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Six Flags Great America

Six Flags Great America is a 304 acre themed amusement park located in Gurnee, Illinois, within the northern Chicago metropolitan area. The amusement park originally opened as Marriott's Great America on May 29, 1976, as one of two theme parks built by the Marriott Corporation. Six Flags acquired the amusement park in 1984 after the theme park division was an earnings disappointment for Marriott. The sale gave Six Flags rights to the Looney Tunes intellectual properties.

In 1972, the Marriott Corporation bought rural land near the Tri-State Tollway and had officially announced the theme park to the public the following year, in 1973. The new park would be built near identical to its sister park in Santa Clara, California, now named California's Great America. Designed by architect Randall Duell, the park was designed in a "Duell loop," in where the park was laid out in a full circuit circularly, as employees worked out of sight, in the middle of the park. Opening attractions and areas within the park were designed to be based around areas around North America, such as Orleans Place, a neighborhood located in the French Quarter during the 1850s and Hometown Square, a 20th-century American town. This has since expanded to twelve themed areas, such as the Wild West themed area Southwest Territory, three kids areas, with the County Fair subsection, Kidzopolis and two DC Comics themed areas, one being DC Universe.

Featuring 15 roller coasters, the park ranks fourth-most roller coasters in the world. Additionally, the park features an adjacent 20 acre water park called Hurricane Harbor Chicago, which features 25 water slides and attractions and opened on May 28, 2005. Since 2017, over 3 million guests visited Six Flags Great America, ranking it among the top 20 amusement parks in North America for attendance. Running from April until November, the park features multiple annual events such as the Halloween events Fright Fest and Kids Boo Fest, and formerly hosted the Christmas event Holiday in the Park, which had extended the park's operating season until January.

The park has achieved multiple milestones, records, and awards. American Eagle was one of the first record breakers for the park, becoming the tallest, fastest and longest racing wooden coaster in the world, a record that the ride still maintains. Batman: The Ride, the park's inverted roller coaster, was the first of its kind, and was awarded the American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) Landmark award in 2005. Whizzer also won the same award in 2012 for the park's maintenance of the attraction. Shows at the park have also received critical acclaim, with recognition from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), winning "Best Overall Production" awards.

Development and construction
In the early 1970s, the Marriott Corporation, owner of several restaurant chains and Marriott hotels, sought to branch further out into the tourism and vacation industry. The largest of the projects it took on was a chain of state-of-the-art theme parks, each of which would be named "Marriott's Great America" and themed around American history, opening in time for the nation's bicentennial. From the beginning, three parks were planned, as Marriott identified three underserved metropolitan areas that could support a major amusement park: Baltimore–Washington, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Chicago–Milwaukee.

The largest of these, at 850 acres, was announced for Laurel, Maryland, in 1972. The proposal was canceled after fierce opposition from local residents convinced officials to deny the park permits, and the plans were moved to Manassas, Virginia, in 1973, where it faced even stronger opposition from local residents and the National Park Service. The planned opening of the flagship park was delayed repeatedly until Marriott abandoned the idea late in the decade.

Meanwhile, the plans for the other two parks proceeded more smoothly. The location in the north of the Chicago metropolitan area was chosen to bring in visitors from Milwaukee and Chicago. Marriott purchased 600 acres of rural land in Gurnee straddling the Tri-State Tollway in August 1972, causing speculation in the Chicago Tribune that an amusement park was planned for the site. The Gurnee park was officially announced on January 29, 1973, along with a hotel and an industrial park. Marriott received approval from local authorities, but the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority would not approve a proposal for an interchange on the tollway leading directly into the parking lot. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on Flag Day, June 14, 1974. Randall Duell was the leader of the design team for the park, who created two nearly identical plans for the Gurnee park and the sister park in Santa Clara, California. Duell was a veteran theme park designer and for the Great America parks he sought to create his greatest design yet. With an overarching Americana theme in mind, Marriott's designers traveled across the country, observing styles and collecting artifacts to help inform an authentic atmosphere.

The park was broken up into six original themed areas, which are organized in a "Duell loop" that runs clockwise around the perimeter. The first of these was Carousel Plaza, located at the front of the park, centered around the double-decker Columbia Carousel; Hometown Square, based on early 20th century small towns of the Midwest; followed by The Great Midwest Livestock Exposition at County Fair (now just County Fair), with its early 20th century rural county fair; Yukon Territory, resembling a logging camp in the Canadian Yukon; Yankee Harbor, a 19th-century New England port inspired by Cape Cod; and finally Orleans Place, modeled after the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Each themed area had its own set of costumes for park employees, and the design of buildings, shops and restaurants were all unique to each theme. For example, the Klondike Cafe in Yukon Territory served beef dishes in large pans like those used for panning for gold. A seventh area, The Great Southwest, was planned from the beginning as a potential expansion, but was not built until 1996, when it opened as Southwest Territory.

Opening and operation

The park opened on Saturday, May 29, 1976, two months after California's Great America. The park was an immediate success due in part to coinciding with the bicentennial. From the beginning, the park made use of the Looney Tunes characters as costumed figures to interact with the park attendees, a tradition that continues today under Six Flags ownership. At its opening in 1976, Great America featured three roller coasters, Willard's Whizzer, Turn of the Century and The Gulf Coaster. The park had also included other flat rides throughout the park. These attractions included the elaborate double-decker Columbia Carousel, which opened as one of the tallest carousels in the world and the Sky Whirl, a unique, 110 ft-tall "triple ferris wheel" custom-designed for Marriott. Transportation rides included Delta Flyer and Eagle's Flight, two one-way gondola sky car rides. In Orleans Place, attractions in the area were Orleans Orbit, (later renamed simply the "Orbit"), an Enterprise-type ride and Rue Le Dodge, a bumper car ride. The park's second season in 1977 saw the installation of several new rides. The 310 ft Sky Trek Tower opened in Carousel Plaza and today is one of the few rides to still operate under its original name. Sky Trek Tower was built as and still remains, the tallest freestanding structure in Lake County, Illinois. Also added was Southern Cross, a third gondola sky car ride which offered a round trip and a much higher view than the other two, whose station replaced the removed Gulf Coaster. A few new spinning rides were added, such as Big Top, Davy Jones' Dinghies and Hay Baler. The park's first children's section, dubbed Fort Fun, opened in the section designated the Yukon Territory in 1978, which caused the Saskatchewan Scrambler to be relocated to Hometown Square and renamed Hometown Fun Machine. Additionally, Great America's fourth roller coaster, Tidal Wave, was a Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop that opened in 1978 in Yankee Harbor. The Pictorium, an IMAX theatre, opened in 1979 and claimed to have the world's largest screen, at 64.5 by 88.25 feet (19.6 × 26.9 meters).

The Turn of the Century roller coaster closed and took on a new look in 1980. Two vertical loops were added, along with two tunnels and the "new" ride was re-themed and renamed Demon. The ride featured an original theme song and new hellish theme elements, some of which were removed following a backlash from those who thought that the ride's theming was too "demonic". The American Eagle, a racing wooden roller coaster, opened in 1981. The tracks share a drop of 147 ft and they reach speeds of 66 mph. The bottom of the first drop is built 20 ft below ground level. When the American Eagle first opened, it had the longest drop and fastest speeds of any wooden roller coaster in the world. It remains the tallest, fastest and longest twin racing wooden coaster.

The Picnic Grove was added in 1982, allowing for more company outings and corporate events to take place at the growing theme park. No new rides were added that year, and several small rides were removed in the last years of Marriott ownership. Southern Cross was removed in 1983. That same year, The Edge, an Intamin first-generation freefall ride, was added to much fanfare. Bottoms Up, a Chance Trabant ride and Traffique Jam were removed at the end of the 1983 season.

The last ride Marriott added to the park was White Water Rampage in 1983, an Intamin-built rapids ride that was later renamed Roaring Rapids and remains the park's most popular water ride. The ride was added to Orleans Place, which required the removal of small rides such as Traffique Jam. The Orleans Orbit was moved from its original Orleans Place location to Hometown Square, and became simply The Orbit. By the mid-1980s, the Marriott Corporation was disappointed with the financial performance of its theme park division, with lower profits than the company expected, in part because the third and largest of its Great America parks was never realized. As a result, Marriott decided to focus on its core businesses and began searching for buyers for its two amusement parks. While California's Great America was sold to the city of Santa Clara, Bally Manufacturing, then the parent company of the Six Flags Corporation, offered to purchase the Gurnee park for $114.5 million. The deal was finalized on April 26, 1984, and as a result Six Flags also acquired the right to use the Looney Tunes characters at all of its other parks.

1984–1990: Acquisition by Six Flags
After the sale of the park to Bally Manufacturing in 1983, Great America officially became a Six Flags park. For the upcoming 1984 season, the park was re-branded as Six Flags Great America. Regarding the acquisition of the park, Bally CEO Robert Mullane stated that it would be "foolish to change anything major" at the park. Less than a month after the purchase, a software failure caused a car on The Edge, a freefall ride, to be stalled at the top of the lift shaft before moving forward into its drop position. The car was stuck in this position for a short period of time before it dropped in the lift shaft, causing injuries to all three occupants. Despite many attempts to reopen The Edge with installation of anti-rollback devices by Intamin, the ride was never able to escape the stigma of its 1984 accident. The ride was removed in 1986.

In 1985, Six Flags added Z-Force to the County Fair area, a one-of-a-kind Intamin space diver roller coaster that closed in 1987 and was the only one ever manufactured. The site was later used for Iron Wolf, which opened in 1990. Z Force was relocated to Six Flags Over Georgia as part of Six Flags' (now discontinued) Ride Rotation Program. At the end of 1991, the ride went to Six Flags Magic Mountain, where it operated as Flashback before closing in 2003, and being demolished in 2007. Power Dive was added in 1987 to take over the spot where The Edge had stood. Power Dive was an Intamin Looping Starship ride; it swung back and forth before eventually rotating a complete 360 degrees a few times.

While operating the Six Flags chain, Bally found that the excess resources demanded and high seasonal fluctuations of the theme park business made it an unnecessary burden on its core interests. In 1987, Bally sold Six Flags to Wesray Capital Corporation and a group of Six Flags managers. Several acquisitions were re-sold or closed, while Wesray moved the company's focus from theming to major attractions. This ushered in an era of major new rides and roller coasters at Six Flags parks like Great America. 1988 saw the first of the new coasters, with the addition of the massive roller coaster Shock Wave, an Arrow Dynamics mega-looper, opening in Orleans Place section of the park on June 3. Shock Wave was the world's tallest roller coaster at the time it opened and was surpassed the following year by Cedar Point's Magnum XL-200. It also featured a record seven inversions, which was surpassed in 1995 by PortAventura Park's Dragon Khan. When Six Flags Great Adventure's Sarajevo Bobsled, an Intamin Bobsled roller coaster, closed in 1988, it was moved to Great America and became Rolling Thunder in 1989, also as part of the Ride Rotation Program. It was added between Demon and Whizzer, where it operated until 1996. It was then relocated to The Great Escape where it operated as Alpine Bobsled until being scrapped in 2023.

For 1990, Bolliger & Mabillard constructed their first ever roller coaster with Iron Wolf, a compact steel stand-up coaster, opened on Z-Force's former spot in County Fair. The Condor was added to Orleans Place in 1991, next to Shock Wave. During the same year, the IMAX screen in the Pictorium was upgraded to allow 3D movies to be shown and fans said goodbye to Tidal Wave at the end of the season. It was relocated to Six Flags Over Georgia where it operated as Viper from 1995 to 2001, then to Kentucky Kingdom as Greezed Lightnin' from 2003 to 2009.

1990s: Transition into thrill park
By 1990, Six Flags was on the verge of bankruptcy. Time Warner, which had held a major influence at Great America since the beginning through the licensing of its Looney Tunes characters, was a minority owner in the company and it purchased an additional share of the company for a controlling interest of 50 percent. The entrance of the entertainment and communications conglomerate gave the company not only a much-needed influx of new capital, but a chance for increased usage of Time Warner properties in Six Flags parks.

The first of these collaborations between Six Flags and Time Warner came in 1992, as Bolliger & Mabillard constructed their first inverted roller coaster, Batman: The Ride, to replace Tidal Wave. Batman was unlike any other roller coaster at the time, as it opened as one of the first inverted roller coasters and took riders through five inversions. It was a tight fit for Yankee Harbor, but it proved so popular that lines stretched out of the ride area and across large parts of the park. The surrounding area of Yankee Harbor was re-themed after the Batman films, with The Lobster being renamed the East River Crawler, a name which it retained until it was moved to Hometown Square under its original name in 2016. Batman: The Ride was awarded landmark status by the American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) at their annual convention in 2005.

To add to the hype around Batman from the opening of Batman: The Ride and the mega-hit film Batman Returns, the Batman Stunt Show opened in 1993 in a brand-new amphitheater located past Demon; which would later come to be known as the Southwest Territory Amphitheater. Six Flags and Time Warner had debuted The Batman Stunt Show at Six Flags Great Adventure the year prior, with great success. The theater would be a popular venue with several stunt shows for years to come, before being torn down for the 2016 addition of the Justice League: Battle for Metropolis dark ride. Space Shuttle America, a motion simulator ride, was built in 1994 near Sky Trek Tower. In addition to its purpose-made titular film, Space Shuttle America was home to three other shows during its lifetime: Escape from Dino Island 2 – 3:D, Stargate – SG:3000, and Superstition during the yearly Fright Fest Event. The original Space Shuttle America film returned for the 2006 season. As of 2009, both the Space Shuttle America building and Space Shuttle themed facade have been removed.

In 1995, construction began on a new themed area for the park. The Southwest Territory was originally intended to be added to the park in 1979, with the Southern Cross ride intended to bring guests to it. The first ride built for the new area was Viper, a wooden roller coaster based on the Coney Island Cyclone and themed after a snake oil salesman. Although smaller in stature than American Eagle, this twister-style coaster features many more instances of airtime during the ride. It was built next to Rolling Thunder, which was removed later the same year to make room for the new area. The ride was relocated to The Great Escape in New York, where it operated as Alpine Bobsled until 2023.

Southwest Territory opened in 1996, with a desert theme based on the Old West. Three new rides were added: River Rocker, a pirate ship ride; Chubasco, a teacup ride; and Trail Blazer, a Zamperla Joker. The Big Top was moved in from County Fair and renamed Ricochet. Viper's entrance, which had previously been located in Hometown Square, was moved to Southwest Territory entrance. To add to the excitement surrounding the new area, the amphitheater that has previously been home to the Batman Stunt Show was named the "Southwest Territory Amphitheater", and an all-new show, the Warner Bros. Western Stunt Show, debuted. This show followed the misadventures of three outlaws as they tangled with characters from Western films such as Maverick, Blazing Saddles and F Troop. The Western Stunt Show ran for three seasons and was replaced in 1999 by the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Stunt Show. Giant Drop, an Intamin second-generation drop tower and Dare Devil Dive, a skycoaster, were added in 1997. Giant Drop was placed on the southwest side of Southwest Territory across from the mission, and was themed to be an ore excavator in the fictional Loco Diablo Mine. Dare Devil Dive opened in County Fair.

Time Warner sold 50% of its stake in Six Flags in 1995, and in 1998, Premier Parks had its IPO and became the parent company of Six Flags Theme Parks after purchasing the remaining stake from Time Warner as well as the other 50% that had previously been sold off to holding companies. Premier Parks opted to follow the trend set by Bally's and began acquiring more properties. Plans for expansion outside the amusement park started in the fall of 1997 with the planning of Six Flags Entertainment Village, an entertainment complex that would've been located across Interstate 94. 1998 saw many family-friendly additions. Yukon Territory welcomed Camp Cartoon Network, with five new rides, including Spacely's Sprocket Rockets (a Vekoma junior roller coaster), Scooby-Doo's Mystery Machine, Yogi's Yahoo River, Rocky Road's Rescue Service and Bedrock Boulder Roller. Bugs Bunny Land was renamed Looney Tunes National Park and included the Looney Tooter Choo Choo Train, the Waddaview Charter, Porky's Buzzy Beez, Petunia's Lady Bugz, Looney Tunes Lodge Foam Ball Factory, Pepe Le Pew's Peak and the Nature Trail. Opposition for Six Flags Entertainment Village arose in November 1998 with the citizens group Citizens United for a Residential Village of Gurnee (CURV) forming, with the concern of road congestion and rising tax prices.

Bolliger & Mabillard constructed Raging Bull in 1999, a hyper-twister coaster that was added to Southwest Territory. This 202 ft, 73 mi/h, and 5057 ft ride was built on the former lot used by Rolling Thunder. In late October, the park had officially cancelled their Entertainment Village project.

2000s: Rapid growth and expansion
The park celebrated its silver (25th) season in 2000. This was the last year for the Sky Whirl, as well as the Hay Baler ride. Since the removal of Sky Whirl after the 2000 season, Six Flags Great America has continued to operate without a Ferris wheel. That same year, an accident involving a guest occurred on the Cajun Cliffhanger ride, which led to its eventual removal. In 2001, two inverted shuttle coasters were added: an Intamin impulse coaster named Vertical Velocity, stylized as V2; and Déjà Vu, a Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang ride to replace Sky Whirl and Hay Baler. Vertical Velocity was added to Yankee Harbor, with the swing ride Whirligig moving closer to the lift hill of Batman: The Ride to make room.

At the beginning of the 2002 season, there were no major changes to the park. The Pictorium's original IMAX film, To Fly, was once again shown. In the summer, plans were announced to remove the Whizzer, which would offer its final rides on August 11. The announcement confirmed existing rumors. The plan to remove the coaster, which was one of only two operating Schwarzkopf Speedracers in the world, an original ride from the park's first season and a popular family-friendly attraction, was met with outrage from the public, particularly because the intended replacement was a major thrill ride. The backlash led to Six Flags deciding on August 3 to cancel their plans to replace Whizzer, and instead elected to replace Shockwave. Power Dive was also removed, due to maintenance problems.

In 2003, Bolliger & Mabillard constructed Superman: Ultimate Flight in Orleans Place, on the plot of land where Shock Wave stood. It was the Midwest's second flying roller coaster, the first being X-Flight at Geauga Lake. The layout of the ride is identical to versions of the ride at Six Flags Great Adventure and Six Flags Over Georgia. Shock Wave had partially stood in the parking lot and for Superman the entire landscaping of the ride area was redone. Additionally, the historic Ameri-Go-Round in County Fair was removed at the end of the 2003 season.

Mardi Gras, a new themed area and an extension of Orleans Place, was added in 2004. It was built in the area where Power Dive and Cajun Cliffhanger had stood. A spinning wild mouse coaster named Ragin' Cajun was added, along with a HUSS Top-Spin model named King Chaos, Zamperla Rockin' Tug named Jester's Wild Ride and a Zamperla Balloon Race named Big Easy Balloons. The same year, the removed Ameri-Go-Round from County Fair was replaced by Revolution, a HUSS Frisbee ride taken from Six Flags Great Adventure. On September 17, 2004, the Six Flags Hurricane Harbor water park was officially announced. It would become the seventh Hurricane Harbor water park to open, and would be built on a parking lot behind Raging Bull and Viper. The water park would feature Bahama Mama and Bubba Tubba, Hurricane Bay, a wave pool, among other attractions. Groundbreaking began in November 2004, with grand opening on May 28, 2005.

In December 2005, stockholders approved a plan offered by Daniel Snyder of Red Zone, LLC to take over management of Six Flags, Inc., following a fierce stockholder revolt due to rising financial concerns. Snyder appointed former ESPN executive Mark Shapiro as the new CEO of Six Flags, after Kieran Burke was ousted from the company. Snyder and Shapiro's plan of action was to move Six Flags away from Premier Parks' thrill-heavy focus and move more toward a family-friendly environment. During the 2006 season, Six Flags Great America celebrated its 30th anniversary. The classic Triple Play ride in Hometown Square was dismantled prior to the start of the season because Six Flags Over Texas had received a similar HUSS Troika that had been damaged during the hasty demolition of Six Flags AstroWorld, and so a part was needed from the Great America ride for the ride to operate. Triple Play returned for 2007.

Also in 2006, Six Flags announced it would replace its sign that sits along Interstate 94 during the off season. The sign, which had been standing since the park opened in 1976, was replaced with a smaller one featuring an LED screen. The new sign went up within a week after the old one was taken down in December 2006, and uses the old sign's post.

2007 marked the introduction of the electronic Flash Pass virtual queue system to Six Flags parks, including Great America. For an additional fee, guests can purchase a Flash Pass and wait in line for a ride without actually standing in line. The system, themed after the DC Comics character, replaced an existing punch card system that was used at the park.

As part of the new focus on entertainment, Six Flags introduced a new stunt show, Operation SpyGirl, in the Southwest Territory Amphitheater for the 2007 season. Operation SpyGirl was an original live-action production created by Joel Surnow, co-creator of the Fox television series 24. Operation SpyGirl debuted in May, and closed for the season in August. The show marked several new ventures for Six Flags, including pre-show entertainment in the waiting area, which set up the storyline that the evil archvillain Max Condor had stolen the "Super Viper Rocket" from the agency for which SpyGirl works – as well as a merchandise cart outside selling "SpyGirl" themed merchandise. Operation SpyGirl did not return in 2008. Other new shows introduced for the 2007 season were "Spirit of America" at the reflection pond in front of the Columbia Carousel, and "Show Stoppin'" in the Grand Music Hall.

The tented area in front of the American Eagle was converted into Wiggles World in 2007, a third children's area themed after the Wiggles. Wiggles World featured five new rides, Henry's Splash Fountain, the USS Feathersword Play Area, the Yummy Yummy Cafe and the Get Ready to Wiggle Stage show. American Eagle's entrance was relocated to the right of the tent, utilizing part of the entrance building for the adjacent Dare Devil Dive skycoaster, to accommodate the Wiggles area.

Great America added The Dark Knight Coaster in 2008, an indoor Mack wild mouse roller coaster themed after the film and located in Orleans Place. The ride is located indoors, mostly in the dark, and has a storyline based around Batman and The Joker. The Theater Royale was converted into a queue building for the ride, which features a preshow starring Aaron Eckhart, reprising his role as Harvey Dent from the film. Additionally, Splashwater Falls closed for the 2007 season early on, and was removed in March 2008. For 2009, Six Flags replaced Déjà Vu with Buccaneer Battle, a pirate-themed boat ride in County Fair designed by Mack Rides. The ride consists of 14 eight-passenger boats navigating a channel 450 ft long. During the ride, there are numerous interactive water elements that can be controlled by passersby.

2010–2020: Breaking records
Six Flags officially emerged from bankruptcy protection on May 3, 2010, and announced plans to issue new stock on the New York Stock Exchange. Amid suspected disagreements regarding the future of the company with the board, Shapiro left the company and Al Weber Jr. was brought in as interim president and CEO. Six Flags announced that Jim Reid-Anderson would replace Weber and become chairman, president, and CEO on August 13, 2010. In 2010, Great America acquired the Little Dipper, a "kiddie" wooden roller coaster that had previously operated at Kiddieland Amusement Park in Melrose Park, a western suburb of Chicago, from 1950 until 2009. It was placed outside Bugs Bunny National Park and opened to the public on May 27, 2010. The park also introduced the Glow in the Park Parade, which was already featured at other Six Flags parks, and MagiQuest was added to the County Fair Games Gallery in place of the Wii Experience.

Space Shuttle America, the park's motion simulator ride that had been closed for two years, was removed during the 2010 season. On May 26, 2010, Great America filed a petition with the Village of Gurnee seeking to exceed the village's 125 ft height limit. Six Flags was considering installing Chang, a roller coaster moved after the closure of Kentucky Kingdom, in place of the shuttle. However, the park confirmed it was abandoning those plans in July 2010 and that the space would instead be used for Riptide Bay, a 3 acre addition to the Hurricane Harbor water park.

In late 2010, Six Flags began removing some licensed properties from concessions and attractions, with Wiggles World being renamed Kidzopolis and having Wiggles branding and theming removed for 2011. MagiQuest closed due to a lack of popularity and Great America Raceway, an original ride from 1976, was closed and removed. At the end of the 2011 season, Iron Wolf was closed and removed. It was relocated to Six Flags America, rebranded as Apocalypse, before it was converted into a floorless roller coaster and renamed Firebird in the 2019 season. For 2012, the former sites of Splashwater Falls and the Great America Raceway in County Fair were taken over by a new wing coaster from Bolliger & Mabillard with 5 inversions, a 12-story drop and speeds of up to 55 mph. X-Flight was the second roller coaster of its type in North America and the fourth in the world.

The Glow in the Park parade was replaced in 2013 with IgNight – Grand Finale to the park. IgNight was held in Hometown Square, in front of the Hometown Station. Six Flags announced that 2013 would be the "Season of Backwards" at Great America, with Batman: The Ride, Viper and the Blue Train on American Eagle all running backwards for some part of the season. At the end of the season, Ragin' Cajun closed and was relocated to Six Flags America in 2014. For 2014, the park received Goliath, a 165 ft wooden roller coaster built by Rocky Mountain Construction. The ride broke world records for the steepest drop, fastest speed and longest drop on a wooden coaster, and was built on the plot of land where Iron Wolf formerly stood. Three former kiddie rides were reinstalled in the all-new Hometown Park children's area in 2015, located in Hometown Square. That year, the park held the "40 Seasons of Thrills" celebration, a festival which celebrated the park's history.

In 2016, Great America introduced Justice League: Battle for Metropolis, a 4D interactive dark ride, alongside a new themed area: Metropolis Plaza. The area is themed after the city of Metropolis from DC Comics, and is located between Southwest Territory and County Fair. Six Flags also announced plans to add virtual reality headsets to Raging Bull by the end of that season, but Demon received the VR headsets instead, creating a new 'Rage of the Gargoyles' ride experience. The Orbit, an original 1976 attraction, closed on August 6, 2016. At the end of the season, The Jester's Wild Ride was also removed.

The Joker, an S&S 4D Free Spin roller coaster, was added to Yankee Harbor for the 2017 season. The park also announced that The Orbit would not return, and East River Crawler was relocated to the former site of The Orbit and its name returned to The Lobster, the original name for the ride. For the first month of the season, VR headsets were added to Giant Drop, which became the "Drop of Doom".

Mardi Gras Hangover, a fire ball attraction, was added in 2018. The attraction is a 100 foot tall looping flat ride which at the time was the largest of its kind in the world. King Chaos closed on August 26, 2017, to make way for the new ride. On April 11, Six Flags Great America announced that Holiday in the Park would also debut at the park November 23, 2018. On April 27, the park confirmed via their official Twitter account that Pictorium would be demolished to make way for new thrills. The Pictorium was mainly used for a hypnotist show during Fright Fest and also hosted the "Screams and Dreams" series about the park's history. On August 30, 2018, the park announced that Maxx Force would open in 2019 replacing the Pictorium. It is manufactured by S&S Worldwide, and is an air launch roller coaster that breaks three world records and features the fastest acceleration in North America. On October 9, 2018, the Rockford Park District announced a potential lease agreement with Six Flags Great America for the park to operate Magic Waters (now Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Rockford). On December 11, 2018, the lease deal was made official and Six Flags took control of the water park on April 1, 2019.

2020–present: Transformation into family park

In March 2020, the park announced the delay of the opening for the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was ordered to stay closed until the "Phase 5" of Illinois' phased re-opening plan. The attached water park re-opened to the public on July 20, 2020, with safety protocols in place, using the name Hurricane Harbor Chicago. Although the full re-opening of the park was deemed "unlikely" by the Lake County Health Department, the park did open with Holiday in the Park Lights, a holiday lights event, along with Holiday in the Park Lights Drive-Thru, a drive-through holiday event.

On March 22, 2021, the connected Hurricane Harbor park, now officially named Hurricane Harbor Chicago, was announced to become the 27th park in the Six Flags chain, becoming a separate park. In the following month on April 24, 2021, the park reopened at 25% capacity under Illinois order, with safety protocols in place, including a reservation system, mask mandates, social distancing, and thermal imaging for temperature checks. On May 13, 2021, Illinois state governor J. B. Pritzker, with the park, announced that they would be giving away 50,000 admission tickets; an estimated total value of $4,000,000, for Illinois residents that have been newly vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine. Expanded capacity started on May 14, 2021, with 60% capacity afterwards as part of the "Bridge" reopening plan. The park opened at full capacity on June 11, 2021, and all mask mandates were dropped. On March 24, 2022, the park announced DC Universe, a DC Comics themed area. The area is a re-theme of Yankee Harbor. It would feature 3 "re-imagined" rides, The Flash: Vertical Velocity, a re-theme of Vertical Velocity, DC Super-Villains Swing, a re-theme of Whirligig and Aquaman Splashdown, a re-theme of Yankee Clipper. Opening day of DC Universe was slated for April 15, 2022, when the park opened, but due to "excessive rain and supply chain issues," the area would open later in spring. DC Universe opened on April 23, 2022. Additionally, in 2022, the stunt show Kinetic premiered on June 25, 2022, and ended on August 7, 2022, in the Grand Music Hall. Running for 30 minutes in total, Kinetic is set in an urbanized-skate park setting and was produced and directed by entertainment manager David Major. The park had cast both local talent and entertainers from a New York entertainment group. Stunts during the show included BMX, kick scooter and trampoline acts. Along with the stunts, Kinetic also featured song and dance performances and featured multiple instances of audience interaction. Kinetic was in development since 2020, being the first summer production at the park since 2019.

In 2023, the park confirmed that Dare Devil Dive and Buccaneer Battle would be permanently closed, following removal from the park map. On August 30, 2023, the park announced that Sky Striker, a large pendulum ride, would open in 2024. At the end of the 2023 season, the park announced that Revolution and Mardi Gras Hangover would be closed permanently. Both rides were subsequently bought and relocated to Niagara Amusement Park & Splash World, where they remain in storage.

Areas and attractions
The overall layout of Six Flags Great America has remained mostly unchanged from the original design that was created for Marriott. The park's designer, Randall Duell, followed the pattern of his trademark "Duell loop", creating a series of themed areas around a path which winds around the park circularly, allowing space for employees and maintenance workers to work out of sight of guests in the middle.

When the park opened in 1976, it had five original areas:
 * Hometown Square, which resembled an American town in the 1920s.
 * The Great Midwest Livestock Exposition and County Fair, which represented a county fair in the 20th century.
 * Yukon Territory, representing the Klondike Gold Rush.
 * Yankee Harbor, representing a New England harbor.
 * Orleans Place, which represented New Orleans in the 1850s.

Six Flags Great America, in total, features twelve themed areas. From the park's main entrance, entering into Carousel Plaza; proceeding counterclockwise, the themed areas are:
 * Carousel Plaza, the entrance plaza to Six Flags Great America.
 * Hometown Square, representing an American town.
 * Hometown Park, a small kids area within Hometown Square featuring three original rides opening in 2015, placed near its former spot in 1976.
 * County Fair, originally The Great Midwest Livestock Exposition and County Fair, now shortened to County Fair.
 * Kidzopolis, a themed area for kids (formerly Wiggles World from 2007 to 2010).
 * Southwest Territory, a themed area representing a Wild West town opening in 1996 (a portion was cut off into Metropolis Plaza).
 * Metropolis Plaza, a DC Comics themed mini-area representing the fictional DC Comics city Metropolis, which holds Justice League: Battle for Metropolis (formerly Southwest Territory Amphitheater).
 * Yukon Territory, representing the Klondike Gold Rush.
 * Camp Cartoon, a cartoon-themed area for kids (formerly Camp Cartoon Network from 1990s to 2018).
 * DC Universe, a DC Comics themed area (formerly Yankee Harbor from 1976 to 2021).
 * Mardi Gras, formerly a section from Orleans Place, the area is themed to the Mardi Gras holiday.
 * Orleans Place, a Southern themed area closely based on the French Quarter (part of the section was broken into Mardi Gras).

Carousel Plaza
The front entrance area to the park. In addition to the rides, there are shops and food kiosks themed to the area.

Orleans Place
Orleans Place is themed around New Orleans in the late 1800s, specifically the historic French Quarter. The area opened as an original area in 1976, and part of the area was later divided into Mardi Gras in 2004, connecting thematically to the area.

Rue Le Dodge is the last original ride from 1976 in the themed area. Other original attractions from the parks' opening placed in the area were removed, such as Gulf Coaster, a kids coaster placed in the area which is now occupied by Mardi Gras, which closed in 1977 due to multiple fires which plagued the ride.

Some other removed attractions would also include The Edge, which was removed in 1986, Traffique Jam and Orleans Orbit, which were both removed to make way for White Water Rampage. The latter was later moved to Hometown Square, before its removal in 2016 to make way for The Lobster, an original ride from Yankee Harbor.

Mardi Gras
One of the park's newest themed areas, it opened in 2004, after being converted from part of Orleans Place. The area's theme comes from the Mardi Gras holiday and specifically the famous celebration of the holiday in New Orleans.

When Mardi Gras opened, it featured four rides, Big Easy Balloons, a Zamperla "Balloon Race" attraction, King Chaos, a top spin attraction, Jester's Wild Ride, a "Rockin' Tug" attraction, and Roaring Rapids, an Intamin river rapids ride which originally opened in Orleans Place in 1983.

Changes for the area started in 2016 when the park announced The Joker. The original covered bridge used for entry to the former Yankee Harbor was moved to make way for the new attraction. Additionally, Jester's Wild Ride was removed for the attraction. The next change came the following year, in 2017, when King Chaos was announced to be closed to build Mardi Gras Hangover, an attraction in which is the tallest Larson Loop in the world, although the park claims it is the tallest "loop coaster." Mardi Gras Hangover was removed after the 2023 season.

DC Universe
DC Universe opened as Yankee Harbor in 1976, a 19th-century New England themed town, closely based on Cape Cod. Yankee Harbor, throughout the year, had changed more than the other original themed areas, with the removal of multiple original attractions, and a focus on more DC Comics themed rides.

The area changed in 2022, when it became DC Universe, a DC Comics themed area. The area re-used attraction names from other Six Flags parks for the re-theme of some of the original non-DC themed rides.

Yukon Territory
This area is themed around the famous forests and mountains in northwest Canada, with references to logging, prospecting and gold panning, specifically the Klondike Gold Rush.

Yukon Territory formerly held Bugs Bunny National Park that opened in 1998, but was fully replaced with Winner's Circle Go Karts, an upcharge attraction, in 2012. Many buildings in the area that originally opened are now closed, and most props in the area have been removed.

Camp Cartoon
This is a sub-section of Yukon Territory. It was known as Camp Cartoon Network when first added in 1998. Despite the former name, the rides were themed to Hanna-Barbera properties and not Cartoon Network ones.

Metropolis Plaza
The smallest themed area of the park, based on DC Comics characters. It replaced the Southwest Amphitheater in 2016.

County Fair
The Great Midwest Livestock Exposition at County Fair, almost always known simply as County Fair, is an original themed area located in back of the park, and is the largest themed area. There are many shops, stalls and attractions set in a theme based on a rural county fair. The area also features a food court and a gallery of carnival games.

Some former attractions located in County Fair includes Ameri-Go-Round, a smaller carousel which was replaced with Revolution in 2003, Barney Oldfield Speedway, a car attraction named after American racer Barney Oldfield, which was later replaced with X-Flight, and the Sky Whirl, which was a triple-arm Ferris wheel, which was removed to make way for Déjà Vu. Both Buccaneer Battle and Dare Devil Dive were marked as permanently closed in 2023.

Kidzopolis
A children's-specific area of County Fair, located in front of the American Eagle entrance tent. Originally known as Wiggles World, the area was added for 2007. The Wiggles theming was removed after the 2010 season.

Hometown Square
One of the park's original areas, themed after a small midwestern town around the turn of the century. Guests walk through many shops and stalls and can ride many classic carnival-style rides.

Whizzer, a Schwarzkopf spiral-lift coaster, is one of the last of its kind in the world. Hometown Square includes two show venues – the Grand Music Hall, an indoor theater, which at the park's opening, featured 1,600 seats, and the Hometown Square Stage, a stage on the Scenic Railway Station.

Attractions that once stood in Hometown Square includes Bottoms Up, a Chance Rides trabant ride which was an original ride near Demon before it was removed in 1983, and The Orbit. The Orbit was a Schwarzkopf enterprise ride which was also an original ride, originally in Orleans Place, before it was moved into Hometown Square, replacing Bottoms Up. The Orbit was removed in 2016 to make way for The Lobster, which was being moved from Yankee Harbor to make way for The Joker.

Hometown Park
This area is a sub-section of Hometown Square. This section previously existed from the park's opening in 1976 until the rides were removed after the 2001 season. In 2015, three of the original rides returned as part of the park's 40th season celebration.

Southwest Territory
Originally intended to be built in 1979 as The Great Southwest, the area, themed around an old Wild West town, was built in 1996. The area is outside of the park's loop, connected to both Hometown Square and County Fair. It also had the primary connection to Hurricane Harbor Chicago prior to the parks separating admission.

Hurricane Harbor Chicago
Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Chicago is a 20 acre water park located adjacent to Six Flags Great America that originally opened in 2005 under the Six Flags Hurricane Harbor naming. The water park features 25 water slides and attractions throughout the water park. On March 22, 2021, the water park was announced to be separately gated from the amusement park.

Fright Fest
On weekends in September and October, Six Flags Great America features its annual Halloween event "Fright Fest". The event started small in the early nineties and has expanded significantly since then. During the event the park is decorated into several different "Scare Zones" featuring haunted houses, frightening street characters, Halloween themed shows, as well as transformed rides. Fright Fest features haunted houses, which are usually an additional fee. Some haunted houses include "Condemned," a haunted house introduced in 2021, based on an underground laboratory and "Bloodshed," which is based on an evil lumberjack. Some other haunted houses include Big Top Terror, Gates of Hell, the 13th Order and Manslaughter Manor. Many of the park's rides receive special theming and operate differently than usual. Chubasco, the park's teacup ride, is transformed into Terror Twister 2: A Turn for the Worse, in which the ride building is enclosed and a custom lighting design matched with a custom club style music mix is played. Condor, one of the park's flat rides, is renamed during the event as The Birds and The Pit and runs a different cycle.

Fright Fest also features shows and performances throughout the park. Love at First Fright has been presented in the Grand Music Hall every year since the event's inception and follows the story of a couple on a dare to spend the night in a cemetery who get caught up in crazy antics when several classic Halloween creatures rise from the grave. The show often plays to capacity audiences during the event, and it is known for changing the show each year to include various pop culture and newsworthy references. The show has won multiple awards from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions for Best Overall Production. Another show, The Ringmaster's Cabaret, is described as a "freak show" which mixes in illusions with singing and dancing, and is also presented at the Grand Music Hall. Past shows include Susan Rosan – featuring a hypnotist who performed in the event for many years until 2018, Mundaka, a show held in the former Theatre Royale and The Damsel and the Warlock, in the Snowshoe Saloon. For several years a third party called JPM Productions provided street characters and haunted house actors for the event. While the company was praised for its costumes and makeup, in 2010 Six Flags moved the entire production in-house for greater creative control.

Holiday in the Park
In 2015, Jim Reid-Anderson had teased the arrival of Holiday in the Park, a Christmas-oriented event. Anderson stated that Six Flags would "see if [Holiday in the Park] makes sense" at the park. A promotion for the announcement of Holiday in the Park started in April 2018, and was called the 4-1-1. On April 11, 2018, Six Flags Great America announced that it would stay open through the end of the year with an event called Holiday in the Park. The new event began on November 23, 2018, and ran weekends through December 23, 2018, and ran daily December 26 through December 31, 2018. Holiday in the Park was developed and produced by RWS Entertainment Group, creating multiple light shows throughout the park. Starting for the 2020 season, Holiday in the Park Lights began as a replacement for the regular Holiday in the Park event. Due to Illinois' guidelines for the COVID-19 pandemic at that time, rides could not operate. In 2021, though, the park re-opened indoor venues and some attractions. In addition to Holiday in the Park Lights, Six Flags also ran the Holiday in the Park Drive-Thru for both the 2020 and 2021 season, operating weekdays, while the regular Holiday in the Park Lights event ran on weekends. The park removed Holiday in the Park from their event lineup for the 2022 season, and the park closed for the rest of winter.

Holiday in the Park featured multiple shows, one of which were A Wonderland at the Grand, a holiday-themed musical held in the Grand Music Hall. During the 2020 season, the show was re-imagined as Wonderland, and was held outdoors at the Hometown Square Stage. Other shows included The Holidays Bake Me Crazy, a show based on baking for the holidays. Holiday carolers named The MistleTones also walked around the park, singing holiday songs. One of the main features were the holiday lights. The light show Kalightoscope was held at Southwest Territory (also named Kalightoscope), on both the Chubasco mission building and Giant Drop. Elegance was another light show and was shown on the Columbia Carousel. Over 2,500,000 lights were strung up each season on park buildings and trees.

The different themed areas of the park were renamed during the event and certain rides operated in the years the event was active.

Elegance (Carousel Plaza)
 * Columbia Carousel (2018, 2019, and 2021)

Jingle Bell Jazz (Front half of Orleans Place)
 * Rue Le Dodge (2018 and 2019). The ride was renamed Snowflake Lane with the addition of Christmas music and snowflakes projected on the floor.

Snowman City (back half of Orleans Place)
 * Superman: Ultimate Flight (2018 only)
 * The Dark Knight Coaster (2018, 2019, and 2021)

Merry Mardi Gras (Mardi Gras)
 * Mardi Gras Hangover (2019 only) [Now defunct]
 * Big Easy Balloons (2019 and 2021)

Jolly Lane (DC Universe)

Note: The area was still Yankee Harbor from 2018-2021 but it had no holiday re-theme the first year the event took place.
 * The Flash: Vertical Velocity (2018 and 2019)
 * Batman: The Ride (2018 and 2019)
 * The Joker: Free Fly Coaster (2018 only)

Home for the Holidays (Yukon Territory)

Camp Cartoon: (2018 and 2019)
 * Sprocket Rockets
 * Crazy Bus

Merry Market Place (front half of County Fair)
 * X-Flight (2018 and 2019)

The North Pole (back half of County Fair)

Kidzopolis (2021 only):
 * Zoomjets
 * Krazy Kups
 * Bouncer
 * Up Up & Away

Kalightoscope (Southwest Territory and Metropolis Plaza combined)
 * Raging Bull (2018 and 2019)
 * Justice League: Battle for Metropolis (2018, 2019, and 2021)
 * River Rocker (2018 and 2019)
 * Chubasco (2018, 2019, and 2021). The ride was renamed Peppermint Swirl. Similar to its Fright Fest overlay, Terror Twister 2, the building is boarded up and the ride ran in darkness with the addition of strobe lights and fog. Christmas music however played.

Holiday Square (Hometown Square) Hometown Park (2018, 2019 and 2021):
 * Lobster (2018, 2019, and 2021)
 * Triple Play (2021 only)
 * Hometown Fun Machine (2018 only)
 * Red Baron
 * Lady Bugs
 * Tot's Livery

Marriott operation
Under operation of the Marriott Corporation, Marriott had expected 2.5 million visitors for the 1976 season. The Marriott Corporation had also expected 25,000 to 30,000 guests to visit daily. Due to the close radius of Chicago, Illinois, Rockford, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it was estimated that the park could draw 6 million to 7 million guests within the area. Marriott had closely reached its attendance goal of 2.5 million guests, with 2.35 million guests in 1976 and 2.4 million guests in the following year, 1977. With the rising attendance of the amusement park, it had also affected the attendance of neighboring amusement parks, including Old Chicago, in which guest numbers plummeted and later led to the closure of the shopping mall and amusement park in 1980 after the opening of Marriott's Great America.

Six Flags operation
Under park policy, Six Flags Great America does not release attendance figures. However, the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) estimates attendance numbers for the amusement park.

Records
Multiple Six Flags Great America attractions broke records and first-of-its-kinds when it opened in various categories. The first of these were American Eagle, opening as the tallest, fastest and longest wooden racing roller coaster in the world when it opened in 1981. The next one was Shockwave, opening in 1988, which, at the time, was the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world, along with breaking the world record for most inversions on a roller coaster. Batman: The Ride opened in 1992 as the first inverted roller coaster in the world, which was manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard.

Goliath claimed three Guinness World Records at its opening in 2014, as the steepest wooden roller coaster, longest drop on a wooden roller coaster and fastest wooden roller coaster in the world; retaining the latter two. Mardi Gras Hangover opened to the public on May 25, 2018, as the tallest fire ball attraction in the world. The following year, Maxx Force opened with three record breakers with having the fastest acceleration in North America from 0 to 78 mph in 1.8 seconds, fastest inversion (heartline roll) in the world at 60 mph and tallest double inversion in the world at 175 ft.

Awards
Some of Six Flags Great America's roller coasters have appeared on Amusement Today 's annual Golden Ticket Awards multiple times, with the ride ranking the highest on the Golden Ticket Awards being Raging Bull placing 9th in 2005. For American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) awards, two roller coasters at Six Flags Great America have been designated as Coaster Landmark status, an award reserved for rides of significance to amusement parks. The first of these were Batman: The Ride, which was awarded the Coaster Landmark status on June 20, 2005, for its significance as the first inverted roller coaster to open to the public. The next award was given to Whizzer on August 10, 2012, for the parks preservation of the attraction. Additionally, Little Dipper was granted the ACE Coaster Classic award, an award for historic roller coasters that has been well maintained similarly to its original form.

The Fright Fest show Love at First Fright has won multiple International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) awards. In 2005, 2007 and 2008, the show won the IAAPA Big E! Award for "Best Overall Production: $25,000 or less." Additionally in 2008, the show Show Stoppin' won the Big E! Award in the category "Best Overall Production: $25,001–50,000." In 2010, 2013 and 2014, Love at First Fright won the IAAPA Brass Ring Awards in the category "Best Overall Production: $50,001–100,000." On USA Today 's Readers' Choice Awards, Goliath ranked number 4 in the category "Best Roller Coasters in the Country" in 2018 and Maxx Force ranked number 8 in the category "Best New Amusement Park Attraction" the following year.

Incidents and accidents
There were multiple instances of incidents and accidents taking place at Six Flags Great America. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) had revealed that in two separate instances, a total of 31 guests had been injured on Whizzer in an investigation in 1980. These injuries were not reported to CPSC. During a private event rented out by U.S. Steel, Demon had stalled on a vertical loop on April 19, 1998, and had required an aerial fire apparatus to release stranded riders. A drive-by shooting occurred on August 14, 2022, injuring three people, which caused an evacuation of the entire park.

As of May 4, 2023, five people have lost their lives in reported accidents at Six Flags Great America. Three of the deaths occurring at the theme park were determined to have been caused by pre-existing medical conditions or natural causes. One theme park employee suffered fatal injuries when he fell from Splashwater Falls during the ride's demolition in 2008 and a second employee was struck and killed by the Ragin' Cajun roller coaster the day after it first opened.

In popular culture
In the late 1970s, two TV specials were produced to feature the Marriott theme park in Gurnee, Illinois, both produced by WLS-TV (ABC 7 Chicago). To celebrate the opening of Marriott's Great America (now Six Flags), Celebration At Great America first aired on July 2, 1976, and again on August 21. The special starred Steve Edwards and Sandi Freeman of WLS-TV. Celebrity Guests included Mel Blanc as Bugs Bunny (and other Looney Tunes characters), Jo Anne Worley, Forrest Tucker, Jerry Stiller, Roger Perry and the Cast Members of Great America. Although in poor quality, the special can be found on YouTube.

Another special, titled You're Never Too Old, first aired on September 8, 1979, and again on April 26, 1980; hosted by actress Lisa Hartman.

In 1977, the park's circus show, Circus Fantastic, had one of its performances broadcast on Captain Kangaroo with Captain Kangaroo (Bob Keeshan) himself as the ringmaster and special guest star Bob Denver of Gilligan's Island fame. In 1994, Iron Wolf was featured in the movie Richie Rich and was showcased as a backyard coaster. On August 26, 2009, the park was featured on Dinner: Impossible where host Robert Irvine creates a meal for coaster enthusiasts to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Raging Bull. In a 2013 episode of Insane Coaster Wars, the park's B&M wing coaster X-Flight was featured as a contestant against other roller coasters around the world. In that same year, the park was featured in the Hindi movie Dhoom: 3. In July 2015, BTS filmed an episode of their variety show Run BTS in the park and the members rode various rides during their time.

title: Six Flags Great America


text:
User:Tim Barsness

My name is Tim Barsness. I am an alumnus at North Dakota State University with a major in computer science.

I have worked in the field of computer science and information systems through web programming and development in Active Server Pages (ASP), ASP.NET, and PHP. I also program in C++, C, Java, Perl and many standard web programming languages.

I have worked in the field of digital printing for a number of years. I am very familiar with Xerox's variable data printing application called Variable Data Intelligent Postscript Printware (VIPP). This cryptic and difficult to use language has resulted in many frustrations over my professional carreer.

You can now find me in these places:

Tim Barsness' Lifestream

Server Side Guy Blog

Minneapolis Web Development - Barsness Solutions

Tim Barsness 22:14, Oct 6, 2004 (UTC) Tim Barsness

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

title: User:Tim Barsness


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Harbor City International School

Harbor_City_International_School
Deadend page; notability not established. [[User:Poccil|Peter O. (Talk)]] 22:15, Oct 6, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete, non-notable. RickK 22:41, Oct 6, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. The article is utterly lacking in information, without even attempting to establish notability. Average Earthman 22:55, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Fails to meet the high bar for schools. --Improv 02:41, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. No evidence of notability.  SWAdair | Talk  03:47, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Mark Richards 17:24, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)


text:
Open Mobile Alliance

OMA SpecWorks, previously the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), is a standards organization which develops open, international technical standards for the mobile phone industry. It is a nonprofit Non-governmental organization (NGO), not a formal government-sponsored standards organization as is the International Telecommunication Union (ITU): a forum for industry stakeholders to agree on common specifications for products and services.

History
The OMA was created in June 2002 as an answer to the proliferation of industry forums each dealing with a few application protocols: WAP Forum (focused on browsing and device provisioning protocols), the Wireless Village (focused on instant messaging and presence), The SyncML Initiative (focused on data synchronization), the Location Interoperability Forum, the Mobile Games Interoperability Forum, and the Mobile Wireless Internet Forum. Each of these forums had its bylaws, its decision-taking procedures, its release schedules, and in some instances there was some overlap in the specifications, causing duplication of work.

Members include traditional wireless industry players such as equipment and mobile systems manufacturers (Ericsson, ZTE, Nokia, Qualcomm, Rohde & Schwarz) and mobile operators (AT&T, NTT Docomo, Orange, T-Mobile, Verizon), and also software vendors (Gemalto, Mavenir and others).

In March, 2018, it merged with the IPSO Alliance to form OMA SpecWorks.

Related standards bodies include: 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Its mission is to provide Interoperability of services across countries, operators and mobile terminals. The OMA only standardises applicative protocols; OMA specifications are intended to work with any cellular network technologies being used to provide networking and data transport. These networking technology are specified by outside parties. In particular, OMA specifications for a given function are the same with either GSM, UMTS, or CDMA2000 networks. Adherence to the standards is entirely voluntary; the OMA does not have a mandative role.. OMA members that own intellectual property rights (e.g. patents) on technologies that are essential to realizing a specification agree in advance to provide licenses to their technology on "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing" terms to other members. OMA is incorporated in California, United States.

Standard specifications
The OMA maintains many specifications, including:
 * Browsing specifications, now named Browser and Content, formerly named WAP browsing; in current version, these specifications rely essentially on XHTML Mobile Profile
 * Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) specifications
 * OMA DRM specifications for Digital Rights Management
 * OMA Instant Messaging and Presence Service (OMA IMPS) specification, which is a system for instant messaging on mobile phones; formerly named Wireless Village
 * OMA SIMPLE IM instant messaging based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) SIMPLE
 * OMA CAB Converged Address Book, a social address book service standard
 * OMA CPM Converged IP Messaging, the underlying enabler for Rich Communication Services
 * OMA Lock and Wipe (LAWMO) specifications for those functions
 * OMA Lightweight M2M (LwM2M) OMA LWM2M specifications for machine to machine functions
 * OMA Client Provisioning (OMA CP) specification for provisioning
 * OMA Data Synchronization (OMA DS) specification for data synchronization using SyncML
 * OMA Device Management (OMA DM) specification for mobile device management using SyncML
 * OMA BCAST specification for Mobile Broadcast Services
 * OMA Rich Media Environment (RME) specification
 * OMA OpenCMAPI Connection Management APIs
 * OMA PoC specification for Push to talk Over Cellular (PoC)
 * OMA Presence SIMPLE specification for presence based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) SIMPLE
 * OMA Service Environment
 * FUMO Firmware update
 * Secure User Plane Location Protocol (SUPL), an IP-based service for assisted GPS on handsets
 * Mobile Location Protocol (MLP), an IP-based protocol for obtaining the position/location of mobile handset
 * Wireless Application Protocol 1 (WAP1), 5-layer stack of protocols
 * OMA LOCSIP Location in SIP/IP Core
 * Software Component Management Object (SCOMO), allows a management authority to perform software management on a remote device

The OMA specifications inspired or formed the base for the following:
 * NGSI-LD is an API and information model specified by ETSI based (with permission) on OMA specifications NGSI-09 and NGSI-10, extending them to provide bindings and to formally use property graphs, with node and relationship (edge) types that may play the role of labels in formerly-mentioned models and support semantic referencing by inheriting classes defined in shared ontologies.

title: Open Mobile Alliance


text:
User:Tim Barsness/NDSU

a

title: User:Tim Barsness/NDSU


text:
Travelers' diarrhea

Travelers' diarrhea (TD) is a stomach and intestinal infection. TD is defined as the passage of unformed stool (one or more by some definitions, three or more by others) while traveling. It may be accompanied by abdominal cramps, nausea, fever, headache and bloating. Occasionally bloody diarrhea may occur. Most travelers recover within three to four days with little or no treatment. About 12% of people may have symptoms for a week.

Bacteria are responsible for more than half of cases, typically via foodborne illness and waterborne diseases. The bacteria enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) are typically the most common except in Southeast Asia, where Campylobacter is more prominent. About 10 to 20 percent of cases are due to norovirus. Protozoa such as Giardia may cause longer term disease. The risk is greatest in the first two weeks of travel and among young adults. People affected are more often from the developed world.

Recommendations for prevention include eating only properly cleaned and cooked food, drinking bottled water, and frequent hand washing. The oral cholera vaccine, while effective for cholera, is of questionable use for travelers' diarrhea. Preventive antibiotics are generally discouraged. Primary treatment includes rehydration and replacing lost salts (oral rehydration therapy). Antibiotics are recommended for significant or persistent symptoms, and can be taken with loperamide to decrease diarrhea. Hospitalization is required in less than 3 percent of cases.

Estimates of the percentage of people affected range from 20 to 50 percent among travelers to the developing world. TD is particularly common among people traveling to Asia (except for Japan and Singapore), the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Central and South America. The risk is moderate in Southern Europe, and Russia. TD has been linked to later irritable bowel syndrome and Guillain–Barré syndrome. It has colloquially been known by a number of names, including "Montezuma's revenge," “mummy tummy,” "Delhi belly" and the "Thailand trots".

Signs and symptoms
The onset of TD usually occurs within the first week of travel, but may occur at any time while traveling, and even after returning home, depending on the incubation period of the infectious agent. Bacterial TD typically begins abruptly, but Cryptosporidium may incubate for seven days, and Giardia for 14 days or more, before symptoms develop. Typically, a traveler experiences four to five loose or watery bowel movements each day. Other commonly associated symptoms are abdominal cramping, bloating, fever, and malaise. Appetite may decrease significantly. Though unpleasant, most cases of TD are mild, and resolve in a few days without medical intervention.

Blood or mucus in the diarrhea, significant abdominal pain, or high fever suggests a more serious cause, such as cholera, characterized by a rapid onset of weakness and torrents of watery diarrhea with flecks of mucus (described as "rice water" stools). Medical care should be sought in such cases; dehydration is a serious consequence of cholera, and may trigger serious sequelae—including, in rare instances, death—as rapidly as 24 hours after onset if not addressed promptly.

Causes
Infectious agents are the primary cause of travelers' diarrhea. Bacterial enteropathogens cause about 80% of cases. Viruses and protozoans account for most of the rest.

The most common causative agent isolated in countries surveyed has been enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC). Enteroaggregative E. coli is increasingly recognized. Shigella spp. and Salmonella spp. are other common bacterial pathogens. Campylobacter, Yersinia, Aeromonas, and Plesiomonas spp. are less frequently found. Mechanisms of action vary: some bacteria release toxins which bind to the intestinal wall and cause diarrhea; others damage the intestines themselves by their direct presence.

Brachyspira pilosicoli pathogen also appears to be responsible for many chronic intermittent watery diarrhea and is only diagnosed through colonic biopsies and microscopic discovery of a false brush border on H&E or Warthin silver stain: its brush-border is stronger and longer that Brachyspira aalborgi's brush-border. It is unfortunately often not diagnosed as coproculture does not allow growth and 16S PCR panel primers do not match Brachyspira sequences.

While viruses are associated with less than 20% of adult cases of travelers' diarrhea, they may be responsible for nearly 70% of cases in infants and children. Diarrhea due to viral agents is unaffected by antibiotic therapy, but is usually self-limited. Protozoans such as Giardia lamblia, Cryptosporidium and Cyclospora cayetanensis can also cause diarrhea. Pathogens commonly implicated in travelers' diarrhea appear in the table in this section.

A subtype of travelers' diarrhea afflicting hikers and campers, sometimes known as wilderness diarrhea, may have a somewhat different frequency of distribution of pathogens.

Risk factors
The primary source of infection is ingestion of fecally contaminated food or water. Attack rates are similar for men and women.

The most important determinant of risk is the traveler's destination. High-risk destinations include developing countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Among backpackers, additional risk factors include drinking untreated surface water and failure to maintain personal hygiene practices and clean cookware. Campsites often have very primitive (if any) sanitation facilities, making them potentially as dangerous as any developing country.

Although travelers' diarrhea usually resolves within three to five days (mean duration: 3.6 days), in about 20% of cases, the illness is severe enough to require bedrest, and in 10%, the illness duration exceeds one week. For those prone to serious infections, such as bacillary dysentery, amoebic dysentery, and cholera, TD can occasionally be life-threatening. Others at higher-than-average risk include young adults, immunosuppressed persons, persons with inflammatory bowel disease or diabetes, and those taking H2 blockers or antacids.

Immunity
Travelers often get diarrhea from eating and drinking foods and beverages that have no adverse effects on local residents. This is due to immunity that develops with constant, repeated exposure to pathogenic organisms. The extent and duration of exposure necessary to acquire immunity has not been determined; it may vary with each individual organism. A study among expatriates in Nepal suggests that immunity may take up to seven years to develop—presumably in adults who avoid deliberate pathogen exposure. Conversely, immunity acquired by American students while living in Mexico disappeared, in one study, as quickly as eight weeks after cessation of exposure.

Sanitation
Recommendations include avoidance of questionable foods and drinks, on the assumption that TD is fundamentally a sanitation failure, leading to bacterial contamination of drinking water and food. While the effectiveness of this strategy has been questioned, given that travelers have little or no control over sanitation in hotels and restaurants, and little evidence supports the contention that food vigilance reduces the risk of contracting TD, guidelines continue to recommend basic, common-sense precautions when making food and beverage choices:
 * Maintain good hygiene and use only safe water for drinking and brushing teeth.
 * Safe beverages include bottled water, bottled carbonated beverages, and water boiled or appropriately treated by the traveler (as described below). Caution should be exercised with tea, coffee, and other hot beverages that may be only heated, not boiled.
 * In restaurants, insist that bottled water be unsealed in your presence; reports of locals filling empty bottles with untreated tap water and reselling them as purified water have surfaced. When in doubt, a bottled carbonated beverage is the safest choice, since it is difficult to simulate carbonation when refilling a used bottle.
 * Avoid ice, which may not have been made with safe water.
 * Avoid green salads, because the lettuce and other uncooked ingredients are unlikely to have been washed with safe water.
 * Avoid eating raw fruits and vegetables unless cleaned and peeled personally.

If handled properly, thoroughly cooked fresh and packaged foods are usually safe. Raw or undercooked meat and seafood should be avoided. Unpasteurized milk, dairy products, mayonnaise, and pastry icing are associated with increased risk for TD, as are foods and beverages purchased from street vendors and other establishments where unhygienic conditions may be present.

Water
Although safe bottled water is now widely available in most remote destinations, travelers can treat their own water if necessary, or as an extra precaution. Techniques include boiling, filtering, chemical treatment, and ultraviolet light; boiling is by far the most effective of these methods. Boiling rapidly kills all active bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. Prolonged boiling is usually unnecessary; most microorganisms are killed within seconds at water temperature above 55 –. The second-most effective method is to combine filtration and chemical disinfection. Filters eliminate most bacteria and protozoa, but not viruses. Chemical treatment with halogens—chlorine bleach, tincture of iodine, or commercial tablets—have low-to-moderate effectiveness against protozoa such as Giardia, but work well against bacteria and viruses. UV light is effective against both viruses and cellular organisms, but only works in clear water, and it is ineffective unless manufacturer's instructions are carefully followed for maximum water depth/distance from UV source, and for dose/exposure time. Other claimed advantages include short treatment time, elimination of the need for boiling, no taste alteration, and decreased long-term cost compared with bottled water. The effectiveness of UV devices is reduced when water is muddy or turbid; as UV is a type of light, any suspended particles create shadows that hide microorganisms from UV exposure.

Medications
Bismuth subsalicylate four times daily reduces rates of travelers' diarrhea. Though many travelers find a four-times-per-day regimen inconvenient, lower doses have not been shown to be effective. Potential side effects include black tongue, black stools, nausea, constipation, and ringing in the ears. Bismuth subsalicylate should not be taken by those with aspirin allergy, kidney disease, or gout, nor concurrently with certain antibiotics such as the quinolones, and should not be taken continuously for more than three weeks. Some countries do not recommend it due to the risk of rare but serious side effects.

A hyperimmune bovine colostrum to be taken by mouth is marketed in Australia for prevention of ETEC-induced TD. As yet, no studies show efficacy under actual travel conditions.

Though effective, antibiotics are not recommended for prevention of TD in most situations because of the risk of allergy or adverse reactions to the antibiotics, and because intake of preventive antibiotics may decrease effectiveness of such drugs should a serious infection develop subsequently. Antibiotics can also cause vaginal yeast infections, or overgrowth of the bacterium Clostridium difficile, leading to pseudomembranous colitis and its associated severe, unrelenting diarrhea.

Antibiotics may be warranted in special situations where benefits outweigh the above risks, such as immunocompromised travelers, chronic intestinal disorders, prior history of repeated disabling bouts of TD, or scenarios in which the onset of diarrhea might prove particularly troublesome. Options for prophylactic treatment include the quinolone antibiotics (such as ciprofloxacin), azithromycin, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, though the latter has proved less effective in recent years. Rifaximin may also be useful. Quinolone antibiotics may bind to metallic cations such as bismuth, and should not be taken concurrently with bismuth subsalicylate. Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole should not be taken by anyone with a history of sulfa allergy.

Vaccination
The oral cholera vaccine, while effective for prevention of cholera, is of questionable use for prevention of TD. A 2008 review found tentative evidence of benefit. A 2015 review stated it may be reasonable for those at high risk of complications from TD. Several vaccine candidates targeting ETEC or Shigella are in various stages of development.

Probiotics
One 2007 review found that probiotics may be safe and effective for prevention of TD, while another review found no benefit. A 2009 review confirmed that more study is needed, as the evidence to date is mixed.

Treatment
Most cases of TD are mild and resolve in a few days without treatment, but severe or protracted cases may result in significant fluid loss and dangerous electrolytic imbalance. Dehydration due to diarrhea can also alter the effectiveness of medicinal and contraceptive drugs. Adequate fluid intake (oral rehydration therapy) is therefore a high priority. Commercial rehydration drinks are widely available; alternatively, purified water or other clear liquids are recommended, along with salty crackers or oral rehydration salts (available in stores and pharmacies in most countries) to replenish lost electrolytes. Carbonated water or soda, left open to allow dissipation of the carbonation, is useful when nothing else is available. In severe or protracted cases, the oversight of a medical professional is advised.

Antibiotics
If diarrhea becomes severe (typically defined as three or more loose stools in an eight-hour period), especially if associated with nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, fever, or blood in stools, medical treatment should be sought. Such patients may benefit from antimicrobial therapy. A 2000 literature review found that antibiotic treatment shortens the duration and severity of TD; most reported side effects were minor, or resolved on stopping the antibiotic.

The antibiotic recommended varies based upon the destination of travel. Trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole and doxycycline are no longer recommended because of high levels of resistance to these agents. Antibiotics are typically given for three to five days, but single doses of azithromycin or levofloxacin have been used. Rifaximin and rifamycin are approved in the U.S. for treatment of TD caused by ETEC. If diarrhea persists despite therapy, travelers should be evaluated for bacterial strains resistant to the prescribed antibiotic, possible viral or parasitic infections, bacterial or amoebic dysentery, Giardia, helminths, or cholera.

Antimotility agents
Antimotility drugs such as loperamide and diphenoxylate reduce the symptoms of diarrhea by slowing transit time in the gut. They may be taken to slow the frequency of stools, but not enough to stop bowel movements completely, which delays expulsion of the causative organisms from the intestines. They should be avoided in patients with fever, bloody diarrhea, and possible inflammatory diarrhea. Adverse reactions may include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, hives or rash, and loss of appetite. Antimotility agents should not, as a rule, be taken by children under age two.

Epidemiology
An estimated 10 million people—20 to 50% of international travelers—develop TD each year. It is more common in the developing world, where rates exceed 60%, but has been reported in some form in virtually every travel destination in the world.

Society and culture
Moctezuma's revenge is a colloquial term for travelers' diarrhea contracted in Mexico. The name refers to Moctezuma II (1466–1520), the Tlatoani (ruler) of the Aztec civilization who was overthrown by the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés in the early 16th century, thereby bringing large portions of what is now Mexico and Central America under the rule of the Spanish crown. The relevance being that Cortés and his soldiers carried the smallpox virus, which Mexicans had never been exposed to. The resulting infection reduced the population of Tenochtitlan by 40 percent in 1520 alone.

Wilderness diarrhea
Wilderness diarrhea, also called wilderness-acquired diarrhea (WAD) or backcountry diarrhea, refers to diarrhea among backpackers, hikers, campers and other outdoor recreationalists in wilderness or backcountry situations, either at home or abroad. It is caused by the same fecal microorganisms as other forms of travelers' diarrhea, usually bacterial or viral. Since wilderness campsites seldom provide access to sanitation facilities, the infection risk is similar to that of any developing country. Water treatment, good hygiene, and dish washing have all been shown to reduce the incidence of WAD.

title: Travelers' diarrhea


text:
Category:Networking companies

This category includes companies designing or manufacturing components and/or software used in connection with computer networks.

title: Category:Networking companies


text:
Category:American and British English differences

Articles relating to current or former differences between American English and British English.


text:
Gillespie Road

Gillespie Road is a road in Highbury, North London, that runs east–west along the north side of Arsenal Stadium. Arsenal Underground station was originally named Gillespie Road, before being given its current name in 1932 following pressure from the club and its then manager Herbert Chapman. The original name is still displayed on the original Edwardian platform tiling.

title: Gillespie Road


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jacob Lawyer

Jacob Lawyer
Not even good enough to be non-notable. Appears to be a genealogical listing -- the originator is User:Dclawyer. RickK 22:18, Oct 6, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Clearly a genealogical listing, the article makes no attempt to do anything other than state family and date and place of birth. If you want to make a wiki of your geneology, download the software. Don't hog Wikipedia's servers. Average Earthman 22:57, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Wikipedia is not the right place for this info. --Improv 02:41, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Appears to be the same person as this one, i.e. non-notable.  SWAdair | Talk  03:46, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete: Wikipedia is not for genealogy (ancestors are). Geogre 03:40, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. -R. S. Shaw 06:49, 2004 Oct 11 (UTC)


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How to Survive a Marriage

How to Survive a Marriage is an American soap opera that aired on the NBC television network from January 7, 1974 to April 18, 1975. The serial was created by Anne Howard Bailey, with much input from then-NBC Vice President Lin Bolen. The show's working title was From This Moment and was an in-house NBC production.

A total of 332 episodes were produced (255 in its first season, and 77 in its final season).

Synopsis
Larry and his wife Christine (nicknamed "Chris," played by Jennifer Harmon) soon divorced and while battling for custody of their daughter Lori, Chris entered the workforce. On Valentine's Day 1975, Chris and Larry remarried, and she then battled alcoholism.

Initially, the show featured veteran soap actress Rosemary Prinz in the role of Dr. Julie Franklin, a staunch feminist who counseled her friends on the joys of being an independent woman, only to decide that her life was truly complete by marrying a man. Prinz only agreed to stay on the show for a short time (as she had with All My Children several years earlier), and earned top billing, a three-day work week, and supposedly $1,000 an episode, which was a big salary for a soap actress to earn in the 1970s. After six months Julie left town to marry Dr. Tony DeAngelo.

Another major story centered on Fran Bachman (Fran Brill) coping with sudden widowhood. Brill received over a thousand letters of condolence from viewers.

Ratings and cancellation
The show did not profit from the large lead-in that the high-rated Another World provided, mostly due to its many attempts to be socially relevant, which usually took the place of traditional storytelling to which American soap viewers at the time were acclimated. How to Survive a Marriage ran a distant third in the 3:30 p.m. timeslot, behind Match Game on CBS (then daytime TV's highest-rated program) and One Life to Live on ABC; a move to 1:30 p.m. on January 6, 1975 after the cancellation of the original version of the famed game Jeopardy! (it was done to enable Another World to expand to an hour) only brought worse ratings, as it faced two longtime favorites on the competing networks, CBS' As the World Turns which was expanded to an hour (11 months later) and ABC's Let's Make a Deal. Despite NBC's high hopes for How to Survive a Marriage it would only last on the air for sixteen months, ending on a Thursday (the 1:30–3:00 p.m. block on NBC was preempted the following day for a 90-minute special, First Ladies' Diaries: Rachel Jackson). The following Monday April 21, 1975 Days of Our Lives expanded to an hour and assumed the vacant half hour left in NBC's daytime schedule.

How to Survive a Marriage thus holds a rather dubious distinction as not only the first soap opera to become a victim of the first daytime serial, its sister NBC soap Another World, expanding to a full hour, but the second one as well, Days of Our Lives. Numerous other existing serials on ABC and CBS would expand to 60 minutes daily over the next five years or so, cutting down on the number of open 30-minute timeslots available, meaning few if any serials could be launched. This was a strategy employed to minimize risks of new 30-minute shows like How to Survive a Marriage failing to develop an audience in a timely enough manner to suit the networks and advertisers. Several other serials had been canceled over the previous several years due to that issue, including its two predecessors, Bright Promise and Return to Peyton Place. However ABC was successful with Ryan's Hope  , Loving   and   The Edge Of Night  moving to ABC after being cancelled by CBS to make room for As The World Turns  expanding to an hour in December of 1975. All three shows held there own as half hour soaps until they were eventually cancelled. However both ABC & NBC aired new half hour soaps in the 90's NBC's show Generations lasted two years 1989- 1991 before being canceled. ABC's Loving Spinoff the City aired from 1995-1997. Being replaced by the General Hospital spinoff Port Charles which faired better lasting six years from 1997- 2003. CBS however was successful with The Bold and the Beautiful which is still airing today as  the only remaining  half-hour soap on daytime television airing 37 years.

Cast
Fran Brill is now best-known for her work on Sesame Street, where she performed Muppet characters, including Zoe and Prairie Dawn, from 1970 to 2014.

Other cast members included Ken Kercheval (Larry Kirby #2), F. Murray Abraham (Joshua Browne), Armand Assante (Johnny McGhee), and Brad Davis (Alexander Kronos).

Awards and nominations
The serial won Best Sequence at the third annual Afternoon TV Writers & Editors Awards, for "The Death of David Bachman." Fran Brill also won an award from the Afternoon TV Writers & Editors for her portrayal of Fran Bachman during the same award-winning sequence.

title: How to Survive a Marriage


text:
Talk:The Carnival of the Animals

People with Long Ears
My CD cover says that the "People with Long Ears" were actually meant to be critics. Can anybody check this information? --Pt 22:22, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Hey, I looked up your question regarding Saint Saens's The Carnival of the Animals. It seems like "People with Long Ears" may have been referring to donkeys, though some sources do think that he was making a political statement. No one knows for sure... Flcelloguy 18:51, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

 * The violins are going "hee-haw" from the outset. The French Wikipedia article is written with a wit forbidden in English Wikipedia. Note how there isn't a whiff of an idea in this article that these are jeux d'esprit— even, I suspect, in the swooping lyricism of The Swan. --Wetman 02:56, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Reference for the identification of 'Persons with Long Ears' as critics here . I thought this was so well-known as to be incontrovertible: otherwise, why did CS-S not just call the movement 'asses'? Garrick92 10:48, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Adding reference to music critics as donkeys - there are articles from the 1930s onwards in music magazines that make the comparison--Larrybob (talk) 15:03, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

Dances des sylphes
I'm doubtful of the claim that L'Éléphant is derived from Hector Berlioz's Dances des sylphes, for two reasons:

 * 1) It is called "Ballet des sylphes", not "Dances des sylphes."
 * 2) Ballet des sylphes doesn't sound much like L'Éléphant to me. --220.237.67.125 08:50, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

 * The ballet of the sylphs is indeed quoted in "L'Éléphant," though it is not the opening theme. Kostaki mou (talk) 23:52, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Aquarium
Can anyone confirm that the theme of Aquarium is also heard in the soundtrack to The Usual Suspects? Specifically the track entitled "The Greatest Trick" by john Ottman. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.113.74.137 (talk) 20:18, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

The Aquarium also seems to be a theme within Amon Tobin's track "Back from Space" on the Out from Out Where album, but I cannot find any reputable sources to cite (which prevents me from adding this tidbit into the Popular Culture section). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.185.126.254 (talk) 05:27, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

'Satire'
User:118.92.189.35 has just added a long section headed 'Satire' claiming that the movements "in fact" satirise various people and institutions. No citations are given, so I propose to delete this section unless the material is justified very soon. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 22:12, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
 * It's not OR, so far as I know, as I'm pretty sure I've read it before. I'll check my various linar notes to see what turns up. ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ (talk) 22:25, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I've removed it. That editor had posted a chunk of OR at Robin Hood, thought I should check on what else they wrote. The one strong claim made - that Saint Saens himself said that the swan was about Pavlova - couldn't possibly be true, since the piece was written 5 years before Pavlova went to ballet school. Clearly that piece was identified with her later, but the assertion that it was written as a caricature of her is ludicrous. It may well be true that the piece was intended to caricatures other people; but we need something better researched than this. Bazzargh (talk) 12:47, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah, my searchings didn't turn up anything like the paragraph was saying. I could have sworn I've read SOMETHING -- I do know the "Wild Asses" movement is supposedly referring to critics as asses, and the "Pianists" movement is pretty obvious in what it's doing. Beyond that, no idea. ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ (talk) 13:32, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

At this point, the article has an entirely different 'Satire' section, one about parody versions. Before my edit, it was pretty high up in the article, before the original piece has been entirely explained. Therefore, I moved the Satire section down the article. It could perhaps come before the Popular Culture section, but I put it after.--Larrybob (talk) 15:03, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

Pianistes
If anyone trusts me, a magazine recently published an article on Saint-Saens' work. It says that the pianistes are stuck in a cage practicing scales.User:Deathgleaner 03:47, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Substituted non-disruptive version of user signature above. Franamax (talk) 23:26, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

This music is spread around the world by kids who hear many things from thier teachers or just by looking this up online. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.32.47.242 (talk) 21:04, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Rewrote history
I rewrote the whole history section, incorporating as much as possible of what was there, adding references etc.

I removed: the "hendectet" bit as unhelpful and inaccurate. I doubt the word has ever been applied to this work; anyway it "should" be undectet, since the series (sept- oct- non- dec-) is Latin not Greek.

The first performance is given as 26 February by at least two US sources (the one cited, and a CD blurb I have here). European sources seem consistent on 25 Feb, but sources in French often say there were performances on both 25 and 26. (Sat and Sun). Perhaps this was misunderstood, or perhaps it's a timezone conversion problem...

I also rewrote the lede (is that really a word?) and emphasised the comical nature of the work. I have one recording (Previn conducting) in which the pianists disobey the editors' strict note and play their scales like experts. Thank goodness for the performance by "Argerich and friends" which is hilarious.

I added one reference to the thematic catalog found on Google books. I'm not sure of the proper way to show that this supports almost all of the information in this section.

Imaginatorium (talk) 18:48, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Mystery: *Where* was the first (private) performance given? Sources don't give any explicit place, but one assumes it was somewhere in Paris, since (presumably!) that's where these people, Saint-Saëns, Lebouc, etc lived. But Japanese wikipedia, and the entire Japanese web is near unanimous that the first performance was in

Ōsutoria no Kurudimu (オーストリアのクルディム), i.e. somewhere in "Austria" whose name transliterates to Kurudimu. Given that this was an annual Shrove Tuesday concert given by Lebouc it is hard to believe they all got in a carriage and went to Austria for the performance, but could this be the name of the "village" where S-S wrote the piece? The only occurrence (in Japanese) of this name I could find that is unconnected with Carnival is in the Battle of Chotusitz, where the WP:en article is no help, but Czech and German versions mention [Chrudim], a town in Bohemia. Not quite a "village in Austria", but why this coy description? (S-S does seem to have had a penchant for wandering off to get away from things and people...) To be honest I think this is all likely to be a red herring, but perhaps someone better at Prussian-Austrian history can investigate...

Imaginatorium (talk) 05:43, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

The melody is a quote of Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Little Swans from Swan Lake.
Is it? The outline is similar, but Tchaikovsky's tune is in minor, this is in major and there are other differences. What's your authority for saying this? Kostaki mou (talk) 21:29, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

 * I removed this claim entirely. It is certainly not a quotation, and not even really similar. The S-S is in march rhythm (dum-dum-dum-dum), while Tsch has (hmm-cha-cha-cha), with the first beat not present in the melodic line; the remainder of the rhythm is different. The harmonic progression is different, and the only melodic similarity is really a repeated note ending in a turn. Imaginatorium (talk) 17:22, 24 December 2013 (UTC)

Translations of titles (etc)
The titles were given the translations in the Dover reprint, several of which seemed odd to me. I replaced them with the titles used in the IMSLP page, so I cannot be accused of personal whatsit. For example, the cuckoo being in the "deep woods" strikes me as a mistranslation. I also replaced the bit about Pianists: the editors' note is in the original edition in French, and this seems preferable to Dover's version (where did 'hesitant' come from??) Imaginatorium (talk) 17:27, 24 December 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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Choice of Link---language
The page references Charles Turban (simply as "Turban")and there is no article on Turban in English, so the link goes to a Wikipedia article in another language. That's fine. What I found odd was the link goes to a page in Catalan. It seems to me that since Turban was French, the Wikipedia page about Turban in French would be the logical choice.

EinkomischerKauz (talk) 22:42, 25 May 2021 (UTC)
 * The French article was only created in March this year, so (presumably) didn't exist when that link was added. As it's longer than the Catalan version it seems a good idea to use it instead. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 10:27, 26 May 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:The Carnival of the Animals


text: File:32X Chaotix.png

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