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Sleepwalking

Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism or noctambulism, is a phenomenon of combined sleep and wakefulness. It is classified as a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family. It occurs during slow wave stage of sleep, in a state of low consciousness, with performance of activities that are usually performed during a state of full consciousness. These activities can be as benign as talking, sitting up in bed, walking to a bathroom, consuming food, and cleaning, or as hazardous as cooking, driving a motor vehicle,  violent gestures and grabbing at hallucinated objects.

Although sleepwalking cases generally consist of simple, repeated behaviors, there are occasionally reports of people performing complex behaviors while asleep, although their legitimacy is often disputed. Sleepwalkers often have little or no memory of the incident, as their consciousness has altered into a state in which memories are difficult to recall. Although their eyes are open, their expression is dim and glazed over. This may last from 30 seconds to 30 minutes.

Sleepwalking occurs during slow-wave sleep (N3) of non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM sleep) cycles. It typically occurs within the first third of the night when slow-wave sleep is most prominent. Usually, it will occur once in a night, if at all.

Signs and symptoms
Sleepwalking is characterized by:
 * partial arousal during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, typically during the first third of the night
 * dreamy content that may or may not be recalled when awake
 * dream-congruent motor behavior that may be simple or complex
 * impaired perception of the environment
 * impaired judgement, planning and problem-solving.

Despite how it is portrayed in many cultures (eyes closed and walking with arms outstretched), the sleepwalker's eyes are open but may appear as a glassy-eyed stare or blank expression and pupils are dilated. They are often disoriented, consequent to awakening: the sleepwalker may be confused and perplexed, and might not know why or how they got out of bed; however, the disorientation will fade within minutes. They may talk while sleepwalking, but the talk typically does not make sense to the observer. There are varying degrees of amnesia associated with sleepwalking, ranging from no memory at all, vague memories or a narrative.

Associated disorders
Most studies look at sleep disorders in adults but children can also be affected. In the ten percent of the population that experience sleep-related disorders, children are mainly affected due to their youthful brains. A study conducted in Australia, looked at sleepwalking and its association with sleep behaviors in children. It was found that sleepwalking could be associated with children's bedtime routines. Those who have behavioral problems are more likely to develop a sleep disorder and should be assessed. The relationship between sleepwalking and the behavioral and emotional problems are more associated than their bedtime routines. This may very well be because sleep related disorders and sleepwalking happen simultaneously; one cannot exist without the other.

In the study "Sleepwalking and Sleep Terrors in Prepubertal Children" it was found that, if a child had another sleep disorder –such as restless leg syndrome (RLS) or sleep-disorder breathing (SDB) –there was a greater chance of sleepwalking. The study found that children with chronic parasomnias may often also present SDB or, to a lesser extent, RLS. Furthermore, the disappearance of the parasomnias after the treatment of the SDB or RLS periodic limb movement syndrome suggests that the latter may trigger the former. The high frequency of SDB in family members of children with parasomnia provided additional evidence that SDB may manifest as parasomnias in children. Children with parasomnias are not systematically monitored during sleep, although past studies have suggested that patients with sleep terrors or sleepwalking have an elevated level of brief EEG arousals. When children receive polysomnographies, discrete patterns (e.g., nasal flow limitation, abnormal respiratory effort, bursts of high or slow EEG frequencies) should be sought; apneas are rarely found in children. Children's respiration during sleep should be monitored with nasal cannula or pressure transducer system or esophageal manometry, which are more sensitive than the thermistors or thermocouples currently used in many laboratories. The clear, prompt improvement of severe parasomnia in children who are treated for SDB, as defined here, provides important evidence that subtle SDB can have substantial health-related significance. Also noteworthy is the report of familial presence of parasomnia. Studies of twin cohorts and families with sleep terror and sleepwalking suggest genetic involvement of parasomnias. RLS and SDB have been shown to have familial recurrence. RLS has been shown to have genetic involvement.

Sleepwalking may also accompany the related phenomenon of night terrors, especially in children. In the midst of a night terror, the affected person may wander in a distressed state while still asleep, and examples of sufferers attempting to run or aggressively defend themselves during these incidents have been reported in medical literature.

In some cases, sleepwalking in adults may be a symptom of a psychological disorder. One study suggests higher levels of dissociation in adult sleepwalkers, since test subjects scored unusually high on the hysteria portion of the "Crown-Crisp Experiential Index". Another suggested that "A higher incidence [of sleepwalking events] has been reported in patients with schizophrenia, hysteria and anxiety neuroses". Also, patients with migraine headaches or Tourette syndrome are 4–6 times more likely to sleepwalk.

Consequences
During the amnesic state sleepwalkers are in, many things can happen without their recollection. One thing that can happen is a sleep disorder called sexomnia, where an individual can engage in sexual behaviors with oneself or others. Its occurrence is rare, but can happen during sleepwalking. Sleep-related eating disorder, in which sleepwalkers eat involuntarily, can also happen. The events can include eating/drinking regular foods or odd combinations of food. Insomnia and daytime sleepiness can also occur. Most sleepwalkers get injuries at some point during sleepwalking, often minor injuries such as cuts or bruises. In rare occasions, however, sleepwalkers have fractured bones and died as the result of a fall. Sleepwalkers may also face embarrassment of being found naked in public.

Causes
The cause of sleepwalking is unknown. A number of, as yet unproven, hypotheses are suggested for why it might occur, including: delay in the maturity of the central nervous system, increased slow wave sleep, sleep deprivation, fever, and excessive tiredness. There may be a genetic component to sleepwalking. One study found that sleepwalking occurred in 45% of children who have one parent who sleepwalked, and in 60% of children if both parents sleepwalked. Thus, heritable factors may predispose an individual to sleepwalking, but expression of the behavior may also be influenced by environmental factors. Genetic studies using common fruit flies as experimental models reveal a link between night sleep and brain development mediated by evolutionary conserved transcription factors such as AP-2 Sleepwalking may be inherited as an autosomal dominant disorder with reduced penetrance. Genome-wide multipoint parametric linkage analysis for sleepwalking revealed a maximum logarithm of the odds score of 3.14 at chromosome 20q12-q13.12 between 55.6 and 61.4 cM.

Sleepwalking has been hypothesized to be linked to the neurotransmitter serotonin, which also appears to be metabolized differently in migraine patients and people with Tourette syndrome, both populations being four to nine times more likely to experience an episode of sleepwalking. Hormonal fluctuations have been found to contribute to sleepwalking episodes in women, with the likeliness to sleepwalk being higher before the onset of menstruation. It also appears that hormonal changes during pregnancy decrease the likelihood of engaging in sleepwalking.

Medications, primarily in four classes—benzodiazepine receptor agonists and other GABA modulators, antidepressants and other serotonergic agents, antipsychotics, and β-blockers—have been associated with sleepwalking. The best evidence of medications causing sleepwalking is for Zolpidem and sodium oxybate; all other reports are based on associations noted in case reports.

A number of conditions, such as Parkinson's disease, are thought to trigger sleepwalking in people without a previous history of sleepwalking.

Diagnosis
Polysomnography is the only accurate assessment of a sleepwalking episode. Because this is costly and sleepwalking episodes are usually infrequent, other measures commonly used include self-, parent-, or partner-report. Three common diagnostic systems that are generally used for sleepwalking disorders are International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD-3), and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual defines two subcategories of sleepwalking, although sleepwalking does not need to involve either behaviours:
 * sleepwalking with sleep-related eating.
 * sleepwalking with sleep-related sexual behavior (sexsomnia).

Sleep eating involves consuming food while asleep. These sleep eating disorders are more often than not induced for stress related reasons. Another major cause of this sleep eating subtype of sleepwalking is sleep medication, such as Ambien for example (Mayo Clinic). There are a few others, but Ambien is a more widely used sleep aid. Because many sleep eaters prepare the food they consume, there are risks involving burns and such with ovens and other appliances. As expected, weight gain is also a common outcome of this disorder, because food that is frequently consumed contains high carbohydrates. As with sleepwalking, there are ways that sleep eating disorders can be maintained. There are some medications that calm the sleeper so they can get longer and better-quality rest, but activities such as yoga can also be introduced to reduce the stress and anxiety causing the action.

Differential diagnoses
Sleepwalking should not be confused with alcohol- or drug-induced blackouts, which can result in amnesia for events similar to sleepwalking. During an alcohol-induced blackout (drug-related amnesia), a person is able to actively engage and respond to their environment (e.g. having conversations or driving a vehicle), however the brain does not create memories for the events. Alcohol-induced blackouts can occur with blood alcohol levels higher than 0.06 g/dl. A systematic review of the literature found that approximately 50% of drinkers have experienced memory loss during a drinking episode and have had associated negative consequences similar to sleepwalkers, including injury and death.

Other differential diagnoses include rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, confusional arousals, and night terrors.

Assessment
An assessment of sleepwalking via polysomnography poses the problem that sleepwalking is less likely to occur in the sleep laboratory, and if an episode occurs, it is usually less complex than what the patient experiences at home. Therefore, the diagnosis can often be made by assessment of sleep history, time-course and content of the sleep related behaviors. Sometimes, home videos can provide additional information and should be considered in the diagnostic process.

Some features that should always be assessed include:

The assessment should rule out differential diagnoses.
 * Age of onset
 * When the episode occurs during the sleep period
 * How often these episodes occur (frequency) and how long they last (duration)
 * Description of the episode, including behavior, emotions, and thoughts during and after the event
 * How responsive the patient is to external stimuli during the episode
 * How conscious or aware the patient is, when awakened from an episode
 * If the episode is remembered afterwards
 * The triggers or precipitating factors
 * Sleep–wake pattern and sleep environment
 * Daytime sleepiness
 * Other sleep disorders that might be present
 * Family history for NREM parasomnias and other sleep disorders
 * Medical, psychiatric, and neurological history
 * Medication and substance use history

Treatment
There have been no clinical trials to show that any psychological or pharmacological intervention is effective in preventing sleepwalking episodes. Despite this, a wide range of treatments have been used with sleepwalkers. Psychological interventions have included psychoanalysis, hypnosis, scheduled or anticipatory waking, assertion training, relaxation training, managing aggressive feelings, sleep hygiene, classical conditioning (including electric shock), and play therapy. Pharmacological treatments have included tricyclic antidepressants (imipramine), an anticholinergic (biperiden), antiepileptics (carbamazepine, valproate), an antipsychotic (quetiapine), benzodiazepines (clonazepam, diazepam, flurazepam and triazolam), melatonin, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (paroxetine), a barbiturate (sodium amytal) and herbs.

There is no evidence to show that waking sleepwalkers is harmful or not, though the sleepwalker is likely to be disoriented if awakened.

Unlike other sleep disorders, sleepwalking is not associated with daytime behavioral or emotional problems. This may be because the sleepwalker's sleep is not disturbed—unless they are woken, they are still in a sleep state while sleepwalking.

Maintaining the safety of the sleepwalker and others and seeking treatment for other sleep problems is recommended. Reassurance is recommended if sleepwalking is not causing any problems. However, if it causes distress or there is risk of harm, hypnosis and scheduled waking are recommended as treatments.

Safety planning
For those whose sleepwalking episodes are hazardous, a door alarm may offer a measure of protection. There are various kinds of door alarms that can attach to a bedroom door and when the door is opened, the alarm sounds. The intention is that the sound will fully awaken the person and interrupt the sleepwalking episode, or if the sleepwalker lives with others, the sound will prompt them to check on the person.

Sleepwalkers should aim to have their bedrooms on the ground floor of a home, apartment, dorm, hotel, etc.

Sleepwalkers should not have easily accessible weapons (loaded guns, knives) in the bedroom or any room of the house for that matter. If there are weapons, they should be locked away with keys secluded from the sleepwalker.

For partners of sleepwalkers who are violent or disturb their sleep, sleeping in another room may lead to better sleep quality and quantity.

Epidemiology
The lifetime prevalence of sleepwalking is estimated to be 4.6–10.3%. A meta-analysis of 51 studies, that included more than 100,000 children and adults, found that sleepwalking is more common in children with an estimated 5%, compared with 1.5% of adults, sleepwalking at least once in the previous 12 months. The rate of sleepwalking has not been found to vary across ages during childhood.

History
Sleepwalking has attracted a sense of mystery, but was not seriously investigated and diagnosed until the 19th century. The German chemist and parapsychologist Baron Karl Ludwig von Reichenbach (1788–1869) made extensive studies of sleepwalkers and used his discoveries to formulate his theory of the Odic force.

Sleepwalking was initially thought to be a dreamer acting out a dream. For example, in one study published by the Society for Science & the Public in 1954, this was the conclusion: "Repression of hostile feelings against the father caused the patients to react by acting out in a dream world with sleepwalking, the distorted fantasies they had about all authoritarian figures, such as fathers, officers and stern superiors." This same group published an article twelve years later with a new conclusion: "Sleepwalking, contrary to most belief, apparently has little to do with dreaming. In fact, it occurs when the sleeper is enjoying his most oblivious, deepest sleep—a stage in which dreams are not usually reported." More recent research has discovered that sleepwalking is actually a disorder of NREM (non-rapid eye movement) arousal. Acting out a dream is the basis for a REM (rapid eye movement) sleep disorder called REM Behavior Disorder (or REM Sleep Behavior Disorder). More accurate data about sleep is due to the invention of technologies, such as the electroencephalogram (EEG) by Hans Berger in 1924 and BEAM by Frank Duffy in the early 1980s.

In 1907, Sigmund Freud spoke about sleepwalking to the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society (Nunberg and Federn). He believed that sleepwalking was connected to fulfilling sexual wishes and was surprised that a person could move without interrupting their dream. At that time, Freud suggested that the essence of this phenomenon was the desire to go to sleep in the same area as the individual had slept in childhood. Ten years later, he speculated about somnambulism in the article "A Metapsychological Supplement to the Theory of Dreams" (1916–17 [1915]). In this essay, he clarified and expanded his hypothetical ideas on dreams. He described the dream as a fragile equilibrium that is destabilized by the repressed unconscious impulses of the unconscious system, which does not obey the wishes of the ego. Certain preconscious daytime thoughts can be resistant and these can retain a part of their cathexis as well. Unconscious impulses and day residues can come together and result in a conflict. Freud then wondered about the outcome of this wishful impulse: an unconscious instinctual demand that becomes a dream wish in the preconscious. Freud stated that this unconscious impulse could be expressed as mobility during sleep. This would be what is observed in somnambulism, though what actually makes it possible remains unknown.

As of 2002, sleepwalking has not been detected in non-human primates. It is unclear whether it simply has not been observed yet, or whether sleepwalking is a uniquely human phenomenon.

Opera
Vincenzo Bellini's 1831 Italian opera semiseria, La sonnambula, the plot of which is centered on the question of the innocence of the betrothed and soon-to-be married Amina, who, upon having been discovered in the bedchamber of a stranger, and despite the assurances of that stranger that Amina was entirely innocent, has been rejected by her enraged fiancé, Elvino—who, then, decides to marry another. In fact, when stressed, Amina was susceptible to somnambulism; and had come to be in the stranger's bedchamber by sleep-walking along a high parapet (in full view of the opera's audience). Elvino, who later observes the (exhausted by all the fuss) Amina, sleep-walking across a very high, very unstable, and very rickety bridge at the local mill, realizes his mistake, abandons his plans of marriage to the other woman, and re-unites with Amina.

Jenny Lind and James Braid
In August 1847, the famous soprano Jenny Lind visited Manchester, and gave two performances as Amina. The outstanding difference between Lind and her contemporaries was that, "whilst the beauty of her voice was far greater than any other in living memory (thus, the Swedish Nightingale), what really set her apart was her outstanding ability to act"; and, moreover, in performing as Amina, rather than walking along a wide and well-protected walkway (as the others did), she routinely acrobatically balanced her way along narrow planks.

While she was in Manchester—on the basis that, at the time, many characterized "hypnotism" as "artificial somnambulism", and that, from a rather different perspective, her stage performance could also be described as one of "artificial" (rather than spontaneous) somnambulism—her friends arranged for her to visit the local surgeon James Braid, who had discovered hypnotism in 1841:

"Mr. Braid, surgeon, whose discoveries in hypnotism are well known, having invited the fair impersonator of a somnambulist to witness some of the abnormal feats of a real somnambulist, artificially thrown into that state, it was arranged that a private séance should take place [on Friday, 3 September 1847]."

Drama

 * The sleepwalking scene (Act V Scene 1) from William Shakespeare's tragic play Macbeth (1606) is one of the most famous scenes in all of literature.
 * In Walley Chamberlain Oulton's two act farce The Sleep-Walker; or, Which is the Lady (1812), "Somno", a histrionic failed-actor-turned-manservant relives his wished-for roles when sleepwalking.

Literature

 * In Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, the character Lucy Westenra is described as a sleepwalker. It is while she is sleepwalking that Count Dracula lures and attacks her.

Sleepwalking as a legal defense
As sleepwalking behaviours occur without volition, sleepwalking can be used as a legal defense, as a form of legal automatism. An individual can be accused of non-insane or insane automatism. The first is used as a defense for temporary insanity or involuntary conduct, resulting in acquittal. The latter results in a "special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity." This verdict of insanity can result in a court order to attend a mental institution.

In the 1963 case Bratty v A-G for Northern Ireland, Lord Morris stated, "Each set of facts must require a careful examination of its own circumstances, but if by way of taking an illustration it were considered possible for a person to walk in his sleep and to commit a violent crime while genuinely unconscious, then such a person would not be criminally liable for that act." While the veracity of the cases are disputed, there have been acts of homicide where the prime suspect may have committed the act while sleepwalking.

Alternative explanations to homicidal or violent sleepwalking include malingering, drug-induced amnesia, and other disorders in which sleep-related violence may occur, such as REM Sleep Behavior Disorder, fugue states, and episodic wandering.

Historical cases

 * 1846, Albert Tirrell used sleepwalking as a defense against charges of murdering Maria Bickford, a prostitute living in a Boston brothel.
 * 1961, Sergeant Willis Boshears confessed to strangling a local woman named Jean Constable in the early hours on New Years Day 1961, but claimed that he was asleep and only woke to realize what he had done. He pled not guilty on the basis of being asleep at the time he committed the offence and was acquitted.
 * In 1981, Steven Steinberg of Scottsdale, Arizona was accused of killing his wife and acquitted on the grounds of temporary insanity.
 * 1991, R v Burgess: Burgess was accused of hitting his girlfriend on the head with a wine bottle and then a video tape recorder. He was found not guilty at Bristol Crown Court, by reason of insane automatism.
 * 1992, R. v. Parks: Parks was accused of killing his mother-in-law and attempting to kill his father-in-law. He was acquitted by the Supreme Court of Canada.
 * 1994, Pennsylvania v. Ricksgers: Ricksgers was accused of killing his wife. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
 * 1999, Arizona v. Falater: Scott Falater, of Phoenix, Arizona, was accused of killing his wife. The court concluded that the murder was too complex to be committed while sleepwalking. Falater was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life with no possibility of parole.
 * 2001, California v. Reitz: Stephen Reitz killed his lover, Eva Weinfurtner. He told police he had no recollection of the attack but he had "flashbacks" of believing he was in a scuffle with a male intruder. His parents testified in court that he had been a sleepwalker from childhood. The court convicted Reitz of first-degree murder in 2004.
 * In 2001, Antonio Nieto murdered his wife and mother-in-law and attempted to murder his daughter and son, before being disarmed. Nieto claimed to have been asleep during the attack and dreaming that he was defending himself against aggressive ostriches. However, his children stated that he had recognized them and had told his son to not turn on the lights because their mother (gravely injured already) was sleeping. In 2007, Nieto was sentenced to 10 years internment in a psychiatric hospital and ordered to pay 171,100 euros as compensation to the victims.
 * Jules Lowe confessed to causing the death of his father Edward in 2004, but did not remember committing the act. Jules used automatism as his defense, and was found not guilty by reason of insanity and detained indefinitely in a secure hospital. He was released after ten months.
 * Brian Thomas was accused of killing his wife in 2008 while dreaming that he was fighting off intruders. He was freed in 2009 by a judge, who found him not guilty of murder.

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

title: Sleepwalking


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Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset

Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset (26 January 1436 – 15 May 1464) was an important Lancastrian military commander during the English Wars of the Roses. He is sometimes numbered the 2nd Duke of Somerset, because the title was re-created for his father after his uncle died. He also held the subsidiary titles of 5th Earl of Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Dorset and 2nd Earl of Dorset.

Biography
Somerset, born about January 1436, was the son of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, and Eleanor, daughter of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick and widow of Thomas, fourteenth baron Roos of Hamlake. From 1443 to 1448 Henry was styled Count of Mortain or Morteign, and from 1448 to 1455 Earl of Dorset. While still a youth he fought at the First Battle of St Albans (1455), where he was wounded and his father was killed; thereby he inherited the title of 3rd Duke of Somerset.

He was regarded as "the hope of the [Lancastrian] party", but he also inherited the "enmities entailed upon him by his father's name". He was brought to the council at Coventry, where in October 1456 an effort was made to reconcile the two parties; but the meeting was disturbed by quarrels between Somerset and Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and by a brawl between Somerset's men and the town watch of Coventry. In 1457 Queen Margaret of Anjou suggested a marriage between Somerset and his cousin Joan, sister of James II of Scotland, but the proposal came to nothing. On 14 October of that year Somerset was made lieutenant of the Isle of Wight and warden of Carisbrooke Castle. Early in 1458 he took part in the council at London which again endeavoured to effect a political reconciliation, and it was agreed that Richard, Duke of York should pay the widowed Duchess of Somerset and her children an annual pension of five thousand marks as compensation for the death of the 2nd Duke. He then participated in The Love Day with the King, Queen and other leading nobles.

The truce, however, was hollow; Margaret continued to intrigue against York, and in October 1458 proposed that Somerset should be appointed captain of Calais in place of Warwick. War broke out in 1459, and Somerset nearly encountered Warwick at Coleshill just before the Battle of Blore Heath. After the defeat of Lancastrians at Blore Heath and before the Lancastrian victory at Ludford Bridge, he was on 9 October nominated captain of Calais. He crossed the Channel and was refused admittance to Calais by Warwick's adherents, but made himself master of the outlying fortress of Guisnes (appointing Andrew Trollope its bailiff). Somerset fought several skirmishes with the Yorkists between Calais and Guisnes until on 23 April 1460 he suffered a decisive reverse at the Battle of Newnham Bridge (called Pont de Neullay by the French).

During his absence the Yorkists had won the Battle of Northampton, but Somerset joined the Lancastrians at Pontefract in December 1460, captured a portion of the Yorkist forces at Worksop on 21 December, and won the Lancastrian victory at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December. He marched south with Margaret and fought at the Second Battle of St Albans (17 February 1461). This second victory was not followed up; the Lancastrians retired north, and on 29 March Edward IV won the Battle of Towton (29 March 1461). Somerset escaped from the battlefield, and in the following July was sent by Margaret to seek aid from Charles VII of France. Charles died before their arrival, but Louis XI summoned Somerset to Tours and sent him back in March 1462 laden with promises of support, but with very little else.

Somerset now began to consider making his peace with Edward IV. He had been attainted by parliament on 4 November 1461, and most of his lands had been granted to Edward's brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester and other Yorkists. On his return from France he took command of the Lancastrian forces in Scotland while Margaret went to France, and in the autumn of 1462 he was holding Bamburgh Castle for the Lancastrians. On 24 December, however, he and Sir Ralph Percy, the Governor of Bamburgh Castle, surrendered the castle and submitted to King Edward. The king took him to London, and treated him with marked favour. He received a general pardon on 10 March 1462/1463, and was restored to his dignities by act of the parliament which met on 29 April following.

Somerset, however, soon returned to his old allegiance. Early in 1464 he escaped from Holt Castle in North Wales, where he seems to have been kept in some sort of confinement, and after nearly being recaptured made his way to Margaret on the borders. The Lancastrians now made one more effort to recover the crown, but at the Battle of Hexham on 15 May 1464 they were utterly defeated by John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu. Somerset was captured in a barn at the site of what is now known as Dukes House, and beheaded shortly afterwards that same day. He was buried at Hexham Abbey. Parliament annulled the act restoring him to his dignities, which again became forfeit and were never restored. Somerset was unmarried, and his younger brother, Edmund Beaufort, was styled 4th Duke of Somerset by the Lancastrians.

In 1485, some twenty-one years after his death, Somerset, along with Jasper Tudor, had all acts of attainder against him annulled in the first Parliament of Henry VII, "for their true and faithfull Allegeaunces and Services doune to the said blessed King Herrie [VI]."

Character
Somerset was described by Chastellain as "un très grand seigneur et un des plus beaulx josnes chevaliers qui fust au royaume anglais" ("A very great lord and one of the most handsome knights in the English kingdom"). He was probably as competent as any of the Lancastrian leaders, but their military capacity was not great.

Illegitimate progeny
By his mistress Joan Hill he had an illegitimate son:
 * Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, 1st Baron Herbert (c.1460-1526), KG, who was given the surname "Somerset" and was created Baron Herbert in 1506 and Earl of Worcester in 1513. From him descend the Earls and Marquesses of Worcester and the Dukes of Beaufort, who are the last known surviving male-line descendants of King Henry II (1154-1189) of England, Count of Anjou, founder of the  Plantagenet dynasty, of which King Richard III (1483-1485) was the last ruling member in the male line.

title: Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset


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Talk:Chronic wasting disease

Research in other organisms
There is evidence of other organisms suffering from CWD Here's a nice article on primate transmission. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/20/5/pdfs/13-0778.pdf

Untitled
The APHIS material should be in the public domain, as it is a U.S. Federal Government work. However, I'm not sure about the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Disease Fact Sheet -- can someone check if it is in the public domain? Commonwealth countries have a nasty tendency to use Crown Copyright for their government works. -- Ganon.

Kansas
The one CWD positive deer in the state of Kansas was found in the northwestern corner of the state and not in the northeastern portion as wrongly stated in the article.

how thouroughly are they testing for extent?
I notice they found a few in the last couple years in areas far from the main source, but I can't help but wonder how they got that far away, and if they simply aren't commonly testing for it in areas where they don't expect it. For instance, I was recently in eastern Pennsylvania where I saw a wild deer that looked almost starved to death.

CWD has been found in PA according to this local article although none has been found in wild populations. : http://www.phillyburbs.com/ap/state/pa/deer-killed-after-escape-from-farm-where-cwd-found/article_c578c470-ab0c-521b-9c51-86f3277c9e1f.html There are efforts to avoid testing or avoid publishing the results of testing because there's financial incentive to hide the infections. Also you got the "muh freedom" crowd who want to be able to murder as many deer as they can as easy as they can by putting up deer feeders.

title: Talk:Chronic wasting disease


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Ivor the Engine

Ivor the Engine is a British cutout animation television series created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's Smallfilms company. It follows the adventures of a small green steam locomotive who lives in the "top left-hand corner of Wales" and works for The Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited. His friends include Jones the Steam, Evans the Song and Dai Station, among many other characters.

Background
Having produced the live Alexander the Mouse, and the stop motion animated The Journey of Master Ho for his employers Associated Rediffusion/ITV in partnership with Firmin, Oliver Postgate and his partner set up Smallfilms in a disused cow shed at Firmin's home in Blean, near Canterbury, Kent.

Ivor the Engine was Smallfilms' first production, and drew inspiration from Postgate's World War II encounter with Welshman Denzyl Ellis, a former railway locomotive fireman with the Royal Scot train, who described how steam engines came to life when you spent time steaming them up in the morning. Postgate decided to locate the story to North Wales, as it was more inspirational than the flat terrain of the English Midlands. The story lines drew heavily on, and were influenced by, the works of South Wales poet Dylan Thomas.

Production
Ivor the Engine used stop motion animation, of cardboard cut-outs painted with watercolours.

The series was originally made for black and white television by Smallfilms for Associated Rediffusion in 1958, but was later revived in 1975 when new episodes in colour were produced for the BBC.

The series was written, animated and narrated by Oliver Postgate. Peter Firmin provided the artwork. The sound effects were endearingly low-tech, with the sound of Ivor's puffing made vocally by Postgate himself. The music was composed by Vernon Elliott and predominantly featured a solo bassoon, to reflect the three notes of Ivor's whistle.

Voices were performed by Oliver Postgate, Anthony Jackson and Olwen Griffiths. Anthony Jackson provided the voices for Dai Station, Evans the Song and Mr Dinwiddy.

Episodes
The original series was in black and white and comprised six episodes which told how Ivor wanted to sing in the choir, and how his whistle was replaced with steam organ pipes from the fairground organ on Mr Morgan's roundabout.

There then followed two thirteen-episode series, also in black and white. Black and white episodes were 10 minutes each.

In the 1970s, the two longer black and white series were re-made in colour, with some alterations to the stories, but they did not revisit the original six. The colour series consisted of 40 five-minute films. These would often each form part of a longer story.

Although the six original black and white episodes were subsequently released on video, the two longer black and white series (totaling 26 episodes) were not and for many years were thought to have been lost. In October 2010, however, film copies of all 26 episodes were discovered in a pig shed.

When the colour series was subsequently released on DVD, some of the episodes whose content linked, were edited together, with the relevant closing and opening titles and credits removed.

The colour series episodes were:

Home releases
Throughout the 1980s and the early '90s, the BBC released a few videos of Ivor the Engine.

In 1984, a single 57-minute compiled video called Ivor the Engine and the Dragons with 13 stories joined up together as an omnibus.

In 1985, a single 58-minute compiled video called Ivor the Engine and the Elephants with 13 stories joined up together as an omnibus. In 1995, the video was re-released in different packaging.

In the early 1990s a video with six black and white stories of the very first Ivor the Engine series in the late-1950s (previously broadcast on Associated-Rediffusion) and seven colour episodes of the 1970s BBC series of Ivor the Engine, all shown as single episodes, was released. The video was introduced by Oliver Postgate.

In 2000, a video called The Complete Ivor The Engine containing all 26 colour episodes was released by Universal.

In 2023, a Blu-ray called Ivor The Engine - The Colour Series containing all 40 colour, fully restored episodes was released by Fabulous Films.

Ivor
Ivor is the steam locomotive of the Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited. Unlike real ones, he has a mind of his own. Ivor can drive himself and use his whistle to communicate. His fondest dream is to sing with the Grumbly and District Choral Society, a dream that is realised when his whistle is replaced with three pipes from an old fairground organ. He becomes the first bass of the choir, as well as providing them with a means of getting from place to place.

Ivor enjoys doing all sorts of things that humans do. As well as singing in the choir, he likes visiting the seaside, making tea from his boiler and spending time with his friends. He is fond of animals, and has several of them among his friends. He can be wilful and disobedient at times, and it is not unknown for him to go and do his own thing when he should be working. He dislikes shunting and timetables.

Jones the Steam
Edwin Jones is Ivor's driver. He is a cheerful and kind-hearted man who perhaps sympathises more than most railway staff with Ivor's idiosyncrasies. Postgate and Firmin describe him as "an ordinary engine driver who is there to cope with whatever needs to be coped with". People who are new to the area find him rather eccentric for talking to his engine.

When not driving Ivor or helping the engine with his latest flight of fancy, he enjoys fishing and day-dreaming.

Dai Station
The station master at Llaniog. He is a stickler for the regulations of the railway, but sometimes bends the rules to help his friends. His life is made a little difficult by the fact that Ivor really doesn't care much for regulations at all. Although he is often gloomy and overly strict, he is a good person at heart.

Owen the Signal
Owen the Signal inhabits a signal box near Ivor's shed and makes an occasional appearance in the episodes.

Evans the Song
Evan Evans is the portly choirmaster of the Grumbly and District Choral Society. He is also Jones the Steam's wife's uncle.

Mrs Porty
A rich and eccentric aristocratic lady who enjoys the occasional glass of port and has new hats sent from London every week. She is also technically the owner of the railway, having bought it when the line was threatened with nationalisation. However, she does not bother much with the day-to-day running and things remained much the same after she bought it.

Mr Dinwiddy
A very odd, possibly insane miner who lives in the hills and digs for gold. He enjoys explosions and mining. In fact, his mountain is full of gold, but as soon as he digs it up, he puts it back again. He often has need of new boots.

He is something of an amateur scientist. He describes himself as "educated" and knows "something about rock". He has constructed a few odd devices, including a donkey carriage and a bubble-blowing machine.

Bani Moukerjee
An elephant keeper from India, who works for Charlie Banger's Circus. He is in charge of the elephants Alice, George, Margaret and Clarence, who all obey him without question.

Charlie Banger
The eponymous and larger-than-life owner of Charlie Banger's Circus, who arranges a free show for the town in order to thank Jones, Evans and Mr Hughes for their help in looking after Alice the Elephant following her injury.

Idris the Dragon
A small, red Welsh dragon who also sings in the choir for a time. Having been hatched from an egg in Ivor's fire, he lives with his wife Olwen and any of their twins, Daian and Blodwen, in the extinct volcano Smoke Hill. As well as singing, he proves useful by cooking fish and chips for the choir using his fiery breath.

On the other hand, Idris runs into trouble when Smoke Hill goes cold and needs to be kept hot in order to survive. The gasboard provide a temporary furnace, but when that became too expensive (and decimalisation renders the slot-machine inoperable), the only other option for the dragons is a heated cage. Luckily, Mr Dinwiddy is able to provide a solution, and they now live in a geothermally-heated cave under the ground.

Alice the Elephant
A circus elephant with Charlie Banger's Circus. She is normally placid, but does not like taking medicine or being bathed by anyone except her owner, Bani Moukerjee. When Ivor met her, she had escaped and was asleep on the track with an injured foot. Since then they have become friends. She and her elephant friends were able to help Ivor when he got stuck in the snow.

Bluebell the Donkey
A donkey who lives at Mrs Porty's house. She cannot talk, but she and Ivor just enjoy sitting around together. As the Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited has only one locomotive (apart from the short service of Juggernaut), Bluebell is sometimes called upon to provide motive power. Examples include the towing by chain of the broken down locomotive Juggernaut and also the pulling of Mrs Porty's donkey cart when this was temporarily set on the railway tracks to pursue 'robbers' when Ivor had been 'stolen' in the episode The Lost Engine; in this latter case, like a locomotive, Bluebell strictly observed the railway signals, halting the chase until Owen the Signal had raised the signal arm.

Morgan the Roundabout
Mr Morgan is the fairground owner. He gave Ivor some pipes from the steam organ on his roundabout, so that Ivor could sing in the choir. He only appeared in the very first black and white series.

Claude Gilbert
Claude Gilbert was the station master of Tan-y-Gylch station in the original black-and-white series, and would share a cup of tea with Jones whilst Ivor rested at the platform. It was he who directed Jones and Dai to Mr Jenkins the Builder when they were searching for organ pipes to replace Ivor's whistle. Like Mr Morgan, he only appeared in the first black and white series and was not seen again.

Mr Hughes The Gasworks
The gruff but kind-hearted proprietor of the local gasworks, he is well known for keeping pets, in particular budgerigars. He is asked to provide shelter for Alice the Elephant when she has an injured foot, and, despite his initial reluctance, he more than rises to the occasion.

Miss Ludgrove
The local vet, with a dry sense of humour, who comes to examine Alice's injured foot.

Mr Brangwyn
A robust and larger-than-life pigeon-fancier, who occupies a house by the railway, and is engaged to Miss Price from Llangubbin. It is Mr Brangwyn who provides the elephant's boot for Alice: he obtained said boot during the time he once spent in India.

Mrs Williams
The local postmistress, who is a bit batty and a bit of a gossip. She occasionally interacts with Jones and Ivor.

Eli The Baker
The feisty but big-hearted and hard-working local baker.

Mrs Thomas
The local fish-and-chip shop owner. A plump woman with a big voice, she is kind and cheerful and serves the choir with food after their sessions.

Policeman Gregory
Mainly known as P.C. Gregory. The local and only village policeman. One of his most notable happenings is after Ivor went to keep the chickens warm on his boiler. Jones and Dai find 3 small eggs in Ivor's coal bunker, and after a small "finders-keepers" argument they are interrupted by P.C. Gregory, who then removes his helmet (which was padded on the inside) and takes the eggs. After he leaves Dai asks if the farmer will ever see those 3 eggs again, as P.C. Gregory likes a good egg in the morning.

Professor Longfellow
This seemingly batty professor was only seen in a few episodes. He was famously known for ordering a telescope cover; however, as it was one of Ivor's deliveries, Mrs Porty believes it is her newest hat, and wears it to a meeting later in the episode. He was also notable for telling Jones, Idris, and Dai, that the closest active volcano to the now extinct "Smoke Hill" is in southern Italy.

Mr Mervin
The local bank manager. He only appears in a few episodes; his most notable appearance is his and Jones's adventure to find more half-crowns for the gas meter powering "Smoke-Hill". As this episode takes place when decimalisation occurs, Jones must inform Idris and Co. that there are no more half-crowns in Wales and that "you have had the lot". They go and find in a small shop, an old tin teapot full to the brim with half-crowns. "Smoke-Hill" is gas fired for the final time until the dragons go to Mr Dinwiddy and his geothermal heated cave.

Mrs Griffiths
Mrs Griffiths is a member of the Welsh Antiquarian Society and a passionate believer in Dragons. She first came to seeking Jones the Steam in hopes of finding Idris the dragon, after hearing that dragons had been sighted in Llannyog. Idris had already run away by this point after learning that people were looking for him so Jones misled Mrs Griffiths into giving up the search by pretending to be an insane person who spoke to railway engines (Ivor enhanced Jones' performance by not blowing his own whistle).

When Idris' home Smoke Hill lost its heat, Jones and Ivor took Idris to see Mrs Griffiths in her shop in Llanmadd. After seeing Idris and his brethren, and Ivor's self-whistling, Mrs Griffiths apologises to Jones for thinking him mad and agrees to help the dragons. Mrs Griffiths and her fellows at the Antiquarian Society hire Mr Hughes the Gasworks to fit out Smoke Hill with gas heating and in the series one finale Smoke Hill, now a gas-fired volcano, is reignited and all the characters sing in gladness. However, the gas-heating includes a gas meter that only takes half-crowns, which are no longer "legal tender". On a few occasions, the gas meter runs out and Jones and Ivor have to search high and low for more half crowns.

Eventually, they use up all the half crowns in their part of Wales so they return to Mrs Griffiths for help, but Jones leaves Ivor alone in a siding while he speaks to Mrs Griffiths and two of the dragons, who were in Ivor's firebox, decide to fly about the town. They come across a statue of St. George famously slaying a dragon. The dragons, being quite young and naïve, attack St George's statue with jets of fire in the hope of saving the dragon. When Mrs Griffiths and Jones the Steam arrive, she - being horrified by the sight of two dragons attacking the statue - accuses them of vandalism and tells Jones to take them away.

Juggernaut
The Juggernaut is a diesel rail lorry made out of bits, bobs and flanged wheels, which appears towards the end of the series. Due to its inadequate brakes, it runs down a hill and falls into the lake soon after starting service, nearly killing Idris, whom it was carrying on a chestnut barrow.

Books
Ivor the Engine was published by Abelard Schuman in 1962.

Six story books, based upon the TV series were published in the 1970s and reprinted in 2006/07:
 * Ivor the Engine: The first story
 * Ivor the Engine: Snowdrifts
 * Ivor the Engine: The dragon
 * Ivor the Engine: The elephant
 * Ivor the Engine: The Foxes
 * Ivor the Engine: Ivor's Birthday
 * The Ivor the Engine Annual circa 1978.

The London Borough of Hackney Public Libraries banned the entire series because of the Indian elephant keeper, called Bani because "they thought ethnic minorities might be offended by him.

Influences and future appearances

 * Postgate and Firmin created a map of their fictional railway which was adhered to rigidly during filming.
 * The Who include a character named 'Ivor The Engine Driver' in their song "A Quick One, While He's Away", which appears on their 1966 album 'A Quick One'.
 * British ska band Bad Manners also name check Ivor, on their 1980 album Loonee Tunes! with a track called "The Undersea Adventures of Ivor the Engine".
 * In The Amazing Adventures of Morph episode "The Magic Wand", when Gobbledygook the alien is trying to change Chas back into a dog, Ivor, painted in navy blue with his name "Ivor" in black, makes a cameo appearance.
 * In 2007 'All Aboard with Ivor' events were held at various heritage railways around the UK following the modification of a small Peckett industrial locomotive to resemble Ivor. Railways hosting the event include the Battlefield Line Railway in Leicestershire, the Watercress Line in Hampshire and the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway in Oxfordshire.
 * BBC2 Wales revived Ivor for a series of promotional spots advertising their new digital television channel "2W" for Wales. Oliver Postgate and Anthony Jackson provided new dialogue for these spots.
 * Some of the artwork from production is on display at the Rupert the Bear Museum, along with several other items from Smallfilm's history. The Rupert Bear Museum is now part of the Canterbury Heritage Museum in Stour Street, Canterbury.
 * In April 2011, Smallfilms collaborated with mobile gaming company Dreadnought Design to launch an Ivor the Engine game under the newly created Smallworlds brand.
 * In June 2014, Smallfilms collaborated with board game company Surprised Stare Games to launch an Ivor the Engine boardgame.
 * Gideon Coe uses Ivor's Cruising Theme as the musical bed over his last song leading up to midnight on BBC 6 Music to say nighty night.
 * The Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway hold an annual Ivor the Engine Weekend in August.
 * Functional programming language Idris was named after the dragon in the show.

title: Ivor the Engine


text:
User talk:Dixi~enwiki

HI! Does anybody know about copyrights in France? The question i easy: Can I post on Internet images printed in France in 1912?
 * I copied your question and placed in on Village pump....that page is kind of like the wikipedia water-cooler. people gab there. Kingturtle 07:53 19 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Photo gallery
I appreciated your photo gallery. However, the photos could be of more use to us if you could only add the scientific names of the species to the Polish names.

By the way, if you have taxonomic problems with flowering plants, check the page I added to the English wikipedia Update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. This report is authoritative and used by any one of us, working on botanic pages. They can be of great help to you. JoJan 16:22, 10 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Picture of the Week
Elekhh (talk) 03:58, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

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Renamed
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Efteling

Efteling is a fantasy-themed amusement park in Kaatsheuvel, the Netherlands. The attractions reflect elements from ancient myths and legends, fairy tales, fables, and folklore.

The park was opened on May 31, 1952. It evolved from a nature park with a playground and a Fairytale Forest into a full-sized theme park. It now caters to both children and adults with its cultural, romantic, and nostalgic themes, in addition to its wide array of amusement rides including six roller coasters and four dark rides.

It is the largest theme park in the Netherlands and one of the oldest theme parks in the world. It is twice as large as the original Disneyland park in the United States and predates it by three years. Annually, the park has more than 5 million visitors. In 2020, due to differences in pandemic policy, it was the most visited theme park in Europe, ahead of Disneyland Park. In 2019 and 2022, it was the third most visited theme park in Europe, after Disneyland Park, Paris and Europa-Park, Germany.

History

Efteling is one of the oldest theme parks still in existence. Its roots go back to 1935, when the R. K. Sport en Wandelpark was inaugurated.

In 1950, Efteling Nature Park Foundation (Stichting Natuurpark de Efteling) was founded by the mayor of Loon op Zand, R.J. van der Heijden, filmmaker Peter Reijnders, and designer artist Anton Pieck (1895-1987). The foundation was named after a 16th-century farm named Ersteling. Efteling officially opened on May 31, 1952, when the Fairy Tale Forest (het Sprookjesbos), designed by the famous Dutch illustrator Anton Pieck, was opened to the public. Initially, the Fairy Tale Forest was home to some 10 different fairy tales, all of them brought to life using original drawings by Pieck alongside mechanics, lighting and sound effects designed by the Dutch filmmaker Peter Reijnders. The life-sized dioramas, displayed together in an atmospheric forest, were a tremendous success. Efteling welcomed 240,000 visitors in 1952 alone.

Since 1978, the park has been expanded and grown to become one of the most popular theme parks in the world. In the same year, English singer Kate Bush performed in the park in De Efteling Special, which was broadcast on 11 May 1978. In early 1978, the amusement park's Haunted Castle was completed and the opening was scheduled on 10 May that year. Bush, who just had a big hit in the Netherlands with "Wuthering Heights", made her debut on Dutch television in the special. Her popularity was used to draw the attention to the Haunted Castle.

In 2010, Efteling announced plans to remain open year-round. From November through about February, the 'Winter Efteling' theme remains in place. However, attractions that involve water, such as the rapids ride 'Piraña' or the water coaster 'Vliegende Hollander' (Flying Dutchman), are closed.

Gisela Williams, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, wrote a review of the park in early 2014. Williams praised Efteling but criticized the teacups-style ride Monsieur Cannibale due to ethnic stereotypes. Her review was later mentioned in De Telegraaf, a daily newspaper in the Netherlands, and drew several angry comments from its readership. Williams also received her first death threat for her comments about the controversial attraction. In recent years, activists have repeatedly requested the Efteling to remove or re-theme the attraction. In June 2021, the park closed the ride for an extensive renovation including a re-theme.

The park received its 123,456,789th guest on June 19, 2015. The Efteling opened the trackless darkride Symbolica in 2017. With a price tag of 35 million euros, it is the most expensive investment in Efteling history. Beside the theme park, the Efteling operates two hotels, a theatre, a golf course, and two holiday villages. The Efteling inaugurated its 30th fairytale in 2019.

In December 2020, the park was forced to close in compliance with the new COVID-19 restrictions introduced by prime minister Mark Rutte and the third Rutte cabinet.

Design

The success of Efteling has been attributed largely to its ride designs, architecture and atmosphere. When Anton Pieck was asked to design the initial fairy tales for the Efteling, he made sure the park would live up to his personal high standards. There would be no use of cheap building materials, plastic, or concrete. Pieck's illustration style, somewhat grim and dark, but also romantic and nostalgic, was the thematic base on which nearly all future expansions were built.

Pieck worked for Efteling until the mid-1970s, when his position as chief designer was passed on to the younger Ton van de Ven. Van de Ven had already been working for Efteling for several years and Pieck was very pleased with his work. The Haunted Castle (het Spookslot), which opened in 1978 as the park's first new large attraction, was Efteling's first to be designed entirely by Van de Ven.

Van de Ven continued his work until 2002, when he retired. A new team of imagineers works on new Efteling attractions, still in a style suitable to the Efteling.

Divisions
The Efteling Theme Park Resort now comprises several divisions: the theme park (1952), the four-star Efteling Hotel (1992), the 18-hole golf course (1995), Efteling Theatre (2002), accommodation parks: Efteling Bosrijk (2009) & Het Loonsche Land (2017). The theatre, which was once used for park shows, is one of the five biggest theatres in the Netherlands and can house big theatre productions, which will not be included in park admissions.

Besides using it as a home base for shows/musicals created by the Efteling itself (like "Droomvlucht") it also lends itself out for other big productions, events, and business events. The hotel was operated by Golden Tulip for several years, but Efteling decided in 2004 to manage it independently. All divisions are now profitable, although it took the golf course several years to break even. The divisions are each contained in commercial corporations, but all shares are still held by the nonprofit Efteling Nature Park Foundation (Stichting Natuurpark de Efteling).

The park

The theme park covers 72 ha. This area has changed only marginally over the course of its history. The Efteling Theme Park Resort also offers the Efteling hotel, the Efteling hotel Loonsche Land, a theatre, a golf course, Villa Pardoes, and two holiday villages (Efteling Bosrijk and Efteling Loonsche Land) on 276.1 ha. The park's foundation owns a total of 400 ha also including young forest, nature reserve, some grassland, fields and roads.

The park is divided into five themed areas or 'realms'. Originally, the park was divided into four areas called North, West, East, and South, with most of the park's historical rides and attractions, such as the Fairy Tale Forest, located in West. When the park reorganized its infrastructure in the late 1990s, adding the Pardoes Promenade (named after Efteling's mascot Pardoes, a court jester) and a central hub called Efteling Brink, it also changed the areas' names. North was changed to Reizenrijk (Travel Realm), West became Marerijk (Fairy Realm), East became Ruigrijk (Adventure Realm), and South became Anderrijk (Other Realm). In 2017 a fifth realm opened in the center of the park called Fantasierijk (Fantasy Realm).

Although the park was not built with these divisions in mind and the names may seem cryptic, they do make sense. Perhaps the area most suited to its name is Ruigrijk, where most fast rides such as the double-loop roller coaster Python (constructed in 1981) are located. Marerijk is the home to the Fairy Tale Forest and the Fairies of the Droomvlucht, Anderrijk has some rides that are inspired by non-Western cultures (e.g. Fata Morgana and Piraña), while Reizenrijk has the Carnaval Festival ride, which travels through several different 'countries'. The Fantasierijk got its name from the darkride Symbolica: Palace of Fantasy.

Efteling was largely built in an existing pine forest located in a rural area, giving it a 'nature park' feeling. Together with its large ponds and gardens, its abundant green space is rather unusual among the world's leading theme parks.

Attractions and rides

 * 1952 – Fairytale Forest (Dutch: Sprookjesbos; Anton Pieck, Peter Reijnders, Ton van de Ven, Henny Knoet, Michel den Dulk, Karel Willemen and Pim-Martijn Sanders)
 * 1954 – Children's Railway (Dutch: Kinderspoor), (pedal trains, Anton Pieck and Peter Reijnders)
 * 1954 – Anton Pieck Square (Dutch: Anton Pieckplein), (square with nostalgic rides, Anton Pieck and Michel den Dulk)
 * 1956 – Stoomcarrousel (carousel, bought from L. Janvier)
 * 1969 – Stoomtrein (a narrow-gauge heritage railway)
 * 1971 – Diorama (Model railway/ Diorama, Anton Pieck)
 * 1981 – Python (double loop corkscrew roller coaster, Vekoma) (original demolished in 2018, replaced by a replica 3 months later)
 * 1981 – Gondoletta (tow boat ride, Ton van de Ven)
 * 1982 – Half Moon (Dutch: Halve Maen) (ship swing, Ton van de Ven)
 * 1983 – Piraña (river rafting ride, Ton van de Ven)
 * 1984 – Carnival Festival (dark ride, Geesink)
 * 1984 – Tin Lizzies (Dutch: De Oude Tuffer) (car ride, Ton van de Ven)
 * 1986 – Fata Morgana (dark, tow boat ride, Ton van de Ven)
 * 1987 – Pagode (observation tower, Ton van de Ven)
 * 1990 – The People of Laaf (Dutch: Volk van Laaf) (Ton van de Ven)
 * 1993 – Dreamflight (Dutch: Droomvlucht) (dark ride, Ton van de Ven)
 * 1996 – The House of the Five Senses (Dutch: Het huis van de 5 zintuigen) (park entrance, Ton van de Ven)
 * 1996 – Villa Volta (madhouse, Ton van de Ven)
 * 1998 – Bird Rok (Dutch: Vogel Rok) (enclosed roller coaster, Ton van de Ven)
 * 2007 – The Flying Dutchman (Dutch: De Vliegende Hollander) (water coaster / dark ride, Karel Willemen)
 * 2010 – George and the Dragon (Dutch: Joris en de Draak) (wooden racing coaster, Karel Willemen)
 * 2011 – Ravelin (Dutch: Raveleijn) (theatre, Sander de Bruijn)
 * 2012 – Aquanura (Musical Fountain, WET)
 * 2015 – Baron 1898 (dive coaster Bolliger & Mabillard, Sander de Bruijn)
 * 2017 – Symbolica (dark ride, ETF Ride Systems/Sander de Bruijn and others)
 * 2019 – Fabula replaces the former PandaVision (€3.5 million renovation by Efteling and Aardman Animations)
 * 2020 – Max & Moritz (double roller coaster, Mack Rides), Robbert Jaap Janssen
 * 2022 – Sirocco replaces the former Monsieur Canibale, Jeroen Verheij
 * 2024 – Danse Macabre, Jeroen Verheij

Former attractions:

 * 1953 – 2011 Rowing Pond (Dutch: Roeivijver), replaced by Aquanura
 * 1953 – 1988 Swimming Pool (Dutch: Zwembad)
 * 1966 – 2010 Water Organ (Dutch: Waterorgel), in use as a TV studio since 2010
 * 1978 – 2022 Haunted Castle (Dutch: Spookslot) (haunted attraction, Ton van de Ven and Anton Pieck), closed 2022, will be replaced by Danse Macabre in 2024.
 * 1984 – 2020 Polka Marina (a combination of a carousel and a minirollercoaster, Ton van de Ven)
 * 1985 – 2019 Bob Track (Dutch: Bobbaan) (bobsled roller coaster, Intamin Ton van de Ven), demolished in 2019, replaced by Max & Moritz
 * 1988 – 2021 Monsieur Cannibale (teacups ride, Henny Knoet) Replaced by Sirocco
 * 1991 – 2009 Pegasus (junior wooden roller coaster, demolished in 2009), replaced by George and the Dragon
 * 2002 – 2019 PandaVision (Dutch: Pandadroom) (a 4-D film cinema, Van Doorn and associates), replaced by Fabula

Other ventures operating independently from the amusement park:

 * 1992 – Tower Realm (Dutch: Torenrijk) (theme hotel)
 * 1995 – Efteling Golf course (Dutch: Golfclub Efteling) (golf course)
 * 2002 – Efteling Theatre (theatre, Ton van de Ven)
 * 2008 – Efteling Radio (radio station)
 * 2009 – Forest Realm (Dutch: Bosrijk) (accommodation area, Karel Willemen)
 * 2017 – The Loonsche Land (Dutch: Het Loonsche Land) (accommodation)

Awards

 * In 1971, the Efteling was the first theme park to receive the Pomme d'Or (Golden Apple), in recognition of superior efforts in promoting and raising Europe's level of tourism. The Pomme d'Or is the highest award in the European tourist industry.
 * In 1992, the Efteling was awarded the IAAPA Applause Award for best theme park in the world.
 * In 1997, Villa Volta, as the first 'new style' madhouse in the world, received the Thea Attraction Award.
 * In 2005, the Efteling received the Thea Classic Award for the year 2004, a notable token of recognition of quality awarded by other people in the themed entertainment industry. Efteling is the second park to receive a prize for their entire oeuvre, the first being Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark.
 * In 2014, 2015 and 2016, the Efteling won the award for the best holiday park in the Netherlands according to the booking sites BungalowSpecials.nl, BungalowSpecials.be, FerienparkSpecials.de and HolidayParkSpecials.co.uk. These awards were based solely on ratings from guests who have stayed at the Efteling.
 * In 2017, the Efteling was titled 'Best Themepark' in the world by Theme Park Insider, based on overall reader and visitor ratings.
 * In 2018, Symbolica received the TEA Award For Outstanding Achievement.
 * In 2018, 'Best Themepark' and 'Best new dark ride' in the world by Theme Park Insider.
 * In 2019, 'Best Themepark' in The Netherlands & Belgium. Diamond Theme Park Awards 2019.

Structure
The Efteling is a private company limited by shares. The Efteling Nature Park Foundation (Stichting Natuurpark de Efteling) is the only shareholder. The foundation was founded in 1950 by R.J.Th. van der Heijden, Peter Reijnders, and Anton Pieck. The company is led by two directors. They manage four sections: the theme park, the Efteling Hotel, the Efteling Golf course, and the Efteling Theatre.

Since April 17, 2014, the company's CEO has been Fons Jurgens.

Employees
In the high season, Efteling employs 2,500 workers. In 2000, the number was 1670, of which 400 had a permanent contract (24%), 450 were seasonal employees (27%) and 820 had temp jobs (49%).

Visitors

 * Disneyland Paris, #2 amusement park in Europe of annual attendance, in 2020
 * Efteling, #1 amusement park in Europe of annual attendance, in 2020

Efteling welcomed 3,240,000 visitors in 2007, making it the most popular theme park in the Netherlands. In 2009, the park's attendance surpassed for the first time since its opening 4,000,000 visitors and in 2017 roughly 5,180,000 visitors went to the park, making it the most popular tourist daytrip destination in all categories. The objective was to reach 5 million admissions in 2020. It is reached in 2017, three years earlier than expected.

In its opening year (1952), the park had 222,941 visitors. In 1954, the millionth visitor since the official opening was welcomed.

In 1983, the attendance increases by 30%. Efteling is the leading leisure park in Europe with 1.9 million visitors per year. In 1989, Efteling leads European parks in terms of attendance, 2.1 million people go to the park, including 1.6 million from the Netherlands. In 1991, Efteling is on the top step of the European podium with 2.6 million visitors. On the second step, three parks have 2 million admissions: Europa-Park, Alton Towers and Phantasialand. On the third step, two parks show 1.4 million admissions: Walibi Wavre and Parc Astérix.

Most of the visitors are Dutch; 94% of the Dutch population has visited the park. About 16% of visitors live in areas such as Flanders (Belgium), Westphalia (Germany) and Southern England (UK).

A graph of the number of visitors of the Efteling during the period 1952–2018:

Ticket price
A graph of the ticket price in euros of the Efteling during the period 1952-2014:

From 1952 to 2002, the ticket price was set in Dutch guilders. These prices were converted to euros using a conversion factor of 0.45378. In 1952, the ticket price was 0.80 Dutch guilders (0.36 euro). From 1956 to 1965, the ticket price was 1 Dutch guilder. The price had risen to 42 Dutch guilders by 2001 and was converted to 21 euros in 2002, during the switch to the euro in the Netherlands. tickets cost 42.00 euros or 40.00 euros by "low season". There are also "luxe" tickets for 68.00 euros that include lunch, dinner and free parking among other things. Tickets ordered online are sold with a discount of 2 euros. Admission is free for children under 4.

Investments
On December 11, 2008, theme park officials announced that they would spend EUR40 million during 2009–2012 on three large construction projects: a convention centre accommodating 1500 visitors (de Burcht), an arena from the Middle Ages for 750 show spectators (Raveleijn), and a redesign for snack bar "De Likkebaerd" to turn it into a station for the park's steam train. They also said they did not expect to suffer from the Financial crisis of 2007–2008. In 2009, the Efteling announced that the Burcht has been cancelled.

The park announced in 2015 that they had the ambition to welcome 7 million guests by 2030. For this they drew up a zoning plan in the period from 2015 to 2018 called 'Bestemmingsplan Wereld van de Efteling 2030'. The park will at first expand to the east as far as the road De Horst and the highway N261. After the eastern expansion, the park will expand in a western direction on the site where parking spaces are currently located. In 2018, the zoning plan was unanimously adopted within the municipality of Loon op Zand, after which three objections were submitted to the Raad van State. Two objections were investigated by the council and in the meantime the council decided that De Efteling was not allowed to start implementing the plan. With an adjustment on a number of points, the council approved the zoning plan in June 2021. Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that led to the multiple closures of the park, the park had to review its investments. It decided to postpone the expansion towards the east side for a few years and to focus on expansions within the existing park boundaries. On January 24, 2022, the company announced that it would invest €75 million in the construction of a new hotel within the park on the square behind the entrance and in an attraction that will replace Spookslot.

title: Efteling


text:
Howard Johnson's

Howard Johnson by Wyndham, or more commonly known as Howard Johnson's, is an American hotel brand with well over 200 hotels in 15 countries. It was also widely known as a former restaurant chain, which at one time was the largest in the U.S., with more than 1,000 locations. Since 2006, all hotels and company trademarks have been owned by Wyndham Hotels and Resorts.

Originally started as single restaurant founded by Howard Deering Johnson in 1925, it grew into a substantial restaurant chain in the decades that followed. By the 1950s, the company expanded operations by opening hotels, then known as Howard Johnson's Motor Lodges, which were often located next to restaurants. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, it had become the largest restaurant chain in the U.S., with its combined company-owned and franchised outlets. Howard Johnson's restaurants were franchised separately from the hotel brand beginning in 1986 but, in the years that followed, severely dwindled in number until eventually disappearing altogether. The last restaurant, in Lake George, New York, closed in 2022. The line of branded supermarket frozen foods, as well as its famous ice cream, is no longer manufactured.

Early years
In 1925, Howard Deering Johnson borrowed $2,000 to buy and operate a small corner pharmacy in Wollaston, a neighborhood in Quincy, Massachusetts. Johnson was surprised to find it easy to pay back the money lent to him after discovering his recently installed soda fountain had become the busiest part of his drugstore. Eager to ensure that his store would remain successful, Johnson decided to devise a new ice cream recipe. Some sources say the recipe was based on his mother's homemade ice creams and desserts, while others say that it was from a local German immigrant, who either sold or gave Johnson the ice cream recipe. The new recipe made the ice cream more flavorful due to increased butterfat content. Eventually, Johnson created 28 flavors of ice cream. He is quoted as saying, "I thought I had every flavor in the world. That '28' (flavors of ice cream) became my trademark."

Throughout the summers of the late 1920s, Johnson opened concession stands on the beachfront property along the coast of Massachusetts. The stands sold soft drinks, hot dogs, and ice cream. Each stand was successful. With his success becoming more noticeable every year, Johnson convinced local bankers to lend him funds to operate a family-style restaurant. Negotiations were made and, toward the end of the decade, the first Howard Johnson's restaurant opened in Quincy. It featured fried clams, baked beans, chicken pot pies, frankfurters, ice cream, and soft drinks.

The first Howard Johnson's restaurant received a tremendous boost in 1929, owing to an unusual set of circumstances: The mayor of nearby Boston, Malcolm Nichols, banned the production of Eugene O'Neill's play, Strange Interlude in Boston. Rather than fight the mayor, the Theatre Guild moved the production to the Wollaston Theatre in Quincy. The five-hour play was presented in two parts with a dinner break. The first Howard Johnson's restaurant was near the theater, and hundreds of influential Bostonians flocked to the restaurant. Through word of mouth, more Americans became familiar with the Howard Johnson Company.

Expansion in the 1930s and 1940s

Johnson wanted to expand his company, but the stock market crash of 1929 prevented this. After waiting a few years and maintaining his business, Johnson persuaded an acquaintance in 1935 to open a second Howard Johnson's restaurant in Orleans, Massachusetts. The second restaurant was franchised and not company-owned. This was one of America's first franchising agreements.

By the end of 1936, there were 39 more franchised restaurants, creating a total of 41 Howard Johnson's restaurants. By 1939, there were 107 Howard Johnson's restaurants along American East Coast highways, generating revenues of $10.5 million. In less than 14 years, Johnson directed a franchise network of over 10,000 employees with 170 restaurants, many serving 1.5 million people a year.

Johnson’s success gave him the added opportunity to capitalize on getting his name around. When wealthy socialite Dorothy May Kinnicutt Parish (known as Sister Parish) began her decorating business in the 1930s, Johnson hired her to decorate the restaurant he built in Somerville, New Jersey. She told a reporter from The New York Times, “I dressed the waitresses in aqua, did the walls in aqua, I made the placemats in aqua. I guess I must have thought it was quite chic, but I haven’t done a thing in aqua since.” (quoted in A History of Howard Johnson’s by Anthony Mitchell Sammarco).

The unique icons of orange roofs, cupolas, and weather vanes on Howard Johnson properties helped patrons identify the chain's restaurants and motels. The restaurant's trademark Simple Simon and the Pieman logo was created by artist John Alcott in the 1930s while the fiberglass signs were sculptured by Charles Pizzano.

There were 200 Howard Johnson's restaurants when America entered World War II.

By 1944, only 12 Howard Johnson's restaurants remained in business. The effects of war rationing crippled the company. Johnson managed to maintain his business by serving commissary food to war workers and U.S. Army recruits. When the Pennsylvania Turnpike (1940), and later the Ohio Turnpike, New Jersey Turnpike and Connecticut Turnpike were built, Johnson bid for and won exclusive rights to serve drivers at service station turnoffs through the turnpike systems.

In the process of recovering from these losses, in 1947 the Howard Johnson Company began construction of 200 new restaurants throughout the American Southeast and Midwest. By 1951, the sales of the Howard Johnson Company totaled $115 million.

Entering the hotel business
By 1954, there were 400 Howard Johnson's restaurants in 32 states, about 10% of which were extremely profitable company-owned turnpike restaurants; the rest were franchises. This was one of the first nationwide restaurant chains.

While many places sold "fried clams", they were whole, which was not universally accepted by the American dining public. Howard Johnson popularized Soffron Brothers Clam Company's fried clam strips, the "foot" of hard-shelled sea clams. They became popular to eat in this fashion throughout the country.

In 1954, the company opened the first Howard Johnson's motor lodge in Savannah, Georgia. The company employed architects Rufus Nims and Karl Koch to oversee the design of the rooms and gate lodge. Nims had previously worked with the company, designing restaurants. The restaurant's trademark Simple Simon and the Pieman was now joined by a lamplighter character in the firm's marketing of its motels. According to cultural historians, the chain became synonymous with travel among American motorists and vacationers in part because of Johnson's ubiquitous outdoor advertising displays.

In 1959, Howard Deering Johnson, who had founded and managed the company since 1925, turned control over to his son, then 26-year-old Howard Brennan Johnson. The elder Johnson observed his son's running of the company until his death in 1972 at the age of 75.

Howard Johnson Company went public in 1961; there were 605 restaurants, 265 company-owned and 340 franchised, as well as 88 franchised Howard Johnson's motor lodges in 32 states and The Bahamas.

In 1961, Johnson hired New York chefs Pierre Franey and Jacques Pépin to oversee food development at the company's main commissary in Brockton, Massachusetts. Franey and Pépin developed recipes for the company's signature dishes that could be flash frozen and delivered across the country, guaranteeing a consistent product.

Civil rights
While the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by the United States Supreme Court in 1954 struck down segregation in public schools, the segregation, and maintenance of whites-only public facilities continued in other domains, including the Howard Johnson chain. Segregation in Howard Johnson's restaurants provoked an international crisis in 1957, when a Howard Johnson eatery in Dover, Delaware, refused service to Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, the finance minister of Ghana, prompting a public apology from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, was instrumental in organizing protests and sit-ins at Howard Johnson locations in multiple states.

The city of Durham, North Carolina, became notable as a focus for action against segregated restaurants and hotels, including Howard Johnson's. On 12 August 1962, attorney and civil rights activist Floyd McKissick initiated the first of multiple rallies and demonstrations against segregated establishments in Durham, including the Howard Johnson's restaurant on Chapel Hill Boulevard, culminating in multiple protests on 18–20 May 1963 resulting in mass arrests as well as an eventual rapprochement with the city government. Future senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, while a student at the University of Chicago in 1962, helped organize picketing of a Howard Johnson's location in Cicero, Illinois, during his time as a student activist for CORE.

By 7 December 1962, the Howard Johnson Company issued a statement to the press opposing racial segregation in its restaurants, citing its corporate policy against discrimination: "Where it has been possible to change the operation of our company-operated restaurants in the South to conform to our national policy of service without discrimination, this has been done." The letter, written in conjunction with CORE and the NAACP, praised the organizations and aligned company policy with their outlook that segregation was "not defensible."

Howard Johnson's restaurants by the 1960s were known to be accommodating to members of the LGBTQ community, particularly in metropolitan New York. On April 21, 1966, at the Howard Johnson's in the Greenwich Village neighborhood, Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell, and John Timmins, all members of the New York chapter of the Mattachine Society, an early American gay rights group, patronized the restaurant as part of a 'Sip-In' demonstration in protest of New York liquor laws that prevented serving gay customers. The men were served drinks without incident at the restaurant; they later visited Julius' Bar where they were denied service, eventually leading to changes in the laws. In the late 1960s, gay liberation activist and self-identified drag queen Marsha P. Johnson decided on the drag queen name "Marsha P. Johnson", getting Johnson from the Howard Johnson's restaurant on 42nd Street.

New chains and a changing public
In the 1930s, H.D. Johnson bought the Wayland Red Coach Grill and used it as the model for a new concept, a more upscale steakhouse restaurant chain called Red Coach Grills. While they had some success, they were not sufficiently profitable. Eventually, the last 15 Red Coach Grills were sold in 1983 to a company executive who closed them. In 1969, Johnson again tried a new restaurant concept, Ground Round. It was successful. Although not a Howard Johnson's restaurant, the Ground Round chain was company-owned and franchised, thus increasing the Howard Johnson Company profit.

The 28 flavors of ice cream and piggybank-sensitive meal prices made it possible to lure families. The company also started some child-friendly promotions. One was a birthday club. Children signed up in advance and were sent birthday cards redeemable for a free meal, a cake, and in some locations, balloons and lollipops. Family members’ meals were charged at normal rates. The Springfield, New Jersey, restaurant sent out 10,000 cards one year, and they had a 50 percent return on those who came to take advantage of the birthday offer.

Children’s menus were an attractive staple of Howard Johnson’s. In addition to offering kid-friendly food at lower prices, industrial designer John Alcott’s firm created a variety of menus that kept the kids entertained. Some were maps of the United States, one was a guide to the metric system. Another menu could be converted to a mask if string was added at home.

Howard Johnson’s also held contests. If a person submitted proof via a check-off coupon that they had sampled all 28 flavors of ice cream, the next ice cream cone was free.

By 1975, the Howard Johnson Company had more than 1,000 restaurants and more than 500 motor lodges in 42 states and Canada. The company reached its peak that year, but the late 1970s marked the beginning of the end for the Howard Johnson Company. Because of the oil embargo of 1973, the Howard Johnson's restaurants and motor lodges, which received 85% of revenue from travelers, lost profits when Americans could not afford long trips or frequent vacations. Rather than promoting the restaurants to travelers, management knew it had to focus on nearby population centers. Also, the company model of serving pre-made food with high-quality ingredients in traditional dining rooms was costly when compared to the innovations introduced by fast food outlets like McDonald's, which designed its products and restaurants to appeal to families with younger children. Around this time, the chain introduced "Hojo Cola" and other private-label sodas, which disappointed some customers who preferred familiar products such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi.

The company suffered from two infamous incidents at a property in the New Orleans Central Business District within 18 months of one another. The first was a July 1971 fire, set by two irate guests who had been ejected from the hotel, which killed six people. The second, in January 1973, was a harrowing day-long siege. Former Black Panther Mark Essex used the hotel's roof as a sniper's perch, killing three police officers (including Deputy Superintendent Louis Sirgo, the second-highest ranking officer in the New Orleans Police Department), the hotel's general manager and assistant general manager, and a couple from Virginia, who were on a belated honeymoon. He also wounded policemen, firemen and citizens. Then, in Jericho, New York, on 8 November 1974, singer-actress Connie Francis was raped at the Jericho Turnpike Howard Johnson's Lodge and nearly suffocated when the rapist threw a heavy mattress on her. She sued the motel chain for their lapse in security and won a judgment of $2.5 million, one of the largest such judgments at that time, leading to a reform in hotel security. Her rapist was never found. Francis had severe depression as a direct result of the rape and was a recluse for seven years after the event, returning to public life in 1981.

H. B. Johnson attempted to streamline company operations and cut costs, such as serving cheaper food and having fewer employees. This strategy was unsuccessful because patrons compared this new era of Howard Johnson's restaurants and motor lodges unfavorably to the services they had previously come to know. In a further effort to make the company more successful and profitable, Johnson created other concepts, such as HoJo Campgrounds and 3 Penny Inns for lodging, as well as Deli Baker Ice Cream Maker, and Chatt's for restaurants. All of these concepts failed, hastening the company's demise.

In the late 1990s, the Howard Johnson's Candy Factory and Executive Offices in Wollaston were purchased and renovated by the Eastern Nazarene College to form the Adams Executive Center.

Changes in ownership
In 1979, Johnson accepted an acquisition bid of more than $630 million from Imperial Group PLC of London, England. Imperial obtained 1,040 restaurants (75% company owned/25% franchised) and 520 motor lodges (75% franchised/25% company-owned). In 1981 Imperial recruited G. Michael Hostage, then CEO of Continental Baking Company and formerly executive vice president of Marriott Corporation, to replace Johnson as CEO. After four years, despite progress in a turnaround, Imperial reversed course and sold the company. Having declined to entertain Hostage's proposal to lead a leveraged buyout, Imperial employed Goldman Sachs who, with Hostage's assistance, sold the company to Marriott in 1986. In a contemporaneous transaction, Marriott sold the motor lodge business and the Howard Johnson trademark to Prime Motor Inns, a New Jersey company.

Marriott was interested in the company-owned restaurants for real estate. Marriott already owned Big Boy Restaurants and Roy Rogers Restaurants. In 1982, it acquired Host International, which had operated a number of highway rest stops. Many of the established Howard Johnson sites were in prime highway locations which could be profitably converted to Big Boy or various fast food banners. As Marriott quickly demolished the company-owned restaurants or converted them to the Bob's Big Boy restaurant chain, the number of Howard Johnson's restaurants remaining circa 1985 was sharply reduced. Only the franchised restaurants remained untouched.

Marriott left all company-owned and franchised motor lodges untouched, as the deal called for them to be sold a year later (in 1986) to Prime Motors Inns, an existing franchisee with 63 motels.

Development since 1990
Prime Motors Inns continued to preserve the lodges, just as Marriott had, until weak hotel and real estate markets caused it to sell off its assets and cease operations in 1990. Those involved with the company owned and franchised motor lodges banded together and formed the Howard Johnson Acquisition Corporation. They successfully obtained all the rights to operate and maintain the company-owned and franchised lodges. With these rights maintained, they changed their name to "Howard Johnson International Incorporated," which became a subsidiary of "Hospitality Franchise Systems Incorporated," which eventually merged with other companies to form Cendant. In 2006, Cendant split itself into Wyndham Worldwide and three other companies.

Wyndham operated the Howard Johnson brand under several "tiers" based on price, level of amenities, and services offered. Under Cendant/Wyndham, the chain became a parking place for franchise conversions, which were existing independent motels which had been renovated and added to the chain in order to provide them with access to a nationally recognised name and central reservation infrastructure. As these properties were not originally constructed as Howard Johnson sites, they lacked distinctive architecture and some had no restaurant at all. Howard Johnson Express Inns, Howard Johnson Inns, Howard Johnson Hotels, and Howard Johnson Plaza Hotels range from limited-service motels to full-service properties with on-site concierges and business centers. Howard Johnson began offering a "Rise 'N' Dine" continental breakfast at some economy-limited service locations. The chain abolished the multiple price tiers by 2015.

Locations
Despite the hotel chain surviving into the 21st century, its number of locations have significantly dropped in recent years (there are fewer than 140 Howard Johnson hotels left in the United States, where the chain originated). As of May 2024, there are combined 280 Howard Johnson branded properties with the vast majority located in the United States and China with further hotels in Canada, Mexico, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Paraguay.

Demise of Howard Johnson's restaurants
While the Howard Johnson Company-owned and franchised motor lodges survived since being sold by the Howard Johnson Company in 1979, the restaurants did not.

1980s: Spun-off as independent
Because Marriott eliminated all the company-owned restaurants, the owners of the franchised restaurants feared elimination and banded together in 1986 to create "Franchise Associates Incorporated" (FAI). In 1986, Marriott gave FAI the right to operate and maintain Howard Johnson's restaurants.

In 1987, FAI chairman George Carter acknowledged that "We have the concept, but it desperately needs to be modernized, internally and externally. Howard Johnson was allowed to become tired and stale. We must get rid of that plastic image... Anything can be salvageable if a great deal of time and money and effort is put in it. And Howard Johnson needs all those same things.""

While the Howard Johnson's restaurant chain was preserved, FAI did not have enough money to expand to new locations or revamp the brand. With the exception of one Howard Johnson's ice cream parlor in Puerto Rico, FAI never opened a new restaurant or expanded the chain.

1990s: Struggling under FAI
In 1990, an existing restaurant in Canton, Massachusetts, was remodeled as a prototype for a new era of Howard Johnson's restaurants, but the concept failed, and after less than a decade of operation, the prototype restaurant closed in the spring of 2000. The chain revamped 25% of the menu and created new signage, but the chain continued to lose ground to mass-market fast food operations. When Cendant acquired the Howard Johnson's motor lodges, they offered to work together with FAI to ensure the expansion of the restaurant chain. By March 1995, FAI's official directory listed just 84 restaurants remaining in the US and Canada.

2000s: Sharp decline
By 2005, there were fewer than eight surviving restaurants. FAI ceased operations in 2005, the same year that the Springfield, Vermont, location and the last New York City restaurant in the chain closed.

Cendant acquired the rights to operate and maintain the remaining Howard Johnson's restaurants. In 2006, Cendant sold them to La Mancha Group LLC, which had proposed an aggressive expansion of the restaurant chain that never materialized. After the Waterbury, Connecticut, restaurant became The Brass House Restaurant in April 2007, only three locations remained. Cendant split into four smaller companies in 2006; its hotel group became Wyndham Worldwide while other pieces were spun off separately to become Avis Budget Group, Realogy, Travelport and Affinion Group.

The Howard Johnson-branded frozen foods line was discontinued after Fairfield Farms Kitchens shut down its Brockton, Massachusetts plant in 2006 and America's Kitchen of Atlanta, Georgia shut down in May 2008.

2010s: Fading out
In spring 2012, one of the last three original Howard Johnson's restaurants closed, in Lake George, and was listed for sale. Television personality, chef and author Rachael Ray once worked at that site while living in Lake George as a teenager. By 2013, only two original restaurants remained open, but the Bangor location no longer had the distinctive orange roof. While the hotel franchise’s HoJo Hotel Plaza locations did include a restaurant, there was no requirement that these replicate menus, format or branding of the former Howard Johnson restaurant chain.

With La Mancha Group LLC no longer active, Wyndham Hotel Group acquired the rights to the HoJo's food business as well as the Howard Johnson hotel chain. In 2013, Wyndham proposed a brand reinvigoration which would have brought back select flavors of ice cream, adopted a new logo, phased out the multiple branding tiers, gave the properties a facelift and redesigned the chain as a lower-midscale brand starting in 2015. Wyndham did eventually implement retro-inspired guest room renovations, but most other plans, including those involving food and restaurant operations, were scrapped.

On January 10, 2015, the former Howard Johnson's Lake George restaurant reopened as the "Lake George Family Restaurant", after the location’s lease was transferred from its original owners, DeSantis Enterprises, to John Larock in August 2014. Larock took advantage of a grandfather clause to reopen the restaurant as a Howard Johnson's, bringing the number of restaurants back up to three.

On March 31, 2015, the Lake Placid, NY Howard Johnson's closed, leaving only two locations remaining. In September 2016, the Bangor restaurant–the last continuously operating restaurant from the original chain, closed; the last remaining location out of the original 1,000-plus. By 2016, only the Lake George restaurant remained.

2020s: Final closure
Despite the Lake George restaurant's claim as "The Last One Standing", its authenticity as a true Howard Johnson's restaurant was questioned due to its dissimilar menu and negative reviews. A new from the ground up operation, it lacked a kitchen staff and crew formerly connected or experienced with the Howard Johnson's Restaurant chain. While it retained an original building and trademark name, it had no official connection with Wyndham or the defunct FAI, operating entirely as an independent entity.

In January 2017, the Lake George property went up for sale, and redevelopment projects were proposed for the site. On October 12, 2017, owner John Larock was arrested and convicted of sexual harassment of female employees, and on October 31, 2018, began serving a six-month jail sentence. The restaurant continued to operate with Larock as owner, but was open sporadically, with limited days and hours.

In March 2022, the Lake George restaurant permanently closed.

title: Howard Johnson's