Name	CBS Broadcasting Inc. (CBS)
Logo
Type	Broadcast radio network and television network
Branding	"Only CBS"
Country	United States
Available	National
Founder	(as CBS) William S. Paley
Slogan	Only CBS
Motto	America's Most Watched Network
Owner	Independent (1927–1995)Westinghouse Electric (renamed CBS Corp. in 1997) (1995–2000)Viacom (2000–2005)CBS Corporation (2006–present)
Key people	Leslie Moonves, Chairman of CBS,Nancy Tellem (President of CBS Network Television Entertainment)
Launch date	September 18, 1927 (radio) July 1, 1941 (television)
Picture format	480i (SDTV)720p/1080i (HDTV)
Former names	United Independent Broadcasters (1927)Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System (1927–1928)Columbia Broadcasting System (1928–1995 in official usage)
Callsign meaning	Columbia Broadcasting System (former legal name)
Website	cbs.com

CBS Broadcasting Inc. (CBS) is a major US television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of the company's logo. It has also been called the "Tiffany Network", which alludes to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of its founder William S. Paley (1901–90). It can also refer to some of CBS's first demonstrations of color television, which were held in a former Tiffany & Co. building in New York City in 1950, thus earning it the name "Color broadcasting system" back when such a feat was innovative.

The network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc., a collection of 16 radio stations that was bought by William S. Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paley's guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States and then one of the big three American broadcast television networks. In 1974, CBS dropped its full name and became known simply as CBS, Inc. The Westinghouse Electric Corporation acquired the network in 1995 and eventually adopted the name of the company it had bought to become CBS Corporation. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, which coincidentally had begun as a spin-off of CBS in 1971. In late 2005, Viacom split itself and reestablished CBS Corporation with the CBS television network at its core. CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, its parent. For most of its existence, CBS has been the most watched network in the United States, most recently in 2010.

History

Early years

The origins of CBS date back to the creation, on January 21, 1927, in Chicago, of the "United Independent Broadcasters" network. Established by New York talent agent Arthur Judson, United soon looked for additional investors; the Columbia Phonograph Company (manufacturers of Columbia Records), rescued the company in April 1927, and as a result, the network was renamed "Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System." Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18, 1927, from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and 15 affiliates

Unable to sell enough air time to advertisers, on January 18, 1929, Columbia sold the network for $400,000 to William S. Paley, son of a Philadelphia cigar manufacturer. With Columbia's removal, Paley streamlined the corporate name to "Columbia Broadcasting System." Paley believed in the power of radio advertising; his family's company had seen their "La Palina" cigar become a best-seller after young William convinced his elders to advertise it on Philadelphia station WCAU, one of Columbia's affiliates.

CBS's radio affiliation growth

In November 1927, Columbia paid $410,000 to A.H. Grebe's Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the network's flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the signal relocated to a stronger frequency, 860 kHz. (The station moved to a new frequency, 880 kHz, in the FCC's 1941 reassignment of stations; in 1946, WABC was re-named WCBS.) It was where much of CBS's programming originated; other owned-and-operated stations were KNX Los Angeles, KCBS San Francisco (originally KQW), WBBM Chicago, WJSV Washington, D.C. (later WTOP, which moved to the FM dial in 2005; the AM facility today is WFED, also a secondary CBS affiliate), KMOX St. Louis, and WCCO Minneapolis. These remain the core affiliates of the CBS Radio Network today, with WCBS still the flagship, and all except WTOP and WFED (both Bonneville Broadcasting properties) owned by CBS Radio.

Later in 1928, another investor, Paramount Pictures (who ironically would eventually be co-owned with CBS, see below), bought Columbia stock, and for a time it was thought the network would be renamed "Paramount Radio". Any chance of further Paramount involvement ended with the 1929 stock market crash; the near-bankrupt studio sold its shares back to CBS in 1932.

As the third national network, CBS soon had more affiliates than either of NBC's two, in part because of a more generous rate of payment to affiliates. NBC's owner and founder of RCA, David Sarnoff, believed in technology, so NBC's affiliates had the latest RCA equipment, and were often the best-established stations, or were on "clear channel" frequencies. Paley believed in the power of programming, and CBS quickly established itself as the home of many popular musical and comedy stars, among them Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, George Burns & Gracie Allen, and Kate Smith. In 1938, NBC and CBS each opened studios in Hollywood to attract movieland's top talent to their networks – NBC at Radio City on Sunset and Vine, CBS two blocks away at Columbia Square.

CBS launches an independent news division

In the hard times of the early 1930s, CBS radio broadened its offerings; having refused an AP franchise for news, Paley launched an independent news division, shaped in its first years by Paley's vice-president, former The New York Times man Ed Klauber, and news director Paul White. Another early hire, in 1935, was Edward R. Murrow, brought in as "Director of Talks." It was Murrow's reports, particularly during the dark days of the London Blitz, which contributed to CBS News's image for on-the-spot coverage. As European news chief and later head of the news division, Murrow assembled a team of reporters and editors that propelled CBS News to the forefront of the industry.

The War of the Worlds radio broadcast (October 30, 1938)

On October 30, 1938, CBS gained a taste of infamy when Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre broadcast an adaptation of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. Its unique format, a contemporary version of the story in the form of faux news broadcasts, had many CBS listeners panicked into believing invaders from Mars were actually devastating Grover's Mill, New Jersey, despite three disclaimers during the broadcast that it was a work of fiction. CBS would later revive the format for television in the 1990s for Without Warning, which told the story of asteroids crashing to Earth, but the television format allowed for disclaimers to air at every commercial break, avoiding a replay of what happened in 1938.

Also in 1938, CBS bought American Record Corporation, the parent of its former investor Columbia Records.

CBS recruits Edmund A. Chester

Before the onset of World War II, CBS recruited Edmund A. Chester from his position as Bureau Chief for Latin America at Associated Press to serve as Director of Latin American Relations and Director of Short Wave Broadcasts for the CBS radio network (1940). In this capacity, Mr. Chester coordinated the development of the Network of the Americas (La Cadena de las Americas) with the Department of State, the Office for Inter-American Affairs (as chaired by Nelson Rockefeller) and Voice of America. This network provided vital news and cultural programming throughout South America and Central America during the crucial World War II era and fostered diplomatic relations between the United States of America and the less developed nations of the continent. It featured such popular radio broadcasts as Viva América which showcased leading musical talent from both North and South America accompanied by the CBS Pan American Orchestra under the musical direction of Alfredo Antonini. The post war era also marked the beginning of CBS's dominance in the field of radio as well.

CBS as a dominant radio broadcaster

As long as radio was the dominant advertising medium, CBS dominated broadcasting. All through the 1950s and 1960s, CBS programs were often the highest-rated. A much-publicized "talent raid" on NBC in the mid-1940s brought Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen and Amos 'n' Andy into the CBS fold. Paley also was an innovator in creating original programming; since broadcasting's earliest days, time had been sold to advertising agencies in half- or full-hour blocks. The ad agencies, not the networks, would then create the program to fill the time, thus it was " 'The Johnson's Wax Program', with Fibber McGee and Molly", or " 'The Pepsodent Show', with Bob Hope." At Paley's urging, beginning in the mid-1940s, CBS began creating its own programs; among the long-running shows that came from this project were You Are There (born as CBS Was There), My Favorite Husband (starring Lucille Ball; the show proved a kind of blueprint for her big CBS television hit I Love Lucy), Our Miss Brooks (whose star, Eve Arden, was encouraged personally by Paley to try out for the title role), Gunsmoke and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. In time this idea was carried further, selling ad time by the minute, so ad agencies no longer had complete control over what went out over "Paley's air".

The end of prime time radio on CBS

CBS moved at a deliberate pace into television; as late as 1950 it owned only one station; radio continued to be the backbone of the company. Gradually, as the television network took shape, big radio stars began to drift to television. The radio soap opera The Guiding Light moved to television in 1952 and aired until September 18, 2009; Burns & Allen made the move in 1950; Lucille Ball a year later; Our Miss Brooks in 1952 (though it continued simultaneously on radio for its full television life). The high-rated Jack Benny Program ended in 1955, and Edgar Bergen's Sunday-night show went off the air in 1957. When CBS announced in 1956 that its radio operations had lost money, while the television network had made money, it was clear where the future lay. When the soap opera Ma Perkins went off the air November 25, 1960 only eight, relatively minor series remained. Prime time radio ended on September 30, 1962, when Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and Suspense aired for the final time.

CBS's radio programming after 1972

After the retirement of talk-show pioneer Arthur Godfrey in April 1972, CBS radio programming consisted of hourly news broadcast and an extensive schedule of news features, known in the 1970s as Dimension, and commentaries, including the well received Spectrum series of commentaries which evolved into the Point/Counterpoint feature on the television network's 60 Minutes and First Line Report, a well-regarded news and analysis feature delivered by CBS correspondents and offered to the CBS radio stations. The network also continued to offer traditional radio programming through its nightly CBS Radio Mystery Theater, the lone holdout of old-style programming, from 1974 through 1982. The CBS Radio Network continues to this day, but offers primarily its well-regarded newscasts, including its centerpiece "World News Roundup" in the morning and evening, and news-related features like "The Osgood File" and "Harry Smith Reporting" as well as other talk properties.

The television years: expansion and growth

CBS's first television broadcasts were experimental, often only for one hour a day, and reaching a limited area in and around New York City (over station W2XAB channel 2, later called WCBW and finally WCBS-TV). To catch up with rival RCA, CBS bought Hytron Laboratories in 1939, and immediately moved into set production and color broadcasting. Though there were many competing patents and systems, RCA dictated the content of the FCC's technical standards, and grabbed the spotlight from CBS, DuMont and others by introducing television to the general public at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The FCC began licensing commercial television stations on July 1, 1941; the first license went to RCA and NBC's WNBT (now WNBC); the second license, issued that same day, was to WCBW, (now WCBS). CBS-Hytron offered a practical color system in 1941, but it was not compatible with the black-and-white standards set down by RCA. In time, and after considerable dithering, the FCC rejected CBS's technology in favor of that by RCA.

During the World War II years, commercial television broadcasting was reduced dramatically. Toward the end of the war, commercial television began to ramp up again, with an increased level of programming evident in the 1945–1947 period on the three New York television stations which operated in those years (the local stations of NBC, CBS and DuMont) But as RCA and DuMont raced to establish networks and offer upgraded programming, CBS lagged, advocating an industry-wide shift and re-start to UHF for their incompatible (with black and white) color system. Only in 1950, when NBC was dominant in television and black and white transmission was widespread, did CBS begin to buy or build their own stations (outside of New York) in Los Angeles, Chicago and other major cities. Up to that point, CBS programming was seen on such stations as KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles, which CBS—as a bit of insurance and to guarantee program clearance in Los Angeles—quickly purchased a 50% interest in, partnering with the Los Angeles Times newspaper. CBS then sold their interest in KTTV (which today is the West Coast flagship of the Fox network) and purchased outright Los Angeles pioneer station KTSL (Channel 2) in 1950, renaming it KNXT (after CBS's existing Los Angeles radio property, KNX), later to become KCBS-TV. The "talent raid" on NBC of the mid-forties had brought over established radio stars; they now became stars of CBS television as well. One reluctant CBS star refused to bring her radio show, "My Favorite Husband", to television unless the network would re-cast the show with her real-life husband in the lead. Paley and network president Frank Stanton had so little faith in the future of Lucille Ball's series, re-dubbed I Love Lucy, that they granted her wish and allowed the husband, Desi Arnaz, to take financial control of the production. This was the making of the Ball-Arnaz Desilu empire, and became the template for series production to this day.

In the late 1940s, CBS offered the first live television coverage of the proceedings of the United Nations General Assembly (1949). This journalistic tour-de-force was under the direction of Edmund A. Chester, who was appointed to the post of Director for News, Special Events and Sports at CBS Television in 1948.

As television came to the forefront of American entertainment and information, CBS dominated television as it once had radio. In 1953, the CBS television network would make its first profit, and would maintain dominance on television between the years 1955 and 1976 as well

While the "rural" shows got the axe, new hits, like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family, M*A*S*H, The Bob Newhart Show, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Kojak and The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour took their place and kept CBS at the top of the ratings through the early '70s. The majority of these hits were overseen by then East Coast vice president Alan Wagner. Also, 60 Minutes moved to 7 p.m. ET on Sundays in 1976 and became an unexpected hit.

Silverman also first developed his strategy of spinning new shows off an established hit while at CBS, with Rhoda and Phyllis spun from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Maude and The Jeffersons spun from All in the Family and Good Times from Maude.

After Silverman's departure, CBS dropped behind ABC in the 1976–77 season, but still rated strongly, based on its earlier hits and some new ones: One Day at a Time, Alice, WKRP in Cincinnati, The Dukes of Hazzard (suspiciously "rural") and, the biggest hit of the early '80s, Dallas.

By 1982, ABC had run out of steam, NBC was in dire straits with many failed programming efforts greenlighted by Silverman during his 1978 to 1981 tenure there, and CBS once more nosed ahead, courtesy of Dallas (and its spin-off Knots Landing), Falcon Crest, Magnum, P.I., Simon & Simon and 60 Minutes. CBS also broadcast the popular NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament every March beginning in 1982 (taking over for NBC). There were a few new hits — Kate & Allie, Newhart, Cagney & Lacey, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Murder, She Wrote — but the resurgence was short-lived.

1986–2002: Tiffany Network in distress

In 1984, The Cosby Show and Miami Vice debuted on NBC and grabbed high ratings immediately, bringing that network back to first place by the 1985–1986 season along with other huge hits Family Ties, The Golden Girls, LA Law, and 227. ABC had in turn also rebounded with hits like Dynasty, Who's the Boss?, Hotel, and Growing Pains. By the 1988–1989 season, CBS had fallen to third place behind both ABC and NBC, and had some major rebuilding to do.

Ironically, some of the groundwork had been laid as the network fell in the ratings, with hits Simon & Simon, Falcon Crest, Murder, She Wrote, Kate & Allie and Newhart still on the schedule from the most recent resurgence, and future hits Designing Women, Murphy Brown, Jake and the Fatman, and 48 Hourshaving recently debuted. Plus, CBS was still getting decent ratings from 60 Minutes, Dallas and Knots Landing. But the ratngs for Dallas were a far cry from what they were in the early 1980's. During the early 1990s, the network would bolster its sports lineup by adding Major League Baseball telecasts and the Winter Olympics.

Under network president Jeff Sagansky, the network was able to get strong ratings from new shows , Touched by an Angel, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Walker, Texas Ranger, and a resurgent Jake and the Fatman during this period, and CBS was able to reclaim the first place crown briefly, in the 1992–1993 season, though its demographics skewed older than ABC, NBC or even Fox, with its relatively limited presence at that time. In 1993, the network made a breakthrough in establishing a successful late night talk show franchise to compete with NBC's Tonight Show when it signed David Letterman away from NBC after the Late Night host was passed over as Johnny Carson's successor on Tonight in favor of Jay Leno. However, CBS' would soon suffer a major blow in a move that would change American television forever.

In 1993, the fledgling Fox network outbid CBS for the rights to air the National Football League, resulting in several stations switching to Fox. The loss of the NFL, along with an ill-fated effort to court younger viewers, led to a drop in CBS' ratings. The network also dropped its MLB coverage (after losing approximately $500 million over a four year span) in 1993 and NBC, which already aired the Summer Olympics, took over coverage of the Winter Olympics beginning with the 2002 Games.

Still, CBS was able to produce some hits, such as Cosby, The Nanny, and Everybody Loves Raymond, and would regain the NFL (taking over the American Football Conference package from NBC) in 1998.

2002–present: Return to top spot, rivalry with Fox

Another turning point for CBS came in the summer of 2000 when it debuted the summer reality show Survivor, which became a surprise summer hit for the network. In January 2001, CBS debuted the second season of the show after its airing of the Super Bowl and scheduled it Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET, and moved the police procedural (which had debuted that fall Fridays at 9 p.m. ET) to Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET and was both able to chip away at and eventually beat NBC's Thursday night lineup, and attract younger viewers to the network.

CBS has had additional successes with police procedurals Cold Case, Without a Trace, Criminal Minds, NCIS, and The Mentalist, along with CSI spinoffs and , and sitcoms Everybody Loves Raymond, The King of Queens, Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory and The New Adventures of Old Christine.

During the 2007–08 season, Fox ranked as the top-rated network, primarily due to its reliance on American Idol. However, according to Nielsen, CBS ended up as the top-rated network for the 2008–2009 and 2009-2010 seasons. The two tend to nearly equal one another in the 18-34, 18-49, and 25-54 demographics, although Fox typically wins these by the narrowest of margins.

The conglomerate

During the 1960s, CBS began an effort to diversify, and looked for suitable investments. In 1965, it acquired electric guitar maker Fender from Leo Fender, who agreed to sell his company due to health problems. The purchase also included that of Rhodes electric pianos, which had already been acquired by Fender. This and other acquisitions led to a restructuring of the corporation into various operating groups and divisions; the quality of the products coming out of these acquired companies was extremely lower, hence the term "pre-CBS" (meaning higher, sought after quality) and "CBS" (mass produced lower quality).

In other diversification attempts, CBS would buy (and later sell) sports teams (especially the New York Yankees baseball club), book and magazine publishers (Fawcett Publications including Woman's Day, and Holt, Rinehart and Winston), map-makers, toy manufacturers (Gabriel Toys, Child Guidance, Wonder Products), and other properties.

As William Paley aged, he tried to find the one person who could follow in his footsteps. However, numerous successors-in-waiting came and went. By the mid-1980s, the investor Laurence Tisch had begun to acquire substantial holdings in CBS. Eventually he gained Paley's confidence, and with his support took control of CBS in 1986.

Tisch's sole interest was turning profits. When CBS faltered, under-performing units were given the axe. Among the first properties to go was the Columbia Records group, which had been part of the company since 1938. Tisch also shut down in 1986 the CBS Technology Center in Stamford, which had started in New York City in the 1930s as CBS Laboratories and evolved to be the company's technology Research and development unit.

Columbia Records

Columbia Records was a record label owned by CBS since 1938. In 1962, CBS launched CBS Records to market Columbia recordings outside North America. In 1966, CBS Records was made a separate subsidiary of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. CBS sold the CBS Records Group to the Japanese conglomerate Sony in 1988 initiating the Japanese buying spree of US companies (MCA, Pebble Beach Co., Rockefeller Center, Empire State Building, et al.) that continued into the 1990s. The record label company was re-christened Sony Music Entertainment in 1991, as Sony had a short term license on the CBS name.

Sony purchased from EMI its rights to the Columbia Records name outside the US, Canada, Spain and Japan. Sony now uses Columbia Records as a label name in all countries except Japan, where Sony Records remains their flagship label. Sony acquired the Spanish rights when Sony Music merged with Bertelsmann subsidiary BMG in 2004 as Sony BMG, co-owned by Sony and Bertelsmann. Sony bought out BMG's share in 2008.

CBS Corporation revived CBS Records in 2006.

Publishing

CBS entered the publishing business in 1967 by acquiring Holt, Rinehart & Winston, who published trade books, textbooks, and the magazine Field & Stream. The next year, CBS added the medical publisher Saunders to Holt, Rinehart & Winston. In 1971, CBS acquired Bond/Parkhurst, the publisher of Road & Track and Cycle World.

CBS greatly expanded its magazine business by purchasing Fawcett Publications in 1974, bringing in such magazines as Woman's Day. It acquired the majority of the Ziff Davis publications in 1984.

CBS sold its book publishing businesses in 1985. The educational publishing division, which retained the name Holt, Rinehart & Winston, was sold to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; the trade book division, renamed Henry Holt and Company, was sold to the West German publisher Holtzbrinck.

CBS exited the magazine business by selling the unit to its executive Peter Diamandis. Diamandis sold the magazines to Hachette Filipacchi Médias in 1988, forming Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.

CBS Musical Instruments division

Forming the CBS Musical Instruments division, the company also acquired Steinway pianos, Gemeinhardt flutes, Lyon & Healy harps, Rodgers (institutional) organs, Gulbransen home organs, Electro-Music Inc. (Leslie speakers), and Rogers Drums. The last musical purchase was the 1981 acquisition of the assets of then-bankrupt ARP Instruments, developer of electronic synthesizers.

Between 1965 and 1985 the quality of Fender guitars and amplifiers declined significantly. Encouraged by outraged Fender fans, CBS Musical Instruments division executives executed a leveraged buyout in 1985 and created FMIC, the Fender Musical Instrument Corporation. At the same time, CBS divested itself of Rodgers, along with Steinway and Gemeinhardt, all of which were purchased by Steinway Musical Properties. The other musical instruments properties were also liquidated.

Film production

CBS made a brief, unsuccessful move into film production in the late 1960s, creating Cinema Center Films. This profit-free unit was shut down in 1972; today the distribution rights to the Cinema Center library rest with Paramount Pictures for home video (via CBS Home Entertainment) and theatrical release, and with CBS Paramount Television for TV distribution (most other ancillary rights remain with CBS). It released such films as The Reivers (1969), starring Steve McQueen, and the musical Scrooge (1970), starring Albert Finney.

Yet ten years later, in 1982, CBS took another try at Hollywood, in a joint venture with Columbia Pictures and HBO called TriStar Pictures. Despite releasing such box office successes as The Natural, Places in the Heart, and , CBS felt the studio was not making a profit and in 1985, sold its stake in TriStar to The Coca-Cola Company, Columbia Pictures' owner at the time.

In 2007, CBS Corp. announced its desire to get back into the feature film business slowly launching CBS Films and hiring key executives in the Spring of 2008 to startup the new venture. The name CBS Films was actually used once before in 1953 when the name was briefly used for CBS's distributor of off-network and first-run syndicated programming to local TV stations in the United States and abroad.

Home video

CBS entered into the home video market, when joined with MGM to form MGM/CBS Home Video in 1978, but the joint venture was broken by 1982. CBS joined another studio: 20th Century Fox, to form CBS/Fox Video. CBS's duty was to release some of the movies by TriStar Pictures under the CBS/Fox Video label.

Gabriel Toys

CBS entered the video game market briefly, through its acquisition of Gabriel Toys (renamed CBS Toys), publishing several arcade adaptations and original titles under the name "CBS Electronics", for the Atari 2600, and other consoles and computers, also producing one of the first karaoke recording/players. CBS Electronics also distributed all Coleco-related video game products in Canada, including the ColecoVision. CBS later sold Gabriel Toys to View-Master, which eventually ended up as part of Mattel.

Venture to the UK

On 14 September 2009, it was revealed that the international arm of CBS, CBS Studios International, struck a joint venture deal with Chellomedia to launch six CBS-branded channels in the UK during 2009. The new channels would replace Zone Romantica, Zone Thriller, Zone Horror and Zone Reality, plus timeshift services Zone Horror +1 and Zone Reality +1. On 1 October 2009, it was announced that CBS Reality, CBS Reality +1, CBS Drama and CBS Action would launch on 16 November 2009 replacing Zone Reality, Zone Reality +1, Zone Romantica and Zone Thriller respectively. On 5 April 2010, Zone Horror and Zone Horror +1 were rebranded as Horror Channel and Horror Channel +1.

New owners

By the early 1990s, profits had fallen as a result of competition from cable companies, video rentals, and the high cost of programming. About 20 former CBS affiliates switched to the rapidly rising Fox Television Network in the mid 1990s, while many television markets across the country (e.g. KDFX in Palm Springs, California and KECY in Yuma, Arizona reportedly the first to do so in August 1994) lost their CBS affiliate for awhile. CBS ratings were acceptable, but the network struggled with an image of stodginess. Laurence Tisch lost interest and sought a new buyer. in Manhattan, home to the Late Show with David Letterman]]

Westinghouse Electric Corporation

In 1995, Westinghouse Electric Corporation acquired CBS for $5.4 billion. As one of the major broadcasting group owners of commercial radio and television stations (as Group W) since 1920, Westinghouse sought to transition from a station operator into a major media company with its purchase of CBS. This was followed in 1997 with the $4.9-billion purchase of Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, owner of more than 150 radio stations. Also that year, Westinghouse began the CBS Cable division by acquiring two existing cable channels (Gaylord's The Nashville Network and Country Music Television) and starting a new one (CBS Eye on People, which was later sold to Discovery Communications).

Following the Infinity purchase, operation and sales responsibilities for the CBS Radio Network was handed to Infinity, which turned management over to Westwood One, a company Infinity managed. WWO is a major radio program syndicator that had previously purchased the Mutual Broadcasting System, NBC's radio networks and the rights to use the "NBC Radio Networks" name. For a time, CBS Radio, NBC Radio Networks and CNN's radio news services were all under the WWO umbrella.

, Westwood One continues to distribute CBS radio programming, but as a self-managed company that put itself up for sale and found a buyer for a significant amount of its stock.

CBS also owned CBS Telenoticias, a Spanish-language news network.

In that same year of 1997, Westinghouse changed its name to CBS Corporation, and corporate headquarters were moved from Pittsburgh to New York. And to underline the change in emphasis, all non-entertainment assets were put up for sale. Another 90 radio stations were added to Infinity's portfolio in 1998 with the acquisition of American Radio Systems Corporation for $2.6 billion.

In 1999, CBS paid $2.5 billion to acquire King World Productions, a television syndication company whose programs include The Oprah Winfrey Show, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. By the end of 1999, all pre-CBS elements of Westinghouse's industrial past (beyond retaining rights to the name for brand licensing purposes) were gone.

Viacom

By the 1990s, CBS had become a broadcasting giant, but in 1999 entertainment conglomerate Viacom, a company created years earlier to syndicate old CBS series, announced it was taking over CBS in a deal valued at $37 billion. Following completion of this effort in 2000, Viacom was ranked as the second-largest entertainment company in the world.

CBS Corporation and CBS Studios

Having assembled all the elements of a communications empire, Viacom found that the promised synergy was not there, and at the end of 2005 it split itself in two. CBS became the center of a new company, CBS Corporation, which included the broadcasting elements, Paramount Television's production operations (renamed CBS Television Studios), UPN (which later merged with Time Warner's The WB into The CW), Viacom Outdoor advertising (renamed CBS Outdoor), Showtime, Simon & Schuster, and Paramount Parks, which the company sold in May 2006. It is the legal successor to the old Viacom.

The second company, keeping the Viacom name, kept Paramount Pictures, assorted MTV Networks, BET, and, until May 2007, Famous Music, which was sold to Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

As a result of the aforementioned Viacom/CBS corporate split, as well as other acquisitions over recent years, CBS (under the moniker CBS Studios) owns a massive television library spanning over six decades; these include not only CBS in-house productions and network programs, but also programs aired originally on competing networks. Shows in this library include I Love Lucy, The Twilight Zone, The Honeymooners, Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, The Fugitive, Little House on the Prairie (US TV rights only), , The Brady Bunch, Cheers, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Evening Shade, and , among others.

Both CBS Corporation and the new Viacom are still owned by Sumner Redstone's company, National Amusements. As such, Paramount Home Entertainment continues to handle DVD distribution for the CBS library.

Coverage and availability

ACNielsen estimated in 2003 that CBS can be seen in 96.98% of all American households, reaching 103,421,270 homes in the United States. CBS has 204 VHF and UHF affiliated stations in the U.S. and U.S. possessions. CBS is also carried on cable television across Canada, via its affiliates, as well as in Bermuda, via local affiliate ZBM-TV.

CBS.com

CBS.com is a website that has games, online sports and more.

Logos and slogans

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CBS unveiled its Eye Device logo on October 17, 1951. Before that, from the 1940s through 1951, CBS Television used an oval spotlight on the block letters C-B-S. The Eye device was conceived by William Golden based on a Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign as well as a Shaker drawing. (While commonly attributed to Golden, there is speculation that at least some design work on the symbol may have been done by another CBS staff designer, Georg Olden, one of the first African-Americans to attract some attention in the postwar graphic design field.) The Eye device made its broadcasting debut on October 20, 1951. The following season, as Golden prepared a new "ident", CBS President Frank Stanton insisted on keeping the Eye device and using it as much as possible. (Golden died unexpectedly in 1959, and was replaced by one of his top assistants, Lou Dorfsman, who would go on to oversee all print and on-air graphics for CBS for the next thirty years.)

An example of CBS Television Network's imaging (and the distinction between the television and radio networks) may be seen in a video of The Jack Benny Program from 1953; the video appears to be converted from kinescope, and "unscoped" or unedited. One sees the program as very nearly one would have seen it live on CBS. Don Wilson is the program announcer, but also voices a promo for Private Secretary, which starred Ann Sothern and alternated weekly with Jack Benny on the CBS schedule. Benny continued to appear on CBS radio and television at that time, and Wilson makes a promo announcement at the end of the broadcast for Benny's radio program on the CBS Radio Network. The program closes with the "CBS Television Network" ID slide (the "CBS eye" over a field of clouds with the words "CBS Television Network" superimposed over the eye). There is, however, no voiceover accompanying the ID slide. It is unclear whether it was simply absent from the recording or never originally broadcast.

The CBS eye is now an American icon. While the symbol's settings have changed, the Eye device itself has not been redesigned in its entire history. In the network's new graphic identity created by Trollbäck + Company in 2006, the eye is being placed in a "trademark" position on show titles, days of the week and descriptive words, an approach highly respecting the value of the eye. The eye logo has frequently been copied or borrowed by television networks around the world, notable examples being the Austrian Broadcasting System (ORF) which used to use a red version of the eye logo, Associated TeleVision in the United Kingdom, Frecuencia Latina in Peru, Nippon Television in Japan and Rede Bandeirantes in Brazil. The logo is alternately known as the Eyemark, which was also the name of CBS's domestic and international syndication divisions in the mid-to-late 1990s before the King World acquisition and Viacom merger.

1980s

Through the years, CBS has developed several notable image campaigns, and several of the network's most well-known slogans date from the 1980s. 1981s "Reach for the Stars" used a space-themed campaign to capitalize on both CBS's stellar improvement in the ratings and the historic launch of the space shuttle Columbia. 1982s "Great Moments" juxtaposed scenes from classic CBS programming such as "I Love Lucy" with scenes from the network's then-current classics such as "Dallas" and "M*A*S*H". From 1983 through 1986, CBS (by now firmly atop the ratings) featured a campaign based on the slogan "We've Got the Touch". Vocals for the campaign's jingle were contributed by Richie Havens (1983–84 and 1984–85), Aaron Neville (1984–85) and Kenny Rogers (1985–86). The 1986–87 programming season ushered in the "Share the Spirit of CBS" campaign, the network's first to use full-out computer graphics and DVE effects. Unlike most network campaign promos, the full length version of Share the Spirit not only showed a brief clip preview of each new fall series, but also utilized the CGI effects to map out the entire fall schedule by night. The success of that campaign led to the 1987–88 "CBSpirit" campaign. Most CBSpirit promos utilized a procession of show clips once again. However, the new graphic motif was a swirling (or "swishing") blue line, that was used to represent "the spirit". The full length promo, like the previous year, had a special portion that identified new fall shows, but the mapped-out fall schedule shot was abandoned.

For the 1988–89 season, CBS unveiled its new image campaign, officially known as "Television You Can Feel" but more commonly identified as "You Can Feel It On CBS". The goal was to convey a more sensual, new-age image through distinguished, advanced-looking computer graphics and soothing music, backgrounding images and clips of emotionally powerful scenes and characters. However, it was this season in which CBS began its ratings free fall, the deepest in the network's history. CBS ended the decade with "Get Ready for CBS". The 1989–90 version was a very ambitious campaign that attempted to elevate CBS out of last place (among the major networks); the motif was network stars interacting with each other in a remote studio set, getting ready for photo and TV shoots, as well as for the new season on CBS. The high-energy promo song and the campaign's practices saw many variations across the country as every CBS affiliate participated in it, as per a network mandate. Also, for the first time in history, CBS became the first broadcast network to team with a national retailer to encourage viewership, with the CBS/Kmart Get Ready Giveaway.

1990s

For the 1990–91 season, the campaign featured a new jingle—The Temptations offered an altered version of their hit "Get Ready". The early 1990s featured less-than-memorable campaigns, with simplified taglines such as "This is CBS" (1992) and "You're On CBS" (1995). Eventually, the advertising department gained momentum again late in the decade with Welcome Home to a CBS Night (1996–1997), simplified to Welcome Home (1997–1999) and succeeded by the spin-off campaign The Address is CBS (1999–2000).

2000s

Throughout the first decade of the 21st century, CBS's ratings resurgence was backed by their "It's All Here" campaign, and their strategy led, in 2005, to the proclamation that they were "America's Most Watched Network". Their most-recent campaign, beginning in 2006, proclaims "We Are CBS" with the voice of Don LaFontaine. , the network has shifted to a campaign entitled "Only CBS" in which the network proclaims several unique qualities it has.

Promos

Especially during the 1960s, the three major networks, NBC, CBS and ABC, would show elaborate promos during the summer months of their upcoming fall schedule of that year. In 1961, CBS took the unusual step of airing a program entitled CBS Fall Preview Special: Seven Wonderful Nights, using, not the usual television voiceovers, but stars of several CBS shows to promote the upcoming shows, stars such as Ed Sullivan (The Ed Sullivan Show), Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone), and Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale (Perry Mason). The stars would appear and show previews of the entire lineup for one specific day of the week.

Programming

As of fall 2010, CBS operates on an 87½-hour regular network programming schedule. It provides 22 hours of prime time programming to affiliated stations: 8–11 p.m. Monday to Saturday (all times ET/PT) and 7–11 p.m. on Sundays. Programming is also provided 10 a.m.–3 p.m. weekdays (game shows The Price Is Right and Let's Make a Deal, soaps The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, and talk show The Talk); 7–9 a.m. weekdays and Saturdays (The Early Show); CBS News Sunday Morning, nightly editions of the CBS Evening News, the Sunday political talk show Face the Nation, a 2½-hour early morning news program Up to the Minute and CBS Morning News; the late night talk shows Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson; and a three-hour Saturday morning live-action/animation block under the name Cookie Jar TV.

In addition, sports programming routinely appears on the weekends, although with a somewhat unpredictable schedule (mostly between noon and 7:00 p.m. ET).

Daytime

CBS's daytime schedule is the home of the popular long-running game show The Price Is Right. The Price is Right, which began production in 1972, is notable as the longest continuously running daytime game show on network television. After being hosted by Bob Barker for 35 years, the show has been hosted by actor/comedian Drew Carey since 2007. The network is also home to a new version of the classic game show Let's Make a Deal, hosted by singer/comedian Wayne Brady.

CBS introduced a new talk show titled The Talk on October 18, 2010. The show is similar to ABC's The View with a panel of hosts including Julie Chen, Sara Gilbert, Sharon Osbourne, Holly Robinson Peete, Leah Remini and Marissa Jaret Winokur. The show will address motherhood and other contemporary issues in a candid environment.

, CBS Daytime airs only two daytime soap operas each weekday: The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful.

Notable daytime soaps that once aired on CBS include As the World Turns (1956–2010), Guiding Light (1952–2009), which began on radio in 1937, Love of Life (1951–80), Search for Tomorrow (1951–82), which later moved to NBC, The Secret Storm (1954–1974), The Edge of Night (1956–75), which later moved to ABC, and Capitol (1982–87).

Notable daytime game shows that once aired on CBS include Match Game (1973–79), Tattletales (1974–78 and 1982–84), The $10/25,000 Pyramid (1973–74 and 1982–88), Press Your Luck (1983–86), Card Sharks (1986–89), Family Feud (1988–93), and Wheel of Fortune (1989–1991). CBS games that also aired in prime time include Beat the Clock (1950–58 and 1979–80), To Tell the Truth (1956–68) and Password (1961–67, and a 2008 prime time revival). Two long-running primetime-only games were the panel shows What's My Line? (1950–67) and I've Got a Secret (1952–68, 1976).

Children's programming

CBS broadcast the live action series Captain Kangaroo on weekday mornings from 1955 through 1982, and on Saturdays through 1984. From 1971 through 1986, the CBS News department produced one-minute In the News segments broadcast between other Saturday morning programs. Otherwise, in regards to children's programming, CBS has aired mostly animated series for kids, such as the original version of Scooby-Doo, Jim Henson's Muppet Babies, Garfield and Friends and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In 1997, CBS began broadcasting Wheel 2000, and was broadcasting it simultaneously with GSN.

In September 1998, CBS began contracting out to other companies to provide programming and material for their Saturday morning schedule. The first of these special blocks was CBS Kidshow, which featured programming from Canada's Nelvana studio. It aired on CBS Saturday mornings from 1998 to 2000, with shows like Anatole, Mythic Warriors, Rescue Heroes, and Flying Rhino Junior High. Its tagline was, "The CBS Kids Show: Get in the Act."

In 2000, CBS's deal with Nelvana ended. They then began a deal with Nickelodeon (owned by CBS's former parent company Viacom, which at one time was a subsidiary of CBS) to air its Nick Jr. programming under the banner Nick Jr. on CBS. as part of a three-year deal which includes distribution of selected Formula One auto races on tape delay. KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS premiered in September of that year; in the inaugural line-up, two of the programs were new shows, one aired in syndication in 2005 and three were pre-2006 shows. In mid-2007, KOL withdrew sponsorship from CBS's Saturday Morning Block and the name was changed to KEWLopolis on CBS. Complimenting CBS's 2007 line-up was Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, and Sushi Pack. On February 24, 2009, it was announced that CBS renewed its contract with Cookie Jar for another three seasons, through 2012. On September 19, 2009, KEWLopolis has been changed into Cookie Jar TV.

Animated primetime holiday specials

CBS was the original broadcast network for the animated primetime holiday specials based on the comic strip Peanuts, beginning with A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965. Over thirty holiday Peanuts specials (each for a specific holiday such as Halloween) were broadcast on CBS from that time until 2000, when ABC acquired the broadcast rights. CBS also aired several primetime animated specials based on the work of Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel), beginning with How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 1966. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, produced in stop motion by the Rankin/Bass studio, has been another annual holiday staple of CBS since 1972, but that special originated on NBC in 1964.

All of these animated specials, from 1973 until 1990, began with a fondly remembered opening animated logo which showed the words "A CBS Special Presentation" in colorful lettering. The word "SPECIAL", repeated in multiple colors, slowly zoomed out from the frame in a spinning counterclockwise motion against a black background, and rapidly zoomed back into frame as a single word, in white, at the end; the logo was accompanied by a jazzy yet majestic up-tempo fanfare (believed to be incidental music from the CBS crime drama Hawaii Five-O) with dramatic horns and percussion (this appeared at the beginning of all CBS specials of the period (such as the Miss USA pageants and the annual Kennedy Center Honors presentation), not just animated ones). (This opening logo was presumably designed by, or under the supervision of, longtime CBS creative director Lou Dorfsman, who oversaw print and on-air graphics for CBS for nearly thirty years, replacing William Golden, who died in 1959.)

Classical music specials

CBS was also responsible for telecasting the series of Young People's Concerts conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Telecast every few months between 1958 and 1972, first in black-and-white and then switching to color in 1966, these programs introduced millions of children to classical music through the eloquent commentaries by Maestro Bernstein. They were nominated for several Emmy Awards, and were among the first programs ever broadcast from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

In December 1977, CBS was the first network to telecast the Baryshnikov staging of The Nutcracker starring the Russian dancer along with Gelsey Kirkland – a version of the famous ballet that would become a television classic, and remains so today. The production later moved to PBS.

In April 1986, CBS presented a slightly abbreviated version of Horowitz in Moscow, a live piano recital by Vladimir Horowitz, arguably the greatest pianist of the 20th century. It marked Horowitz's return to Russia after more than sixty years. The program was shown as an episode of the series CBS News Sunday Morning (9:00 A.M. in the U.S. is 4:00 P.M. in Russia). It was so successful that CBS repeated it a mere two months later by popular demand, this time on videotape, rather than live. In later years, the program was shown as a stand-alone special on PBS, and the current DVD of it omits the Charles Kuralt commentary, but includes additional selections not heard on the CBS telecast.

In 1986, CBS telecast in primetime, in what was now a rare move for a commercial network station, since most primetime classical music specials were now relegated to PBS and A&E;. The program was a concert commemorating the re-opening of Carnegie Hall after its complete renovation. It featured, along with luminaries such as Leonard Bernstein, popular music artists such as Frank Sinatra.

International broadcasts

CBS programs are shown outside the US. For instance, CBS News is shown for a few hours a day on satellite channel Orbit News in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The CBS Evening News is shown in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Italy on Sky News, despite the fact that Sky is part of News Corporation (owners of Fox News Channel).

In the UK, CBS took over 6 of Chello Zone's channels in 2009. These were the first channels branded CBS outside the US. The channels are called CBS Action, CBS Drama, and CBS Reality, while CBS Reality has a timeshifted (+1) channel as well. Other channels as part of the deal are The Horror Channel and its timeshifted channel.

In Australia, Network Ten has an output deal with CBS Paramount giving them rights to carry the programs Jericho, Dr. Phil, Late Show with David Letterman, NCIS and Numb3rs as well access to stories from 60 Minutes (the rights of which have been sold to the Nine Network which broadcasts their own 60 Minutes).

In Bermuda, there is a CBS affiliate owned by the state-run Bermuda Broadcasting Company using the callsign ZBM.

In Canada, CBS, like all major American TV networks, is carried in the basic program package of all cable and satellite providers. The broadcast is shown almost exactly the same in Canada as in the United States. However, CBS's programming on Canadian cable and satellite systems are subject to the practice of "simsubbing", in which a signal of a Canadian station is placed over CBS's signal, if the programming at that time is the same. As well, many Canadians live close enough to a major American city to pick up the over the air broadcast signal of an American CBS affiliate with an antenna.

In Hong Kong, CBS evening news is aired live in the early morning and the local networks have an agreement to rebroadcast sections 12 hours later to fill up the local news programs when they have insufficient content to report.

The CBS Evening News is seen in the Philippines via satellite on Q-TV (a sister network of broadcaster GMA Network) while The Early Show is shown in that country on the Lifestyle Network. Studio 23 and Maxx, channels owned by broadcaster ABS-CBN in the Philippines show The Late Show with David Letterman.

Controversy

In 1982, the network aired the documentary The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception, asserting General William Westmoreland deliberately misled the public about the Vietnam War in order to maintain public support. Westmoreland filed a $120 million libel suit that was ultimately settled in exchange for an on-air clarification. However, an internal study found that the documentary had violated CBS News Standards.

In 1995, CBS refused to air a segment of 60 Minutes that would have featured an interview with a former president of research and development for Brown & Williamson, the nation's third largest tobacco company. The controversy raised questions about the legal roles in decision making and whether journalistic standards should be compromised despite legal pressures and threats. The decision nevertheless sent shock waves throughout the television industry, the journalism community, and the country. This incident was the basis for the 1999 film by Michael Mann, The Insider.

In 2001, Bernard Goldberg, who was a reporter with CBS for 28 years, had his book, Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, published. This book heavily criticized the media, and some CBS reporters and news anchors in particular, such as Dan Rather. Goldberg accused CBS of having a liberal bias in most of their news.

In 2004, the FCC imposed a record $550,000 fine on CBS for its broadcast of a Super Bowl half-time show (produced by then sister-unit MTV) in which singer Janet Jackson's breast was briefly exposed. It was the largest fine ever for a violation of federal decency laws. Following the incident CBS apologized to its viewers and denied foreknowledge of the event, which was broadcast live on TV. In 2008, a Philadelphia federal court annulled the fine imposed on CBS, labelling it "arbitrary and capricious".

CBS aired a controversial episode of 60 Minutes, which questioned U.S. President George W. Bush's service in the National Guard. Following allegations of forgery, CBS News admitted that documents used in the story had not been properly authenticated. The following January, CBS fired four people connected to the preparation of the news-segment. Former network news anchor Dan Rather has filed a $70 million lawsuit against CBS, contending the story, and his termination, were mishandled.

In 2006, CBS announced it would air only three of its NFL games per week in high definition. The move created some outrage among fans, with some accusing the network of being "cheap."

In 2007, retired Army Major Gen. John Batiste, consultant to CBS News, appeared in a political ad for VoteVets.org critical of President Bush and the war in Iraq. Two days later, CBS stated that appearing in the ad violated Batiste's contract with them and the agreement was terminated.

Partnership

CBS is partner with Wetpaint, a wiki farm company. CBS also has engaged in "egg-vertising", a campaign in the Fall of 2006, which etched television advertisements in 35 million eggs across North America.

See also

CBS Cable, the company's early (and abortive) foray into cable broadcasting.

CBS Daytime

CBS Interactive

CBS Kidshow

CBS Mobile

CBS News

CBS Radio

CBS Radio Network

CBS Sports

CBS Studio Center

CBS Television City

CBS Television Distribution

CBS Television Stations

CBS Productions

Cookie Jar TV

The CW Television Network

List of assets owned by CBS

List of CBS affiliates, arranged by market

List of CBS affiliates, arranged by state

List of programs broadcast by CBS

List of shows previously aired by CBS

Westmoreland v. CBS

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

CBS at YouTube

CBS Eye-dentity Logo Guidelines website

Category:American television networks CBS television network Category:Peabody Award winners Category:Orphan initialisms Category:Companies established in 1927 Category:1927 establishments in the United States Category:New York Yankees owners

Name	Ted Williams
Position	Left fielder
Bats	Left
Throws	Right
Birthdate	August 30, 1918
Birthplace	San Diego, California
Deathdate	July 05, 2002
Deathplace	Inverness, Florida
Debutdate	April 20
Debutyear	1939
Debutteam	Boston Red Sox
Finaldate	September 28
Finalyear	1960
Finalteam	Boston Red Sox
Stat1label	Batting average
Stat1value	.344
Stat2label	Home runs
Stat2value	521
Stat3label	Hits
Stat3value	2,654
Stat4label	Runs batted in
Stat4value	1,839
Teams
Highlights
Hofdate
Hofvote	93.38% (first ballot)

Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002), nicknamed "The Kid", "The Splendid Splinter", "Teddy Ballgame", and "The Thumper" because of his hitting prowess, was an American Major League Baseball left fielder. He played his entire 21-year baseball career for the Boston Red Sox (1939-1942 and 1946-1960). Williams' career was twice interrupted by military service as a Marine Corps pilot.

Williams was a two-time American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) winner, led the league in batting six times, and won the Triple Crown twice. He had a career batting average of .344, with 521 home runs, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. He is the last player in Major League Baseball to bat over .400 in a single season (.406 in 1941). Williams holds the highest career batting average of anyone with 500 or more home runs. His career year was 1941, when he hit .406 with 37 HR, 120 RBI, and 135 runs scored. His .551 on base percentage set a record that stood for 61 years. An avid sport fisherman, he hosted a television show about fishing and was inducted into the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame.

Early life

Ted Williams was born in San Diego as Teddy Samuel Williams, named after his father, Samuel Stuart Williams, and Teddy Roosevelt. At some point, the name on his birth certificate was changed to Theodore, but his mother and his closest friends always called him "Teddy". He attended Hoover High School in San Diego—where the baseball field is named in his honor. His father was a soldier, sheriff, and photographer from New York and greatly admired the former president. His mother, May Venzor, was a Salvation Army worker from El Paso, Texas.

His paternal ancestors were a mix of Welsh and Irish and his maternal ancestors were of Mexican descent. The Mexican side of Williams' family was quite diverse, having Spanish (Basque), Russian, and Indian, namely mestizo, roots. Through his Mexican side, he is also distantly related to Mexican Revolutionary General Pascual Orozco, who in turn shares descent from the Habsburg family of Europe, and related to Maximilian I of Mexico. Of his Mexican ancestry he wrote: "If I had had my mother's name, there is no doubt I would have run into problems in those days, (considering) the prejudices people had in Southern California".

Williams lived in San Diego's North Park neighborhood (4121 Utah Street) and graduated from Herbert Hoover High School in San Diego, where he played baseball. Though he soon had offers from the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees, his mother thought he was too young to leave home so he signed with the local minor league club, the San Diego Padres, while still in high school. He also had a minor league stint with the Minneapolis Millers.

He had a younger brother Danny who was wayward. When Ted started making some money in 1941, he had the house on Utah Street enlarged and completely renovated. Danny promptly backed a truck up to the house, moved out all the new furniture, including a washing machine and a sewing machine, and sold these items. May, who had been able to get Danny out of his previous scrapes, gave up this time and had him arrested. He spent some time in jail.

Early in his career, Ted stated that he wished to be known as "The greatest hitter who ever lived," an honor that he achieved in the eyes of many by the end of his career. Williams once stated his goal was to have a father walk down the street with his son, point to Williams and remark, "Son, there goes the greatest hitter who ever lived." Carl Yastrzemski said of Williams, "He studied hitting the way a broker studies the stock market."

Major league career

Williams moved up to the major league Red Sox in 1939, immediately making an impact by leading the American League in RBI and finishing 4th in MVP balloting. Williams quickly became known as one of the most potent left-handed hitters in MLB. A myth developed that his eyes were the best in history, being able to read the words on a 78 RPM record label while it was spinning. Williams disavowed that claim, but his eyesight was unusually keen; military ophthalmologists judged Williams' vision as "a one-in-100,000 proposition."

At the time, Williams' achievement was overshadowed by Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak in the same season. Their rivalry was played up by the press; Williams always felt himself slightly better as a hitter, but acknowledged that DiMaggio was the better all-around player. The writers apparently concurred, voting DiMaggio the American League MVP award over Williams.

Williams also set a major-league record in 1941 for on-base percentage in a season at .551. That record would last until surpassed by Barry Bonds in . In 1949, Williams reached base in 84 consecutive games, the most ever. In addition, Williams holds the third longest such streak of 69, in 1941. In 1957, Williams reached base in 16 consecutive plate appearances, also a major league record.

Ted Williams pitched once during his career, on August 24, 1940. He pitched the last two innings in a 12-1 loss to Detroit; Williams allowed one earned run on three hits, while striking out one batter, Rudy York.

Williams said that his greatest thrill as a player was winning the 1941 All-Star Game with a two-out, three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Another memorable All-Star Game accomplishment came in 1946 in Fenway Park, a 12-0 blowout for the American League. Williams' 4-for-4, 5 RBI day was highlighted by a home run off Rip Sewell's notorious eephus pitch.

Among the few blemishes on Williams' playing record was his performance in his lone postseason appearance, the 1946 World Series. Williams managed just 5 singles in 25 at-bats, with just 1 RBI, as the Red Sox lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. Much of Williams' lack of production was due to his stubborn insistence on hitting into the Cardinals' defensive shift, which frequently involved five or six of the Cardinals' fielders positioned to the right of second base. This shift was a version of the Boudreau Shift, popularized by Cleveland Indians manager Lou Boudreau in an attempt to reduce Williams's effectiveness. Williams was also playing with a sore wrist from being hit by a pitch during a pre-World Series exhibition game against a team gathered from other American League squads, while the Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers were playing a best-of-three series to determine the National League champion. However, Williams never cited the injury as an excuse for his subpar play.

Williams was almost traded for DiMaggio in . In late April, Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey and Yankees owner Dan Topping agreed to swap the players, but a day later canceled the deal when Yawkey requested that Yogi Berra come with DiMaggio. It was argued, then and now, that Yankee Stadium, which favored left-handed power, would be a better venue for the southpaw Williams, with the reverse true for the righty DiMaggio in Fenway Park.

A broken collarbone and his famed plate patience cost Williams the 1954 batting title. He had the league's highest average, .345, but walked 136 times en route to just 386 at-bats. 478 at-bats were required to be eligible for the batting title, and thus Williams lost it to Cleveland’s Bobby Avila, who hit .341 in 555 at-bats.

In 1957, he hit .388 to lead the league and remarkably in 1958 at age 40, he led the league with a .328 batting average.

When Pumpsie Green became the first black player on the Boston Red Sox in 1959—the last major league team to integrate its roster—Williams openly welcomed him.

Williams ended his career dramatically, hitting a home run in his very last at-bat on September 28, . The classic John Updike essay "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu" chronicles this event and is often mentioned among the greatest pieces of sports writing in American journalism.

Playing style

Williams was an obsessive student of hitting. He famously used a lighter bat than most sluggers, because it generated a faster swing. David Halberstam's Summer of '49 recalls him warning teammates not to leave their bats on the ground as they would absorb moisture and become heavier. His devotion allowed him to hit for power and average while maintaining extraordinary plate discipline. In 1970 he wrote a book on the subject, The Science of Hitting (revised 1986), which is still read by many baseball players. Williams was known to discuss hitting with active players enthusiastically until very late in his life; a conversation with Tony Gwynn was filmed for television.

Williams lacked foot speed, as attested by his 19-year career total of only one inside-the-park home run, one occasion of hitting for the cycle, and just 24 stolen bases. (Interestingly, despite his slowness on the basepaths, he is one of only four players in history - along with noted speedsters Tim Raines, Rickey Henderson and Omar Vizquel - to have stolen a base in four different decades.) Williams always felt that had he had more speed, he could have raised his average considerably and hit .400 in at least one additional season. Williams was considered an indifferent outfielder with a good throwing arm; he often spent time in left field practicing "shadow swings" for his next at-bat. Williams occasionally expressed regret that he had not worked harder on his defense.

Military service

Name	Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams
Born	August 30, 1918
Died	July 5, 2002
Placeofburial	Scottsdale, Arizona
Placeofburial label	Place of burial
Caption	Williams being sworn into the military on May 22, 1942.
Allegiance	United States of America
Branch	United States NavyUnited States Marine Corps
Serviceyears	1942-1946, 1952-53
Rank	Captain
Battles	World War IIKorean War
Laterwork	Baseball player

World War II

Williams served as a pilot during World War II and the Korean War. He had been classified 3-A by Selective Service prior to the war, a dependency deferment because he was his mother's sole support. When his classification was changed to 1-A following U.S. entry into the war, Williams appealed to his draft board. The board agreed that his status should not have been changed. He made a public statement that once he had built up his mother's trust fund, he intended to enlist. Even so, criticism in the media, including withdrawal of an endorsement contract by Quaker Oats, resulted in his enlistment in the Navy on May 22, 1942.

Williams could have received an easy assignment and played baseball for the Navy. Instead, he joined the V-5 program to become a Naval aviator. Williams was first sent to the Navy's Preliminary Ground School at Amherst College for six months of academic instruction in various subjects including math and navigation, where he achieved a 3.85 grade point average.

Fellow Red Sox player Johnny Pesky, who went into the same training program, said about Ted "He mastered intricate problems in fifteen minutes which took the average cadet an hour, and half of the other cadets there were college grads."

Pesky again described Williams' acumen in the advance training for which Pesky personally did not qualify: “I heard Ted literally tore the `sleeve target' to shreds with his angle dives. He'd shoot from wingovers, zooms, and barrel rolls, and after a few passes the sleeve was ribbons. At any rate, I know he broke the all-time record for hits." Ted went to Jacksonville for a course in air gunnery, the combat pilot's payoff test, and broke all the records in reflexes, coordination, and visual-reaction time. "From what I heard. Ted could make a plane and its six 'pianos' (machine guns) play like a symphony orchestra," Pesky says. "From what they said, his reflexes, coordination, and visual reaction made him a built-in part of the machine."

Williams received preflight training at Athens, Georgia; primary training at NAS Bunker Hill, Indiana; and advanced flight training at NAS Pensacola. He received his wings and commission in the U.S. Marine Corps on May 2, 1944.

He served as a flight instructor at Naval Air Station Pensacola teaching young pilots to fly the F4U Corsair. He was in Pearl Harbor awaiting orders to join the China fleet when the war ended. He finished the war in Hawaii and was released from active duty in January 1946; however he did remain in the reserves.

Korean War

On May 1, 1952, at the age of 34, he was recalled to active duty for service in the Korean War. He hadn't flown for some eight years but turned away all offers to sit out the war in comfort as a member of a service baseball team. Nevertheless Williams was resentful of being called up, which he admitted years later, particularly of the Navy's policy to call up Inactive Reservists rather than members of the Active Reserve.

After eight weeks of refresher flight training and qualification in the F9F Panther jet at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, he was assigned to VMF-311, Marine Aircraft Group 33 (MAG-33), based at K-3 airfield in Pohang, Korea. During the war he also served in the same unit as John Glenn and in the last half of his missions, he was serving as Glenn's wingman. While these absences, which took almost five years out of the heart of a great career, significantly limited his career totals, he never publicly complained about the time devoted to military service. Biographer Leigh Montville argues that Williams was not happy about being pressed into service in Korea, but he did what he felt was his patriotic duty.

Williams had a strong respect for General Douglas MacArthur, referring to him as his "idol". For Williams' fortieth birthday, MacArthur sent him an oil painting of himself with the inscription "To Ted Williams - not only America's greatest baseball player, but a great American who served his country. Your friend, Douglas MacArthur. General U.S. Army."

Summary of career

Williams's two MVP Awards and two Triple Crowns came in four different years. Williams, Lou Gehrig, and Chuck Klein are the only players since the establishment of the MVP award to win the Triple Crown and not be named league MVP in that season.

Ted Williams won the Triple Crown in 1942, and again in 1947 after missing three years to WWII. In 1949, Williams led the league in home runs (with 43) and RBI (with 159, tied with Red Sox shortstop Vern Stephens), but lost the batting race to Detroit third-baseman George Kell. Kell had 179 hits in 522 at-bats, for a batting average of .3429, while Williams went 194-566, for an average of .3428. A single hit either way would have changed the outcome. Williams is also one of three players in Major-League Baseball history (along with Rickey Henderson and Tim Raines) to steal a base in four different decades.

Because Williams's hitting was so feared, and it was known that he was a dead pull hitter, opponents frequently employed the radical, defensive "Williams Shift" against him, leaving only one fielder on the third-base half of the field. Rather than bunting the ball into the open space, the proud Williams batted as usual against the defense. The defensive tactic was later used against left-handed sluggers such as Willie McCovey and Barry Bonds, and is still used to this day against players such as Ryan Howard, Carlos Delgado, and David Ortiz who are also considered dead-pull hitters, and is appropriately called the infield shift.

Ted Williams retired from the game in 1960 and hit a home run in his final at-bat, on September 28, 1960, in front of only 10,454 fans at Fenway Park. This home run, a solo shot hit off Baltimore pitcher Jack Fisher in the 8th inning that reduced the Orioles' lead to 4-3—was immortalized in The New Yorker essay "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu", by John Updike.

Renowned NBC sportscaster Bob Costas, reflecting on Williams's unparalleled success as ball player, wingman, and fisherman, once asked Williams if he realized he was in real life the type of American hero John Wayne sought to portray in his movies. Replied Williams, "Yeah, I know."

Relationship with Boston media and fans

Ted Williams was on uncomfortable terms with the Boston newspapers for nearly twenty years, as he felt they liked to discuss his personal life as much as his baseball performance. He maintained a career-long feud with SPORT magazine due to a 1948 feature article in which the SPORT reporter included a quote from Williams' mother. Insecure about his upbringing, and stubborn because of immense confidence in his own talent, Williams made up his mind that the "knights of the typewriter" were against him. Some seemingly were. After having hit for the league's Triple Crown in 1947, Williams narrowly lost the MVP award in a vote where one midwestern newspaper writer left Williams entirely off his ten-player ballot.

He treated most of the press accordingly, as he described in his memoir, My Turn at Bat. Williams also had an uneasy relationship with the Boston fans, though he could be very cordial one-on-one. He felt at times a good deal of gratitude for their passion and their knowledge of the game. On the other hand, Williams was temperamental, high-strung, and at times tactless. He gave generously to those in need, and demanded loyalty from those around him. He could not forgive the fickle nature of the fans—booing a player for booting a ground ball, then turning around and roaring approval of the same player for hitting a home run. Despite the cheers and adulation of most of his fans, the occasional boos directed at him in Fenway Park led Williams to stop tipping his cap in acknowledgement after a home run.

Williams maintained this policy up to and including his swan song in 1960. After hitting a home run in his last career at-bat in Fenway Park, Williams characteristically refused either to tip his cap as he circled the bases or to respond to prolonged cheers of "We want Ted!" from the crowd by making an appearance from the dugout. Boston manager Pinky Higgins sent Williams to his fielding position in left field to start the ninth inning, then immediately recalled him for backup Carroll Hardy, thus allowing Williams to receive one last ovation as he jogged on and off the field. But he did so without reacting to the crowd. Williams's aloof attitude led writer John Updike to wryly observe that "Gods do not answer letters."

Williams's final home run did not take place during the final game of the 1960 season, but rather the Red Sox's last home game that year. The Red Sox played three more games, but they were on the road in New York and Williams did not appear in any of them, as it became clear that Williams's final home at-bat would be the last of his career.

In 1991 on Ted Williams Day at Fenway Park, Williams pulled a Red Sox cap from out of his jacket and tipped it to the crowd; it was the first time he had done so since his earliest days as a player.

A Red Smith profile from 1956 describes one Boston writer trying to convince Ted Williams that first cheering and then booing a ballplayer was no different from a moviegoer applauding a "western" movie actor one day and saying the next "He stinks! Whatever gave me the idea he could act?" But Williams rejected this; when he liked a western actor like Hoot Gibson, he liked him in every picture, and would not think of booing him.

He once had a friendship with Ty Cobb, with whom he often had discussions about baseball. He often touted Rogers Hornsby as being the greatest right-handed hitter of all time. This assertion actually led to a split in the relationship between Ty Cobb and Ted Williams. Once during one of their yearly debate sessions on the greatest hitters of all-time Williams asserted that Hornsby was one of the greatest of all-time. Cobb apparently had strong feelings about Rogers and threw a fit, expelling Williams from his hotel room. Their friendship effectively terminated after this altercation.

Hall of Fame induction speech

In his induction speech in 1966, Williams included a statement calling for the recognition of the great Negro Leagues players: "I've been a very lucky guy to have worn a baseball uniform, and I hope some day the names of Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson in some way can be added as a symbol of the great Negro players who are not here only because they weren't given a chance." (Montville, p. 262).

Williams was referring to two of the most famous names in the Negro Leagues, who were not given the opportunity to play in the Major Leagues before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. Gibson died early in 1947 and thus never played in the majors; and Paige's brief major league stint came long past his prime as a player. This powerful and unprecedented statement from the Hall of Fame podium was "a first crack in the door that ultimately would open and include Paige and Gibson and other Negro League stars in the shrine." (Montville, p. 262) Paige was the first inducted, in 1971. Gibson and others followed, starting in 1972 and continuing off and on into the 21st Century.

In 1954, Williams was also inducted by the San Diego Hall of Champions into the Breitbard Hall of Fame honoring San Diego's finest athletes both on and off the playing surface.

Career ranking

At the time of his retirement, Williams ranked third all-time in home runs (behind Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx), seventh in RBIs (after Ruth, Cap Anson, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Foxx, and Mel Ott; Stan Musial would pass Williams in 1962), and seventh in batting average (behind Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Lefty O'Doul, Ed Delahanty and Tris Speaker). His career batting average is the highest of any player who played his entire career in the post-1920 live-ball era.

Williams was also second to Ruth in career slugging percentage, where he remains today, and first in on-base percentage. He was also second to Ruth in career walks, but has since dropped to fourth place behind Barry Bonds and Rickey Henderson. Williams remains the career leader in walks per plate appearance.

Most modern statistical analyses place Williams, along with Ruth and Bonds, among the three most potent hitters to have played the game. Williams' 1941 season is often considered favorably with the greatest seasons of Ruth and Bonds in terms of various offensive statistical measures such as slugging, on-base and "offensive winning percentage." As a further indication, of the ten best seasons for OPS, short for On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage, a popular modern measure of offensive productivity, four each were achieved by Ruth and Bonds, and two by Williams.

In 1999, Williams was ranked as Number 8 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, where he was the highest-ranking left fielder.

Family life

On May 4, 1944, Williams married Doris Soule, daughter of his hunting guide. Their daughter, Barbara Joyce ("Bobbi Jo"), was born on January 28, 1948, while Williams was fishing in Florida. They divorced in 1954. He married socialite model Lee Howard on September 10, 1961; they divorced in 1967.

Williams married Dolores Wettach, a former Miss Vermont and Vogue model, in 1968. Their son John-Henry was followed by daughter Claudia (born October 8, 1971). They divorced in 1972.

Williams lived with Louise Kaufman for twenty years until her death in 1993. In his book, Cramer called her the love of Williams' life. After his death, her sons filed suit to recover her furniture from Williams's condominium as well as a half-interest in the condominium they claimed he gave her.

Both John-Henry and Williams' brother Danny died from leukemia.

Retirement

After retirement from play, Williams helped new left fielder Carl Yastrzemski in hitting. He then served as manager of the Washington Senators, from 1969–1971, then continued with the team when they became the Texas Rangers after the 1971 season. Williams's best season as a manager was 1969 when he led the expansion Senators to an 86–76 record in their only winning season in Washington. He was chosen "Manager of the Year" after that season. Like many great players, Williams became impatient with ordinary athletes' abilities and attitudes, particularly those of pitchers, whom he admitted he never respected, and his managerial career was short and largely unsuccessful. Before and after leaving Texas (which would be his only manager job), he occasionally appeared at Red Sox spring training as a guest hitting instructor. Williams would also go into a partnership with friend Al Cassidy to form the Ted Williams Baseball Camp in Lakeville, Massachusetts. It was not uncommon to find Williams fishing in the pond at the camp. The area now is owned by the town and a few of the buildings still stand. In the main lodge one can still see memorabilia from Williams' playing days.

On the subject of pitchers, in Ted's autobiography written with John Underwood, Ted opines regarding Bob Lemon (a sinker-ball specialist) pitching for Cleveland Indians around 1951: "I have to rate Lemon as one of the very best pitchers I ever faced. His ball was always moving, hard, sinking, fast-breaking. You could never really uhmmmph with Lemon."

Then there was Ray Scarborough with the Washington Senators, who always seemed to do well against Boston. "He was a right-handed pitcher and he was nothing if not smart and crafty. Not only did he give the Boston right-handers a difficult time, but he was poison to their best left-handed hitter Ted Williams. Scarborough could decoy Williams better than any other pitcher in the league.

It was not just a matter of his selection of pitches, it was his motion as well. He would show fastball and then at the last minute go to his curve. Forty years later Williams paid Scarborough the ultimate accolade: He said that he probably chased more balls out of the strike zone with Ray Scarborough than with any other pitcher in the American League

Around 1950 largely at the urging of Williams, it was said, the Red Sox traded for Ray Scarborough, by then thirty-five. But it was too late for him, and too late for them. He lasted a little more than one season before moving on"

He was much more successful in fishing. An avid and expert fly fisherman and deep-sea fisherman, he spent many summers after baseball fishing the Miramichi River, in Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada. Williams was named to the International Game Fish Association Hall of Fame in 2000. Shortly after Williams's death, conservative pundit Steve Sailer wrote:

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Williams reached an extensive deal with Sears, lending his name and talent toward marketing, developing, and endorsing a line of in-house sports equipment - specifically fishing, hunting and baseball equipment. He was also extensively involved in the Jimmy Fund, later losing a brother to leukemia, and spent much of his spare time, effort, and money in support of the cancer organization.

In his later years, Williams became a fixture at autograph shows and card shows after his son (by his third wife), John Henry Williams, took control of his career, becoming his de facto manager. The younger Williams provided structure to his father's business affairs, exposed forgeries that were flooding the memorabilia market, and rationed his father's public appearances and memorabilia signings to maximize their earnings.

On November 18, 1991, he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush.

One of Ted Williams's final, and most memorable, public appearances was at the 1999 All-Star Game in Boston. Able to walk only a short distance, Williams was brought to the pitcher's mound in a golf cart. He proudly waved his cap to the crowd—a gesture he had never done as a player. Fans responded with a standing ovation that lasted several minutes. At the pitcher's mound he was surrounded by players from both teams, including fellow Red Sox Nomar Garciaparra and Tony Gwynn. Later in the year, he was among the members of the Major League Baseball All-Century Team introduced to the crowd at Turner Field in Atlanta prior to Game 2 of the World Series.

The Ted Williams Tunnel in Boston (December 1995), and Ted Williams Parkway in San Diego (1992) were named in his honor while he was still alive.

Death

In his last years, Williams suffered from numerous cardiac problems. He had a pacemaker installed in November 2000 and underwent open-heart surgery in January 2001. After suffering a series of strokes and congestive heart failure, he died of cardiac arrest at the age of 83 in Citrus Hills, Florida, on July 5, 2002.

Though his will stated his desire to be cremated and his ashes scattered in the Florida Keys, John-Henry and Claudia chose to have him frozen.

Ted's eldest daughter, Bobby-Jo Ferrell, brought suit to have her father's wishes recognized. John-Henry's lawyer then produced an informal "family pact" signed by Ted, John-Henry, and Ted's daughter Claudia, in which they agreed "to be put into biostasis after we die" to "be able to be together in the future, even if it is only a chance." Bobby-Jo and her attorney, Richard S. "Spike" Fitzpatrick (former attorney of Ted Williams), contended that the family pact, which was scribbled on an ink-stained napkin, was forged by John-Henry and/or Claudia. Fitzpatrick and Ferrell believed that the signature was not obtained legally. Laboratory analysis proved that the signature was genuine.

Though the family pact upset some friends, family and fans, a public plea for financial support of the lawsuit by Ferrell produced little result. Ted's two 24-hour private caregivers who were with him the entire period the note was said to be created also stated in sworn affidavits that John-Henry and Claudia were never present at any time for that note to be produced.

Following John-Henry's unexpected illness and death from acute myelogenous leukemia on March 6, 2004, John-Henry's body was also transported to Alcor, in fulfillment of the family agreement.

According to the book "Frozen", co-authored by Larry Johnson (who is a former executive from Alcor), Williams' head was damaged by a worker when Alcor employees were handling the head. Although Johnson didn't work at Alcor when Ted was initially preserved, he claimed witness of the handling of the frozen head during a transfer to its final container (though numerous other Alcor employees refute this claim).

The Tampa Bay Rays home field, Tropicana Field, has installed the Ted Williams Museum (formerly in Hernando, Florida) behind the right field fence. From the Tampa Bay Rays website: "The Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame brings a special element to the Tropicana Field. Fans can view an array of different artifacts and pictures of the 'Greatest hitter that ever lived.' These memorable displays range from Ted Williams' days in the military through his professional playing career. This museum is dedicated to some of the greatest players to ever 'lace 'em up,' including Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris."

Quotations on Ted Williams

"One of my best friends on earth and the greatest hitter I ever faced. And I faced a lot of guys, including Lou Gehrig. He was also a great friend to my wife Anne and me. He was a great American." - Bob Feller

"The way those clubs shift against Ted Williams, I can't understand how he can be so stupid not to accept the challenge to him and hit to left field." - Ty Cobb

"They can talk about Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby and Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio and Stan Musial and all the rest, but I'm sure not one of them could hold cards and spades to (Ted) Williams in his sheer knowledge of hitting. He studied hitting the way a broker studies the stock market, and could spot at a glance mistakes that others couldn't see in a week." - Carl Yastrzemski

"Ted Williams was the greatest hitter of our era. He won six batting titles and served his country for five years, so he would have won more. He loved talking about hitting and was a great student of hitting and pitchers." - Stan Musial

"He wanted fame, and wanted it with a pure, hot eagerness that would have been embarrassing in a smaller man. But he could not stand celebrity. This is a bitch of a line to draw in America's dust." - Richard Ben Cramer

"If he'd just tip his cap once, he could be elected Mayor of Boston in five minutes." - Eddie Collins

“Our father was not a religious man. The faith that many people place in god, we place in science and other human endeavors.” — Children of baseball legend Ted Williams, Reuters, July 25, 2002

Quotations by Ted Williams

"No one could throw a fastball past me. God could come down from Heaven and he couldn't throw it past me."

"Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer."

"Baseball's future? Bigger and bigger, better and better! No question about it, it's the greatest game there is!"

"I hope somebody hits .400 soon. Then people can start pestering that guy with questions about the last guy to hit .400."

"If there was ever a man born to be a hitter it was me."

"Hitting is fifty percent above the shoulders."

"If I was being paid thirty-thousand dollars a year, the very least I could do was hit .400."

"A man has to have goals—for a day, for a lifetime—and that was mine, to have people say, 'There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived."

"They give you a round ball and a round bat and tell you to hit it square." (Pete Rose and Willie Stargell have also been credited with similar versions of this quote.)

"The greatest team I played for was the Marine Corps."

Career batting statistics

See also

Red Sox Hall of Fame

List of Major League Baseball Home Run Records

500 home run club

DHL Hometown Heroes

List of MLB individual streaks

List of top 500 Major League Baseball home run hitters

List of major league players with 2,000 hits

List of Major League Baseball players with 400 doubles

List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs

List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBIs

Hitting for the cycle

Triple Crown

List of Major League Baseball RBI champions

List of Major League Baseball batting champions

List of Major League Baseball home run champions

List of Major League Baseball runs scored champions

List of Major League Baseball doubles champions

Major League Baseball titles leaders

Hispanics in the United States Marine Corps

Notes

References

George Bush Presidential Library & Museum

Further reading

Baldasarro, Lawrence (ed.). The Ted Williams Reader. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991. ISBN 0-671-73536-5.

Halberstam, David. The Teammates. New York: Hyperion, 2003. ISBN 1-4013-0057-X.

Montville, Leigh. Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero. New York: Doubleday, 2004. ISBN 0-385-50748-8.

Updike, John. Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams. New York: Library of America, 2010. ISBN 978-1-59853-071-1

Williams, Ted, and John Underwood. Ted Williams' Fishing the Big Three: Tarpon, Bonefish, Atlantic Salmon. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982. ISBN 0-671-24400-0.

Williams, Ted, and John Underwood. My Turn at Bat: My Story of My Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1969.

Williams, Ted, and John Underwood. The Science of Hitting. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1970.

Williams, Ted, and David Pietrusza. Ted Williams: My Life in Pictures (also published as Teddy Ballgame). Kingston, N.Y.: Total/Sports Illustrated, 2002. ISBN 1-930844-07-7.

Williams, Ted, and Jim Prime. Ted Williams' Hit List: The Best of the Best Ranks the Best of the Rest. Indianapolis: Masters Press, 1996. ISBN 1-57028-078-9.

Linn, Ed. Hitter: The Life And Turmoils of Ted Williams. Harcourt Brace and Company, 1993 then as a Harvest paperback 1994. ISBN 0-15-600091-1.

Cramer, Richard Ben. "What Do You Think Of Ted Williams Now? - A Remembrance". Simon & Schuster, 2002. ISBN 0-7432-4648-9.

External links

Baseball Library

Ted Williams: A life remembered - article at Boston Globe

Ted Williams Tribute - article at Sports Illustrated

Videos of Ted Williams Cryonics Debate

Ted Williams Museum

Photo of Ted Williams with Joe and Dom DiMaggio

Ted Williams: Hitter - slideshow by Life magazine

Retrieved on 2008-07-11

{| class="toccolours collapsible collapsed" width=100% align="center" |- ! style="background:#ccccff"| Accomplishments |- | |}

Category:500 home run club Category:American League Most Valuable Player Award winners Category:American League All-Stars Category:American League batting champions Category:American League home run champions Category:American League RBI champions Category:American League Triple Crown winners Category:American military personnel of the Korean War Category:Boston Red Sox players Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in Florida Category:Cryonically preserved people Category:Major League Baseball left fielders Category:Baseball players from California Category:Major League Baseball players with retired numbers Category:American baseball players of Mexican descent Category:National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:People from San Diego, California Category:Recipients of the Air Medal Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:San Diego Padres (minor league) players Category:American sportspeople of Scotch-Irish descent Category:American sportspeople of Russian descent Category:Texas Rangers managers Category:United States Marine Corps pilots of World War II Category:United States Marine Corps officers Category:Washington Senators (1961–1971) managers Category:American sportspeople of Welsh descent Category:American people of Mexican descent Category:1918 births Category:2002 deaths Category:American people of Basque descent Category:American people of Spanish descent

Width	200
Caption	Michael Jordan with the Chicago Bulls in 1997
Position	Shooting guard-Small forward
Height ft	6|height_in= 6
Weight lbs	215
Number	23, 45, 9, 12
Birthdate	February 17, 1963
Birthplace	Brooklyn, New York, United States
High school	Emsley A. Laney High School (Wilmington, North Carolina)
Career start	1984
Career end	2003
Draftyear	1984
Draftround	1
Draftpick	3
Draftteam	Chicago Bulls
College	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Teams
Stat1label	Points
Stat1value	32,292 (30.1 ppg)
Stat2label	Rebounds
Stat2value	6,672 (6.2 rpg)
Stat3label	Assists
Stat3value	5,633 (5.3 apg)
Letter	j
Bbr	jordami01
Highlights
Hof player	michael-jordan

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963) is a former American professional basketball player, active businessman, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." During his three seasons at North Carolina, he averaged 17.7 ppg on 54.0% shooting, and added 5.0 rebounds per game (rpg).

Professional career

During his first season in the NBA, Jordan averaged 28.2 ppg on 51.5% shooting. and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the heading "A Star is Born" just over a month into his professional career. Jordan was also voted in as an All-Star starter by the fans in his rookie season. The Bulls finished the season 38–44, and lost in the first round of the playoffs in four games to the Milwaukee Bucks. Jordan set the still-unbroken record for points in a playoff game with 63 in Game 2. The Celtics, however, managed to sweep the series. The Bulls finished 50–32, However, the Bulls then lost in five games to the more experienced Detroit Pistons, However, the Pistons again defeated the Bulls, this time in six games, In an unusual ending to the fourth and final game, Isiah Thomas led his team off the court before the final minute had concluded. Most of the Pistons went directly to their locker room instead of shaking hands with the Bulls.

The Bulls compiled an outstanding 15–2 record during the playoffs, In his first Finals appearance, Jordan posted per game averages of 31.2 points on 56% shooting from the field, 11.4 assists, 6.6 rebounds, 2.8 steals and 1.4 blocks. Jordan won his first NBA Finals MVP award, and he cried while holding the NBA Finals trophy.

Jordan and the Bulls continued their dominance in the 1991–92 season, establishing a 67–15 record, topping their franchise record from 1990–91. In the first game, Jordan scored a Finals-record 35 points in the first half, including a record-setting six three-point field goals. After the sixth three-pointer, he jogged down the court shrugging as he looked courtside. Marv Albert, who broadcast the game, later stated that it was as if Jordan was saying, "I can't believe I'm doing this." The Bulls went on to win Game 1, and defeat the Blazers in six games. Jordan was named Finals MVP for the second year in a row and became the first player in NBA history to win three straight Finals MVP awards.

Gambling controversy

During the Bulls' playoff run in 1993, controversy arose when Jordan was seen gambling in Atlantic City, New Jersey the night before a game against the New York Knicks. In that same year, he admitted to having to cover $57,000 in gambling losses, and author Richard Esquinas wrote a book claiming he had won $1.25 million from Jordan on the golf course. When Bradley asked him if his gambling ever got to the level where it jeopardized his livelihood or family, Jordan replied, "No." James R. Jordan, Sr. was murdered on July 23, 1993, at a highway rest area in Lumberton, North Carolina, by two teenagers, Daniel Green and Larry Martin Demery. The assailants were traced from calls they made on James Jordan's cellular phone, caught, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. Jordan was close to his father; as a child he had imitated his father's proclivity to stick out his tongue while absorbed in work. He later adopted it as his own signature, displaying it each time he drove to the basket.

In his 1998 autobiography For the Love of the Game, Jordan wrote that he had been preparing for retirement as early as the summer of 1992. The added exhaustion due to the Dream Team run in the 1992 Olympics solidified Jordan's feelings about the game and his ever-growing celebrity status. Jordan's announcement sent shock waves throughout the NBA and appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world.

Jordan then further surprised the sports world by signing a minor league baseball contract with the Chicago White Sox. He reported to spring training and was assigned to the team's minor league system on March 31, 1994. Jordan has stated this decision was made to pursue the dream of his late father, who had always envisioned his son as a Major League Baseball player. The White Sox were another team owned by Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who continued to honor Jordan's basketball contract during the years he played baseball. He had a brief professional baseball career for the Birmingham Barons, a Chicago White Sox farm team, batting .202 with 3 HR, 51 RBI, 30 SB, and 11 errors. The team received a lift, however, when Jordan decided to return to the NBA for the Bulls.

On March 18, 1995, Jordan announced his return to the NBA through a pithy press release: "I'm back." The game had the highest Nielsen rating of a regular season NBA game since 1975.

Although he had not played in an NBA game in a year and a half, Jordan played well upon his return, making a game-winning jump shot against Atlanta in his fourth game back and scoring 55 points in a game against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on March 28, 1995. after which Jordan returned to wearing his old number (23). Jordan averaged 31 points per game in that series, but Orlando prevailed in six games. Strengthened by the addition of rebound specialist Dennis Rodman, the Bulls dominated the league, starting the season 41–3, and eventually finishing with the best regular season record in NBA history: 72–10. and won the league's regular season and All-Star Game MVP awards. However, this year Jordan was beaten for the NBA MVP Award by Karl Malone. The team again advanced to the Finals, where they faced Malone and the Utah Jazz. The series against the Jazz featured two of the more memorable clutch moments of Jordan's career. He won Game 1 for the Bulls with a buzzer-beating jump shot. In Game 5, with the series tied 2–2, Jordan played despite being feverish and dehydrated from a stomach virus. In what is known as the "", Jordan scored 38 points including the game-deciding three-pointer with less than a minute remaining. The Bulls won 90–88 and went on to win the series in six games. With the Bulls trailing 86–83 with 40 seconds remaining, coach Jackson called a timeout. When play resumed, Jordan received the inbound pass, drove to the basket, and hit a layup over several Jazz defenders. although the officials did not call a foul. Jordan then released what would be the climactic shot of his career. After a desperation three-point shot by John Stockton missed, Jordan and the Bulls claimed their sixth NBA championship, and secured a second three-peat. Once again, Jordan was voted the Finals MVP, Jordan's six Finals MVPs is a record; Shaquille O'Neal, Magic Johnson, and Tim Duncan are tied for second place with three apiece.

Second retirement

With Phil Jackson's contract expiring, the pending departures of Scottie Pippen (who stated his desire to be traded during the season) and Dennis Rodman (who would sign with the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent) looming, and being in the latter stages of an owner-induced lockout of NBA players, Jordan retired for the second time on January 13, 1999.

On January 19, 2000, Jordan returned to the NBA not as a player, but as part owner and President of Basketball Operations for the Washington Wizards. He'd earlier made a bid to become part-owner of the Charlotte Hornets, as a full partner of founding owner George Shinn. However, negotiations collapsed when Shinn refused to give Jordan total control of on-court operations.

Jordan's responsibilities with the Wizards were comprehensive. He controlled all aspects of the Wizards' basketball operations, and had the final say in all personnel matters. Opinions of Jordan as a basketball executive were mixed. He managed to purge the team of several highly paid, unpopular players (such as forward Juwan Howard and point guard Rod Strickland), but used the first pick in the 2001 NBA Draft to select high schooler Kwame Brown, who did not live up to expectations and was traded away after four seasons.

Despite his January 1999 claim that he was "99.9% certain" that he would never play another NBA game, this time with his new team. Inspired by the NHL comeback of his friend Mario Lemieux the previous winter, Jordan spent much of the spring and summer of 2001 in training, holding several invitation-only camps for NBA players in Chicago. In addition, Jordan hired his old Chicago Bulls head coach, Doug Collins, as Washington's coach for the upcoming season, a decision that many saw as foreshadowing another Jordan return. In an injury-plagued 2001–02 season, he led the team in scoring (22.9 ppg), assists (5.2 apg), and steals (1.42 spg). During his stint with the Wizards, all of Jordan's home games at the MCI Center were sold out, and the Wizards were the second most-watched team in the NBA, averaging 20,172 fans a game at home and 19,311 on the road. However, neither of Jordan's final two seasons resulted in a playoff appearance for the Wizards, and Jordan was often unsatisfied with the play of those around him. At several points he openly criticized his teammates to the media, citing their lack of focus and intensity, notably that of the number one draft pick in the 2001 NBA Draft, Kwame Brown. The Miami Heat retired the number 23 jersey on April 11, 2003, even though Jordan had never played for the team. At the 2003 All-Star Game, Jordan was offered a starting spot from Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson, but refused both; in the end, however, he accepted the spot of Vince Carter, who decided to give it up under great public pressure.

Jordan's final NBA game was on April 16, 2003 in Philadelphia. After scoring only 13 points in the game, Jordan went to the bench with 4 minutes and 13 seconds remaining in the third quarter and with his team trailing the Philadelphia 76ers, 75–56. Just after the start of the fourth quarter, the First Union Center crowd began chanting "We want Mike!". After much encouragement from coach Doug Collins, Jordan finally rose from the bench and re-entered the game for Larry Hughes with 2:35 remaining. At 1:45, Jordan was intentionally fouled by the 76ers' Eric Snow, and stepped to the line to make both free throws. After the second foul shot, the 76ers in-bounded the ball to rookie John Salmons, who in turn was intentionally fouled by Bobby Simmons one second later, stopping time so that Jordan could return to the bench. Jordan received a three-minute standing ovation from his teammates, his opponents, the officials and a crowd of 21,257 fans.

Olympic career

Jordan played on two Olympic gold medal-winning American basketball teams. As a college player he participated, and won the gold, in the 1984 Summer Olympics. Jordan led the team in scoring averaging 17.1 ppg for the tournament. In the 1992 Summer Olympics he was a member of the star-studded squad that included Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and David Robinson and was dubbed the "Dream Team". Playing limited minutes due to the frequent , Jordan averaged 12.7 ppg, finishing fourth on the team in scoring. Jordan, Patrick Ewing, and fellow Dream Team member Chris Mullin are the only American men's basketball players to win Olympic gold as amateurs (all in 1984) and professionals.

In addition, Jordan and fellow Dream Team member (and Bulls teammate) Scottie Pippen are the only players to have won both NBA championship and Olympic gold medal in the same year (1992).

After retiring as a player

After his third retirement, Jordan assumed that he would be able to return to his front office position of Director of Basketball Operations with the Wizards. However, his previous tenure in the Wizards' front office had produced the aforementioned mixed results and may have also influenced the trade of Richard "Rip" Hamilton for Jerry Stackhouse (although Jordan was not technically Director of Basketball Operations in 2002). Since 2004, Jordan has owned Michael Jordan Motorsports, a professional closed-course motorcycle road racing team that competes with two Suzukis in the premier Superbike class sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA). Jordan and his then-wife Juanita pledged $5 million to Chicago's Hales Franciscan High School in 2006, and the Jordan Brand has made donations to Habitat for Humanity and a Louisiana branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. On June 15, 2006, Jordan bought a minority stake in the Charlotte Bobcats, becoming the team's second-largest shareholder behind majority owner Robert L. Johnson. As part of the deal, Jordan was named "Managing Member of Basketball Operations," with full control over the basketball side of the operation. Despite Jordan's previous success as an endorser, he has made an effort not to be included in Charlotte's marketing campaigns.

In February 2010, it was reported that Jordan was seeking majority ownership of the Bobcats. As February wore on, it emerged that the leading contenders for the team were Jordan and former Houston Rockets president George Postolos. On February 27, the Bobcats announced that Johnson had reached an agreement with Jordan and his group, MJ Basketball Holdings, to buy the team pending NBA approval. On March 17, the NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved Jordan's purchase, making him the first former NBA player ever to become the majority owner of a league franchise.

Player profile

Jordan was a shooting guard who was also capable of playing small forward (the position he would primarily play during his second comeback with the Washington Wizards). Jordan was known throughout his career for being a strong clutch performer. He decided numerous games with last-second plays (e.g., The Shot) and performed at a high level even under adverse circumstances (e.g., ). His competitiveness was visible in his prolific trash-talk and well-known work ethic.

Jordan had a versatile offensive game. He was capable of aggressively driving to the basket and drawing fouls from his opponents at a high rate; his 8,772 free throw attempts are the ninth highest total of all time. As his career progressed, Jordan also developed the ability to post up his opponents and score with his trademark fadeaway jumpshot, using his leaping ability to "fade away" from block attempts. According to Hubie Brown, this move alone made him nearly unstoppable. Despite media criticism as a "selfish" player early in his career, Jordan's 5.3 assists per game and combined this with his ball-thieving ability to become a standout defensive player. His 2,514 steals are the second highest total of all-time behind John Stockton, while his steals per game average is third all-time. Jerry West often stated that he was more impressed with Jordan's defensive contributions than his offensive ones.

Legacy

Jordan's basketball talent was clear from his rookie season. Jordan's total of 5,987 points in the playoffs is the highest in NBA history. He retired with 32,292 points in regular season play, placing him third on the NBA's all-time scoring list behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone. Jordan placed second to Babe Ruth in the Associated Press's list of 20th century athletes. In addition, the Associated Press voted him as the basketball player of the 20th century. Jordan has also appeared on the front cover of Sports Illustrated a record 49 times. In the September 1996 issue of Sport, which was the publication's 50th anniversary issue, Jordan was named the greatest athlete of the past 50 years.

Jordan's athletic leaping ability, highlighted in his back-to-back slam dunk contest championships in 1987 and 1988, is credited by many with having influenced a generation of young players. Several current NBA All-Stars have stated that they considered Jordan their role model while growing up, including LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. In addition, commentators have dubbed a number of next-generation players "the next Michael Jordan" upon their entry to the NBA, including Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway, Grant Hill, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Vince Carter, and Dwyane Wade. Although Jordan was a well-rounded player, his "Air Jordan" image is also often credited with inadvertently decreasing the jump shooting skills, defense, and fundamentals of young players, Television ratings in particular increased only during his time in the league and have subsequently lowered each time he left the game. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in September 2009, with former Bulls teammates Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Charles Oakley, Ron Harper, Steve Kerr, and Toni Kukoc in attendance.

Personal life

Jordan is the fourth of five children. He has two older brothers, Larry Jordan and James R. Jordan, Jr., one older sister, Deloris, and a younger sister, Roslyn. Jordan's brother James retired in 2006 as the Command Sergeant Major of the 35th Signal Brigade of the XVIII Airborne Corps in the U.S. Army.

He married Juanita Vanoy in September 1989, and they have two sons, Jeffrey Michael and Marcus James, and a daughter, Jasmine. Jordan and Vanoy filed for divorce on January 4, 2002, citing irreconcilable differences, but reconciled shortly thereafter. They again filed for divorce and were granted a final decree of dissolution of marriage on December 29, 2006, commenting that the decision was made "mutually and amicably". It is reported that Juanita received a $168 million settlement, making it the largest celebrity divorce settlement in history at the time on public record.

On July 21, 2006, a Cook County, Illinois judge determined that Jordan did not owe his alleged former lover Karla Knafel $5 million. Jordan had allegedly paid Knafel $250,000 to keep their relationship a secret. Knafel claimed Jordan promised her $5 million for remaining silent and agreeing not to file a paternity suit after Knafel learned she was pregnant in 1991. A DNA test showed Jordan was not the father of the child. Jeffrey graduated as a member of the 2007 graduating class and played his first collegiate basketball game on November 11, 2007, for the University of Illinois. After two seasons, Jeffrey left the Illinois basketball team in 2009. He later rejoined the team for a third season, then received a release to transfer to the University of Central Florida, where Marcus was attending. Marcus transferred to Whitney Young High School after his sophomore year and graduated in 2009. He began attending UCF in the fall of 2009.

In December of 2010, the Charlotte Observer reported that Jordan had purchased and combined the two top-floor penthouses at The Trust, a luxury condominium building in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina.

Media figure and business interests

is a silhouette of Jordan used by Nike to promote the Air Jordan shoes, among other merchandise.]] Jordan is one of the most marketed sports figures in history. He has been a major spokesman for such brands as Nike, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, Gatorade, McDonald's, Ball Park Franks, Rayovac, Wheaties, Hanes, and MCI. Jordan has had a long relationship with Gatorade, appearing in over 20 commercials for the company since 1991, including the "Like Mike" commercials in which a song was sung by children wishing to be like Jordan.

Nike created a signature shoe for him, called the Air Jordan. One of Jordan's more popular commercials for the shoe involved Spike Lee playing the part of Mars Blackmon. In the commercials Lee, as Blackmon, attempted to find the source of Jordan's abilities and became convinced that "it's gotta be the shoes". The brand has also sponsored college sports programs such as those of North Carolina, Cincinnati, Cal, St. John's, Georgetown, and North Carolina A&T;.

Jordan also has been connected with the Looney Tunes cartoon characters. A Nike commercial shown during the 1993 Super Bowl XXVII featured Jordan and Bugs Bunny playing basketball against a group of Martian characters. The Super Bowl commercial inspired the 1996 live action/animated movie Space Jam, which starred Jordan and Bugs in a fictional story set during his first retirement. They have subsequently appeared together in several commercials for MCI. In addition, when Jordan's power at the ticket gates was at its highest point the Bulls regularly sold out every game they played in, whether home or away. Due to this, Jordan set records in player salary by signing annual contracts worth in excess of $30 million US dollars per season. An academic study found that Jordan’s first NBA comeback resulted in an increase in the market capitalization of his client firms of more than $1 billion.

Most of Jordan's endorsement deals, including the first deal with Nike, were engineered by his agent, David Falk. Jordan has said of Falk that "he's the best at what he does", and that "marketing-wise, he's great. He's the one who came up with the concept of 'Air Jordan.'"

In June 2010, Jordan was ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 20th most powerful celebrity in the world with $55 million earned between June 2009 and June 2010. According to the Forbes article, Brand Jordan generates $1 billion in sales for Nike.

Honors and awards

at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill game honoring the 1957 and 1982 men's basketball teams.]]

Jordan won numerous awards and set many records during his career. The following are some of his achievements:

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2009

2 Olympic Gold Medals – 1984, 1992

6-time NBA Champion

6-time NBA Finals MVP

5-time NBA MVP

10 NBA Scoring Titles

3-time steals leader

3-time minutes leader

14 NBA All-Star Selections

3-time NBA All-Star Game MVP

11 All-NBA Selections

9 All-Defensive First Team Selections

2-time NBA Slam Dunk Contest Champion – 1987, 1988

NBA Rookie of the Year – NBA Defensive Player of the Year –

ACC Freshman of the Year – 1981–82

2-time Consensus NCAA All-American First Team – 1982–83, 1983–84

ACC Men's Basketball Player of the Year – 1983–84

USBWA College Player of the Year – 1983–84

Naismith College Player of the Year – 1983–84

John R. Wooden Award – 1983–84

Adolph Rupp Trophy – 1983–84

Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year – 1991

Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996

Ranked #1 by SLAM Magazine's Top 50 Players of All-Time

Ranked #1 by ESPN Sportscentury's Top 100 Athletes of the 20th century

Elected to North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame

See also

List of National Basketball Association top rookie scoring averages

List of National Basketball Association top individual scoring season averages

List of individual National Basketball Association scoring leaders by season

List of National Basketball Association season steals leaders

List of National Basketball Association players with most points in a game

List of National Basketball Association players with most steals in a game

List of National Basketball Association players with 50 or more points in a playoff game

List of National Basketball Association career scoring leaders

List of National Basketball Association career assists leaders

List of National Basketball Association career steals leaders

List of National Basketball Association career turnovers leaders

List of National Basketball Association career free throw scoring leaders

List of highest playoff series scoring averages in National Basketball Association history

List of National Basketball Association players with most championship rings

; Outside basketball

Michael Jordan Steakhouse

Michael Jordan's Restaurant

Michael Jordan in Flight

NBA 2K11

References

External links

NBA History: Jordan bio

NBA.com historical playerfile

NBA Player Stats

Michael Jordan Motorsports

Category:1963 births Category:ACC Athlete of the Year Category:African American basketball players Category:African American sports executives Category:Basketball Hall of Fame inductees Category:Basketball players at the 1983 Pan American Games Category:Basketball players at the 1984 Summer Olympics Category:Basketball players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Category:Basketball players from North Carolina Category:Birmingham Barons players Category:Charlotte Bobcats executives Category:Charlotte Bobcats owners Category:Chicago Bulls draft picks Category:Chicago Bulls players Category:Living people Category:McDonald's High School All-Americans Category:Minor league baseball players Category:National Basketball Association executives Category:National Basketball Association owners Category:NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award winners Category:NBA Finals MVP Award winners Category:NBA Slam Dunk Contest champions Category:North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball players Category:National Basketball Association players with retired numbers Category:Olympic basketball players of the United States Category:Olympic gold medalists for the United States Category:Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) Category:People from Brooklyn Category:People from Chicago, Illinois Category:People from Highland Park, Illinois Category:People from Wilmington, North Carolina Category:Shooting guards Category:Sportspeople of multiple sports Category:United States men's national basketball team members Category:Washington Wizards executives Category:Washington Wizards players

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), better known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American pop musician. Born in Santa Barbara, California, and raised by Christian pastor parents; Perry grew up listening to only gospel music and sang in her local church as a child. After earning a GED during her freshman year of high school, she began to pursue a career in music. As Katy Hudson, she released a self-titled gospel album in 2001, which due to the closing of her record label, was deemed unsuccessful. She later recorded an album with production team The Matrix and completed the majority of a solo album from 2004–5; neither of which were released.

After signing with Capitol Music Group in 2007, her fourth record label in seven years, she adopted the stage name Katy Perry and released her first Internet single "Ur So Gay" that November, which garnered public attention; but failed to chart. She rose to fame with the release of her second single "I Kissed a Girl" in 2008, which went on to top international charts. Perry's first mainstream studio album One of the Boys followed later that year and subsequently, became the thirty-third best selling album worldwide of 2008. It was accredited platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America, while "I Kissed a Girl" and her second single "Hot n Cold" both received multi-platinum certifications. Her sophomore studio album Teenage Dream was released in August 2010 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The album included hit singles "California Gurls", "Teenage Dream" and "Firework", all of which topped the charts on the Billboard Hot 100 and worldwide.

Perry was credited as a guest judge on the seventh series of the British television show The X Factor; has released a fragrance called "Purr"; and will appear in the upcoming 2011-film The Smurfs. Perry had a long relationship with Travie McCoy; she married Russell Brand on October 23, 2010.

Biography

1984–2006: Early life and career beginnings

Perry was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson in Santa Barbara, California on October 25, 1984 to Mary (née Perry), an evangelist who grew up in Southern California and had "a tempestuous first marriage in Zimbabwe", She has an older sister and younger brother. Perry's maternal aunt and uncle were screenwriter Eleanor Perry and director Frank Perry, through whom she is also related to Charles M. Schwab, the founder of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation.

Perry was incorporated into her parents' ministry She grew up listening to gospel music, was not allowed to listen to what her mother called "secular music", and attended Christian schools and camps. She took her GED after her freshman year at Dos Pueblos High School and decided to leave school in the pursuit of a career in music. Her sister practiced with cassette tapes, while Perry took the tapes herself when her sister was not around. She rehearsed the songs and performed them in front of her parents, who suggested she take vocal coaching. She grabbed the opportunity and began taking lessons at the age of nine and continued until she was sixteen. She later enrolled in at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and studied Italian opera for a short period of time. In Nashville, Perry started recording demos and was taught by country music veterans on how to craft songs and play guitar. Performing as Katy Hudson, she released the self-titled Gospel-rock album in 2001. The album was due for release in 2005,

Perry signed to Columbia Records in 2004. However, the label was not amenable with her vision, not putting her in the "driver's seat". She made a cameo appearance in Carbon Leaf's video, "Learn to Fly".

2007–09: One of the Boys and MTV Unplugged

Before being dropped by Columbia, its then publicity executive Angelica Cob-Baehler recommended Perry to Capitol A&R; Chris Anokute while at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Keen to hear more, Anokute was sent a DVD, featuring a video of "Simple", and a three-song demo. It was after hearing the demo of "Waking Up in Vegas" that Anokute became convinced of Perry's star talent. He showed the demo to his boss Jason Flom, then head of Capitol Music Group, telling him, "I've found the next Avril Lavigne meets Alanis Morissette." Flom proved to be less enthusiastic, however; he wasn't convinced the demos were good enough and was wary about an artist that had already been dropped by two major labels. Anokute refused to give up and eventually his persistence together with that of new Virgin employee, Cob-Baehler, paid off. Perry was signed to Capitol Music in early 2007.

She went on the next step of promoting the album, undertaking a two-month tour of radio stations. The album's official lead single, "I Kissed a Girl", was released on May 6, 2008. Perry's A&R;, Chris Anokute, told HitQuarters how, despite being himself convinced it was a "career record", the song and its controversial theme met with strong resistance at the label, "People said, 'This is never going to get played on the radio. How do we sell this? How’s this going to be played in the bible belt?'" On June 12, 2008, Perry appeared as herself on the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless,

One of the Boys was released on June 17, 2008 to mixed critical reviews. The album has reached number nine on the Billboard 200, and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Perry released her second single, "Hot n Cold", which became her second top three single in dozens of countries around the world, including the United States where it reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100, Perry was nominated in five categories at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, including Best New Artist and Best Female Video, but lost to Britney Spears. She won Best New Act at the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards, which she co-hosted, and Best International Female Artist at the 2009 BRIT Awards. On February 9, 2009, both "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot n Cold" were certified three-time platinum by Recording Industry Association of America for individual digital sales of over three million.

The Matrix's self-titled debut album, which features Perry, was later released via the team's label, Let's Hear It, during Perry's solo tour. When the release date was scheduled, "I Kissed a Girl" had been charting well. Matrix member Lauren Christy spoke to Perry about the decision, but she wanted to hold the release until the fourth single of One of the Boys had been dispatched. Despite their communication, The Matrix was released on January 27, 2009, via iTunes Store. In December 2008, Perry apologized to British singer Lily Allen for remarks in which she called herself a "skinnier version" of her, saying she meant it as a joke. Allen retaliated and told a British radio station that she "happen[ed] to know for a fact that she [Perry] was an American version" of her because their record company needed "to find something controversial and 'kooky'" like her.

On May 16, 2009, Perry performed at the opening ceremony of the annual Life Ball in Vienna, Austria. In June 2009, lawyers acting for Katy Perry opposed the recent trademark of Australian fashion designer Katie Perry who uses her own name to market loungewear. Some media outlets reported this as a lawsuit, which Katy Perry has denied on her blog. Katie Perry the designer reports on her blog that at a hearing with IP Australia on July 10, 2009, the singer's lawyers withdrew their opposition to the trademark. During the summer of 2009 Perry filmed a cameo appearance for Get Him to the Greek; her scene, in which she kisses her future fiancé Russell Brand was cut, and does not appear in the final film. Discussing the issue with MTV, Perry hypothesized there may have been some fear that seeing the two make out would have taken viewers out of the experience. In 2009, Perry was featured on two singles: a remix of Colorado-based band 3OH!3's song "Starstrukk" in August (the idea for the collaboration came after Perry's tour that featured 3OH!3 as the supporting act). The song was released over iTunes on September 8, 2009; and "If We Ever Meet Again", the fourth single off Timbaland's album Shock Value II in December. In October 2009, MTV Unplugged revealed that Perry was one of the artists to perform for them, and that she would be releasing a live album of the performance, including two new tracks, "Brick by Brick" and Fountains of Wayne cover "Hackensack". The album was released on November 17, and includes both a CD and a DVD.

2010–present: Teenage Dream

Perry appeared as a guest judge alongside Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole and Louis Walsh during the Dublin audition stage of the seventh series of the British television show The X Factor on June 28, 2010 (later televised on August 28). She was one of the many celebrities chosen to fulfil the role of judge whilst Dannii Minogue was on maternity leave. She later returned to the show on October 17 to perform "Firework". Perry's second mainstream studio album was titled Teenage Dream and was released in August 2010. The first single from the album was titled "California Gurls". The single peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the fastest rising single from a Capitol Records artist since Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe" in 1967. The cover art for Teenage Dream is a painting by Will Cotton in which depicts Perry lying naked on clouds of cotton candy; resembling the shots of Perry in the video for "California Gurls". The booklet of the physical edition of the album, in keeping with the theme of cotton candy, has a cotton candy scent. The album's second single "Teenage Dream" was released in July 2010. "Firework" is the album's third single.

Katy Perry appeared at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. She was nominated for two awards and presented the award of "Best Male Video" with Nicki Minaj to Eminem. On September 14, she returned to her old high school, Dos Pueblos High School, where she performed a short set for the school's students. Perry performed "Hot n Cold" with Elmo from Sesame Street, which was originally to appear on the forty-first-season premiere of the educational children's program on September 27, 2010. However, four days before the scheduled airing, Sesame Workshop announced, "In light of the feedback we've received on the Katy Perry music video ... we have decided we will not air the segment on the television broadcast of Sesame Street, which is aimed at preschoolers. Katy Perry fans will still be able to view the video on YouTube." The main reason was that parents complained about what appeared to be a great amount of cleavage shown by her dress. Perry shot the video for Firework in Budapest in September 2010. An open casting call drew an unprecedented 38,000 applicants. She proceeded to perform at a concert in Budapest on October 1, her first concert in Central and Eastern EuropePerry has announced her own fragrance to be released in autumn of this year, named "Purr". It will come in a cat-shaped bottle, and will be available through Nordstrom stores.

Musical style and themes

Perry has a contralto vocal range. Among Perry's musical influences are Alanis Morissette, pop rockers Cyndi Lauper, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, Shirley Manson, and Freddie Mercury, Perry expects to record more pop songs for her next album.

Perry is artistically involved in her projects, especially in the writing process. Since she could play guitar, she would start writing songs at home and present it to her producers. Perry is mostly inspired by specific moments of her life. She said it is easy for her to write songs about heartbreak. The songs have been respectively labeled as being homophobic and promoting homosexuality, as well as "lez ploitational".

Public image

Perry is known for her unconventional style of dress. Her fashion has caught the attention of designers, who were giving her nearly as much attention as fans of her music. The picture was defended as only an effort to give Perry a "sexy, harder edge". She has appeared in FHM Magazine's 100 Sexiest Women poll twice, ranking at #23 in 2009 and #37 in 2010.

Personal life

Perry dated Gym Class Heroes frontman Travie McCoy, whom she met in a recording studio in New York, on and off for several years. After more than a year of friendship and casual dating, they became serious with their relationship right before they embarked on the 2008 Warped Tour. Perry and McCoy broke up in December 2008. The two began dating again in early 2009 and broke up again a few months later. Perry first met British comedian Russell Brand in the summer of 2008 when Perry filmed a cameo for Brand's film Get Him to the Greek. Perry and Brand began dating after meeting again in September 2009 at the MTV Video Music Awards, where Brand, as host, remarked, "Katy Perry didn't win an award and she's staying at the same hotel as me, so she's gonna need a shoulder to cry on. So in a way, I'm the real winner tonight." The couple became engaged in December 2009 when Brand proposed to Perry while vacationing in India. In a July 2010 YouTube interview, Perry said Brand would be a "perfect" father. Perry has stated that she plans to take dual British citizenship when she marries Brand. "One of the first things I'll do is apply for dual citizenship. I'm not too sure if I have to take a test as I've not had time to look into it. But England is like my second home". Perry and Brand married on October 23, 2010 near the Ranthambhore tiger sanctuary in Rajasthan, India, the same location where Brand had proposed. They were married in a traditional Hindu ceremony.

Discography

Katy Hudson (2001)

One of the Boys (2008)

Teenage Dream (2010)

Tours

Hello Katy Tour (2009)

California Dreams Tour (2011)

Filmography

Television

{| class="wikitable sortable" !Year !Title !Role !class="unsortable"|Notes |- |2008 | |Herself |Episode 8914 |- |2008 |Wildfire |Herself |"" (Season 4, episode 8) |- |2010 | American Idol |Guest judge |"Season 9, episode 5" |- |2010 |The X Factor |Guest judge |"Series 7, episode 2" |- |2010 |Sesame Street | Herself | Online special (deleted from televised episode) |- |2010 | The Simpsons | Herself | 1 episode, "The Fight Before Christmas" |- |2011 | How I Met Your Mother | Zoey's cousin | 1 episode, "Oh Honey" |}

Films

{| class="wikitable sortable" !Year !Title !Role ! class="unsortable"|Notes |- |2011 | |Smurfette |Voice |- |2011 | |TBA |Cameo |- |}

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Official website

Category:1984 births Category:Living people Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:21st-century actors Category:Actors from California Category:American bloggers Category:American Christians Category:American contraltos Category:American dance musicians Category:American female guitarists Category:American female pop singers Category:American film actors Category:American musicians of German descent Category:American people of Portuguese descent Category:American pop rock singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American voice actors Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Capitol Records artists Category:English-language singers Category:Female rock singers Category:Musicians from California Category:People from Santa Barbara, California Category:The X Factor judges

Name	John Mayer
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	John Clayton Mayer
Born	October 16, 1977Bridgeport, Connecticut
Origin	Fairfield, Connecticut, U.S.
Instrument	Guitar, vocals, omnichord, piano, vibraphone, percussion
Genre	Blues rock, pop rock, blue-eyed soul, acoustic rock, soft rock
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, graphic designer, columnist, comedian
Years active	–present
Label	Arista, Aware, Columbia
Associated acts	John Mayer Trio
Url
Notable instruments	Fender StratocasterMartin GuitarsGibson Guitars

John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and music producer. Raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, where he attended Fairfield Warde High School. He then attended Berklee College of Music in Boston before moving to Atlanta, Georgia in 1997, where he refined his skills and gained a following. His first two studio albums, Room for Squares and Heavier Things, did well commercially, achieving multi-platinum status. In 2003, he won a Best Male Pop Vocal Performance Grammy Award for "Your Body Is a Wonderland".

Mayer began his career performing mainly acoustic rock, but gradually began a transition towards the blues genre in 2005 by collaborating with renowned blues artists such as B. B. King, Buddy Guy, and Eric Clapton, and by forming the John Mayer Trio. The blues influence can be heard on his album Continuum, released in September 2006. At the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in 2007 Mayer won Best Pop Vocal Album for Continuum and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Waiting on the World to Change". He released his fourth studio album, Battle Studies, in November 2009.

Mayer's career pursuits have extended to stand-up comedy, design, and writing; he has written pieces for magazines, most notably for Esquire. He is also involved in philanthropic activities through his "Back to You" fund. Several high-profile romantic relationships and his involvement with the media caused him to become a tabloid staple, beginning in 2006.

Early life

Mayer was born on October 16, 1977 in Bridgeport, Connecticut to Margaret, an English teacher, and Richard, a high school principal. He grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut, the second of three children. Mayer is Jewish on his father's side, and has said that he "relat[es] to Judaism". Growing up in Fairfield, Mayer became friends with future tennis star James Blake. He attended Fairfield Warde High School (then called Andrew Warde High School), although he was enrolled in the Center for Global Studies at Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk for his junior year. (Then known as the Center for Japanese Studies Abroad, it is a magnet program for students wanting to learn Japanese.) During an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Mayer said that he had played the clarinet for a while in middle school, with minor success. After watching Michael J. Fox's guitar performance as Marty McFly in Back to the Future, Mayer became fascinated with the instrument, and when he turned 13, his father rented one for him.

Soon after, a neighbor gave him a Stevie Ray Vaughan cassette, which began Mayer’s intense love of the blues. Mayer started taking lessons from a local guitar-shop owner, and soon became consumed with playing the instrument. His singular focus concerned his parents, and they took him twice to see a psychiatrist—but Mayer was determined to be fine. Mayer considered skipping college to pursue his music, but the disapproval of his parents dissuaded him from doing so. Shortly thereafter, he began suffering from panic attacks, and lived with the fear of having to enter a mental institution. After graduation, he worked for fifteen months at a gas station until he saved enough money to buy a 1996 Stevie Ray Vaughan signature Stratocaster.

Career

Early career

John Mayer enrolled in the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, at age nineteen. In Atlanta they formed a two-man band called LoFi Masters and began performing in local coffee houses and club venues such as Eddie's Attic. As a result, the two parted ways, and Mayer embarked on a solo career. Mayer and LaBruyere then began to perform throughout Georgia and nearby states.

Major label success

Mayer’s reputation began to build, and a March 2000 appearance at South by Southwest brought him to the attention of "launch" label, Aware Records. After including him in the Aware Festival concerts and having his songs included on Aware compilations, in early 2001, Aware released Mayer’s internet-only album entitled, Room for Squares. During that time, Aware inked a deal with Columbia Records that gave Columbia first pick in signing Aware artists, and so in September of the same year, Columbia remixed and re-released Room for Squares. As part of the major label "debut", the album's artwork was updated, and the track "3x5" was added. The re-release also included reworked studio versions of the first four songs from his indie album, Inside Wants Out.

By the end of 2002, Room for Squares had spawned several radio hits, including "No Such Thing," "Your Body Is a Wonderland", and ultimately, "Why Georgia". In 2003, Mayer won a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Your Body Is a Wonderland." In his acceptance speech he remarked, "This is very, very fast, and I promise to catch up." He also figuratively referred to himself as being sixteen, a remark that many mistook to mean that he was only sixteen years old at the time.

In 2003, Mayer released a live CD and DVD of a concert in Birmingham, Alabama entitled, Any Given Thursday. The concert featured songs previously not recorded, such as "Man on the Side" (co-written with Cook) and "Something's Missing", which later appeared on Heavier Things. The concert also included "Covered In Rain". According to the accompanying DVD documentary, this song is "part two" of the song "City Love", which features the line "covered in rain". Commercially, the album quickly peaked at number seventeen on the Billboard 200 chart. The CD/DVD received conservative, although consistent, praise, with critics torn between his pop-idol image, and (at the time) emerging guitar prowess. Erik Crawford (of Allmusic) asked "Is he the consummate guitar hero exemplified when he plays a cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'Lenny', or is he the teen idol that the pubescent girls shriek for after he plays 'Your Body Is a Wonderland?'"

Heavier Things, Mayer's second album, was released in 2003 to generally favorable reviews. Rolling Stone, Allmusic and Blender all gave positive, although reserved, feedback. PopMatters said that it "doesn't have as many drawbacks as one might assume". The album was commercially successful, and while it did not sell as well as Room for Squares, it peaked at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. Mayer earned his first number one single with the song "Daughters" as well as a 2005 Grammy for Song of the Year, beating out fellow contenders Alicia Keys and Kanye West. He dedicated the award to his grandmother, Annie Hoffman, who died in May 2004. He also won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, beating Elvis Costello, Prince, and Seal for the award. In his February 9, 2009 interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Mayer said that he thought he shouldn't have won the Grammy for Song of the year because he thought that Alicia Keys' If I Ain't Got You was the better song. Because of this, he removed the top half of the Grammy and gave it to Keys, and kept the bottom part for himself. At the 37th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in 2006, Mayer was honored with the Hal David Starlight Award.

Mayer again recorded live concerts across seven nights of his U.S. tour in 2004. These recordings were released to the iTunes music store under the title as/is, indicating that the errors were included along with the good moments. A few months later, a "best of" CD was compiled from the as/is nights. The album included a previously unreleased cover of Marvin Gaye's song "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", featuring a solo from Mayer's support act—jazz and blues turntablist, DJ Logic. All the album covers of the as/is releases feature drawings of anthropomorphic bunnies.

, John Mayer and Steve Jobs at Macworld 11, SF Moscone Center.]] With increased exposure, Mayer's talent came into demand in other areas. Steve Jobs invited Mayer to perform during the keynote address of Apple's annual Macworld Conference & Expo, in January 2004, as Jobs introduced the software application GarageBand. The gig led to Mayer becoming a fixture of the event. He rejoined Jobs on stage for a solo performance at Macworld 2007, following the announcement of the iPhone. Mayer has also done endorsements, such as a Volkswagen commercial for the Beetle's guitar outlet and for the BlackBerry Curve.

Change in musical direction

Mayer began to collaborate extensively, often working with artists outside of his own genre. He appeared on Common's song "Go!" and on Kanye West's "Bittersweet Poetry". Following these collaborations, Mayer received praise from rap heavyweights Jay-Z and Nelly. When asked about his presence in the hip hop community, Mayer said, "It's not music out there right now. That's why, to me, hip-hop is where rock used to be."

It was around this time that Mayer began hinting a change in his musical interests, announcing that he was "closing up shop on acoustic sensitivity."

John Mayer Trio

This sample features an extended electric guitar solo.}}

In the spring of 2005, Mayer formed the John Mayer Trio with bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Steve Jordan, both of whom he had met through previous studio sessions. The trio played a combination of blues and rock music. In October 2005, the Trio opened for The Rolling Stones during a sold-out club tour of their own, and that November, released a live album called Try! The band took a break in mid-2006. In September 2006, Mayer announced plans for the Trio to begin work on a future studio album.

Continuum era

Mayer's third studio album, titled Continuum, was released on September 12, 2006, and was produced by Mayer and Steve Jordan. Mayer suggested the album was intended to combine his signature pop music with the feel, sound, groove, and sensibilities of the blues. In that vein, two of the tracks from his trio release Try!—the funky "Vultures" and the blues centerpiece "Gravity"—also were included on Continuum.

The first single from Continuum was "Waiting on the World to Change", which debuted on The Ron and Fez Show. The song was the third most downloaded song of the week on the iTunes Music Store following its release on July 11, 2006, and debuted at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. On August 23, 2006, Mayer debuted the entire album on the Los Angeles radio station Star 98.7, giving commentary on each track. A subsequent version was released the next day on the Clear Channel Music website as a streaming sneak preview. On September 21, 2006, Mayer appeared on , playing "Waiting on the World to Change" and "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room." The song "Gravity" was featured on the television series House in the episode "Cane & Able" and Numb3rs. He recorded a session for the British program Live From Abbey Road at Abbey Road Studios on October 22, 2006.

On December 7, 2006, Mayer was nominated for five 2007 Grammys, including "Album of the Year." The John Mayer Trio also received a nomination for their album, Try!. He won two: Best Pop Song with Vocal for "Waiting on the World to Change" and Best Pop Album for Continuum. Mayer remixed an acoustic version of his single "Waiting on the World to Change" with vocal additions from fellow musician Ben Harper. In preparation for recording Continuum, Mayer had booked the Village Recorder in Los Angeles to record five demo acoustic versions of his songs with veteran musician Robbie McIntosh. These recordings became The Village Sessions, an EP released on December 12, 2006. As usual, Mayer oversaw the artwork of the release.

Mayer was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone (#1020) in February 2007, along with John Frusciante and Derek Trucks. He was named as one of the "New Guitar Gods," and the cover nicknamed him "Slowhand, Jr.," a reference to Eric Clapton.

On November 20, 2007, the re-issue of Continuum became available online and in stores. The release contains a bonus disc of six live songs from his 2007 tour: five from Continuum and a cover of the Ray Charles song "I Don't Need No Doctor". His new single, "Say", also became available through iTunes. On December 6, 2007, "Belief" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. He accompanied Alicia Keys on guitar on her song "No One" at the ceremony.

In February 2008, Mayer hosted a three-day Caribbean cruise event that included performances with various musicians including David Ryan Harris, Brett Dennen, Colbie Caillat and Dave Barnes, among others. The event was called "The Mayercraft Carrier" and was held aboard the cruise ship known as the Carnival Victory. A follow up cruise titled "Mayercraft Carrier 2" set sail from Long Beach, California on March 27–31, 2009 on the Carnival Splendor.

On July 1, 2008, Mayer released Where the Light Is a live concert film of Mayer's performance at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on December 8, 2007. The film was directed by Danny Clinch. It features an acoustic set and a set with the John Mayer Trio, followed by a set with John's band from the Continuum album. The DVD and Bluray bonus material includes footage of Mayer backstage and playing outside on Mulholland Drive.

Australian artist Guy Sebastian invited Mayer to collaborate on three songs from his 2009 album Like it Like That. Mayer also played guitar on the title track of Crosby Loggins's debut LP, Time to Move, released on July 10, 2009.

On July 7, 2009, Mayer performed an instrumental guitar version of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" at Jackson's memorial service.

Battle Studies

On November 17, 2009, Mayer's fourth studio album, Battle Studies, was released and debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart. The album consists of 11 tracks with a total time of 45 minutes. The first single from the album, "Who Says", was released on September 24, 2009 in advance of album, and was followed on October 19 by the single "Heartbreak Warfare". Despite the album's commercial success, critics were mixed with their praise; while some reviews were glowing, calling it his "most adventurous", others called the album "safe" and noted that "Mayer the singer-songwriter and Mayer the man about town sometimes seem disconnected, like they don’t even belong in the same body." Mayer himself admitted to Rolling Stone that he thought Battle Studies was not his best album.

Other projects

Philanthropic activities

In 2002, Mayer began the "Back To You" Fund, a non-profit organization that focuses on fundraising in the areas of health care, education, the arts, and talent development. The foundation raises funds through the auction of exclusive John Mayer items, such as guitar picks, t-shirts, and signed CDs, made available on Mayer's auction site. The auctions have been successful, with some tickets selling for more than seventeen times their face value.

In an April 2007 blog entry, Mayer announced a new effort to help reverse global warming, dubbed "Another Kind of Green" (originally "Light Green", but changed because of copyright concerns). He envisioned it mostly as a line of "products that are cheap, easy alternatives to cut down on plastics," and encouraging others to do the same through his blog. He has also converted his tour bus to bio-diesel fuel. In the summer of 2007, the environmental advocacy group Reverb set up informational booths and helped his crew conserve energy on his tour dates.

Mayer has performed at a number of benefits and telethons for charity throughout his career. In response to the Virginia Tech massacre, Mayer (along with Dave Matthews Band, Phil Vassar, and Nas) performed a free concert at Virginia Tech's Lane Stadium on September 6, 2007. On December 8, 2007, Mayer hosted the First Annual Charity Revue, a tradition he has continued each year. Charities who have benefited from the concerts include Toys for Tots, Inner City Arts, and the Los Angeles Mission. Both CDs and DVDs of the first concert were released under the title "Where the Light Is" in July 2008. It has not been announced whether the DVD proceeds will go to charity or not. Mayer also appeared on Songs for Tibet, a celebrity initiative to support Tibet and the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso.

Design

In a Rolling Stone interview, Mayer recalled that after former Columbia Records head, Don Ienner, panned Continuum, he briefly considered quitting music and studying design full time. The guitar was limited to a run of only 404, an Atlanta area code. This model was followed by the release of two Fender signature Stratocaster electric guitars, beginning in 2005. A third Stratocaster, finished in charcoal frost metallic paint with a racing stripe, was also a limited-release, with only 100 guitars made. In January, 2006, Martin Guitars released the Martin OMJM John Mayer acoustic guitar. The guitar was intended to have many of the attributes of the Martin OM-28 John Mayer but with a more affordable price tag. In August 2006, Fender started manufacturing SERIES II John Mayer Stratocasters. The new Olympic white with mint green pickguard and cream plastics replaced the shoreline gold model. In January 2007, Two Rock collaborated with Mayer on custom-designed amps. Only 25 (all signed by Mayer himself) were made available to the public. June 2007 saw the release of the "album art" guitar, with the Continuum motif repeated on the face of the instrument, as well as a 500-run John Mayer signature Fender Stratocaster in Cypress-Mica. Included with the limited Cypress-Mica model was the INCSvsJM gig bag that Mayer collaborated on with Incase designs. Not surprisingly, Mayer is a passionate collector of guitars, and in 2006 his collection was estimated at more than 200. The winner was Tim Fagan of L.A., as announced in the following January's issue.

Mayer has been active online, and has maintained four blogs: a MySpace page, a blog at his official site, another at Honeyee.com, one at tumblr.com, as well as a photoblog at StunningNikon.com. He also is one of the most-followed persons on the micro-blogging site Twitter, reaching 3 million followers in January 2010. Although his posts often deal with career-related matters, they also contain jokes, videos, photos, his convictions, and his personal activities; they sometimes overlap in content. He is noted for writing the blogs himself, and not through a publicist. In the mid-2000s, stand-up comedy became a sporadic hobby of Mayer's.

Television

In 2004, Mayer hosted a one-shot, half-hour comedy special on VH1 entitled John Mayer Has a TV Show, with antics including wearing a bear suit while anonymously teasing concertgoers in the parking lot outside one of his concerts. The American network CBS announced on January 14, 2009 that they were in negotiations with Mayer for a variety show; it may air as a special or as a regular series. In an interview with Rolling Stone, posted online on January 22, 2010, Mayer confirmed that the program, also called John Mayer Has a TV Show, was still in development, and that personnel were being hired. He described the concept as "a high quality music performance show, where I could also steer it a little bit. It's about there being a bastion of artists being made to look good and sound good.".

Mayer has made many appearances on talk shows and other television programs, most notably, on a Chappelle's Show comedy skit, Late Night with David Letterman and on the final episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Mayer made an appearance with Rob Dyrdek in the MTV show Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory, in which Mayer helped Dyrdek write a song dedicated to Dyrdek's mother.

Touring

Mayer has toured with many musical groups, including Maroon 5, Guster, Howie Day, Mat Kearney, Counting Crows, Ben Folds, The Wallflowers, Teitur, Brett Dennen, Sheryl Crow, Colbie Caillat, Train, OneRepublic and Paramore. Crow and Mayer, who had just previously appeared on the Cars Soundtrack together, co-headlined a tour that ran from August to October 2006. In 2007, Mayer toured Europe, hoping to reach the popularity abroad that he enjoys in North America. The initial North American Continuum tour ended on February 28, 2007, with a show at Madison Square Garden, a performance which the New York Post described as "career-defining." In 2010, Mayer and Keith Urban performed at a CMT Crossroads concert which saw Mayer and Urban performing a medley of their own songs together and a rendition of George Michael's single, "Faith". This performance was led to Urban and Mayer teaming up again for future performances, including at the 2010 CMT Awards.

Mayer allows audio taping at most of his live performances, and he also allows for the non-commercial trading of those recordings. He does this to give fans the opportunity to recreate the live experience, and to encourage fan interaction.

Touring band members

;Current members

David Ryan Harris – guitar, backing vocals (2003–present)

Robbie McIntosh – guitar, slide guitar, backing vocals (2006–present)

Sean Hurley – bass, backing vocals (2008–present)

Charlie Wilson – keyboards (2009–present)

Keith Carlock - drums, percussion (2010–present)

Bob Reynolds – saxophones, flute (2006–2008, 2010–present)

Bryan Lipps - trumpet (2010–present)

;Former members

David LaBruyere – bass (1999–2008)

Nir Z - drums (2001)

Matt Mangano - guitar (2001)

Matt Johnson - drums (2002)

Stephen Chopek – drums, percussion (2001–2002)

Michael Chaves – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (2001–2005)

Kevin Lovejoy – keyboards (2003–2004)

Erik Jekabsen – trumpet, flugelhorn (2003–2004)

Chris Karlic – saxophone, flute (2003–2005)

J.J. Johnson – drums (2003–2005, 2006–2008)

Onree Gill – keyboards (2004–2005)

Chuck McKinnon – trumpet, flugelhorn (2004–2005)

Ricky Peterson – keyboards, organ, backing vocals (2006–2007)

Tim Bradshaw – keyboards, organ, lap steel guitar, backing vocals (2007–2008)

Kenna Ramsey - backing vocals (2009–2010)

Melanie Taylor - backing vocals (2009–2010)

Steve Jordan – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2003, 2005–2006, 2009–2010)

Brad Mason - trumpet, flugelhorn (2006–2008)

Personal life

Mayer follows the discipline of Krav Maga. He hosts an annual Interfaith Baking Contest, in which he judges his favorite from pictures of baked goods sent in by his fans during the end-of-year, holiday season.

Mayer has a number of tattoos. These include: "Home" and "Life" (from the song title) on the back of his left and right arms respectively, "77" (his year of birth) on the left side of his chest, and a koi-like fish on his right shoulder. His entire left arm is covered in a sleeve tattoo that he acquired gradually, ending in April 2008; it includes: "SRV" (for his idol, Stevie Ray Vaughan) on his shoulder, a decorated rectangle on his biceps, a dragon-like figure on his inner arm, and various other floral designs. In 2003, he got a tattoo of three squares on his right forearm, which, he has explained, he will fill in gradually. As of 2010, two are filled.

He is an avid collector of watches and owns timepieces worth tens of thousands of dollars. Mayer also has an extensive collection of sneakers, estimated () at more than 200 pairs.

Mayer's parents concluded an uncontested divorce on May 27, 2009. After the divorce, Mayer moved his (82-year-old) father to an assisted-living facility in Los Angeles. Despite rumors to the contrary, Mayer did not date Heidi Klum in 2003. When Ryan Seacrest asked Mayer on the red carpet of the 2007 Grammy Awards, about his relationship with Simpson, Mayer responded in Japanese. Despite some initially conflicting translations, he said, "Jessica is a lovely woman, and I'm glad to be with her." Simpson also accompanied Mayer for a portion of his 2007 Continuum tour, and the two went on a trip to Rome in March of that year. However, the couple split in May 2007. He began dating actress Minka Kelly in September 2007, but they split up before the year's end. Mayer began dating actress Jennifer Aniston in April 2008, but Mayer broke it off the following August. They resumed dating in October 2008 and split up again in March 2009. His relationships with high-profile celebrities has led to his having a reputation as a "womanizer." Mayer's relationship with Jessica Simpson coincided with some personal behavior changes that served to significantly increase his tabloid exposure. Previously, Mayer had expressed his resolve to completely avoid drugs, alcohol, clubbing, "red-carpet" events, dating celebrities and anything else that he felt would detract from his focus on his music. In interviews, however, Mayer has alluded to experiencing an extreme "anxiety bender" episode in his twenties that motivated him to be less reclusive.

Mayer's relationship with the media has drawn controversy. He has been called long-winded and self-aware, culminated in an impromptu press conference outside of his gym in New York, where he explained why he had broken-up with Aniston. The fall-out was unfavorable, and he was branded a "" for "saving face"; and maintains he did it to take responsibility for hurting her. He apologized via Twitter for his use of the word "nigger," saying, "It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize...a word that is so emotionally charged." He also tearfully apologized to his band and fans at his concert in Nashville later that night.

Solo discography

Room for Squares (2001)

Heavier Things (2003)

Continuum (2006)

Battle Studies (2009)

Awards

Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Mayer has won seven awards from fifteen nominations.

Others awards and nominations

See also

Battle Studies World Tour

Notes

Footnotes

References

Edwards, G. (2006) Is Tiny Dancer Really Elton's Little John?, New York: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 0-307-34603-X

External links

;Official

;Written by Mayer

Segment on Jimi Hendrix that Mayer wrote for Rolling Stone

Segment on Brett Dennen, that Mayer wrote for Rolling Stone

"Music Lessons with John Mayer", database of Mayer's Esquire column at Esquire.com

;General

Comprehensive John Mayer guitar tabs

"Square pegged", Mayer's first feature article in 2001, from Creative Loafing

Rolling Stone Q&A; Podcast: John Mayer, from December 2005: transcript

Iceberg Radio interview with John Mayer from September 2006: Listen: (32K) (64K)

John Mayer Exclusive Performance and Behind the Scenes footage on AOL Sessions

"John Mayer's Soft-Sell 'World'", NPR Morning Edition interview from March 2007. (listen) (read)

Nikon Podcast #3: "Exclusive Interview with John Mayer" (posted September 9, 2007) (listen)

Category:1977 births Category:American male singers Category:American philanthropists Category:American pop singers Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singer-songwriters Category:Berklee College of Music alumni Category:Blue-eyed soul singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:American Jews Category:Jewish American musicians Category:Krav Maga practitioners Category:Live Music Archive artists Category:Living people Category:Music of Atlanta, Georgia Category:Musicians from Connecticut Category:People from Atlanta, Georgia Category:People from Bridgeport, Connecticut Category:People of Jewish descent Category:People with synesthesia Category:American bloggers

Caption	Franco at the Spider-Man 3 premiere, April 2007
Birthname	James Edward Franco
Birth date	April 19, 1978
Birth place	Palo Alto, California, United States
Occupation	Actor, director, screenwriter, producer, painter
Yearsactive	1997–present

James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor, film director, screenwriter, film producer, author, and painter. He began acting during the late 1990s, appearing on the short-lived television series Freaks and Geeks and starring in several teen films. In 2001 he played the title role in Mark Rydell's television biographical film James Dean, which earned him a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film.

Franco achieved international fame with his portrayal of Harry Osborn in the Spider-Man trilogy. Since then, his films have included the war film The Great Raid (2005), the 2006 romantic drama Tristan & Isolde, and Justin Lin's drama Annapolis (2006). In 2008, Franco starred in the comedy stoner film Pineapple Express and received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. He played a prominent role in the 2008 biographical film Milk. In 2010, he played the lead role in Howl as Allen Ginsberg, and 127 Hours, a film about Aron Ralston, an American mountaineer who cut off his own arm to free himself after he was trapped beneath a boulder. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance.

Early life and family

Franco was born in Palo Alto, California. His mother, Betsy Lou (née Verne), is a poet, author, and editor, and his father, Douglas Eugene Franco, runs a non-profit agency and a shipping container company; the two met as students at Stanford University. Franco's father is of Portuguese and Swedish descent and Franco's mother is Jewish, a descendant of immigrants from Russia. his maternal grandmother, Mitzi Levine Verne, owns the Verne Art Gallery, a prominent art gallery in Cleveland, and was an active member in the National Council of Jewish Women.

Franco grew up in California with his two younger brothers, Tom and Dave, who is also an actor. Talented at mathematics, he interned at Lockheed Martin. Franco graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1996, where he acted in plays. He enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as an English major, but dropped out after his freshman year against his parents' wishes to pursue a career as an actor, taking acting lessons with Robert Carnegie at Playhouse West. Franco has since described the series as "one of the most fun" work experiences that he has had. In another interview, Franco said: "When we were doing Freaks and Geeks, I didn’t quite understand how movies and TV worked, and I would improvise even if the camera wasn’t on me ... So I was improvising a little bit back then, but not in a productive way."

His first major film was the romantic comedy Whatever It Takes (2000), in which he co-starred with his then-girlfriend, Marla Sokoloff. He was subsequently cast as the title role in director Mark Rydell's 2001 TV biopic James Dean. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "Franco could have walked through the role and done a passable Dean, but instead gets under the skin of this insecure, rootless young man." He received a Golden Globe Award and nominations for an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

2002 - present

and Franco discuss their roles in the 2008 Gus Van Sant film Milk, and its subject, Harvey Milk.]] In the 2002 superhero film Spider-Man, the most successful film of his career to date, Franco played Harry Osborn, the son of the villainous Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) and best friend of the title character (Tobey Maguire). Originally, Franco was considered for the lead role of Spider-Man/Peter Parker in the film, though the lead went to Tobey Maguire. Todd McCarthy of Variety noted that there are "good moments" between Maguire and Franco in the film. Spider-Man was a commercial and critical success. The movie grossed $114 million during its opening weekend in North America and went on to earn $822 million worldwide. In this same year, Franco was cast in the drama City by the Sea (2002) alongside Robert De Niro. The following year he co-starred alongside Neve Campbell in Robert Altman's The Company (2003).

The success of the first Spider-Man film led Franco to reprise the role in the 2004 sequel, Spider-Man 2. The movie was well received by critics, and it proved to be a big financial success, setting a new opening weekend box office record for North America. With revenue of $783 million worldwide, it became the second highest grossing film in 2004.

In 2006, Franco co-starred with Tyrese Gibson in Annapolis and played legendary hero Tristan in Tristan & Isolde, a dramatization of the Tristan and Iseult story also starring English actress Sophia Myles. He then rode with the Navy's precision flying team, the Blue Angels, and completed training for his Private Pilot License in preparation for his role in Flyboys, which was released in September 2006; the same month, Franco appeared briefly in The Wicker Man, the remake of the seminal horror film. He appeared in the film alongside Nicolas Cage, who directed him in Sonny. Also in 2006, he made a cameo appearance in the romantic comedy The Holiday.

In 2007 he again played Harry Osborn in Spider-Man 3. In contrast to the previous two films' positive reviews, Nonetheless, with a total worldwide gross of $891 million, it stands as the most successful film in the series, and Franco's highest grossing film to the end of 2008.

He starred in the film Pineapple Express (2008), a comedy co-starring and co-written by Seth Rogen and produced by Judd Apatow, both of whom worked with Franco on Freaks and Geeks. In the New York Times review of the film, critic Manohla Dargis wrote: "He’s delightful as Saul, loosey-goosey and goofy yet irrepressibly sexy, despite that greasy curtain of hair and a crash pad with a zero WAF (Woman Acceptance Factor). It’s an unshowy, generous performance and it greatly humanizes a movie that, as it shifts genre gears and cranks up the noise, becomes disappointingly sober and self-serious." Franco's performance in the film earned him a Golden Globe nomination in the category for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy In 2008 he also appeared in two films by American artist Carter exhibited at the Yvon Lambert gallery in Paris. On September 20, 2008, James hosted the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL), and a second time on December 19, 2009.

Franco starred opposite Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, and Emile Hirsch in Gus Van Sant's Milk (2008). In the film, he played Scott Smith, the boyfriend of Harvey Milk (Penn). Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, in review of the film, wrote: "Franco is a nice match for him [Penn] as the lover who finally has enough of political life." For his performance in the film, Franco won the 2008 Independent Spirit Award in the category for Best Supporting Actor.

In late 2009, Franco joined the cast of the daytime soap opera General Hospital on a recurring basis. He plays Franco, Franco calls his General Hospital role performance art; in summer 2010 the fictional Franco held an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, while the real Franco held an exhibit at the museum based on his experiences on the soap opera.

Franco made an appearance on the situation comedy show 30 Rock where he played himself and carried on a fake romance with Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) in a scheme concocted by their respective agents. In May 2010, he was cast to star in Rupert Wyatt's Rise of the Apes. Franco produced and directed a documentary titled Saturday Night documenting a week in the production of an episode of SNL. The film began as a short for an NYU class but grew due to his two episodes as host, while short stories he wrote for other classes appeared in Esquire and McSweeney's.

In 2010, Franco played poet Allen Ginsberg in the drama Howl, and has received acclaim for portraying mountain climber Aron Ralston in 127 Hours. His 2011 roles include the comedy Your Highness, opposite Natalie Portman, and Rise of the Apes, a science fiction film co-starring Freida Pinto.

On November 29, 2010, it was announced that Franco and Anne Hathaway will host the 83rd Academy Awards.

In 2011, Franco will direct a film version of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and appear in two episodes of ABC's General Hospital.

Writing

In 2010, Franco published a collection of short stories called Palo Alto. The book is named after the California city where Franco grew up and is dedicated to many of the writers he worked with at Brooklyn College. The book has received mixed reviews; Los Angeles Times called it "the work of an ambitious young man who clearly loves to read, who has a good eye for detail, but who has spent way too much time on style and virtually none on substance".

Personal life

Franco reportedly has "an unusually high metabolism for productivity...a superhuman ability to focus". Dissatisfied with his career's direction, Franco reenrolled at UCLA in the fall of 2006 as an English major with a creative writing concentration. Having received permission to take as many as 62 course credits per quarter compared to the normal limit of 19 while continuing to act, he received his undergraduate degree in June 2008 with a GPA over 3.5. For his degree, Franco prepared his departmental honors thesis as a novel under the supervision of Mona Simpson. He moved to New York to simultaneously attend graduate school at Columbia University's MFA writing program, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for filmmaking, and Brooklyn College for fiction writing, while occasionally commuting to North Carolina's Warren Wilson College for poetry. As of 2010, Franco is a PhD student in English at Yale University and will also attend the Rhode Island School of Design.

Art—painting in particular—is a talent Franco developed during his high school years while attending the California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA). His paintings were displayed publicly for the first time at the Glü Gallery in Los Angeles, California from January 7, 2006 through to February 11, 2006. Franco can also be seen painting in a scene in Spider-Man 3.

Franco enjoys reading on the set of his films. Pineapple Express producer Judd Apatow has said of him: "He's a very education-minded person. We used to laugh because in between takes he'd be reading The Iliad on set. We still haven't read The Iliad. It was a very difficult book. With him, it was always James Joyce or something."

Since April 2006, Franco has been in a relationship with actress Ahna O'Reilly. In 2008, Franco was named as the new face of Gucci's men's fragrance line. Viewed as a sex symbol, Franco was named the Sexiest Man Living in 2009 by Salon.com.

In response to questions regarding his sexuality now that he has portrayed three gay characters during his acting career, he insists he finds plenty more dimensions to the characters than their bedroom proclivities. "Or, you know what," he concluded, "maybe I’m just gay."

He was selected as the commencement speaker, the youngest, at his alma mater, UCLA, on Friday, June 12, 2009. On June 3, 2009, a press release announced Franco's cancellation as UCLA's commencement speaker due to a scheduling conflict, making it the second year in a row, after Bill Clinton, that the commencement speaker had canceled the appearance. On July 8, 2009, Franco and the Harvard Lampoon released a satirical video on prominent comedy website Funny or Die mocking his last-minute cancellation.

In the December 27, 2010 issue of Time Magazine, Franco was named by Joel Stein as "The Coolest Person of the Year."

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable" ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 1998 | 1973 | Greg | TV Film |- | 1999 | To Serve and Protect | Matt Carr | TV Film |- | 1999 | Never Been Kissed | Jason Way | |- | 1999-2000 | Freaks and Geeks | Daniel Desario | TV Series: 18 Episodes |- | 2000 | Whatever It Takes | Chris Campbell | |- | 2001 | James Dean | James Dean | TV FilmBroadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor in Television FilmGolden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or TV FilmNominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a MovieNominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie |- | 2002 | Sonny | Sonny Phillips | limited release |- | 2002 | City by the Sea | Joey |Nominated — Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actor |- | 2002 | Spider-Man | Harry Osborn | |- | 2002 | Deuces Wild | Tino | |- | 2003 | The Company | Josh | |- | 2004 | Spider-Man 2 | Harry Osborn | |- | 2005 | The Ape | Harry Walker | Direct-to-Video |- | 2005 | The Great Raid | Captain Prince | |- | 2005 | Fool's Gold | Brent | Also Writer/Director |- | 2006 | Tristan & Isolde | Tristan | |- | 2006 | Annapolis | Jake Huard | |- | 2006 | The Wicker Man | Bar guy #1 | |- | 2006 | Flyboys | Blaine Rawlings | |- | 2006 | The Dead Girl | Derek | |- | 2006 | The Holiday | Himself | Uncredited |- | 2007 | Spider-Man 3 | Harry Osborn / New Goblin |Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated — MTV Movie Award for Best Fight |- | 2007 | Knocked Up | Himself | Uncredited |- | 2007 | In the Valley of Elah | Sergeant Dan Carnelli | |- | 2007 | Finishing the Game | Dean Silo/"Rob Force" | |- | 2007 | An American Crime | Andy | |- | 2007 | Camille | Silias | |- | 2007 | Good Time Max | Max Verbinski | Also Writer/Director |- | 2008 | Pineapple Express | Saul Silver | Nominated — Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyNominated — MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic PerformanceNominated — MTV Movie Award for Best Fight |- | 2008 | Nights in Rodanthe | Dr. Mark Flanner | Uncredited |- | 2008 | Milk | Scott Smith |Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best CastIndependent Spirit Award for Best Supporting MaleNominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated — MTV Movie Award for Best KissNominated — Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion PictureNominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture |- | 2009 | General Hospital | Franco | scheduled to appear in more than 10 episodes November 19, 2009 - June 30, 2011; Feb. 25, 2011 |- | 2010 | 30 Rock | Himself | TV SeriesEpisode: "Klaus and Greta" |- | 2010 | Date Night | Thomas Felton | |- | 2010 | Eat Pray Love | David | |- | 2010 | Howl | Allen Ginsberg | |- | 2010 | 127 Hours | Aron Ralston | Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorIndiana Film Journalists Association Award for Best ActorLas Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best ActorNew York Film Critics Online Award for Best ActorSanta Barbara International Film Festival Award for Outstanding PerformanceUtah Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorNominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorNominated — Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorNominated — Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best ActorPending — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture DramaNominated — Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best ActorPending — Independent Spirit Award for Best Male LeadNominated — Online Film Critics Society Award for Best ActorNominated — Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best ActorNominated — San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best ActorNominated — Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture DramaPending — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading RoleNominated — St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorNominated — Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorNominated — Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor |- | 2011 | Your Highness | Fabious | post-production |- | 2011 | Rise of the Apes | | post-production |- | 2011 | In Praise of Shadows | William Vincent | post-production |}

Selected works

Franco, James. "A Star, a Soap and the Meaning of Art." Wall Street Journal, December 4, 2009.

Franco, James. "Just Before the Black." Esquire, March 24, 2010.

References

External links

Category:1978 births Category:Actors from California Category:American actors of Russian descent Category:American actors of Swedish descent Category:American film actors Category:American Jews Category:American people of Portuguese descent Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:American soap opera actors Category:American television actors Category:Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actor Golden Globe winners Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Independent Spirit Award winners Category:Jewish actors Category:Living people Category:Palo Alto High School alumni Category:People from Palo Alto, California Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni

Name	Gregg Allman
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Gregory Lenoir Allman
Born	December 08, 1947Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Spouse	Shelley Jefts (1971-1972) Janice Mulkey (1973-1974) Cher (1975-1979) Julie Bindas (1979-1984) Danielle J.P. Galiana (1989-1994) Stacey Fountain (2001-2007)
Instrument	Vocals, Organ, Piano, Guitar
Genre	Southern rockBluesCountryGospel
Occupation	Musician, Songwriter, Actor
Years active	1965 – present
Label	Liberty Records,
Associated acts	The Allman Brothers Band, The Hour Glass, Gregg Allman Band, The Allman Joys
Url	GreggAllman.com
Notable instruments	Hammond B-3 Organ

Gregory Lenoir Allman (born December 8, 1947 in Nashville, Tennessee), known as Gregg Allman (sometimes spelled Greg Allman), is a rock and blues singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter, best known as a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, and personally received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2006. His distinctive Southern-accented voice placed him in 70th place in Rolling Stone Magazines list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".

Early years

Raised in Daytona Beach, Florida, attended Seabreeze High School along with his older brother Duane, Gregg took an interest in the guitar before Duane did. But while Duane would soon become the superior guitarist, Gregg focused more on vocals, while advancing to keyboards. Little Milton was one of his favorite singers.

Allman Joys and Hour Glass

In the mid- to late-1960s, the Allmans played in a series of bands including The Escorts and Allman Joys, mostly playing around the Southeastern United States. Toward the end of the decade, The Allman Joys relocated to Los Angeles, California, and were signed to Liberty Records, which renamed them The Hour Glass. Strongly controlled by the label, the group produced a pair of psychedelic blues albums. All the players were deeply dissatisfied with the results; Duane Allman in particular spoke bitterly of the Hour Glass' output. The label however, was impressed with Gregg Allman's vocal abilities and abilities as a keyboardist.

Marriages, relationships & children

Allman has been married at least six times and has several children and three grandchildren.

His son, Michael Sean Allman, was born in July 1966 to Mary Sutton. His marriage to Shelley Kay Winters (later Jefts), produced another son, Devon Allman, on August 10, 1972. Devon is also a musician, and leads the band Honeytribe, and has appeared with the Allman Brothers Band on a few occasions. He also has a son of his own making that Gregg's third grandchild.

At the time of his first solo album, Laid Back, Allman was married to Jan Blair (1973–1975), sister of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' bassist, Ron Blair.

Allman's most famous marriage was to the singer/actress Cher from 1975 to 1979. Together they became the parents of a son, Elijah Blue Allman, who later formed his own band, Deadsy. The couple even tried a musical collaboration, releasing their record album Two the Hard Way (billed as Allman and Woman) in 1977. It was universally panned, and it has long since been out of print. The Hard Way Tour was staged with Cher making appearances, and it did not meet with much success either.

He was married to Julie Bindas (parents Julian and Lotte Bindas) from 1979 to 1981; they had a daughter, Delilah Island Allman, November 5, 1980. During this time, they spent most of their time on the west coast of Florida.

Around 1992, he met Shelby Blackburn, who first interviewed him at a radio station where she worked. Out of this relationship came daughter Layla Brooklyn Allman, who was born March 31, 1993. Layla fronts the band Picture Me Broken.

He married Stacey Fountain in 2001.

Gregg currently lives in Richmond Hill, Georgia.

Influences

Blind Willie McTell - legendary Atlanta 12-string guitarist, composer of Statesboro Blues also influenced Bob Dylan, and Taj Majal.

Little Milton

Floyd Miles

Discography

Albums

1973 Laid Back

1974 The Gregg Allman Tour (live)

1977 Playin' Up a Storm - The Gregg Allman Band

1977 Two the Hard Way - Allman and Woman (Cher)

1986 I'm No Angel - The Gregg Allman Band

1988 Just Before The Bullets Fly - The Gregg Allman Band

1997 Searching for Simplicity

1997 One More Try: An Anthology

2002 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection (compilation)

2002 No Stranger to the Dark: The Best of Gregg Allman (different compilation, with three new tracks)

2011 Low Country Blues

See also

List of Hammond organ players

References

External links

Official website

Category:1947 births Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Living people Category:American baritones Category:American rock singers Category:American blues singers Category:American rock keyboardists Category:The Allman Brothers Band members Category:Delaney & Bonnie & Friends members Category:Musicians from Tennessee Category:People from Nashville, Tennessee Category:People from Volusia County, Florida

Name	David Letterman
Caption	Speaking at the opening of the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute (September 2009)
Pseudonym	Earl Hofert
Birth name	David Michael Letterman
Birth date	April 12, 1947
Birth place	Indianapolis, Indiana
Notable work	Host of Late Night with David Letterman (NBC)Host of Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
Signature	David Letterman Autograph.svg

}} David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC. Only Letterman's friend and mentor Johnny Carson has had a longer late-night hosting career. was a florist; his mother Dorothy Letterman (née Hofert, now Dorothy Mengering), a Presbyterian church secretary of German descent, is an occasional figure on the show, usually at holidays and birthdays. He has an older sister Janice and a younger sister Gretchen.

Letterman lived on the north side of Indianapolis (Broad Ripple area), not far from Speedway, IN, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and he enjoyed collecting model cars, including racers. In 2000, he told an interviewer for Esquire that, while growing up, he admired his father's ability to tell jokes and be the life of the party. Harry Joseph Letterman survived a heart attack at age 36, when David was a young boy. The fear of losing his father was constantly with Letterman as he grew up. The elder Letterman died of a second heart attack at age 57.

Letterman attended his hometown's Broad Ripple High School at the same time as Marilyn Tucker Quayle (wife of the former Vice President) who lived nearby, and worked as a stock boy at the local Atlas supermarket. According to the Ball State Daily News, he originally had wanted to attend Indiana University, but his grades weren't good enough, so he decided to attend Ball State University, in Muncie, Indiana. He is a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, and he graduated from what was then the Department of Radio and Television, in 1969. A self-described average student, Letterman endowed a scholarship for what he called "C students" at Ball State.

Though he registered for the draft and passed his physical after graduating from College, he avoided military service in Vietnam due to receiving a draft lottery number of 352 (out of 365).

Letterman began his broadcasting career as an announcer and newscaster at the college's student-run radio station—WBST—a 10-watt campus station which now is part of Indiana public radio. He was fired for treating classical music with irreverence.

Letterman credits Paul Dixon—host of the Paul Dixon Show, a Cincinnati-based talk show also shown in Indianapolis while Letterman was growing up—for inspiring his choice of career: :"I was just out of college [in 1969], and I really didn't know what I wanted to do. And then all the sudden I saw him doing it [on TV]. And I thought: That's really what I want to do!"

Weatherman

Letterman began his career as a radio talk show host on WNTS (AM), and on Indianapolis television station WLWI (now called WTHR) as a local anchor and weatherman. He received some recognition for his unpredictable on-air behavior, which included congratulating a tropical storm for being upgraded to a hurricane and predicting hail stones "the size of canned hams." (To this day he occasionally gives out canned hams on his show). He would also occasionally report the weather and the day's very high and low temps for fictitious cities ("Eight inches of snow in Bingree and surrounding areas."). He also starred in a local kiddie show, made wisecracks as host of a late night TV show called "Freeze-Dried Movies" (he once acted out a scene from "Godzilla" using plastic dinosaurs), and hosted a talk show that aired early on Saturday mornings called "Clover Power," in which he interviewed 4-H members about their projects.

In 1971, Letterman appeared as a pit road reporter for ABC Sports' tape-delayed coverage of the Indianapolis 500.

Move to Los Angeles

In 1975, encouraged by his then-wife Michelle and several of his Sigma Chi fraternity brothers, Letterman moved to Los Angeles, California, with hope of becoming a comedy writer. He started off by writing material for comedian Jimmie Walker. He also began performing stand-up comedy at The Comedy Store, a famed comedy club and proving ground for young comics.

Letterman appeared in the summer of 1977 on the short-lived Starland Vocal Band Show. He has since joked about how fortunate he was that nobody would ever see his performance on the program (due to its low ratings).

Letterman had a stint as a cast member on Mary Tyler Moore's variety show, Mary; a guest appearance on Mork & Mindy (as a parody of EST leader Werner Erhard); and appearances on game shows such as The $20,000 Pyramid, The Gong Show, Password Plus and Liar's Club. He also hosted a 1977 pilot for a game show entitled The Riddlers that was never picked up. His dry, sarcastic humor caught the attention of scouts for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and Letterman was soon a regular guest on the show. Letterman became a favorite of Carson's and was a regular guest host for the show beginning in 1978. Letterman personally credits Carson as the person who influenced his career the most.

NBC

Morning show

On June 23, 1980, Letterman was given his own morning comedy show on NBC, The David Letterman Show. It was originally 90 minutes long, but was shortened to 60 minutes in August. The show was a critical success, winning two Emmy Awards, but was a ratings disappointment and was canceled in October 1980.

Late Night with David Letterman

NBC kept Letterman under contract to try him in a different time slot. Late Night with David Letterman debuted February 1, 1982; the first guest on the first show was Bill Murray. The show ran weeknights at 12:30 a.m. Eastern Time, immediately following The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. It was seen as being edgy and unpredictable, and soon developed a cult following (particularly among college students). Letterman's reputation as an interviewer was borne out in verbal sparring matches with Cher (who even called him an asshole on the show), Shirley MacLaine, Charles Grodin, and Madonna. The show also featured inventive comedy segments and running characters, in a style heavily influenced by the 1950s and '60s programs of Steve Allen. Although Ernie Kovacs is often cited as an influence on the show, Letterman has denied this. In the final months of his first stint as host of The Tonight Show, Leno beat Letterman in the ratings by a 1.3 million viewer margin (5.2 million to 3.9 million), and Nightline and The Late Show were virtually tied. Once O'Brien took over Tonight, however, Letterman closed the gap in the ratings. O'Brien initially drove the median age of Tonight Show viewers from 55 to 45, with most older viewers opting to watch The Late Show instead.

Letterman's shows have garnered both critical and industry praise, receiving 67 Emmy Award nominations, winning twelve times in his first 20 years in late night television. From 1993–2009, Letterman ranked higher than Leno in the annual Harris Poll of Nation's Favorite TV Personality twelve times. Leno was higher than Letterman on that poll three times during the same period, in 1998, 2007, and 2008.

Hosting the Academy Awards

On March 27, 1995, Letterman acted as the host for the 67th Academy Awards ceremony. Critics blasted Letterman for what they deemed a poor hosting of the Oscars, noting that his irreverent style undermined the traditional importance and glamor of the event. In a joke about their unusual names (inspired by a similar joke by Woody Allen), he started off by introducing Uma Thurman to Oprah Winfrey, and then the both of them to Keanu Reeves: "Uma...Oprah! Oprah...Uma! Oprah, Uma...Keanu!" This and many of his other jokes fell flat. Although Letterman attracted the highest ratings to the annual telecast since 1983, many felt that the bad publicity garnered by Letterman's hosting caused a decline in the Late Show's ratings.

Letterman recycled the apparent debacle into a long-running gag. On his first show after the Oscars, he joked, "Looking back, I had no idea that thing was being televised." He lampooned his stint in the following year, during Billy Crystal's opening Oscar skit, which also parodied the plane-crashing scenes from that year's chief nominated film, The English Patient.

For years afterward, Letterman recounted his horrible hosting at the Oscars, although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences still holds Letterman in high regard and it has been rumored they have asked him to host the Oscars again. On September 7, 2010, he made an appearance on the premier of the 14th season of The View, and confirmed the rumors.

Heart surgery hiatus

On January 14, 2000, a routine check-up revealed that an artery in Letterman's heart was severely constricted. He was rushed to emergency surgery for a quintuple bypass.

During the initial weeks of his recovery, reruns of the Late Show were shown and introduced by friends of Letterman including Drew Barrymore, including Dr. O. Wayne Isom and physician Louis Aronne, who frequently appears on the show. In a show of emotion, Letterman was nearly in tears as he thanked the health care team with the words "These are the people who saved my life!" The episode earned an Emmy nomination. For a number of episodes, Letterman continued to crack jokes about his bypass, including saying, "Bypass surgery: it's when doctors surgically create new blood flow to your heart. A bypass is what happened to me when I didn't get The Tonight Show! It's a whole different thing." In a later running gag he lobbied his home state of Indiana to rename the freeway circling Indianapolis (I-465) "The David Letterman Bypass." He also featured a montage of faux news coverage of his bypass surgery, which included a clip of Dave's heart for sale on the Home Shopping Network. Letterman became friends with his doctors and nurses. In 2008, a Rolling Stone interview stated "he hosted a doctor and nurse who'd helped perform the emergency quintuple-bypass heart surgery that saved his life in 2000. 'These are people who were complete strangers when they opened my chest,' he says. 'And now, eight years later, they're among my best friends.' "

Additionally, Letterman invited the band Foo Fighters to play "Everlong", introducing them as "my favorite band, playing my favorite song." During a later Foo Fighters appearance, Letterman said that Foo Fighters had been in the middle of a South American tour which they canceled to come play on his comeback episode.

Letterman again handed over the reins of the show to several guest hosts (including Bill Cosby, Brad Garrett, Elvis Costello, John McEnroe, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, Bonnie Hunt, Luke Wilson and bandleader Paul Shaffer) in February 2003, when he was diagnosed with a severe case of shingles. Later that year, Letterman made regular use of guest hosts—including Tom Arnold and Kelsey Grammer—for new shows broadcast on Fridays. In March 2007, Adam Sandler—who had been scheduled to be the lead guest—served as a guest host while Letterman was ill with a stomach virus.

Re-signing with CBS

In March 2002, as Letterman's contract with CBS neared expiration, ABC offered him the time slot for long-running news program Nightline with Ted Koppel. Letterman was interested as he believed he could never match Leno's ratings at CBS due to weaker lead-ins from the network's late local news programs, but was reluctant to replace Koppel. Letterman addressed his decision to re-sign on the air, stating that he was content at CBS and that he had great respect for Koppel.

On December 4, 2006, CBS revealed that David Letterman signed a new contract to host The Late Show with David Letterman through the fall of 2010. "I'm thrilled to be continuing on at CBS," said Letterman. "At my age you really don't want to have to learn a new commute." Letterman further joked about the subject by pulling up his right pants leg, revealing a tattoo, presumably temporary, of the ABC logo.

"Thirteen years ago, David Letterman put CBS late night on the map and in the process became one of the defining icons of our network," said Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation. "His presence on our air is an ongoing source of pride, and the creativity and imagination that the Late Show puts forth every night is an ongoing display of the highest quality entertainment. We are truly honored that one of the most revered and talented entertainers of our time will continue to call CBS 'home.'"

According to a 2007 article in Forbes magazine, Letterman earned $40 million a year. A 2009 article in The New York Times, however, said his salary was estimated at $32 million per year.

In June 2009, Letterman and CBS reached agreement to extend his contract to host The Late Show until August 2012. His previous contract had been set to expire in 2010. thus allowing his show to come back on air on January 2, 2008. On his first episode since being off air, he surprised the viewing audience with his newly grown beard, which signified solidarity with the strike. His beard was shaved off during the show on January 7, 2008.

Letterman and Carson

NBC's decision to select Jay Leno and not Letterman to succeed Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show was an embarrassment to Carson, who had all but promised the succession to Letterman. Letterman maintained a close relationship with Carson through his break with NBC. Three years after he left for CBS, HBO produced a made-for-television movie called The Late Shift, based on a book by New York Times reporter Bill Carter, chronicling the battle between Letterman and Leno for the coveted Tonight Show hosting spot. Letterman would mock the film for months afterward, specifically on how the actor playing him, John Michael Higgins, did not resemble him in the least. ("They took a guy who looked nothing like me and with make-up and special camera angles, turned him into a guy who looked nothing like me, with red hair.")

Carson later made a few cameo appearances as a guest on Letterman's show. Carson's final television appearance came May 13, 1994 on a Late Show episode taped in Los Angeles, when he made a surprise appearance during a 'Top 10 list' segment. The audience went wild as Letterman stood up and proudly invited Carson to sit at his desk. The applause was so protracted that Carson was unable to say anything, and he finally returned backstage as the applause continued (it was later explained that Carson had laryngitis, though Carson can be heard talking to Letterman during his appearance).

In early 2005, it was revealed that Carson still kept up with current events and late-night TV right up to his death that year, and that he occasionally sent jokes to Letterman, who used these jokes in his monologue; according to CBS senior vice president Peter Lassally (a onetime producer for both men), Carson got "a big kick out of it." Letterman would do a characteristic Johnny Carson golf swing after delivering one of Carson's jokes. In a tribute to Carson, all of the opening monologue jokes during the first show following Carson's death were written by Carson.

Lassally also claimed that Carson had always believed Letterman, not Leno, to be his "rightful successor." Letterman also frequently employs some of Carson's trademark bits on his show, including "Carnac the Magnificent" (with Paul Shaffer as Carnac), "Stump the Band" and the "Week in Review."

Letterman and Oprah Winfrey

On September 10, 2007, Letterman made his first appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show at Madison Square Garden in New York City. He shared pictures of his son and live-in girlfriend. The so-called feud between Letterman and Winfrey apparently ended in 2005 when Winfrey appeared on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman on December 2, in an event Letterman jokingly referred to as "the Super Bowl of Love". Oprah had previously appeared on Letterman's show when he was hosting NBC's Late Night on May 2, 1989.

Winfrey and Letterman also appeared together in a Late Show promo that aired during CBS's coverage of Super Bowl XLI in February 2007, with the two sitting next to each other on the couch watching the game. Since the game was played between the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears, the Indianapolis-born Letterman wears a Peyton Manning jersey, while Winfrey—who tapes her show in Chicago—is in a Brian Urlacher jersey. Three years later, during CBS's coverage of Super Bowl XLIV, the two appeared again, this time with Winfrey sitting on a couch between Letterman and Jay Leno. The appearance was Letterman's idea: Leno flew to New York City in an NBC corporate jet, sneaking into the Ed Sullivan Theater during the Late Show's February 4 taping wearing a disguise, meeting Winfrey and Letterman at a living room set created in the theater's balcony where they taped their promo.

Other projects

Worldwide Pants

Letterman started his own production company—Worldwide Pants Incorporated—which produced his show and several others, including Everybody Loves Raymond , The Late Late Show, and several critically-acclaimed, but short-lived television series for Bonnie Hunt. Worldwide Pants also produced the dramedy program Ed, which aired on NBC from 2000–2004. It was Letterman's first association with NBC since he left the network in 1993. During Ed's run, the star, Tom Cavanagh, appeared as a guest on The Late Show several times.

In 2005, Worldwide Pants produced its first feature film, Strangers with Candy, which was a prequel to the Comedy Central TV series of the same title. In 2007, Worldwide Pants produced the ABC comedy series, Knights of Prosperity.

Worldwide Pants made significant news in December 2007 when it was announced that Letterman's company had independently negotiated its own contract with the Writers Guild of America, East, thus allowing Letterman, Craig Ferguson, and their writers to return to work, while the union continued its strike against production companies, networks and studios who had not reached an agreement.

Rahal Letterman Racing

Rahal Letterman Racing (RLR) is an auto racing team that currently races in the American Le Mans Series, and part-time in the Indy Racing League. It is co-owned by 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal and Letterman himself, and is based in Hilliard, Ohio. The team won the 2004 Indianapolis 500 with driver Buddy Rice. Letterman was a pit reporter for ABC in the 1971 Indianapolis 500. The $21 million, David Letterman Communication and Media Building opened for the 2007 Fall semester. It features state-of-the-art recording equipment and facilities. Thousands of Ball State students, faculty, and local residents welcomed Letterman back to Indiana. Letterman's emotional speech touched on his struggles as a college student and his late father, and also included the "top ten good things about having your name on a building."

Letterman received the honor for his dedication to the university throughout his career as a comedian. Letterman finished with, "If reasonable people can put my name on a $21 million building, anything is possible."

Letterman also received a Sagamore of the Wabash from Governor Mitch Daniels.

Record company

In late April 2010, several music industry websites reported that David Letterman started a record label named Clear Entertainment/C.E. Music and signed his first artist, Runner Runner. Lucy Walsh announced on her myspace page that she has been signed by David Letterman and Clear Entertainment/C.E. Music and is working on her album.

Appearances in other media

Letterman appeared in issue 239 of the Marvel comic book The Avengers, in which the title characters are guests on Late Night. A parody of Letterman, called "David Endocrine", is gassed to death along with his bandleader named "Paul" and their audience in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.

Letterman provided vocals for the Warren Zevon song "Hit Somebody" from My Ride's Here, and provided the voice for Butt-head's father in the 1996 animated film, Beavis and Butt-head Do America. He also had a cameo in the feature film Cabin Boy, with Chris Elliott, who worked as a writer on Letterman's show. In this and other appearances, Letterman is listed in the credits as "Earl Hofert", the name of Letterman's maternal grandfather. He also appeared as himself in the Howard Stern biopic Private Parts as well as the 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon, in a few episodes of Garry Shandling's 1990s TV series The Larry Sanders Show and in "The Abstinence", a 1996 episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. Letterman also appeared in the pilot episode of the short-lived 1986 series "Coach Toast".

Personal life

Marriages and long-term relationships

In 1969, Letterman married Michelle Cook; the marriage ended by divorce in 1977. He also had a long-term relationship with former head writer and producer on Late Night, Merrill Markoe. In fact, Markoe was the mind behind several Late Night staples, such as "Stupid Pet/Human Tricks".

Letterman has a son, Harry Joseph Letterman (born in 2003), with Regina Lasko. Harry is named after Letterman's father. In 2005, police discovered a plot to kidnap Harry Letterman and ransom him for $5 million. Kelly Frank, a house painter who had worked for Letterman, was charged in the conspiracy.

Letterman and Lasko, who had been together since 1986, wed during a quiet courthouse civil ceremony in Choteau, Montana, on March 19, 2009. Letterman announced the marriage during the taping of his March 23 show, shortly after congratulating Bruce Willis for getting married the previous week. Letterman told the audience he nearly missed the ceremony because his truck became stuck in mud two miles from their house. The family resides in North Salem, New York, on a estate.

Stalking incidents

Beginning in May 1988, Letterman was stalked by Margaret Mary Ray, a woman suffering from schizophrenia. Letterman occasionally referenced her in his show, although not by name. She committed suicide in 1998. Letterman publicly expressed sympathy upon her death.

Extortion attempt and revelation of affairs

On his October 1, 2009 show, Letterman announced that he had been the victim of an extortion attempt by someone threatening to reveal that he had had sex with several of his female employees. He confirmed the relationships.

Letterman stated that three weeks earlier (on September 9, 2009) someone had left a package in his car with material he said he would write into a screenplay and a book if Letterman did not pay him $2 million. Letterman said that he contacted the Manhattan District Attorney's office, ultimately cooperating with them to conduct a sting operation involving giving the man a phony check. The extortionist, Robert J. "Joe" Halderman, a producer of the CBS true crime journalism series 48 Hours, was subsequently arrested after trying to deposit the check. He was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury and pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted grand larceny on October 2, 2009. Birkitt had until recently lived with Halderman, who is alleged to have copied Birkitt's personal diary and to have used it, along with private emails, in the blackmail package.

On October 3, 2009, a former CBS employee, Holly Hester, announced that she and Letterman had engaged in a year-long "secret" affair in the early 1990s while she was his intern and a student at New York University.

In the days following the initial announcement of the affairs and the arrest, several prominent women, including Kathie Lee Gifford, co-host of NBC's Today Show, and NBC news anchor Ann Curry questioned whether Letterman's affairs with subordinates created an unfair working environment. A spokesman for Worldwide Pants said that the company's sexual harassment policy did not prohibit sexual relationships between managers and employees. According to business news reporter Eve Tahmincioglu, "CBS suppliers are supposed to follow the company's business conduct policies" and the CBS 2008 Business Conduct Statement states that "If a consenting romantic or sexual relationship between a supervisor and a direct or indirect subordinate should develop, CBS requires the supervisor to disclose this information to his or her Company's Human Resources Department..."

On October 5, 2009, Letterman devoted a segment of his show to a public apology to his wife and staff. Three days later, Worldwide Pants announced that Birkitt had been placed on a "paid leave of absence" from the Late Show. On October 15, CBS News announced that the company's Chief Investigative Correspondent, Armen Keteyian, had been assigned to conduct an "in-depth investigation" into Halderman's blackmail of Letterman.

On March 9, 2010, Halderman pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny and served a 6-month jail sentence, followed by probation and community service.

Awards

In his capacities as either a writer, producer, performer, or as part of a writing team, David Letterman is among the most nominated people in Emmy Award history with 52 nominations, winning two Daytime Emmys and five Primetime Emmys since 1981. His nomination record is second only to producer Jac Venza, who holds the record for the most Emmy nominations for an individual (57). Letterman has been nominated every year since 1984, when he first appeared on late night television as the host of Late Night with David Letterman. Additionally, he has won four American Comedy Awards.

References

External links

David Letterman's Feb. 24, 1978 appearance on 90 Minutes Live

Official Late Show biography

1999 article on Letterman from Salon.com

Tape of Letterman announcing affairs/extortion attempt on Late Show

Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:American people of German descent Category:American television talk show hosts Category:Ball State University alumni Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Indianapolis, Indiana television anchors Category:Indy Racing League owners Category:People from Indianapolis, Indiana Category:Weather presenters

Name	Dave Matthews
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	David John Matthews
Born	January 09, 1967Johannesburg, Transvaal Province, South Africa
Origin	Charlottesville, Virginia,United States
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, accordion
Genre	Rock, pop, alternative rock
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, actor
Years active	1989–present
Label	RCA, Sony BMG
Associated acts	Tribe of Heaven, Dave Matthews Band, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, Dave Matthews & Friends
Religion	Agnostic
Url	www.DaveMatthewsBand.com

David John "Dave" Matthews (born January 9, 1967) is a South African-born American musician and actor, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band. He performs with acoustic guitar and favors rhythm rather than solos in his playing.

Early life

Matthews was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the third of four children born to Americans John and Valerie Matthews. At two years old, Matthews' family moved to Yorktown Heights in Westchester County, New York, where his father, a physicist, started working for IBM.

In 1974, the family moved to Cambridge, England, for a year before returning to New York, where his father died from lung cancer in 1977. Biographer Nevin Martell argues that Dave's father's death may be an impetus for his "carpe diem" lyrics. At some point while residing in New York, Matthews attended his first concert when his mother took him to a performance by Pete Seeger. The family moved back to Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1977. A Quaker (and consequently pacifist), Matthews left South Africa to avoid service.

Matthews moved to New York in 1986 where he worked for IBM for a short time, then joined his mother in Charlottesville, Virginia, the same year, a town Matthews' family had lived in before he was born. This eventually led to his first professional musical gig at a modern dance performance by the Miki Liszt Dance Company'', based at McGuffey Art Center in Charlottesville, singing "Meaningful Love", composed by John D'earth and Dawn Thompson. In 1991 he hatched the idea to form his own band.

In 1994, Matthews' older sister, Anne, who lived in South Africa, was murdered by her husband, who subsequently committed suicide, on or around January 27 of that year. The event had a drastic effect on Matthews' outlook on life and was referenced in a few of his songs (such as "Shotgun.") On January 29, 1994, he performed with Tim Reynolds at The Wetlands in New York where he dedicated that performance "to her memory". Dave Matthews Band's Under the Table and Dreaming, released later that year, was dedicated to her. Later that year he released a solo album, "Some Devil", which went platinum; its single, "Gravedigger", won a Grammy Award in 2004. To support the album, Matthews toured with a group of musicians (most of whom performed on "Some Devil") under the name Dave Matthews & Friends.

Matthews is also a close friend of Béla Fleck. Matthews appears as a guest vocalist on Béla Fleck and the Flecktones' 1998 release Left of Cool and both Fleck and Flecktones bassist Victor Wooten have made numerous appearances both live and studio with DMB (e.g. Wooten soloed in the second part of The Maker, and also in #41 on the 1998 live album Live in Chicago). The Flecktones also opened for DMB on several tours. Matthews performed a duet with Emmylou Harris on "My Antonia" on her 2000 album, Red Dirt Girl. They also appeared together on the musical television show CMT Crossroads, where the two performed Matthews' "Gravedigger" and the folk song "Long Black Veil".

Dave performed a cover of Neil Young's "The Needle and the Damage Done" at the 2010 MusiCares Person of the Year tribute honoring recording artist Neil Young on January 29, 2010

Acting

Before he was known as a musician, Matthews was an amateur actor, appearing onstage in several productions at Charlottesville's Offstage Theatre and Live Arts theater in the early 1990s; the role for which he is best remembered is as a used car salesman in Offstage Theatre's "Just Say No," directed by John Quinn, co-starring Kylie Sicher . Dave Matthews has also acted in four feature films. He played Will Coleman in the 2003 adaptation of the novel Where the Red Fern Grows. In 2005 he played in Because of Winn-Dixie as Otis, a man who works at a pet store and plays guitar. In 2007, Matthews appeared briefly in the movie I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, where he plays a homosexual salesman. In 2008, he appeared in another Adam Sandler movie, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, as a racist redneck character named James. He also had a significant role in Lake City with Sissy Spacek and Troy Garity, in which he portrays the character "Red." He is also in three upcoming movies, The Other Side with Giovanni Ribisi and Jason Lee, In The Woods, starring Debra Winger and Terrence Howard and the Adam Sandler comedy Just Go With It.

In 2007, Matthews guest starred in the Fox drama series House in the episode "Half-Wit". He played a piano-playing musical savant who ended up having half of his brain removed in order to recover from his epilepsy, but at the expense of his musical abilities. Matthews had a piano double for the complex pieces, but played the simpler pieces himself. In the Season One episode of "House" -"Love Hurts"- the song "Some Devil" can be heard playing at the end. In another episode, one of the tracks from Stand Up, "You Might Die Trying" was played ("House M.D", Season Five -"Not Cancer"-) .

The fifth time Matthews appeared as musical guest on Saturday Night Live in November 2009 (which was also the fourth time the Dave Matthews Band appeared on the show), he made an appearance as Ozzy Osbourne in a skit called "The Mellow Show." Bill Hader impersonated Matthews in the same skit. With 5 official guest appearances on SNL, Matthews is officially a member of the "Five-Timers Club".

Matthews was also a cast member and performer in the popular music documentary Before the Music Dies.

Personal life

Matthews married longtime partner Jennifer Ashley Harper in 2000. The couple has twin daughters, Stella Busina and Grace Anne, born on August 15, 2001 and a son, August Oliver, born on June 19, 2007. As of the late 2000s, they reside in Seattle, Washington In a 2001 interview, Matthews stated that he was agnostic.

Charity

Matthews has been active in charity work, both on his own and with his bandmates. He has performed benefit concerts for music education, Hurricane Katrina victims, farmers, and victims of the Virginia Tech shooting. The band's charitable organization, the Bama Works Fund is administered by the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, benefiting charitable programs in the region.

In 2008 he participated in a music album called Songs for Tibet, together with a number of other celebrities as an initiative to support Tibet and Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso. Dave Matthews Band also donated to the Piedmont Park Conservancy, giving a portion of the profits to the park.

Matthews also participated in a special program for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. He performed a duet with Neil Young.

Also, On February 12, 2010, a short five-track album was released by the Dave Matthews Band entitled The Haiti Relief Project, with all proceeds benefitting the relief funds for the earthquake victims.

Matthews is on the board of directors of FarmAid, an organization created by Willie Nelson to help family farmers. Joining Matthews on the board are Neil Young, John Mellencamp, and Willie Nelson.

In 2000 Reuters reported that a cancer hoax chain letter was being circulated online that promised that anyone who forwarded the chain letter would be rewarded by being sent Matthews AOL screen name.

Politics

Although his music has often explored political and social issues, Matthews refrained from public campaigning for Presidential candidates until 2004. He cast his support strongly with Democratic nominee John Kerry, performing at political events including the Vote for Change tour.

Matthews also supported Barack Obama for President in 2008, both in the primaries and in the general election. On April 6, 2008, he and Tim Reynolds played a concert titled "Change Rocks" at Indiana University to encourage students to register to vote. The tickets were distributed by the Obama campaign. Questions regarding his citizenship were answered by advertisements and videos on YouTube, where he says he is a "real American" and a "real Virginian," stating that "real Virginians get out and vote." Even though he was recently bereaved by the loss of band co-founder and saxophonist, LeRoi Moore on August 19, 2008, he and Tim Reynolds played for DNC delegates on Sunday, August 24 at Red Rocks, and again with Reynolds at the Virginia Commonwealth University, on October 26, 2008, among other places. Matthews has often supported environmental initiatives, such as biofuel availability and the fight against global climate change. On September 21, 2009, Matthews stated that some of President Barack Obama's harsher critics were motivated by his race, and stated that he "sees it [racism] everywhere" in the United States.

Lawsuit

On August 25, 2004, Dave Matthews Band was sued by the state of Illinois for dumping raw sewage from the band's tour bus over a bridge into the Chicago River on August 8, 2004, though the band was not on the bus at the time of the incident. The dumping of up to 800 pounds of human waste into the river, in addition to violating water pollution laws, also descended upon more than 100 people in a boat on a tour of Chicago architecture. The band settled the suit by paying $200,000 to an environmental fund. As a part of the settlement, for five years, the band was required to log every location, date, and time their tour buses' septic tanks were emptied. The bus driver, Stefan Wohl, was sentenced to probation and community service, and was fired by the band.

Past and present equipment

Past Equipment

Martin DM3MD Steel 6-String Acoustic Guitar serial numbers 1, 2 and 3

Martin HD-28V Steel 6-String Acoustic Guitar

Martin D-35 Steel 6-String Acoustic Guitar

Martin D12-28 Steel 12-String Acoustic Guitar

Taylor 714 Steel 6-String Acoustic Guitar Taylor 914c 6-String Acoustic Guitar w/Florentine Cutaway (Drop D Tuning) (Don't Drink The Water, Crush, Shake Me Like A Monkey, Seven, Break Free)

Discography

Studio albums

Some Devil (2003)

Imagine We Were (2005) – as Tribe of Heaven; originally recorded in 1989

Live albums

Live at Luther College (1999) – with Tim Reynolds

Live at Radio City (2007) – with Tim Reynolds

Live in Las Vegas (2010) – with Tim Reynolds

Singles

Other charted songs

Guest singles

^A "I'm Alive" charted as an album cut in 2008 before being released as a single in 2009

Collaborations

"Tomorrow Never Knows" (2010), off the Herbie Hancock album "The Imagine Project''

"You Should Know Me", "Oh, Bangladesh" & "And He Slayed Her" (2010) off the Liz Phair album Funstyle

"Caveman" & "Road" (2009) off the Danny Barnes album "Pizza Box"

"Fat Man In The Bathtub" (2008) off the Little Feat album "Little Feat & Friends: Join The Band"

"I'm Alive" (2008) off the Kenny Chesney album Lucky Old Sun

"Mamma Boulet" (2008) off the Dave Grant album "Bubbalon by Bass"

"Tremendous Brunettes" (2007) off the Mike Doughty album Haughty Melodic

"Work It Out" (2006) off the Jurassic 5 album Feedback

"Sing Along" (2003) off the Blue Man Group album The Complex with music video

"Love Is The Only Way" (2006) off the Robert Randolph and the Family Band album Colorblind

"Joyful girl"(2002) off the Soulive album - Next

"Iwoya" (2002) off the Angelique Kidjo album Black Ivory Soul

"For You"(2002) off the We Were Soldiers soundtrack with Johnny Cash

"My Antonia", (2000), off the (Emmylou Harris studio album) Red Dirt Girl, where Dave duets with Emmylou on her composition

"Love of My Life" (1999) & "Rain Down On Me" (2010), off the Santana album Supernatural

"Communication" & "Trouble and Strife" (1998), off the Béla Fleck and the Flecktones album Left of Cool

"Eleanor" (1994), off the Shannon Worrell album Three Wishes

Awards

Grammys

1997: Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group – "So Much to Say", Dave Matthews Band

2004: Best Male Rock Vocal Performance – "Gravedigger", Dave Matthews

ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards

Most Performed Song from a Motion Picture – "Where Are You Going" (for Mr. Deeds)

Honorary degrees

Dave Matthews was awarded D.M.A. honoris causa by Haverford College on May 15, 2005; see here for his commencement speech.

Guitar

2002: Orville Gibson Award for Best Acoustic Guitarist

See also

List of celebrities who own wineries and vineyards

References

External links

The Warehouse: The Official Dave Matthews Band Fan Association

Charlie Rose Interview

Interview

Category:1967 births Category:American agnostics Category:American humanitarians Category:American male singers Category:American Quakers Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singers Category:American people of British descent Category:Dave Matthews Band members Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:Old Stithians Category:People from Charlottesville, Virginia Category:People from Johannesburg Category:People from Yorktown, New York Category:South African immigrants to the United States Category:South African people of British descent Category:Musicians from Virginia