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Dawn Fraser

Dawn Fraser (born 4 September 1937) is an Australian freestyle champion swimmer, eight-time olympic medalist, a 15-year world record holder in the 100-meter freestyle, and former politician. Controversial, yet the winner of countless honors, she has enjoyed national prominence and sparked national pride in Australia. She is one of only four swimmers to have won the same Olympic individual event three times – in her case the women's 100-metre freestyle.

Early life
Fraser was born in the Sydney suburb of Balmain, New South Wales, in 1937 into a poor working-class family, the youngest of eight children. Her father, Kenneth Fraser, was from Embo, Scotland. She was spotted at the early age of 14 by Sydney coach Harry Gallagher swimming at the local sea baths.

Swimming career
As a highlight of her swimming career, Fraser held 39 records and won eight Olympic medals for Australia, including four gold. Adding to her popularity in her native country and the British Commonwealth, she captured six Commonwealth Games gold medals. She dominated the high profile 100 metres freestyle event, holding the record for 15 years from 1 December 1956 to 8 January 1972.

She is the first of only four swimmers in Olympic history (Hungarian Krisztina Egerszegi and Americans Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky being the three others) to have won individual gold medals for the same event at three successive Olympics (100 metres freestyle – 1956, 1960, 1964).

In October 1962, she became the first woman to swim the 100 metres freestyle in less than one minute setting the record of 58.9, a feat that elevated her to national prominence and made her a hero in Australia where swimming was a popular sport. It was not until 1972, eight years after Fraser retired, that her 100 m record of 58.9 secs was broken.

Several weeks before the 1964 Olympics, Fraser was injured in a car crash that injured a vertebra and resulted in the death of her mother Rose. Her sister and a friend were also travelling in Fraser's car during the accident, but survived. This was a fresh tragedy for Fraser and her family following her older brother's death from leukemia in 1950, and her father's death from cancer in 1960.

1964 Summer Olympics incidents and ban from swimming
During the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Fraser angered swimming team sponsors and the Australian Swimming Union (ASU) by marching in the opening ceremony against their wishes, and wearing an older swimming costume in competition, as she found it more comfortable than the one supplied by the sponsors. She was also accused of stealing an Olympic flag from a flagpole outside Emperor Hirohito's palace, the Kōkyo. She was arrested but released without charge. In the end she was given the flag as a souvenir.

Fraser later denied having swum the moat to steal the flag, telling The Times in 1991: "There's no way I would have swum that moat. I was terrified of dirty water and that moat was filthy. There's no way I'd have dipped my toe in it." The Australian Amateur Swimming Association banned Fraser from competitive swimming for 10 years.

Post-swimming activities
Fraser became a publican at the Riverview Hotel, Balmain, and took up swim coaching.

In 1988, Fraser was elected as an independent to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for the seat of Balmain. The Balmain electorate was abolished in 1991, and after failing to win the new seat of Port Jackson, she retired from politics.

Personal life
Fraser married Gary Ware on 30 January 1965 at St Stephens Church, Macquarie Street, Sydney. The marriage was short-lived. She has one daughter from the marriage, who has a son. She and her family live in Noosa on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. This move north from Sydney to the warmer, subtropical climate of Noosa was intended to reduce the breathing problems caused by Fraser's asthma, as the warmer air and increased vitamin D from sunlight are beneficial for the condition.

Fraser is the great-aunt of Canadian soccer player Danielle Steer.

Political and racial views
In 1997, Fraser told the ABC: "I mean I wish I could be as outspoken, I suppose, as Pauline Hanson and say, 'look, I'm sick and tired of the immigrants that are coming into my country.'" Fraser also stated her interest in joining Hanson's One Nation Party.

In 2015, during an interview on the Today program, Fraser was asked about recent behaviour of Nick Kyrgios at Wimbledon and Bernard Tomic’s comments about Tennis Australia, which resulted in Tomic being removed from the Davis Cup team. Fraser said, "They should be setting a better example for the younger generation of this country ... If they don’t like it, go back to where their fathers or their parents came from". (Kyrgios is of Malay and Greek ancestry, while Tomic is of Croat extraction.) Kyrgios responded by describing her as a "blatant racist", and Fraser's comments were criticised by Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane. Fraser "unreservedly" apologised for her comments.

In popular culture
In 1979, a movie called Dawn! was made about Fraser's life and career. It starred Bronwyn Mackay-Payne as Fraser.

Fraser was played by Melissa Thomas in the 2003 film Swimming Upstream. Fraser herself is credited in the film as Dawn Fraser's coach. On 1 September 2015, Dawn Fraser featured on Season 7, Episode 5, of the SBS genealogy television series Who Do You Think You Are?, which traced her heritage back to South America.

Honours
Lauded as an Australian hero, Fraser was named the Australian of the Year in 1964, was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1965, was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) using her married name Dawn Ware in 1967, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1998. She was named Australian Female Athlete of the Century by the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, who had inducted her as their first female member in 1985. In 1999 the International Olympic Committee named her the World's Greatest Living Female Water Sports Champion. On 14 July 2000, Fraser was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for "outstanding contribution as a swimming competitor".

She was one of the bearers of the Olympic Torch at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. She carried the Olympic Torch at the stadium, as one of the bearers for the final segment, before the lighting of the Olympic Flame.

The Australian Sport Awards includes an award named in honour of and presented by Fraser. The sea baths in Balmain where she swam were named the Dawn Fraser Swimming Pool in her honour in 1964, and in 1992, the State Transit Authority named a RiverCat ferry after Fraser.

As part of the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours she was advanced to a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

In 2022, she was an inaugural inductee of the Swimming Australia Hall of Fame.

Olympic accomplishments

 * 1962 Perth Commonwealth Games
 * 110 yards freestyle – gold medal
 * 440 yards freestyle – gold medal
 * 4 × 110 yards (4 × 100.58 metres) freestyle relay – gold medal
 * 4 × 110 yards (4 × 100.58 metres) medley relay – gold medal

title: Dawn Fraser


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Teatro Yagüez

The Teatro Yagüez in Puerto Rico is a historic building that today is a performing arts theater. It is located at Candelaria Street, (formerly Calle McKinley) and Dr. Basora Streets, in the city of Mayagüez. It consists of the Lucy Boscana Hall and the Roberto Cole Cafe Theater.

History
It was originally erected by Francisco Maymón Palmer in 1909. Maymón's parents emigrated to Puerto Rico from Italy in the 19th century. They settled in the town of San German. Early in the 20th century Francisco tried to build a theatre in the town of San German but was unable due to the existing religious culture then, which considered a theatre as a "bad influence' on the local population. Maymón was an entrepreneur by vocation, having travelled to Europe and the United States in his 20s, and he would not be stopped. He moved to the nearby city of Mayaguez where he established himself as one of the pioneers of the industry of cinematography in the island of Puerto Rico, introducing this new form of Visual Art early in the beginning of the 20th century by showing silent films throughout the nearby towns and becoming the exclusive distributor for 'Nicholas Power Co.' movie projectors throughout the Caribbean islands. The 'Nicholas Power Company' was located in New York. With the help of his business partners Mr. Jose Rahola and Mr. Fundador Vargas, he imported movies from the Pathé Company in Europe, showing them in town centers (plazas) under the stars and at the old Mayaguez Municipal Theater ('Teatro Municipal'). The latter no longer exists, as it was destroyed in the 1918 earthquake that hit the city and was never rebuilt, hence the Teatro Yagüez became the city's preferred gathering place for opera, plays, concerts, and silent movies.

Francisco purchased the land where the Yaguez sits today around 1905. The construction of the first Teatro Yagüez building began around 1907; The formal inauguration was in 1909. Materials such as the cement was imported from Germany, interior ceilings from Italy, tiles and carpets from Spain. An architectural jewel, the Teatro Yagüez began as a neo-baroque style Opera House, years later turning into a silent movie theater. Incorrectly described as art deco style, however, the art deco movement developed years after the theater's first construction and later reconstruction.

Maymón suffered a great loss, when on June 19, 1919, a fire destroyed his beloved Teatro Yagüez. The World Almanac and Book of Facts states that 150 people died in the fire, although the records are vague and mostly sensationalist. According to the evidence, investigations after the fire exonerated him of all culpability, and indeed pointed the finger at local entities (namely the Municipal government body at the time), who had an interest in the location (the land) where the Teatro Yagüez stood, and who indeed, tried to purchase the land after the fire, and being unable to purchase it, attempted to expropriate it but without any success. However, there was never any evidence, only accusations and theories never proven. 100 years later, a new theory came forth, the most likely suspect of that fire was the nitrate films stored in a closet inside the theatre. The Teatro Yagüez was finally rebuilt and re-inaugurated on March 21, 1921 after a lawsuit between Francisco Maymón and the Municipal Council of the city, in which Francisco Maymón prevailed. "The current building was the product of one of the most brilliant architects of the era, [José Sabàs Honoré], who designed the new theater after the June 1919 fire."

Francisco Maymon's son and daughter, Miguel A. Maymón Camuñas, and Petra Maymón Cernuda inherited the Teatro Yagüez in 1954 after Francisco's passing. In 1959, Miguel purchased his sister's share in the Yagüez, becoming sole proprietor of the Teatro Yagüez.

In 1976, the U.S. government sent a Bicentennial Commission to Puerto Rico, who declared the Teatro Yagüez a landmark. Under the administration of Benjamin Cole, the municipality of Mayagüez purchased the Yagüez in 1980 and restored it to its original magnificence in 1984. It was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

The Teatro Yaguez has been fully restored and is in use today. It remains as a beautiful reminder of the history of theater and arts of the early 20th century in Puerto Rico. Its stage and auditorium were renamed as Lucy Boscana Hall in December 2008, in tribute to the Mayagüez-born actress and teacher.

Maymón named the Teatro Yagüez: La Catedral Del Arte Sonoro. (The Cathedral of Sonorous Art), a nickname that has prevailed to this day as the Yaguez is visually and architecturally, a Cathedral.

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

title: Teatro Yagüez


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Obituary

An obituary (obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. According to Nigel Farndale, the Obituaries Editor of The Times, obituaries ought to be "balanced accounts" written in a "deadpan" style, and should not read like a hagiography.

In local newspapers, an obituary may be published for any local resident upon death. A necrology is a register or list of records of the deaths of people related to a particular organization, group or field, which may only contain the sparsest details, or small obituaries. Historical necrologies can be important sources of information.

Two types of paid advertisements are related to obituaries. One, known as a death notice, usually appears in the Births, Marriages and Deaths (BMD) section of a paper and omits most biographical details and may be a legally required public notice under some circumstances. The other type, a paid memorial advertisement, is usually written by family members or friends, perhaps with assistance from a funeral home. Both types of paid advertisements are usually run as classified advertisements.

The word also applies to the entire program and the part of that program describing the life of the deceased. It is given to those who attend their service. The verso page heading may be Obituary or Reflections, the recto heading is usually Order of Service.

Premature obituaries
A premature obituary is a false reporting of the death of a person who is still alive. It may occur due to unexpected survival of someone who was close to death. Other reasons for such publication might be miscommunication between newspapers, family members, and the funeral home, often resulting in embarrassment for everyone involved.

In November 2020, Radio France Internationale accidentally published about 100 prewritten obituaries for celebrities such as Queen Elizabeth II and Clint Eastwood. The premature publication was blamed on a transition to a new content management system.

Irish author Brendan Behan said, "there is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary." In this regard, some people seek to have an unsuspecting newspaper editor publish a premature death notice or obituary as a malicious hoax, perhaps to gain revenge on the "deceased". To that end, nearly all newspapers now have policies requiring that death notices come from a reliable source (such as a funeral home), though even this has not stopped some pranksters such as Alan Abel.

Prewritten obituaries
Many news organizations maintain prewritten (or preedited video) obituaries on file for notable individuals who are still living, in order to promptly publish detailed, authoritative, and lengthy obituaries upon their deaths. These are also known as "advance" obituaries. The Los Angeles Times' obituary of Elizabeth Taylor, for example, was written in 1999 after three months of research, then often updated before the actress' 2011 death. Quite often the prewritten obituary's subject outlives its author. One example is The New York Times' obituary of Taylor, written by the newspaper's theater critic Mel Gussow, who died in 2005. The 2023 obituary of Henry Kissinger featured reporting by Michael T. Kaufman, who died almost 14 years earlier in 2010.

Writing in 2021, Paul Farhi of The Washington Post observed that while once a "sleepy corner of journalism", publications in the Internet age have invested more resources in preparing advance obituaries for rapid publication online, in order to meet widespread public interest; obituaries can attract millions of readers online within days of their subjects' deaths. The New York Times maintains a "deep reservoir" of advance obituaries, estimated to stand at roughly 1,850. The paper often interviews notables specifically for their obituaries, a practice begun by Alden Whitman in 1966. , The Washington Post has about 900 advance obituaries on file, and entertainment publication The Hollywood Reporter has prepared 800 advances for notable figures in the film and television industry.

An advance obituary is usually not written until the subject has reached old age, as the earlier a profile is written, the more additions and revisions it will likely require. Former New York Times obituary writer Margalit Fox wrote that "as a general rule, when lives are long enough, accomplished enough and complex enough that we would just as soon not get caught short writing them on deadline, advances are assigned". Consequently, many public figures who die unexpectedly or prematurely will have no obituary available at a given publication, and journalists will be left to research and write lengthy articles on short notice. However, Farhi noted that advance obituaries of younger people will occasionally be prepared if they are known to have health problems or "chaotic lives"; The Washington Post had an advance obituary for singer Amy Winehouse, whose struggles with substance abuse were widely chronicled before her death at age 27. In another case, Nigel Farndale, an obituaries editor for The Times, said that in April 2020, when news broke that then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in an intensive care unit with COVID-19 during the pandemic, he was under considerable pressure to quickly prepare an obituary that could be immediately published if Johnson died from the disease.

Still, for particularly major figures, advance obituaries may be drafted early in their lives and revised constantly throughout the following years or decades. Bill McDonald, obituaries editor of The New York Times, estimated in 2016 that Fidel Castro's obituary "cost us more man/woman hours over the years than any piece we've ever run". Work on it began in 1959, and it went through many subsequent iterations. Well into the 21st century, the visual layout for the obituary was substantially modified to match changes in the paper's page size, and a presentation for its digital edition cycled through different slideshow and video formats to match advances in Internet download speeds. The newspaper began drafting an obituary for Queen Elizabeth II when she was still heir apparent, and it was rewritten in its entirety multiple times until her death in 2022.

Media
Obituaries are a notable feature of The Economist, which publishes one full-page obituary per week, reflecting on the subject's life and influence on world history. Past subjects have ranged from Ray Charles to Uday Hussein to George Floyd.

The Times and the Daily Telegraph publish anthologies of obituaries under a common theme, such as military obituaries, sports obituaries, heroes and adventurers, entertainers, rogues, eccentric lives, etc.

The British Medical Journal encourages doctors to write their own obituaries for publication after their death.

For numerous summer seasons, CBC Radio One has run The Late Show, a radio documentary series which presents extended obituaries of interesting Canadians.

title: Obituary


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Henri-Georges Clouzot

Henri-Georges Clouzot (20 November 1907 – 12 January 1977) was a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for his work in the thriller film genre, having directed The Wages of Fear (1953) and Les Diaboliques (1955), which are critically recognized as among the greatest films of the 1950s. He also directed documentary films, including The Mystery of Picasso (1956), which was declared a national treasure by the government of France.

Clouzot was an early fan of the cinema and, desiring a career as a writer, moved to Paris. He was later hired by producer Adolphe Osso to work in Berlin, writing French-language versions of German films. After being fired from UFA studio in Nazi Germany due to his friendship with Jewish producers, Clouzot returned to France, where he spent years bedridden after contracting tuberculosis. Upon recovering, he found work in Nazi-occupied France as a screenwriter for the German-owned company Continental Films. At Continental, Clouzot wrote and directed films that were very popular. His second film Le Corbeau drew controversy over its harsh look at provincial France, and he was fired from Continental before its release. As a result of his association with Continental, he was barred by the French government from filmmaking until 1947.

After the ban was lifted, Clouzot reestablished his reputation and popularity in France during the late 1940s with successful films including Quai des Orfèvres. After the release of his comedy film Miquette, Clouzot married Véra Gibson-Amado, who would star in his next three feature films. In the early and mid-1950s, Clouzot drew acclaim from international critics and audiences for The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques; both films would serve as source material for remakes decades later. After the release of La Vérité, his wife Véra died of a heart attack, and Clouzot's career suffered due to depression, illness and new critical views of films from the French New Wave.

Clouzot's career became less active in later years, limited to a few television documentaries and two feature films in the 1960s. He wrote several unused scripts in the 1970s and died in Paris in 1977.

Early years
Henri-Georges Clouzot was born in Niort, Deux-Sèvres, to mother Suzanne Clouzot and father Georges Clouzout, a bookstore owner. He was the first of three children in a middle-class family. Clouzot showed talent by writing plays and playing piano recitals. His father's bookstore went bankrupt, and the family moved to Brest where Georges Clouzout became an auctioneer. In Brest, Henri-Georges Clouzot went to Naval School, but was unable to become a Naval Cadet due to his myopia. At the age of 18, Clouzot left for Paris to study political science. Whilst living in Paris, he became friends with several magazine editors. His writing talents led him to theater and cinema as a playwright, lyricist and adaptor-screenwriter. The quality of his work led producer Adolphe Osso to hire him and send him to Germany to work in Studio Babelsberg in Berlin, translating scripts for foreign-language films shot there.

Screenwriting career (1931–1942)
Throughout the 1930s Clouzot worked by writing and translating scripts, dialogue and occasionally lyrics for over twenty films. While living in Germany, he saw the films of F. W. Murnau and Fritz Lang and was deeply influenced by their expressionist style. Clouzot made his first short film, La Terreur des Batignolles, from a script by Jacques de Baroncelli. The film is a 15-minute comedy with three actors. Film historian and critic Claude Beylie reported this short was "surprisingly well made with expressive use of shadows and lighting contrasts that Clouzot would exploit on the full-length features he would make years later". Clouzot's later wife, Inès de Gonzalez, said in 2004 that La Terreur des Batignolles added nothing to Clouzot's reputation. In Berlin, Clouzot saw several parades for Adolf Hitler and was shocked at how oblivious he felt France was to what was happening in Germany. In 1934, Clouzot was fired from UFA Studios for his friendship with Jewish film producers such as Adolphe Osso and Pierre Lazareff.

In 1935, Clouzot was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was sent first to Haute-Savoie and then to Switzerland, where he was bedridden for nearly five years in all. Clouzot's time in the sanatorium would be very influential on his career. While bedridden, Clouzot read constantly and learned the mechanics of storytelling to help improve his scripts. Clouzot also studied the fragile nature of the other people in the sanatorium. Clouzot had little money during this period, and was provided with financial and moral support by his family and friends. By the time Clouzot left the sanatorium and returned to Paris, World War II had broken out. French cinema had changed because many of the producers he had known had fled France to escape Nazism.

Clouzot's health problems kept him from military service. In 1939, he met actor Pierre Fresnay, who was already an established film star in France. Clouzot wrote the script for Fresnay's only directorial feature Le Duel, as well as two plays for him: On prend les mêmes, which was performed in December 1940, and Comédie en trois actes, which was performed in 1942. Despite writing scripts for films and plays, Clouzot was so poor that he resorted to trying to sell lyrics to French singer Édith Piaf, who declined to purchase them. In World War II, after France was invaded by Germany and subsequently during the German occupation, the German-operated film production company Continental Films was established in October 1940. Alfred Greven, the director of Continental, knew Clouzot from Berlin and offered him work to adapt stories of writer Stanislas-André Steeman. Clouzot felt uncomfortable working for the Germans, but was in desperate need of money and could not refuse Greven's offer. Clouzot's first film for Continental was the adaptation of Steeman's mystery novel Six hommes morts (Six Dead Men). Clouzot retitled the film Le Dernier des six, having been influenced by actress Suzy Delair while writing the script, allowing her to choose the name of the character she would play.

Early directorial work (1942–1947)
After the success of Le Dernier de six, Clouzot was hired as the head of Continental's screenwriting division. Clouzot began work on his second Steeman adaptation, which he would also direct, titled The Murderer Lives at Number 21. It starred Fresnay and Delair playing the same roles they had performed in Le Dernier de six. Released in 1942, the film was popular with audiences and critics. Clouzot's next film was Le Corbeau based on a true story about a woman who sent poison pen letters in 1922. Grevin was against Clouzot making this film, stating that topic was "dangerous". Le Corbeau would be the last film that Fresnay and Clouzot would work together on. Clouzot had used all possible means to try to anger the actor during the filming, and after he quarreled with Fresnay's wife, Yvonne Printemps, Fresnay and Clouzot broke off their friendship. Le Corbeau was a great success in France, with nearly 250,000 people having seen it in the first months of its initial release. Le Corbeau was released in 1943 and generated controversy from the right-wing Vichy regime, the left-wing Resistance press and the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church considered the film "painful and hard, constantly morbid in its complexity". The Vichy press dubbed it the antithesis of the Révolution nationale and demanded it be banned due to its immoral values. The anti-Nazi resistance press considered it Nazi propaganda because of its negative portrayal of the French populace. Two days before the release of Le Corbeau, Continental films fired Clouzot.

After the liberation of France, Clouzot and several other directors were tried in court for collaborating with the Germans. For his sentence, Clouzot was forbidden from going on set of any film or from using a film camera for the rest of his life. Clouzot received letters of support from filmmakers and artists Jean Cocteau, René Clair, Marcel Carné and Jean-Paul Sartre, who were against the ruling. Clouzot's sentence was later shortened from life to two years. There is no official document making note of any apology or appeal. During his two-year banishment from filming, Clouzot worked with one of his supporters, Jean-Paul Sartre, who had been one of the first people to defend Le Corbeau.

Return to filmmaking and acclaim (1947–1960)
After Clouzot's ban was lifted, he reestablished his reputation and popularity during the late 1940s with films such as Quai des Orfèvres and Manon. For Quai des Orfèvres, Clouzot asked the author Stanislas-André Steeman for a copy of his novel, Légitime défense, to adapt into a film. Clouzot started writing the script before the novel arrived for him to read. Quai des Orfèvres was released in 1947 and was the fourth most popular film in France, drawing 5.5 million spectators in that year. Clouzot directed and wrote two films that were released in 1949. For Manon, he wanted to cast unknown actors. He scoured schools to find an actress for the lead role, and chose 17-year-old Cécile Aubry after viewing over 700 girls. Manon was released in 1948 and was watched by 3.4 million filmgoers in France as well as winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Clouzot directed and wrote the short film Le Retour de Jean, which was part of the anthology film Return to Life. Le Retour de Jean was influenced by the short period when Clouzot lived in Germany in the early 1930s and stars Louis Jouvet as a survivor of a concentration camp who finds a wounded Nazi war criminal whom he interrogates and tortures. Clouzot's next film was the comedy Miquette et Sa Mère, which was a financial failure. During the film's production, Clouzot met Véra Gibson-Amado, whom he married on 15 January 1950. Clouzot and Véra took a film crew with them to Véra's homeland in Brazil for their honeymoon, where Clouzot made his first attempt at directing a documentary film. The Brazilian government took issue with Clouzot filming the poverty of people in the favelas rather than the more picturesque parts of Brazil. The film was never finished because the costs became too high. Clouzot became fascinated with the region and wrote a book, Le cheval des dieux, recounting his trip. Upon returning to France, he was offered a script written by Georges Arnaud, an expatriate living in South America who had written about his own experiences there. Clouzot found it easy to imagine the setting of the script and was very anxious to film Arnaud's story. He started writing the film, The Wages of Fear, with his brother, Jean Clouzot, who would collaborate with him on all his subsequent films under the name of Jérôme Geronimi. Production on The Wages of Fear lasted from 1951 to 1952. In order to gain as much independence as possible, Clouzot created his own production company called Véra Films, which he named after his wife. The sole female role in The Wages of Fear is played by her. Clouzot wrote the role specifically for his wife, as the character does not exist in the original novel. The Wages of Fear is about a South American town where a group of desperate men are offered money to drive trucks carrying nitroglycerin through rough terrain to put out an oil well fire. The Wages of Fear was the second most popular film in France in 1953 and was seen by nearly 7 million spectators. It won awards for Best Film and Best Actor (for Charles Vanel) at the Cannes Film Festival. Clouzot's next big hit was Les Diaboliques, whose screenplay he took away from director Alfred Hitchcock. Les Diaboliques involves the story of a cruel headmaster who brutalizes his wife and his mistress. The two women plot to murder him and dump his body in a swimming pool, but when the pool is drained, no corpse is found. In 1954, Les Diaboliques won the Louis Delluc Prize and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best foreign film. In this early and mid-1950s period, with the films The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques, Clouzot came to be fully embraced by international critics and audiences. Both films were screened and reviewed in America as well as in France, and were rated among the best thrillers of the decade. In 1955, Clouzot directed the documentary The Mystery of Picasso, about the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso. The film follows Picasso drawing or painting 15 different works, all of which were intentionally destroyed following the film's production. Clouzot and Picasso were old acquaintances, having met when Clouzot was 14. The Mystery of Picasso won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, but was a financial failure in France, being seen by only 37,000 filmgoers during its initial run in 1956. In 1984, the film was declared a national treasure by the government of France.

Clouzot's next feature film was Les Espions, which was released in 1957. Les Espions featured actors from around the world including Véra Clouzot, Curd Jürgens, Sam Jaffe and Peter Ustinov. Les Espions would be the last acting role for Clouzot's wife Véra, who had been suffering from severe heart problems since filming Les Diaboliques. Les Espions is set in a rundown sanitarium that is taken over by international spies. One of the spies claims to have invented a nuclear explosive device which attracts the attention of the Russian and American counterspies. Les Espions was not released in the United States and was a financial failure in France. Clouzot later admitted that he only liked the first two-thirds of Les Espions. Producer Raoul Levy suggested Clouzot's next film should feature Brigitte Bardot as the lead actress. In response, Clouzot wrote the script for La Vérité. Bardot plays Dominique Marceau, who is on trial for the murder of her former boyfriend Gilbert Tellier. As her trial progresses, the relationship between Dominique and Gilbert becomes more finely shaped. Bardot later described La Vérité as her favorite of all the films she worked on. Released in 1960, La Vérité was the second most popular film in France with 5.7 million spectators and was Bardot's highest-grossing film. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Later career and failing health (1960–1977)
Although Clouzot's reputation had grown internationally, he lost notability in French cinema due to rise of the French New Wave. The New Wave directors refused to take Clouzot's thriller films seriously, and expressed their displeasure publicly through articles and reviews in the film criticism publication, Cahiers du cinéma. Clouzot took their criticism to heart, saying in the magazine Lui that he didn't find his films Les Diaboliques and Miquette et Sa Mère  important or interesting anymore. The next film he worked on was L'Enfer, which was never completed. The film examines the sexual jealousy of a man towards his flirtatious wife, whose psychological state deforms everything with desire. Lead actor Serge Reggiani fell ill one week after shooting began and had to be replaced. Clouzot himself also became ill during production, which led doctors and insurance agents to order the production be stopped. Between 1965 and 1967, Clouzot filmed for French television five documentaries of Herbert von Karajan conducting Verdi's Requiem, Dvořák's New World Symphony, Schumann's 4th Symphony, Beethoven's 5th Symphony and Mozart's 5th Violin Concerto. After production finished on the documentaries, Clouzot was able to finance his final picture.

Clouzot's return to work reassured the doctors and insurers, and he returned to the film studio to make his final film La Prisonnière. The film began production in September 1967 and was halted when Clouzot fell ill and was hospitalized until April 1968. He began filming La Prisonnière again in August 1968. Clouzot incorporated stylistic elements of his aborted film L'enfer into La Prisonnière. La Prisonnière is about a woman who is introduced to a photographer who takes masochistic submissive pictures of young women. The woman volunteers herself as a model for these pictures and is surprised at her own pleasure in the activity. After finishing La Prisonnière, Clouzot's health grew worse. In the 1970s, he wrote a few more scripts without ever filming them, including a feature about Indochina. He also planned to direct a pornographic film in 1974 for Francis Micheline, but the film was abandoned. Clouzot's health grew worse and he required open-heart surgery in November 1976. On 12 January 1977 Clouzot died in his apartment while listening to The Damnation of Faust. Clouzot is buried beside Véra in the Montmartre Cemetery.

Personal life
In the late-1930s, Clouzot went to a cabaret show featuring entertainers Mistinguett and Suzy Delair at the Deus Anes Cabaret. Clouzot waited for Delair at the stage door and after meeting her, the two became a romantic couple for the next 12 years. Clouzot had Delair star in two of his films, The Murderer Lives at Number 21 and Quai des Orfèvres. Delair eventually left Clouzot after working with him on Quai des Orfèvres.

Clouzot met his first wife Vera Clouzot through actor Léo Lapara, who had minor parts in Le Retour de Jean and Quai des Orfèvres. Véra met Clouzot after divorcing Lapara and while working as a continuity assistant on Clouzot's Miquette et Sa Mère. Clouzot named his production company after Véra and had her star in all three films made by the company: The Wages of Fear, Diabolique and Les Espions. Véra also contributed to the script of La Vérité. Véra Clouzot died of a heart attack shortly after the filming of La Vérité. Clouzot fell into a depression over her death. After her funeral, he moved to Tahiti, but returned to France in December 1960.

Clouzot met his second wife, Inès de Gonzalez, for the first time at a casting call for a film based on Vladimir Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark. In 1962, Clouzot met de Gonzalez again after she had returned from South America. In December 1963, Clouzot and Inès de Gonzalez married. In the 1960s, Clouzot converted to Roman Catholicism.

Style
With the exception of the comedy film Miquette et sa mère, every directorial feature of Clouzot involves deception, betrayal and violent deaths. When basing screenplays on written work, Clouzot often changed the stories dramatically, using only key points of the original story. The author Stanislas-André Steeman, whom Clouzot worked with twice, said Clouzot would only "build something after having contemptuously demolished any resemblance to the original, purely for the ambition of effect". When writing for his own features, Clouzot created characters that were usually corrupt and spineless, with the capacity for both good and evil within them.

Clouzot was very demanding with his actors, and would often quarrel with them to get them in the mood he desired. Suzy Delair recalled that Clouzot slapped her, but said of it, "So what? He slapped others as well...He was tough but I'm not about to complain". Pierre Fresnay recalled that Clouzot "worked relentlessly, which made for a juicy spectacle...That's to say nothing for his taste of violence, which he never tried with me". When Clouzot worked with Brigitte Bardot, one scene required her character to drool and sleep. He offered her powerful sleeping pills, saying they were aspirin; this led to her stomach having to be pumped. Although he was harsh on his actors, he did not treat them fiercely off set. Delair recalled that off set there was an "innocence about him" that was not seen.

Clouzot biographer Marc Godin suggested Clouzot's life provides clues to understanding his style as a filmmaker. Clouzot was viewed by many of his collaborators as a pessimist, short-tempered, and almost always angry. Brigitte Bardot described Clouzot as "a negative being, forever at odds with himself and the world around him". His outlook on life is reflected in his own films that focus on the darker side of humanity.

Legacy
Despite criticism following the arrival of the French New Wave, career retrospectives of Clouzot's work have been positive. Twenty years after his death, film critic Noël Herpe wrote in the French film journal Positif that "Les Diaboliques (just like Les Espions and La Verite) reveals a sterile and increasingly exaggerated urge to experiment with the powers of fiction". Film historian Philipe Pilard wrote, "There is no doubt that if Clouzot had worked for Hollywood and applied the formulas of U.S. studios, today he would be lauded by the very critics who choose to ignore him". Clouzot today is generally known for his thriller films The Wages of Fear and Diabolique. Clouzot's ability in the genre led to comparisons with Alfred Hitchcock. Clouzot respected Hitchcock's work, stating, "I admire him very much and am flattered when anyone compares a film of mine to his".

Several of Clouzot's films have been remade since their original releases. Director Otto Preminger adapted Le Corbeau into his 1951 film The 13th Letter. In 1977, the year of Clouzot's death, William Friedkin directed a remake of The Wages of Fear called Sorcerer. French director Claude Chabrol adapted Clouzot's script for L'Enfer in 1994 for a film likewise titled L'Enfer. In 1996, an American remake of Les Diaboliques was released under the title Diabolique, starring Sharon Stone.

Filmography

 * L'assassin habite... au 21 (The Murderer Lives at Number 21, 1942)
 * Le corbeau (The Raven, 1943)
 * Quai des orfèvres (Goldsmiths' Quay, 1947)
 * Manon (1949)
 * Miquette et sa mère (Miquette, 1950)
 * Le salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear, 1953)
 * Les diaboliques (Diabolique, 1955)
 * Le mystère Picasso (The Mystery of Picasso, 1956)
 * Les espions (The Spies, 1957)
 * La vérité (The Truth, 1960)
 * La prisonnière (Woman in Chains, 1968)

title: Henri-Georges Clouzot


text:
Kedermister Library

The Kedermister Library, at Langley near Slough in the English county of Berkshire (formerly Buckinghamshire), is a rare surviving example of an early 17th-century parish library, preserved in situ in the decorated cupboards designed for it in 1620 in the parish church of St Mary the Virgin.

The original vellum catalogue dated in 1638, is still hanging in the library.

Founded around 1613 by Sir John Kedermister (d. 1631), it was established to provide for the education of the rector of St. Mary's, and presented to the church in perpetuity by Sir John. A catalogue of the Library listing 307 volumes survives from 1638.

A large portion of the library still exists and, with the contemporary catalogue, provides insight into scholarship and book collecting in the 17th century.

The library is only open from June-September by appointment only.

Two of the Library's treasures, the Kedermister Gospels (an 11th-century illuminated manuscript) and the Pharmacopolium or a booke of Medicine (a manuscript herbal of 1630) are on permanent deposit in the British Library.

Langley, also known as Langley Marish, was formerly in the county of Buckinghamshire, and the Kedermister Library is overseen by Buckinghamshire County Council and governed by a charitable trust.

The name Kedermister is the most commonly used, though some sources, including the charity governing the library, use the spelling Kederminster.

Further information

 * Jane Francis: The Kedermister Library: an account of its origins and a reconstruction of its contents and arrangement; Records of Buckinghamshire Volume 36 1994 pp. 62–85; ISSN 0967-2885

title: Kedermister Library


text:
Robert Young

Robert, Rob, Robbie, Bob, or Bobby Young may refer to:

Academics

 * R. A. Young (Robert Arthur Young, 1871–1959), British physician
 * Robert J. C. Young (born 1950), British cultural critic and historian
 * Robert J. Young (born 1942), Canadian historian
 * Robert M. Young (academic) (1935–2019), American science historian and psychoanalyst
 * Robert W. Young (1912–2007), American linguist
 * Robert Young (materials scientist) (born 1948), British materials scientist
 * Robert S. Young, professor of coastal geology
 * R. V. Young (born 1947), professor of English at North Carolina State University
 * Robert Burns Young (1874–1949), Scottish geologist at Witwatersrand University

Film and television

 * Robert "Benny" Young, Scottish film, television and stage actor
 * Bob Young (news anchor) (1923–2011), American host of ABC Evening News
 * Bob Young (TV producer), American television writer and producer
 * Robert F. Young (1915–1986), American science fiction writer
 * Robert M. Young (director) (1924–2024), American director, writer, and producer
 * Robert O. Young (born 1952), American author of books about alternative medicine
 * Robert Young (actor) (1907–1998), American actor
 * Robert Young (director) (born 1933), British film and television director
 * Robert Young, pen name of British writer Robert Payne (1911–1984)

Music and radio

 * Bob Young (musician) (born 1945), English musician and author
 * Red Top Young (1936–2021), American musician
 * Robert Young (musician) (1964–2014), lead guitarist with Primal Scream
 * Rob Young (born 1968), author of the 2011 book about British folk music Electric Eden
 * Rob Young (broadcaster), British broadcaster
 * Rob Young (sound engineer), Canadian sound engineer

Military

 * Robert Benjamin Young (1773–1846), British sea captain at the Battle of Trafalgar
 * Robert H. Young (1929–1950), U.S. Army soldier, Medal of Honor recipient
 * Robert Nicholas Young (1900–1964), Lieutenant General in the United States Army
 * Robert Young (New Zealand Army officer) (1877–1953), New Zealand military officer

Politics

 * Robert P. Young Jr. (born 1951), former Michigan Supreme Court Justice and 2018 candidate for U.S. Senate
 * Robert Young (Canadian politician) (1834–1904), Canadian politician and businessman
 * Robert Young (Hawaii chief) (1796–1813), Hawaiian chief
 * Robert Young (Islington North MP) (1891–1985), British Member of Parliament for Islington North
 * Robert Young (trade unionist) (1872–1957), British Member of Parliament for Newton
 * Robert A. Young (1923–2007), member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri
 * Robert R. Young (politician), member of the Wisconsin State Assembly
 * Rob Young (diplomat) (born 1945), British diplomat
 * Bob Young (mayor) (born 1948), mayor of Augusta, Georgia and news anchor
 * Robert D. Young (politician) (1934–2013), Michigan politician
 * Bob Young (Ohio politician) (born 1982), Ohio state representative

Religion

 * Robert A. Young (minister) (1824–1902), American Methodist minister
 * Robert D. Young (LDS Church leader) (1867–1962), leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
 * Robert Newton Young (born 1829), President of the Methodist Conference in 1886
 * Robert Young (biblical scholar) (1822–1888), Scottish publisher, author of Young's Literal Translation of the Bible
 * Robert Young (clergyman) (1796–1865), President of the Methodist Conference in 1856
 * Robert Young (priest) (died 1716), Canon of Windsor

American football

 * Bob Young (American football coach) (1939–2023), American college football player and coach
 * Bob Young (offensive lineman) (1942–1995), American NFL football player
 * Robert Young (American football) (born 1969), American NFL football player

Association football (soccer)

 * Robert Young (footballer) (1886–1955), Scottish footballer
 * Bob Young (Scottish footballer) (1886–1970), Scottish footballer
 * Bob Young (footballer, born 1886) Scottish footballer
 * Bob Young (footballer, born 1894) (1894–1960), English association football manager

Other sports

 * Robert Bruce Young (1858–1927), Scottish rugby union player
 * Robert Young (athlete) (1916–2011), American track athlete
 * Bobby Young (1925–1985), American baseball player
 * Bob Young (cricketer) (1933–2014), Scottish cricketer
 * Robert Young (rugby union) (born 1940), Scottish rugby union player
 * Bobby Young (curler) (fl. 1959–1962), Scottish curler
 * Bobby Joe Young (born 1959), American boxer
 * Robert W. Young (martial arts) (born 1960s), American martial artist, executive editor of Black Belt
 * Robert Young (runner) (born 1982), British endurance runner
 * Robbie Young (Australian footballer) (born 1995), Australian rules footballer

Other

 * Bob Young (businessman), Canadian founder and CEO of Red Hat
 * Robert Brewer Young (born 1967), cello, viola, and violin maker
 * Robert Brown Young (1851–1914), Canadian-born architect in California
 * Robert R. Young (1897–1958), American financier and industrialist
 * Robert Vaughn Young (1938–2003), American critic of Scientology
 * Robert Young (architect) (1822–1917), Irish architect on List of Privy Counsellors of Ireland
 * Robert Young (forger) (1657–1700), English forger and cheat
 * Robert Young (sternwheeler), ship

title: Robert Young


text:
Inbred strain

Inbred strains (also called inbred lines, or rarely for animals linear animals) are individuals of a particular species which are nearly identical to each other in genotype due to long inbreeding. A strain is inbred when it has undergone at least 20 generations of brother x sister or offspring x parent mating, at which point at least 98.6% of the loci in an individual of the strain will be homozygous, and each individual can be treated effectively as clones. Some inbred strains have been bred for over 150 generations, leaving individuals in the population to be isogenic in nature. Inbred strains of animals are frequently used in laboratories for experiments where for the reproducibility of conclusions all the test animals should be as similar as possible. However, for some experiments, genetic diversity in the test population may be desired. Thus outbred strains of most laboratory animals are also available, where an outbred strain is a strain of an organism that is effectively wildtype in nature, where there is as little inbreeding as possible.

Certain plants including the genetic model organism Arabidopsis thaliana naturally self-pollinate, which makes it quite easy to create inbred strains in the laboratory (other plants, including important genetic models such as maize require transfer of pollen from one flower to another).

In the lab
Inbred strains have been extensively used in research. Several Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work that probably could not have been done without inbred strains. This work includes Medawar's research on immune tolerance, Kohler and Milstein's development of monoclonal antibodies, and Doherty and Zinkernagel's studies of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC).

Isogenic organisms have identical, or near identical genotypes. which is true of inbred strains, since they normally have at least 98.6% similarity by generation 20. This exceedingly high uniformity means that fewer individuals are required to produce results with the same level of statistical significance when an inbred line is used in comparison to an outbred line in the same experiment.

Breeding of inbred strains is often towards specific phenotypes of interest such as behavioural traits like alcohol preference or physical traits like aging, or they can be selected for traits that make them easier to use in experiments like being easy to use in transgenic experiments. One of the key strengths of using inbred strains as a model is that strains are readily available for whatever study one is performing and that there are resources such as the Jackson Laboratory, and FlyBase, where one can look up strains with specific phenotypes or genotypes from among inbred lines, recombinant lines, and coisogenic strains. The embryos of lines that are of little interest currently can be frozen and preserved until there is an interest in their unique genotypical or phenotypical traits.

Recombinant inbred lines
For the analysis of the linkage of quantitative traits, recombinant lines are useful because of their isogenic nature, because the genetic similarity of individuals allows for the replication of a quantitative trait locus analysis. The replication increases the precision of the results from the mapping experiment, and is required for traits such as aging where minor changes in the environment can influence the longevity of an organism, leading to variation in results.

Coisogenic strain
One type of inbred strain that either has been altered, or naturally mutated so that it is different at a single locus. Such strains are useful in the analysis of variance within an inbred strain or between inbred strains because any differences would be due to the single genetic change, or to a difference in environmental conditions between two individuals of the same strain.

Gal4 lines
One of the more specific uses of Drosophila inbred strains is the use of Gal4/UAS lines in research. Gal4/UAS is a driver system, where Gal4 can be expressed in specific tissues under specific conditions based on its location in the Drosophila genome. Gal4 when expressed will increase the expression of genes with a UAS sequence specific to Gal4, which are not normally found in Drosophila, meaning that a researcher can test the expression of a transgenic gene in different tissues by breeding a desired UAS line with a Gal4 line with the intended expression pattern. Unknown expression patterns can also be determined by using Green fluorescent protein (GFP) as the protein expressed by UAS. Drosophila in particular has thousands of Gal4 lines with unique and specific expression patterns, making it possible to test most expression patterns within the organism.

Effects
Inbreeding animals will sometimes lead to genetic drift. The continuous overlaying of like genetics exposes recessive gene patterns that often lead to changes in reproduction performance, fitness, and ability to survive. A decrease in these areas is known as inbreeding depression. A hybrid between two inbred strains can be used to cancel out deleterious recessive genes resulting in an increase in the mentioned areas. This is known as heterosis.

Inbred strains, because they are small populations of homozygous individuals, are susceptible to the fixation of new mutations through genetic drift. Jackson Laboratory, in an information session on the genetic drift in mice, calculated a quick estimate of the rate of mutation based on observed traits to be 1 phenotypic mutation every 1.8 generations, though they caution that this is likely an under-representation because the data they used was for visible phenotypic changes and not phenotype changes inside of mice strains. They further add that statistically every 6-9 generations, a mutation in the coding sequence is fixed, leading to the creation of a new substrain. Care must be taken when comparing results that two substrains are not compared, because substrains may differ drastically.

Rats and mice
"The period before World War I led to the initiation of inbreeding in rats by Dr Helen King in about 1909 and in mice by Dr C. C. Little in 1909. The latter project led to the development of the DBA strain of mice, now widely distributed as the two major sub-strains DBA/1 and DBA/2, which were separated in 1929-1930. DBA mice were nearly lost in 1918, when the main stocks were wiped out by murine paratyphoid, and only three un-pedigreed mice remained alive. Soon after World War I, inbreeding in mice was started on a much larger scale by Dr L. C. Strong, leading in particular to the development of strains C3H and CBA, and by Dr C. C. Little, leading to the C57 family of strains (C57BL, C57BR and C57L). Many of the most popular strains of mice were developed during the next decade, and some are closely related. Evidence from the uniformity of mitochondrian DNA suggests that most of the common inbred mouse strains were probably derived from a single breeding female about 150–200 years ago."

"Many of the most widely used inbred strains of rats were also developed during this period, several of them by Curtis and Dunning at the Columbia University Institute for Cancer Research. Strains dating back to this time include F344, M520 and Z61 and later ACI, ACH, A7322 and COP. Tryon's classic work on selection for maze-bright and dull rats led to the development of the TMB and TMD inbred strains, and later to the common use of inbred rats by experimental psychologists."

Rats

 * Wistar as a generic name for inbred strains such as Wistar-Kyoto, developed from the Wistar outbred strains.
 * The Rat Genome Database maintains the current list of inbred rat lines and their characteristics.

Mice
The numerous inbred strains of mice have been mapped extensively. A genealogical chart building on those relationships is actively maintained by the Jackson Laboratory, and can be found on their website.

• A/J

• C3H

• C57BL/6

• CBA

• DBA/2

• BALB/c

Guinea pigs
G. M. Rommel first started conducting inbreeding experiments on guinea pigs in 1906. Strain 2 and 13 guinea pigs, were derived from these experiments and are still in use today. Sewall Wright took over the experiment in 1915. He was faced with the task of analyzing all of the accumulated data produced by Rommel. Wright became seriously interested in constructing a general mathematical theory of inbreeding. By 1920 Wright had developed his method of path coefficients, which he then used to develop his mathematical theory of inbreeding. Wright introduced the inbreeding coefficient F as the correlation between uniting gametes in 1922, and most of the subsequent theory of inbreeding has been developed from his work. The definition of the inbreeding coefficient now most widely used is mathematically equivalent to that of Wright.

Medaka
The Japanese Medaka fish has a high tolerance for inbreeding, one line having been bred brother-sister for as many as 100 generations without evidence of inbreeding depression, providing a ready tool for laboratory research and genetic manipulations. Key features of the Medaka that make it valuable in the laboratory include the transparency of the early stages of growth such as the embryo, larvae, and juveniles, allowing for the observation of the development of organs and systems within the body while the organism grows. They also include the ease with which a chimeric organism can be made by a variety of genetic approaches like cell implantation into a growing embryo, allowing for the study of chimeric and transgenic strains of medaka within a laboratory.

Zebrafish
Though there are many traits about zebrafish that are worthwhile to study including their regeneration, there are relatively few inbred strains of zebrafish possibly because they experience greater effects from inbreeding depression than mice or Medaka fish, but it is unclear if the effects of inbreeding can be overcome so an isogenic strain can be created for laboratory use.

title: Inbred strain


text:
Lee, London

Lee, also known as Lee Green, is an area of South East London, England, straddling the border of the London Borough of Lewisham and the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is located northwest of Eltham and southeast of Lewisham. It was in Kent before becoming part of the County of London in 1889, and then Greater London in 1965.

The churchyard of St Margaret's Church (current church rebuilt 1839–41, architect: John Brown) is the burial place of three Astronomers Royal: Edmond Halley, Nathaniel Bliss and John Pond.

Early history
The Manor of Lee was a historic parish of the Blackheath hundred and existed up to 1900 when it was merged with the parish of Lewisham to create the Metropolitan Borough of Lewisham. While modern Lee is centred on Lee railway station and the road of Burnt Ash Hill, the parish was based around Lee High Road which today stretches into the town centre of Lewisham. The River Quaggy formed much of the boundary between the two parishes, though at Lee Bridge (at the western end of Lee High Road) it is now almost completely hidden.

The Lee Manor Society have produced a comprehensive history of the area. The Domesday Book of 1086 describes Lee as a small area of cultivation set in extensive woodland. The earliest map available (Rocque's Country Near Ten Miles Round map of 1746) shows a cluster of about a dozen houses around a triangular village green. This hamlet was then largely surrounded by fields, with the Wricklemarsh estate of Sir Gregory Page to the north, and a manor house (Lee Place) to the north-west, with St Margaret's Church just beyond. Lee Green Farm occupied the south-east quadrant from the 1660s (roughly on the site of the present Leegate shopping centre). The farm was demolished in the 1840s and rebuilt as Tudor House further east.

The Old Tiger's Head and the New Tiger's Head pubs are important and striking features of the crossroads. Confusingly, the original (Old) Tiger's Head is thought to have been built on the site currently occupied by the New Tiger's Head. The original pub is thought to have been built before 1730. It was rebuilt on its present site, the north-west quadrant, in 1750–1770 and then rebuilt (in its third incarnation) in 1896 – the date carried on its frontage. It became an important mail and coaching inn. The New Tiger's Head started life as a beer shop known as the Tiger Tavern in the 1830s. It was situated in the end of four cottages known as Prospect Terrace, built around the same time. Three of these cottages remain, housing a post office/newsagent and a hairdresser. In 1868 it is referred to as the Tiger's Head Inn. The present building is thought to have replaced the original cottage a few years after 1896 – the date of the rebuilding of the Old Tiger's Head. The New Tiger's Head has now closed down.

19th century
In 1815 cavalry and foot regiments passed through Lee Green on their way to the Battle of Waterloo:
 * "The space in front of the Tiger's Head and the Green were very commodious for the transfer of baggage to the waggons of the farmers from the other side of London to those of the farmers in this neighbourhood which were pressed for that purpose, to convey them 15 miles further on the journey to Dover."

Lee is where, in 1837, Robert Cocking died in the first parachute accident.

In the early nineteenth century boxing matches took place at the Old Tiger's Head. Horse racing and (human) foot racing took place in the 1840s but the police put a stop to these events, probably under pressure from local citizens. At that time the green was the centre of village life with cricket matches, bare knuckle boxing and other entertainments. In the 1850s further housebuilding prompted the installation of proper sewers and the Lee Green horse pond was filled in. In the 1860s John Pound, a developer, erected houses in the south-east quadrant, Orchard Terrace on Eltham Road and Crown Terrace on Burnt Ash Lane (now Road).

The opening of Lee station in 1866 prompted more housebuilding at the crossroads. The site of Lee Green Farm was built on as Carston Mews. In the same year Charles Henry Reed, a linen draper, moves into 1 Orchard Terrace and established a department store. Reed died in 1895 and in 1903 the business was taken over by Griffith & Co.

In the south-west quadrant the Prince Arthur pub was built at 422 Lee High Road in 1870 (closed 2005). It was originally one of a row of early nineteenth-century cottages of which three – nos 424–428 – survived behind modern shop fronts. In 1898 No 345 Lee High Road was built in front of the former Old Tiger's Head stables. It incorporated a fire station but the London County Council built a replacement in 1906 in Eltham Road. It is still in use. A police station was built at 418 Lee High Road in 1904, replacing one built before 1860. It was converted to apartments in 2003.

20th century to now
In the early 1960s the south-east quadrant, including Carston Mews, was demolished to make way for Leegate shopping centre. This declined following the opening of Sainsbury's on the opposite side of Burnt Ash Road in the late 1980s. Owners of the centre, St. Modwen Properties have recently proposed a £40m regeneration plan for the centre, including the demolition of the current shopping precinct to be replaced with an Asda supermarket as well as the conversion of the existing office block into a hotel.

Notable residents

 * Sir Francis Baring, founder of Baring Brothers Bank (now defunct), bought the Manor House (attributed to architect Richard Jupp) in Manor Lane (now a library and its grounds a public park, Manor House Gardens) in 1796.
 * Henry Thomas Buckle, historian and author of the History of Civilization in England, was born in Lee.
 * Poet Ernest Dowson was born in Lee.
 * Poet U A Fanthorpe was born in Lee.
 * Actor James Robertson Justice was born in Lee in 1907.
 * Actor Jude Law
 * Musician Manfred Mann lived in Southbrook Road in Lee.
 * Philosopher, sociologist and economic historian Karl Marx lived at Lee for a short period during the 19th century
 * John Mayall lived in Lee Green. Eric Clapton stayed with him during the recording sessions of the album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton
 * Schoolboy murder victim Jimmy Mizen
 * Sir Gregory Page built a large mansion house (demolished in 1787) at Wricklemarsh in Lee.
 * Mechanical engineer John Penn died at his home, The Cedars, Lee on 23 September 1878, and was subsequently buried at nearby St Margaret's Church.
 * Reggie Schwarz, South African cricketer, was born in Lee.
 * Comedian Arthur Smith briefly lived in Lee while he attended Roan Boys' Grammar School
 * Stanley Unwin, publisher, lived in Handen Road.
 * Max Wall, actor and comedian
 * Estelle Winwood, English stage and screen actress who later lived in the US; at the time of her death at 101, she was the oldest member in the history of the Screen Actors Guild.

Road
Lee High Road is the major road through the area and forms part of the A20 road.

Rail
Lee station serves the area with National Rail services to London Charing Cross, London Cannon Street via Lewisham, Woolwich Arsenal & Gravesend.

Buses
Lee is served by London Buses routes 122, 160, 178, 202, 261, 273, 321, 621, 660 & N21. These connect it with areas including Blackheath, Bromley, Catford, Chislehurst, Crystal Palace, Eltham, Grove Park, Kidbrooke, Lewisham, New Cross, Petts Wood, Plumstead, Sidcup, Sydenham & Woolwich.

title: Lee, London


text:
Rosenallis

Rosenallis (historically Rossinallis, from ) is a village in north County Laois, Ireland. It is in the foothills of the Slieve Bloom Mountains on the R422 Mountmellick to Birr road, 6 km north-west of Mountmellick. The village is in a townland and civil parish of the same name.

Demographics
In 2002, the population of the village's catchment area was 440 persons, representing an 8.9% increase in population since 1996. The population of the surrounding electoral division increased to 469 by 2011.

History
Rosenallis is important in the history of the Quaker movement, with William Edmundson, founder of the Quakers in Ireland, buried just outside the village in the Friends graveyard. In the same graveyard are the remains of Roger Byrne, who was said to have weighed 52 stone and been Ireland's heaviest man when he died in March 1804. This claim has, however, been disputed.

In his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837), Samuel Lewis described the area: "In the Slieve Bloom Mountains are quarries of a soft white sandstone, which hardens when exposed to the air, and is susceptible of a high polish; it is in great demand throughout the country for chimney-pieces and hearth-stones; a coarser kind is used for flagging. Another peculiarity of these mountains is the fertility of their northern side, which is interspersed with neat farm-houses and cultivated enclosures to its summit, while its southern side is mostly a heathy waste. Iron ore was formerly raised, but is not now. There is a large tract of bog in this district, affording an abundant supply of fuel. Tillage is more attended to than grazing: there are but few flocks of sheep. The chief crops are potatoes, wheat, barley and oats." The village has two churches (Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland) as well as a village primary school, community centre and two pubs, Shellys and Pooles Tavern. The secondary level schools serving the area are Clonaslee and Mountmellick. Every year usually in July the village hosts the "Festival of the Mountain" which is situated in the Festival Field just outside the village.

Geography
The River Barrow rises in Glenbarrow, in the parish of Rosenallis.

Sports
Rosenallis GAA is the local Gaelic Athletic Association club. Rosenallis AFC is the local soccer club. It plays home games at its grounds, Johnsgrove.

title: Rosenallis


text:
Marilyn Horne

Marilyn Berneice Horne (born January 16, 1934) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages. She is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors, and has won four Grammy Awards.

Early life
Marilyn Berneice Horne was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, one of the four children of Bentz and Berneice Horne. Her parents were both politicians, with her mother serving as city assessor of the Fifth Ward and her father appointed as McKean County assessor. Bentz was also a semi-professional singer and, noticing Marilyn's talent, sought to move the family to a place where she could have access to professional vocal training and more opportunities to perform. Along with her older brother Richard and sister Gloria, the family moved to Long Beach, California when Marilyn was 11. Her younger brother, Jay, was born after the move to Long Beach, in 1949.

At age 13, Horne became part of the newly formed Roger Wagner Chorale. She is an alumna of Long Beach Polytechnic High School. As a high school student, she was part of the St. Luke's Episcopal Church Choir of Long Beach under the direction of William Ripley Dorr. The choir often worked for the movie studios and recorded with Capitol Records. Marilyn and her sister Gloria were part of the St. Luke's Episcopal Church Quartet.

Education
Horne won a scholarship for the University of Southern California where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority. She studied voice under William Vennard and Gwendolyn Koldofsky at the University of Southern California School of Music and participated in Lotte Lehmann's vocal master classes at Music Academy of the West.

Career
Horne's first major professional engagement was in 1954, when she dubbed the singing voice of Dorothy Dandridge in the film Carmen Jones. Until that point, she had worked as a background singer for several TV sitcoms, as well as recorded covers of popular songs of the early 1950s, which were sold in dimestores around the country for $1.98. She made an appearance on The Odd Couple as a character named "Jackie", her own nickname, a meek and nervous would-be singer who develops a crush on character Oscar Madison (Jack Klugman) and into a full-blown diva as well, playing the role of Carmen in Felix Unger's (Tony Randall) opera group production. She also sang on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and The Carol Burnett Show. She made her Los Angeles debut the same year when she performed the role of Hata in The Bartered Bride with the Los Angeles Guild Opera.

Her first major breakthrough came when her singing ability was recognized by Igor Stravinsky; her operatic career began when he invited her to perform in the 1956 Venice festival. She remained in Europe for three seasons singing for the Gelsenkirchen Opera. She was highly acclaimed for her performance as Marie in Alban Berg's Wozzeck at the inauguration of Gelsenkirchen's new opera house on May 22, 1960. In 1960, she returned to the United States to appear in Wozzeck at the San Francisco Opera. She debuted in 1961 at Lyric Opera of Chicago where she created the role of Lora in Vittorio Giannini's The Harvest.

For many years, Horne was associated with the Australian soprano Dame Joan Sutherland in their performances of the bel canto repertoire. They first performed together in a concert version of Vincenzo Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda at The Town Hall in Manhattan in February 1961. This performance was so successful it was repeated twice at Carnegie Hall. In 1965, they were paired again in a performance of Rossini's Semiramide with the Opera Company of Boston, and sang in a joint concert on October 15, 1979, which was telecast as "Live from Lincoln Center".Horne made her debut at the Royal Opera House in October 1964 as Marie in Wozzeck. Her La Scala debut was as Jocasta in Stravinsky's opéra-oratorio Œdipus rex on March 13, 1969. Another of Horne's breakthroughs occurred that same year during a performance of Rossini's Le siège de Corinthe at La Scala, when Horne received a remarkable mid-act seven-minute ovation. Horne made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1970 as Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma with Sutherland in the title role. She thereafter appeared regularly at the Met, opening the 1972/1973 season as Carmen. A great success there was in Meyerbeer's Le prophète, in John Dexter's production. In 1984, she sang the title role of Handel's opera seria Rinaldo (directed by Frank Corsaro), the first Handel opera ever performed at the Met.

Although best known for her bel canto and opera seria roles, Horne also sang much American music, both contemporary music by composers such as William Bolcom, and traditional popular songs. She can be heard on the soundtrack of the 1961 film Flower Drum Song singing "Love, Look Away" and she sang the role of Lady Thiang on the Philips recording of The King and I starring Julie Andrews and Ben Kingsley. She had previously sung in the women's chorus for the 1956 film version of The King and I.

In 1983, she published (with co-writer Jane Scovell) a candid autobiography, My Life, and a continuation volume, Marilyn Horne: The Song Continues, appeared in 2004.

On July 5, 1986, she performed on the New York Philharmonic's tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, which was televised live on ABC Television. The orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta, performed in Central Park. She sang an aria from Carmen by Georges Bizet.

In January 1993, Horne sang "Make A Rainbow" by American singer and songwriter Portia Nelson, and the Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts" at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton.

Retirement
Horne retired from the concert stage in 1999 with a recital at the Chicago Symphony Center. She still occasionally performs at pop concerts (most recently with Broadway star Barbara Cook). Horne has also established the Marilyn Horne Foundation to help preserve the art of vocal recitals. She teaches a series of annual Master Classes at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music; the University of Maryland, College Park; the Manhattan School of Music; and the University of Oklahoma.

From 1997 to 2018 Horne directed the Voice Program at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. Since 2018 she holds the position of Honorary Voice Program Director. She is scheduled to teach and remain the head of the jury for the Marilyn Horne Song Competition through 2020.

Marilyn Horne Museum and Exhibit Center
In 2013, Horne donated her personal archives to the University of Pittsburgh. The creation of the Marilyn Horne Museum and Exhibit Center in the Pitt Bradford campus’ Seneca Building (now Marilyn Horne Hall) was partially made possible through a $3 million grant the McKean County Industrial Development Authority received from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program in 2013.

Since opening on May 6, 2017, the museum publicly displays a rotating portion of the collection at the regional campus in Bradford, from which she received an honorary degree in 2004. The museum is open seven days a week and admission is free.

Personal life
Horne was married from 1960 to 1979 (separated 1974) to the conductor Henry Lewis whom she met in college at the University of Southern California. Her mother initially had misgivings that the interracial marriage would have a negative impact on Horne's career, saying, "Be his mistress, for God's sake, not his wife," but soon reconciled with them. They maintained a home in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles for many years. In 1965 the couple welcomed a daughter named Angela. After Horne's breakup with Lewis, she began a long-term relationship with Greek bass Nicola Zaccaria.

In December 2005, shortly before Horne's 72nd birthday, she was diagnosed with localized pancreatic cancer. In January 2007, she appeared at a public function for her Foundation. Interviewed by Norman Lebrecht on BBC Radio 3 on July 26, 2010, she spoke briefly about her cancer and cheerfully said, "I'm still here!"

Partial discography

 * Beethoven: Ninth Symphony (M. Price, Vickers, Salminen; Zubin Mehta, 1983) [live] RCA Red Seal
 * Bellini: Norma (Sutherland, J. Alexander, Cross; Richard Bonynge, 1964) Decca
 * Bernstein: West Side Story (Te Kanawa, Troyanos, Carreras; Leonard Bernstein, 1984) Deutsche Grammophon. A television documentary was made about this studio recording.
 * Berlioz: Les Troyens (Nicolai Gedda, Robert Massard, Robert Amis El Hage, Boris Carmeli, Veriano Luchetti, Carlo Gaifa, Rosina Cavicchiola, Marilyn Horne, Shirley Verrett, Giovanna Fioroni; Georges Prêtre, Arkadia1969)
 * Bizet: Carmen (Maliponte, McCracken, Krause; Leonard Bernstein, 1972) Deutsche Grammophon
 * Donizetti: Anna Bolena (Souliotis, J. Alexander, Ghiaurov; Silvio Varviso, 1968/69) Decca
 * Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia (Sutherland, Aragall, Wixell; Richard Bonynge, 1977) Decca
 * Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice (Lorengar, Donath; Georg Solti, 1970) Decca

 * Handel: Rinaldo (Gasdia, Palacio, Weidinger; John Fisher, 1989) Nuova Era
 * Handel: Semele (Battle, Ramey; John Nelson, 1990) Deutsche Grammophon
 * Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (Lewis) Decca
 * Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Mehta) Decca
 * Mahler: Rückert-Lieder (Mehta) Decca
 * Massenet: La Navarraise (Domingo, Milnes, Zaccaria; Henry Lewis, 1975) RCA Red Seal
 * Meyerbeer: Le prophète (Scotto, McCracken, Hines; Henry Lewis, 1976) Sony
 * Mozart: Don Giovanni (Sutherland, Lorengar, Krenn, Bacquier, Gramm; Richard Bonynge, 1968) Decca
 * Ponchielli: La Gioconda (Tebaldi, Dominguez, Bergonzi, Merrill; Lamberto Gardelli, 1967) Decca
 * Puccini: Suor Angelica (Scotto, Cotrubaș; Lorin Maazel, 1976) Sony
 * Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia (Barbacini, Nucci, Dara, Ramey; Riccardo Chailly, 1982) Sony
 * Rossini: Bianca e Falliero (Ricciarelli, Merritt; Donato Renzetti, 1986) [live] Fonit Cetra
 * Rossini: L'italiana in Algeri (Battle, Ramey; Scimone, 1980) Erato
 * Rossini: Semiramide (Sutherland, Rouleau; Richard Bonynge, 1965/66) Decca
 * Rossini: Tancredi (Cuberli, Zaccaria; Ralf Weikert, 1982) Sony
 * Roussel: Padmâvatî (Gedda, van Dam; Michel Plasson, 1982/83) EMI
 * Thomas: Mignon (Welting, von Stade, Vanzo, Zaccaria; Antonio de Almeida, 1977) Sony. For details, see here
 * Verdi: Falstaff (Sweet, Lopardo, Panerai, Titus; Colin Davis, 1991) RCA Red Seal
 * Verdi: Requiem (Sutherland, Horne, Pavarotti, Talvela; Georg Solti, 1967) Decca
 * Verdi: Il trovatore (Sutherland, Pavarotti, Wixell, Ghiaurov; Richard Bonynge, 1976) Decca
 * Vivaldi: Orlando furioso (de los Ángeles, Valentini Terrani; Claudio Scimone, 1977) Erato

Abridged videography

 * Corigliano: The Ghosts of Versailles (Stratas, Fleming; Levine, Graham, 1992) [live] Deutsche Grammophon
 * Rossini: L'italiana in Algeri (M.Merritt, Ahlstedt; Levine, Ponnelle, 1986) [live] Deutsche Grammophon
 * Rossini: Semiramide (Anderson, Ramey; Conlon, Copley, 1990) [live] Kultur
 * Verdi: Falstaff (Freni, Bonney, Lopardo, Plishka; Levine, Zeffirelli, 1992) [live] Deutsche Grammophon
 * Vivaldi: Orlando furioso (Behr, Pizzi, 1989) [live] Kultur

Awards and recognition
Horne received many honors during her career. A New York Times article by Harold C. Schonberg, in celebration of the Met's 100th anniversary in 1983, listed the greatest singers who had ever performed at the house and included Horne, the only one still actively singing at the time. She was awarded Yale University's Sanford Medal.
 * Most Promising New Classical Recording Artist, 1964, 7th Annual Grammy Awards
 * Handel Medallion, 1980
 * Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance, 1981, 24th Annual Grammy Awards
 * Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance, 1983, 26th Annual Grammy Awards
 * Gold Medal of Merit from the National Society of Arts and Letters, 1987
 * Best Opera Recording, 1993, 36th Annual Grammy Awards
 * National Medal of Arts, 1992
 * Commandeur de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 1995
 * Kennedy Center Honors, 1995
 * Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, 2021

Works

 * Marilyn Horne: The Song Continues, Marilyn Horne and Jane Scovell, Baskerville Publishers; ISBN 1880909715
 * Marilyn Horne: My Life, Marilyn Horne and Jane Scovell, Atheneum Books; ISBN 068911401X

title: Marilyn Horne


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Hammerfest Municipality

Hammerfest is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality being the town of Hammerfest which is considered the northernmost town in the world with more than 5,000 inhabitants (see: Hammerfest). Some of the main villages in the municipality include Rypefjord, Kvalsund, Forsøl, Hønsebybotn, Akkarfjord i Kvaløya, Akkarfjord i Sørøya, and Kårhamn.

The 2693 km2 municipality is the 19th largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Hammerfest is the 103rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 11,338. The municipality's population density is 4.2 PD/km2 and its population has increased by 0% over the previous 10-year period.

The municipality encompasses parts of three large islands: Kvaløya, Sørøya, and Seiland. Other small islands such as Håja, Lille Kamøya and Kamøya are also located here. Most parts of the municipality do not have a road connection with the rest of Norway; only Kvaløya island is connected to the mainland, via the Kvalsund Bridge.

The town of Hammerfest is considered to be one of the northernmost city/towns in the world. For more information, see Hammerfest (town).

General information
A municipality called Hammerfest by og landdistrikt (Hammerfest town and district) was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law), which included the town of Hammerfest and the vast rural district surrounding it. The law at that time required that all towns should be separated from their rural districts, but because of low population and very few voters, this was impossible to carry out for Hammerfest in 1838. (This was also the case in the nearby towns of Vadsø and Vardø.) In 1839, the northern part of Hammerfest (population: 498) was separated to become a new Maasø Municipality. This left Hammerfest by og landdistrikt with 2,024 residents. On 1 January 1852, the rural district outside of the town (population: 1,256) was separated from the town to form the new Hammerfest landdistrikt Municipality. This left the town of Hammerfest with 1,125 residents. (The rural Hammerfest landdistrikt was later divided into two municipalities: Sørøysund Municipality in the north and Kvalsund Municipality in the south.)

On 1 January 1992, Sørøysund Municipality (population: 2,341) was merged with the town of Hammerfest (population: 6,909) to form a new, larger municipality that was called Hammerfest Municipality.

In 2017, the neighboring Hammerfest Municipality and Kvalsund Municipality voted to merge into one large municipality effective 1 January 2020, and that merger came into effect on the planned date. Also on the same day, the new municipality became part of the newly formed Troms og Finnmark county. Previously, it had been part of the old Finnmark county. On 1 January 2024, the Troms og Finnmark county was divided and the municipality once again became part of Finnmark county.

Name
The municipality is named after the town of Hammerfest, which was established in 1789. The town was named after an old anchorage. The first element of the name is derived from the local Hamran (Hamarr). Hamran were a number of large rocks, good for mooring boats in the local harbour. The name comes from the word which means "stone", "steep cliff", or "rock face". The local Hamran were covered up in land reclaiming during the early years after World War II. The last element of the name comes from the word which means "rope" or "fastening" (for boats).

On 1 January 2020 when the neighboring Hammerfest Municipality and Kvalsund Municipality were merged, the new municipality chose two parallel, bilingual, interchangeable names: and. The Sami language name spelling changes depending on how it is used. It is called Hámmerfeasta when it is spelled alone, but it is Hámmerfeastta suohkan when using the Sami language equivalent to "Hammerfest Municipality". Beside the official Hámmerfeasta, there are also two other common variants of the Sámi name: Hámmarfeasta and Hámmárfeasta.

Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 16 December 1938, in preparation for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the town's establishment in 1939. The official blazon is "Gules, a polar bear statant argent" (En hvit isbjørn i rødt). This means the arms have a red field (background) and the charge is a polar bear. The polar bear has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The polar bear was chosen as a symbol for the fishing in the polar seas north of Norway. The polar bear itself is not native to mainland Norway. Because of its town status, the arms often have a mural crown above them. The arms were designed by Ole Valle and the design was updated by Arvid Steen in 2001.

Churches
The Church of Norway has three parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Hammerfest. It is part of the Hammerfest prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland.

History
Many grave sites dating back to the Stone Age can be found here. This location was an important fishing and Arctic hunting settlement for a long time before Hammerfest was given market town rights by royal decree of Christian VII of Denmark–Norway in 1789.

Destruction in World War II
After their victory in the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War, the Germans soon fortified the town of Hammerfest and used it as a major base. The importance of Hammerfest to the Germans increased dramatically after their invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The occupiers installed three coastal batteries in and around Hammerfest, one with four 10.5 cm guns on Melkøya island near the town, one with three 10.5 cm guns on a hill right outside the town and a final battery with casemated 13 cm pieces on the Rypklubben peninsula near Rypefjord.

The main German U-boat base in Finnmark was in Hammerfest, serving as a central supply base for the vessels attacking the allied supply convoys to Russia. Luftwaffe seaplanes were based at an improvised naval air station in nearby Rypefjord. The garrison in Hammerfest was also protected by around 4,000 mines and numerous anti-aircraft guns.

During their long retreat following the Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation, the Germans no longer managed to transport troops by sea further east due to intensive Red Air Force raids. Thus Hammerfest became their main shipping port in Finnmark in the autumn of 1944.

The town of Hammerfest was bombed twice by the Soviet Air Forces. The first time, on 14 February 1944, the town was hit by explosive and incendiary devices, but little damage was done. On 29 August 1944 Soviet bombers launched a second airstrike, inflicting significantly more damage to buildings and infrastructure in downtown Hammerfest. Two ships were sunk in the harbour. The ships lost were the local transports Tanahorn and Brynilen.

The population was forcibly evacuated by the occupying German troops in the autumn of 1944 after a Soviet offensive at the northern extremity of the Eastern Front pushed into eastern Finnmark. All of Finnmark including the town was looted and burned to the ground by the Germans when they retreated in 1945, the last of the town having been destroyed by the time the Germans finally left on 10 February 1945. Only the town's small funeral chapel, built in 1937, was left standing. The Museum of Reconstruction in Hammerfest tells the story of these events and the recovery of the region. The Soviet troops in eastern Finnmark were withdrawn in September 1945.

Mines and munitions left over from the Second World War were found and destroyed as late as 2008.

Geography
The island municipality encompasses parts of the mainland as well as three large islands: Kvaløya, Sørøya, and Seiland. Other small islands such as Lille Kamøya and Kamøya are also located here. The Sørøysundet, Kvalfjorden, and Repparfjorden are all located in the municipality. The Vargsundet strait separates the island Seiland from the mainland. Seiland National Park is partially located in the municipality on the island of Seiland. Seilandsjøkelen and Nordmannsjøkelen are both large glaciers that are located in the park. The Nordefjorden is a fjord that is part of the park. The highest point in the municipality is the 1078 m tall mountain Seilandstuva. Komagaksla and Hammaren are both mountains located in Hammerfest Municipality.

Hasvik Municipality lies to the west, Alta Municipality lies to the southwest, Porsanger Municipality lies to the southeast, and Måsøy Municipality lies to the northeast. The Barents Sea lies to the north.

Climate
Hammerfest has a subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification Dfc). In spite of the extreme northern location, there is no permafrost, as the mean annual temperature is approximately 2.5 C, about the same as Anchorage, Alaska, which is located at a latitude of 61° North. Hammerfest often experiences heavy snowfall in winter, and on some occasions, avalanches or risk of avalanches have forced some inhabitants to be evacuated from their exposed homes until the danger was over.

The "midnight sun" is above the horizon from 14 May to 31 July (79 days), and the period with continuous daylight lasts a bit longer, conversely the polar night lasts from 23 November to 19 January (59 days). The weather data is from Hammerfest Airport about 80 m elevation and 2 km from the town. Hammerfest town is at sea level, thus the town itself might be slightly warmer.

Reindeer problems
During the summer, massive reindeer herds migrate from their winter pastures in the inner parts of Finnmark to the coast. Among the islands inhabited by reindeer during the summer months is Kvaløya, the island on which Hammerfest town is located. For years many of the 2,500 to 3,000 reindeer in the area have been coming into the town itself, wandering in the streets and among the houses. Although popular with tourists, this has been less favourably received by the town's population, with people complaining of traffic disturbances and the dung and urine left by the animals. For hygienic reasons large sums of money have to be spent every year to clean up after the animals. In response to the complaints the town authorities built a 12 mi, 4 ft fence encircling the town to keep the animals out. However, as of the 2008 reindeer season, the fence had proven ineffective, with reindeer managing to pass through on road crossings, despite the presence of electrified grates embedded in the ground. The problem continues – the mayor, Alf E. Jakobsen, joked during the local election in 2011 that he was contemplating a career as a reindeer herder if he lost the vote.

Government
Hammerfest Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Vestre Finnmark District Court and the Hålogaland Court of Appeal.

Municipal council
The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Hammerfest is made up of 35 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

Mayors
The mayors (ordfører) of Hammerfest:

 * 1839–1841: Hans Cato Aall
 * 1841–1843: Henrik Øwre
 * 1843–1845: Hans Cato Aall
 * 1845–1846: Anton Magnus Søeberg
 * 1846–1851: Iver Christian Rostad
 * 1851–1854: Gerhard Wiesener
 * 1855-1855: Iver Christian Rostad
 * 1856-1856: Emanuel Dohren Peters
 * 1857–1858: Gerhard Wiesener
 * 1859–1860: Iver Christian Rostad
 * 1861–1862: Ole Johan Finckenhagen
 * 1863–1866: Elias Andreas Nilsen
 * 1867-1867: Ole Lund
 * 1868-1868: Jakob Sverdrup Smitt
 * 1869–1870: Ole Lund
 * 1871–1872: Jakob Sverdrup Smitt
 * 1873–1876: Ole Lund
 * 1877–1878: Carl Rein
 * 1879–1887: Marius Ørbek Berg (H)
 * 1887–1891: Ole Lund (H)
 * 1892-1892: Christian Finckenhagen (H)
 * 1893-1893: Peder Johansen (V)
 * 1894-1894: Christian Finckenhagen (H)
 * 1895–1901: Ole Kristian Simonsen (H)
 * 1902-1902: Peder Johansen (V)
 * 1903–1913: Hans Alfred Hansen (V)
 * 1914–1917: Olaf Eriksen (Ap)
 * 1918-1918: Svein O. Øraker (Ap)
 * 1919-1920: Olaf Eriksen (Ap)
 * 1921–1923: Sigurd M. Eriksen (Ap)
 * 1924–1925: Charles Robertson (H)
 * 1926–1931: Sigurd M. Eriksen (Ap)
 * 1932–1934: Hans Sætrum (Ap)
 * 1935-1935: Sigurd Marius Eriksen (Ap)
 * 1936-1936: Leif S. Olsen (Ap)
 * 1936–1941: Thoralf Albrigtsen (Ap)
 * 1941–1944: Peder J. Berg (NS)
 * 1945-1945: Thoralf Albrigtsen (Ap)
 * 1946–1951: Harald J. Olsen (Ap)
 * 1952–1961: Ørjan Østvik (Ap)
 * 1962–1966: Anton Eide (Ap)
 * 1966-1966: Ragnvald Jacobsen (Ap)
 * 1967–1971: Aksel Olsen (Ap)
 * 1972–1975: Arnulf Olsen (Ap)
 * 1976–1983: Erling Jensen (Ap)
 * 1984–1987: Arnulf Olsen (Ap)
 * 1988–1995: Kåre Rønbeck (Ap)
 * 1995–1999: Tormod Bartholdsen (H)
 * 1999–2006: Alf E. Jakobsen (Ap)
 * 2006–2009: Kristine Jørstad Bock (Ap)
 * 2009–2019: Alf E. Jakobsen (Ap)
 * 2019–2021: Marianne Sivertsen Næss (Ap)
 * 2021–2023: Terje Wikstrøm (Ap)
 * 2023-present: Terje Rogde (H)

Economy and tourism
The construction of the large liquefied natural gas site on Melkøya (island) just off Hammerfest, which will process natural gas from Snøhvit, is the most expensive construction project in the history of Northern Norway. This project has resulted in an economic boom and new optimism in Hammerfest in recent years, a stark contrast to the economic downhill and negative population growth most other municipalities in Finnmark are experiencing. After the opening of natural gas production on Melkøya there have been some problems with significant smoke and soot pollution in the initial production phases. Snøhvit is Europe's first export facility for liquefied natural gas.

Hammerfest offers sport and commercial fishing, both sea and freshwater, as well as scuba diving. The northernmost glacier on the Norwegian mainland is a hiking destination. The town is a starting point for northern tours. There is a daily boat to the North Cape (Nordkapp). One chain of the Struve Geodetic Arc, now on the World Heritage List, is located at Fuglenes in Hammerfest.

Hammerfest is also a centre of Sami culture. Hammerfest is home to the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society (Isbjørnklubben); a museum displaying the history of Arctic hunting.

The newspaper Hammerfestingen is published in Hammerfest.

American author Bill Bryson begins his European travels in 1990, documented in his book Neither Here Nor There, with a visit to Hammerfest in order to see the Northern Lights, calling it "an agreeable enough town in a thank-you-God-for-not-making-me-live-here sort of way".

Transportation
Hammerfest is connected to the main road network by Norwegian national road 94 which branches off from European route E6 at Skaidi in the neighbouring municipality of Kvalsund. The town is a port of call for the Hurtigruten ship route. Hammerfest also has Finnmark's third largest airport, Hammerfest Airport, opened 30 July 1974. Before the opening of the airport, the only air link to Hammerfest was by seaplane, the first route established in 1936.

Twin towns – Sister cities
Hammerfest is town twinned with the following foreign settlements:
 * 🇸🇪 – Haparanda, Sweden
 * – Ikast, Denmark
 * 🇷🇺 – Kola, Russia
 * 🇰🇷 – Mokpo, South Korea
 * 🇺🇸 – Petersburg, Alaska, United States
 * 🇫🇮 – Tornio, Finland
 * 🇸🇪 – Trelleborg, Sweden
 * 🇦🇷 – Ushuaia, Argentina

Foreign consulates
Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands have honorary consulates in Hammerfest.

Notable people

 * Sir John Rice Crowe (1795–1877), an English businessman and diplomat, deputy vice-consul in Hammerfest and British consul in Finnmark who lived in Hammerfest
 * Ole Olsen (1850–1927), an organist, composer, conductor, and military musician
 * Adolf Lindstrøm (1866–1939), a chef and polar explorer
 * Paal Berg (1873–1968), a politician who was the 12th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1929 to 1946
 * Charles Robertson (1875–1958), the Norwegian Minister of Trade from 1926–1928
 * Jørgen Holmboe (1902–1979), a Norwegian-American meteorologist
 * Per Møystad Backe (1914–1991), a jurist who developed Scandinavian Airlines
 * Annemarie Lorentzen (1921–2008), a teacher, politician, and Norwegian ambassador to Iceland from 1978 to 1985
 * Knut Moe (1921–1989), a Norwegian resistance member in WWII and radio agent for the SIS
 * Kåre Berg (1932–2009), a professor in medical genetics who discovered the Lipoprotein(a)
 * Sven Ullring (born 1935), an engineer and businessperson
 * Turi Josefsen (born 1936), a Norwegian-American businesswoman
 * Kåre Kivijärvi (1938–1991), a photographer who did photojournalistic work in Northern Norway
 * Bjørn Sundquist (born 1948), an actor who is famous for TV, theatre, and movie roles
 * Annelise Josefsen (born 1949), a Norwegian-Sami artist
 * Bodil Niska (born 1954), a jazz musician on saxophone who grew up in Hammerfest
 * Thomas Thormodsæter Haugen, known as Samoth, (born 1974), a black metal musician and multi-instrumentalist
 * Gunnar Garfors (born 1975), a traveller, author, media professional, and public speaker
 * Máret Ánne Sara (born 1983), a Sami artist and author who lives and works in Kautokeino Municipality
 * Hvaldimir, a beluga whale known for mysterious Russian origins and frequent appearances in Hammerfest Harbour

Sport

 * Fred Børre Lundberg (born 1969), a Nordic skier who won two team silver medals and one team gold medal at the Winter Olympics and an individual gold at the 1994 Winter Olympics
 * Christine Bøe Jensen (born 1975), a former footballer and team gold medallist at the 2000 Summer Olympics

title: Hammerfest Municipality