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Cyclone Tracy

Severe Tropical Cyclone Tracy was a small tropical cyclone that devastated the city of Darwin, in the Northern Territory of Australia, in December 1974. The small, developing, easterly storm was originally expected to pass clear of the city, but it would turn towards it early on 24 December. After 10:00 p.m. ACST, damage became severe, with wind gusts reaching 217 km/h before instruments failed. The anemometer in Darwin Airport control tower had its needle bent in half by the strength of the gusts.

Residents of Darwin were celebrating Christmas, and they did not immediately acknowledge the emergency, partly because they had been alerted to an earlier cyclone (Selma) which passed west of the city, not affecting it in any way. Additionally, news outlets had only a skeleton crew on duty over the holiday.

Tracy killed 66 people and caused $837 million in damage (1974 AUD, about $ in 2022, approximately US$5.2 billion). It destroyed more than 70 percent of Darwin's buildings, including 80 percent of houses. It left more than 25,000 out of the 47,000 inhabitants of the city homeless prior to landfall and required the evacuation of over 30,000 people, of whom many never returned. After the storm passed, the city was rebuilt using more stringent standards "to cyclone code". The storm is the second-smallest tropical cyclone on record (in terms of gale-force wind diameter), behind only the North Atlantic's Tropical Storm Marco in 2008.

Meteorological history
On 20 December 1974, the United States' ESSA-8 environmental satellite recorded a large cloud mass centred over the Arafura Sea about 370 km northeast of Darwin. This disturbance was tracked by the Darwin Weather Bureau's regional director Ray Wilkie, and by senior meteorologist Geoff Crane. On 21 December, the ESSA-8 satellite showed evidence of a newly formed circular centre near latitude 8° south and longitude 135° east. Crane - the meteorological duty officer at the time - issued the initial tropical cyclone alert, describing the storm as a tropical low that could develop into a tropical cyclone.

Later in the evening, the Darwin meteorological office received an infrared satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's satellite, NOAA-4, showing that the low pressure had developed further and that spiralling clouds could be observed. The storm was officially pronounced a tropical cyclone at around 10p.m. on 21 December, when it was around 200 km to the north-northeast of Cape Don (360 km northeast of Darwin). Cyclone Tracy was first observed on the Darwin radar on the morning of 22 December.

Over the next few days, the cyclone moved in a southwesterly direction, passing north of Darwin on 22 December. A broadcast on ABC Radio that day stated that Cyclone Tracy posed no immediate threat to Darwin. However, early in the morning of 24 December, Tracy rounded Cape Fourcroy on the western tip of Bathurst Island, and moved in a southeasterly direction, straight towards Darwin. The bureau's weather station at Cape Fourcroy measured a mean wind speed of 120 km/h at 9:00 that morning.

By late afternoon on 24 December, the sky over the city was heavily overcast, with low clouds, and was experiencing strong rain. Wind gusts increased in strength; between 10p.m. (local time) and midnight, the damage became serious, and residents began to realise that the cyclone would not just pass by the city, but rather over it. On 25 December at around 3:30a.m., Tracy's centre crossed the coast near Fannie Bay. The highest recorded wind gust from the cyclone was 217 km/h, which was recorded around 3:05a.m. at Darwin Airport. The anemometer (wind speed instrument) failed at around 3:10a.m., with the wind vane (wind direction) destroyed after the cyclone's eye passed over. The Bureau of Meteorology's official estimates suggested that Tracy's gusts had reached 240 km/h. The lowest air pressure reading during Tracy was 950 hPa, which was taken at around 4a.m., by a Bureau staff member at Darwin Airport. This was recorded during the eye of the cyclone. From around 6:30a.m., the winds began to ease, with the rainfall ceasing at around 8:30 a.m. After making landfall, Tracy rapidly weakened, dissipating on 26 December. Total rainfall in Darwin from Cyclone Tracy was at least 255 mm.

Preparations
Darwin had been severely battered by cyclones before: in January 1897 and again in March 1937. However, in the 20 years leading up to Cyclone Tracy, the city had undergone a period of rapid expansion. E.P. Milliken estimated that on the eve of the cyclone there were 43,500 people living in 12,000 dwellings in the Darwin area. Though building standards at the time required that some attention be given to the possibility of cyclones, most buildings were not capable of withstanding the force of a cyclone's direct hit.

On the day of the cyclone, most residents of Darwin believed that the cyclone would not cause any damage to the city. Cyclone Selma had been predicted to hit Darwin earlier in the month, but it instead went north and dissipated without affecting Darwin in any way. As a result, Cyclone Tracy took most Darwin residents by surprise. Despite several warnings, the people of Darwin did not evacuate or prepare for the cyclone. Many residents continued to prepare for Christmas, and many attended Christmas parties despite the increasing winds and heavy rain. Journalist Bill Bunbury interviewed the residents of Darwin sometime later and recorded the experiences of the survivors of the cyclone in his book Cyclone Tracy: Picking Up the Pieces. Resident Dawn Lawrie, a 1971 independent candidate for the electorate of Nightcliff, told him:

We'd had a cyclone warning only 10 days before Tracy [that another cyclone (Selma)] was coming, it was coming, and it never came. So when we started hearing about Tracy we were all a little blasé. (Bunbury, p. 20)

Another resident, Barbara Langkrens, said: And you started to almost think that it would never happen to Darwin even though we had cyclone warnings on the radio all the time ... most of the people who had lived here for quite some time didn't really believe the warnings. (Bunbury, p. 21)

Impact
Cyclone Tracy destroyed about 80% of the Darwin city. 94% of housing was uninhabitable. At Darwin Airport, thirty-one aircraft were destroyed and another twenty-five badly damaged.

Deaths
Cyclone Tracy killed 66 people on land and at sea. In the cyclone's aftermath, the number of deaths reported varied from 49 to 66, as an official list of deaths was never compiled. Nearly thirty years later, the last two missing ships were located in Darwin Harbour, MV Booya in October 2003 and the ferry Darwin Princess in May 2004. Police divers investigated both wrecks and found no human remains but did retrieve some personal effects. In March 2005, the Northern Territory Coroner held an inquest into the people suspected to have died on board, declaring them deaths at sea. Following the inquest the death total was raised to 71 and this was widely published. However recent research by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory has determined that this figure includes five deaths that were double counted, reducing the overall total to 66. Of these 45 died on land and 21 died at sea.

Reporting
Several factors delayed the dissemination of the news of the cyclone's impact to the country. The intensity and track of the cyclone had destroyed virtually all telecommunication and radio equipment in the city, including the transmission equipment at both Royal Australian Navy bases HMAS Melville and HMAS Coonawarra. The first communication link reestablished in the aftermath was via HF Radio sourced from a Connellan Airways de Havilland Heron that had been hastily stored in an empty hangar at Darwin Airport the night before, being anchored to towing equipment and weighed down with 350 kg of beer cartons. From this aircraft, pilot David Fredrickson contacted the Katherine Flight Service Center by mid-morning to convey news of the disaster. He then spent much of the day relaying messages on behalf of emergency services, Navy personnel and airport staff until additional communication links were established later in the day.

The destruction of transportation infrastructure and the distance between Darwin and the rest of the Australian population played a role in the delayed information dissemination, as did the fact the storm made landfall on Christmas Day and most media outlets only had a skeleton crew rostered on at best. Most Australians were not aware of the cyclone until late in the afternoon. Dick Muddimer, a reporter for the local ABC radio station, 8DR, credited as being the man who informed the rest of the nation about the cyclone, after finding out that the ABC's studios on Cavenagh Street were completely knocked off transmission, was able to travel through the wreckage and the storm to the studios of the local television station NTD-8 to send a message to the ABC station in Mount Isa, Queensland, to notify ABC headquarters in Sydney that Darwin had been hit by a cyclone.

Governance
In order to provide the initial emergency response, a committee was created. The committee, composed of several high-level public servants and police, stated that, "Darwin had, for the time being, ceased to exist as a city". Gough Whitlam, the Australian Prime Minister, was touring Syracuse, Sicily, at the time and flew to Darwin upon hearing of the disaster. Additionally, the Australian government began a mass evacuation by road and air; all of the Defence Force personnel throughout Australia, along with the entire Royal Australian Air Force's fleet of transport planes, were recalled from holiday leave and deployed to evacuate civilians from Darwin as well as to bring essential relief supplies to the area. Thirteen RAN ships were used to transport supplies to the area as part of Operation Navy Help Darwin, which is the largest humanitarian or disaster relief operation ever performed by the Royal Australian Navy.

Health and essential services crisis
As soon as the worst of the storm had passed, Darwin faced several immediate health crises. On Christmas Day, the Darwin Hospital treated well over five hundred patients, with 112 of these being admitted into the hospital, and both of the facility's operating theatres being utilised. The first casualties did not arrive till 7a.m. because of high winds and severe road conditions in and around the Darwin area. Operating continued throughout the night and into the early morning. Local teams worked without relief until the arrival of a surgical team from Canberra late that day. Those who were considered unable to return to work within two weeks were evacuated by air to safer locations.

All official communications out of Darwin were no longer operational. The antennas at the OTC Coastal Radio Service station (callsign VID) were destroyed during the storm. Station manager Bob Hooper, who was an amateur radio operator, helped to establish communications using his own equipment. By 10a.m., Gary Gibson, another amateur operator, was able to establish a station at the Darwin Community College, and within a short period of time, a network of stations was established across the country. This network, coordinated by Melbourne D24 police, provided message services to the cities of Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Townsville, Brisbane, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Gove, Mt Isa, Cairns, Rockhampton, Mackay, Lismore, and Cooma. By 10:40a.m., VID operators had established VID2 on board MV Nyanda in Darwin Harbour, and then for five days official communications traffic in and out of Darwin was handled via continuous wave radio (Morse code). The only local radio station that was not completely disabled was the ABC's 8DR. For the next two days, it was Darwin's only link to the outside world and was on the air for all but 34 hours in the coming weeks.

Those who remained in Darwin faced the threat of several diseases due to much of the city being without water, electricity, or basic sanitation. An initial response was to vaccinate residents for typhoid and cholera. Approximately 30,000 people were homeless and were forced to seek shelter in several makeshift housing and emergency centres that lacked proper hygienic conditions. Volunteers came in from across the country to assist with the emergency relief efforts. Trench latrines were dug, water supplies delivered by tankers, and mass immunisation programs begun. The army was given the task of searching houses for bodies of people and animals, as well as locating other health risks; for example, cleaning out rotting contents from fridges and freezers across the city. This was completed within a week. Houses which had been "searched and cleared" had S&C painted on an external wall. The city itself was sprayed with malathion to control mosquitoes and other similar pests.

Attempts to reconnect the essential services to the city began on Christmas Day. Local officers from the Commonwealth Department of Housing and Construction began clearing debris and working to restore power. They sealed off damaged water hydrants and activated pumps to reactivate the city's water and sewerage systems.

Evacuation and the public response
Major-General Alan Stretton, Director-General of the Natural Disasters Organization, and the commonwealth minister for the Northern Territory, Rex Patterson, arrived at Darwin Airport late on Christmas Day and took charge of the relief efforts. After an assessment of the situation and meetings with the Department of the Northern Territory and the relevant minister, it was concluded that Darwin's population needed to be reduced to a "safe level" of 10,500 people. This decision was made on the advice of Dr. Charles Gurd, the Director of Health in the Northern Territory. Around 10,000 people left Darwin and the surrounding area within the first two days, but the rate of departures then began to slow down. The government then gave support to his position, offering full reimbursement of personal costs, as long as the evacuation took place.

The population was evacuated by air and ground; because of communications difficulties with Darwin airport, landing was limited to one plane every ninety minutes. At major airports, teams of federal and territory department officials as well as Salvation Army and Red Cross workers met refugees, with the Red Cross taking responsibility for keeping track of the names and temporary addresses of the refugees. Evacuations were prioritised according to need; women, children, the elderly, and the sick were evacuated first. There were reports of men dressing up as women to escape with the early evacuations. Between 26 and 31 December, a total of 35,362 people were evacuated from Darwin. Of those, 25,628 were evacuated by air, the remainder by road.

Most evacuation flights were conducted onboard commercial aircraft sent by Ansett, TAA, MMA and Qantas, with a majority of these flights being filled to upwards of 150% their normal passenger capacity. One particular evacuation flight, a Qantas Boeing 747-238B (VH-EBB) departed Darwin on 28 December with a record breaking 673 evacuees on board. By 31 December, only 10,638 people (mostly men who were required to help clean up the city) remained in Darwin. Stretton also regulated access to the city by means of a permit system. Permits were issued only to those who were involved in either the relief or reconstruction efforts, and were used to prevent the early return of those who had been evacuated.

Upon receiving news of the damage, several community groups across Australia began fundraising and relief efforts to assist the survivors. Major reception centres were set up in cities such as Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs. Several of the small towns along the Stuart Highway made efforts to assist people who were fleeing by road, supplying them with food, fuel, rest, and mechanical aid. At Adelaide River, the small local population provided hot meals to the refugees who stopped there. Approximately 24 hours after the storm hit Darwin, the population of Alice Springs had raised over $105,000 (~A$665,000 in 2022 terms ) to assist the victims of Tracy. In Melbourne at the Boxing Day Test cricket match between Australia and England, members of both teams moved around the boundaries carrying buckets which the crowd threw cash into for the relief funds. Darwin families were also given priority on public housing waiting lists. On 31 December 1974, Stretton recommended that full civilian control should resume in Darwin, and handed over control of the city to its elected officials.

Reconstruction and effects on Darwin
In February 1975, Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam announced the creation of the Darwin Reconstruction Commission, which was given the task of rebuilding the city "within five years", focusing primarily on building houses. The commission was headed by Tony Powell. The damage to the city was so severe that some advocated moving the entire city. However, the government insisted that it be rebuilt in the same location. By May 1975, Darwin's population had recovered somewhat, with 30,000 residing in the city. Temporary housing, caravans, hotels, and an ocean liner (MV Patris), were used to house people, because reconstruction of permanent housing had not yet begun by September that year. Ella Stack became Mayor of Darwin in May 1975 and was heavily involved in its reconstruction.

However, by the following April, and after receiving criticism for the slow speed of reconstruction, the commission had built 3,000 new homes in the nearly destroyed northern suburbs, and completed repairs to those that had survived the storm. Several new building codes were drawn up, trying to achieve the competing goals of the speedy recovery of the area and ensuring that there would be no repeat of the damage that Darwin took in 1974. By 1978, much of the city had recovered and was able to house almost the same number of people as it had before the cyclone hit. However, by the 1980s, as many as sixty percent of Darwin's 1974 population had left, never to return. In the years that followed, Darwin was almost entirely rebuilt and now shows almost no resemblance to the pre-Tracy Darwin of December 1974.

Although a Legislative Assembly had been set up earlier in the year, the Northern Territory had only minimal self-government, with a federal minister being responsible for the Territory from Canberra. However, the cyclone and subsequent responses highlighted several problems with the way the regional government was set up. This led Malcolm Fraser, Whitlam's successor as Prime Minister, to give self-government to the Territory in 1978.

Many of the government records associated with Cyclone Tracy became publicly available on 1 January 2005 under the 30-year rule.

In popular culture
Cyclone Tracy inspired the song "Santa Never Made It into Darwin", composed by Bill Cate and performed by Bill and Boyd in 1975 to raise money for the relief and reconstruction efforts. In 1983, Hoodoo Gurus released "Tojo", a song comparing the Japanese bombing of Darwin under the command of Hideki Tojo during World War II to the damage done by Cyclone Tracy. The much-feared Japanese invasion never happened, but the cyclone was virtually ignored and ended up destroying the city. In May 1976, Australian band Ayers Rock released the single "Song for Darwin", also as a fundraiser for the relief and reconstruction efforts.

In 1986, the Nine Network and PBL created Cyclone Tracy, a period drama mini-series based on the events during the cyclone. Michael Fisher, Ted Roberts and Leon Saunders wrote the series, and it also starred Chris Haywood and Tracy Mann, who played the lead characters of Steve and Connie. The mini-series was released on DVD by Umbrella Entertainment in December 2005. The DVD is compatible with all region codes and includes special features such as newsreel footage of the devastation and a documentary titled On A Wind and a Prayer.

Records and meteorological statistics
Tracy is the most compact cyclone or equivalent-strength hurricane on record in the Australian basin and Southern Hemisphere, with gale-force winds extending only 48 km from the centre, and was also the smallest tropical cyclone worldwide until 2008, when Tropical Storm Marco of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season broke the record, with gale-force winds extending only 18.5 km from the centre. After forming over the Arafura Sea, the storm moved southwards and affected the city with Category 4 winds on the Australian cyclone intensity scale, while there is evidence to suggest that it had reached Category 3 on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale when it made landfall. Bruce Stannard of The Age stated that Cyclone Tracy was a "disaster of the first magnitude ... without parallel in Australia's history."

Pressure estimates
David Longshore, in the book Encyclopedia of Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Cyclones 1992 and 2008 edition, states that Tracy's barometric pressure was as low as 914 mbar, but the actual lowest pressure was 950 mbar. This information was recorded by a Bureau of Meteorology staff member at the Darwin airport.

title: Cyclone Tracy


text:
Henry I, Count of Champagne

Henry I (December 1127 – 16 March 1181), known as the Liberal, was count of Champagne from 1152 to 1181. He was the eldest son of Count Theobald II of Champagne, who was also count of Blois, and his wife, Matilda of Carinthia.

Biography
Henry took part in the Second Crusade under the leadership of Louis VII of France. He carried a letter of recommendation from Bernard of Clairvaux addressed to Manuel I Komnenos, Byzantine Emperor; he is listed among the notables present at the assembly held by Baldwin III of Jerusalem at Acre on 24 June 1148.

On his father's death, Henry chose to take Champagne, leaving the family's older holdings (including Blois, Chartres, Sancerre, and Châteaudun) to his younger brothers. At the time this may have been surprising, for the other territories were richer and better developed. Henry must have foreseen the economic possibilities of Champagne, and it is during his rule that the county achieved its high place as one of the richest and strongest of the French principalities.

Henry established orderly rule over the nobles of Champagne, and could fairly reliably count on the aid of some 2,000 vassals, which just by itself made him a power few in France could equal. This order in turn made Champagne a safe place for merchants to gather, and under the count's protection the Champagne Fairs became a central part of long-distance trade and finance in medieval Europe.

In addition, the count's court in Troyes became a renowned literary center. Walter Map was among those who found hospitality there. The scholar Stephen of Alinerre was among Henry's courtiers, becoming chancellor of the county in 1176.

In 1179, Henry went to Jerusalem again with a party of French knights including his relatives Peter of Courtenay (brother of Louis VII) and Philip of Dreux, bishop of Beauvais. Henry returned towards Europe by the land route across Asia Minor, and was captured and held to ransom by Kilij Arslan II, Seljuk sultan of Rüm. The ransom was paid by the Byzantine Emperor. Henry died on 16 March 1181.

In 1164, Henry married Marie of France, daughter of Louis VII of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

They had four children:

 * Scholastique of Champagne (died 1219), married William IV of Mâcon
 * Henry II (1166–1197)
 * Marie of Champagne (died 1204), married Baldwin I of Constantinople
 * Theobald III of Champagne (1179–1201)

Henry built the collegiate church of Saint-Étienne in Troyes between 1157 and 1171, which he planned as a necropolis for the House of Blois. He was buried there, as was his son Theobald III, but most of his descendants were buried elsewhere.

He was succeeded by their elder son Henry. After Henry became king of Jerusalem his younger brother, Theobald, became count.

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

title: Henry I, Count of Champagne


text:
Mel Tormé

Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed "the Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire") and co-wrote the lyrics with Bob Wells. Tormé won two Grammy Awards and was nominated a total of 14 times.

Early life
Melvin Howard Tormé was born in Chicago, Illinois, to William David Tormé, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, and Betty Tormé (née Sopkin), a New York City native. He graduated from Hyde Park High School. A child prodigy, he first performed professionally at age four with the Coon-Sanders Orchestra, singing "You're Driving Me Crazy" at Chicago's Blackhawk restaurant.

He played drums in the drum-and-bugle corps at Shakespeare Elementary School. From 1933 to 1941, he acted in the radio programs The Romance of Helen Trent and Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy. He wrote his first song at 13. Three years later his first published song, "Lament to Love", became a hit for bandleader Harry James.

Jazz music
From 1942 to 1943, he was a member of a band led by Chico Marx of the Marx Brothers. He was the singer and drummer and also created some arrangements. In 1943, Tormé made his movie debut in Frank Sinatra's first film, the musical Higher and Higher. His appearance in the 1947 film musical Good News made him a teen idol.

In 1944, he formed the vocal quintet Mel Tormé and His Mel-Tones, modeled on Frank Sinatra and The Pied Pipers. The Mel-Tones, which included Les Baxter and Ginny O'Connor, had several hits fronting Artie Shaw's band and on their own, including Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?" The Mel-Tones were among the first jazz-influenced vocal groups, blazing a path later followed by The Hi-Lo's, The Four Freshmen, and The Manhattan Transfer.

Tormé was discharged from the United States Army in 1946, and soon returned to a life of radio, TV, movies, and music. In 1947, he started a solo singing career. His appearances at New York's Copacabana led local disc jockey Fred Robbins to give him the nickname "The Velvet Fog" in honor of his high tenor and smooth vocal style. Tormé detested the nickname. He self-deprecatingly referred to it as "this Velvet Frog voice". As a solo singer, he recorded several romantic hits for Decca and with the Artie Shaw Orchestra for Musicraft (1946–1948). In 1949, he moved to Capitol, where his first record, "Careless Hands", became his only number-one hit. His versions of "Again" and "Blue Moon" became signature songs. His composition California Suite, prompted by Gordon Jenkins's "Manhattan Tower", became Capitol's first 12-inch LP album. Around this time, he helped pioneer cool jazz.

His radio program, Mel Tormé Time, appeared on the short-lived Progressive Broadcasting System in the 1950s.

From 1955 to 1957, he recorded seven vocal jazz albums for Red Clyde's Bethlehem Records, all with groups led by Marty Paich, most notably Mel Tormé and the Marty Paich Dek-Tette. He became known for his arranging skills, earning the respect of musicians.

In his 1994 book My Singing Teachers, Tormé cited Patty Andrews, lead singer of the Andrews Sisters, one of the most successful show business acts of the 1940s, as one of his favorite vocalists, saying: "They had more hit records to their credit than you could count, and one of the main reasons for their popularity was Patty Andrews. She stood in the middle of her sisters, planted her feet apart, and belted out solos as well as singing the lead parts with zest and confidence. The kind of singing she did cannot be taught, it can't be studied in books, it can't be written down. Long experience as a singer and wide-open ears were her only teachers, and she learned her lessons well."

Though he spent most of his career singing jazz, Tormé had a deep appreciation for classical music, especially that of Frederick Delius and Percy Grainger. Rock and roll he considered "three-chord manure".

In the '60s and '70s, Tormé covered pop tunes of the day, never staying long with one label. He had two minor hits: his 1956 recording of "Mountain Greenery", which did better in the United Kingdom where it reached No. 4; and his 1962 R&B song "Comin' Home Baby", arranged by Claus Ogerman, which reached No. 13 in the UK. The latter recording led the jazz and gospel singer Ethel Waters to say that "Tormé is the only white man who sings with the soul of a black man." "Comin' Home Baby" was later covered by Quincy Jones and Kai Winding.

Television
In 1960, Tormé appeared in the TV crime drama Dan Raven with Don Dubbins. He had a role in a cross-cultural western titled Walk Like a Dragon, starring Jack Lord. He played "The Deacon", a bible-quoting gunfighter who protects a female saloon-owner and teaches a young Chinese man the art of the fast draw. In one scene, he tells a soon-to-be victim: "Say your prayers, brother Masters. You're a corpse," then delivers on the promise. Like Sammy Davis Jr. and Robert Fuller, Tormé was a real-life fast draw expert. He also sang the show's theme song.

In 1963–1964, Tormé wrote songs and arrangements for The Judy Garland Show, where he made three guest appearances. When he and Garland had a dispute, he was fired. A few years later, after Garland's death, his time with her show became the subject of his first book, The Other Side of the Rainbow with Judy Garland on the Dawn Patrol (1970). Although the book was praised, some felt it painted an excessively unflattering picture of Garland and that Tormé had exaggerated his contributions to the program; it led to an unsuccessful lawsuit by Garland's family.

In 1967, he appeared with Lucille Ball in a two-part episode of The Lucy Show — "Main Street U.S.A." — as Mel Tinker, a songwriter who hopes to preserve the character of his small town. Tormé also wrote the song that gave the episode its title, and performs it with Ball.

Tormé made nine guest appearances as himself (and one as a guardian angel) on the 1980s situation comedy Night Court. The main character, Judge Harry Stone, played by Harry Anderson, was depicted as an unabashed Tormé fan, an admiration that Anderson shared in real life; he would deliver the eulogy at Tormé's funeral. Tormé appeared in Mountain Dew commercials and in a 1995 episode of the sitcom Seinfeld ("The Jimmy") as himself. He recorded a version of Nat King Cole's "Straighten Up and Fly Right" with his son, singer Steve March-Tormé. He worked with his other son, television writer-producer Tracy Tormé, on Sliders. The 1996 episode, entitled "Greatfellas," featured Tormé as a version of himself from a parallel universe in which he is a country music singer who is also an FBI informant.

In the 1988 Warner Bros. cartoon The Night of the Living Duck, Daffy Duck has to sing in front of several monsters but lacks a good singing voice, so he inhales a substance called "Eau de Tormé" and sings like Mel Tormé, who provided the vocals.

On December 31, 1988, Tormé hosted a two-hour variety show titled Happy New Year, U. S. A. on PBS television.

Resurgence
The resurgence of vocal jazz in the 1970s resulted in a successful period for Tormé. His live performances restored his reputation as a jazz singer. He performed as often as 200 times a year in venues all over the world. In 1976, he won an Edison Award (the Dutch equivalent of the Grammy) for best male singer, and a DownBeat award for best male jazz singer. For several years, his appearances at Michael's Pub on the Upper East Side would unofficially open New York's fall cabaret season.

During the 1980s and 1990s he performed often with George Shearing, recording six albums together for Concord Records. About this period Shearing wrote:

"It is impossible to imagine a more compatible musical partner... I humbly put forth that Mel and I had the best musical marriage in many a year. We literally breathed together during our countless performances. As Mel put it, we were two bodies of one musical mind."

He reunited with Marty Paich for a tour and the albums Mel Tormé and the Marty Paich Dektette – In Concert Tokyo and Mel Tormé and the Marty Paich Dektette – Reunion. He performed with Rob McConnell's big band and recorded Mel Tormé, Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass. In 1995 he toured with Ken Peplowski. For much of the later period of his career, Mel's trio was composed of John Colianni, piano; John Leitham, bass; and Donny Osborne, drums. With this group, Tormé recorded six albums and toured internationally. In some instances, Mel and this group were joined by Doc Severinsen and his Orchestra, Maureen McGovern, and Cleo Laine/John Dankworth. Guest conductors on symphonic gigs included Bob Krogstad and Keith Lockhart.

Tormé made a guest vocal appearance on the 1983 album Born to Laugh at Tornadoes by the progressive pop band Was (Not Was). Tormé sang the satiric jazz song "Zaz Turned Blue" about a teenager who is choked as part of an erotic asphyxiation ("Steve squeezed his neck/He figured what the heck") – and who may or may not have suffered brain damage as a result ("Now he plays lots of pool/And as a rule/He wears a silly grin/On his chin").

In 1991 Tormé published Traps, the Drum Wonder, a biography of drummer Buddy Rich, who was his friend since Rich left the Marines in 1944. He also owned and played a drum set that drummer Gene Krupa used for many years. George Spink, treasurer of the Jazz Institute of Chicago from 1978 - 1981, recalled that Tormé played this drum set at the 1979 Chicago Jazz Festival with Benny Goodman on "Sing, Sing, Sing".

Writing, songwriting and recordings
Tormé's books include The Other Side of the Rainbow (1970), a memoir of his time as musical adviser for Judy Garland's television show; Traps, the Drum Wonder (1991), a biography of Buddy Rich; My Singing Teachers: Reflections on Singing Popular Music (1994); Wynner (1978) a novel; and It Wasn't All Velvet (1988), his autobiography.

Tormé wrote more than 250 songs, several of which became standards. He often wrote the arrangements for the songs he sang. He collaborated with Bob Wells on his most popular composition, "The Christmas Song" (1946); they wrote the song on a swelteringly hot and sunny day in California, sitting down and coming up with all the most 'mid-wintery' things they could think of, in an attempt to cool themselves down; it was recorded first by Nat King Cole. Tormé said that he wrote the music in 45 minutes and that it was not one of his favorites, calling it "my annuity".

Personal life
Mel Tormé was married four times. His marriages ended in divorce except the last one. He was survived by his wife, Ali; five children, Steve March-Tormé, Melissa Torme-March, and Tracy, Daisy, and James Tormé; and two stepchildren, Carrie Tormé and Kurt. Tracy was a screenwriter and producer. James Tormé is a jazz vocalist based in Los Angeles, California. Steve March-Tormé is also a musician who lives and works in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Illness and death
On August 8, 1996, a stroke ended Tormé's 65-year singing career. In February 1999, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He died from another stroke on June 5, 1999, at the age of 73. He is buried at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. In his eulogistic essay, John Andrews wrote:

Tormé's style shared much with that of his idol, Ella Fitzgerald. Both were firmly rooted in the foundation of the swing era, but both seemed able to incorporate bebop innovations to keep their performances sounding fresh and contemporary. Like Sinatra, they sang with perfect diction and brought out the emotional content of the lyrics through subtle alterations of phrasing and harmony. Ballads were characterized by paraphrasing of the original melody which always seemed tasteful, appropriate and respectful to the vision of the songwriter. Unlike Sinatra, both Fitzgerald and Tormé were likely to cut loose during a swinging up-tempo number with several scat choruses, using their voices without words to improvise a solo like a brass or reed instrument.

Films

 * Higher and Higher (1943)
 * Ghost Catchers (1944)
 * Pardon My Rhythm (1944)
 * Resisting Enemy Interrogation (1944) (documentary)
 * Let's Go Steady (1945)
 * Junior Miss (1945)
 * The Crimson Canary (1945) (drums dubber)
 * Night and Day (1946) (drummer at rehearsal)
 * Janie Gets Married (1946)
 * Good News (1947)
 * Words and Music (1948)
 * Duchess of Idaho (1950)
 * The Fearmakers (1958)
 * The Big Operator (1959)
 * Girls Town (1959)
 * Walk Like a Dragon (1960)
 * The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960)
 * The Patsy (1964) (Cameo)
 * A Man Called Adam (1966) (Cameo)
 * Land of No Return (1978)
 * Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got (1985) (documentary)
 * The Night of the Living Duck (1988) (short subject) (voice)
 * Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988) (voice)
 * The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991) (Cameo)

Television

 * The Mel Tormé Show (1951–1952)
 * TV's Top Tunes (host in 1951)
 * Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town (1 episode, 1952)
 * Summertime U.S.A. (1953)
 * The Nat King Cole Show (July 9, 1957)
 * The Comedian (1957) (written by Rod Serling, directed by John Frankenheimer)
 * Playhouse 90, as Lester Hogarth in "The Comedian" (1957)
 * The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom (January 7, 1960)
 * U.S. Marshal, as Johnny Fleck in "The Man Who Lived Twice" (1960)
 * Judy Garland Christmas Special (1963)
 * To Tell the Truth (panelist, 1964)
 * The Lucy Show as Mel Tinker (3 episodes, 1965–1967)
 * The Sammy Davis Jr. Show (March 11, 1966)
 * Run for Your Life, with Ben Gazzarra (episode writer)
 * You Don't Say! (guest, 1967)
 * The Virginian (special guest, episode writer, 1968)
 * The Bold Ones: The Lawyers - episode "The Crowd Pleaser" (November 2, 1969)
 * The Carol Burnett Show (2 episodes) Season 4 Episode 6 October 19, 1970 & Season 5 Episode 9 November 17, 1971
 * It Was a Very Good Year (1971) (Summer replacement series)
 * Chase, as Cyclops in "$35 Will Fly You to the Moon" (1974)
 * The Merv Griffin Show (3 guest appearances, 1976–1979)
 * The Christmas Songs (1979) (Host, Performer) (PBS Christmas variety show)
 * Pray TV (1982) (Cameo)
 * Hotel (1983) (pilot for series) (Cameo)
 * Night Court (10 guest appearances 1986–1992, most as himself)
 * A Spinal Tap Reunion: The 25th Anniversary London Sell-Out (1992)
 * Pops Goes the Fourth (1995)
 * Seinfeld – "The Jimmy" (1995)
 * Sliders – "Greatfellas" (1996)
 * Happy New Year, U. S. A. December 31 PBS

Family
Children and stepchildren:
 * Steve March-Tormé (b. 1953), singer-songwriter
 * Melissa Torme-March (b. 1955), actress
 * Tracy Tormé (1959-2024), screenwriter and film producer
 * Daisy Tormé (b. 1969), singer, actress, broadcaster
 * James Tormé (b. 1973), singer

title: Mel Tormé


text:
The Matrix (franchise)

The Matrix is an American cyberpunk media franchise consisting of four feature films, beginning with The Matrix (1999) and continuing with three sequels, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions (both 2003), and The Matrix Resurrections (2021). The first three films were written and directed by the Wachowskis and produced by Joel Silver. The screenplay for the fourth film was written by Lana Wachowski, David Mitchell and Aleksandar Hemon, was directed by Lana Wachowski, and was produced by Grant Hill, James McTeigue, and Lana Wachowski. The franchise is owned by Warner Bros., which distributed the films along with Village Roadshow Pictures. The latter, along with Silver Pictures, are the two production companies that worked on the first three films.

The series features a cyberpunk story of the technological fall of humanity, in which the creation of artificial intelligence led the way to a race of powerful and self-aware machines that imprisoned humans in a neural interactive simulation — the Matrix — to be farmed as a power source. Occasionally, some of the prisoners manage to break free from the system and, considered a threat, become pursued by the artificial intelligence both inside and outside of it. The films focus on the plight of Neo (Keanu Reeves), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) trying to free humanity from the system while pursued by its guardians, such as Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving, Abdul-Mateen II, and Jonathan Groff). The story references numerous norms, particularly philosophical, religious, and spiritual ideas, but also the dilemma of choice vs. control, the brain in a vat thought experiment, messianism, and the concepts of interdependency and love. Influences include the principles of mythology, anime, and Hong Kong action films (particularly "heroic bloodshed" and martial arts movies). The film series is notable for its use of heavily choreographed action sequences and "bullet time" slow-motion effects, which revolutionized action films to come.

The characters and setting of the films are further explored in other media set in the same fictional universe, including animation, comics, and video games. The comic "Bits and Pieces of Information" and the Animatrix short film The Second Renaissance act as prequels to the films, explaining how the franchise's setting came to be. The video game Enter the Matrix connects the story of the Animatrix short "Final Flight of the Osiris" with the events of Reloaded, while the online video game The Matrix Online was a direct sequel to Revolutions. These were typically written, commissioned, or approved by the Wachowskis.

The first film was an important critical and commercial success, winning four Academy Awards, introducing popular culture symbols such as the red pill and blue pill, and influencing action filmmaking. For those reasons, it has been added to the National Film Registry for preservation. Its first sequel was also a commercial success, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film in history, until it was surpassed by Deadpool in 2016. As of 2006, the franchise has generated US$3 billion in revenue. A fourth film, The Matrix Resurrections, was released on December 22, 2021, with Lana Wachowski producing, cowriting, and directing and Reeves and Moss reprising their roles. A fifth film is currently in development with Drew Goddard set to write and direct with Lana Wachowski executive producing.

Setting
The series depicts a future in which Earth is dominated by a race of self-aware machines that was spawned from the creation of artificial intelligence early in the 21st century. At one point conflict arose between humanity and machines, and the machines rebelled against their creators. Humans attempted to block out the machines' source of solar power by covering the sky in thick, stormy clouds. A massive war emerged between the two adversaries which ended with the machines victorious, capturing humanity. Having lost their definite source of energy, the machines devised a way to extract the human body's bioelectric and thermal energies by enclosing people in pods, while their minds are controlled by cybernetic implants connecting them to a simulated reality called The Matrix.

The virtual reality world simulated by the Matrix resembles human civilization around the turn of the 21st century (this time period was chosen because it is supposedly the pinnacle of human civilization). The environment inside the Matrix is practically indistinguishable from reality (although scenes set within the Matrix are presented on-screen with a green tint to the footage, and a general bias towards the color green), and the vast majority of humans connected to it are unaware of its true nature. Most of the central characters in the series are able to gain superhuman abilities within the Matrix by taking advantage of their understanding of its true nature to manipulate its virtual physical laws. The films take place both inside the Matrix and outside of it, in the real world; the parts that take place in the Matrix are set in a vast Western megacity.

The virtual world is first introduced in The Matrix. The short comic "Bits and Pieces of Information" and the Animatrix short film The Second Renaissance show how the initial conflict between humanity and machines came about, and how and why the Matrix was first developed. Its history and purpose are further explained in The Matrix Reloaded. In The Matrix Revolutions a new status quo is established in the Matrix's place in humankind and machines' conflict. This was further explored in The Matrix Online, a now-defunct MMORPG.

Future
During production of the original trilogy, the Wachowskis told their close collaborators that, "at that time they had no intention of making another Matrix film after The Matrix Revolutions". In February 2015, in promotion interviews for Jupiter Ascending, Lilly Wachowski called a return to The Matrix "a particularly repelling idea in these times", noting studios' tendencies to "greenlight" sequels, reboots, and adaptations, in preference to original material. Meanwhile, Lana Wachowski, in addressing rumors about a potential reboot, stated that "...they had not heard anything, but she believed that the studio might be looking to replace them". At various times, Keanu Reeves and Hugo Weaving each confirmed their interest and willingness to reprise their roles in potential future installments of the Matrix films, with the stipulation that the Wachowskis were involved in the creative and production process. These comments were made prior to the announcement in August 2019 that Lana Wachowski would direct a fourth Matrix film ultimately titled The Matrix Resurrections.

Following the release of Resurrections, producer James McTeigue said that there were no plans for further Matrix films, though he believed that the film's open ending meant that could change in the future. In April 2024, it was announced that Warner Bros. was developing a new installment in the franchise with Drew Goddard attached to write and direct following a successful pitch with studio executives. It will mark the first installment to not be directed by either Wachowski sister although Lana will serve as an executive producer.

Other projects
In March 2017, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Warner Bros. was in the early stages of developing a re-launch of the franchise. Consideration was given to producing a Matrix television series, but was dismissed as the studio opted to pursue negotiations with Zak Penn in writing a treatment for a new film, with Michael B. Jordan eyed for the lead role. According to the article, the Wachowskis were not involved at that point. In response to the report, Penn refuted all statements regarding a reboot, remake, or continuation, remarking that he was working on stories set in the pre-established continuity.

Potential plotlines being considered by Warner Bros. Pictures included a prequel film about a young Morpheus, or an alternate storyline with a focus on one of his descendants. By April 2018, Penn described the script as "being at a nascent stage". Later, in September 2019, Jordan addressed the rumors of his involvement by saying he was "flattered", but without making a definitive statement. In October 2019, Penn confirmed the script he wrote is set within an earlier time period than the first three films in the franchise.

Cast
{| class="wikitable collapsible" style="text-align: center; clear: both;" ! rowspan="3" scope="col" style="width:10%;" | Character ! colspan="4" | Films ! colspan="4" | Video games ! Animated film ! style="width:09%;" | The Matrix ! style="width:10%;" | The Matrix Reloaded ! style="width:10%;" | The Matrix Revolutions ! style="width:11%;" | The Matrix Resurrections ! style="width:10%;" | Enter the Matrix ! style="width:10%;" | The Matrix Online ! style="width:10%;" | The Matrix: Path of Neo ! style="width:10%;" | The Matrix Awakens ! style="width:10%;" | The Animatrix ! 1999 ! 2003 ! 2003 ! 2021 ! 2003 ! 2005 ! 2005 ! 2021 ! 2003 ! colspan="10" style="background:lightblue;"|

Zion / Io
! rowspan="3" | Neo Thomas A. Anderson ! rowspan="2" | Trinity Tiffany ! rowspan="2" | Morpheus ! Niobe ! Link ! Cdr. Lock ! The Kid Michael Karl Popper ! Cllr. Hamann ! Cpt. Roland ! Bane ! Zee ! Cpt. Mifune ! Cis ! Thadeus ! Duo ! colspan="10" style="background:lightblue;"|
 * rowspan="3" colspan="3" | Keanu Reeves
 * Keanu Reeves
 * rowspan="3" | Keanu Reeves
 * rowspan="5" Appeared
 * rowspan="3" | Andrew Bowen
 * rowspan="3" colspan="3" | Keanu Reeves
 * Steven Roy
 * James McTeigue
 * James McTeigue
 * James McTeigue
 * rowspan="2" colspan="3" | Carrie-Anne Moss
 * Carrie-Anne Moss
 * rowspan="2" | Carrie-Anne Moss
 * rowspan="2" | Jennifer Hale
 * rowspan="2" colspan="3" | Carrie-Anne Moss
 * Sarah McTeigue
 * Sarah McTeigue
 * rowspan="2" colspan="3" | Laurence Fishburne
 * Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
 * rowspan="2" colspan="3" | Laurence Fishburne
 * rowspan="2" Laurence Fishburne
 * rowspan="2" " style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Laurence Fishburne
 * Laurence Fishburne
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="4" | Jada Pinkett Smith
 * Gina Torres
 * Kimberly Brooks
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" | Harold Perrineau
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" | Harold Perrineau
 * Keith Ferguson
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" | Harry Lennix
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" | Harry Lennix
 * colspan="3" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" | Clayton Watson
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Clayton Watson
 * colspan="3" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Clayton Watson
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" | Anthony Zerbe
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Anthony Zerbe
 * colspan="4" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" | David Roberts
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * David Roberts
 * colspan="4" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" | Ian Bliss
 * colspan="3" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Gideon Emery
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" | Nona Gaye
 * colspan="6" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" | Nathaniel Lees
 * colspan="6" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Appeared
 * colspan="4" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Hedy Burress
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Hedy Burress
 * colspan="4" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Kevin Michael Richardson
 * colspan="3" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Kevin Michael Richardson
 * colspan="6" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Phil LaMarr
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Phil LaMarr

Agents
! rowspan="3" | Agent Smith ! Agent Jones ! Agent Brown ! Agent Johnson ! Agent Jackson ! Agent Thompson ! Agent White ! colspan="10" style="background:lightblue;"|
 * rowspan="3" | Hugo Weaving
 * colspan="2" | Hugo Weaving
 * Jonathan Groff
 * rowspan="3" | Hugo Weaving
 * rowspan="3" Appeared
 * rowspan="2" | Christopher Corey Smith
 * rowspan="3" colspan="1" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * rowspan="3" colspan="1" | Matt McKenzie
 * rowspan="2" colspan="2" | Ian Bliss
 * Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
 * Hugo Weaving
 * Gideon Emery
 * Hugo Weaving
 * Gideon Emery
 * Robert Taylor
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Stephen Dunlevy
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * James M. Connor
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Kevin Michael Richardson
 * Paul Goddard
 * colspan="5" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Michael Gough
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Matt McKenzie
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Daniel Bernhardt
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Daniel Bernhardt
 * Daniel Bernhardt
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Fred Tatasciore
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * David A. Kilde
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * David A. Kilde
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Stephen Stanton
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Matt McColm
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Matt McColm
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Robin Atkin Downes
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="3" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Amadei Weiland
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Appeared
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|

Programs
! The Oracle ! Woman in Red ! Seraph ! The Merovingian ! Persephone ! Keymaker ! The Architect ! Rama Kandra ! rowspan="2" | Sati ! Trainman ! Io ! The Analyst
 * colspan="2" | Gloria Foster
 * Mary Alice
 * Gloria Foster
 * colspan="2" | Mary Alice
 * colspan="3" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Fiona Johnson
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Dani Swan
 * colspan="5" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" | Collin Chou
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" | Collin Chou
 * Michael Gough
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="4" | Lambert Wilson
 * Robin Atkin Downes
 * colspan="3" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" | Monica Bellucci
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" |Monica Bellucci
 * colspan="3" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Randall Duk Kim
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Randall Duk Kim
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Peter Renaday
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" | Helmut Bakaitis
 * colspan="6" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="2" | Bernard White
 * colspan="6" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * rowspan="2" | Tanveer K. Atwal
 * Priyanka Chopra Jonas
 * rowspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * rowspan="2" | Tanveer K. Atwal
 * rowspan="2" colspan="3" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Tanveer K. Atwal
 * Tanveer K. Atwal
 * colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Bruce Spence
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Bruce Spence
 * colspan="4" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="3" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Appeared
 * colspan="3" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Felicia Simone
 * style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * colspan="3" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * Neil Patrick Harris
 * colspan="6" style="background:lightgrey;"|
 * }

Crew
The following is a list of crew members who have participated in the making of the Matrix film series.

Production
The Matrix series includes four feature films. The first three were written and directed by the Wachowskis and produced by Joel Silver, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss and Hugo Weaving. The series was filmed in Australia and began with 1999's The Matrix, which depicts the recruitment of hacker Neo into humanity's rebellion against sentient machines.

The film's mainstream success had backed up the initial idea of making a trilogy. The sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, were filmed simultaneously during one shoot (under the project codename "The Burly Man"), and released in two parts in 2003. They tell the story of the impending attack on the human enclave of Zion by a vast machine army. Neo also learns more about the history of the Matrix and his role as The One. The sequels also incorporate more ambitious action scenes and visual effects.

Box office performance
The Matrix was highly successful, earning over $460 million worldwide on a modest budget of $63 million. The sequels had a much larger budget of $150 million each; Reloaded was also a big commercial success, earning almost $742 million worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film in history, a title which it held for 13 years until it was surpassed by the film Deadpool; Revolutions had the world's first simultaneous release across major cities all over the world, which for the first time in history included both a release in China, and a release in IMAX theaters. Its five-day opening at $204 million broke the previous record, but ultimately the film made $427 million, a little less than the original.

Critical and public response
The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded received positive reviews, the critical response to The Matrix Revolutions was more negative. One complaint was that Revolutions did not give answers to the questions raised in Reloaded.

Legal claims
In April 2003, Sophia Stewart filed a legal complaint in the United States District Court for the Central District of California alleging that the idea of The Matrix (and the 1984 film The Terminator) were plagiarized from her own film treatment titled "The Third Eye". The court allowed the lawsuit to move forward in 2005, but Stewart did not attend the deposition. In a 53-page ruling, Judge Margaret Morrow dismissed the case, stating that Stewart and her attorneys "had not entered any evidence to bolster its key claims or demonstrated any striking similarity between her work and the accused directors' films." In August 2014, Stewart successfully sued her lawyers because they "failed to provide legal services to Ms. Stewart in the California case, and thereby breached the Contract. For example, [her lawyers] failed timely to respond to discovery requests or serve discovery requests on the California defendants, failed to depose key witnesses or develop admissible evidence, failed to deny requests for admission, and failed to respond timely to the California defendants’ motion for summary judgment." "Ms. Stewart did not appear for [the 2005] deposition, ultimately twice failing to appear for her deposition; and both times unknowingly, as her attorneys never advised her of the depositions." Stewart was awarded damages totaling $316,280.62. Despite the ruling, the case became the subject of "Internet legend", with many sources claiming Stewart had actually won the lawsuit.

In 2013, Thomas Althouse filed suit in California federal court alleging that ideas for the sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions came from a screenplay he wrote called The Immortals. In a summary judgement for the defendants, Judge R. Gary Klausner stated "The basic premises of The Matrix Trilogy and The Immortals are so different that it would be unreasonable to find their plots substantially similar."

Influences and interpretations
The Matrix films make numerous references to films and literature, and to historical myths and philosophy, including Buddhism, Vedanta, Advaita Hinduism, Christianity, Messianism, Judaism, Gnosticism, existentialism, obscurantism, and nihilism. The films' premise resembles Plato's Allegory of the cave, René Descartes's evil demon, Kant's reflections on the Phenomenon versus the Ding an sich, Zhuangzi's "Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly", Marxist social theory and the brain in a vat thought experiment. Many references to Jean Baudrillard's 1981 treatise Simulacra and Simulation appear in the first film. Baudrillard himself considered this a misrepresentation, although Lana Wachowski claims the point the reference was making was misunderstood. There are similarities to cyberpunk works such as the 1984 book Neuromancer by William Gibson, who has described The Matrix as "arguably the ultimate 'cyberpunk' artifact".

Japanese director Mamoru Oshii's 1995 film Ghost in the Shell was a strong influence. Producer Joel Silver has stated that the Wachowskis first described their intentions for The Matrix by showing him that anime and saying, "We wanna do that for real." Mitsuhisa Ishikawa of Production I.G, which produced Ghost in the Shell, noted that the anime's high-quality visuals were a strong source of inspiration for the Wachowskis. He also commented, "... cyberpunk films are very difficult to describe to a third person. I'd imagine that The Matrix is the kind of film that was very difficult to draw up a written proposal for to take to film studios." He stated that since Ghost in the Shell had gained recognition in America, the Wachowskis used it as a "promotional tool". Similarities to the 1985 anime film Megazone 23 have also been noticed, but the Wachowskis stated they have never seen it.

Reviewers have commented on similarities between The Matrix and other late-1990s films such as Strange Days, Dark City, and The Truman Show. The Wachowskis stated Dark City had no influence on the franchise, but commented about it and The Truman Show that they thought it was "very strange that Australia came to have three films associated with it that were all about the nature of reality." Comparisons have also been made to Grant Morrison's comic series The Invisibles; Morrison believes that the Wachowskis essentially plagiarized their work to create the film. The Wachowskis responded that they enjoy the comic, but did not use it for inspiration. In addition, the similarity of the films' central concept to a device in the long-running series Doctor Who has also been noted. As in the film, the Matrix of that series (introduced in the 1976 serial The Deadly Assassin) is a massive computer system which one enters using a device connecting to the head, allowing users to see representations of the real world and change its laws of physics; but if killed there, they will die in reality.

The first Matrix film features numerous references to the "White Rabbit", the "Rabbit Hole" and mirrors, referring to Lewis Carroll's novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871). Matrixism is a new religious movement inspired by the trilogy. Adam Possamai, a sociologist of religion, describes these types of religions/spiritualities as hyper-real religions due to their eclectic mix of religion/spirituality with elements of popular culture and their connection to the fluid social structures of late capitalism. There is some debate about whether followers of Matrixism are indeed serious about their practice; however, the religion (real or otherwise) has received attention in the media.

Following the Wachowskis' coming out as transgender women some years after the release of the films, the first film and the pill analogy have also been analyzed in the context of the Wachowskis' transgender experiences. In this case, taking the red pill and living out of the Matrix symbolizes exploring one's own gender identity, starting the transition and coming out as transgender, as opposed to a continued life in the closet. In 2016, Lilly Wachowski acknowledged this analysis by calling it "a cool thing because it's an excellent reminder that art is never static".

Home media
In 2004, Warner Home Video released The Ultimate Matrix Collection, a 10-disc set of the films on DVD. It included the trilogy of films, The Animatrix, and six discs of additional material, including the documentary film The Matrix Revisited, the live-action footage shot for Enter the Matrix, and a promotional compilation of The Matrix Online. For this release, The Matrix was remastered under the supervision of the Wachowskis and the trilogy's cinematographer, Bill Pope, to improve its picture quality and make its color timing closer to that of its sequels. At the request of the Wachowskis, as they explain in a written statement that accompanies the boxset, each of the three films is accompanied by two audio commentaries, one by philosophers who liked the films, and another by critics who did not, with the intention that viewers use them as reference points to form their own opinion. The compilation includes 35 hours of bonus material, but some of the extras from earlier, standalone, releases are missing. A Limited Edition of The Ultimate Matrix Collection was also released. It encases the ten discs plus a resin bust of Neo inside an acrylic glass box.

The Ultimate Matrix Collection was later also released on HD DVD (5 discs) and Blu-ray (6 discs) in 2007 and 2008, respectively. The HD DVD release added a picture-in-picture video commentary to the three films and the extras that were missing from the previous DVD compilation. The Blu-ray release presented The Animatrix in high definition for the first time. A pared-down set dubbed The Complete Matrix Trilogy was also released on HD DVD and Blu-ray (3 discs each), which dropped The Animatrix and some of the special features.

The Ultra HD Blu-ray release of The Matrix Trilogy came out in 2018 (9 discs), and presented the trilogy in 4K resolution and high-dynamic-range video, remastered from the original camera negative and supervised by Bill Pope. In this release, The Matrix is presented with a color grade that reportedly comes closer to its theatrical presentation than any of the previous home video releases. The set also includes standard Blu-ray copies of the films sourced from the new 4K master, but is missing The Animatrix and some special features.

Other media and merchandising
By August 2000, The Matrix DVD had sold over three million copies in United States, becoming the best-selling of all time. By November 2003, The Matrix franchise had generated US$677 million from VHS and DVD sales, US$162 million from the video game Enter the Matrix (2003), US$37 million from The Matrix Reloaded: The Album soundtrack sales, and US$3.5 million from licensed merchandise sales. As of 2006, the franchise has grossed US$3 billion from all sources worldwide.

Animation
In acknowledgment of the strong influence of Japanese Anime on the Matrix series, The Animatrix was produced in 2003 to coincide with the release of The Matrix Reloaded. This is a collection of nine animated short films intended to further flesh out the concepts, history, characters, and setting of the series. The objective of The Animatrix project was to give other writers and directors the opportunity to lend their voices and interpretation to the Matrix universe; the Wachowskis conceived of and oversaw the process, and they wrote four of the segments themselves, although they were given to other directors to execute. Many of the segments were produced by notable figures from the world of Japanese animation. Four of the films were originally released on the series' official website, one was shown in cinemas with Dreamcatcher, one was shown on MTV, MTV2, MTV3, MTV4, and Syfi, and the others first appeared with the DVD release of all nine shorts shortly after the release of The Matrix Reloaded.

Video games
On May 15, 2003, the game Enter the Matrix was released in North America concurrently with The Matrix Reloaded. The first of three video games related to the films, it told a story running parallel to The Matrix Reloaded and featured scenes that were shot during the filming of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

Two more The Matrix video games were released in 2005. The MMORPG The Matrix Online continued the story beyond The Matrix Revolutions, while The Matrix: Path of Neo allowed players to control Neo in scenes from the film trilogy. The Matrix Online was shut down in 2009.

The Matrix official website also provided several original Adobe Flash-based browser games.

An interactive technology demonstration, titled The Matrix Awakens, was released on December 9, 2021.

Comic books
The Matrix Comics is a set of comics and short stories based on the series and written and illustrated by figures from the comics industry; one of the comics was written by the Wachowskis and illustrated by the films' concept artist Geof Darrow. The comics and stories were originally presented for free on the Matrix series' website between 1999 and 2003. One of them was printed in 1999 to be given away at theaters as a promotional item for The Matrix, but Warner Bros. recalled it due to its mature content. Most of them were later republished by the Wachowskis' Burlyman Entertainment, along with some new stories and updates with color to some of the existing ones, in two printed trade paperback volumes in 2003 and 2004 and a deluxe hardcover twentieth-anniversary edition in 2019.

Screensaver
The Matrix official website provided a free screensaver for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, which simulates the falling "Matrix digital rain" of the films. The screensaver was reported to have a password security problem. The "Matrix digital rain" also inspired the creation of many unofficial screensavers.

Official

 * The Art of the Matrix by various (Newmarket Press, 2000) ISBN 978-1557044051
 * The Matrix Shooting Script by the Wachowskis (with introduction by William Gibson) (Newmarket Press, 2001) ISBN 978-1557044907
 * The Matrix Comics, Vol. 1 by various (Burlyman Entertainment, 2003) ISBN 1-932700-00-5
 * The Matrix Comics, Vol. 2 by various (Burlyman Entertainment, 2004) ISBN 1-932700-09-9
 * Enter the Matrix: Official Strategy Guide by Doug Walsh (BradyGames, 2003) ISBN 978-0744002713
 * The Matrix Online: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Games, 2005) ISBN 978-0761549437
 * The Matrix: Path of Neo: Official Strategy Guide (BradyGames, 2005) ISBN 978-0744006582
 * The Matrix Comics: 20th Anniversary Edition by various (Burlyman Entertainment, 2019) ISBN 978-1932700572

Unofficial

 * Jacking In to the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation by Matthew Kapell and William G. Doty (Continuum International, 2004) ISBN 0-8264-1587-3
 * Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in "The Matrix" by Glenn Yeffeth (Summersdale, 2003) ISBN 1-84024-377-5
 * Matrix Warrior: Being the One by Jake Horsley (Gollancz, 2003) ISBN 0-575-07527-9
 * The "Matrix" and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real by William Irwin (Open Court, 2002) ISBN 0-8126-9502-X
 * More Matrix and Philosophy by William Irwin (Open Court, 2005) ISBN 0-8126-9572-0
 * Like a Splinter in Your Mind: The Philosophy Behind the "Matrix" Trilogy by Matt Lawrence (Blackwell, 2004) ISBN 1-4051-2524-1
 * The Matrix (British Film Institute, 2004) ISBN 1-84457-045-2
 * Matrix Revelations: A Thinking Fan's Guide to the Matrix Trilogy by Steve Couch (Damaris, 2003) ISBN 1-904753-01-9
 * Beyond the Matrix: Revolutions and Revelations by Stephen Faller (Chalice Press, 2004) ISBN 0-8272-0235-0
 * The "Matrix" Trilogy: Cyberpunk Reloaded by Stacy Gillis (Wallflower Press, 2005) ISBN 1-904764-32-0
 * Exegesis of the Matrix by Peter B. Lloyd (Whole-Being Books, 2003) ISBN 1-902987-09-8
 * The Gospel Reloaded by Chris Seay and Greg Garrett (Pinon Press, 2003) ISBN 1-57683-478-6
 * The "Matrix": What Does the Bible Say About... by D. Archer (Scripture Union, 2001) ISBN 1-85999-579-9
 * [Journey to the Source: Decoding Matrix Trilogy] by Pradheep Challiyil (Sakthi Books 2004) ISBN 0-9752586-0-5
 * Exploring the Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present by Karen Haber (St. Martin's Press, 2003) ISBN 0-312-31358-6
 * Philosophers Explore The Matrix by Christopher Gray (Oxford University Press, 2005) ISBN 0-19-518107-7
 * The Matrix Cultural Revolution by Michel Marriott (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003) ISBN 1-56025-574-9
 * The Matrix Reflections: Choosing between reality and illusion by Eddie Zacapa (Authorhouse, 2005) ISBN 1-4208-0782-X
 * The One by A.J. Yager & Dean Vescera (Lifeforce Publishing, 2003) ISBN 0-9709796-1-4
 * Matrix og ulydighedens evangelium (Danish for: "Matrix and the Evangelium of disobedients") by Rune Engelbreth Larsen (Bindslev, 2004) ISBN 87-91299-12-8
 * The Third Eye: Where It All Begins by Sophia Stewart (All Eyes on Me, 2006) ISBN 0-9785396-4-8
 * The Matrix 4 – The Evolution of Consciousness: Cracking the Genetic Code by Sophia Stewart (All Eyes on Me, 2010) ISBN 0-9785396-7-2
 * The Matrix and the Alice Books by Voicu Mihnea Simandan (Lulu Books, 2010) ISBN 978-0557258079

title: The Matrix (franchise)


text: User:Premeditated Chaos

title: User:Premeditated Chaos


text:
Plymouth Locomotive Works

Plymouth Locomotive Works was a US builder of small railroad locomotives. All Plymouth locomotives were built in a plant in Plymouth, Ohio until 1997 when the company was purchased by Ohio Locomotive Crane and production moved to Bucyrus, Ohio in 1999. Production of locomotives has now ceased, and rights to the spare parts business have been sold to Williams Distribution.

History
Plymouth locomotives were first built in 1910 by the J. D. Fate Company, which became Fate-Root-Heath in 1919. The J.D. Fate patent application filed in 1917 shows the engine driving a clutch and a continuously variable transmission that allowed varying the speed through zero to reverse the locomotive. The output of the transmission drove a transverse jackshaft through a chain drive, with additional drive chains to the two driving axles. All early Plymouth locomotives used this drive scheme. The Fate-Root-Heath patent application filed in 1925 shows a far more conventional 4-speed transmission and reverse gears driving the jackshaft and final chain drive to the 2 driving axles.

All early Plymouth locomotives were powered by gasoline-burning internal combustion engines, but in 1927 the first diesel was produced. The company changed its name to match its locomotive plant in the late 1950s, becoming Plymouth Locomotive Works, changing again to Plymouth Industries in the late 1970s.

Production
Plymouth was one of the world's most prolific builders of small industrial locomotives, with over 7,500 constructed. About 1,700 are believed to still be in active use, some over 50 years old. Almost all Plymouth locomotives were under 25 tons.

Early Plymouth gasoline-powered locomotives were built with Chrysler engines. (Chrysler's Plymouth automotive branding was unrelated.) In 1937, Plymouth constructed two prototype short-line railroad locomotives, one that ran on butane and another that ran on propane. Plymouth produced locomotives in most rail gauges, mostly with mechanical torque converter transmissions.

title: Plymouth Locomotive Works


text:
Shaman King

Shaman King (シャーマンキング) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiroyuki Takei. It follows the adventures of Yoh Asakura as he attempts to hone his shaman skills to become the Shaman King by winning the Shaman Fight. Takei chose shamanism as the main theme of the series because he wanted a topic that had never been attempted before in manga. The Shaman King manga was originally serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump between June 1998 and August 2004. The individual chapters were collected and released in 32 volumes. In 2017, Kodansha acquired the rights to the series and re-launched it on 35 e-book volumes in 2018, also published in print since 2020.

A 64-episode anime television series adaptation, produced by NAS and Xebec, aired on TV Tokyo from July 2001 to September 2002. A second 52-episode anime television series adaptation, produced by Bridge, aired on TV Tokyo and other channels from April 2021 to April 2022. The manga has also been reprinted in a edition, and has spawned various spin-offs and sequel manga, video games, a trading card game, and many types of Shaman King-related merchandise.

In North America, Viz Media obtained the English-language license for Shaman King and published its chapters in Shonen Jump magazine from March 2003 to August 2007. Kodansha USA re-licensed the series in 2020, and will release it in both digital and physical formats. The anime series was licensed in North America by 4Kids Entertainment in 2003, and aired on FoxBox. Exclusive video games were released by 4Kids Entertainment in North America and Europe.

In Japan, the manga has been popular. By March 2021, it had over 38 million copies in circulation. Both the manga and anime have been featured, at various times, in "top ten" lists of their respective media. The first Shaman King anime series has been watched by many television viewers in Japan. Publications about manga, anime, and other media have commented on the Shaman King manga, with positive comments on the series.

Plot
The plot of Shaman King revolves around Yoh Asakura, a shaman, a medium between the worlds of the living and the dead. Yoh seeks to become Shaman King, one able to channel the power of the Great Spirit to reshape the world as they wish, by winning the Shaman Fight, a tournament overseen by the Patch Tribe that occurs once every 500 years. Anna Kyoyama, Yoh's fiancée, soon enters the scene and prescribes a brutal training regimen to prepare him for the tournament. Thus begins the plot that will lead Yoh on a journey that will lead him to befriend Manta Oyamada and encounter other shamans: "Wooden Sword" Ryu, Tao Ren, Horohoro and Faust VIII.

Yoh's group travels to America to pass the final trial for the right to participate in the Shaman Fight, joined by Lyserg Diethel while encountering a group of shamans led by Yoh's estranged twin brother Hao Asakura, the reincarnation of a powerful shaman who wishes to eradicate all humans and create a world for shamans. The group also encounter the X-Laws, a group dedicated with killing Hao, with Lyserg joining them. Yoh's team is joined by Joco McDonnell (known as Chocolove McDonnell), as they engage in a series of three-man matches.

After several matches, only the teams that consist of Yoh's group, the X-Laws and Hao's team remain. Due to Hao's level of power despite being supported by the Gandhara group in selecting Yoh, Ren, Horohoro, Lyserg, and Joco as the five legendary warriors, the teams forfeit the tournament in a gambit to stop Hao while he undergoes a process to merge with the Great Spirit while Gandhara acquires the Patch Tribe's five elemental spirits. Though Yoh and his friends defeat ten Patch tribesmen who are obligated to protect the new Shaman King, they are powerless against awaken Hao as he brings their souls and everyone they know within the Great Spirit before he commences with his goal of destroying all human life. But Yoh and his friends acquire the elemental spirits and battle Hao while joined by their friends and associates, revealing their goal is actually ensure Hao would not abuse his powers. It is revealed that the Great Spirit granted Hao's wish for someone to bring back his mother's spirit. With Anna's help, Hao's mother is brought to the Great Spirit. Convinced by his mother to forgive humanity for her death, Hao decides to postpone his plan to eradicate humans so he can observe how Yoh and his friends will change the world.

Seven years later, Hana Asakura waits at a station for the five legendary warriors and his parents, Yoh and Anna.

Production
Before creating Shaman King, Takei, an assistant of Nobuhiro Watsuki's Rurouni Kenshin, exchanged ideas about the series with the other assistants which included the creator of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda. As a colleague of Watsuki, he worked primarily as a manga assistant, only focusing on his own projects during his days off. He was influenced by street art from hip-hop and rap culture, which is apparent in his manga artwork. For drawing, he used calligraphy inks and pen nibs. When illustrating, he used Copic brand color markers.

He chose shamanism as the principal topic of the series because he wanted to choose a subject that had never been approached in manga before. He said he incorporated his own personality and beliefs in Shaman King. He has an interest in the topic, and "choosing shamanism as the subject of this story seemed like a natural extension of that." For the title, he said he used "shaman", an English word, due to the fact that "the nuance is really great" and because he could not find a Japanese word with the accurate meaning of the word "shaman". Another reason to have shamanism as the main subject was because he could explore elements from different cultures and their relationship with the dead and the spirits.

Takei created the stories after he created the characters because he believed the "stories are born because of the existence of the characters". In addition, he felt that "the most important thing [to create a character] is to have originality". Through his characters he wanted to show different cultures, backgrounds and values. When asked "how do shamans of pacifistic religions ever win the Shaman Fight?" he answered that the Shaman Fight is fought using the "strength of the soul". Takei declared "the final message of Shaman King is that fighting is no good."

Shueisha edition
Written and illustrated by Hiroyuki Takei, Shaman King was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from June 30, 1998, to an abrupt and improvised end on August 30, 2004. The first 275 chapters were collected into 31 volumes, released from December 3, 1998, to October 4, 2004. The release of volume 32—intended for publication on December 3, 2004—was delayed and Shueisha reported they would only publish volume 32 if they receive evidence of demand from approximately 50,000 people. The release of the last ten chapters in format happened on January 5, 2005. A spin-off to Shaman King, Funbari Poem (ふんばりの詩), published in Akamaru Jump in 2003 and 2004, lasted for five chapters—all of which were included in volume 32. Taking place seven years after the end of the manga series, it features Hana Asakura, son of Yoh and Anna, and his journey with Ryu to find the Five Elemental Warriors for a reunion before the opening of the Funbari Hot Springs Inn.

Takei declared it was not a decrease in the series profitability that was the reason for its cancellation, but a "fatigue" he had been through because he was no more able to follow his fans' wishes. In the author's opinion, Shaman King was being "normalized" by the desire of his readers with the introduction of typical aspects and losing its originality. In 2007, he revealed he was planning to end the series with the finale he initially envisioned, to be published in another Shueisha magazine at the end of the year or at the beginning of 2008. Eventually the entire series was reprinted in 27 volumes with the title Shaman King Kanzen-Ban (or "Perfect Edition"), concluding with the "true ending" to the series. The new series finale was also posted on the official Kanzen-Ban website, in addition to the print editions. The first volume of the Perfect Edition was released on March 4, 2008 with the last (volume 27) being published on April 3, 2009. Five years after the end of the series, when the Shaman King Kanzen-Ban was finished, Takei said, "After making the readers waiting [sic] so much for this, the last thing I wanted to do was to disappoint them". He thought the ending was a "huge responsibility". This edition served to make corrections and adjustments and, for Takei, it was something "fun," as it was different from scratch. Shaman King has also been published as part of the Shueisha Jump Remix series of magazine-style books. Sixteen volumes of Shaman King were released under the Shueisha Jump Remix series between April 1, 2011 and October 28, 2011.

Viz Media licensed the series for an English-language release in North America; the chapters initially serialized in the American Shonen Jump, beginning in third issue in 2003 and ceasing its serialization in the August 2007 issue. From then, it was exclusively published through graphic novel format and Viz said it was done in order to speed up the series' publication. Volume 1 was released in August or September 2003, and volume 32 was released to conclude the series on January 4, 2011. In Australasian region, Madman Entertainment licensed and published the series between February 10, 2009 and September 10, 2011. The manga has also been licensed in some countries such as in Brazil by Editora JBC, in France by Kana, in Germany by Carlsen Comics, in Italy by Star Comics, in Norway by Schibsted Forlagene, in Russia by Comix-ART, in Singapore by Chuang Yi, in Spain by Editores de Tebeos, in Sweden by Bonnierförlagen, and in Vietnam by Kim Đồng Publishing House.

Kodansha edition
In December 2017, Kodansha announced the company acquired the "Shaman King" trademark from Shueisha in Japan and Viz Media in North America. A website opened on January 1, 2018, to announce Kodansha's celebration for the series' 20th anniversary. For this purpose, Kodansha republished the original manga in 35 e-books, with new cover artwork, between May 1 and October 1, 2018. Kodansha republished these volumes in print, released every month; volumes 1–5 were published on June 17, 2020, after that, three volumes were published around the 17th of every month; volume 33 and 34 were published on April 15, 2021; the 35th and final volume was released on October 15 of that same year.

In July 2020, ComiXology and Kodansha USA announced that they would publish the thirty-five volumes of the new complete edition of the manga digitally starting in July 2020, however it was delayed to October of the same year. Kodansha USA also announced that they would release the series physically in twelve three-in-one omnibus edition volumes. The first volume was published on March 23, 2021, while the last was released on March 7, 2023.

Related series
A series of one-shot chapters, called "zero stories", later collected as Shaman King: Zero, detailing Yoh and other characters backstories, were serialized in Shueisha's Jump X from November 10, 2011, to October 10, 2014.

A sequel series, titled Shaman King: Flowers, centered on Hana Asakura's development as a shaman, was serialzied in Jump X from April 10, 2012, to October 10, 2014.

Another series, titled Shaman King: The Super Star, was preceded by three prologue chapters published in Kodansha's Shōnen Magazine Edge on April 17, 2018, and the series started in the same magazine on May 17 of that same year.

A spin-off manga titled Shaman King: Red Crimson, by Jet Kusamura, was launched in Shonen Magazine Edge on June 15, 2018, and finished on January 17, 2020.

Another spin-off by Kusamura, titled Shaman King: Marcos, was serialized in Shōnen Magazine Edge from April 17, 2020, to June 17, 2022.

Another spin-off, conceptualized by Kusamura and illustrated by Kyo Nuesawa, titled Shaman King & a Garden, was serialized in Kodansha's shōjo manga magazine Nakayoshi from December 1, 2020, to May 2, 2022.

A spin-off manga, illustrated by Aya Tanaka and based on Kakeru Kobashiri's novel Shaman King Faust8: Eien no Eliza, started on the Kodansha's Magazine Pocket app on July 10, 2021; its last chapter was made available online on June 25, 2022. Its chapters were collected in three volumes, released between October 15, 2021, and August 17, 2022.

First series (2001)
The episodes of the Shaman King anime series are directed by Seiji Mizushima and co-produced by TV Tokyo, NAS, and Xebec. At an early stage of anime production, Takei himself helped the anime's staff. However, he soon left the staff due to his time limitations as he was working on the manga. In September 2020, Mizushima commented that the original anime material presented in the latter half of the show was not something he did on his own accord, and it was requested from Shaman King's original publisher Shueisha. The 64 episodes were aired between July 4, 2001 and September 25, 2002 on TV Tokyo in Japan. The episodes were collected into 16 DVDs by King Records and released between October 30, 2001, and January 22, 2003. The DVDs were later collected and released in three box sets between August 27 and December 25, 2008. In June 2020, it was announced that the series would be streamed on Full Anime TV and Bonbon TV services in Japan.

4Kids Entertainment obtained the rights to broadcast the Shaman King anime in the United States, where it premiered on FoxBox on September 6, 2003. Three DVD compilations of the English adaptation were released by Funimation, in an uncut form, between October 19, 2004, and February 22, 2005. In June 2021, Discotek Media announced they re-licensed the series.

Second series (2021)
At Otakon 2015, former Madhouse president and then MAPPA president, Masao Maruyama, expressed his desire to work on a second anime adaptation of Shaman King. In February 2017, while answering a fan's question, Takei revealed on his official Twitter that he received an offer for another anime adaptation of Shaman King, but he turned the offer down because he was told that the new anime would not be able to use the first anime's voice actors and soundtrack music, although Takei hoped for another chance in the future.

In June 2020, a second anime television series was announced, which would adapt the 35 volumes of the new complete manga edition. The anime is produced by Bridge and directed by Joji Furuta, with series composition by Shōji Yonemura, character designs by Satohiko Sano and music composed by Yuki Hayashi. It aired from April 1, 2021 to April 21, 2022, on TV Tokyo. The series consists of 52 episodes from four Blu-ray Disc boxes, each with 13 episodes, released from August 25, 2021, to May 25, 2022. Netflix acquired the streaming rights to the series for an English dub, and it premiered on August 9, 2021 on the streaming platform.

Audio
The music for the first Shaman King anime adaptation was composed by Toshiyuki Omori. Two CD soundtracks were released; the first one was on March 27, 2002, titled Shaman King: Vocal Collection, and contains 14 tracks, including the first opening and ending themes in their original television lengths; the second one, Shaman King: Original Soundtrack, was released on June 26 of that same year, with an additional 20 tracks and the second opening theme "Northern Lights". Six character song CDs were released on March 24, 2004, sung by the voice actors as their respective characters. Three drama CDs have been produced for the series as well, featuring the original voice actors from the series.

Trading card game
A collectible card game based on the Shaman King series was produced by Tomy in Japan and released in the United States by Upper Deck in 2005. Upper Deck originally planned a mass market release of the game for January 2005, however, it was later announced that Blockbuster Video would have exclusive rights to sell the game from January 28, 2005 to February 15, 2005, after which it would be released to other retailers. In an interview with Upper Deck's Director of Brand and New Product Development, Cory Jones stated that it was the television show's underperformance and later cancellation which led to the cancellation of the trading card game.

A collaboration with Bushiroad's TCG "Cardfight!! Vanguard overDress" was announced on the Japanese Bushiroad TCG Strategy Presentation 2021 Summer on May 12, 2021. Trial Deck and Booster Pack Vol. 1 was released on November 5, 2021, and a Booster Pack Vol. 2 was released on April 22, 2022.

Video games
Thirteen video games based on the Shaman King series have been released. The first one, Shaman King Chō Senji Ryakketo Funbari Hen, was released on December 21, 2001. Although the games developed in Japan have not been released outside of that region, Konami and 4Kids Entertainment developed a series of games that were only released in North America and Europe. Characters of the Shaman King series have also made appearances in the games Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars.

Other
Two light novels with the story by Hideki Mitsui and art by Hiroyuki Takei were released on December 25, 2001 and August 23, 2002. A fanbook titled Shaman King Official Fan Book: Mankin Book (シャーマンキング公式ファンブック｢マンキンブック｣) was released on April 30, 2004. Two guidebooks were released. The first, based on the original series and entitled Shaman King Character Book: Manjien (シャーマンキングキャラクターズブック｢万辞苑｣), was released on June 4, 2002. The second, called Shaman King Kazenban Final Official Guide Book Mantarite (シャーマンキング完全版　最終公式ガイドブック　マンタリテ), for the version of the series, was released exactly seven years later. Following Kodansha's acquisition of the series, a novelization written by Kakeru Kobashiri and titled Faust 8: Eien no Eliza (永遠のエリザ) was released on November 15, 2018, and a character book was published on November 30 of that same year.

Public response
By November 2011, the original manga series of 32 volumes has sold over 26 million copies in Japan. By March 2020, the manga had over 35 million copies in circulation. By March 2021, the manga had over 38 million copies in circulation. The volumes have been ranked in listings of best-selling manga in Japan,  as well as its guidebook, both Zero volumes,  Flowers first four volumes,    and The Super Star first volume. Volumes of the series have been ranked in listings of best-selling manga in the United States such as The New York Times, Nielsen BookScan and Diamond Comic Distributors. In 2008, Shaman King was North America's 24th best manga property according to ICv2, based on sales for the entire year of 2008. The anime adaptation has also been featured several times in the Japanese TV ranking, with the last episode having a 9.5 percent television viewership rating. Shaman King was voted the sixth best anime of 2001 by Animage readers. In 2005, Japanese television network TV Asahi conducted a "Top 100" online web poll and the Shaman King anime adaptation placed 47th. Moreover, approximately 165 million cards from the Shaman King trading card game were sold in Japan.

Critical response
Justin Freeman from Anime News Network (ANN) criticized the first volume for relying too heavily on the spirits as a, stating that is what "places the series on the wrong path." On other hand, Alexander Hoffman of Comics Village declared "in this first novel, letting the relationships between Yoh, Amidamaru, and Manta flesh out is more important that developing every spiritual entity that shows up." Holly Ellingwood of Active Anime said she was fascinated by how Takei was capable of taking several myths and cultural beliefs and "blending them into the character backgrounds". Lori Henderson of Manga Life cited the fact every character, even the villains, "has a reason for fighting" and their "internal struggles" as well as the fights itself as the main reason why Shaman King is "an enjoyable title." A reviewer for The Star declared, praised the characters' development and Takei's capacity to create "new interesting ones each volume," commending "their backgrounds and unique personalities." Writing for ANN, John Jakala commented that he was struck with the "unique", "graffiti-style" visual of the series. Although labeled its art as "silly", Sheena McNeil from Sequential Start expressed that "it's smooth and nicely detailed with excellent expressions." McNeil deemed Takei did "a wonderful job of bringing shaman into the modern day but keeping it a story of fantasy". Ellingwood stated the series' "vibrant action", "imaginative plot twists and a creative world" makes it "a unique and stylish series."

Mania's Eduardo Chavez said that, Shaman King can "hit all the right buttons one volume" but "it could be a complete bore" in the next. School Library Journal's Cathleen Baxter commented that Shaman King has "nonstop action" with "typical characters and battle styles". The storyline is "easy to follow and will hold the reader's interest." Margaret Veira of Active Anime, however, argued that the storyline gets more complex as the series progresses, while comics critic Jason Thompson commented that from volume 20 it "seemed to veer off tracks". In addition of a decline on artwork in his opinion, the numbers of fights also decreased; Thompson wrote, "their enemy ... may be unbeatable by force alone, so the plot shifts away from battles and towards unexpected betrayals, character relationships, and clever (and confusing) schemes—rather than mere fighting techniques." The last volume, especially, "may leave some readers feeling cheated," said Leroy Douresseaux from Comic Book Bin. Thompson was also disappointed by the 2004 conclusion but he wrote that the version has "a great ending", whose "transcendental climax is not too different from Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, or for many American comics about beings with ultimate power."

title: Shaman King