and drummer Gene Riggio. They were known as The Hollywood Swingers, a reference to Dick D'Agostin's band. The line-up of Cochran's touring band would change overtime, with saxophonist Jim Seals and bassist Connie 'Guybo' Smith, and the addition of pianist Jim Stivers. They were eventually joined by various members from Dick D'Agostin and The Swingers. In 1959, The Swingers line-up became muti-instrumentalist with pianist Dick D'Agostin, pianist Jim Stivers (briefly on bass), guitarist Larry D'Agostin, saxophonist Paul Kaufman, and drummer Gene Riggio. However, D'Agostin left and was called-up to enlist into the U.S. Army. Members from The Kelly Four returned, Deasy and Henderson, with Stivers and Riggio being accompanied by bassist Don Meyer (later replaced by Dave Shriver). This was the last line-up of Cochran's touring band, returning to the name of The Kelly Four.

Cochran starred in his last film Go, Johnny, Go! (1959). In January 1960, Cochran recorded his last session at Gold Star Studios. His brief music career included a few more hits, such as "C'mon, Everybody", "Somethin' Else", "Teenage Heaven", and "Three Steps to Heaven", which posthumously topped the charts in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom in 1960. He remained popular in the United States and United Kingdom through the late 1950s and early 1960s, and more of his records were posthumous hits, such as "My Way", "Weekend", and "Nervous Breakdown".

Television appearances
Throughout his music career, Cochran made a few television appearances. On October 22, 1957 in Portland, Oregon, Cochran appeared on KPTV's High Time, hosted by Gene Brendler, and sang "Am I Blue?". During late 1957, Cochran was on the Biggest Show of Stars for '57 tour with Buddy Holly and The Crickets, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Knox, Frankie Lymon, and Paul Anka, among others. In November 1958, Cochran performed on American Bandstand, and The Dick Clark Show (Dick Clark's Saturday Night Beech-Nut), in which he played his hit song "C'mon Everybody".

On February 7, 1959, Cochran performed live on Town Hall Party with Dick D'Agostin and The Swingers. He played "C'mon, Everybody", "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You", "Don't Blame It On Me", "Summertime Blues", "School Days", Gene Autry's "Be Honest With Me", and "Money Honey". There was a brief interview segment on the show, and Cochran was asked about his prediction for the future of rock 'n' roll music. On October 10, 1959, he appeared on The Dick Clark Show (Dick Clark's Saturday Night Beech-Nut), and performed "Somethin' Else" and "Sittin' in the Balcony". "I think actually rock 'n' roll will be here for quite sometime. But I don't think it's going be rock 'n' roll as we know it today...I think it has been around for a long time, but nobody actually recognized it. The way I look at it, rhythm and blues y'know, and blues has been around for so long, and then they kind of blended country and western music in with it y'know. I think it's going to be here for a long time, but changing."

- Eddie Cochran

Session musician and producer
Another aspect of Cochran's short but brilliant career is his work as a session musician and producer. In 1959, Cochran played lead for Skeets McDonald at Columbia's studios for "You Oughta See Grandma Rock" and "Heart Breaking Mama". In a session for Gene Vincent in March 1958, he contributed his trademark bass voice, as heard on "Summertime Blues". The recordings were issued on the album A Gene Vincent Record Date.

Cochran worked mainly as a guitarist, and sometimes as a vocalist and arranger for other artists, such as Mamie Van Doren, Baker Knight, Johnny Burnette, Wynn Stewart, and Al Casey.

The Day the Music Died (1959)
In early 1959, two of Cochran's friends, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, along with the Big Bopper, were killed in a plane crash while on tour on February 3, 1959. Cochran's friends and family later said that he was badly shaken by their deaths, and he developed a morbid premonition that he also would die young. Shortly after their deaths, Cochran recorded a song (written by disc jockey Tommy Dee) in tribute to them, "Three Stars". He was anxious to give up life on the road and spend his time in the studio making music, thereby reducing the chance of suffering a similar fatal accident while touring. Financial responsibilities, however, required that Cochran continue to perform live, and that led to his acceptance of an offer to tour the United Kingdom in 1960.

United Kingdom tour (1960)
Organized and promoted by Larry Parnes, Cochran and Gene Vincent toured the United Kingdom from January through to April 1960. On the bill, they were accompanied by British acts Billy Fury, Joe Brown, Vince Eager, and Tony Sheridan. At the beginning of the tour, Cochran first performed a memorable show in Ipswich, Suffolk at the cinema venue Ipswich Gaumont. Cochran was backed by Marty Wilde's band The Wildcats throughout the 1960 tour, exposing the British audience to live American rock 'n' roll. Georgie Fame, then a member of the Beat Boys and the backing band for Vincent, recollected, "I remember Eddie playing guitar and we were astounded." During the progression of the tour, Cochran's fiancé Sharon Sheeley had flown in from America and joined them in late March. From a distance, Sheeley had kept track of Cochran's performances in England, when he had sent her postcards and letters. Using a map, she tried to pinpoint exactly where he was each day on the tour. However, their tour ended abruptly.

"Not quite as long as Gene [Vincent]. I'll be here until April 17th, and then I go home for seven days, and then I'm back near the end of April and stay here for ten more weeks."

- Eddie Cochran

Personal life
Cochran dated singer-songwriter Sharon Sheeley. As a songwriter, Sheeley worked in the music business and for manager Jerry Capehart. She wrote "Love Again" and "Cherished Memories" for Cochran, and the 1959 hit song "Somethin' Else" with Eddie's brother Bill Cochran. Sheeley had been romantically interested in Cochran for two years, seemingly unrequited. Originally brunette, she dyed her hair blonde and spent money on a new wardrobe, in an attempt to impress Cochran. In 1958, after attending a New Year's Eve party hosted by Cochran in New York, the couple started dating. They were secretly engaged by 1960, and were planning a future together.

In 1988, Levi Strauss & Co. promoted their Levi's 501 range with a television commercial called Eddie Cochran, directed by Syd Macartney. It told the story of how Sheeley (played by actress Sharon Devlin) attracted Cochran at the 1958 party by wearing said product. It was supposedly narrated by Sheeley. The background song, "C'mon Everybody", was released as a promotional single, followed by a compilation album of Cochran's hits.

Death
On the night of April 16, 1960, Cochran and his friend and fellow performing artist, Gene Vincent, had just finished performing at the last of their scheduled concerts at the Bristol Hippodrome. They were traveling along the Bath Road in a taxi (a cream-coloured 1960 model Ford Consul Mark II saloon) from Bristol towards London to Heathrow Airport. In addition to Cochran and Vincent, the other passengers in the vehicle were Sharon Sheeley (a 20-year-old songwriter and Cochran's fiancé), Patrick Tompkins (the tour manager, 29 years old), and George Martin (the 19-year-old taxi driver). At about 11:50 p.m. that night, Martin lost control of the vehicle, which crashed into a concrete lamppost at Rowden Hill in Chippenham. At the moment of impact, Cochran (who was seated in the center of the back seat) threw himself over Sheeley to shield her. The force of the collision caused the left rear passenger door to open, and Cochran was ejected from the vehicle, sustaining a massive traumatic brain injury from blunt force trauma to the skull or a cerebral contusion. The road was dry, and the weather was good, but the vehicle was later determined to be travelling at an excessive speed. No other vehicle was involved in the incident.

The occupants of the vehicle were all taken to Chippenham Community Hospital and later transferred to St. Martin's Hospital in Bath. Cochran never regained consciousness and died, aged 21, at 4:10 p.m. the following day – Easter Sunday. Sheeley suffered injuries to her back and thigh, Vincent suffered a fractured collarbone and severe injuries to his legs, and Tompkins sustained facial injuries and a possible fracture of the base of the skull. Martin did not sustain significant injuries.

Vincent and Sheeley returned to the United States after the accident. Cochran's body was flown home, and after a funeral service was buried on April 25, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, California. In August 1960, Sheeley told Photoplay magazine, that Cochran said to her on his last day, just before entering the taxi to the airport, "You know, Shari, I've got a queer feeling that Fate’s not going to let us [be together]. Something awful is going to happen— I can feel it."

Martin was convicted of dangerous driving, fined £50 (and in default of payment six months' imprisonment), and disqualified from driving for 15 years. His driving disqualification was lifted on May 7, 1968, after the judge at Bristol Assizes determined that Martin "had suffered considerable financial hardship". The car and other items from the crash were impounded at the local police station until a coroner's inquest could be held. David Harman, a police cadet at the station, who would later become known as Dave Dee of the band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, is said to have played on Cochran's Gretsch 6120 guitar while it was held at the station.

There is a plaque marking the site of the car crash on Rowden Hill. There is also a memorial stone on the grounds of St Martin's Hospital in Bath, commemorating Cochran's death. The stone was restored in 2010 on the 50th anniversary of his death and can be found in the old chapel grounds at the hospital. A memorial plaque was also placed next to the sundial at the back of the old chapel. The Eddie Cochran Memorial Project spearheaded a fundraising campaign in 2018 to restore the plaque and install a brand new "Three Steps to Heaven" base at the Chippenham crash site.

While they were preparing to board their taxi, Vincent and Cochran rebuffed musician Tony Sheridan's request to ride along with them, resulting in Sheridan's avoiding involvement in the accident.

Posthumous releases and honors
A posthumous album, My Way, was released in 1964. Cochran was a prolific performer, and the British label Rockstar Records has released more of his music posthumously than was released during his life. The company is still looking for unpublished songs. One of his posthumous releases was "Three Stars", a tribute to J.P. Richardson, better known as the Big Bopper, and Cochran's friends Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, who had all died in a plane crash just one year earlier. Written just hours after the tragedy by disc jockey Tommy Dee, it was recorded by Cochran two days later (Dee recorded his own version several weeks later). His voice broke during the spoken lyrics about Valens and Holly.

In 1987, Cochran was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His pioneering contribution to the genre of rockabilly has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Several of his songs have been re-released since his death, such as "C'mon Everybody", which was a number 14 hit in 1988 in the UK. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 84 on its 2003 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

On September 27, 2010, the mayor of Bell Gardens, California, declared October 3, 2010, to be "Eddie Cochran Day" to celebrate the famous musician who began his career when living in that city.

On June 10, 2022, Cochran's hometown of Albert Lea, Minnesota renamed James Street to Eddie Cochran Street in his honor.

On May 23, 2023, Cochran was honored with a blue plaque in Bristol, South West England, at the Bristol Hippodrome venue, the last place Cochran performed on his ill-fated tour in 1960.

Music
In 1963, pop star Heinz Burt and producer Joe Meek paid tribute to Cochran with the song "Just Like Eddie" which became a top five chart hit.

Film
In 1986, there was a planned biopic film titled Summertime Blues: The Eddie Cochran Story, produced by Cassian Elwes and starring Rob Lowe as Cochran. D'Agostin was involved in the pre-production stage, but the film was never made. Played by actor Jerry Zaremba, Cochran appeared in the 1978 biopic film The Buddy Holly Story, directed by Steve Rash.

There have been two documentary films made on Eddie Cochran's life by the BBC, Three Steps to Heaven (aired on November 30, 1982 BBC Arena), and Cherished Memories (2001 BBC). In 2022, It was announced that Kristy Bell's documentary was in the works, titled Don't Forget Me. Another documentary film titled The Bell Gardens Rocker was also in production.

Books
Cochran's life is chronicled in several publications, including Don't Forget Me: The Eddie Cochran Story, by Julie Mundy and Darrel Higham (ISBN 0-8230-7931-7), and Three Steps to Heaven, by Bobby Cochran (ISBN 0-634-03252-6). The Very Best of Eddie Cochran was released by EMI Records on June 2, 2008.

Style and influence
Cochran was one of the first rock-and-roll artists to write his own songs and overdub tracks. He is also credited with being one of the first to use an unwound third string to "bend" notes up a whole tone—an innovation (imparted to UK guitarist Joe Brown, who secured much session work as a result) that has since become an essential part of the standard rock guitar vocabulary.

Cochran was well known for playing the Gretsch 6120 guitar, with a Wild West "G" branded into the body’s bass bout. In 2010, Gretch and Fender Musical Instruments Corporation announced the G6120 Eddie Cochran Signature Hollow Body model, based on Cochran's original modified Gretsch.

Influence
A range of artists have covered Cochran's songs, such as Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, UFO, Van Halen, Tom Petty, Rod Stewart, T. Rex, Cliff Richard, the Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, the White Stripes, the Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious, Rush, Simple Minds, George Thorogood, Guitar Wolf, Alan Jackson, the Move, David Bowie, Johnny Hallyday and U2.

It was because Paul McCartney knew the chords and words to "Twenty Flight Rock" that he became a member of the Beatles. On July 6, 1957, McCartney met John Lennon at the St. Peter's Church and performed a few songs for him, including Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock". Lennon was so impressed that he invited McCartney to play in his band, the Quarrymen.

From a young age, Jimi Hendrix was influenced by Cochran. Hendrix performed "Summertime Blues" early in his career, with his band the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1967. In his own words, Hendrix requested a few of Cochran's songs to be played at his funeral. "I tell you, when I die I'm going to have a jam session. I want people to go wild and freak out. And knowing me, I'll probably get busted at my own funeral. The music will be played loud and it will be our music. I won't have any Beatles songs, but I'll have a few of Eddie Cochran's things and a whole lot of blues."

Pete Townshend of the Who was heavily influenced by Cochran's guitar style ("Summertime Blues" was a staple of live performances by the Who for most of their career, until the death of bassist and vocalist John Entwistle in 2002, and is featured on their album Live at Leeds). San Francisco Sound band Blue Cheer's version of "Summertime Blues" was their only hit and signature song, and has been described as the first heavy metal song.

Producer Terry Manning recorded a live version of "Somethin' Else" in concert, held inside Elvis Presley's first house in Memphis. In 2019, he released a live album Playin' with Elvis, on ECR. In 2016, Manning told PopWrapped, "I love rock and roll … the early stuff like Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly, not to mention Elvis, was very important to me."

The English band Humble Pie did a rendition of Cochran's "C'mon, Everybody" and the song featured on their album Smokin'  (1972).

The glam rock artist Marc Bolan had his main Gibson Les Paul guitar refinished in a transparent orange to resemble the Gretsch 6120 played by Cochran, who was his music hero. He was also an influence on the guitar player Brian Setzer, of Stray Cats, who plays a 6120 almost like that of Cochran, whom he portrayed in the film La Bamba.

title: Eddie Cochran


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The China Syndrome

The China Syndrome is a 1979 American disaster thriller film directed by James Bridges and written by Bridges, Mike Gray, and T.S. Cook. The film stars Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas (who also produced), Scott Brady, James Hampton, Peter Donat, Richard Herd, and Wilford Brimley. It follows a television reporter and her cameraman who discover safety coverups at a nuclear power plant. "China syndrome" is a fanciful term that describes a fictional result of a nuclear meltdown, where reactor components melt through their containment structures and into the underlying earth, "all the way to China".

The China Syndrome premiered at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or while Lemmon received the Best Actor Prize. It was theatrically released on March 16, 1979, twelve days before the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, which gave the film's subject matter an unexpected prescience. It became a critical and commercial success. Reviewers praised the film's screenplay, direction, and performances (most notably of Fonda and Lemmon), while it grossed $51.7 million on a production budget of $5.9 million. The film received four nominations at the 52nd Academy Awards; Best Actor (for Lemmon), Best Actress (for Fonda), Best Original Screenplay and Best Art Direction.

Plot
While visiting the Ventana nuclear power plant outside Los Angeles, television news reporter Kimberly Wells, her cameraman Richard Adams and their soundman Hector Salas witness the plant going through a turbine trip and corresponding SCRAM (emergency shutdown). Shift Supervisor Jack Godell notices an unusual vibration in his cup of coffee.

In response to a gauge indicating high water levels, Godell begins removing water from the core, but the gauge remains high as operators open more valves to dump water. Another operator notices a second gauge indicating low water levels. Godell taps the first gauge, which immediately unsticks and drops to indicate very low levels. The crew urgently pumps water back in and celebrates in relief at bringing the reactor back under control.

Adams has surreptitiously filmed the incident, despite being asked not to film for security reasons. Wells' superior refuses her report of what happened. Adams steals the footage and shows it to experts who conclude that the plant came perilously close to meltdown – the China syndrome.

During an inspection of the plant before it is brought back online, Godell discovers a puddle of radioactive water that has apparently leaked from a pump. He pushes to delay restarting the plant, but the plant superintendent wants nothing standing in the way of the restart.

Godell finds that a series of radiographs supposedly verifying the welds on the leaking pump are identical – the contractor simply kept resubmitting the same picture. He brings the evidence to the plant superintendent, who brushes him off as paranoid, stating that new radiographs would cost $20 million. Godell confronts Royce, an employee of Foster-Sullivan who built the plant, as it was he who signed off on the radiographs. Godell threatens to go to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but Royce threatens him; later, a pair of men from Foster-Sullivan park outside his house.

Wells and Adams confront Godell at his home and he voices his concerns. Wells and Adams ask him to testify at the NRC hearings over Foster-Sullivan's plans to build another nuclear plant. Godell agrees to obtain, through Salas, the false radiographs to take to the hearings.

Salas' car is run off the road and the radiographs are taken from him. Godell is chased by the men waiting outside his home. He takes refuge inside the plant, where he finds that the reactor is being brought up to full power. Grabbing a gun from a security guard, he forces everyone out, including his friend and co-worker Ted Spindler, and demands to be interviewed by Wells on live television. Plant management agrees to the interview in order to buy time as they try to regain control of the plant.

Minutes into the broadcast, plant technicians deliberately cause a SCRAM so they can distract Godell and retake the control room. A SWAT team forces its way in, the television cable is cut, and Godell is shot. Before dying, he feels the unusual vibration again. The resulting SCRAM is brought under control only by the plant's automatic systems, and the plant suffers significant damage as the pump malfunctions.

Plant officials try to paint Godell as emotionally disturbed, but are contradicted by a distraught Spindler on live television saying Godell was not crazy and would never have taken such drastic steps had there not been something wrong. A tearful Wells concludes her report and the news cuts to a commercial for microwave ovens.

Reception
Roger Ebert reviewed it as:

"...a terrific thriller that incidentally raises the most unsettling questions about how safe nuclear power plants really are. ... The movie is ... well-acted, well-crafted, scary as hell. The events leading up to the 'accident' in The China Syndrome are indeed based on actual occurrences at nuclear plants. Even the most unlikely mishap (a stuck needle on a graph causing engineers to misread a crucial water level) really happened at the Dresden plant outside Chicago. And yet the movie works so well not because of its factual basis, but because of its human content. The performances are so good, so consistently, that The China Syndrome becomes a thriller dealing in personal values."

Movie Reviews UK noted the film is:

"so accurate that, even though they're fictional, they could easily be documentaries...we see the greatest fears of the NIMBY culture unearthed when a nuclear power station almost goes out of control and the men-in-suits cover it up...[unknown] to them, the entire incident is covertly filmed by a visiting TV news-crew."

The acting is also credited:

"The power of this film is more than just the acting, although Lemmon is superb, and more than just the script. It is that this scenario could really happen...atmosphere produced in the plants' control-room is heart-stoppingly intense; characters are uniformly well-acted. I recommend The China Syndrome to everyone as an example of the dangers of money and corruption."

John Simon said The China Syndrome was a taut, intelligent, and chillingly gripping thriller till it turns melodramatic at its end. He called the ending both false and bathetic.

The film has a rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 40 critics. The critical consensus reads: "With gripping themes and a stellar cast, The China Syndrome is the rare thriller that's as thought-provoking as it is tense". On Metacritic it has a score of 81 based on reviews from 16 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Box office
The film opened in 534 theatres in the United States and grossed $4,354,854 in its opening weekend.

Response of nuclear industry
The March 1979 release was met with backlash from the nuclear power industry's claims of it being "sheer fiction" and a "character assassination of an entire industry". Twelve days later, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. While some credit the accident's timing in helping to sell tickets, the studio attempted to avoid appearing as if they were exploiting the accident, which included pulling the film from some theaters.

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title: The China Syndrome


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Roy Scheider

Roy Richard Scheider (November 10, 1932 – February 10, 2008) was an American actor and amateur boxer. Described by AllMovie as "one of the most unique and distinguished of all Hollywood actors", he gained fame for his leading and supporting roles in celebrated films from the 1970s through to the early to mid-1980s. He was nominated for two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award.

His best-known roles include Chief Martin Brody in Jaws (1975) and its sequel Jaws 2 (1978); NYPD Detective "Cloudy" Russo in The French Connection (1971); NYPD Detective "Buddy" in The Seven-Ups (1973); Doc Levy in Marathon Man (1976); Jackie Scanlon / Juan Dominguez in Sorcerer (1977); choreographer and film director Joe Gideon in All That Jazz (1979); Officer Frank Murphy in Blue Thunder (1983); and Dr. Heywood R. Floyd in the 1984 film 2010: The Year We Make Contact, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. He was also known for playing Captain Nathan Bridger in the science-fiction television series seaQuest DSV (1993–1996).

Early life
Scheider was born in Orange, New Jersey, the son of Anna (née Crosson) and auto mechanic Roy Bernhard Scheider. Scheider's mother was of Irish descent with an Irish Catholic background, while his father was a Protestant German American. As a child, Scheider was an athlete, participating in organized baseball and boxing competitions, for which he was classed as a welterweight, weighing in at 140 lb (63.5 kg). Scheider competed in the Diamond Gloves Boxing Tournament in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He attended Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, graduating in 1950, and was inducted into the school's hall of fame in 1985. He traded his boxing gloves for the stage, studying drama at both Rutgers University and Franklin and Marshall College, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.

Amateur boxing
Between 1946 and 1949, Scheider boxed as an amateur in New Jersey. Scheider said in a television interview in the 1980s that he took up boxing to lose weight. He said he had no desire to fight, but that his trainer, Georgie Ward, encouraged him to compete. In his second bout, at the 1946 Diamond Gloves Tournament (Golden Gloves), Scheider suffered a broken nose and lost by technical knockout in two rounds to Myron Greenberg. He went on to post an 11–1 (six knockouts) record, reversing his defeat by Greenberg in the process.

Military service
Scheider served three years in the United States Air Force as a first lieutenant in Air Operations from 1955 to 1958. He then became a captain in the Air Force Reserve Command until 1964.

Acting career
Scheider's first film role was in the horror film The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964). On television, he played running roles on two CBS soap operas, Love of Life and The Secret Storm, and also played character roles in episodes of Camera Three, N.Y.P.D., and Coronet Blue. He was in the TV movie Lamp at Midnight (1966). In 1968, Scheider appeared with the New York Shakespeare Festival, and also won an Obie Award for Distinguished Performance in James Joyce's play Stephen D, appearing in it 68 times at the East 74th Street Theater. He appeared in the films Stiletto (1969), Loving (1970), and Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970), and on television in Where the Heart Is and Cannon.

In 1971, he appeared in two highly popular films, Klute, directed by Alan Pakula, and The French Connection, directed by William Friedkin. The latter, in which he played a fictionalized version of New York City detective Sonny Grosso, gained him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Scheider became much in demand. He went to Europe to have key supporting roles in The French Conspiracy (1972) and The Outside Man (1972).

Scheider's first starring role came in The Seven-Ups (1973), a quasi follow-up to The French Connection, in which Scheider's character is once again based on Grosso. He was second-billed in Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York (1975). Scheider portrayed Chief Martin Brody in the Hollywood blockbuster Jaws (1975), which also starred Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss. Scheider's ad-libbed line, "You're gonna need a bigger boat," was voted 35th on the American Film Institute's list of best movie quotes. He appeared as secret agent Doc Levy in Marathon Man (1976), with Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier.

Scheider was initially set to appear in the lead role in Michael Cimino's never-filmed romantic thriller Perfect Strangers, but the film was canceled due to "political machinations" at Paramount. Ironically, Scheider was later offered the role portrayed by Robert De Niro in Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978), which was the second film of a three-picture deal with Universal Studios. He reunited with French Connection director William Friedkin in Sorcerer (1977), the second adaptation of the 1950 French novel The Wages of Fear. Although the film didn't do well at the box office, it has since acquired a large cult following.

Still under contract after dropping out two weeks before The Deer Hunter started filming, Universal offered him the option of reprising his role as Martin Brody for a Jaws sequel, and would consider his contractual obligations fulfilled if he accepted. Scheider accepted, and Jaws 2 was released in 1978. It was a huge hit. Scheider starred in Last Embrace (1979), a thriller directed by Jonathan Demme. He received his second Academy Award nomination, this time as Best Actor in All That Jazz (1979), in which he played a fictionalized version of the film's director and co-writer Bob Fosse. Some of the film's production was portrayed in the FX miniseries Fosse/Verdon, in which Scheider was played by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

He made a thriller with Meryl Streep for Robert Benton, Still of the Night (1982), which was a box-office disappointment. The following year, however, his box office performance improved with Blue Thunder (1983), a John Badham film about a prototype attack helicopter that provided security over the city of Los Angeles during the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. He made two TV movies, Jacobo Timerman: Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number (1983) and Tiger Town (1984). This was followed by a role as Dr. Heywood Floyd in Peter Hyams' 2010, a 1984 sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 science-fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which William Sylvester originated the role of Floyd. He provided narration for Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985).

Scheider was in The Men's Club (1986), 52 Pick-Up (1986) for John Frankenheimer, Cohen and Tate (1988), Listen to Me (1989), Night Game (1989), The Fourth War (1990) again for Frankenheimer, Somebody Has to Shoot the Picture (1990), and The Russia House (1990). One of his later parts was that of Dr. Benway in the long-in-production 1991 film adaptation of William S. Burroughs' novel Naked Lunch. Scheider played a mob boss who meets a horrific fate in the Gary Oldman crime film Romeo Is Bleeding (1994) and a chief executive of a corrupt insurance company cross-examined by Matt Damon's character in 1997's John Grisham's The Rainmaker, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Scheider appeared among an ensemble cast in The Myth of Fingerprints (1997), for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. He appeared as the crusty father of hero Frank Castle in The Punisher (2004), and in 2007, starred in The Poet and If I Didn't Care. When Scheider died in February 2008, he had two movies upcoming: Dark Honeymoon, which had been completed, and the thriller Iron Cross. In Iron Cross, Scheider plays the leading role of Joseph, a holocaust survivor with a propensity for justice, which was inspired by director Joshua Newton's late father Bruno Newton. Iron Cross was ultimately released in 2011.

Scheider was lead star in the Steven Spielberg-produced television series seaQuest DSV as Captain Nathan Bridger. During the second season, Scheider voiced disdain for the direction in which the series was heading. His comments were highly publicized, and the media criticized him for panning his own show. NBC made additional casting and writing changes in the third season, and Scheider decided to leave the show. His contract, however, required that he make several guest appearances that season. Scheider hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in the 10th (1984–1985) season and appeared on the Family Guy episode "Bill & Peter's Bogus Journey", voicing himself as the host of a toilet-training video, portions of which were censored on FOX and syndicated broadcasts. He provided voiceover on the Family Guy episode "Three Kings" (which was recorded in September 2007 but aired in May 2009, a year and three months after his death in February 2008), which also featured his Jaws co-star Richard Dreyfuss.

Scheider guest-starred in the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Endgame" as serial killer Mark Ford Brady, who is identified at the episode's end as being the biological father of Detective Goren (played by Vincent D'Onofrio). He narrated and was associate producer of the 2006 Jaws documentary The Shark is Still Working. In 2007, Scheider received one of two annual Lifetime Achievement Awards at the SunDeis Film Festival in Waltham, Massachusetts. After Scheider's death, a biography entitled Roy Scheider: A Life was released as a tribute, compiling reviews, essays, and narration on his life and career.

Personal life
Scheider married Cynthia Bebout on November 8, 1962. The couple had one daughter, Maximillia (1963–2006), before divorcing in 1986. On February 11, 1989, he married actress Brenda Siemer, with whom he had a son, Christian Scheider, and adopted a daughter, Molly. They remained married until his death.

Death
In 2004, Scheider was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. In June 2005, he received a bone marrow transplant to treat the cancer. He died on February 10, 2008, in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center.

title: Roy Scheider


text:
Herbert Blomstedt

Herbert Thorson Blomstedt (born 11 July 1927) is a Swedish conductor.

Herbert Blomstedt was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the son of Adolf Blomstedt (1898–1981) and his wife Alida Armintha Thorson (1899–1957). Two years after his birth, his Swedish parents moved the family back to their country of origin. He studied at the Stockholm Royal College of Music and the University of Uppsala, followed by studies of contemporary music at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse in 1949, Baroque music with Paul Sacher at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and further conducting studies with Igor Markevitch, Jean Morel at the Juilliard School, and Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood's Berkshire Music Center. Blomstedt also lived in Finland during his youth.

He won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize in 1953 and the Salzburg Conducting Competition in 1955.

Blomstedt is most noted for his performances of German and Austrian composers, such as Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, Anton Bruckner, Richard Strauss and Paul Hindemith, and also as a champion of Scandinavian composers, such as Edvard Grieg, Franz Berwald, Jean Sibelius and Carl Nielsen.

A devout Seventh-day Adventist, Blomstedt does not rehearse on Friday nights or Saturdays, the Sabbath in Seventh-day Adventism. He does, however, conduct concerts, since he considers actual performances to be an expression of his religious devotion rather than work.

He has been Music Director or Principal Conductor of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra (1954–1962), Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (1962–1968), Danish Radio Symphony (1967–1977) and Swedish Radio Symphony (1977–1982). From 1975 to 1985, he served as chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden, in the process making many well-regarded recordings, including works of Richard Strauss and the complete Beethoven and Schubert symphonies, and leading the orchestra on international tours.

Blomstedt was music director of the San Francisco Symphony from 1985 to 1995. He led the orchestra on regular tours of Europe and Asia, and made numerous prize-winning recordings for London/Decca, winning two Grammy Awards, a Gramophone Award and a Grand Prix du Disque, as well as awards from Belgium, Germany and Japan. After leaving San Francisco full-time, Blomstedt held principal conductorships with the North German Radio Symphony (1996–1998) and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (1998–2005).

Blomstedt is currently Conductor Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony and Honorary Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Staatskapelle Dresden.

Awards

 * 2022 Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
 * 2023 Opus Klassik for life's work

title: Herbert Blomstedt


text:
Croissant

A croissant is a French pastry made from puff pastry in a crescent shape.

It is a buttery, flaky, viennoiserie pastry inspired by the shape of the Austrian kipferl, but using the French yeast-leavened laminated dough. Croissants are named for their historical crescent shape. The dough is layered with butter, rolled and folded several times in succession, then rolled into a thin sheet, in a technique called laminating. The process results in a layered, flaky texture, similar to a puff pastry.

Crescent-shaped breads have been made since the Renaissance, and crescent-shaped cakes possibly since antiquity. The modern croissant was developed in the early 20th century, when French bakers replaced the brioche dough of the kipferl with a yeast-leavened laminated dough.

In the late 1970s, the development of factory-made, frozen, preformed but unbaked dough made them into a fast food that could be freshly baked by unskilled labor. The croissant bakery, notably the La Croissanterie chain, was a French response to American-style fast food, and as of 2008, 30–40% of the croissants sold in French bakeries and patisseries were baked from frozen dough.

Croissants are a common part of a continental breakfast in many European countries.

Origin and history
The kipferl, an Austrian crescent-shaped pastry, can be dated back to at least the 13th century in Austria, and came in various shapes. The kipferl can be made plain or with nuts or other fillings (some consider the rugelach a form of kipferl).

In either 1838 or 1839, an Austrian artillery officer, August Zang, founded a Viennese bakery ("Boulangerie Viennoise") at 92, rue de Richelieu in Paris. This bakery, which served Viennese specialties including the kipferl and the Vienna loaf, quickly became popular and inspired French imitators (and the concept, if not the term, of viennoiserie, a 20th-century term for supposedly Vienna-style pastries). The French version of the kipferl was named for its crescent (croissant) shape and has become a universally identifiable shape across the world.

The earliest known recipe for the present-day croissant appears in 1905, although the name croissant appears among the "fantasy or luxury breads" in 1853. Earlier recipes for non-laminated croissants can be found in the 19th century and at least one reference to croissants as an established French bread appeared as early as 1850.

Zang himself returned to Austria in 1848 to become a press magnate, but the bakery remained popular for some time afterwards, and was mentioned in several works of the time: "This same M. Zank [sic]...founded around 1830 [sic], in Paris, the famous Boulangerie viennoise". Several sources praise this bakery's products: "Paris is of exquisite delicacy; and, in particular, the succulent products of the Boulangerie Viennoise"; "which seemed to us as fine as if it came from the Viennese bakery on the rue de Richelieu".

By 1869, the croissant was well established enough to be mentioned as a breakfast staple, and in 1872, Charles Dickens wrote (in his periodical All the Year Round) of "the workman's pain de ménage and the soldier's pain de munition, to the dainty croissant on the boudoir table"

The puff pastry technique that now characterizes the croissant was already mentioned in the late 17th century, when La Varenne's Le Cuisinier françois gave a recipe for it in the 1680 – and possibly earlier – edition. It was typically used not on its own but for shells holding other ingredients (as in a vol-au-vent). It does not appear to be mentioned in relation to the croissant until the 20th century.

The first recipe corresponding to the modern croissant, not only for the shape but also the texture of the dough and the taste, was published in 1906, in Paris, in Colombié's Nouvelle Encyclopédie culinaire.

 Sylvain Claudius Goy  was a French chef who is sometimes said to have recorded the earliest recipe of the modern croissant. His 1915 book La Cuisine Anglo-Americaine contains a croissant recipe which Frey Fine Books consider to be the first such recipe published, and they describe the recipe as having "[given] birth to the croissant of present day". Goy's recipe uses a laminated yeast dough known in French as pâte feuilletée levée.

Culinary legends
Stories of how the kipferl — sometimes confused with the croissant — was created are widespread and persistent culinary legends, going back to the 19th century. However, there are no contemporary sources for any of these stories, and an aristocratic writer, writing in 1799, does not mention the kipferl in a long and extensive list of breakfast foods.

The legends include tales that it was invented in Europe to celebrate the defeat of the Umayyad forces by the Franks at the Battle of Tours in 732, with the shape representing the Islamic crescent; that it was invented in Buda; or, according to other sources, in Vienna in 1683 to celebrate the defeat of the Ottomans by Christian forces in the siege of the city, as a reference to the crescents on the Ottoman flags, when bakers staying up all night heard the tunneling operation and gave the alarm.

The Islamic origin story seems to have originated with the 20th-century writer Alfred Gottschalk, who gave two versions:

"According to one of a group of similar legends, which vary only in detail, a baker of the 17th century, working through the night at a time when his city (either Vienna in 1683 or Budapest in 1686) was under siege by the Turks, heard faint underground rumbling sounds which, on investigation, proved to be caused by a Turkish attempt to invade the city by tunneling under the walls. The tunnel was blown up. The baker asked no reward other than the exclusive right to bake crescent-shaped pastries commemorating the incident, the crescent being the symbol of Islam. He was duly rewarded in this way, and the croissant was born. The story seems to owe its origin, or at least its wide diffusion, to Alfred Gottschalk, who wrote about the croissant for the first edition of the Larousse Gastronomique (1938) and there gave the legend in the 'Turkish attack on Budapest in 1686' version; but who subsequently, in his own book (1948) on the history of food, opted for the 'siege of Vienna in 1683' version."

For this reason, the Islamic State attempted to ban croissants during the Syrian civil war.

Variants
Uncooked croissant dough can also be wrapped around any praline, almond paste, or chocolate before it is baked (in the last case, it becomes like pain au chocolat, which has a different, non-crescent, shape), or sliced to include sweet or savoury fillings. It may be flavored with dried fruit such as sultanas or raisins, or other fruits such as apples. In France and Spain, croissants are generally sold without filling and eaten without added butter, but sometimes with almond filling.

In the United States, sweet fillings or toppings are sometimes used, and warm croissants may be filled with ham and cheese, or feta cheese and spinach. In the Levant, croissants are sold plain or filled with chocolate, cheese, almonds, or zaatar. In Germany, croissants are sometimes filled with Nutella or persipan; in southern Germany, there is also a popular variety of a croissant glazed with lye (Laugencroissant). In the German-speaking part of Switzerland, the croissant is typically called a Gipfeli; this usually has a crisper crust and is less buttery than the French-style croissant.

Argentina and Uruguay
Croissants are commonly served alongside coffee for breakfast, aperitivo (a light mid-morning meal), or merienda (a mid-afternoon meal). They are referred to as medialunas ("half moons") because of their shape and are typically coated with a sweet glaze (medialunas de manteca, "half moons of butter"). Another variant is a medialuna de grasa ("half moon of lard"), which is not always sweet.

Italy
A cousin of the croissant is the Italian cornetto (in the center and south) or brioche (in the north). These variants are often considered to be the same, but that is not completely true: the French version tends to be crispy, whereas an Italian cornetto or brioche is usually softer. Furthermore, the cornetto vuoto (lit. 'empty cornetto') is commonly accompanied by variants with filling, which include crema pasticciera (custard), apricot jam or chocolate cream. They often come covered with powdered sugar or other toppings. Cornetto with cappuccino at the bar is one of the most common breakfasts in Italy.

Poland
On 11 November, St. Martin's Day is celebrated in the Polish region of Greater Poland, mainly in its capital city Poznań. On this day, the people of Poznań purchase and eat considerable amounts of sweet, crescent-shaped pastries called rogale świętomarcińskie ("St. Martin's croissants"). They are made specially for this occasion from puff pastry filled with ground white poppy seeds, almonds, raisins, and nuts.

Portugal
The first type of Portuguese croissant is similar to the French, and can be plain or filled with custard, chocolate, fruit jam, or a typical Portuguese cream made of egg yolk and sugar, "doce de ovo". It is customary for these to also have powdered sugar on top. The second version has a similar consistency to brioche and is commonly eaten with ham and cheese. Sometimes this type is also served like toast, with a spread of butter. While the first type of croissant is considered sweet and is eaten during breakfast or tea, the second type is a more filling meal and is usually considered a sandwich and often prepared for picnics or as travel food. Both types share the same name (French/Portuguese: "croissant") but are typically found in different bakeries: the sweet croissant is more commonly found in Portuguese pâtisseries and the brioche croissant is usually found in coffeehouses.

Spain
Besides the regular croissant, a variation called Xuixos is sold. It is half of a croissant, usually stuffed with cream.

Turkey
A pastry with croissant shape is the Turkish ay çöreği. It is filled with cinnamon, walnut, hazelnut, cacao and raisin. Its rectangular shape variant is known as pastiç or İzmir çöreği. It is generally eaten during breakfast or with tea.

Overview of manufacturing
The first step of manufacturing croissants is the "predough" formation. To prepare predough, flour, water, in-dough fat, yeast, salt, and sugar are mixed together in a single step. Typically, croissant predough is mixed in a relatively cool environment, for a longer time than other pastries. The ideal temperature of the dough should be around 19 °C, to best hydrate the ingredients. In comparison to the mixing of bread dough ingredients, pastry predough is considered underdeveloped in that mixing is stopped as soon as the dough appears homogeneous, to allow for further dough development in the next step.

The second step is the lamination process. Lamination is necessary to produce multilayered dough with alternating layers of predough and fat. Generally, there are two methods for folding fat into the dough: the English method and the French method. In the English method, one fold results in two fat layers and three dough layers. After spreading out predough, roll-in fat is flattened to a similar thickness as the predough and spread over two-thirds of the surface of the laminated predough. The exposed third of predough is then folded over half of the roll-in fat, while the other end (one predough and one fat layer) is folded on top. In the French method, one fold results in one fat layer and two dough layers. After spreading out the predough and putting a layer of roll-in fat over the center surface of the dough, the corners of the predough are folded toward the middle of the fat. Croissant dough is typically laminated until 16–50 fat layers are obtained. The optimal number of layers can be determined by balancing certain crumb properties with specific volume. On one hand, a low number of layers yields large specific heights as well as irregular crumb structure with large voids. On the other hand, a large number of relatively thin layers leads to interconnections between different dough layers as well as less dough lift.

After lamination, the dough is formed into its famous crescent shape. First, the laminated dough is cut into triangles of the desired size. The triangles are then rolled with three-and-a-half to four full turns, and finally, the ends of the roll are curved inwards to form a crescent.

The third step is the fermentation process. Croissants are different from other puff pastries in that they include yeast, which, during proofing, increases the dough volume. Ideally, the optimum croissant quality is achieved at a yeast level of 7.5%, with a proof time of 60 minutes at 31 °C. The croissants are finished proofing when the dough has expanded two-and-a-half times its original volume.

The fourth step is the baking process. Also known as "pastry lift" or "dough lift", the dough expands as water is converted to steam, thus increasing the pressure between each dough layer. As a result, the croissant dough rises up to yield its characteristic flaky texture. Depending on the type of oven used and specific size of the croissant, the baking time can range from 10 to 20 minutes and the oven temperature can be set anywhere from 165 to 205 C.

The final steps are the cooling and storage of the croissant. Croissants are generally not stored for very long and are typically consumed soon after baking.

Predough
Gluten proteins affect the water absorption and viscoelastic properties of the predough. The role of proteins can be divided into two stages of dough formation: hydration and deformation. In the hydration stage, gluten proteins absorb water up to two times their own weight. In the deformation or kneading stage, the action of mixing causes the gluten to undergo a series of polymerization and depolymerization reactions, forming a viscoelastic network. Hydrated glutenin proteins in particular help form a polymeric protein network that makes the dough more cohesive. On the other hand, hydrated gliadin proteins do not directly form the network, but do act as plasticizers of the glutenin network, thus imparting fluidity to the dough’s viscosity.

Starch also affects the viscosity of predough. At room temperature and in a sufficient amount of water, intact starch granules can absorb water up to 50% of their own dry weight, causing them to swell to a limited extent. The slightly swollen granules are found in the spaces between the gluten network, thus contributing to the consistency of the dough. The granules may not be intact, as the process of milling wheat into flour damages some of the starch granules. Given that damaged starch granules have the capacity to absorb around three times as much water as undamaged starch, the use of flour with higher levels of damaged starch requires the addition of more water to achieve optimal dough development and consistency.

Water content affects the mechanical behavior of predough. As previously discussed, water is absorbed by gluten and starch granules to increase the viscosity of the dough. The temperature of the water is also important as it determines the temperature of the predough. In order to facilitate processing, cold water should be used for two main reasons. First, chilled water provides a desirable environment for gluten development, as the temperature at which mixing occurs impacts the dough’s hydration time, consistency, and required amount of mixing energy. Secondly, cold water is comparable to the temperature of the roll-in fat to be added later, which better facilitates the latter’s incorporation.

In-dough fat affects the texture and lift of predough. Although higher levels of dough fat may lower dough lift during baking, it also correlates with a softer end product. As such, the main function of in-dough fat is to produce a desirable softness in the final croissant.

Lamination
In laminated croissant dough, the gluten network is not continuous. Instead, the gluten proteins are separated as thin gluten films between dough layers. The formation of thin, well-defined layers affects the height of dough lift. Generally, laminated croissant dough contains fewer layers than other puff pastry doughs that do not contain yeast, due to the presence of small bubbles in the gluten sheets. Upon proofing, these bubbles expand and destroy the integrity of the dough layers. The resulting interconnections between different dough layers would over-increase dough strength and allow water vapor to escape through micropores during baking, consequently decreasing dough lift. The role of fat also influences the separation of layers, as will be discussed next.

Roll-in fat affects the flakiness and flavor of the croissant. In laminated dough, fat layers alternate with dough layers. As such, the most important function of roll-in fat is to form and maintain a barrier between the different dough layers during sheeting and folding. As previously stated, the ability for fat to maintain separation between folded dough layers ensures proper dough lift.

The type of roll-in fat used is typically butter or margarine. Butter and margarine are both water-in-oil emulsions, composed of stabilized water droplets dispersed in oil. While butter is appealing due to its high consumer acceptance, its low melting point, 32 °C, actually makes it undesirable for production purposes. The use of butter as roll-in fat during the lamination step will cause problems of oiling out during sheeting and fermentation if the temperature is not tightly controlled, thus disrupting the integrity of the layers. On the other hand, kinds of margarine are commonly used as roll-in fat because they facilitate dough handling. Generally, roll-in margarine should have a melting point between 40 and 44 C, at least 3 °C higher than the fermentation temperature to prevent oiling out prior to baking. It is also important to consider the plasticity and firmness of the roll-in fat, which is largely determined by its solid fat content. Generally, a greater proportion of solid fat coincides with larger croissant lift. At the same time, the roll-in fat should have plasticity comparable to that of the dough, such that the fat layers do not break during sheeting and folding. If the fat is firmer than the dough, then the dough can rupture. If the fat is softer than the dough, then it will succumb to the mechanical stress of sheeting and potentially migrate into the dough.

Fermentation
Croissants contain yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is incorporated during predough formation. When oxygen is abundant, the yeast breaks down sugar into carbon dioxide and water through the process of respiration. This process releases energy that is used by the yeast for growth. After consuming all of the oxygen, the yeast switches to anaerobic fermentation. At this point, the yeast partially breaks down sugar into ethanol and carbon dioxide. Once saturates the dough’s aqueous phase, the gas begins to leaven the dough by diffusing to preexisting gas cells that were incorporated into the predough during mixing. Yeast action does not produce new gas cells, as the immense pressure required for a single molecule to create a new gas bubble is not physically attainable

In order to ensure the flaky texture of the croissant, it is important to balance the yeast activity with steam production. If the yeast overproduces, then the well-defined layers may collapse. During the baking process, this would cause steam to escape too early from the bread, reducing dough lift and flakiness of the final product. Thus, to offset the negative effects of yeast on layer integrity and dough lift, croissants usually contain fewer layers than other puff pastries.

Baking
During baking, the transient gluten network turns into a permanent network. At higher temperatures, intermolecular disulfide bonds form between glutenin molecules, as well as between gliadin and glutenin. With more bonds being made, the gluten network becomes more rigid, strengthening the croissant’s crumb texture. Additionally, the baking process significantly stretches the dough layers due to the large macroscopic deformation that occurred during fermentation’s dough lift.

Starch undergoes gelatinization as a result of baking. Prior to baking, starch granules absorb a small amount of water at room temperature as it is mixed with water to form predough. As long as the dough’s temperature stays under the gelatinization temperature, this granule swelling is limited and reversible. However, once the baking process begins and the dough is exposed to temperatures above the gelatinization temperature, amylopectin crystallites become more disordered inside the starch granules and cause an irreversible destruction of molecular order. At the same time, starch gelatinization actively draws water from the gluten network, further decreasing the flexibility of the gluten. Currently, the extent of amylose leaching and granular structure distortion during the baking of croissants is still unknown.

Roll-in fat gradually melts as the temperature in the oven increases. Some of the melting fat can migrate into the dough, which could then interfere with gluten protein crosslinking. The fat phase also contributes to dough lift through gas inflation, which will be described next.

Water is converted to steam during the baking process, which is the main factor behind the leavening of the dough. The water for steam production comes from both the dough layers and the roll-in fat. As the fat melts, the continuous oil phase is no longer able to stabilize the water droplets, which are then released and converted to steam. Although the exact mechanism of steam entrapment is still unclear, it is likely a result of both steam expanding inside each dough layer and steam migrating to oil layers, where it inflates gas bubbles. The steam migration to oil phase is likely due to the smaller pressure differential required to inflate a bubble of steam in liquid fat than in solid dough. As the concentration of steam increases between dough layers, the increased pressure causes the dough to lift. During the entire baking process, only half of the water vapor contributes to dough lift, as the other half is lost through micropores and capillaries of interconnected dough layers.

Storage
The effect of gluten proteins during cooling and storage is still unclear. It is possible that gluten proteins influence croissant firming through the loss of plasticizing water, which increases the stiffness of the gluten network.

Starch plays a major role in the degradation of croissants during storage. Amylopectin retrogradation occurs over several days to weeks, as amorphous amylopectin chains are realigned into a more crystalline structure. The transformation of the starch causes undesirable firmness in the croissant. Additionally, the formation of the crystal structure of amylopectin requires the incorporation of water. Starch retrogradation actively draws water from the amorphous gluten network and some of the amorphous starch fraction, which reduces the plasticity of both.

Water migration influences the quality of stored croissants through two mechanisms. First, as previously stated, water redistributes from gluten to starch as a result of starch retrogradation. Secondly, during the baking process, a moisture gradient was introduced as a result of heat transfer from the oven to the croissant. In fresh croissants, there is high moisture content on the inside and low moisture content on the outside. During storage, this moisture gradient induces water migration from the inside to the outer crust. On a molecular level, water is lost from the amorphous starch fraction and gluten network. At the same time, water diffuses from the outer crust to the environment, which has less moisture. The result of this redistribution of water is a firming up of the croissant, caused by a decrease in starch plasticity and an increase in gluten network rigidity. Due to the presence of large pores in croissants, moisture is lost to the environment at a faster rate than bread products. As such, croissants generally become harder in texture at a faster rate than breads.

Fat also affects the quality of croissants in storage. On one hand, an increased amount of in-dough fat has been found to correspond to a reduction in crumb hardness immediately after baking. This is likely attributed to the high-fat content of croissants, as increased fat levels decrease moisture diffusion. On the other hand, although roll-in fat softens the croissant’s initial crumb, its effect on croissant hardness during storage is still unclear.

title: Croissant


text:
Clyde McPhatter

Clyde Lensley McPhatter (November 15, 1932 – June 13, 1972) was an American rhythm and blues, soul, and rock and roll singer. He was one of the most widely imitated R&B singers of the 1950s and early 1960s and was a key figure in the shaping of doo-wop and R&B.

McPhatter's high-pitched tenor voice was steeped in the gospel music he sang in much of his early life. He was the lead tenor of the Mount Lebanon Singers, a gospel group he formed as a teenager. He was later the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes and was largely responsible for the initial success of the group. After his tenure with the Dominoes, McPhatter formed his own group, the Drifters, and later worked as a solo performer. Only 39 at the time of his death, he had struggled for years with alcoholism and depression, and was, according to Jay Warner's On This Day in Music History, "broke and despondent over a mismanaged career that made him a legend but hardly a success."

McPhatter left a legacy of over 22 years of recording history. He was the first artist to be inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, first as a solo artist and later as a member of the Drifters.

Subsequent double and triple inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame are said to be members of the "Clyde McPhatter Club".

Early life
McPhatter was born in the community of Hayti, in Durham, North Carolina on November 15, although the year is disputed. Some sources cite 1932. Author Colin Escott cites 1931, stating, "most biographies quote 1933 or 1934, although government documents cite the earlier year". His grave marker cites his birth year as 1932.

He was raised in a Baptist family, the son of Rev. George McPhatter and his wife Beulah (some accounts refer to her as Eva). Starting at the age of five, he sang in his father's church gospel choir along with his three brothers and three sisters. When he was 10, Clyde was the soprano-voiced soloist for the choir.

In 1945, Rev. McPhatter moved his family to Teaneck, New Jersey, where Clyde attended Chelsior High School. He worked part-time as a grocery store clerk and was promoted to shift manager upon graduating high school. The family then relocated to New York City, where Clyde formed a gospel group, the Mount Lebanon Singers.

With Billy Ward and the Dominoes (1950–53)
In 1950, after winning the coveted Amateur Night at Harlem's Apollo Theater contest, McPhatter returned to his job as a store manager. He was discovered singing the choir in the Holiness Baptist Church of New York City by Billy Ward of Billy Ward and his Dominoes and was recruited into the group. He was present for the recording of "Sixty Minute Man" for Federal Records, produced by Ralph Bass.

Billy Ward and his Dominoes was one of the top R&B vocal groups in the country, garnering more popularity than the Clovers, the Ravens, and the Five Keys, largely due to McPhatter's fervent, high-pitched tenor. In his book The Drifters, Bill Millar named Ben E. King, Smokey Robinson of the Miracles, Sammy Turner, and Marv Johnson among the many vocalists who patterned themselves after McPhatter. "Most important," he concluded, "McPhatter took hold of the Ink Spots' simple major chord harmonies, drenched them in call-and-response patterns, and sang as if he were back in church. In doing so, he created a revolutionary musical style from which—thankfully—popular music will never recover."

After recording several more songs with the Dominoes, including "Have Mercy Baby", "Do Something for Me", and "The Bells", McPhatter left the Dominoes on May 7, 1953. He was sometimes passed off as "Clyde Ward, Billy's little brother". Others assumed Billy Ward was doing the lead singing. As a member of the Dominoes, McPhatter did not earn much money; Ward paid him $100 a week, minus deductions for food, taxes, motel bills, etc. In an interview in 1971, McPhatter told journalist Marcia Vance, "whenever I'd get back on the block where everybody'd heard my records—half the time I couldn't afford a Coca-Cola."

Due to such occurrences, and as he was frequently at odds with Ward, McPhatter decided he would quit the Dominoes, intent on making a name for himself. He announced his intention to quit the group, and Ward agreed to his leaving provided that McPhatter stayed long enough to coach a replacement. Auditions for a replacement were later held at Detroit's Fox Theater, and a young Jackie Wilson eventually took over as lead tenor for the Dominoes. The position influenced Wilson's singing style and stage presence. "I fell in love with the man's voice. I toured with the group and watched Clyde and listened..."— and apparently learned.

Privately, McPhatter and Ward often argued, but publicly McPhatter expressed his appreciation of Ward for giving him his start in entertainment. "I think Billy Ward is a very wonderful musician and entertainer. I appreciate all he did for me in giving me my start in show business."

The Drifters (1953–54)
Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records, and Jerry Wexler, eagerly sought McPhatter after noticing he was not present for an appearance by the Dominoes at Birdland, which was "an odd booking for the Dominoes", in Ertegun's words.

After locating him, McPhatter was signed to Atlantic on the condition that he form his own group. McPhatter promptly assembled a group and called them the Drifters. They recorded a few tracks in June 1953, including a song called "Lucille", written by McPhatter himself. This group of Drifters did not have the sound Atlantic executives were looking for, however, and Clyde was prompted to assemble another group of singers. The initial members of the Drifters McPhatter assembled were mostly members of the Mount Lebanon Singers.

The revised lineup recorded and released such hits as "Money Honey", "Such a Night", "Honey Love", "White Christmas", and "What'cha Gonna Do", with the record label displaying the group name "Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters" on the first two singles, later changed to "The Drifters featuring Clyde McPhatter".

In late 1954, McPhatter was inducted into the U.S. Army and assigned to Special Services in the continental United States, which allowed him to continue recording. After his tour of duty, he left the Drifters and launched a solo career. The Drifters continued as a successful group, but with many changes in personnel, and the group assembled by McPhatter was long gone by the time their greatest successes were released after he left the group.

Upon his departure from the Drifters, McPhatter sold his share of the group to the band's manager George Treadwell, a decision that he later came to regret, after realizing that he caused his fellow musicians to experience unprofitability and the group essentially became a revolving-door line-up with recycled members on a ridiculous $100 weekly salary and paid virtually no royalties.

Solo career
Just after his military discharge, McPhatter recorded his first solo hit, "Love Has Joined Us Together", with Ruth Brown. He released several R&B recordings in the next few years, including "Rock and Cry", "Seven Days" (later a bigger hit for Tom Jones), "Treasure of Love", "Let Me Know", "Just to Hold My Hand", and his biggest solo hit, "A Lover's Question", written by Brook Benton and Jimmy T. Williams, which peaked at number six in 1958.

McPhatter's 1956 recording "Treasure of Love" was his first number-one hit on the R&B charts as a solo artist, and spent one week in the UK Singles Chart. It reached number 16 on the U.S. pop charts, sold over two million copies in the United States alone, and was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America.

After leaving Atlantic Records, McPhatter signed with MGM Records and released several more songs, including "I Told Myself a Lie" and "Think Me a Kiss" (1960), and his first single for Mercury Records, "Ta Ta". His tenure on these labels proved to be less fruitful than his time with Atlantic. He moved to other record labels and recorded more singles, including "I Never Knew" and his final top-10 hit, "Lover Please", written by country artist Billy Swan, which made it to number seven in 1962. After "Lover Please", McPhatter's career took a downward turn, as musical styles and tastes were constantly changing during the 1960s. He managed a top 30 R&B hit, "Crying Won't Help You Now", in 1964, then fell off the charts. McPhatter turned to alcohol abuse, sporadically releasing recordings that failed to chart.

In 1968, McPhatter moved to England, where he still had something of a following, using the UK band ICE as backup.

Death
McPhatter returned to the U.S. in 1970, making a few appearances in rock-and-roll revival tours, but lived mostly as a recluse. Hopes for a major comeback with a Decca album were crushed on June 13, 1972, when he died in his sleep at the age of 39, of complications of heart, liver, and kidney disease, brought on by alcohol abuse – behavior fueled by a failed career and resentment he harbored towards the fans he felt deserted him. In his interview with journalist Marcia Vance, McPhatter said, "I have no fans." He died at 1165 East 229th Street, in the Bronx, New York, where he had been living with Bertha M. Reid. They were traveling together as he tried to make a comeback.

McPhatter was a resident of Teaneck, New Jersey, at the time of his death. He was buried at George Washington Memorial Park in Paramus, New Jersey. At the time of his death, Clyde McPhatter had one daughter, Deborah L. McPhatter, born in April 1953. Ruth Brown acknowledged in her later years that McPhatter was the father of her son Ronald, born in 1954. Ron now tours with his own group named after his father – Clyde McPhatter's Drifters.

Legacy and honors

 * In 1987, McPhatter was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
 * The Rockabilly Hall of Fame recognized his pioneering efforts.
 * The Original Drifters were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998.
 * The United States Postal Service issued a stamp in McPhatter's honor in 1993.
 * The song "Money Honey" (1953) was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
 * McPhatter was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
 * In October 2020, Clyde McPhatter's exhibit opened in the North Carolina Museum of History, named "The Beach Music Exhibit". This exhibit was completed with interviews and memorabilia supplied by his daughter Deborah, board chair of the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
 * In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked McPhatter at number 99 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

title: Clyde McPhatter


text:
Andrew Dickson White

Andrew Dickson White (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was an American historian and educator who co-founded Cornell University, one of eight Ivy League universities in the United States, and served as its first president for nearly two decades. He was known for expanding the scope of college curricula. A politician, he had served as New York state senator and was later appointed as U.S. ambassador to Germany and Russia.

He was one of the founders of the conflict thesis, which states that science and religion have historically been in conflict, and tried to prove it over the course of approximately 800 pages in his History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom.

Early life and education
White was born on November 7, 1832, in Homer, New York, to Clara (née Dickson) and Horace White. Clara was the daughter of Andrew Dickson, a New York State Representative in 1832 and his wife. Horace was the son of Asa White, a farmer from Massachusetts, and his wife. Their once-successful farm was ruined by a fire when Horace was 13.

Despite little formal education and struggles with poverty after his family lost their farm, Horace White became a businessman and wealthy merchant. In 1839, he opened what became Syracuse Savings Bank in Syracuse. Horace and Clara White had two children: Andrew Dickson and his brother. Andrew was baptized in 1835 at the Calvary Episcopal Church on the town green in Homer.

One of Andrew's cousins, Edwin White, became an artist of the Luminism style and Hudson River School. His nephew was Horace White, governor of New York.

Beginning in the fall of 1849, White enrolled as an undergraduate at Geneva College, known today as Hobart and William Smith Colleges, at the insistence of his father. He was inducted as a member of Sigma Phi. In his autobiography, he recalled that he had felt that his time at Geneva was "wasted" by being at the small Episcopalian school instead of at "one of the larger New England universities". White dropped out in 1850. After a period of estrangement, White persuaded his father to let him transfer to Yale College.

At Yale, White was a classmate of Daniel Coit Gilman, who later served as the first president of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The two were members of the Skull and Bones secret society and would remain close friends. They traveled together in Europe after graduation and served together on the Venezuela Boundary Commission (1895–1896). His roommate was Thomas Frederick Davies Sr., who later became the third bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, 1889–1905. Other members of White's graduating year included Edmund Clarence Stedman, the poet and essayist; Wayne MacVeagh, Attorney General of the United States and U.S. Ambassador to Italy; and Hiram Bingham II, the missionary, collectively comprising the so-called "famous class of '53." According to White, he was deeply influenced in his academic career and life by Professor Noah Porter (later, Yale's president), who personally instructed him in rhetoric and remained a close personal friend until Porter's death.

Alpha Sigma Phi inducted White as a member in 1850 and he served as editor of the fraternity's publication, The Tomahawk. White remained active in the fraternity for the rest of his life, founding the Cornell chapter and serving as the national president from 1913 to 1915. He also served as an editor of The Lit., known today as the Yale Literary Magazine. He belonged to Linonia, a literary and debating society. As a junior, White won the Yale literary prize for the best essay, writing on the topic "The Greater Distinctions in Statesmanship;" this was a surprise as traditionally a senior was chosen for the winning essay. Also as a junior, White joined the junior society Psi Upsilon. In his senior year, White won the Clark Prize for English disputation and the De Forest prize for public oratory, speaking on the topic "The Diplomatic History of Modern Times". Valued at $100, the De Forest prize was then the largest prize of its kind at any educational institution, American or otherwise. In addition to academic pursuits, White was on the Yale crew team, and competed in the first Harvard–Yale Regatta in 1852.

After graduation, White traveled and studied in Europe with his classmate Daniel Coit Gilman. Between 1853 and 1854, he studied at the Sorbonne, the Collège de France, and the University of Berlin. He also served as the translator for Thomas H. Seymour, the U.S. Ambassador to Russia, following Gilman's term as translator, although he had not studied French (the language of diplomacy and the Russian royal court) prior to his studies in Europe. After he returned the United States, White enrolled at Yale to earn an M.A. in History and be inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in 1856.

Academia
In October 1858, White accepted a position as a professor of History and English literature at the University of Michigan, where he remained on faculty until 1863. White made his lasting mark on the grounds of the university by enrolling students to plant elms along the walkways on The Diag. Between 1862 and 1863, he traveled to Europe to lobby France and Britain to assist the United States in the American Civil War or at least not to aid the Confederate States.

Founding of Cornell University
In 1863, White returned to reside in Syracuse for business reasons. In November, he was elected to the New York State Senate on the Union Party ticket. In the Senate, White met the fellow upstate Senator Ezra Cornell, a self-taught Quaker farmer from Ithaca who had made a modest fortune in the telegraph industry. Around then, the senators were called on to decide how best to use the higher education funding provided by the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act, which allocated timberland in the Midwest, which states could sell as they saw fit. Through effective management by Cornell, New York, generated about $2.5 million (equivalent to $ in today dollars) from its allotted scrip, a greater yield per acre than any state except perhaps California. The senators initially wanted to divvy the funds among the numerous small state colleges of their districts. White fervently argued that the money would be more effectively used if it endowed only one university. Ezra Cornell agreed and told White, "I have about half a million dollars more than my family will need: what is the best thing I can do with it for the State?" White immediately replied, "The best thing you can do with it is to establish or strengthen some institution of higher learning." The two thus combined their efforts to form a new university.

White pressed for the university to be located on the hill in Syracuse, the current location of Syracuse University, because of the city's transportation hub. That could help attract faculty, students, and other persons of note. However, as a young carpenter working in Syracuse, Cornell had been robbed of his wages, and insisted for the university to be in his hometown of Ithaca. He proposed to donate land on his large farm on East Hill, overlooking the town and Cayuga Lake. White convinced Cornell to give his name to the university "in accordance with [the] time-honored American usage" of naming universities after their largest initial benefactors. On February 7, 1865, White introduced a bill "to establish the Cornell University" and, on April 27, 1865, after months of debate, Governor Reuben E. Fenton signed into law the bill endowing Cornell University as the state's land-grant institution.In 1865, White also authored "...The Negro's Right to Citizenship - a very detailed legal, ethical and logical argument for citizenship for the Negro." A staunch abolitionist, White was also the author of "abolition of Slavery the Right of Government under the War Powers Act" as well as several other legal arguments in favor of the Negro."

White became the school's first president and served as a professor in the Department of History. He commissioned Cornell's first architecture student, William Henry Miller, to build his president's mansion on campus.

White was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1869 and American Antiquarian Society in 1884.

In 1891, Leland and Jane Stanford asked White to serve as the first president of Stanford University, which they had founded in Palo Alto, California. Although he refused, he recommended his former student David Starr Jordan.

Conflict thesis
At the time of Cornell's founding, White announced that it would be "an asylum for Science—where truth shall be sought for truth's sake, not stretched or cut exactly to fit Revealed Religion." Until then, most of America's private universities had been founded as religious institutions and generally were focused on the liberal arts and religious training.

In 1869, White gave a lecture on "The Battle-Fields of Science" in which he argued that history showed the negative outcomes resulting from any attempt on the part of religion to interfere with the progress of science. Over the next 30 years, he refined his analysis, expanding his case studies to include nearly every field of science over the entire history of Christianity but also narrowing his target from "religion" through "ecclesiasticism" to "dogmatic theology."

The final result was the two-volume A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896) in which he asserted the conflict thesis of science being against dogmatic theology. Initially less popular than John William Draper's History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (1874), White's book became an influential text in the 19th century on the relationship between religion and science. White's conflict thesis has been widely rejected among contemporary historians of science. The warfare depiction remains a popular view among critics of religion.

Diplomat
While at Cornell, in 1871, he took leave to serve as a Commissioner to Santo Domingo, along with Benjamin Wade and Samuel Howe, at the request of President Ulysses Grant to determine the feasibility of an American annexation of the Dominican Republic. Their report (available here) supported the annexation, but Grant was unable to gain sufficient political support to take further action.

Later, White was appointed as the American ambassador to Germany (1879–1881). After returning to the United States, he was elected as the first president of the American Historical Association (1884–1886). Upstate New York Republicans nominated him for governor in 1876 and for Congress in 1886, but he did not win either primary.

Following his resignation in 1885 as Cornell's president, White served as the minister to Russia (1892–1894), president of the American delegation to The Hague Peace Conference (1899), and again as ambassador to Germany (1897–1902).

In 1904, White published his Autobiography, which he had written while he was relaxing in Italy after his retirement from the Department of State with the change in administrations. Cornell's third president, Jacob Gould Schurman, was appointed as ambassador to Germany from 1925 to 1929.

At the onset of World War I, White supported the German cause within Europe because he had strong professional and emotional ties to Germany. By the summer of 1915, he retreated from this position and refrained from offering any support either publicly or privately. In the fall of 1916, President Woodrow Wilson appointed White to a peace commission to prepare a treaty with China. As of December 1916, White had reduced some of his obligations, resigning from the Smithsonian Board of Regents and the trustees of the Carnegie Institution.

Bibliophile
Over the course of his career, White amassed a sizable book collection. His library included an extensive section on architecture, which then represented the largest architecture library in the United States. He donated all 4,000 books to the Cornell University Library for the purpose of teaching architecture as well as the remainder of his 30,000-book collection.

In 1879, White enlisted George Lincoln Burr, a former undergraduate assistant for one of his seminars, to manage the rare books collection. Though Burr would later hold other positions at the university, such as Professor of History, he remained White's collaborator and head of this collection until 1922 by traveling over Europe, locating and amassing books that White wanted. In particular, he built the collections on the Reformation, witchcraft, and the French Revolution. Today, White's collection is housed primarily in the Cornell Archives and in the Andrew Dickson White Reading Room (formally known as the "President White Library of History and Political Science") at Uris Library on the Ithaca Campus. The A.D. White Reading Room was designed by William Henry Miller, who had also designed White's mansion on campus.

While serving in Russia, White made the acquaintance of author Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy's fascination with Mormonism sparked a similar interest in White, who had previously regarded the Latter-Day Saints (LDS) as a dangerous cult. Upon his return to the United States, White took advantage of Cornell's proximity to the religion's birthplace in Palmyra to amass a collection of LDS memorabilia (including many original copies of the Book of Mormon); it is unmatched by any other institution outside the church itself and its flagship Brigham Young University.

Personal life
White married twice. His first marriage, on September 27, 1857, was to Mary Amanda Outwater (February 10, 1836 – June 8, 1887), daughter of Peter Outwater and Lucia M. Phillips of Syracuse. Mary's maternal grandmother Amanda Danforth, daughter of Asa Danforth Jr. and wife of Elijah Phillips Jr., was the first white child born in what would become Onondaga County, New York. Her great-grandfathers included General Asa Danforth, an early pioneer of upstate New York and leader of the State Militia, as well as Elijah Philips Sr., who had responded to the alarm to Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1775 and later served as the High Sheriff of Onondaga County.

Andrew and Mary had three children together: Frederick Davies White, who committed suicide in his forties in 1901 after a prolonged series of illnesses; Clara (White) Newbury, who died before her father; and Ruth (White) Ferry. After his wife died in 1887, White went on a lecture tour and traveled in Europe with his close friend, Daniel Willard Fiske, librarian at Cornell.

After three years as a widower, in 1890, White married Helen Magill, the daughter of Edward Magill, Swarthmore College's second president. She was the first woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. Like her husband, Helen was a social scientist and educator; the two met at a conference where she was presenting a paper. Together, Helen and Andrew had three children.

Death and legacy
On October 26, 1918, White suffered a slight paralytic stroke following a severe illness of several days. On the morning of Monday, November 4, White died at home in Ithaca. Three days later, on November 7, on what would have been White's 86th birthday, White was interred at Sage Chapel on the Cornell campus. The chapel was filled to capacity by faculty, trustees, and other well-wishers.

White's body resides in a sarcophagus in the Memorial Room with those of other persons deemed influential in the founding and early years of the university, including co-founder Ezra Cornell and benefactor Jennie McGraw-Fiske. His marble sarcophagus was designed in the popular Art Nouveau style. It features crests of countries and institutions that played important roles in White's life. For example, the adjacent picture shows the crests of the two countries where White was an ambassador; the coat of arms of Imperial Germany is on left and Saint George, a variation on the coat of arms of Moscow, representing Russia, is on the right.

The sarcophagus was completed in 1926 by sculptor Lee Oskar Lawrie (1877–1963), who also created sculptures adorning Myron Taylor Hall at Cornell. Lawrie is perhaps best known for his Atlas statue at Rockefeller Center in New York City.

In his will, White left $500,000 to Cornell University, in addition to the considerable sums donated to the institution earlier in his life.

Cornell University
In his 1904 autobiography, The Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White, White wrote:

"During my life, which is now extending beyond the allotted span of threescore and ten, I have been engaged after the manner of my countrymen, in many sorts of work, have become interested in many conditions of men have joined in many efforts which I hope have been of use; but, most of all, I have been interested in the founding and maintaining of Cornell University, and by the part, I have taken in that, more than by any other work of my life I hope to be judged."

Until at least the mid-20th century, Cornell undergraduates with the surname 'White' were traditionally given the nickname 'Andy' in reference to White. Notably, E. B. White, author of the world-famous children's book Charlotte's Web, continued to go by the nickname 'Andy' for the rest of his life after his undergraduate years at Cornell.

Legacy and honors
Historian Benjamin G, Rader argues that in creating Cornell: White championed nondenominationalism, coeducation, an elective curriculum, and academic freedom. These positions won him a lasting reputation as a pioneer in the history of higher education.

According to professor Geoffrey Blodgett, White confronted a series of complex challenges in his long career:"Above all, the creation from scratch of a large, high-quality, coeducational, nonsectarian public university in the cockpit of post-Civil War, educational politics was an organizational chore of awesome subtlety for man of White's genteel background and soaring ideals.'"

Earned degrees
 * Yale - A.B. (1853)
 * Yale - M.A. History (1856)

White was awarded numerous honorary degrees, including:
 * University of Michigan, LL.D. (1867)
 * Cornell University, LL.D. (1886)
 * Yale University, LL.D. (1887)
 * Columbia University, L.H.D. (1887)
 * University of Jena, Ph.D. (1889)
 * St. Andrew's University, LL.D. (October 1902)
 * Johns Hopkins University, LL.D. (1902)
 * University of Oxford, D.C.L. in connection with the Bodleian Library tercentenary (October 1902)
 * Dartmouth College, LL.D. (1906)

Selected bibliography

 * Outlines of a Course of Lectures on History (1861).
 * Syllabus of Lectures on Modern History (1876).
 * A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, 2 vols. (1896), online at Gutenberg text file.
 * Seven Great Statesmen in the Warfare of Humanity with Unreason (1910).
 * The Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White (1911), online at Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White: Vol. 1, Vol. 2
 * , e-text
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title: Andrew Dickson White