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Villach

Villach (Beljak; Villaco; Vilac) is the seventh-largest city in Austria and the second-largest in the federal state of Carinthia. It is an important traffic junction for southern Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the population is 61,887.

Together with other Alpine towns Villach engages in the Alpine Town of the Year Association for the implementation of the Alpine Convention to achieve sustainable development in the Alpine Arc. In 1997, Villach was the first town to be awarded Alpine Town of the Year.

Geography
Villach is a statutory city, on the Drau River near its confluence with the Gail tributary, at the western rim of the Klagenfurt basin. The municipal area stretches from the slopes of the Gailtal Alps (Mt. Dobratsch) down to Lake Ossiach in the northeast.

The Villach city limits comprise the following districts and villages: In 1905 a part of the municipal area St. Martin was incorporated. In 1973 the city area was further enlarged through the incorporation of Landskron, Maria Gail and Fellach.

Climate
Villach has a cool summer humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb).

History
The oldest human traces found in Villach date back to the late Neolithic. Many Roman artifacts have been discovered in the city and its vicinity, as it was near an important Roman road (today called Römerweg) leading from Italy into the Noricum province established in 15 BC. At the time, a mansio named Sanctium was probably located at the hot spring in the present-day Warmbad quarter south of the city centre. After the Migration Period and the Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps about 600 AD, the area became part of the Carantania principality.

When about 740 Prince Boruth enlisted the aid of Duke Odilo of Bavaria against the invading Avars, he had to accept Bavarian overlordship. An 878 deed of donation, issued by the Carolingian ruler Carloman of Bavaria, mentioned a bridge (ad pontem Uillach) near the royal court of Treffen, in what is today Villach. In 979 Emperor Otto II enfeoffed Bishop Albuin of Brixen with the Villach manor. After his death, King Henry II in 1007 ceded the settlement to the newly established Bishopric of Bamberg. The bishops also held the adjacent estates along the strategically important route to Italy up to Pontafel, which they retained until 1759 while the surrounding Carinthian ducal lands passed to the Austrian House of Habsburg in 1335. Villach received market rights in 1060, though it was not mentioned as a town in records until about 1240. The parish church dedicated to St. James was first documented in 1136. Emperor Frederick II conferred the citizens the right to hold an annual fair on the feast of 25 July (Jakobitag) in 1222. The 1348 Friuli earthquake devastated large parts of the town; another devastating earthquake occurred in 1690. There were also several fires in Villach, which destroyed many buildings. The first documented mayor took office in the 16th century.

From 1526 onwards, many citizens turned Protestant and the Villach parish became a centre of the new faith within the Carinthian estates, which entailed harsh Counter-Reformation measures by the ecclesiastical rulers. From about 1600, numerous residents were forced to leave the town, precipitating an economic decline. In 1759 the Habsburg empress Maria Theresa formally purchased the Bamberg territories in Carinthia for a price of one million florins. Villach was incorporated into the "hereditary lands" of the Habsburg monarchy and became the administrative seat of a Carinthian district.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the city was occupied by French troops and became part of the short-lived Illyrian Provinces from 1809, until it was re-conquered by the forces of the Austrian Empire in 1813 and incorporated into the Austrian Kingdom of Illyria by 1816. The city's economy was decisively promoted by a western branch of the Southern Railway line, which finally reached Villach in 1864, providing growth and expansion. By 1880, the town had a population of 6,104. In World War I, Villach near the Italian front was the seat of the 10th Army command of the Austro-Hungarian Army.

The town obtained statutory city status during the interwar period on 1 January 1932. After the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany in 1938, the mayor of Villach was Oskar Kraus, an enthusiastic Nazi. On 9 November 1938 Villach was a site of the nationwide Kristallnacht pogroms with violent attacks on the Jewish population. A memorial for the 1919 border conflict that led to the Carinthian Plebiscite caused controversy when it was inaugurated in 2002, as Kraus, who had not been especially prominent in the conflict, was the only person named.

During World War II, allied forces bombed Villach 37 times. About 42,500 bombs killed 300 people and damaged 85% of the buildings. Nevertheless, the city quickly recovered. Today, Villach is a bustling city with commerce and recreation, yet it retains its historic background.

Municipal council
The municipal council (Gemeinderat) consists of 45 members, with the mayor as president, and following the 2015 elections:

 * Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ): 23 seats
 * Austrian People's Party (ÖVP): 10 seats
 * Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ): 7 seats
 * Austrian Green Party: 3 seats
 * Verantwortung Erde: 1 seat
 * NEOS: 1 seat

City government
The city government of Villach (Stadtsenat) consists of seven members. It is chaired by the mayor, who is directly elected by the people. The other members—two vice-mayors and four town councillors—are appointed by the municipal council, with party affiliations according to the election results.

 * Mayor Günther Albel, SPÖ
 * First vice-mayor Mag. Dr. Petra Oberrauner, SPÖ
 * Second vice-mayor Mag. Gerda Sandriesser, SPÖ
 * Councillor Mag. Peter F. Weidinger, ÖVP
 * Councillor Erwin Baumann, FPÖ
 * Councillor Mag. Harald Sobe, SPÖ
 * Councillor Katharina Spanring, ÖVP

In the March 2015 elections, Günther Albel was elected with 55.46 per cent of the votes cast.

Twin towns—sister cities
Villach is twinned with:

 * 🇩🇪 Bamberg, Germany
 * 🇮🇹 Udine, Italy
 * 🇫🇷 Suresnes, France

Festivals
There are several festivals throughout the year:

 * The carnival in Villach (which starts on November 11 and ends on March 4)
 * The arts and crafts festival (with self made goods)
 * Villacher Fasching or Mardi Gras
 * The streets-art festival (displays performances of artists and singers)
 * The "Villacher Kirchtag" (a festival spanning a whole week in summer and ends on August's first Saturday.)
 * Performances on a floating stage on the Drau River

Notable citizens

 * Ludwig Willroider (1845 – 1910), an Austrian landscape painter and etcher.
 * Oskar Potiorek (1853 in Bad Bleiberg – 1933) Austro-Hungarian Army officer, Governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo from 1911 to 1914, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated there
 * Anton Ghon (1866 in Villach – 1936) Austrian pathologist viz Ghon focus and Ghon's complex
 * Oskar Kraus, (DE Wiki) (1887-1973 in Villach), Mayor of Villach 1938-1945
 * Hans Kurath (1891 in Villach – 1992) American linguist, emigrated to the US in 1907
 * Carl-Heinz Birnbacher (1910 in Villach – 1991) German naval officer, Vice admiral of the German Navy
 * Albert Bach (1910 in Treffen – 2003) soldier, Generalmajor, and skier, competed at the 1936 Winter Olympics.
 * Heidemarie Hatheyer (1918 in Villach – 1990) film actress, appearing in 43 films between 1938 and 1988
 * Paul Watzlawick (1921 in Villach – 2007) Austrian-American therapist, psychologist and communications theorist.
 * Kurt Diemberger (born 1932), author and mountaineer
 * Bruno Gironcoli (1936 in Villach – 2010) Austrian modern artist
 * Heidelinde Weis (1940 – 2023) Austrian actress
 * Peter Brabeck-Letmathe (born 1944 in Villach), former CEO of the Nestlé Group and of Formula One Group
 * George Zebrowski (born 1945 in Villach) American science fiction author and editor
 * Zoltan J. Acs (born 1947 in Villach) American economist and Professor of Management at The LSE
 * Felix Tretter (born 1949 in Villach) Austrian psychologist, psychiatrist and cybernetician
 * Werner Kofler (1947 in Villach – 2011) Austrian postmodernism novelist
 * Konrad Paul Liessmann (born 1953), philosopher, essayist and cultural publicist.
 * Gerald Kargl (born 1953 in Villach) Austrian film director, directed the 1983 film Angst
 * Wolfgang Ilgenfritz (1957 in Villach – 2013) Austrian politician and notably a non-attached MEP
 * Gernot Rumpold (born 1957 in Villach) Austrian politician, associate of Jörg Haider
 * Peter Löscher (born 1957 in Villach) Austrian businessman with Merck & Co and former CEO of Siemens
 * Michael Martin Kofler (born 1966), classical flautist with the Munich Philharmonic
 * Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek (born 1969 in Villach) Austrian politician of the Austrian Green Party
 * Alexander Kaimbacher (born 1969), Austrian operatic tenor
 * Thomas Smolej (1982 in Villach) Austrian actor and director
 * Florian Hufsky (1986 in Villach – 2009) Austrian new media artist, board member of the Pirate Party of Austria

Sport

 * Ernst Melchior (1920 in Villach – 1978) Austrian football player for Austria Wien, FC Rouen and FC Nantes, he played almost 400 games and 36 games for Austria
 * Hanns Brandstätter (born 1949 in Villach) fencer; competed in at the 72, 76, and 1984 Summer Olympics
 * Alex Antonitsch (born 1966 in Villach) former tennis player from Austria, turned professional in 1988
 * Christian Mayer (born 1972), former alpine skier, twice bronze medallist in the 1994 & 1998 Winter Olympics
 * Bärbel Jungmeier (born 1975 in Villach) road cyclist and mountain bike rider, rode at the 2004 Summer Olympics
 * Gerhard Unterluggauer (born 1976 in Villach) Austrian former professional ice hockey defenceman
 * Roland Kollmann (born 1976 in Villach) retired footballer for Grazer AK, played 343 games and 11 for Austria
 * Daniel Mesotitsch (born 1976 in Villach) Austrian biathlete twice Olympic team medallist
 * Jürgen Pichorner (born 1977), an Austrian football midfielder who has played over 330 games
 * Friedrich Pinter (born 1978 in Villach) Austrian former biathlete
 * Martin Koch (born 1982 in Villach) former ski jumper, team gold medallist at the 2006 Winter Olympics
 * Michael Grabner, (born 1987 in Villach) Austrian professional ice hockey player for New York Rangers of the NHL
 * Marc Sand (born 1988 in Rosegg) Austrian footballer, who plays for SK Austria Klagenfurt
 * Michael Raffl (born 1988 in Villach) professional ice hockey left winger for Dallas Stars of the NHL
 * Guido Burgstaller (born 1989 in Villach) footballer who plays for Rapid Wien, has played 26 games for Austria
 * Christopher Wernitznig (born 1990), an Austrian footballer who has played over 470 games
 * Anna Gasser (born 1991 in Villach) snowboarder, two-time Olympic gold medalist in Big Air (2018 and 2022)
 * Marco Schwarz (born 1995 in Villach) Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer
 * Christopher Höher (born 1997 in Villach) Austrian racing driver
 * Daniela Ulbing (born 1998), an Austrian snowboarder, silver medallist at the 2022 Winter Olympics

title: Villach


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Mathieu Molé

Mathieu Molé (1584 – 3 January 1656) was a French statesman.

Biography
The son of Edouard Molé (d. 1614), who was for a time procureur-général, he was educated at the University of Orléans. Admitted conseiller in 1606, he was président aux requêtes in 1610, procureur-général in succession to Nicolas de Bellièvre in 1614, and took part in the assembly of the Notables summoned at Rouen in 1617. He fought in vain against the setting up of special tribunals, or commissions, to try prisoners charged with political offences, and for his persistence in the case of the brothers Louis and Michel de Marillac he was suspended in 1631, and ordered to appear at Fontainebleau in his own defence.

Hitherto Molé's relations with Cardinal Richelieu had been fairly good, but his inclination to the doctrines of Port Royal increased the differences between them. It was not until after Richelieu's death that he was able to secure the release of his friend, the abbé de St Cyran. In 1641 he was appointed first president of the parlement, with the preliminary condition that he should not permit the general assembly of the chambers except by express order of the king. After Richelieu's death the pretensions of the parlement increased; the hereditary magistrature arrogated to itself the functions of the states-general, and in 1648 the parlement with the other sovereign courts (the cour des aides, the grand conseil, and the cour des comptes) met in one assembly and proposed for the royal sanction twenty-seven articles, which amounted in substance to a new constitution.

In the long conflict between Anne of Austria and the parlement, Molé, without yielding the rights of the parlement, played a conciliatory part. In the popular tumult known as the day of the barricades (26 August 1648) he sought out Mazarin and the queen to demand the release of Pierre Broussel and his colleagues, whose seizure had been the original cause of the outbreak. Next day the parlement marched in procession to repeat Molé's demand. On their way back they were stopped by the crowd. Molé was threatened with death unless he brought back Broussel or Mazarin as a hostage. Many magistrates fled; the remnant, headed by the intrepid Molé, returned to the Palais Royal, where Anne of Austria was induced to release the prisoners.

Molé's moderating counsels failed to prevent the outbreak of the first Fronde, but he negotiated the peace of Rueil in 1651, and averted a conflict between the partisans of Condé and of the Cardinal de Retz within the precincts of the Palais de Justice. He refused honours and rewards for himself or his family, but became keeper of the seals, in which capacity he was compelled to follow the court, and he therefore retired from the presidency of the parlement.

The Mémoires of Molé were edited for the Société de l'histoire de France (4 vols., 1855) by Aimé Champollion-Figeac, and his life was written by Baron AGP de Barante in Le Parlement et la Fronde (1859). See also the memoirs of Omer Talon and of De Retz.

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

title: Mathieu Molé


text:
Talk:Four Corners Monument

in the middle of the LARGEST Navajo Indian Reservation in the U.S.
I had a good laugh when I read the part in the article "The Navajo live near this area." The Four Corners is smack dab in the middle of the LARGEST Navajo Indian Reservation in the U.S. The Four Corners landmark is run by the Indians there. B

Actually, it's on the border, not smack dab in the middle. The Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico "corners" are Navajo Nation. The Colorado "corner" is Ute reservation. 140.147.236.195 (talk) 14:20, 25 January 2012 (UTC)Stephen Kosciesza

fire at the site
I seem to recall some sort of a fire at the site ~15 years ago... can anyone confirm? (That would mean I was 8 at the time, which is why I don't remember very clearly.) ---Rob 20:37, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

location of the monument
Somebody corrected the location of the monument to exactly 37N,109W. It's not correct - it's supposed to be there, but 19th century surveying was not as accurate as today's tools are. This can be easily checked by looking at google maps - 37N,109W is some distance inside Colorado.

Yes, but the person who provided the location shown (36°59′56.31532″N, 109°02′42.62019″W) thinks modern techniques are much better than they really are -- the 5th decimal place in a second of latitude is a fraction of a millimeter. Even in closely controlled surveys, accuracy better than a few centimeters is hard to achieve. I would knock two decimal places off the numbers given.--Jameslwoodward (talk) 23:51, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Actual borders?
Since the reservation is technically a sovereign nation, this really isn't the border of anything.

 * This is indeed the border for the four states. It is true that the two reservations are sovereign but that does not invalidate the fact that there is a state boundary running through them. For instance if you, and non-Indian earn money on the Indian reservation you would owe state income taxes to the state you were in when you earned the money.

 * I am in the process of researching this and will post more as soon as I have it.

Nwbeeson 17:45, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

 * So are you saying these particular state corners aren't really corners here? I think surveyors would dispute that. 12.53.232.146 (talk) 22:25, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

The monument is not within any state, it is on Navajo land. The states have no jurisdiction here since the area is not considered a part of any state, so the monument is not actually the corner of four states. They sometimes sell merchandise at the monument but they don't charge state sales tax. They charge to visit the monument but, again, don't pay state sales tax. They also don't follow state rules there for time zones because the Navajo nation has its own rules. The claim about taxes, above, is wrong since that depends on where you live. This area is not a part of any state and thus is not actually four corners. Peter (Cactus Pete) (talk)

Merged
Should this article not be merged with Four corners? Both articles are about the same thing and there both quite small.

Allard  Monday 24 April

Pictures
The two pictures of the monument (the long shot and the one with the child) are clearly not of the same thing. Is the one with the child the pre-1992 monument? Or is the right-hand one actually an artist's impression of a proposed alteration? (It's either a drawing or it's very heavily processed.) TSP 02:15, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
 * The one with the kid was taken sometime in the mid to late 1960s. -- Prove It (talk) 15:06, 16 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Picture taken May 13th, 1965 -- Prove It (talk) 20:12, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Unfree image?
The image Image:Us_four_corners_msspider.jpg is listed as having a non-commercial-only license. Isn't that incompatible with Wikipedia? 81.158.1.11 02:02, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Distance?
My time-space-spatial skills are lacking. Could someone figure out the distance between the two different locations for the "Four Corners"? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wiki-ny-2007 (talk • contribs) 20:00, 18 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Per Google Maps, it's about 2.5 miles. Dave (talk) 04:11, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

state borders moved?
This story does not make sense. Please add appropriate explanatory details. Having this monument in the wrong place for over a hundred years is somewhat trivial by itself. But moving the whole border of four states by 2.5 miles would be a very big deal. So apparently this marker is located in an area so remote that the matter of where the state borders are actually located is not important? How can that be?

It may be "unlikely" that the traditional monument will be moved/abandoned, but it is hard to believe that the proper point will not be publicly marked, sooner or later. -71.174.183.110 (talk) 23:15, 20 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately, though this surveying error is not newely discovered (It's been known for decades) the recent publicity is causing this article to get rapidly edited. I've attempted to clarify. However in the big scheme of things this is not a big error. Remember we are taking about counties that have hundreds of square miles, yet only a few thousand inhabitants. In that scope 2.5 miles is nothing. Dave (talk) 23:43, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Mis-corrections on misplacement of monument abound!
Ah, the hazards of easy editing!

The news item of April 20, 2009 claiming errors in surveying appears to be itself in error. (This report is cited in the Four Corners Monument entry as footnote #3, and in the entry on Four Corners as Footnote #7)

Reading the comments in the cited news report (http://www.deseretnews.com/user/comments/1,5143,705298412,00.html) reveals that the "controversy" stems from sloppy reporting and a misunderstanding regarding the reference point used for surveying state boundaries in the latter half of the 19th century.

In 1868, state boundaries in the US did not use the Greenwich Meridian as a reference point. Instead, they were measured as distance from The "Washington Meridian". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_meridian). When measured as degrees west of the definition of the Washington Meridian at the time, the location of the Four Corners monument is QUITE close to where the Federal government intended it to be when it was defined. It is only when the monument is measured against the Greenwich Meridian that it appears significantly "off."

I will not hazard further "mis-editing" of the article. Rather I will leave it to the regular caretakers of the article to research the issue further and clarify things.

(Ken Lacouture, unregistered user, late at night April 21, 2009.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.72.40.35 (talk) 04:02, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

ADDITION BY KL: Using the following assumptions I have calculated that the current monument is only 574 feet from where congress intended the real border to be.

 * The location was intended to be 32 degrees west of the Washington Meridian
 * It was intended to be at true 37 degrees north.
 * The Washington Meridian in 1868 was understood to be at 77, 2' 48" west of the Greenwich Meridian.
 * Thus, the intended location was N 37 0' 0", W 109 2' 48"
 * The location of the current monument is 36° 59′ 56.31532″N 109°02′42.62019″W

Using GPS visualizer (http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/calculators) and the decimal form of the locations results in 574 feet difference. (Visual at: http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/map?format=google&units=metric&lat1=36.998976&lon1=-109.045172&lat2=37.0&lon2=-109.046666&gc_segments=&gc_altitude=&tickmark_interval=&show_wpt=3)

Additionally, this "intended" location is actually WEST and north of the current monument.

SECOND ADDITION BY KL: Dave, your rewrite of my rewrite improved things a great deal. However, I additionally suggest you remove or alter the assertion that congress declared the position to be an even 109 degrees west, as there appears to be no evidence of such. Rather, they declared specifically that it be 32 degrees west of the Washington Meridian, and made no reference to the 109th meridian. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.72.40.35 (talk) 16:45, 21 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Done, again, thanks for your effort. I was cringing watching this article go down the toiled due to the sensational coverage in the media. I did what I could but could only spare a few minutes for research. Your efforts saved the article from the downward spiral.Dave (talk) 17:01, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

FOLLOW UP: Dave, I agree this has been fun "outsmarting" the lazy media. For me it has been a very fascinating and eye-opening lesson in how misinformation gets started and amplified.

I'll note that one of the most interesting aspects of it for me was how, on Tuesday, a lot of our effort went into editing a passage in a way that would be bullet-proof against further "miscorrecting" (i.e., taking the time to explain why the news stories were wrong, instead of just deleting reference to them). Yet a user still managed to blunder in and miscorrect!

Finally: my opinion is that we should let the dust settle for a while, and then consider making the controversy a separate sub-section of the entry. That way we could explain more slowly and coherently how the location was initially mandated and why it's not on the 109th meridian, as well as how the reporting mistake got made, while not cluttering up the flow of the main sections of the article.

Oh, also: I really like the changes you made to the Four Corners Area entry.--72.72.40.35 (talk) 15:53, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

 * It gets worse. The Idaho Statesman ran a no-byline blurb today (April 23, 2009) on this, that first stated the monument is off by 2-1/2 miles, then quoted a figure of 1,870-some feet. The utter stupidity of the obvious math error prevented me from remembering the exact number given. 2.5 miles is 13,200 feet, quite a bit more than 1,870! The blurb's author *and* the newspaper editor both need remedial math education ASAP. P.S. According to YAUC on my PDA, that's 13,200 survey feet in 2.5 statute miles, or 13,200.0264001 feet of some other sort.
 * I think it's calmed down now. I'll give the re-write a stab. Any objections feel free to fix, revert, tell me to jump in the lake, whatever. Dave (talk) 04:53, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * FYI, I have decided to nominate this article for GA. That should be a good test to see if the article is back into shape. Dave (talk) 05:19, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Recently Added section about 4 square
I am enclosing a paragraph recently added to the article page: A newly popular activity at the monument is playing Four Square Four_square. Became popular when the Mission Hills Math Department documented with photos and video their road trip and game in 2009. Shez Sirimanne, Four Square at Four Corners

I am not sure if this recent addition is appropriate for a few reasons, and am moving it here for discussion: However this may be appropriate for one of the external links at the bottom of the page (not sure). Please provide input if you have any.Dave (talk) 16:02, 31 July 2009 (UTC)
 * It is a level 2 section, and with this addition the controversy and history sections are now level 3 sub sections under a section titled Four Square. I don't believe this to be appropriate
 * The section begins with "A newly popular activity", yet the source is a single high school field trip, not a source about a new activity rising in popularity.
 * The source is a collection of photos from the field trip, but doesn't actually have any information about the monument itself. In addition the source is self-published and not compliant with wikipedia's sourcing guidelines.

Reference to this monument in a recent Simpsons Episode
The recent Simpsons Episode on May 16th 2010 features a monument called the Five Corners, which is a reference to this specific monument, only with one more state added. -66.41.62.253 (talk) 00:34, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Shape of the corners
According to the borderlines marked in Google Earth the four lines do not meet all rectangular. Actually the Utah Colorado frontier is shifted about 30 meters (100 ft) to the west. 100 meters (330 ft) the border has an angle to meet the junction of the others from northwest. If Google Earth is right in this way, the plate on Four Corners Monument should be mentioned wrong, as is shows all borders rectangular to each other. 89.247.164.238 (talk) 03:22, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

 * According to Google Maps, all four borders intersect at right angles. The border with a NNW bearing joins a due south border well north of the 4 Corners Road. Furthermore, Google Maps erroneously marks the four state boundaries slightly northwest of the monument itself but inside the loop road. But the marker itself is the legal corner according to the Supreme Court so Google Maps is wrong. Hence I would not trust their zig-zag line. The legal boundary is that surveyed by Robbins in 1875, which should have been marked by monuments every few miles. Hence the Google Map version of the Utah-Colorado border zigs too close to the monument itself to be believed. — Joe Kress (talk) 06:56, 12 June 2010 (UTC)
 * While I agree that Google Maps and Google Earth is the neatest thing since sliced bread, one should understand the limitations of those applications. They are NOT super reliable sources. As it is based from satellite images, it is a descent source for distance between features (as long as one avoids False precision), however the road, trails, political boundaries and similar information used by Google is a combination of several separate databases. Each of these databases has errors and outdated information, with additional errors created by trying to get those databases to overlap, when sometimes they don't. I contribute frequently to road articles and am fairly familiar with the standards set by the U.S. Road's Wikiproject. I can tell you from first hand experience that any article nominated for good article status or higher that overly relies on Google Maps will be shot down by any experienced member of that project. Long winded point is, don't take Google Maps as the word of God. Dave (talk) 09:13, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Arizona Locator map problems
I'm trying to get some action on the MESSED UP location DOT's on the Arizona Map w/Rivers:..File:USA Arizona location map.svg. (All 50 state .svg Maps must be messed up.)

See the maps below for the FOUR CORNERS location. Also the Painted Rock Dam which is supposed to appear on the Gila River. (See: Talk:Dendora Valley) The Dam is the eastern terminus of the Dendora Valley west of the Painted Rock Reservoir. (The Gila River then turns south from the Dam.)

From the HOT-SonornDesert, ArizonaUSA...Mmcannis (talk) 02:26, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

From the HOT-SonornDesert, ArizonaUSA...(And........ are all the STATE .svg maps messed-up, and nobody has bothered to fix this across ALL 50 states?) (It seems obvious its a sizing problem, THE DOT is in the correct corner of the map, but the corner of the State Ain't There !...HA HA, we fooled the world. Any way,... this needs to be FIXED)-From the HOT-SonornDesert, ArizonaUSA...Mmcannis (talk) 02:26, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

 * Looks to me like there may be a problem with the Geobox template. The Location map template uses the same map, but places the dot properly.

 * There must be many articles, in all 50 states with improper DOT's. I was trying to locate Klondyke, Arizona on new article: Aravaipa Creek-(ny article). next went to neighboring mountain peaks; the DOT was still 50 miles out of POSITION. So YOU, may be this first actual believer...(From the HOTdesert)..Mmcannis (talk) 13:54, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

 * You seem to have missed what I said in my final line above. The problem seems to be with the Geobox template, not with the map. - Denimadept (talk) 17:33, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

 * The problem was that the SVG image was using the calibration template for the PNG image (Template:Geobox locator Arizona) - the PNG map and SVG map have different sizes and limits, so the dot was off. I made a new template: Template:Geobox locator Arizona svg and that works pretty well - the dot may be a pixel or two too low. Ruhrfisch ><> ° ° 03:19, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

New Mexico fix
New Mexico svg map fix: (test run)(finalized)

 * This is why you have a sandbox. - Denimadept (talk) 05:50, 8 August 2010 (UTC)
 * And this is why you have a public Forum, so an easy Fix can be shown; (I've gotten instructions from the Initial person that Fixed this for Arizona(there are 49 states that could have this fixed for use with the Geobox.)(The first person that commented, Was a Disbeliever..You are in a Different Category-(to remain 'nameless' and unrevealed)--(I think only the 2nd person had the "Fix")(this is the 2nd state, this and 48-more to go-I assume YOU're too busy?)(except to make an aside comment)---(In just minutes from now, I'm going to try (a "perfect", set of numbers, and see where the Pushpin dot ends up.))--(from the SonoranDesert, ArizonaUSA) Mmcannis (talk) 17:11, 10 August 2010 (UTC)
 * The One-step Method I used was very close. (for a 'quick-and-dirty' attempt)(the Pushpin moved slightly south)(Note-the 2nd Map is calibrated by somebody else, probably Long Ago, and the Pushpin is slightly "north" of 4-CORNERS); what maybe somebody cares about knowing (except the previous commentor), is that, the coodinates are only one aspect(maybe 1/2? the accuracy?); the second aspect is the Ratio calibration (see the advice from the initial person for the Arizona map, His explanaion is on my Talk Page)(there are two numbers I tried-for the Ratio); (I may try redoing for a 3rd Ratio Number-(and averaging ALL THREE))--(Fix for New Mexico-(Nevada & California to follow))-- (from Arizona-HOTdesertLand-USA..--Mmcannis (talk) 17:30, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

Added construction closure to lead
I have added information about the monument's closure back into the lead. It is not "history" that it is currently closed--it is the current state of the monument. It is also unreasonable to bury this information only in the history section; as evidenced by the New York Times article, people are driving thousands of miles to discover it is closed. Spril4 (talk) 19:32, 4 August 2010 (UTC)

State boundaries
The article is still inadequate.

The question of whether the monument is in the "right" place is sort of trivial, per se.

But the question of where the current legal and/or actual boundaries of these four states really are is not trivial. And since these boundaries are straight lines (?), they have to meet somewhere. Which may or may not be where this monument has been placed. If they differ, and the monument defines the legal intersection, then the boundaries have to curve to cheat to meet up there? We not only need good text, we need a good map/diagram showing these details. And if these things do not currently have an exact consistent explanation/resolution, maybe we should say that?

This kerfuffle is the most interesting aspect of the topic? May ultimately need it's own article? Would be good to have a sequence of magnified images of the intersection area on a sequence of maps, historic and particularly official, over hundreds of years, finishing with most current/official/authoritative. -96.233.18.244 (talk) 13:40, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

 * The legal boundaries of these states are straight lines, but all are short, only a few kilometers in length from one physical boundary marker to the next. The boundary that was physically surveyed on the ground is legal according to the United States Supreme Court, not arbitrary lines of longitude and latitude. The lines from the far end of the four states to the monument only appear to be straight—they are actually slightly jagged. The last four segments ending at the Four Corners Monument from the four cardinal directions are likewise straight. However, the angles between them differ from 90° by a very small amount, so they do not come from due north, east, south, or west. Even when highly magnified, this difference from cardinality could not be discerned. Unfortunately, I do not know of a good source discussing this.

 * This difference is not a great concern at the Four Corners Monument, but is critical at international borders. When the border between Canada and the United States was recently resurveyed using highly accurate GPS devices, the straight line segments between these old boundary markers were found to pass through buildings near border crossings, making post 9/11 border control problematic. — Joe Kress (talk) 20:24, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

Aha! Now things are finally starting to make sense, of a sort... So, the entire "straight" boundaries of these states are based historically on a theoretical definition, but are actually currently ultimately legally based on a series of physical markers on the ground? Under what conditions, how often, if ever, would all those markers be re-surveyed and all potentially moved? Never?

Anyway, this basic legal/surveying matter should be mentioned in the article, with links to further info.-96.233.19.223 (talk) 03:41, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * "Once a survey commissioned to establish a boundary has been accepted, the survey markers become legally binding." Is how the article currently states of all of the above. If this needs further clarification, IMO the best option is just to expand on that sentence. Dave (talk) 16:00, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

 * The source of this statement is probably Boundaries of the United States and the several states by Franklin K. van Zandt, Geological Survey Professional Paper 909 (1976) page 2, which states "It is legally well established that a boundary or property line once marked on the ground and accepted by the interested parties involved becomes the true line, whether or not it follows the written description." This is amid a long discussion on how boundaries are established on pages 2–10. An earlier and shorter version of this discussion, which includes an earlier version of this statement, is online in Boundaries, areas, geographic centers and altitudes of the United States and the several states by Edward M. Douglas, United States Geological Survey Bulletin 689 (1923) pages 1–4.

 * Marginally applicable to this article is the controversy over the Colorado-New Mexico boundary, which lasted from 1864, when Congress defined the boundary, until 1960, when the United States Supreme Court accepted the final resurvey. See Retracing Colorado's south line. Subsequent surveys cannot move existing boundary markers—they can only specify their coordinates on later datums (ellipsoids) such as NAD 83. The boundary was first surveyed in 1868 by Darling from the northeast corner of New Mexico territory to just west of the Four Corners, which he may not have attempted to locate. His line included a half-mile jog now five miles west of US 84, among other deviations north and south of 37°N. It was "straightened" in 1902–03 by Carpenter who was instructed to "obliterate" the Darling line. In 1925 the Supreme Court decided that the Darling line was the legal boundary and must be remonumented. This was done using Carpenter's notes, which recorded the locations of Darling's monuments before he destroyed them, between 1925 and 1950 (interrupted) by Kidder, but he was never paid so he did not release his notes. His widow was paid in 1959, his notes were released, and the boundary became official in 1960. A sample of Kidder's field notes is online (rest of notes, including those of Darling and Carpenter, are on microfiche at federal depository libraries associated with US Supreme Court case New Mexico v. Colorado, 364 US 296 (1960)).

 * The four boundaries that meet at the Four Corners Monument were marked every mile, terrain permitting, and at crossing roads, railroads, etc., using roughly ten astronomical stations along each boundary which were near the monumented line. A temporary astronomical station was placed in 1875 by Robbins 49 chains (0.6 miles) northeast of his Four Corners Monument in the valley of the San Juan River, where he cut a large cottonwood tree to use its stump to support his theodolite. I doubt that the straight line segments between the nearest mile markers and the Four Corners Monument deviate from cardinal directions by more than a few minutes of arc, hence would not be visible on any map scale. — Joe Kress (talk) 22:59, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

Rest area--Navajo or Ute?
The caption on one photograph says "The Four Corners Monument rest area, maintained on Navajo Nation lands." But the facility seen in the photo seems to be in Colorado. I thought that would place it in the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, not the Navajo Nation. Can someone please clarify? 140.147.236.195 (talk) 14:22, 25 January 2012 (UTC)Stephen Kosciesza
 * Feel free to change the caption if you don't feel it's clear. However, the caption is correct. As stated in the article in at least two places, the Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation Dept. maintains the monument. So its only misleading in that there are some objects (namely a hut and a car or two) that are technically in the Ute Mountain Tribal nation. IMO that's not worth mentioning, but whatever. Dave (talk) 17:24, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Political boundary vs Attraction
" Unlike many other attractions based on what are primarily political boundaries, such as the Berlin Wall, Four Corners Monument is an example of a political boundary that is a tourist destination in its own right."

I don't really get the difference here. This isn't well explained at all. If the political boundary didn't exist here, the monument wouldn't exist. So what's the difference between this and the Berlin Wall or the signpost at Land's End Philipwhiuk (talk) 19:51, 27 January 2015 (UTC)
 * That statement has been in the article for several years, but I'm not sure who inserted it or what their intentions were. I think the intended meaning is that, the Berlin wall (and related Brandenburg Gate), Great Wall of China, Bridge of no return and many others are not only notable for their use as a political boundary, but are notable for other reasons as well (be they historical events, conflicts or whatever). Whereas the 4 corners monument is only notable because of its location on a political boundary. In that aspect it is similar to the Land's End signpost you mention (as well as the one at Key West, Barrow, Alaska etc.), with the exception that these monuments are on natural, not political boundaries. Dave (talk) 21:08, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

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Google Maps
I just reverted a recent addition claiming the monument was in New Mexico. The source was reliable, but the only part of thst source that showed the monument in NM was an embedded map from Google maps. While Google Maps has its proper uses as a source in Wikipedia articles, it also has its limits. See Using maps and similar sources in Wikipedia articles.Dave (talk) 02:47, 18 January 2018 (UTC)

tone of Misplacement Controversy
This section reads strangely defensive, as if written by someone strongly arguing against the accusations of inaccuracy.

Please wrerite in a neutral tone, where our editorial voice doesn't so clearly side with those wanting to downplay the issue.

CapnZapp (talk) 21:11, 14 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I don't see it as a tone problem. But What I see is there are a couple of statements that are "dated" now that the 2009 controversy is long past. As I see it, it would take less work to remove the dated statements than to tag the article. It's past my bedtime, I'll prune tomorrow if nobody else gets to it first. Dave (talk) 07:04, 15 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I have rephrased it to avoid the issues, and thus removed the tag. CapnZapp (talk) 09:52, 15 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I think the edits you made are fair. I might do some touch up work, but I agree with the bulk of your changes. If you want some history, this article was one of the most visible articles in Wikipedia when this 2009 controversy happened, it was even cited by a couple of the news sources. The page was getting spammed with edits of "it's it the wrong spot, it's off by 2.5 miles, it's really just in the middle of New Mexico" and there were several sourced edits made to drive the point home, no, surveyers aren't idiots, they know what they are doing. The monument is the legal corner of the 4 US states." But to your point 2009 was 12 years ago, and that level of argument is no longer required, and frankly was only required then as an anti-vandal tool. Dave (talk) 15:25, 15 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you. I suspected something like that was the reason. Now, Wikipedia articles are of course not meant to school vandals, so my response would have been the same then as it was now: with me possibly adding how the editorial tone should not assume the reader needs to be told right from wrong, and or commenting that such a sort of meta message is instead appropriate for the talk page. Cheers CapnZapp (talk) 15:40, 15 March 2021 (UTC)

Is it true that the COVID-19 closures are no longer in effect?
If so, then the removal of that section by Kittykittypants is justified. If not, then it isn't. T3h   1337   b0y  19:59, 31 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Last time I was there, the monument was open, but a mask requirement was still in effect. Dave (talk) 05:56, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Four Corners Monument


text:
Brett Ratner

Brett Ratner (born March 28, 1969) is an American film director and producer. He directed the Rush Hour film series, The Family Man, Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Tower Heist. He is a producer of several films, including the Horrible Bosses series, The Revenant and War Dogs,  and was an executive producer of the television series Prison Break.

Ratner got his start directing with music videos in the 1990s, and directed his first motion picture, Money Talks, in 1997. Overall, the films Ratner has directed have earned over $2 billion at the global box office. Ratner is the co-founder of RatPac Entertainment, a film production company. Ratner led RatPac's partnership with Dune Entertainment in September 2013 for a co-producing deal with Warner Bros. that included 75 films. RatPac Entertainment has co-financed 81 theatrically released motion pictures exceeding $17 billion in worldwide box office receipts. RatPac's co-financed films have been nominated for 59 Academy Awards, 25 Golden Globes and 43 BAFTAs and have won 25 Academy Awards, 8 Golden Globes and 24 BAFTAs. In January 2017, Ratner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion picture industry, located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard.

In 2017, numerous women in Hollywood came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct, sexual assault, or harassment against Ratner. He has not produced a film in Hollywood since then, and he emigrated to Israel in 2023.

Early life
Ratner was born and raised in Miami Beach, Florida, the son of Marsha Presman and Ronald Ratner. He grew up in a middle-class Jewish family. His grandfather was d-CON mail order rat poison company founder and real estate developer Lee Ratner. His mother was born in Cuba and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1960s with her parents, Fanita and Mario Presman, whose families themselves originally moved to Cuba from Eastern Europe. Ratner's mother was sixteen when he was born. Ratner has said that he "really didn't know" his biological father, and that he considers Alvin Malnik, a lawyer and businessman with alleged organized crime ties  who opened the restaurant The Forge in Miami Beach, to be his father, "the one who raised" him. Malnik was a friend of Lee Ratner and not romantically involved with Marsha Presman. Ratner's biological father became homeless in Miami Beach, a situation which inspired the Brett Ratner to become a board member of the nationwide nonprofit organization Chrysalis, which helps the homeless find work.

Ratner attended Rabbi Alexander S. Gross Hebrew Academy elementary school and attended Alexander Muss High School in Israel and graduated in 1986 from Miami Beach Senior High School. While growing up in Miami Beach, Ratner was an extra on the set of Scarface and was able to watch Miami Vice film around town. Shortly before Ratner's high school graduation, his mother and biological father married with the intention of legitimizing his status. He is a 1990 graduate of New York University. In 2010, he cited Martin Scorsese's 1980 film Raging Bull as his inspiration to enter the world of film.

Directing
Ratner began directing music videos in the 1990s. When he was a sophomore at New York University Tisch Schools of the Arts, he was manager and executive producer for B.M.O.C. (Big Man On Campus), one of the first white rap groups. While a student at NYU, he released his first short film Whatever Happened to Mason Reese?. The rap group Public Enemy attended the film's premiere and asked Ratner to make the group's music videos. Ratner did the debut videos for Prime Minister Pete Nice before working with Redman, LL Cool J, Heavy D and Wu-Tang Clan. He has directed music videos for artists such as Mariah Carey Madonna, Miley Cyrus, Jay-Z and was scheduled to direct a video for Michael Jackson before its production was cancelled. He directed Carey's "We Belong Together", "I Still Believe", "Obsessed" and "Heartbreaker" and others.

Ratner had his motion picture debut when he directed Money Talks in 1997. The film, an action-comedy about a con-man accused of organizing a prison break, was Ratner's first collaboration with comedian Chris Tucker. The film's budget was $25 million.

In 1998, he directed Rush Hour, an action-comedy starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, which was released in September 1998 and went on to become the studio's highest-grossing film and the highest grossing comedy at the time. Ratner uses music on the set to inspire the production, and when filming Rush Hour, a Michael Jackson song he played for inspiration ended up in the film after Chris Tucker began dancing in the middle of a scene.

Ratner directed The Family Man, a drama starring Nicolas Cage, in 2000.

In 2001, Ratner directed Rush Hour 2. In 2002, he directed Red Dragon, the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs, about Hannibal Lecter.

In 2004, Ratner directed After the Sunset, starring Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek. The action comedy film revolves around a master thief pulling off one last big score, with an FBI agent in hot pursuit.

In 2006, Ratner directed X-Men: The Last Stand, then directed Rush Hour 3, which was released in 2007.

Ratner directed a television commercial for Wynn Las Vegas featuring Steve Wynn on top of Encore Las Vegas in 2008.

In the same year, Ratner directed the ensemble comedy caper Tower Heist, starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy. The film was originally based on an idea from Eddie Murphy titled 'Trump Heist' and was about disgruntled employees of Donald Trump planning to rob Trump Tower, though references to Trump were removed from the film.

In early 2021, Ratner announced that he will direct a long-gestated Milli Vanilli biopic, which would be his first project since MGM's 2014 Hercules, for Millennium Media. In February 2021, Millennium Media stated it would not be moving forward with Ratner's project.

Producing
Ratner was an executive producer of the television series Prison Break, which aired from 2005 to 2009, and directed its pilot episode.

In 2011, Ratner produced the TV documentary, American Masters: Woody Allen – A Documentary. That same year, he produced Horrible Bosses, a comedy about employees plotting to kill their bosses. Horrible Bosses opened at the domestic box office with $28.1 million in its first weekend.

Ratner produced a remake of Snow White, Mirror Mirror (2012), based on the screenplay The Brothers Grimm: Snow White by Melisa Wallack.

In 2014, he produced Horrible Bosses 2, the sequel to his 2011 film. Ratner executive-produced the Rush Hour TV series based on the Rush Hour film series.

In 2015, Ratner produced Black Mass, a biopic about gangster James "Whitey" Bulger, played by Johnny Depp. The same year, Ratner was executive producer of The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

He was an executive producer on the 2016 film War Dogs, directed by Todd Phillips and starring Jonah Hill and Miles Teller.

RatPac Entertainment
In December 2012, Ratner and Australian media mogul James Packer formed a joint venture, RatPac Entertainment. The firm will produce independent films and co-produce big-budget films with a major studio. Packer's stake in the company was later bought out by Len Blavatnik's First Access Entertainment. The company makes 25 films annually. By 2017, the company co-financed over 50 films which had 51 Oscar nominations and earned a total of over $10 billion in box office.

RatPac and Dune Entertainment formed a film investment vehicle, which in September 2013, entered a multi-year, 75-film co-producing partnership with Warner Bros. The company has partnered with New Regency, advertising firm WPP, CMC Capital Partners, and Shanghai Media Group. Ratner worked with CMC to form a fund aimed at investments in Chinese media companies.

Ratner made $40 million after the release of Gravity, which was RatPac's first investment.

In June 2014, Ratner's RatPac Entertainment and Class 5 Films acquired the film rights to the non-fiction article "American Hippopotamus", by Jon Mooallem, about the meat shortage in the U.S. in 1910 to import hippopotamuses. The film was produced by Ratner in collaboration with Edward Norton and William Migliore.

On April 18, 2017, Access Entertainment, a subsidiary of Access Industries, acquired James Packer's ownership stake in RatPac. The next year, Warner Bros. announced that they were cutting ties with the company after Brett Ratner's sexual harassment allegations with Rampage as the final film to be co-financed by the company with Warner Bros., and the final film produced by RatPac overall. In November 2018, RatPac-Dune's minority ownership stake in a library of 76 Warner Bros. films was put up for sale, with investors in the fund backing the library to cash out. Vine Alternative Investments made a high bid for the library, but in January 2019, Warner Bros. exercised their rights to match the bid for the library and essentially acquired RatPac-Dune's stakes. The cost was estimated at nearly $300 million.

Screen appearances
Ratner appeared on the MTV series Punk'd when Hugh Jackman, who portrays Wolverine in the X-Men films, was the subject of a practical joke that made it appear Ratner's $3.6 million home in Beverly Hills was destroyed by a BBQ grill explosion. Ashton Kutcher later arrived at his home and hugged him.

In April 2007, Fox announced that he, Carrie Fisher, Garry Marshall and Jon Avnet would be the judges for the network's filmmaking-competition/reality TV series, On the Lot.

He appeared as himself in an episode of the television series Entourage, which was shot at his Beverly Hills home,

In 2009, Ratner created The Shooter Series which compiled his work, including interviews with Ratner, and a short film about Mickey Rourke's transition into boxing.

Other projects
In 2009, Ratner established Rat Press, a publishing company. The company reissued a Playboy interview with Marlon Brando and Robert Evans as well as an account of NFL player Jim Brown, and released a book of Scott Caan's photographs.

In 2011, Ratner established Rat TV with 20th Century Fox Television. He brought former NBC development executive Chris Conti on as president of the venture.

On August 4, 2011, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Ratner would produce the 84th Academy Awards with Don Mischer. However, Ratner resigned on November 8, 2011, after remarking that "rehearsal is for fags". Ratner later apologized for his remarks. Eddie Murphy, who was scheduled to host the ceremony, also resigned in deference to a new production team. Ratner was replaced by Brian Grazer, and Murphy was replaced by previous Oscar host Billy Crystal.

Ratner announced the Brett Ratner Florida Student Filmmaker Scholarship at the Key West Film Festival in 2015. The $5,000 scholarship was awarded to The Cook, The Knife and The Rabbit's Finger, which was directed by Agustina Bonventura and Nicolas Casanas.

Ratner worked with international beverage brand Diageo to produce The Hilhaven Lodge, a blended whiskey named for his Beverly Hills estate. The bottle is modeled after the estate and features a wood cork, and the bottle is shaped to resemble bay windows. The drink is a mixture of 26-year-old rye, 15-year-old Tennessee whiskey, and six-year bourbon.

Ratner delivered a keynote address as part of the Cannes Film Festival in May 2017 where he referred to television as the future of production. Ratner participated in the eighth annual Cannes Film Finance Forum.

In March 2017, Ratner spoke out against film critic aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes at the Sun Valley Film Festival, calling it a destructive force in the film industry. He expressed respect for traditional film critics and said the site reduces film criticism to a number.

Ratner has served on the boards of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance, Chrysalis, Ghetto Film School, Best Buddies and the Los Angeles Police Foundation. He served on the dean's council of NYU Tisch School of the Arts and serves on the board of directors of Tel Aviv University's School of Film and Television. He donated $1 million to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in 2013.

Sexual assault allegations
In October 2017, during the Me Too movement, a former talent agency employee accused Ratner of rape. On November 1, 2017, six women, including Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, accused Ratner of sexual assault and harassment, as well as following an actress into a bathroom without invitation and masturbating as another entered his trailer to deliver food. The same month, Elliot Page accused Ratner of sexual harassment and outing the then-18-year-old Page as gay (before Page came out as a trans man) in front of many onlookers including Anna Paquin, who later confirmed the story. A former fashion model came forward regarding an incident involving Russell Simmons and Ratner back in 1991, when Simmons coerced her to perform oral sex while Ratner was present.

On November 1, 2017, the same day as the allegations of six women, Warner Bros. announced it had severed ties with Ratner. Afterwards, Ratner announced that he was "[stepping] away from all Warner Bros.-related activities" and Warner Bros. was reviewing the issue. In April 2018, Warner Bros. announced that they would not renew their $450-million co-producing deal with RatPac.

Film
Director

 * Money Talks (1997)
 * Rush Hour (1998)
 * The Family Man (2000)
 * Rush Hour 2 (2001)
 * Red Dragon (2002)
 * After the Sunset (2004)
 * X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
 * Rush Hour 3 (2007)
 * The Shooter Series: vol. 1 (2009) (Direct-to-video)
 * Tower Heist (2011)
 * Hercules (2014)

Executive producer

 * A Ribbon of Dreams (2002)
 * End Game (2006) (Direct-to-video)
 * 21 (2008)
 * Skyline (2010)
 * The Water Diviner (2014)
 * Jersey Boys (2014)
 * Black Mass (2015)
 * The Revenant (2015)
 * War Dogs (2016)
 * The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017)

Producer

 * Double Take (2001)
 * Paid in Full (2002)
 * After the Sunset (2004) (Uncredited)
 * Santa's Slay (2005)
 * Running Scared (2006)
 * Code Name: The Cleaner (2007)
 * Mother's Day (2010)
 * Kites (2010) (English-language version)
 * Horrible Bosses (2011)
 * Mirror Mirror (2012)
 * CZ12 (2012) (Uncredited)
 * Hercules (2014)
 * Horrible Bosses 2 (2014)
 * Barely Lethal (2015)
 * I Saw the Light (2015)
 * Truth (2015)
 * Dark Crimes (2016)
 * Rules Don't Apply (2016)
 * Georgetown (2019)

Short film
Director

Executive producer
 * Velocity Rules (2001)
 * Me and Daphne (2002)
 * Kill Them Mommy! (2015)

Producer

Documentary films
Producer

Untold Story of Cannon Films]]'' (2014) Peter Bogdanovich & the Lost American Film'' (2014)
 * Before, During and 'After the Sunset' (2005) (Video)
 * Night Will Fall (2014)
 * ''[[Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films|Electric Boogaloo: The Wild,
 * ''One Day Since Yesterday:
 * Chuck Norris vs. Communism (2015)
 * S is for Stanley (2015)
 * In the Name of Honor (2015)
 * Before the Flood (2016)
 * Author: The J.T. Leroy Story (2016)

Executive producer

 * Catfish (2010)
 * By Sidney Lumet (2015)

Television
TV movies

TV series

title: Brett Ratner


text:
The Four Seasons (band)

The Four Seasons is an American vocal quartet formed in 1960 in Newark, New Jersey. Since 1970, they have also been known at times as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The band evolved out of a previous band called The Four Lovers, with Frankie Valli as the lead singer, Bob Gaudio on keyboards and tenor vocals, Tommy DeVito on lead guitar and baritone vocals, and Nick Massi on bass guitar and bass vocals. On nearly all of their 1960s hits, they were credited as The 4 Seasons. The band had two distinct lineups that achieved widespread success: the original featuring Valli, Gaudio, DeVito, and Massi (with that success continuing after Joe Long succeeded Massi in 1965) that recorded hits throughout the 1960s, and a 1970s quintet (sometimes billed as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons) consisting of Valli, Lee Shapiro, Gerry Polci, Don Ciccone, and John Paiva, with Gaudio and Long providing studio support.

The legal name of the organization is the Four Seasons Partnership, formed by Gaudio and Valli, and was taken after a failed audition in 1960. Valli and Gaudio (who has been a non-performing member of the group since 1973) each own 50% of the act and its assets, including virtually all of its recording catalog. The touring lineup of the group includes Valli as the sole remaining original member, backed by a separate vocal quartet and a band led by musician Robby Robinson, who has served as the group's music director since 1984. The touring version of The Four Seasons is slated to end after Valli's farewell tour concludes in 2024.

The band's original line-up was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999 and the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2017. They are one of the best-selling musical groups of all time, having sold an estimated 100 million records worldwide.

Before The Four Seasons
Frankie Valli's first commercial release was "My Mother's Eyes" (as Frankie Valley) in 1953. The following year, he and guitarist Tommy DeVito formed The Variatones (with Hank Majewski, rhythm guitar, Frank Cottone, accordion, and Billy Thompson, drums), which between 1954 and 1956 performed and recorded under a variety of names before settling on the name The Four Lovers, based upon a Latin lover gimmick and playing country music. The same year, the quartet (DeVito, his twin brother Nick, Majewski and Valli) released their first record, Otis Blackwell's "You're the Apple of My Eye", which appeared on the Billboard Top 100 singles chart, peaking at #62. Five more Four Lovers singles (on RCA Victor) were released over the next year, with virtually no sales, airplay, or jukebox play. In 1957, the band's seventh single (this time on Epic) had a similar lack of success.

From 1956 until 1958, the group stayed together, performing in clubs and lounges as The Four Lovers and recording on music labels under various names: Frankie Tyler, Frankie Valli, Frankie Valli and the Travelers, Frankie Valli and the Romans, the Village Voices, and the Topics are some of the 18 "stage names" used individually or collectively by the members of the band. Majewski left the band due to creative differences, while Nick DeVito left the group (portrayed in Jersey Boys as being due to an extended prison sentence, though Tommy DeVito stated in 2008 that he had fired the two because he had booked a gig opening up for Tony Bennett, believing it would be the group's big break, only for Majewski and Nick DeVito to refuse to travel to it, forcing him to cancel). To fill the gap, two members of the Hollywood Playboys, another touring group in North Jersey, joined Valli and Tommy DeVito: lead keyboardist Hugh Garrity and guitarist Nickie Massey. Massey left in 1959 to front his own short-lived group the Nite-Lites, replaced for a time by Charles Calello.

In 1959, the band started working with producer/songwriter Bob Crewe, primarily for session work (Crewe wrote "I Go Ape", which Valli recorded with the intention of releasing it as a "solo" single, only to be beaten to the punch by an unrelated song of the same name from Neil Sedaka, who became friends with Valli later on). Later that year, The Four Lovers were performing in Baltimore on the same stage as the Royal Teens, who were riding the wave of success of "Short Shorts", a song co-written by then-15-year-old Bob Gaudio, who was also the Royal Teens' keyboardist. In late 1959, Gaudio replaced Garrity (who left to reform the Hollywood Playboys). Early the following year,a now-renamed Nick Massi returned to replace Calello. Calello remained associated with the group, arranging instruments while Massi arranged the vocals.

In 1960, despite the changes of personnel, the fortunes of The Four Lovers had not changed—they failed an audition for a lounge at a Union Township, Union County, New Jersey bowling establishment. According to Gaudio, "We figured we'll come out of this with something. So we took the name of the bowling alley. It was called the Four Seasons." Despite the last few years of frustration of The Four Lovers, this proved to be the turning point for the band. Later, on a handshake agreement between keyboardist/composer Bob Gaudio and lead singer Frankie Valli, the Four Seasons Partnership was formed.

Rise
The Four Seasons signed as artists to Crewe's production company, and they released their first Crewe-produced single under their new name in 1961 ("Bermuda"/"Spanish Lace" on Gone Records). The single did not chart. The band continued working with producer Bob Crewe as background vocalists and sometimes leads under different names, for productions on Crewe's own Topix label. As a follow-up, Bob Gaudio wrote a song that, after some discussion between Crewe and Gaudio, was titled "Sherry". After the song was recorded, Crewe and the members of the band solicited record labels to release it. It was Frankie Valli who spoke with Randy Wood, West Coast sales manager for Vee-Jay Records (not the founder of Dot Records) who, in turn, suggested the release of "Sherry" to the decision-makers at Vee-Jay. "Sherry" made enough of an impression that Crewe was able to sign a deal between his production company and Vee-Jay for its release. They were the first white artists to sign with Vee-Jay.

In 1962, the band released their first album, featuring the single "Sherry", which drew the attention of WPOP in Hartford, Connecticut, known for launching new hit songs; WPOP disc jockey Joey Reynolds heavily promoted the record. "Sherry" gave the Four Seasons their first number-one song. Under the guidance of Bob Crewe, the Four Seasons followed up "Sherry" with several million-selling singles, generally composed by Crewe and Gaudio, including "Big Girls Don't Cry" (their second #1 hit), "Walk Like a Man" (their third #1), "Candy Girl" (written by Larry Santos), "Ain't That a Shame", and several others. Also, they released a Christmas album in December 1962 and charted with a unique rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town".

From 1962 to early 1964, the Beach Boys were the only band to match the Four Seasons in record sales in the United States, and their first three Vee-Jay non-holiday single releases (i.e., ignoring their version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town") marked the first time that a rock band hit #1 on the Billboard singles charts with three consecutive entries.

In 1962, they were invited to perform their hit "Big Girls Don't Cry" on the show American Bandstand.

From Vee-Jay to Philips
Despite the band's success, Vee-Jay Records was in financial distress. The label had released several early Beatles singles in America. When the Beatles became hugely popular, Vee-Jay was swamped with orders, and they shipped more than two million Beatles records in a single month. The demands of mass production, the cash-flow problems involved, and the loss of the Beatles when Trans-Global (a firm licensed by EMI to distribute its products) canceled Vee-Jay's contract on August 3, 1963, due to non-payment of royalties, found Vee-Jay hard-pressed to stay afloat. Vee-Jay continued to produce one Beatles album (in various forms) in defiance of the cancellation. After over a year of legal negotiations, Capitol Records was finally able to stop Vee-Jay, effective October 15, 1964.

While the label went through internal turmoil with the Beatles and Capitol Records, a separate royalty dispute between Vee-Jay and the Four Seasons headed to court. In January 1964, after several successful albums but a lack of money from Vee-Jay, the Seasons left Vee-Jay and moved to Philips Records, then a division of Mercury Records. In the 1965 settlement of the lawsuit, Vee-Jay retained release rights for all material the band recorded for the label. Vee-Jay exercised those rights liberally over the following year. The group was obligated to deliver one final album to Vee-Jay, which they did in the form of a "faux" live LP. (When Vee-Jay was finally declared bankrupt in 1966, the Four Seasons' Vee-Jay catalog reverted to the band to settle unpaid royalties, and the tracks were then reissued by Philips.)

The change of label did not diminish the popularity of the Four Seasons in 1964, nor did the onslaught of the British Invasion and Beatlemania. However, "Dawn (Go Away)" was kept from the #1 spot on the Hot 100 by no fewer than three Beatles singles in the March 21, 1964, edition (two weeks later, the top five slots were filled by Beatles singles). In a two-record set dubbed The Beatles vs the Four Seasons: The International Battle of the Century!, Vee-Jay created an elaborate two-disc package that the purchaser could use to write on and score individual recordings by their favorite artist. The discs were reissues of the albums Introducing... The Beatles and Golden Hits of the Four Seasons, featuring each original album's label, title, and catalog number. Today, this album package is a collector's item. Valli credited the band's continued success in the face of the British Invasion to staying true to their original mission of an original sound and not trying to imitate British acts.

One band, several acts
Nick Massi left the Four Seasons in September 1965. The band's arranger, Charles Calello (a former member of The Four Lovers), stepped in as a temporary replacement. A few months later, Joe Long was permanently hired and became a mainstay of the band on bass and backing vocals until 1975, with Calello returning to arranging. Massi's departure coincided with the addition of new songwriters such as Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell, who eased the burden on Gaudio, while Randell absorbed some of Massi's arranging duties. In the meantime, the Four Seasons released recordings under a variety of names, including the Valli Boys, the Wonder Who?, and Frankie Valli. Every Valli "solo" recording from 1965 to "My Eyes Adored You" in 1974 was recorded by the Four Seasons at the same time and in the same sessions as other Four Seasons material; these were usually distinguished in that material written and marketed as Valli solo numbers did not have Valli's trademark falsetto. Valli's first post-1960 single without the Seasons was 1975's "Swearin' to God".

More top 20 singles followed in 1965, 1966, and 1967, including "Let's Hang On!", "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" (as the Wonder Who?), "Working My Way Back to You", "Opus 17 (Don't You Worry 'bout Me)", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (released under Valli's name as a "solo" single), "Beggin'" (later covered by Norwegian duo Madcon and Italian band Måneskin), "Tell It to the Rain", "C'mon Marianne", and "I Make a Fool of Myself" (Frankie Valli "solo"). Also, other Crewe/Gaudio songs that did not become hits for either Valli or the Four Seasons became international hits in cover versions, such as "Silence Is Golden" (the Tremeloes) and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)" (the Walker Brothers). However, 1968's "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" was the band's last top 40 hit for seven years (reaching #24), just after Valli's last "solo" hit of the 1960s, the #29 charted "To Give (The Reason I Live)".

1969-1975: The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette concept album, subsequent move to Motown, and recording sales declines
By 1969, the band's popularity had declined, with public interest moving towards rock with a harder edge and music with more socially conscious lyrics. Aware of that, Bob Gaudio partnered with folk-rock songwriter Jake Holmes to write a concept album titled The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette, which discussed contemporary issues from the band's standpoint, including divorce ("Saturday's Father"), and Kinks-style satirical looks at modern life (e.g., "American Crucifixion and Resurrection" and "Genuine Imitation Life"). The decision to create a concept album was a major departure for the group, which Bob Crewe had purposely marketed as a singles act (so much so that the group's early albums were simply the name of a major hit single appended with some variation of "and Other Songs").

The album cover was designed to resemble the front page of a newspaper, pre-dating Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick by several years. The record was a commercial failure (by the group's usual standards; according to Stuart Miller, owner of a Four Seasons fansite named after the album, and Joe Long, the album sold about 150,000 copies) and led to the band's departure from Philips shortly after that, but it did catch the attention of Frank Sinatra, whose 1969 album, Watertown, involved Gaudio, Holmes, Valli and Calello. The Seasons' last single on Philips, 1970's "Patch of Blue", featured the band's name as "Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons", but the change in billing did not revive the band's fortunes. Reverting to the "Four Seasons" billing without Valli's name upfront, the group issued a single on Crewe's eponymous label, a rendition of "And That Reminds Me", which peaked at number 45 on the Billboard chart. Frustrated by the group's workload, and facing debts from gambling and a divorce, DeVito accepted a buyout and left the band in 1970. In DeVito's place, the Seasons hired their first non-New Jersey member, Maryland native Demitri Callas. Callas stayed with the group until 1974.

After leaving Philips, the Four Seasons recorded a one-off single for the Warner Bros. label in England, "Sleeping Man", backed by "Whatever You Say", which was never released in the USA. John Stefan, the band's lead trumpeter, arranged the horn parts. Around this time, Gaudio stopped touring with the band, focusing on songwriting, production, and recording. Long later told a Four Seasons fansite that he believed that Gaudio stopped touring because of constant stage fright. Following that single, the band signed to Motown. The first LP, Chameleon, released by Motown subsidiary label MoWest Records in 1972, failed to sell. A 1971 Frankie Valli solo single on Motown, "Love Isn't Here", and three Four Seasons singles, "Walk On, Don't Look Back" on MoWest in 1972, "How Come" and "Hickory" on Motown in 1973, sank without a trace. A song from Chameleon, "The Night", later became a Northern Soul hit and reached the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart, but was not commercially released in the United States as a single, although promotional copies were distributed in 1972, showing the artist as Frankie Valli. Valli has consistently spoken of how much of the group's late 1960s and early 1970s material was poorly marketed and only later received the appreciation that he felt it deserved.

In late 1973 and early 1974, the Four Seasons recorded eight songs for a second Motown album, which the company refused to release, and later in 1974, the label and the band parted ways. On behalf of the Four Seasons Partnership, Valli tried to purchase the entire collection of master recordings the group had made for Motown. After hearing the amount needed to buy them all, Valli arranged to purchase "My Eyes Adored You" for $4,000. He took the tape to Larry Uttal, the owner and founder of Private Stock Records, who wanted to release it as a Frankie Valli solo single. Although the band remained unsigned in the later part of 1974, Valli had a new label—and a new solo career.

1975-1977: Resurgence with "Who Loves You" and "December, 1963 (Oh What A Night)", departure of Long, and "new" lineup
While new hits for the Four Seasons had dried up in the first half of the 1970s, the band never lost its popularity as a performing act. Longtime member Joe Long stayed in the group until 1975; over the course of the 1970s, Valli and Gaudio would begin assembling a new lineup. 19-year-old keyboardist Lee Shapiro was recruited to replace Gaudio (on Valli's explicit recommendation) as the latter moved to a studio role, in addition to taking on arrangement and some songwriting duties. A member of the group's backing band recruited drummer Gerry Polci, who would eventually take over a large portion of lead vocals to ease the load on an ailing Frankie Valli (who was gradually losing his hearing due to otosclerosis, though eventually surgery restored most of it); Polci, in turn, recruited The Happenings' guitarist John Paiva (who had also worked as a session musician) to replace Callas on guitar. Don Ciccone, whose career with The Critters had come to an abrupt end due to his entry into the armed forces, succeeded Long as bassist and took on the occasional lead vocal.

As "My Eyes Adored You" climbed the Hot 100 singles chart in early 1975, Uttal was persuaded to release The Four Seasons Story, a two-record compilation of the band's biggest hit singles from 1962 to 1970. It quickly became a gold record, selling over one million copies before the RIAA started awarding platinum records for million-selling albums. Uttal was unwilling to sign the group as a whole, but left a loophole in Valli's contract allowing him to stay with the group if they signed with another label. Gaudio then approached Warner Bros. Records with a new song, "Who Loves You," with Ciccone on lead vocal due to Valli being overseas during the recording; intrigued by a new Four Seasons lead singer, they signed the group. Valli was unwilling to give up lead vocal duties and managed to halt the release of "Who Loves You" until he could replace Ciccone's vocal with his own. The album Who Loves You became a surprise million-seller for the band, as Valli ultimately agreed partially to cede lead vocals to Polci and Ciccone, making it the first album since Massi's departure to feature a lead or co-lead other than Valli prominently.

In 1975, record sales exploded for both Valli and the Four Seasons as both acts had million-selling singles in the United States ("My Eyes Adored You" hit #1 on the Hot 100 for Valli in March, "Who Loves You" (with Valli on lead) peaked at #3 in November for the band and number 6 in the UK chart. In the United Kingdom, Tamla Motown released "The Night" as a single on the 'Mowest' label and saw it reach the #7 position on the UK Singles Chart. "My Eyes Adored You" was also a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom in February of that year. Valli had his first truly solo hit in the summer of 1975 when the Bob Crewe-produced "Swearin' to God" followed "My Eyes Adored You" into the upper reaches of the Hot 100, peaking at the #6 position and capitalizing on the growing disco craze. The song was released in three forms: the eight-minute album version, the ten-minute extended 12-inch single version, and the four-minute single version. This record featured Patti Austin on bridge vocals before she became well-known. Valli followed this with a discofied #11 hit version of Ruby & the Romantics' "Our Day Will Come", also featuring Austin.

The Four Seasons opened 1976 atop the Billboard chart with their fifth #1 single, "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)", co-written by Bob Gaudio and his future wife, Judy Parker. The single also hit number one in the United Kingdom. "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" had Polci singing lead on the verses, Ciccone featured on specific sections, and Valli on lead vocals only on the two bridge sections and backup vocals on the chorus.

Although the band also scored minor chart placements with "Silver Star" (with Valli on harmony vocals) (#38 in 1976) and "Down the Hall" (#65 in 1977), both sung by Polci, and "Spend the Night in Love" (#91 in 1980), which again featured Polci as main lead vocalist and Valli singing the bridge section and contributing to backup group vocals, "December, 1963" marked the end of the Seasons' hit-making run. Both singles were hits in the United Kingdom, with "Silver Star" making the top 10. (A dance remix of "December, 1963" returned them briefly to the upper reaches of the Billboard singles charts almost two decades later).

1975-1999: After the disco era: Brief split and reunion, final studio recordings as a band, and increased focus on touring
The success of Who Loves You increased the popularity of the Four Seasons as a touring group and reignited recording unit. In 1977, the band recorded Helicon as a follow-up to Who Loves You; it proved to be not as successful, with its lone American single "Down the Hall" peaking in the lower half of the Hot 100 and narrowly reaching the top 40 of the American easy listening charts and the UK charts. Additional top-40 UK hits would come with "Rhapsody," and a non-album cover version of The Beatles' "We Can Work It Out" (from All This and World War II).

The band broke up in 1977 as Shapiro got married, Polci began working for Barry Manilow, and Valli—who also had surgery to restore his worsening hearing —accepted an offer to sing the theme song for the movie Grease. Both the film and song were major hits, the latter reaching #1, and by 1980 the band had reunited, with a lineup consisting mostly of its 1970s lineup (Valli, Polci, Shapiro, and Ciccione, plus Gaudio for studio recordings), joined by Jerry Corbetta, who had been lead singer of Sugarloaf, and guitarist Larry Lingle. Lingle would remain with the group into the 1990s, while Polci (who had an extended hiatus from the band in the mid-1980s before returning) left for the final time in 1990 when he married Valli's daughter Toni. In January 1981, Warners released Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons Reunited Live. Produced by Bob Gaudio, it was a double album of concert recordings which included the two studio recordings "Spend the Night in Love" and "Heaven Must Have Sent You (Here in the Night)" sung by Valli. The latter became a UK single but failed to chart, while the former was released as a single in America, inching its way into the Hot 100 and became a top-5 hit, the group's last, in South Africa. Valli had planned to add his daughter Francine to the act in 1980, but Francine unexpectedly died that year.

In 1984, a long-awaited collaboration between the Four Seasons and the Beach Boys, "East Meets West", was released on FBI Records, owned by the Four Seasons Partnership, which included most of the surviving Beach Boys (including Brian Wilson). However, the record did not sell well. Even after the rise and fall of the band's sales in the disco era, the Four Seasons, in one version or another, continued to be a popular touring act, with Valli and keyboardist/music director Robby Robinson (who joined in the early 1980s) being the only constants in the midst of a fluctuating lineup.

Although Gaudio is still officially part of the band (he and Valli are still equal partners in the Four Seasons Partnership), he now restricts his activities to writing, producing, brand management and the occasional studio work. In August 1985, MCA Records released the band album Streetfighter, which yielded two singles in the title track and "Book of Love", a post-disco-style revamp of the Monotones' 1957 recording. In September 1992, the band released an album entitled Hope + Glory on the MCA/Curb label; this is the most recent band studio album to date, but Valli has released three solo albums since then. (On at least one or two occasions, starting in the late 1980s or early 1990s, Long would make guest appearances with Valli and the band at select shows, but it is unclear if this included full performances or parts of concerts.) Nick Massi also had occasional brief reunions with the group. In 1994, "December 1963 (Oh What A Night)" re-entered the Hot 100 by way of a remix.

2000-present: Valli-led tours and Jersey Boys
In 2003, Valli revamped the group and started touring with a new vocal quartet (which he occasionally referred to as "the Four Seasons"), consisting of Landon Beard, Todd Fournier, and brothers Brian Brigham and Brandon Brigham.

A massive 3CD + 1DVD box set ...Jersey Beat... The Music Of Frankie Valli & the 4 Seasons was released in mid-2007, marketed as the most comprehensive collection of Four Seasons music yet. The album title Jersey Beat is a play on Jersey Boys, a successful Broadway musical about the Four Seasons, as well as on Mersey Beat, a term first coined as the title of a music magazine published in Liverpool, England, from 1961, but subsequently also used to describe Liverpool's "beat music" culture of the early 1960s.

In 2008, the Four Seasons' "Beggin'" was revived by two acts. Pilooski made an electro remix of that song, while rap act Madcon used it as the basis of their song "Beggin'". The latter reached number 5 in the UK charts and was a hit across Europe. The song was featured in a TV commercial for adidas shoes entitled "Celebrate Originality". The Adidas commercial is a popular hit on YouTube and features a house party with famous celebrities such as David Beckham, Russel Simmons, Kevin Garnett, Missy Elliott, Katy Perry, and Mark Gonzales.

Members of the 1970s lineup of the group (Polci, Ciccone, and Shapiro) reunited without Valli in 2011 as The Hit Men; it toured with several other session musicians of good repute. Shapiro has continued The Hit Men as a standalone project after Ciccone died in 2016 and Polci withdrew from the group in 2017.

In 2015, former longtime guitarist Larry Lingle rejoined the band, and he left for the second time after a concert on May 1, 2016. On September 10, 2016, the band performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra in Hyde Park, as part of the BBC Proms in the Park.

In 2018, the Beard/Fournier/Brigham quartet spun off and began performing as The Modern Gentlemen, with Valli's blessing, and Valli recruited a new quartet of singers to back him. Beard, Fournier, and the Brigham brothers performed as The Four Seasons for 15 years, longer than any other lineup and longer than any of the band's other members except Valli and Gaudio.

In 2020, the group launched a YouTube channel. During that same year, and continuing into 2021, during earlier phases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the group virtually re-recorded four of their songs ("Harmony, Perfect Harmony", "Let's Hang On", "Grease", and "Silence Is Golden") for their YouTube channel.

A limited-edition 44-disc career box set called "Working Our Way Back to You: The Ultimate Collection" was initially going to be released in the summer of 2021 by The Four Seasons Partnership and Snapper Records, but it missed the release due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the box set was later rescheduled for release on December 9, 2022, before the release date was pushed back to April 14, 2023. The box set was eventually released on June 2, 2023, by The Four Seasons Partnership and Madfish/Snapper Music. It includes every album released by the band (including both mono and stereo mixes, where available), a CD of unreleased tracks from the band's Mowest years, three live shows taken from soundboard recordings as well as numerous other rare tracks and alternative versions.

The Four Seasons announced their farewell tour, "The Last Encores Tour", to run through 2024, including several extended stays at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Valli did not rule out future appearances after the tour, stating that "I’m not sure whether I’m gonna keep going out."

Other names
From 1956 until "My Eyes Adored You" in 1975, records which the Four Seasons recorded had the following artist credit (a sampling):

Pre-1960

 * Frankie Vall
 * Frankie Valley
 * Frankie Valle and the Romans
 * The Four Lovers
 * Frankie Tyler
 * The Variatones

1960 and after

 * The Four Seasons
 * Hal Miller and the Rays
 * Billy Dixon and the Topics
 * Johnny Halo featuring the Four Seasons
 * The 4 Seasons
 * The Wonder Who?
 * Frankie Valli
 * The Valli Boys
 * Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
 * The Romans
 * The Village Voices

Members
Partial credits before 1994.

Current members

 * Frankie Valli – vocals (1960–present)
 * Robby Robinson – keyboards, musical director (1982–1996, 2004–present)
 * Rick Keller – saxophone, flute, keyboards, percussion (2002–present)
 * Basil Fung – guitar (2018–present)
 * Andy Sanesi – drums (2018–present)
 * Ronen Bay – backing and lead vocals (2018–present)
 * Craig Cady – backing and lead vocals (2018–present)
 * Carmen Grillo – guitar (2021–present)
 * Alfredo Lopez – bass (2021–present)
 * Aaron Alexander Gordon – backing and lead vocals (2022–present)
 * Justin Michael Rodriguez – backing and lead vocals (2024–present)
 * Noah Rivera – backing vocals (2020–2023)

Studio and touring members

 * Tommy DeVito – vocals, guitar (1960–1970; died 2020)
 * Bob Gaudio – vocals, keyboards, guitar (1960–1992; did not tour 1971–1992; corporate partner only, 1992-present)
 * Nick Massi – vocals, bass (1960–1965; died 2000)
 * Joe Long – vocals, bass (1965–1975; died 2021)
 * Demetri Callas – vocals, guitar (1971–1974; died 2020)
 * Clay Jordan – vocals, keyboards (1971–1972, 1973)
 * Gerry Polci – vocals, drums (1973–1977, 1979–1982, 1988–1990)
 * Lee Shapiro – vocals, keyboards (1973–1977)
 * Don Ciccone – vocals, bass, rhythm guitar (1974–1977, 1979–1982; died 2016)
 * – vocals, lead and rhythm guitars (1975–1977)
 * Jerry Corbetta – vocals, keyboards (1979–1985; died 2016)
 * Larry Lingle – lead and rhythm guitars (1979–1993, 2015–2016)
 * Rex Robinson – vocals, bass (1982–2003)
 * Lynn Hammann – vocals, drums (1982–1988)
 * Chuck Wilson – backing vocals (1982–1993) ; percussion (1982–1990) ; drums (1990–1993)
 * Tim Stone – vocals, keyboards (1991–1996?)

Touring members

 * Charles Calello – backing vocals, bass (1965)
 * Bob Grimm – vocals, guitar (1970–1971)
 * Bill DeLoach – vocals, keyboards (1972–1973)
 * Mike Lingle – drums (1982–1985)
 * Robin Swenson – keyboards (1985–1991)
 * Howard Larrabee – vocals, keyboards (1988–1990)
 * Richie Gajate-Garcia – percussion (1990–2019)
 * Daniel "Zoro" Donelly – drums (1994–2005)
 * Adrian Baker – vocals, guitar (1994–1995)
 * Tommy Alvarado – saxophone, percussion (1994–1996)
 * Fino Roverato – guitar (1994–2003?)
 * Warren Ham – saxophone (1996–2000)
 * Todd Fournier – backing and lead vocals (2002–2018)
 * Jason Martinez – backing and lead vocals (2002–2007, 2018)
 * Rich Callaci – keyboards (2003)
 * Landon Beard – backing and lead vocals (2003–2018)
 * Brian Brigham – backing and lead vocals (2003–2018)
 * Keith Hubacher – bass (2004–2007, 2016–2018)
 * Craig Pilo – drums (2005–2018)
 * Val Martinez – backing and lead vocals (2006)
 * Brandon Brigham – backing and lead vocals (2006–2018)
 * John Schroeder – guitar (c. 2012)
 * Robbie Angelucci – guitar (c. 2012)
 * John Menzano – bass (c. 2012)
 * Brad Sharp (2015–2016)
 * Erik Bates – backing and lead vocals (2018–2020)
 * Joseph Ott – backing and lead vocals (2018–2022)
 * Sandro Rebel – keyboards (2018–2020)
 * Wil Roberts – bass (2018–2020)
 * Christian Moraga – percussion (2019–2020)
 * Edwin Livingston – bass (2020)
 * Jamie Kime – guitar (2020–2021)
 * Steve Warren – bass (2021)

Studio albums
This is not a complete list of album releases. These recordings have been reissued on a variety of labels, some of which are noted here. This list includes only those Frankie Valli solo albums (the first two) that were recorded as Four Seasons productions.

Compilation and live albums
The peak position on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart follows the album title.

Selected singles
The US chart position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart follows the song title. Only singles that reached a position of #30 or higher on the Hot 100 are listed.

Jersey Boys
Jersey Boys, a musical play based on the lives of the Four Seasons and directed by Des McAnuff (The Who's Tommy, 700 Sundays), premiered at his La Jolla Playhouse and opened on November 6, 2005, to generally positive reviews. It subsequently won multiple Tony Awards after its move to Broadway. The original cast included John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli, Daniel Reichard as Bob Gaudio, Christian Hoff as Tommy DeVito, and J. Robert Spencer as Nick Massi. The play portrays the history of the Four Seasons in four parts, with each part narrated by a different member of the band and supposedly reflecting that band member's perspective on the band's history. The author of the book of the play, Rick Elice, interviewed Valli, Gaudio, and DeVito in writing the play, and pieced together Nick Massi's point of view based on those interviews (Massi had died before the play was written.) The Broadway production won four 2006 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Actor (for John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli), Best Featured Actor (for Christian Hoff as Tommy DeVito), and Best Lighting Design. There are currently three U.S. productions of Jersey Boys running outside New York and other productions overseas including productions in Toronto, London, Australia, South Africa and The Netherlands.

The movie adaptation, directed by Clint Eastwood, starred John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli, Vincent Piazza as Tommy DeVito, Michael Lomenda as Nick Massi and Erich Bergen as Bob Gaudio. This film was released on June 20, 2014.

title: The Four Seasons (band)