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Chicago – New York Electric Air Line Railroad

The Chicago – New York Electric Air Line Railroad (CNY) was a proposed high-speed electric air-line railroad between Chicago and New York City in the early 20th century. At roughly 750 mi it would have been over 150 mi shorter than the two primary steam railroads on that route, the New York Central Railroad and Pennsylvania Railroad. The promoters' vision proved wildly optimistic and, in the end, only a short interurban route in the vicinity of Gary, Indiana was built and operated. It was the most ambitious of several such proposals at the dawn of electric railroading, all of which ended in failure.

The trade magazine Railway Age critiqued the project at the time it was announced in July 1906 and gave this damning judgment: "Speaking seriously, for the moment, about this fraudulent investment scheme one is in doubt whether to wonder most at the gigantic effrontery of the perpetrators, the gullibility of the poor dupes who will flood the mails with their subscriptions, or the carelessness if not cupidity of the newspaper publishers who seem to sanction the swindle by giving it publicity."

Background
The Air Line scheme was not the first proposed high-speed electric railway in the USA. In 1893 Dr. Wellington Adams promoted a 252 mi Chicago–St. Louis route with a maximum operating speed of 100 mph. Adams believed the new railroad could be built in a year for $5.5 million ($ adjusted for inflation). Trade publications ridiculed the proposal, and it went nowhere.

Elsewhere, global developments in electric railroading was proceeding apace at the turn of the century. In 1903, a railcar from Siemens & Halske and AEG reached 200 kph on the experimental Marienfelde–Zossen military railway outside Berlin. Commercial projects, however, did not progress. Proposed electric railways such as Berlin–Hamburg and Wien–Budapest proved too expensive.

Several interurbans in the United States had made fast demonstration runs at the same time. In 1903 an interurban on the Aurora, Elgin & Chicago Railway covered the 35 mi between Aurora and Chicago in 34 minutes 39 seconds despite the loss of over 6 minutes in stops, and numerous speed reductions for steam railroads, trolley lines (tramways), and street and highway crossings. In 1905 Pacific Electric mogul Henry E. Huntington made the Los Angeles–Long Beach run (20 mi) in 15 minutes in a private railcar at an average speed at 80 mph was higher than for the projected Air Line trains.

Proposal
Alexander C. Miller (1852–1918) had been the chief dispatcher of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad before founding the Aurora Trust and Savings Bank in his home town of Aurora, Illinois (served by the Aurora, Elgin & Chicago Railway) and establishing the Miller Train Control Corporation to market his invention of a railroad signalling block system.

In July 1906, he took out advertisements in Chicago newspapers for the Chicago–New York Electric Air Line Railroad Company, offering 20,000 $100 shares in this firm (the unit shares were later reduced to $25). The company avoided raising funds through bonds or the money market, and relied entirely on selling shares. This was important later -there was to be no need to pay interest on capital. The form of the name -Chicago before New York- demonstrated the focus of the initial advertising campaign.

The proposed physical characteristics of the project were impressive, and far ahead of contemporary practice: Quadruple track (later reduced to double) on a hundred-foot-wide (30 metre) right of way, grades not exceeding 1%, no grade crossings, and a straight-line route which, at 742 mi, would be 150 mi shorter than other routes. Further, it was promised that there would be no curves requiring speeds below 90 mph. Trains would run at an average 100 mph, and complete the journey between Chicago and New York in 10 hours at a flat fare of $10. The motive power was to be electric locomotives powered by a third rail -there were no working prototypes of these yet.

At the time the two fastest steam-hauled trains between New York and Chicago, the New York Central Railroad's 20th Century Limited and the Pennsylvania Railroad's Pennsylvania Special (forerunner of the more famous Broadway Limited), each required twenty hours to make the journey.

Part of the proposal was that the main line would avoid towns and cities on the way, but that these would be provided with feeder spurs or branches. Mentioned were Toledo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh (although the branch to the last named would have been lengthy).

Inception
The Air Line Company was set up to be a holding company, with the actual construction done by a series of local firms established under state laws. The first, and only, one of these was incorporated under the state laws of Indiana on 16 April 1904 and was the Goshen, South Bend and Chicago Railroad (GSB&C). It contracted the Co-operative Construction Company (formed for the purpose by one of the promoters named Jonathon D. Price) to begin work, and obtained the necessary land by having another promoter, Colonel Upshaw P. Hord, persuade local farmers to exchange land in return for shares.

Construction began ceremonially on 1 September 1906 at La Porte, Indiana, on the first of the feeder branches from downtown to a rural location dubbed South La Porte where the junction with the main line and the operating headquarters were to be. Miller cut the first sod there with a silver spade, and there was much junketing. However, serious work only began in the New Year. The 3.5 mi branch took until 15 June 1907 to finish and open, and this slow progress was the first sign of problems.

For the opening, the CSB&C bought two standard wooden combine interurban electric passenger cars from the Niles Car and Manufacturing Company. As a publicity stunt, their paintwork included destination names reading New York at one end and Chicago at the other. Down each side was Chicago Air Line New York. The car barn built at South La Porte had a fascia reading Chicago New York Air Line, and Air Line was to be the name used for the passenger service of the CSB&C throughout its history.

Meanwhile, the promoters had begun the publication of a monthly periodical boosting the scheme, the Air Line News, in October 1906. This dramatized every development in the construction work, for example: "A huge Vulcan steam shovel is already on the job, taking big bites out of hills that stand in the path of the straight and level speedway that is to be the Air Line". The editor was Charles Burton, a veteran Indiana journalist and former printer of the state's official publications. The project was trumpeted nationally, stock sold with great rapidity and, by the end of the year, the company had 15 000 shareholders and funds of $2 000 000.

Building the main line
The section of the main line that was actually built, 17.5 mi, ran from South La Porte westwards to a location north of Woodville named Goodrum after George C. Goodrum, a major shareholder from Fall River, Massachusetts. There were three railroad crossings in this distance, over the Pere Marquette Railway, Monon Railroad and the Wabash Railroad. Each of these was provided with a heavy girder bridge, approached by immense fills to keep the gradients down. The fill material came from two deep cuts on the route. The track was built to steam-road standards, allegedly with 85 pound (38.5 kg) rail and white oak ties -in fact, 60 pound (27 kg) rails were used. Every sixth tie was extra long to accommodate the future third conducting rail, although a trolley wire was strung to power the cars as a temporary measure. Only a single track was laid, although there was space for a second. Investors were taken out to view these two portions of the line in operation, and the continuing work. However, further progress continued to be slow and the depression of 1907–1908 worsened the financial problems arising.

The main line was opened to Westville Road (Route 421), just east of the Monon Railroad bridge, in June 1908. To generate some revenue, an amusement park called "Air Line Park" was set up west of the Pere Marquette Railroad bridge. This proved very successful, and thousands visited on weekends when a ten-cent shuttle service from La Porte was provided. This was to be the only public service on the main line for the next three years, running from La Porte to Westville Road and back.

The eventual downfall of the Air Line scheme arose as a result of the capital expended on crossing Coffee Creek, a minor watercourse running west of the Wabash Railroad bridge. To keep to the advertised grade prescribed by the incredibly stringent engineering specifications, the GSB&C engineered a monstrous fill across the little creek's valley, 180 feet (55 metres) wide and two miles (3 km) long and containing a steel trestle for stability. The extent of this work meant that the line only opened to Goodrum on 1 November 1911.

The immense expense occasioned by this engineering work, and some alleged (but never prosecuted or substantiated) accounting irregularities as well as other putatively fraudulent practices, led to the failure of the main line to extend beyond a dozen and a half miles through the Indiana countryside. The GSB&C only ever ran a total of 21 mi on its own tracks, according to its official reports.

Gary and Interurban Railway
The GSB&C Air Line railway company quickly morphed into an electric railway system serving the new city of Gary, and this process was underway even before the Coffee Creek fill was finished in 1911.

Gary came into being when the United States Steel Corporation constructed a new steelworks on a virgin site on Lake Michigan in the spring of 1906, and when the city was platted, three main streets were created wide enough to include reserve track streetcar lines. Hence, the streetcar service could use equipment of interurban standard, and this was reflected in the name of the streetcar company founded on 18 July 1907, the Gary and Interurban Railway. There was no initial official connection with the GSB&C, but the Co-operative Construction Company building the latter's main line was also responsible for its construction.

The system opened on 20 May 1908, and by year's end had a spine route north to south on Broadway. This ran from the steelworks main gate at 4th Avenue to the city limits at the Little Calumet River bridge, and two crosstown routes ran west of this to the city limits—one on 5th Avenue and the other on 11th Avenue (10th Avenue from Broadway to the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge).

The first major extension of the system was to Hammond to the west, when the 11th Avenue line was extended via Clark Road, 9th Avenue, Summer (now 165th) Street and Sibley Street to a terminus loop on Calumet-State-Hohman. This opened on 8 February 1910.

Unfortunately, as part of its franchise the streetcar company agreed with the city to limit fares within city limits to three cents for any ride, or ten for a quarter (25 cents). No provision was made for inflation.

Valparaiso and Northern Railway
Meanwhile, on 25 August 1908 the GSB&C incorporated an independent but wholly owned subsidiary company, the Valparaiso and Northern Railway, to build two feeder branches connecting to the main line at Goodrum and serving Valparaiso to the south and Chesterton to the north. Again construction work dragged on, for the lines opened from Valparaiso to the popular recreational destination of Flint Lake on 4 July 1910, Chesterton to Goodrum on 18 February 1911, Flint Lake to Woodville on 7 October 1911 and from Woodville over a bridge crossing the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line to Goodrum on 17 February 1912. The GSB&C was then given an east-to-north curve to connect to the new Valparaiso to Chesterton through line at Goodrum, while excavation continued to the west to the fourth railroad bridge which was to be over the B&O at a very skew angle.

Gary Connecting Railways
By 1911, it was obvious that the future of the GSB&C Air Line railway could only be secured by providing an immediate connection with the streetcar network of Gary. So, on 1 June 1911 a company entitled the Gary Connecting Railways was incorporated as the second wholly owned subsidiary of the GSB&C. It immediately began construction of a connecting line, beginning at Broadway & 11th Avenue, downtown at Gary, and running down Central Avenue to East Gary. This was opened on 6 January 1912. (East Gary used to be called Lake Station, but changed its name to East Gary in 1908. It changed its name back to Lake Station in 1977, owing to Gary having become a post-industrial slum.) The line was completed to Woodville on 14 August 1912, and made a triangular wye junction with the Valparaiso and Northern Railway at a spot called Woodville Junction, just south of the latter's bridge over the B&O railroad and on the other side of the latter from Goodrum.

An important aspect of this connecting line was, that the route ran along the authorised route of the original Air Line scheme from East Gary until it met the B&O railroad at a location called Babcock. It then hugged the south side of the railroad until it reached Woodville Junction. The direct skew bridge under construction over the railroad at Babcock was abandoned. This was the definitive indication that the dream of a Chicago to New York express line was finally dead.

Also important was that the line crossed the Michigan Central Railroad at Garyton (now part of Portage) on the level. A junction curve was put in place for freight exchange, and the GSB&C invested in dedicated equipment in to develop a freight service.

The completion of this line also allowed a Hammond to La Porte via Gary passenger service, beginning 5 September 1912. This became known as the Air Line service locally.

In the same year, the GSB&C decided to shut its power plant at South La Porte and purchase electricity from a public source as this was cheaper.

East Chicago Street Railway
The last initiative of the GSB&C was the promotion of a streetcar company called the East Chicago Street Railway to serve Indiana Harbor. This subsidiary was incorporated on 23 July 1912, and opened from the end of the 5th Avenue line at Gary's city limits via Cline Avenue, 145th Street, Cedar Street and Guthrie Street to a terminus on Watling Street. This opened on 15 February 1913.

Gary and Interurban Railroad
Shareholders of the Air Line Company rebelled in 1911, and began a movement to purchase the Gary and Interurban Railway streetcar system in order to safeguard even a small part of their investment. This was successful, but the stock of the latter company was purchased with funds raised by the sale of 4% fixed interest bonds. When a controlling interest had been acquired, the Cary and Interurban Railroad Company was incorporated on 28 January 1913. This consolidated the GSB&C, the Gary and Interurban Railway, the East Chicago Street Railway, the Gary Connecting Railways and the Valparaiso and Northern Railway. The Chicago–New York Electric Air Line Railroad Company was wound up, and the Air Line News abruptly ceased publication. This was the official abandonment of the great express electric railway scheme.

The morph from an express electric railway project into a city streetcar and interurban system was complete, but was only to last intact for just under five years. A loop line was added from Indiana Harbor to Hammond, from 145th & Main, Parish Avenue, Chicago Avenue and Kennedy Avenue -this became important for the freight service of the GSB&C. Also added was a spur along Bridge Street in Gary to the gates of the American Bridge Company plant.

Gary and Southern Traction
The city of Gary had two other interurban lines, not part of the Air Line system but having trackage on it to access the downtown interurban station at 11th & Broadway and also to run on to the gates of the steelworks at the north end of Broadway.

The first to open, in 1912, was the Gary and Southern Traction which continued the Broadway streetcar line to Lottaville (now part of Merrillville) and Crown Point.

Gary and Hobart Traction
The other was the Gary and Hobart Traction, which had an abortive opening with a gasoline car later in 1912 but was shut after a month. Electrification and permanent opening was in 1914. The route was along 37th Avenue from the Broadway line, through Froebel and New Chicago to terminate at 3rd and Main in Hobart.

End of original railway
The refusal of the city to allow fare rises for journeys in Gary led to a shortfall in income which caused the Gary and Interurban Railway company to default on a bond issue repayment at the start of 1915. As a result, a receiver was appointed on 17 October 1915.

On 1 January 1916, one of the original cars and the GSB&C's work motor met in a head-on collision in fog at Brooks just west of Air Line Park. The passenger car was telescoped and had to be scrapped, three people were killed and twelve injured.

On 18 September 1917 the receiver oversaw the breakup of the G&I into its constituent parts, and their separate sale. The original Air Line company shareholders were finally wiped out.

The GSB&C was capitalised at $7 000 000. Its assets, comprising the line, rolling stock and equipment, were sold for $75 000. This was an upset price, meaning that it was the minimum acceptable according to a true valuation. Since the company was a statutory public service, for the next 24 days a shuttle was run from La Porte to Goodrum. After the required legal formalities, service on the Air Line railway ceased on 3 November 1917, and the tracks and bridges east of Goodrum were recovered for scrap.

Survival of system
The truncated Air Line system did, however, survive.

The streetcar system became the Gary Street Railway in 1917, and continued to expand. in 1918 the line to the Sheet Mill and Tin Mill of the American Sheet & Tin Plate Company was opened from 5th Avenue & Buchanan Street. In 1924, a line was opened to the National Tube Company plant via 5th Avenue, Virginia Street and 2nd Avenue. Later in the same year, the 5th Avenue portion of this was extended as another new line, to Lake Street in Miller. On the other hand, the Indiana Harbor to Hammond line was abandoned as unprofitable and this was the first contraction.

The lines from Gary to Valparaiso and Chesterton went to the Gary and Valparaiso Railway, which hence inherited what was left of the Air Line system. The Chesterton line was replaced by a bus in 1922.

Gary Railways
In 1925, there was a major consolidation of Gary's railways under the Gary Railways company which was owned by the Midland Utilities Corporation of Samuel Insull. All the surviving railways were annexed, except the Crown Point line which was bought out in 1928.

Conversion of routes to buses began in 1933, with the Crown Point line beyond 45th Avenue. In 1935, the Miller line went and in 1938 the conversion of the whole system was begun. In that year the line between Tin Mill and Sheet Mill was closed, and the Valparaiso service cut back to Garyton on 22 October. This reduced the Air Line system to a stub. In 1939, the Hobart and Indiana Harbor lines went and the Fifth Avenue line cut back to the Pennsylvania Railroad station. Bridge Street and Tin Works were closed in 1940 and the stub on Fifth Avenue in 1941.

Final end
What was left at the start of 1942 were the Broadway, Hammond, Tube Works and Garyton lines. The last named terminated at a loop installed when the Valparaiso line closed in 1938, and the half mile of track before this was the very last section of the authorised route of the Air Line scheme to have a rail service.

The final end of the Air Line saga came on 22 October 1942, when the last Garyton car returned to Gary in the evening.

The outbreak of war saved the remaining lines for a time. The Hammond and Broadway lines were converted to buses in 1946, leaving a little shuttle service from 5th & Broadway to Tube Works. The last streetcar in Gary ran on 28 February 1948.

Route
The Air Line system before 1917 consisted of a main line from 11th and Broadway in Gary to La Porte, with two branches to Chesterton and Valparaiso.

The Continuation line ran south-east along Central Avenue through Kimmel and Pine Street to East Gary, which it entered on Fairview Avenue. From Garyton, it took the authorised course of the original Air Line scheme through Garyton, Crisman, McCool and Babcock before following the B&O railroad through Eastman to Woodville Junction where the Valparaiso branch met in a triangular wye. The line turned north as the Valparaiso Northern, and continued as the branch to Chesterton. This was a short distance, with no intermediate stops.

The Valparaiso line had three intermediate stops at Wahob, Burlington Beach (for Flint Lake) and Vale Park. It terminated at Lincoln & Franklin without a loop but with a reversing wye on Lincoln.

The Air Line service went round the north side of the triangular wye at Woodville junction, across the B&O bridge to Goodrum. Here, it had to reverse onto the original Air Line railway because the junction curve was north to east, with a station building in the angle. The main line then ran arrow-straight due east to South La Porte. After the notorious Coffee Creek fill (now obliterated by the Toll Road), stops were: Smiley, County Line, Westville Road, Brooks, Air Line Park and Door Village. Apart from the last, these each had a short spur with the junction facing east.

South La Porte is no longer a named locality, the rural location being at the south end of the main runway of La Porte Airport. However it was the operational headquarters, and had a combined car barn and power house. Here also was a north to east spur from the Pere Marquette Railroad (now also abandoned), allowing freight exchange and coal delivery to the power house. The track from this spur ran down the side of the power house and car barn to the La Porte Branch where the junction faced the city, and cars exited the barn down this track and reversed if they were going in the Goodrum direction. A short connecting line ran from next to the barn to the main line, west to east.

The La Porte branch turned north before State Route 39, from the east of the car barn to run into La Porte along I Street via what is now S 150 W. After stops at Andrews and Fair Grounds, it arrived at a terminal loop running round Lincoln, Monroe, Jefferson and Madison.

On Lincoln Way was also the terminal loop track of the two lines of another interurban, the Chicago, South Bend and Northern Indiana Railway to Michigan City and to Goshen via South Bend. The two companies were friendly, and exchanged freight here. Also, passengers for the Air Line used the CSB&NI facilities since the GSB&C did not maintain any in the city.

Passengers
The GSB&C's little roster of rolling stock was subsumed into that of the Gary and Interurban Railroad in 1913. However, the company kept legal possession and so the stable was sold on with the line in 1917.

The original two 1907 power cars obtained from the Niles Car and Manufacturing Company in 1907 were numbered 101 and 102. This pair's original paintwork proclaimed the "Chicago Air Line New York". They were renumbered G&I 400 and 401 in 1913. To handle the traffic to the Air Line Park amusement ground, in 1909 three unpowered trailer cars were ordered from the McGuire-Cummings Manufacturing Company and these were originally numbered 103, 104 and 105.

However, two more power cars were purchased from the McGuire-Cummings Company in 1912, which were given the numbers 103 and 104 and also names: Ohm and Ampere. The trailers became 105, 106 and 107. In 1913, these became G&I 402, 403, 500, 2300 and 2301.

400 was wrecked in the fatal accident at Brooks on 1 January 1916, when it met the work motor 3000 (see below). Its sister, 401, was sold to The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company. 402 and 403 were sold to the Des Moines and Central Iowa Railway. 500 was apparently scrapped, but 2300 and 2301 went to the Gary and Valparaiso Railway.

Freight
There were six box cars for freight, numbered 2000 to 2005. Three of them were from McGuire-Cummings, but 2000 to 2002 were second-hand from an unknown manufacturer and were apparently disposed of or scrapped in 1913. The M-C cars kept their numbers. 2001 was cut down into a flat car numbered 2002 in 1922, and the other two were scrapped in 1926

Number 3000 was a double-truck M-C work motor which could haul box cars, and this also kept its number in 1913. Its fate in 1917 is unknown.

Finally, 1001 was an express freight motor cars, new from M-C and built for the job -not a converted passenger car. This also was sold to the Des Moines and Central Iowa Railway, and survived into the Fifties.

All this freight equipment was also bought in 1912.

Passenger
After the opening of the connecting line to Gary from Woodville in 1912, the Air Line service comprised a through run from Hammond to La Porte via Gary, and used the four cars 101 to 104. This was semi-fast, dovetailed to run in between local services, and had a 15-minute layover at the main interurban station at Gary which was at 11th and Broadway. The total time taken to get to La Porte from Hammond was two and a half hours. The New York Central Railroad ran from Indiana Harbor, just north of Hammond, to La Porte in one and three quarter hours.

At first, there were eight weekday return trips and nine at weekends. In 1916 this was down to six each way daily.

At Woodville Junction, the service connected with shuttles running to Chesterton and Valparaiso. The former was a short ride, but the latter had three intermediate stops at Wahob, Burlington Beach (for Flint Lake) and Vale Park. Very limited services were offered from Gary direct to the two towns.

Freight
The GSB&C actively solicited freight traffic after 1912, when it bought an electric motor, box cars and an express car. By 1916, it had forty regular shippers. Before 1912, very limited less-than-carload (LCL) freight could be accommodated in the baggage compartments of the passenger cars. Dedicated local service was offered after that year from Indiana Harbor via Hammond, through Gary and Garyton to Woodville and then through La Porte to South Bend and Goshen via the Chicago, South Bend and Northern Indiana Railway. Thus, the Goshen, South Bend and Chicago Railway could finally claim to serve the first city in its title -even though not with a passenger service.

Freight forwarding to more distant locations was also done via the connections to the Pere Marquette Railroad at South La Porte and the Michigan Central Railroad at Garyton. The freight depot was opposite the passenger station at 11th & Broadway in Gary.

The most important commodity was milk, because roads in rural Indiana were still unsealed and the interurban gave local farmers marketing opportunities in Gary which they would not otherwise have. In 1913 70 cans went to Gary daily, but in 1916 there were 270.

After the GSB&C was abandoned in 1917, freight traffic on the Gary streetcar network mostly ceased.

Remains
Earthworks on the Air Line's right-of-way and some of the colossal concrete bridge abutments are still visible to this day, and much of the route is visible as property boundaries. The abutments are on the abandoned Pere Marquette and Monon railroad lines.

Indiana Historical Bureau erected a historical marker in 1995 commemorating the scheme at CR250S & IN-39. The scanty ruins of the South La Porte power house cum car barn are extant near here, to the west of IN-39. If you go down south on S 150 W, continuing I Street from La Porte, you can find a track to the north of a farmstead, which is on the alignment of the main line to New York. It stopped right here, and got no further.

At the other end, at Goodrum, ruins of a power house are in woods on the east side of IN-49 south of the Indiana Toll Road and near the junction with the N Calumet Avenue (the old IN-49). The Coffee Creek fill has mostly been obliterated by the building of the Toll Road.

Legacy
The Air Line project has been called the greatest fiasco of the interurban era. However, the completed portion did become the progenitor of a successful street railway system after the initial financial woes.

Also, several other interurbans to as high a standard as the Air Line – though at a much smaller scale – were built. In 1907, the Philadelphia and Western Railroad opened its Upper Darby–Strafford line near Philadelphia with maximum grades of 2%, no grade crossings, and an absolute block signalling system (Middleton 1968, p. 109). And after World War I, the railway tycoon Samuel Insull upgraded the interurbans around Chicago, and station-to-station averages as high as 70 miles per hour were frequently attained (Middleton 1968, p. 67). Parts of these lines are in use even today.

In 1943, Commander Edwin J. Quinby wrote a lengthy history of the CNYEAL for the publication Electric Railroads and closed the report with the following:

"And as time goes on, electric railroad enthusiasts will visit the right-of-way over which the original construction work was done—and some of the more imaginative individuals will hear the deep-throated whistle of a big palatial interurban as its spirit still streaks along this romantic pike, and they will catch a glimpse of the golden inscription CHICAGO on one end of the car as it flashes by, and NEW YORK on the other end—hurrying, hurrying—for 36 years have passed since it started on its swift way and it hasn't reached either place."


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Talk:Mr. Sandman

Chord progression?

 * The chord progression in each chorus follows the circle of fifths through a lengthy series of secondary dominant chords (VII7, III7, VI7, II7, V7, Imaj7).

No it doesn't. Who writes this rubbish?

This piece is littered with fanciful anecdotes which are nonsensical and should be removed. Cleanup needed. Good golly Miss Molly.Brett Alexander Hunter (talk) 06:54, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

Song was also featured in the movie "Back to the Future"
See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088763/soundtrack 70.188.182.130 19:00, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Naruto?
I guess the Naruto reference should be edited out, right?
 * I decided to be bold and delete that reference —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)

Spam
The bottom link "paul sandman" might be spam... seb
 * It is. Deleted it. Alchemagenta (talk) 19:12, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Stubbs the Zombie
A cover version was in Stubbs the Zombie can someone figure out the cover artist and add the information.--Kamikaze14 (talk) 03:35, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Liberace!
Should mention the Liberace connection... AnonMoos (talk) 17:33, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Dead external links to Allmusic website – January 2011
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Other Version
In other versions, could you include Cheat Codes for Hoes by Shotgun Willy? 2600:1700:D150:17F0:70F8:9088:2C68:F489 (talk) 19:13, 23 May 2023 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Mr. Sandman


text:
Plan 9 from Outer Space (video game)

Plan 9 from Outer Space is a point and click adventure game adaptation of the film of the same name. It was developed at the Irish office of Gremlin Graphics for the Amiga and Atari ST, and was released in 1992. The game was published by Gremlin in Europe and by Konami in the United States. A DOS version was also developed, though only released in the US and Europe. Two editions of the game were made available at retail; the more common version was packaged with a VHS copy of the film, while a rarer version contained only the game.

Background
The game is inspired by the 1957 Z-movie Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Plot
The game starts when the producer notices that the film has been stolen by Bela Lugosi's double. The player must carry out an epic search of the locations where Plan 9 from Outer Space was filmed to find the six missing reels.

From the back of the DOS version box:

 * Plan 9. The critics hated it. Bela Lugosi died during it. And his double has stolen it.

 * Lugosi's replacement is still bitter after 33 years from critics' reviews dubbing his only movie "The Worst Film of All-Time". Even though he remained faceless, he intends to bring glory to the cult classic using more footage of himself and ... colorizing it. As the studio's Private Eye you'll search over 70 locations, find the 6 reels and screen the film, frame-by-frame, to ensure that the warped actor did not cut Bela from the flick. Using actual digitized film footage, you'll sweat each scene, examining Plan 9 with slow motion, freeze frame, fast forward and rewind. It's up to you to preserve its original awfulness.

Reception
Computer Gaming World's Charles Ardai criticized the game's "cheap" user interface and mediocre graphics and sound, which made him uncertain whether various continuity errors were accidental or intended to satirize the film. Ardai stated that "Plan 9 is a genuinely, intentionally funny piece of work, which puts it several notches above the movie (in my opinion) ... thoroughly enjoyable", and funnier than Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders. He added, however, that as "a licensed product, parasitic on an original work ... its smirking digs at this rather pathetic relic of a movie ... sometimes has the tone of a schoolyard bully taking cheap shots at a defenseless victim". Without the sincerity and "guilelessness" of Wood's film: "In this respect, the game attains a degree of cheapness that even the movie didn't reach, which is quite an accomplishment". The game was reviewed in 1993 in Dragon #190 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 2 out of 5 stars.

Reviews

 * Amiga Action (May 1992)
 * Zero (June 1992)
 * Joker Verlag präsentiert: Sonderheft (1993)
 * Amiga Joker (May 1992)
 * Amiga Computing (October 1992)
 * CU Amiga (May 1992)
 * ST Format (November 1992)
 * Amiga Format (October 1992)
 * Amiga Power (October 1992)

title: Plan 9 from Outer Space (video game)


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Bellsmyre

Bellsmyre is a large housing estate in the town of Dumbarton in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Located on the edge of the Kilpatrick Hills in the northeast of Dumbarton. Bellsmyre is one of five predominantly council housing schemes in Dumbarton, the other four being Westcliff, Silverton, Brucehill and Castlehill.

The estate was originally masterplanned by the architect Ninian Johnston of Boswell, Mitchell & Johnston. The first streets were built in the late 1940s, i.e. Aitkenbar Circle, Bellsmyre Avenue, Carman View and Lomond Drive. The original houses in Bellsmyre are recognisable as they are British Iron and Steel Federation houses The scheme was expanded by the Scottish Special Housing Association (SSHA) in the 1950s as a municipal housing estate, with many residents moving from the city of Glasgow as part of the "overspill" programme of moving people from inner city districts to new towns and other areas outwith the city boundaries. Much of the remaining publicly owned housing under landlord Scottish Homes was transferred to the Bellsmyre Housing Association in 1992.

There are two later built areas adjacent to Bellsmyre; Stoneyflatt and Glenside, of which Stoneyflatt has been almost totally demolished to make way for new mixed tenure housing.

There are also two primary schools in the area, namely Aitkenbar and St Peter's. St Peter's Roman Catholic Church in Bellsmyre was designed by Garner, Preston & Strebel and opened in 1971, winning a RIBA award in 1973.

In 2002, Bellsmyre was selected as the pilot area for a Scottish Executive digital inclusion project, which entailed the free provision of home computers with internet access to all households in the area.

On 5 June 2007, an unexploded World War II bomb was found at a housing construction site, and some houses nearby and Aitkenbar Primary School were evacuated. The pupils were relocated to St Peters Primary School for that day.

It was the childhood home of John McFall, a former MP for Dumbarton and the current the Lord Speaker. In a profile of him after his election, The Times noted, "the language which Lord McFall of Alcluith uses to describe the way peers scrutinise and amend bills passed to them from the House of Commons, is pure Bellsmyre."

title: Bellsmyre


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Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Trinity test

Trinity test
I find this article very well written and meticulously cited. While it is a bit on the short side, there are exemplary pictures that add substantially to the content of the article. Moreover, this was a significant historical event and should be given due notice. Eszett 12:47, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Object
 * No "after" pictures of ground zero.
 * No mention is made of instrumentation used to record the test.
 * You really should work a link to rainout into the last paragraph of the "preparing the test" section.
 * No mention is made of the actual yield.
 * No mention is made of the window-breaking effects of the explosion.
 * No mention is made of the reaction of area residents to the explosion.
 * No mention is made of the fallout effects of the test (ruined photographic plates in New York, for example).
 * --Carnildo 07:09, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Re #1, The article already had a aerial photo from 1945, and a photo of the site today. I've added a 1945 photo of two men standing in the crater.--Bcrowell 18:59, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Object, the lead section needs to be lengthened and better written. --Oldak Quill 11:51, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Weak object
 * This sentence needs to be rewritten: "For the actual test, the plutonium-core nuclear weapon, nicknamed the gadget, was hoisted on the top of a 20-metre steel tower for detonation — the height would give a better indication of what the weapon would be like when dropped from an airplane, as detonation in the air would maximize the amount of energy applied directly to the target (as it expanded in a spherical shape), and would kick up the least nuclear fallout." I didn't rewrite it myself, because I wasn't sure what it was saying. Maybe the thought would be clearer if it was broken up into several short sentences.
 * I agree with Oldak that the lead should be longer.
 * I agree with Carnildo about the need for more discussion of the instrumentation (even at a basic level: photography, seismometers, ...?) I'm guessing that the lack of information about the public reaction was because there was not much public reaction: the announcement came after the bombs were dropped on Japan, which meant the war was over, and people were a lot more likely to be interested in that than in the fact that the bombs had previously been tested. But anyhow, this should be made more clear in the article, and from the discussion on the article's talk page, it looks like that's going to require more research.
 * Carnildo's points 5, and 7 seem to hint that he has relevant information, so Carnildo, could you point us to the information? Re point 3, I assume there was no rainout, since the test was done in a desert, so I don't think the link would be relevant. Re point 7, I don't think it's physically plausible that this would have happened; this may be an urban folk tale.
 * This is a great article that's marred by only a few flaws, and I'd be happy to change my vote to support if the issues about the lead and the instrumentation were fixed.--Bcrowell 17:57, 26 August 2005 (UTC)
 * The source was a book I read a few years ago called "The Day the Sun Rose Twice". I don't have access to it anymore -- those are just some of the things I remember from it. --Carnildo 19:35, 26 August 2005 (UTC)


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Enggano Island

Enggano Island (Pulau Enggano) is about 114 km southwest of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is one of the 92 officially listed outlying islands of Indonesia, though it can also be considered a barrier island of Sumatra.

Enggano (the name means "mistake" in Portuguese) is about 29 km long from east to west and about 14 km wide from north to south. Its area is 400.6 km2 including four small offshore islands around its coast - Pulau Merbau, Pulau Dua and tiny Pulau Banggai off Enggano's east coast, and Pulau Satu off its south coast. The average elevation is about 100 m, and the highest point is 281 m.

Politically, it forms a district (kecamatan) of the North Bengkulu Regency of the Indonesian province of Bengkulu. The three largest villages on the island are Barhau, Kabuwe and Kayaapu. According to the Indonesian Kantor Statistik for Bengkulu, the island had 1,420 inhabitants in 1989. This number rose, according to the Pukesmas, to 1,635 by 1994, with 64% of the population claiming descent from the Engganese people. There has subsequently been much immigration, mainly from Java and Sumatra, so that the original Engganese are much outnumbered by the new arrivals. There were 2,691 inhabitants at the 2010 Census, and the 2020 Census showed a population of 4,035, while the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 4,502.

Villages
There are six villages on Enggano Island, which are all located on the island's only main road, which traverses the island's northeast coast (Yoder 2011:6).
 * Kayaapu
 * Kaana
 * Malakoni
 * Apoho
 * Meok
 * Banjarsari

Malakoni, Apoho, and Meok have more Enggano natives, and the other villages have larger immigrant populations. There are ferries to Bengkulu from Kahayapu and Malakoni (Yoder 2011:6).

A small island just across from Kahyapu is named 'Pulau Dua' (second island). On Pulau Dua there is only one place to spend the night.

History
The name of the island suggests some early contact with Portuguese traders (engano means mistake), but the earliest published account is that of Cornelis de Houtman, dating from June 5, 1596, who was unable to land a boat.

In 1771, Charles Miller succeeded in landing and meeting the indigenous population. With great difficulty and danger we beat up the whole South-west side of it, without finding any place where we could attempt to land; and we lost two anchors and had very near suffered shipwreck before we found a secure place into which we might run the vessel. At last, however we discovered a spacious harbour at the South-east end of the island and I immediately went into it in the boat, and ordered the vessel to follow me as soon as possible, for it was then a dead calm. We rowed directly into this bay; and as soon as we had got round the point of an island which lay off the harbour, we discovered all the beach covered with naked savages who were all armed with lances and clubs; and twelve canoes all full of them who, till we had passed them, had lain concealed, immediately rushed out upon me, making a horrid noise: this, you may suppose, alarmed us greatly; and as I had only one European and four black soldiers, besides the four lascars that rowed the boat. I thought it best to turn, if possible under the guns of the vessel before I ventured to speak with them. Eventually, he met these "noble savages" and learned something of their natural, matriarchal, atheist, and property-sharing culture. "They are a tall, well-made people; the men in general are about five feet eight or ten inches high; the women are shorter and more clumsily built. They are of a red colour, and have straight, black hair, which the men cut short, but the women let grow long, and roll up in a circle on the top of their heads very neatly. The men go entirely naked, and the women wear nothing more than a very narrow slip of plantain leaf." "They seemed to look at every thing about the vessel very attentively; but more from the motive of pilfering than from curiosity, for they watched an opportunity and unshipped the rudder of the boat, and paddled away with it."

Italian explorer Elio Modigliani visited Enggano Island between April 25 and July 13, 1891. He detailed the apparently dominant role of women in Enggano culture in L'Isola delle donne (The Island of Women), first published in 1894. The Rijksmuseum has an important collection of Enggano artifacts and their publication by Pieter J.ter Keurs reproduces Modigliani's drawings.

The population went into severe decline in the 1870s, possibly from disease. The Dutch sent medical officers to investigate. Since the island's highest point is only 281 m above sea level, it would have been severely affected by the tsunami associated with the Krakatoa eruption in 1883, as well as by the massive volcanic debris. The indigenous population failed to recover and numbered only about 400 people in the early 1960s. Therefore, the Indonesian government uses the island for rehabilitation of juvenile offenders from Java, who perform forced labor, clearing bush and constructing rice fields. As noted above, the population has expanded considerably since that time, and reached 4,035 at the 2020 Census.

The 7.9 Enggano earthquake shook southwestern Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong). One-hundred and three people were killed and 2,174–2,585 were injured.

Spaceport plans
The Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) has proposed the island for use as a spaceport, citing its "low population and remoteness" as decisive criteria, as well as its closeness to the equator. The regional government immediately protested the plan as environmentally problematic. In February 2011, a plan to conduct an environmental impact study was announced, chiefly surveying avian populations.

Enggano language
The Enggano language, also known as Engganese, is either a lexically highly divergent Austronesian (specifically Malayo-Polynesian) language not closely related to any other, or alternatively may be a language isolate with Austronesian loans.

Flora and fauna
There are a number of plant and animal species endemic to the island. These include the bird species Enggano scops owl, Enggano imperial pigeon, Enggano thrush, Enggano hill myna, and Enggano white-eye.

title: Enggano Island


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User:Wigigy

Wigigy is a male of the homo sapien phenotype found mainly in the UK, however it has on rare occaisons been seen other parts of the world, with frequent sightings in Ethiopia. More commonly known as Wiggy or Gay Rob he is often found inhabiting bars serving refreshing beverages.

title: User:Wigigy


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Slovak Republic (1939–1945)

The (First) Slovak Republic ((Prvá) Slovenská republika), otherwise known as the Slovak State (Slovenský štát), was a partially-recognized clerical fascist client state of Nazi Germany which existed between 14 March 1939 and 4 April 1945 in Central Europe. The Slovak part of Czechoslovakia declared independence with German support one day before the German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia. It controlled most of the territory of present-day Slovakia, without its current southern parts, which were ceded by Czechoslovakia to Hungary in 1938. The state was the first formally independent Slovak state in history. Bratislava was declared the capital city.

A one-party state governed by the far-right Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, the Slovak Republic is primarily known for its collaboration with Nazi Germany, which included sending troops to the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the Soviet Union in 1941. In 1940, the country joined the Axis when its leaders signed the Tripartite Pact.

In 1942, the country deported 58,000 Jews (two-thirds of the Slovak Jewish population) to German-occupied Poland, paying Germany 500 Reichsmarks each. After an increase in the activity of anti-Nazi Slovak partisans, Germany invaded Slovakia, triggering a significant uprising in 1944. The Slovak Republic was abolished after the Soviet liberation in 1945, and its territory was reintegrated into the recreated Third Czechoslovak Republic.

The current Slovak Republic does not consider itself a successor state of the wartime Slovak Republic, instead a successor to the Czechoslovak Federal Republic. However, some nationalists celebrate 14 March as a day of independence.

Name
The official name of the country was the Slovak State (Slovenský štát) from 14 March to 21 July 1939 (until the adoption of the Constitution), and the Slovak Republic (Slovenská Republika) from 21 July 1939 to its end in April 1945.

The country is often referred to historically as the First Slovak Republic (prvá Slovenská Republika) to distinguish it from the contemporary (Second) Slovak Republic, Slovakia, which is not considered its legal successor state. "Slovak State" was used colloquially, but "First Slovak Republic" was used even in encyclopedias written during the post-war Communist period.

Creation

After the Munich Agreement, Slovakia gained autonomy inside Czecho-Slovakia (as former Czechoslovakia had been renamed) and lost its southern territories to Hungary under the First Vienna Award.

As Hitler was preparing a mobilization into Czech territory and the creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, he had various plans for Slovakia. The Hungarians initially misinformed German officials that the Slovaks wanted to join Hungary. Germany decided to make Slovakia a separate puppet state under German influence and a potential strategic base for German attacks on Poland and other regions.

On 13 March 1939, Hitler invited Monsignor Jozef Tiso (the Slovak ex-prime minister who had been deposed by Czechoslovak troops several days earlier) to Berlin and urged him to proclaim Slovakia's independence. Hitler added that if Tiso had not consented, he would have allowed events in Slovakia to take place effectively, leaving it to the mercies of Hungary and Poland. During the meeting, Joachim von Ribbentrop passed on a report claiming that Hungarian troops were approaching the Slovak borders. Tiso refused to make such a decision himself, after which he was allowed by Hitler to organize a meeting of the Slovak parliament ("Diet of the Slovak Land"), which would approve Slovakia's independence.

On 14 March, the Slovak parliament convened and heard Tiso's report on his discussion with Hitler and a possible declaration of independence. Some of the deputies were skeptical of making such a move, among other reasons, because some worried that the Slovak state would be too small and with a strong Hungarian minority. The debate was quickly brought to a head when Franz Karmasin, leader of the German minority in Slovakia, said that any delay in declaring independence would result in Slovakia being divided between Hungary and Germany. Under these circumstances, Parliament unanimously voted to secede from Czecho-Slovakia, thus creating the first Slovak state in history. Jozef Tiso was appointed the first Prime Minister of the new republic. The next day, Tiso sent a telegram (composed the previous day in Berlin) announcing Slovakia's independence, asking the Reich to take over the protection of the newly minted state. The request was readily accepted.

Diplomatic recognition
Germany and Italy immediately recognized the emergent Slovak state a few weeks later. Britain and France refused to do so; in March 1939, both powers sent diplomatic notes to Berlin protesting developments in former Czechoslovakia as a breach of the Munich agreement and pledged not to acknowledge the territorial changes. Similar notes – though without reference to Munich – were sent by the USSR and the USA. Some non-Axis states, like Switzerland, Poland, and the Vatican, recognized Slovakia in March and April 1939.

The Great Powers soon changed their position. In May, British diplomacy asked for (and received) a new exequatur for its former consul in Bratislava, which marked de facto recognition of Slovakia. France followed suit in July 1939. However, Czechoslovak legations kept operating in London and Paris. Some international organizations like the League of Nations or the International Labour Union still considered Czechoslovakia their member, but some – like the Universal Postal Union – admitted Slovakia.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, the British and French consulates in Slovakia were closed, and the territory was declared under occupation. However, in September 1939, the USSR recognized Slovakia, admitted a Slovak representative, and closed the hitherto operational Czechoslovak legation in Moscow. Official Soviet-Slovak diplomatic relations were maintained until the outbreak of the German-Soviet war in 1941, when Slovakia joined the invasion on Germany's side, and the USSR recognized the Czechoslovak government-in-exile; Britain recognized it one year earlier.

In all, 27 states either de jure or de facto recognized Slovakia. They were either Axis countries (like Romania, Finland, Hungary) or Axis-dominated semi-independent states (like Vichy France, Manchukuo) or neutral countries like Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Sweden, as well as some beyond Europe (like Ecuador, Costa Rica, Liberia). In some cases, Czechoslovak legations were closed (e.g., in Switzerland), but some countries opted for a somewhat ambiguous stand. The states that maintained their independence ceased recognizing Slovakia in the late stages of World War II. However, some (e.g., Spain) permitted operations of semi-diplomatic representation until the late 1950s.

The United States never recognized Slovak independence. It remained consistent in their initial approach, as they never recognized the Munich Agreement, the extinction of Czechoslovakia, or any territorial changes made to Czechoslovak territory in the period 1938–1939.

International relations

From the beginning, the Slovak Republic was under the influence of Germany. The so-called "protection treaty" (Treaty on the protective relationship between Germany and the Slovak State), signed on 23 March 1939, partially subordinated its foreign, military, and economic policy to that of Germany. The German Wehrmacht established the so-called "Protective Zone" (Schutzzone) in Western Slovakia in August 1939.

Following Slovak participation in the invasion of Poland in September 1939, border adjustments increased the Slovak Republic's geographical extent in the areas of Orava and Spiš, absorbing previously Polish-controlled territory.

In July 1940, at the Salzburg Conference, the Germans forced a reshuffle of the Slovak cabinet by threatening to withdraw their protection guarantees.

On 24 November 1940, Slovakia joined the Axis when its leaders signed the Tripartite Pact.

The Slovak-Soviet Treaty of Commerce and Navigation was signed at Moscow on 6 December 1940.

Slovakia declared war on the Soviet Union in 1941 and on 25 November 1941 signed anti-communist the Anti-Comintern Pact. The Slovak military participated in the war on the Eastern Front since Operation Barbarossa.

In 1942, Slovakia declared war on the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Croatian–Romanian–Slovak friendship proclamation was created in May 1942 to stop further Hungarian expansion. It can be compared to the Little Entente.

The state's most difficult foreign policy problem involved relations with Hungary, which had annexed one-third of Slovakia's territory by the First Vienna Award of 2 November 1938. Slovakia tried to achieve a revision of the Vienna Award, but Germany did not allow it. There were also constant quarrels concerning Hungary's treatment of Slovaks living in Hungary.

Characteristics

2.6 million people lived within the 1939 borders of the Slovak State, and 85 percent had declared Slovak nationality on the 1938 census. Minorities included Germans (4.8 percent), Czechs (2.9 percent), Rusyns (2.6 percent), Hungarians (2.1 percent), Jews (1.1 percent), and Romani people (0.9 percent). Seventy-five percent of Slovaks were Catholics. Most of the remainder belonged to the Lutheran and Greek Catholic churches. 50% of the population were employed in agriculture. The state was divided in six counties (župy), 58 districts (okresy) and 2659 municipalities. The capital, Bratislava, had over 140,000 inhabitants.

The state continued the legal system of Czechoslovakia, which was modified only gradually. According to the Constitution of 1939, the "President" (Jozef Tiso) was the head of the state, the "Assembly/Diet of the Slovak Republic" elected for five years, was the highest legislative body (no general elections took place, however), and the "State Council" performed the duties of a senate. The government, which had eight ministries, was the executive body.

The Slovak Republic was an authoritarian regime where German pressure resulted in the adoption of many elements of Nazism. Some historians characterized Tiso's regime as clerical fascism. The government issued many antisemitic laws prohibiting the Jews from participation in public life and later supported their deportation to concentration camps erected by Germany on occupied Polish territory.

The only political parties permitted were the dominant Hlinka's Slovak People's Party and two smaller openly fascist parties, these being the Hungarian National Party which represented the Hungarian minority and the German Party which represented the German minority. However, those two parties formed part of a coalition with the Hlinka's Slovak People's Party; for all intents and purposes, Slovakia was a one-party state.

The state advocated excluding women from the public sphere and politics. While promoting "natural" maternal duties of women, the regime aimed to restrict women's space to the privacy of family life. Slovakia's pro-natalist programs limited access to previously available birth-control methods and introduced harsher punishments for already criminalized abortions.

SS plans for German minority

Although the official policy of the Nazi regime was in favor of an independent Slovak Republic dependent on Germany and opposed to any annexations of Slovak territory, Heinrich Himmler's SS considered ambitious population policy options concerning the German minority of Slovakia, which numbered circa 130,000 people.

In 1940, Günther Pancke, head of the SS RuSHA ("Race and Settlement Office"), undertook a study trip in Slovak lands where ethnic Germans were present and reported to Himmler that the Slovak Germans were in danger of disappearing. Pancke recommended that action should be taken to fuse the racially valuable part of the Slovaks into the German minority and remove the Romani and Jewish populations. He stated that this would be possible by "excluding" the Hungarian minority of the country and by settling some 100,000 ethnic German families in Slovakia. The racial core of this Germanization policy was to be gained from the Hlinka Guard, which was to be further integrated into the SS shortly.

Flag of the President of Slovakia (1939–1945).svg President

 * Jozef Tiso (26 October 1939 – 4 April 1945)

Flag of Slovakia (1939–1945).svg Prime Ministers

 * Jozef Tiso (14 March 1939 – 26 October 1939)
 * Vojtech Tuka (26 October 1939 – 5 September 1944)
 * Štefan Tiso (5 September 1944 – 4 April 1945)

Flag of Germany (1935–1945).svg Commanders of German occupation forces after Slovak National Uprising

 * Ogruf. Gottlob Christian Berger (29 August 1944 – 20 September 1944)
 * Ogruf. Hermann Höfle (20 September 1944 – 3 April 1945)

Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Commanders of Soviet liberation forces during Liberation of Czechoslovakia
The Red Army entered Slovakia from multiple sides at once. The units of the 1st Ukrainian Front together with the members of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps crossed the Dukla Pass after Battle of the Dukla Pass on 6 October 1944. Units of the 2nd Ukrainian Front and the Romanian Army came from the South-East.
 * G.A. Ivan Yefimovich Petrov (October 1944 – March 1945)
 * G.A. Andrey Ivanovich Yeryomenko (April 1945 – July 1945)

Jozef Tiso

Jozef Tiso began his career as a Catholic priest in Austro-Hungary. As such, he operated primarily in the Hungarian language. Yet, immediately after the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the creation of Czechoslovakia, Tiso transformed himself into a Slovak nationalist and career politician.

After declaration of Slovak independence from Czecho-Slovak Republic, Tiso was initially Prime Minister from 14 March 1939 until 26 October 1939. Tiso not only supported Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939, but also contributed Slovak troops, which the Germans rewarded by allowing Slovakia to annex 300 square miles of Polish territory.

On 1 October 1939, Tiso officially became President of the Slovak People's Party.

On 26 October, he became President of the Slovak Republic, and appointed Vojtech Tuka as Prime Minister. After 1942, President Tiso was also styled Vodca ("Leader"), an imitation of German Führer. Mainly as a Catholic priest, he was moral and natural authority for the majority of Slovaks.

Tiso collaborated with Germany in deportations of Jews, deporting many Slovak Jews to extermination and concentration camps in Germany and German-occupied Poland, while some Jews in Slovakia were murdered outright. Deportations were executed from 25 March 1942 until 20 October 1942.

In August 1942, after the majority of Slovak Jews had been sent to German-occupied Poland and it became clear that the deportees were being systematically murdered, Tiso gave a speech in Holič in which he called for Slovaks to "cast off your parasite [the Jews]" and justified continuing deportations of Jews from Slovakia. On 30 August, Hitler commented "It is interesting how this little Catholic priest Tiso is sending us the Jews!". Vatican undersecretary Domenico Tardini complained: "Everyone understands that the Holy See cannot stop Hitler. But who can understand that it does not know how to rein in a priest?"

By the end of the Holocaust, more than two-thirds of the Jews living in Slovakia had been murdered.

Administrative divisions
The Slovak Republic was divided into 6 counties and 58 districts. The extant population records are from the same time:
 * 1) Bratislava county (Bratislavská župa), 3,667 km2, with 455,728 inhabitants, and 6 districts: Bratislava, Malacky, Modra, Senica, Skalica, and Trnava.
 * 2) Nitra county (Nitrianska župa), 3,546 km2, with 335,343 inhabitants, and 5 districts: Hlohovec, Nitra, Prievidza, Topoľčany, and Zlaté Moravce.
 * 3) Trenčín county (Trenčianska župa), 5,592 km2, with 516,698 inhabitants, and 12 districts: Bánovce nad Bebravou, Čadca, Ilava, Kysucké Nové Mesto, Myjava, Nové Mesto nad Váhom, Piešťany, Považská Bystrica, Púchov, Trenčín, Veľká Bytča, and Žilina.
 * 4) Tatra county (Tatranská župa), 9,222 km2, with 463,286 inhabitants, and 13 districts: Dolný Kubín, Gelnica, Kežmarok, Levoča, Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš, Námestovo, Poprad, Ružomberok, Spišská Nová Ves, Spišská Stará Ves, Stará Ľubovňa, Trstená, and Turčiansky Svätý Martin.
 * 5) Šariš-Zemplín county (Šarišsko-zemplínska župa), 7,390 km2, with 440,372 inhabitants, and 10 districts: Bardejov, Giraltovce, Humenné, Medzilaborce, Michalovce, Prešov, Sabinov, Stropkov, Trebišov, and Vranov nad Topľou.
 * 6) Hron county (Pohronská župa), 8,587 km2, with 443,626 inhabitants, and 12 districts: Banská Bystrica, Banská Štiavnica, Brezno nad Hronom, Dobšiná, Hnúšťa, Kremnica, Krupina, Lovinobaňa, Modrý Kameň, Nová Baňa, Revúca, and Zvolen.

War with Hungary (1939)
On 23 March 1939, Hungary, having already occupied Carpatho-Ukraine, attacked from there, and the newly established Slovak Republic was forced to cede 1,697 km2 of territory with about 70,000 people to Hungary before the onset of World War II.

Slovak forces during the campaign against Poland (1939)
Slovakia was the only Axis nation other than Germany to take part in the Invasion of Poland. With the impending invasion planned for September 1939, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) requested the assistance of Slovakia. Although the Slovak military was only six months old, it formed a small mobile combat group consisting of several infantry and artillery battalions. Two combat groups were created for the campaign in Poland alongside the Germans. The first group was a brigade-sized formation that consisted of six infantry battalions, two artillery battalions, and a company of combat engineers, all commanded by Antonín Pulanich. The second group was a mobile formation that consisted of two battalions of combined cavalry and motorcycle recon troops along with nine motorized artillery batteries, all commanded by Gustav Malár. The two groups reported to the headquarters of the 1st and 3rd Slovak Infantry Divisions. The two combat groups fought while pushing through the Nowy Sącz and Dukla Mountain Passes, advancing towards Dębica and Tarnów in the region of southern Poland.

Slovak forces during the campaign against the Soviet Union (1941–1944)
The Slovak military participated in the war on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union. The Slovak Expeditionary Army Group of about 45,000 entered the Soviet Union shortly after the German attack. This army lacked logistic and transportation support, so a much smaller unit, the Slovak Mobile Command (Pilfousek Brigade), was formed from units selected from this force; the rest of the Slovak army was relegated to rear-area security duty. The Slovak Mobile Command was attached to the German 17th Army (as was the Hungarian Carpathian Group also) and shortly thereafter given over to direct German command, the Slovaks lacking the command infrastructure to exercise effective operational control. This unit fought with the 17th Army through July 1941, including at the Battle of Uman.

At the beginning of August 1941, the Slovak Mobile Command was dissolved, and instead, two infantry divisions were formed from the Slovak Expeditionary Army Group. The Slovak 2nd Division was a security division, but the Slovak 1st Division was a front-line unit that fought in the campaigns of 1941 and 1942, reaching the Caucasus area with Army Group B. The Slovak 1st Division then shared the fate of the German southern forces, losing their heavy equipment in the Kuban bridgehead, then being badly mangled near Melitopol in southern Ukraine. In June 1944, the remnant of the division, no longer considered fit for combat due to low morale, was disarmed, and the personnel were assigned to construction work. This fate had already befallen the Slovak 2nd Division earlier for the same reason.

Hlinka Guard

The Hlinka Guard was a paramilitary organization of the Hlinka's Slovak People's Party. It was created in 1938, and it was built according to the Nazi model. Even though there was an attempt to establish it as an organization with compulsory membership for all adult citizens (except Jews) in 1939, this idea was soon changed, and membership in the Guard was voluntary.

The Hlinka Guard was Slovakia's state police and most willingly helped Hitler with his plans. It operated against Jews, Czechs, Hungarians, the Left, and the opposition. By a decree issued on October 29, 1938, the Hlinka Guard was designated as the only body authorized to give its members paramilitary training, and it was this decree that established its formal status in the country. Hlinka guardsmen wore black uniforms and a cap shaped like a boat, with a woolen pompom on top, and they used the raised-arm salute. The official salute was "Na stráž!" ("On guard!"). Throughout its existence, the Hlinka Guard competed with the Hlinka party for primacy in ruling the country.

In 1941 Hlinka Guard shock troops were trained in SS camps in Germany, and the SS attached an adviser to the guard. At this point many of the guardsmen who were of middle-class origin quit, and thenceforth the organization consisted of peasants and unskilled laborers, together with various doubtful elements. A social message was an integral part of the radical nationalism that it sought to impart.

A small group called Náš Boj (Our Struggle), which operated under SS auspices, was the most radical element in the guard.

After the anti-Nazi Slovak National Uprising was crushed in August 1944, the SS took over and shaped the Hlinka Guard to suit its purposes. Special units of the guard (Hlinka Guard Emergency Divisions – POHG) were employed against partisans and Jews.

The Hlinka Guard was known for its participation in the Holocaust in Slovakia; its members appropriated Jewish property and rounded up Jews for deportation. In 1942, the guard was involved in the deportation of almost 60,000 Slovak Jews to occupied Poland. The victims were given only four hours' warning, to prevent them from escaping. Beatings and forcible shaving were commonplace, as was subjecting Jews to invasive searches to uncover hidden valuables. Some guards took advantage of their power to rape Jewish women.

The Hlinka Youth was also an organization subordinated to the Hlinka's Slovak People's Party. It was formed as a single nationwide organization in 1938. Initially, it was just for boys, but later, there was also a chapter for girls.

The Holocaust
Soon after independence and along with the mass exile and deportation of Czechs, the Slovak Republic began a series of measures aimed against the Jews in the country. The Hlinka's Guard began to attack Jews, and the "Jewish Code" was passed in September 1941. Resembling the Nuremberg Laws, the code required Jews to wear a yellow armband and banned them from intermarriage and many jobs. By October 1941, the Slovak Republic had expelled 15,000 Jews from Bratislava, sending many to labor camps.

At the end of 1941, the Jews were concentrated in three labor camps located within Slovakian borders – Sereď, Nováky and Vyhne.

The Slovak Republic was one of the countries that agreed to deport its Jews as part of the Nazi Final Solution. Initially, the Slovak government tried to make a deal with Germany in October 1941 to deport its Jews as a substitute for providing Slovak workers to help the war effort. After the Wannsee Conference, the Germans agreed to the Slovak proposal, and a deal was reached where the Slovak Republic would pay for each Jew deported, and, in return, Germany promised that the Jews would never return to the republic. The initial terms were for "20,000 young, strong Jews", but the Slovak government quickly agreed to a German proposal to deport the entire population for "evacuation to territories in the East" meaning to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The deportations of Jews from Slovakia started on 25 March 1942 but halted on 20 October 1942 after a group of Jewish citizens, led by Gisi Fleischmann and Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, built a coalition of concerned officials from the Vatican and the government, and, through a mix of bribery and negotiation, was able to stop the process. By then, however, some 58,000 Jews had already been deported, primarily to Auschwitz. Slovak government officials filed complaints against Germany when it became clear that Germany had gassed many of the previously deported Slovak Jews in mass executions.

Jewish deportations resumed on 30 September 1944, when the Republic lost independence to a complete German occupation due to the Nazis' concern that the Soviet army had reached the Slovak border, and the Slovak National Uprising began. During the German occupation, another 13,500 Jews were deported, and 5,000 were imprisoned. Deportations continued until 31 March 1945. In all, German and Slovak authorities deported about 70,000 Jews from Slovakia; about 65,000 of them were murdered or died in concentration camps. The overall figures are inexact, partly because many Jews did not identify themselves. Still, one 2006 estimate is that approximately 105,000 Slovak Jews, or 77% of their pre-war population, died during the war.

Slovak National Uprising
In 1944, during the Slovak National Uprising, many Slovak units sided with the Slovak resistance and rebelled against Tiso's collaborationist government, while others helped German forces put the uprising down.

This resistance movement was represented mainly by members of the Democratic Party, social democrats, and communists. It was launched on 29 August 1944 from Banská Bystrica to resist German troops that had occupied Slovak territory and to overthrow the collaborationist government of Jozef Tiso. Although German forces largely defeated the resistance, guerrilla operations continued their efforts in the mountains.

In retaliation, Einsatzgruppe H and the Hlinka Guard Emergency Divisions executed many Slovaks suspected of aiding the rebels as well as Jews who had avoided deportation until then, and destroyed 93 villages on suspicion of collaboration. Several villages were burned to the ground, and all their inhabitants were murdered, as in Ostrý Grúň and Kľak (21 January 1945) or Kalište (18 March 1945). A later estimate of the death toll was 5,304, and authorities discovered 211 mass graves that resulted from those atrocities. The largest executions occurred in Kremnička (747 killed, mostly Jews and Roma) and Nemecká (900 killed).

End
Bratislava was often bombarded by the Allies. Major air raids included the bombing of Bratislava and its refinery Apollo on June 16, 1944, by American B-24 bombers of the Fifteenth Air Force with 181 victims. Bombardment group attacked in four waves with overall 158 planes.

After the anti-Nazi Slovak National Uprising in August 1944, the Germans occupied the country (from October 1944), which thereby lost much of its independence. The German troops were gradually pushed out by the Red Army, by Romanian, and by Czechoslovak soldiers coming from the east. The liberated territories again became de facto part of Czechoslovakia.

The First Slovak Republic ceased to exist de facto on 4 April 1945 when the Soviet Red Army 2nd Ukrainian Front captured Bratislava during the Bratislava–Brno offensive and occupied all of Slovakia. De jure it ceased to exist when the exiled Slovak government capitulated to General Walton Walker leading the XX Corps of the 3rd US Army on 8 May 1945 in the Austrian town of Kremsmünster. In the summer of 1945, the captured former president and members of the former government were handed over to Czechoslovak authorities.

Several prominent Slovak politicians escaped to neutral countries. Following his captivity, the deposed president Jozef Tiso authorized the former foreign minister Ferdinand Ďurčanský as his successor. Ďurčanský, Tiso's personal secretary Karol Murín, and cousin Fraňo Tiso were appointed by ex-president Tiso as the representatives of the Slovak nation; however, they failed to create a government-in-exile as no country recognized them. In the 1950s, fellow Slovak nationalists established the Slovak Action Committee (later Slovak Liberation Committee), which unsuccessfully advocated the restoration of the independent Slovak republic and the renewal of war against the Soviet Union. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia and the creation of the modern Slovak republic, the Slovak Liberation Committee proclaimed Tiso's authorization as obsolete.

At the end of the war, Vojtech Tuka suffered a stroke which confined him to a wheelchair; he emigrated together with his wife, nursing attendants, and personal doctor to Austria, where he was arrested by Allied troops following the capitulation of Germany and handed over to the officials of the renewed Czechoslovakia. Following a brief trial, Vojtech Tuka was executed by hanging on 20 August 1946.

Jozef Tiso was sentenced to death, deprivation of his civil rights, and confiscation of all of his property. Tiso appealed to the Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš and expected a reprieve; his prosecutor had recommended clemency. However, no reprieve was forthcoming. Wearing his clerical outfit, Tiso was hanged in Bratislava on 18 April 1947. The Czechoslovak government buried him secretly to avoid having his grave become a shrine, but far-right followers of Tiso soon identified the grave in the St Martin cemetery in Bratislava as his. Decades later, after a DNA test in April 2008 that confirmed it, the body of Tiso was exhumed and buried in St Emmeram's Cathedral in Nitra, in accordance with canon law.

Legacy
Some Slovak nationalists, such as the People's Party Our Slovakia, celebrate March 14 as the anniversary of Slovak independence. However, January 1 (the date of the Velvet Divorce) is the official independence day of modern Slovak Republic. The issue of March 14 commemorations divided the Christian Democratic Movement in the early 1990s.

Members of the far-right in admiration of Tiso created a memorial grave in Martin cemetery in October of 2008 to commemorate Tiso. It has since been used as an occasional gathering place for many far-right groups, including the People's Party Our Slovakia. Ultranationalist propaganda proclaims Tiso as a "martyr" who "sacrificed his life for his belief and nation" and so tries to paint him as an innocent victim of communism and a saint.

Film
The Shop on Main Street is a 1965 Czechoslovakian film about the Aryanization program during World War II in the Slovak Republic.

The film won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and actress Ida Kamińska was nominated one year later for Best Actress in a Leading Role. It was entered into the 1965 Cannes Film Festival.

Television
In 2018, Slovak public broadcaster RTVS in the television poll The Greatest Slovak (spin-off of British television series 100 Greatest Britons), nominated Jozef Tiso, president of the wartime Slovak Republic, as one of the contenders for the title of the ‘Greatest Slovak’. After criticism RTVS excluded Jozef Tiso.

title: Slovak Republic (1939–1945)


text: Category:D12 albums

title: Category:D12 albums


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James Tinn

James Tinn (23 August 1922 – 18 November 1999) was a British Labour Party politician. Tinn was educated at Ruskin College and Jesus College, Oxford and became a teacher. He was a branch secretary of the National Union of Blastfurnacemen and a committee member of the North Cleveland association of the National Union of Teachers.

At the 1964 general election, he was returned to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Cleveland, and held the seat until its abolition for the February 1974 election. He was then elected in the new Redcar constituency, holding the seat until his retirement at the 1987 election. During this time Arthur Taylor, a local Labour Party councillor and later leader of Langbaurgh Borough Council, acted as Tinn's agent in three successful General Elections.

Tinn never attained ministerial office, but was a parliamentary private secretary from 1965.

title: James Tinn


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Quique de Lucas

Enrique "Quique" de Lucas Martínez (born 17 August 1978) is a Spanish retired footballer who played mainly as an attacking midfielder.

He started his professional career with Espanyol, going on to amass La Liga totals of 168 games and 25 goals over eight seasons, also representing in the competition Alavés, Murcia and Celta. He added 268 matches and 53 goals in Segunda División, where he played for all the clubs except his first.

De Lucas had two spells abroad, including the 2002–03 campaign with Chelsea.

Club career
Born in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Catalonia, de Lucas came through the academy of RCD Espanyol, making his first-team debut on 15 May 1998 away against Real Valladolid (his sole appearance of the season) and being promoted to the main squad immediately afterwards. Subsequently, he became an important attacking element for the Pericos, appearing in 30 La Liga matches and scoring four goals in 1999–2000 while helping the club to that year's Copa del Rey.

After his contract expired in 2002, and after an unassuming loan spell at Paris Saint-Germain F.C. the previous year, de Lucas joined Chelsea on a four-year deal, being relatively used in his first and only season. His sole goal for the English team was a well-executed chip in the UEFA Cup against Viking FK, in a 2–1 home win but 4–5 loss on aggregate.

De Lucas then returned to Spain, having a huge impact at Deportivo Alavés, although most of his stint was spent in the second division. He netted six times from 40 appearances as the Basque side returned to the top level after two years, being immediately relegated the following campaign.

After another season in division two, de Lucas became Real Murcia's first signing after it achieved a top-flight return in 2007, agreeing on a two-year contract. He featured heavily in his first year, notably scoring in a 1–1 home draw against Real Madrid, but the club returned to the second tier.

In August 2009, de Lucas had a trial with Football League Championship's Blackpool after his Murcia link had expired, alongside Will Haining and Ishmel Demontagnac. A deal did not materialise, and he signed with FC Cartagena – recently returned to the second division – shortly after; he scored the first goal of the new campaign, a 1–0 victory at Girona FC.

In late June 2010, after nearly helping Cartagena to another promotion (fifth place, with chances of promotion until the last two rounds) while scoring a career-best 11 goals, de Lucas moved to RC Celta de Vigo. He produced the same individual numbers in his first two years – 37 games, nine goals – helping the Galicians promote to the top level in 2012 as runners-up.

After suffering relegation from the second tier, with Hércules CF, de Lucas retired from football at the age of 35. In February 2015, however, he returned to active, joining English amateurs Biggleswade United.

International career
De Lucas made four appearances for the Spain under-21 side, in a one-year span.

Honours
Espanyol
 * Copa del Rey: 1999–2000

title: Quique de Lucas


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Thelma Coyne Long

Thelma Dorothy Coyne Long (née Coyne; 14 October 1918 – 13 April 2015) was an Australian tennis player and one of the female players who dominated Australian tennis from the mid-1930s to the 1950s. During her career, she won 19 Grand Slam tournament titles. In 2013, Long was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Tennis career
At the Australian Championships, Long won singles titles in 1952 and 1954 and was a singles finalist in 1940, 1951, 1955 and 1956. In women's doubles, she won 10 titles with Nancye Wynne Bolton (1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951 and 1952) and two titles with Mary Bevis Hawton (1956 and 1958). Long was a women's doubles finalist with Bolton in 1946 and 1950. She won mixed doubles titles in 1951, 1952 and 1955 with George Worthington and in 1954 with Rex Hartwig. She was a mixed doubles finalist in 1948 with Bill Sidwell.

At Wimbledon, Long was a women's doubles finalist in 1957 with Hawton and a mixed doubles finalist in 1952 with Enrique Morea. At the age of 52, Long teamed with Lorraine Coghlan to lose in the first round of women's doubles at Wimbledon in 1971.

At the French Championships, Long was a women's doubles finalist in 1958 with Hawton, won the mixed doubles title in 1956 with Luis Ayala, and was a mixed doubles finalist in 1951 with Mervyn Rose.

At the 1953 tournament in Cincinnati, Long won the singles title (defeating Anita Kanter 7–5, 6–2 in the final) and the women's doubles title with Kanter.

According to Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, Long was ranked in the world top 10 in 1952 and 1954 (no rankings issued from 1940 to 1945), reaching a career high of World No. 7 in these rankings in 1952.

Long became a teaching professional in 1960 and spent many years coaching junior players in New South Wales. In 1985, her achievements were recognised by Tennis NSW when she was awarded Life Membership of the State Association.

Honours and awards
On 30 August 2000, Long was awarded the Australian Sports Medal. She was inducted into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame in a ceremony at Melbourne Park during the Australian Open on Australia Day in 2002. In 2013, she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Personal life
She was born in Sydney, Australia on 14 October 1918, the only child of Tom and Dorrie Coyne and was schooled at the Sydney Girls High School.

On 30 January 1941, she married Maurice Newton Long of Melbourne. The marriage did not continue after the end of the Second World War.

In May 1941, during the Second World War, Long joined the Red Cross as a transport driver and worked in Melbourne. On 19 February 1942, she joined the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) and rose to the rank of captain in April 1944. For her service in the AWAS, she was awarded the War Medal 1939–1945 and Australia Service Medal 1939–1945.

Long worked as a volunteer at the State Library of New South Wales, and she received the Volunteer Service Award in 1999.

Coyne died on 13 April 2015 at the age of 96.

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

R = tournament restricted to French nationals and held under German occupation. 1 In 1946 and 1947, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon. 2,3 Coyne did not play. Her opponent got a walkover.

title: Thelma Coyne Long


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Harry M. Miller

Harry Maurice Miller (6 January 1934 – 4 July 2018) was a New Zealand Australian promoter, publicist and media agent.

Life and career
Born on 6 January 1934 in New Zealand, Miller grew up in the Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn. He moved to Australia in 1963, where he established a company called Pan Pacific Productions with Keith and Dennis Wong, owners of the noted Sydney nightclub Chequers.

During the 1960s, Pan Pacific promoted many concert and theatrical tours of Australia and New Zealand, including Louis Armstrong, Del Shannon, the Everly Brothers, Arthur Rubinstein, Herman's Hermits, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys (during the surfing 1964 tour), Judy Garland, Sammy Davis Jr., Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Chubby Checker, Eartha Kitt and Shirley Bassey During the mid-1960s, Pan Pacific was in competition in the pop tour market with rival promoter Aztec Services Ltd headed by promoter Kenn Brodziak, but by the late 1960s Miller and Brodziak had become friends and colleagues and subsequently collaborated on many concert and theatrical promotions. During this period Miller also expanded into personal management; his first client was pioneering TV chef Graham Kerr, already a household name in New Zealand, who became a national TV star in Australia before launching a successful international career. As a talent manager, Miller served as the manager of numerous Australian personalities including Barry Humphries, Graham Kennedy, Maggie Tabberer, Stuart Wagstaff and Carmen Duncan.

In 1969, Miller discovered 16-year-old American singer Marcia Hines in Boston, Massachusetts, while casting African-American performers for the Australian stage version of Hair, which he was producing. Hines flew to Australia, unaware that she was already six months pregnant, and Miller acted as her legal guardian in Australia until she turned 21. Miller went on to produce the Australian productions of Jesus Christ Superstar in 1972 and The Rocky Horror Show in 1974, both of which used many of the production staff from Hair including director Jim Sharman.

In 1970, Miller joined the council of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and was elected chairman of the gallery's society.

Legal issues
In 1978, Miller started a ticketing company called Computicket, which went into receivership within six months. On 30 April 1982, Miller was found guilty of aiding and abetting the misappropriation of $728,000 in funds and sentenced to three years in jail. The verdict led to the collapse of the company, and he served ten months in prison at Long Bay and Cessnock Correctional Centres.

Celebrity agent and manager
Miller was the founder and director of the Harry M. Miller Group, based in Moore Park, Sydney. His agency represented a varied client base of well-known figures in Australia, including all contestants on Big Brother, Lindy Chamberlain, Stuart Diver (the only survivor of the 1997 Thredbo landslide), Judy Moran (wife of slain Melbourne underworld figure Lewis Moran), and Gai Waterhouse (a horseracing trainer). Miller gave advice and managed communication, negotiations and media attention surrounding individuals or companies that found themselves under intense public spotlight.

Family
Miller had 4 wives and 5 children. He had a relationship with Deborah Hutton, 27 years his junior from the 1980s for 10 years.

Death
Miller died at age 84 in Sydney, Australia, on 4 July 2018, after a vascular dementia diagnosis in 2011. He died with his long-term partner Simmone Logue, daughters Justine, Brook and Lauren, and their mother Wendy by his side.

title: Harry M. Miller