__NOTOC__ Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January

January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua.

January 3 – The first science fiction convention is held in Leeds, England.

January 11 – The first issue of ''Look'' magazine goes on sale in the United States.

January 19 – Howard Hughes sets a new record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

January 20 – Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes swears in Franklin D. Roosevelt for a second term. This is the first time Inauguration Day in the United States occurs on that date, on which it has occurred ever since; the change is due to the ratification in 1933 of the 20th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

January 23 – In Moscow, seventeen leading Communists go on trial, accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.

January 26 – The U.S. state of Michigan celebrates its Centennial Anniversary of statehood.

January 31

* The Ohio River floods.

* The Soviet Union executes 31 people for alleged Trotskyism.

February

February 5 – U.S President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States.

February 8 – Spanish Civil War: Falangist troops take Málaga.

February 8 –February 27 – Spanish Civil War – Battle of Jarama: Nationalist and government troops fight to a stalemate.

February 11 – A sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Automobile Workers Union.

February 16 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon.

February 19

* Airliner VH-UHH (''Stinson'') goes down over Lamington National Park, bound for Sydney, killing five people.

* Yekatit 12: During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Eritrean nationalists attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades. The Italian security guard fire into the crowd of Ethiopian onlookers. Authorities exact further reprisals, which include indiscriminately slaughtering native Ethiopians over the next three days, detaining thousands of Ethiopians in inhospitable conditions at Danan in the Ogaden and Nokra in the Dahlak Archipelago, and slaughtering almost 300 monks at Debre Libanos monastery.

February 20 – Roberto Ortiz is elected president of Argentina.

February 21 – The League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee prohibits foreign nationals from fighting in the Spanish Civil War.

March

March – The first issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' is published in the United States. Twenty-seven issues later, ''Detective Comics'' introduces Batman. The comic goes on to become the longest continually published comic magazine in American history; it is still published as of 2010.

March 10 – The Encyclical ''Mit brennender Sorge'' of Pope Pius XI is published in Nazi Germany.

March 15 – H. P. Lovecraft, science fiction writer, dies.

March 17 – The Atherton Report (private investigator Edwin Atherton's report detailing vice and police corruption in San Francisco) is released.

March 18 – In the worst school disaster in American history in terms of lives lost, the New London School in New London, Texas suffers a catastrophic natural gas explosion, killing in excess of 295 students and teachers.

March 19

* The Encyclical ''Divini Redemptoris'' of Pope Pius XI about communism is published.

* Mother Frances Hospital opens in Tyler, Texas in response to the New London School explosion.

March 21 – The first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's ''Aerobile'', makes its initial flight.

March 26

* In Crystal City, Texas, spinach growers erect a statue of the cartoon character Popeye.

* William Henry Hastie becomes the first African-American appointed to a federal judgeship .

April

April 1 – Aden becomes a British crown colony. Bombing of Jaén, Spain by Nazi forces

April 9 – The ''Kamikaze'' arrives at Croydon Airport in London; it is the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe.

April 12 – ''NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel'': The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the National Labor Relations Act is constitutional.

April 17 – The animated short ''Porky's Duck Hunt'', directed by Tex Avery for the Looney Tunes series, featuring the debut of Daffy Duck, is released.

April 20 – A fire in an elementary school in Kilingi-Nõmme, Estonia, kills seventeen students and injures fifty.

April 26 – Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain is bombed. In his report of the Falangist attack on Guernica, British journalist George Steer reports finding German bomb casings, connecting Luftwaffe planes with the attack.

May

May

* The Dáil Éireann passes the Executive Authority (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1937, which abolishes the office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State, retrospectively dated to December 1936.

* 17 million unemployed in the USA.

May 1 – A general strike occurs in Paris, France.

May 6 – ''Hindenburg'' disaster: In the United States, the German airship ''Hindenburg'' bursts into flame when mooring to a mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Of the 36 passengers and 61 crew on board, 13 passengers and 22 crew die, as well as one member of the ground crew

May 7 – Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion Fighter Group, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.

May 12 – The coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth takes place at Westminster Abbey, London.

May 21

* A Soviet station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.

* As one of the reprisals for the attempted assassination of Italian viceroy Rodolfo Graziani, a detachment of Italian troops massacres the entire community of Debre Libanos, killing 297 monks and 23 laymen.

May 27 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushes a button in Washington, D.C., signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the Golden Gate Bridge.

May 28 – Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

May 30

* Spanish Civil War: Spanish ship ''Ciudad de Barcelona'' is torpedoed.

* The Chicago Police Department shoot and kill ten unarmed demonstrators in Chicago in what is known as the Memorial Day massacre.

June

June 3 – Wallis Simpson marries the Duke of Windsor, the former Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, in France.

June 8

* The first total solar eclipse to exceed seven minutes of totality in over 800 years, is visible in the Pacific and Peru.

* Carl Orff's ''Carmina Burana'' premieres in Frankfurt, Germany.

June 14 – Pennsylvania becomes the first (and only) of the United States to celebrate Flag Day officially as a state holiday.

June 21 – The coalition government of Léon Blum resigns in France.

June 28 – Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established in the United States, superseding the Emergency Conservation Work program.

June – Picasso completes his painting ''Guernica''.

June/July – The Dáil Éireann debates and passes the draft new constitution of Éire, to be called Bunreacht na hÉireann, which is then submitted for public approval by plebiscite.

July

July 1

* The Gestapo arrests pastor Martin Niemöller.

* In a referendum the people of the Irish Free State accept the new Constitution by 685,105 votes to 527,945.

* First alleged sighting of the White River Monster.

July 2

* Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear after taking off from New Guinea during Earhart's attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world.

* A guard takes his place at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Washington, DC; continuous guard has been maintained there ever since.

July 5 – The highest recorded temperature in Canada, at Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan, is 45°C (113°F).

July 7 – Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Lugou Bridge (aka Marco Polo Bridge Incident): Japanese forces invade China (often seen as the beginning of World War II in Asia).

July 11 – George Gershwin dies in Los Angeles of a brain tumor, age 38.

July 20 – The Geibeltbad Pirna is opened in Dresden, Germany.

July 21 – Éamon de Valera is elected President of the Executive Council (prime minister) of the Irish Free State by the Dáil (parliament).

July 22 – New Deal: The United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.

July 24 – Alabama drops rape charges against the so-called ''Scottsboro Boys''.

July 25–July 31 – Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Beiping-Tianjin, a series of actions fought around Beiping and Tianjin, resulting in Japanese victory.

July 28 – The IRA attempts the assassination by bomb of King George VI in Belfast.

August

August 2 – The Marihuana Tax Act Pub. 238, 75th Congress, 50 Stat. 551 (Aug. 2, 1937), is a significant bill on the path that will lead to the criminalization of cannabis. It was introduced to U.S. Congress by Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger. (The Act is now commonly referred to using the modern spelling as the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act.)

August 5 – The Soviet Union commences one of the largest campaigns of the Great Purge, to "eliminate anti-Soviet elements". Within the following year, at least 724,000 people are killed on order of the troikas, many of them chosen for shooting by their ethnicity.

August 6 – Spanish Civil War: Falangist artillery bombards Madrid.

August 8 – Japan occupies Beijing.

August 26 – Sino-Japanese War: Japanese aircraft attack the car carrying the ambassador of Great Britain during a raid on Shanghai.

September

September 2 – The Great Hong Kong Typhoon kills an estimated 11,000 persons.

September 5 – Spanish Civil War: The city of Llanes falls to the Falangists.

September 7 – CBS broadcasts a two-and-a-half hour memorial concert nationwide on radio in memory of George Gershwin, live from the Hollywood Bowl. Many celebrities appear, including Oscar Levant, Fred Astaire, Otto Klemperer, Lily Pons, and members of the original cast of ''Porgy and Bess''. The concert is recorded and released complete years later in what is excellent sound for its time, on CD. The Los Angeles Philharmonic is the featured orchestra.

September 17 – Abraham Lincoln's head is dedicated at Mount Rushmore.

September 19 – Swiss professional ice hockey club HC Ambrì-Piotta founded.

September 21 – George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. of London publishes the first edition of J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Hobbit''.

September 25 – Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Pingxingguan: The Communist Chinese National Revolutionary Army defeats the Japanese.

September 26 – Street and Smith Publications launches a half-hour radio program, ''The Shadow'', with Orson Welles in the title role.

September 27 – The last Bali tiger dies.

October

October 1

* The Marihuana Tax Act becomes law in the United States.

* U.S. Supreme Court associate justice Hugo Black, in a nationwide radio broadcast, refutes allegations of past involvement in the Ku Klux Klan.

October 3 – Sino-Japanese War: Japanese troops advance toward Nanking.

October 4 – Rabotnicki Skopje is established as a football club .

October 5 – Roosevelt gives his famous ''Quarantine Speech'' in Chicago.

October 13 – Germany, in a note to Brussels, guarantees the inviolability and integrity of Belgium so long as the latter abstains from military action against Germany.

October 15 – Ernest Hemingway's novel ''To Have and Have Not'' is first published.

October 18–October 21 – Spanish Civil War: The whole Spanish northern seaboard falls into the Falangists' hands; Republican forces in Gijon, Spain, set fire to petrol reserves prior to retreating before the advancing Falangists.

October 25 – Celal Bayar forms the new (ninth) government of Turkey.

November

November 3 – Underdog Maurice J. Tobin resoundingly defeats former governor and mayor James Michael Curley in a Boston mayoral election that shocks the political establishment.

November 5

* Spanish Civil War – 35,000 Republican supporters are massacred in Piedrafita de Babia, near León.

* World War II: In the Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting and states his plans for acquiring "living space" for the German people (recorded in the Hossbach Memorandum).

November 6 – Italy joins the Anti-Comintern Pact.

November 9 – Sino-Japanese War: Japanese troops take Shanghai.

November 10 – Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas announces the Estado Novo ("New State"), thence becoming dictator of Brazil until 1945.

November 11 – The Kogushi sulfur mine collapse, in western Gunma, Japan, kills at least 245 people.

December

December 4 – ''The Dandy'' comic is first published in Scotland; it will still be running as of 2010.

December 11 – Italy withdraws from the League of Nations.

December 12

* Panay incident: Japanese bombers sink the American gunboat USS Panay (PR-5)

* Mae West makes a risque guest appearance on the NBC ''Chase and Sanborn Hour'' that eventually results in her being banned from radio.

December 13 – Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Nanjing ends and the Nanjing Massacre begins. Japanese troops slaughter over 300,000 civilians and prisoners over three months.

December 16 – The original production of the musical ''Me and My Girl'' opens at the West End Victoria Palace Theatre in London. A later revival of this musical would win an award.

December 21 – Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', the world's first full-length animated feature, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre.

December 25 – At the age of 70, legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini conducts the NBC Symphony Orchestra on radio for the first time, beginning his successful 17-year tenure with that orchestra. This first concert consists of music by Vivaldi (at a time when he was still seldom played), Mozart, and Brahms. Millions tune in to listen, including U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

December 29 – The new Constitution of Ireland (''Bunreacht na hÉireann'') comes into force. The Irish Free State becomes "Ireland", and Eamon de Valera becomes the first Taoiseach (prime minister) of the new state. A Presidential Commission (made up the Chief Justice, the Speaker of Dáil Éireann, and the President of the High Court) assumes the powers of the new presidency, pending the popular election of the first President of Ireland in June 1938. The new constitution prohibits divorce.

Date unknown

The National House Builders Registration Council (now the NHBC) is formed in the United Kingdom.

Jimmie Angel lands his plane on top of Devil's Mountain; however, the plane gets damaged and he has to trek through the rainforest for help.

''Of Mice and Men'' by John Steinbeck is published.

Italian psychiatrist Amarro Fiamberti is the first to document a transorbital approach to the brain, which becomes the basis for the controversial medical procedure of transorbital lobotomy.

Soviet industry produces about four times as much as it had in 1928.

The Vibora Luviminda trades union's sugar plantation strike on Maui island, Hawaii.

Births

January–February

January 1 – Anne Aubrey, British actress

January 4 – Dyan Cannon, American actress

January 6

* Paolo Conte, Italian singer, Pianist and Composer

* Underwood Dudley, American mathematician

* Nida Blanca, Filipina actress (d. 2001)

January 8 – Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer

January 13 – George Reisman, American economist

January 14 – Ken Higgs, English cricketer

January 15 – Margaret O'Brien, American actress

January 18

* John Hume, Northern Irish politician, Nobel Peace Prize laureate

* Yukio Endo, Japanese gymnast (d. 2009)

January 19 – Giovanna Marini, Italian singer-songwriter

January 21 – Prince Max, Duke in Bavaria, heir to the Bavarian Royal House

January 22 – Joseph Wambaugh, American author

January 25 – Ange-Felix Patasse, former President of Central African Republic (d. 2011)

January 27 – John Ogdon, English pianist (d. 1989)

January 30

* Vanessa Redgrave, English actress

* Boris Spassky, Russian chess grandmaster

January 31

* Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (d. 2008)

* Philip Glass, American composer

February 1

* Garrett Morris, American comedian

* Don Everly, American rock 'n' roll musician

February 2

* Tom Smothers, American musician and comedian

* Magic Sam, American musician (d. 1969)

* Remak Ramsay, American actor

February 3 – Billy Meier, Swiss Prophet

February 4 – Magnar Solberg, Norwegian biathlete

February 8 – Manfred Krug, German actor and singer

February 9

* Francis William Lawvere, American mathematician

* Robert "Bilbo" Walker Jr., American blues guitarist

February 10 – Roberta Flack, American soul singer

February 11 – Bill Lawry, Australian cricketer

February 12 – Charles Dumas, American athlete

February 13 – Rupiah Banda, President of Zambia

February 20

* George Leonardos, Greek journalist and author

* Robert Huber, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

* Roger Penske, American race car driver

* Nancy Wilson, American singer

February 21 – King Harald V of Norway

February 25 – Tom Courtenay, English actor

March–April

March 2 – Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of Algeria

March 4

* Graham Dowling, New Zealand cricketer

* Leslie Gelb, American president of the Council on Foreign Relations

* Yuri Senkevich, Russian cosmonaut (d. 2003)

* Barney Wilen, French jazz saxophonist (d. 1996)

March 5 – Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria

March 6 – Valentina Tereshkova, Russian cosmonaut, first woman in space

March 8 – Juvénal Habyarimana, President of Rwanda (d. 1994)

March 17 – Frank Calabrese, Sr., American Gangster in the Chicago Outfit

March 20 – Jerry Reed, American country musician (d. 2008)

March 22 – Armin Hary, German athlete

March 23 – Craig Breedlove, American race car driver

March 27 – Thomas Aquinas Daly, American painter

March 30 – Warren Beatty, American actor and director

April 5 – Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State

April 6

* Merle Haggard, American country musician

* Billy Dee Williams, American actor

April 7 – Louise Faulkner, missing Australian woman

April 9 – Valerie Singleton, English television presenter

April 10 – Bella Akhmadulina, Russian poet (d. 2010)

April 16 – George "The Animal" Steele, American professional wrestler

April 17 – Ferdinand Piech, Austrian engineer and business magnate

April 18 – Jan Kaplický, British architect of Czech origin

April 19

* Elinor Donahue, American actress

* Joseph Estrada, former President of the Philippines

April 20 – George Takei, American actor

April 22 – Jack Nicholson, American actor

April 24 – Rafi' Daham Al-Tikriti, director of the Iraqi Intelligence Service

April 27

* Robin Eames, Northern Irish clergyman

* Sandy Dennis, American actress (d. 1992)

April 28 – Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq (d. 2006)

April 29 – Jill Paton Walsh, English novelist

May–June

May 1 – Una Stubbs, British actress

May 2 – Gisela Elsner, German writer

May 3

* Frankie Valli, American musician

* Hans Cieslarczyk, German football player

May 4 – Ron Carter, American jazz musician

May 5 – Tran Duc Luong, President of Vietnam

May 6 – Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, American boxer

May 8

* Thomas Pynchon, American writer

* Carlos Gaviria Díaz, Colombian justice and politician

May 12 – George Carlin, American comedian (d. 2008)

May 13

* Roch Carrier, Canadian writer

* Roger Zelazny, American writer (d. 1995)

* Trevor Baylis, English inventor

May 15

* Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State

* Trini Lopez, American musician

May 16 – Yvonne Craig, American actress

May 17 – Hazel R. O'Leary, U.S. Secretary of Energy

May 18 – Jacques Santer, Luxembourg politician, President of the European Council

May 21

* John Fairfax, British ocean rower

* Sofiko Chiaureli, Georgian actress (d. 2008)

* Mengistu Haile Mariam, former President of Ethiopia

May 24 – Roger Peterson, pilot who flew the plane on The Day the Music Died (d. 1959)

June 1 – Morgan Freeman, American actor

June 2 – Sally Kellerman, American actress (''MASH'')

June 3

* Phyllis Baker, American professional baseball player (d. 2006)

* Solomon P. Ortiz, U.S. Congressman from Texas

June 4 – Gorilla Monsoon, American professional wrestler and announcer (d. 1999)

June 7 – Neeme Järvi, Estonian conductor

June 8 – Toni Harper, American child singer

June 9 – Harald Rosenthal, German biologist

June 10 – Luciana Paluzzi, Italian actress

June 11 – Robin Warren, Australian pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

June 15

* Waylon Jennings, American country singer (d. 2002)

* Alan Thornett, British Trotskyist activist

June 16 – Charmian May, British actress (d. 2002)

June 18

* Wray Carlton, American football player

* Vitaly Zholobov, Soviet cosmonaut

June 23 – Martti Ahtisaari, President of Finland

June 25 – Keizo Obuchi, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2000)

June 26 – Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

June 28 – Ron Luciano, American baseball umpire and writer (d. 1995)

July–August

July 3 – Richard Petty, seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion

July 4 – Sonja Haraldsen, Queen of Norway and wife to King Harald V of Norway

July 6

* Vladimir Ashkenazy, Russian pianist

* Ned Beatty, American actor

July 7 – Tung Chee-Hwa, Hong Kong administrator

July 9 – David Hockney, English-born artist

July 12

* Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister of France

* Bill Cosby, American actor and comedian

July 14 – Yoshiro Mori, Japanese politician

July 18

* Roald Hoffmann, Polish-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

* Hunter S. Thompson, American author and journalist (d. 2005)

July 20 – Ken Ogata, Japanese actor (d. 2008)

July 27

* Don Galloway, American actor (d. 2009)

* Anna Dawson, British actress

July 29 – Daniel McFadden, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

August 2 – Coenraad Bron, Dutch Computer Scientist

August 4 – David Bedford, American musician

August 5 – Herb Brooks, American hockey coach (d. 2003)

August 6 – Barbara Windsor, English actress

August 8 – Dustin Hoffman, American actor

August 14 – Alberta Nelson, American actress (d. 2006)

August 16 – David Anderson, Canadian politician

August 18

* Willie Rushton, English comedian and cartoonist (d. 1996)

* Jean Alingué Bawoyeu, Chadian politician and former Prime Minister

August 20

* Jim Bowen, English stand-up comedian and TV personality

* Jean-Louis Petit, French composer, conductor and organist

August 21

* Donald Dewar, First Minister of Scotland (d. 2000)

* Robert Stone, American novelist

* Chuck Traynor, American pornographer (d. 2002)

August 26 – Gennady Yanayev, former Soviet leader (d. 2010)

August 29 – James Florio, Governor of New Jersey

August 30 – Bruce McLaren, Founder of McLaren Racing

August 31 – Bobby Parker (guitarist), from USA

September–October

September 4

* Dawn Fraser, Australian swimmer

* Mikk Mikiver, Estonian actor and director (d. 2006)

September 5 – William Devane, American actor

September 6

* Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada (Keith Gordon Ham), Hare Krishna guru

* Jo Anne Worley, American comedienne

September 7 – Cüneyt Arkın, Turkish film actor

September 11 – Paola Ruffo di Calabria, Queen of the Belgians

September 15

* Robert Lucas, Jr., American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

* Fernando de la Rúa, President of Argentina

September 16 – Keith Bosley, British broadcaster (retired), poet and translator

September 17 – Ilarion Ionescu-Galati Romanian conductor

September 19 – Abner Haynes, American football player

September 28 – Rod Roddy, American television announcer (d. 2003)

October 2 – Johnnie Cochran, American attorney (d. 2005)

October 4

* Jackie Collins, English author

* Franz Vranitzky, former Chancellor of Austria

October 5 – Barry Switzer, American football coach

October 10 – Bobby Charlton, English footballer

October 15 – Linda Lavin, American actress (''Alice'')

October 17 – Paxton Whitehead, English actor

October 23 – Carlos Lamarca, Brazilian military turned guerrilla leader (d. 1971)

October 28 – Lenny Wilkens, American basketball player and coach

November–December

November 1 – "Whisperin" Bill Anderson, American country music singer-songwriter and game show host

November 2 – Earl Carroll, American lead vocalist for The Cadillacs

November 4 – Michael Wilson, Canadian politician and diplomat

November 5

* Chan Sek Keong, Chief Justice of Singapore

* Harris Yulin, American actor

November 6 – Joe Warfield, American actor

November 8 – Paul Mackintosh Foot, British journalist

November 10 – Zdenek Zikan, Czech football player

November 11 – Stephen Lewis, Canadian politician and diplomat

November 17 – Peter Cook, English comedian and writer (d. 1995)

November 20 – Ruth Laredo, American pianist (d. 2005)

November 21 – Ingrid Pitt, Polish-born British actress (d. 2010)

November 26 – Boris Yegorov, Russian cosmonaut (d. 1994)

December 1

* Chuck Low, American actor

* Vaira Vike Freiberga, former President of Latvia

December 3 – Bobby Allison, American race car driver

December 7 – Kenneth Colley, English actor

December 8

* Michael Bowen, American artist (d. 2009)

* James MacArthur, American actor (d. 2010)

* Arne Næss Jr., Norwegian mountaineer and businessman (d. 2004)

December 9 – Darwin Joston, American actor (d. 1998)

December 11 – Jim Harrison, American writer

December 15 – Donald Goines, American novelist (d. 1973)

December 17 – Kerry Packer, Australian businessman (d. 2005)

December 21 – Jane Fonda, American actress and social activist

December 26

* Professor John Horton Conway, mathematician

* Gnassingbe Eyadema, President of Togo (d. 2005)

December 28 – Ratan Tata, Indian industrialist

December 29

* Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, President of the Maldives (1978–2008)

* Barbara Steele, British actress

December 30

* Gordon Banks, English footballer

* John Hartford, American musician and composer (d. 2001)

* Jim Marshall, American football player

* Noel Paul Stookey, American singer (Peter, Paul and Mary)

December 31

* Avram Hershko, Israeli biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

* Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor

Deaths

January–March

January 2 – Ross Alexander, American actor (b. 1907)

January 6 – André Besette, Canadian religious leader (b. 1845)

January 17 – Richard Boleslavsky, Polish film director (b. 1889)

January 23 – Marie Prevost, Canadian actress (b. 1898)

February 5 – Lou Andreas-Salome, Russian-born writer (b. 1861)

February 7 – Elihu Root, American statesman and diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1845)

February 11 – Walter Burley Griffin, American architect and town planner (b. 1876)

February 24 – Guy Standing, British actor (b. 1873)

February 27 – Charles Donnelly, Irish poet (b. 1915)

March 8 – Howie Morenz, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1902)

March 9 – Paul Elmer More, American critic and essayist (b. 1864)

March 11 – Joseph S. Cullinan, American oil industrialist, founder of ''Texaco'' (b. 1860)

March 12 – Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (b. 1840)

March 15 – H. P. Lovecraft, American writer (b. 1890)

March 17 – Austen Chamberlain, English statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1863)

March 20 – Harry Vardon, English golf professional (b. 1870)

March 22 – Alfred Dyke Acland, British military officer (b. 1858)

March 29 – Karol Szymanowski, Polish composer (b. 1882)

April–June

April 10 – Ralph Ince, American film director (b. 1887)

April 19 – William Martin Conway, British art critic and mountaineer (b. 1856)

April 21 – Saima Harmaja, Finnish poet (b. 1913)

April 22 – Arthur Edmund Carewe, Armenian-American actor (b. 1884)

April 24 – Lucy Beaumont, English actress (b. 1873)

April 25 – Michał Drzymała, Polish rebel (b. 1857)

April 27 – Antonio Gramsci, Italian Communist writer and politician (b. 1891)

April 29 – William Gillette, American actor (b. 1853)

May 1 – Snitz Edwards, Hungarian actor (b. 1868)

May 4 – Noel Rosa, Brazilian songwriter (b. 1910)

May 23 – John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist and philanthropist (b. 1839)

May 25 – Henry Ossawa Tanner, American Artist (b. 1859)

May 28 – Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist (b. 1870)

June 2 – Louis Vierne, French composer (b. 1870)

June 7 – Jean Harlow, American film actress (b. 1911)

June 10 – Robert Laird Borden, eighth Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1854)

June 18 – Gaston Doumergue, French Prime Minister (b. 1863)

June 19 – J. M. Barrie, Scottish novelist and dramatist (b. 1860)

June 25 – Colin Clive, British actor (b. 1900)

July–September

July 9 – Oliver Law, American labor organizer and Army officer (killed in battle) (b. 1899)

July 11 – George Gershwin, American composer (b. 1898)

July 18 – Julian Bell, English poet (b. 1908)

July 20 – Guglielmo Marconi, Italian-born inventor (b. 1874)

August 11 – Edith Wharton, American writer (b. 1862)

August 27 – Andrew W. Mellon, American banker and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1855)

September 2 – Pierre de Coubertin, French founder of the modern Olympic Games (b. 1863)

September 13 – Ellis Parker Butler, American humorist (b. 1869)

September 14 – Tomas Masaryk, Czechoslovak president (b. 1850)

September 21 – Osgood Perkins, American actor (b. 1892)

September 22 – Ruth Roland, American actress (b. 1892)

September 26 – Bessie Smith, African-American singer (b. 1894)

September 29 – Ray Ewry, American athlete (b. 1873)

October–December

October 16 – Jean de Brunhoff, French writer (b. 1899)

October 17 – J. Bruce Ismay, English businessman (b. 1862)

October 19 – Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, New Zealand physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1871)

October 26 – Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki, Polish general (b. 1867)

November 6 – Johnston Forbes-Robertson, British stage actor (b. 1853)

November 9 – Ramsay MacDonald, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1866)

November 13 – Caroline Louise Dudley (aka Mrs. Leslie Carter), stage & screen actress (b. 1862)

November 17 – Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer and coach (b. 1860)

November 23

* Jagdish Chandra Bose, Indian physicist (b. 1858)

* George Albert Boulenger, Belgian naturalist (b. 1858)

December 9 – Gustaf Dalén, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)

December 12 – Alfred Abel, German actor (b. 1879)

December 20 – Erich Ludendorff, German general (b. 1865)

December 21

* Ted Healy, American actor (b. 1896)

* Frank B. Kellogg, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1856)

December 25 – Newton D. Baker, United States Secretary of War (b. 1871)

December 28 – Maurice Ravel, French composer (''Bolero'') (b. 1875)

December 30 – Hans Niels Andersen, Danish businessman, founder of the East Asiatic Company (b. 1852)

Nobel Prizes

Physics – Clinton Joseph Davisson, George Paget Thomson

Chemistry – Walter Haworth, Paul Karrer

Physiology or Medicine – Albert von Szent-Györgyi Nagyrapolt

Literature – Roger Martin du Gard

Peace – Robert Cecil

References

The 1930s Timeline: 1937 – from American Studies Programs at The University of Virginia

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name	Deanna Durbin
birth name	Edna Mae Durbin
birth date	December 04, 1921
birth place	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
years active	1936–1948
occupation	Actress/Singer
spouse	Vaughn Paul (1941–1943)Felix Jackson (1945–1949)Charles David (1950–1999)}}

Deanna Durbin (born December 4, 1921) is a Canadian-born, Southern California-raised retired singer and actress, who appeared in a number of musical films in the 1930s and 1940s singing standards as well as operatic arias.

Durbin made her first film appearance in 1936 with Judy Garland in ''Every Sunday'', and subsequently signed a contract with Universal Studios. Her success as the ideal teenage daughter in films such as ''Three Smart Girls'' (1936) was credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy. In 1938 Durbin was awarded the Academy Juvenile Award.

Later, as she matured, Durbin grew dissatisfied with the girl-next-door roles assigned to her, and attempted to portray a more womanly and sophisticated style. The film noir ''Christmas Holiday'' (1944) and the whodunit ''Lady on a Train'' (1945) were, however, not as well received as her musical comedies and romances had been.

Durbin withdrew from Hollywood and retired from acting and singing in 1949. She married film producer-director Charles Henri David in 1950, and the couple moved to a farmhouse in the outskirts of Paris. Since then she has withdrawn from public life.

Early life

Born Edna Mae Durbin at Grace Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, she was taken to Hollywood when just a year old and began to sing children's songs as soon as she could talk. By the age of ten her parents recognised that she had definite talent and took her to a singing teacher, leading her to sing in local entertainments.

She was given the professional name Deanna at the beginning of her association with Universal Studios in 1936, when she was still 14 years old. Her parents, James and Ada Durbin, were immigrants from Lancashire, England who would become U.S. citizens after moving their family from Winnipeg to Southern California in 1923. Durbin had an older sister named Edith, who recognized Deanna's musical talents at an early age and helped Deanna to take singing lessons at Ralph Thomas Academy. This led to her discovery by MGM in 1935.

In late 1936, Cesar Sturani, who was the General Music Secretary of the Metropolitan Opera, offered Deanna Durbin an audition. Durbin turned down his request because she felt she needed more singing lessons. Andrés de Segurola, who was the vocal coach working with Universal Studios (and himself a former Metropolitan Opera singer), believed that Deanna Durbin had an excellent opportunity to become an opera star. Andrés de Segurola had been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera to watch her progress carefully and keep them advised. Durbin started a collaboration with Eddie Cantor's radio show in 1936. This collaboration lasted until 1938 when her heavy workload for Universal Studios made it imperative for Durbin to discontinue her weekly appearances on Eddie Cantor's radio show.

Career

Durbin signed a contract with MGM in 1935 and made her first film appearance in a short subject, ''Every Sunday'' (1936), with another young contract player, Judy Garland. The film was to serve as an extended screen test for the pair as studio executives were questioning the wisdom of having two female singers on the roster. Ultimately Louis B. Mayer decreed that both girls would be kept, but by the time that decision was made Durbin's contract option had elapsed.

Durbin was quickly signed to a contract with Universal Studios and made her first feature-length film ''Three Smart Girls'' in 1936. The huge success of her films was reported to have saved the studio from bankruptcy. In 1938 she received a special Academy Juvenile Award, along with Mickey Rooney. Such was Durbin's international fame and popularity that diarist Anne Frank pasted her picture to her bedroom wall in the Achterhuis where the Frank family hid during World War II. The picture can still be seen there today, and was pointed out by Frank's friend Hannah Pick-Goslar in the documentary film ''Anne Frank Remembered''.

Joe Pasternak who produced many of the early Deanna Durbin movies said about her:

"Deanna's genius had to be unfolded, but it was hers and hers alone, always has been, always will be, and no one can take credit for discovering her. You can't hide that kind of light under a bushel. You just can't, no matter how hard you try!"

In 1936, Durbin auditioned to provide the vocals for Snow White in Disney's animated film ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' but was ultimately rejected by Walt Disney, who declared the 15 year old Durbin's voice "too old" for the part.

Durbin is perhaps best known for her singing voice, variously described as being light but full, sweet, unaffected and artless. With the technical skill and vocal range of a legitimate lyric soprano, she performed everything from popular standards to operatic arias. Dame Sister Mary Leo in New Zealand was so taken with Durbin's technique that she trained all her students to sing in this way. Sister Mary Leo produced a large number of famous sopranos including Dames Malvina Major and Kiri Te Kanawa.

The Russian cellist/conductor Mstislav Rostropovich in a late 1980s interview cited Deanna as one of his most important musical influences, stating: "She helped me in my discovery of myself. You have no idea of the smelly old movie houses I patronized to see Deanna Durbin. I tried to create the very best in my music, to try and recreate, to approach her purity."

Durbin was the heroine of two 1941 novels, ''Deanna Durbin and the Adventure of Blue Valley'' and ''Deanna Durbin and the Feather of Flame'', both written by Kathryn Heisenfelt and published by Whitman Publishing Company. "The heroine has the same name and appearance as the famous actress but has no connection ... it is as though the famous actress has stepped into an alternate reality in which she is an ordinary person." The stories were probably written for a young teenage audience and are reminiscent of the adventures of Nancy Drew. They are part of a series known as "Whitman Authorized Editions", 16 books published between 1941-1947 that featured a film actress as heroine.

Between December 15, 1936 and July 22, 1947, Deanna Durbin recorded 50 tunes for Decca Records. While often re-creating her movie songs for commercial release, Durbin also covered independent standards, like "Kiss Me Again", "My Hero", "Annie Laurie", "Poor Butterfly", "Love's Old Sweet Song" and "God Bless America".

The star-making five-year association of Deanna Durbin, producer Joe Pasternak and director Henry Koster ended following the film ''It Started With Eve'' in 1941. After Pasternak moved from Universal to MGM, Durbin went on suspension between October 16, 1941 and early February 1942 for refusing to appear in ''They Lived Alone'', scheduled to be directed by Koster. Ultimately, the project was canceled when Durbin and Universal settled their differences. In the agreement, Universal conceded to Durbin the approval of her directors, stories and songs.

Durbin married an assistant director, Vaughn Paul, in 1941 and they were divorced in 1943. Her second marriage, to film writer-producer-actor Felix Jackson in 1945, produced a daughter, Jessica Louise Jackson, and ended in divorce in 1949.

In private life, Durbin continued to use her given name; salary figures printed annually by the Hollywood trade publications listed the actress as "Edna Mae Durbin, player." Her studio continued to cast her in musicals, and filmed two sequels to her original success, ''Three Smart Girls''. The second sequel was a wartime story called ''Three Smart Girls Join Up'', but Durbin issued a press release announcing that she was no longer inclined to participate in these team efforts and was now performing as a solo artist. The ''Three Smart Girls Join Up'' title was changed to ''Hers to Hold''. Joseph Cotten, who played alongside Deanna Durbin in ''Hers to Hold'', praised her integrity and character in his autobiography.

She made her only Technicolor film in 1944, ''Can't Help Singing'', featuring some of the last melodies written by Jerome Kern plus lyrics by E. Y. Harburg. A musical comedy in a Western setting, this production was filmed mostly on location in southern Utah. Her co-star was Robert Paige, who is better known for his work in television dramas in the 1950s.

Durbin tried to assume a more sophisticated movie persona in such vehicles as the World War II story of refugee children from China, ''The Amazing Mrs. Holliday'' (1943), directed in part by Jean Renoir, who left the project before its completion; the film noir ''Christmas Holiday'' (1944), directed by Robert Siodmak, and the whodunit ''Lady on a Train'' (1945), but her substantial fan base preferred her in light musical confections.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's groundbreaking Broadway production of ''Oklahoma!'' in 1943 might have showcased Deanna Durbin as original Laurie, but Universal refused to accept the proposal.

In 1945 and 1947, Deanna Durbin was the top-salaried woman in the United States. Her fan club ranked as the world's largest during her active years.

In 1946, Universal merged with two other companies to create Universal-International. The new regime discontinued much of Universal's familiar product and scheduled only a few musicals. Durbin stayed on for another four pictures, but her last two releases, ''Up in Central Park'' (1948), a film adaptation of the 1945 Broadway musical, and a project announced as ''For the Love of Mary'' and finally released as ''Something in the Wind'' (1947), saw her box-office clout diminish.

On August 22, 1948, two months after the latter film was finished, Universal-International announced a lawsuit which sought to collect from Durbin $87,083 in wages the studio had paid her in advance. Durbin settled the complaint amicably by agreeing to star in three more pictures, including one to be shot on location in Paris. Ultimately, the studio would allow Deanna's contract to expire on August 31, 1949, so the three films were not produced. Durbin, who obtained a $200,000 ($|r=0}}}} as of ), severance payment chose at this point to retire from movies. She had already turned down Bing Crosby's request for her to appear in two of his projects for Paramount Pictures, ''Top o' the Morning'' and ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court''.

Personal life

In Paris on December 21, 1950, Deanna Durbin, shortly after turning 29 years old, married Charles David, the producer-director of both French and American pictures who had guided her through ''Lady on a Train'' (1945). Durbin and David raised two children: Jessica (from her second marriage to Felix Jackson) and Peter (from her union with David).

Over the years, Durbin resisted numerous offers to perform again, including two choice proposals by MGM, asking her to take the female lead in the screen version of Cole Porter's ''Kiss Me Kate'' (1953), and to costar with Mario Lanza in Sigmund Romberg's operetta, ''The Student Prince'' (1954). As for stage shows, Durbin had been invited to play ''Kiss Me Kate'' 's Lilli Vanessi in London's 1951-52 West End production, and reportedly, Alan Jay Lerner first had Deanna in mind to portray Eliza Doolittle in the 1956 Broadway cast of ''My Fair Lady''. Suggestions that Durbin vocalize at the major Las Vegas casinos went unfulfilled.

She granted only one interview in 1983, to film historian David Shipman, steadfastly asserting her right to privacy. She maintains that privacy today, declining to be profiled on Internet websites.

However, Durbin has made it known that she did not like the Hollywood studio system. She has emphasized that she never identified herself with the public image that the media created around her. She speaks of the Deanna "persona" in the third person and considers the film character ''Deanna Durbin'' a by-product of her youth and not her true self.

Durbin's husband of over 48 years, Charles David, died in Paris on March 1, 1999.

Legacy

Deanna Durbin has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1722 Vine Street.

Frank Tashlin's Warner Bros. cartoon ''The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos'' (1937) contains an avian caricature of Deanna Durbin called "Deanna Terrapin".

Durbin's name found its way into the introduction to a song written by satirical writer Tom Lehrer in 1965. Prior to singing "Whatever Became of Hubert?", Lehrer said that Vice President Hubert Humphrey had been relegated to "those where-are-they-now columns: Whatever became of Deanna Durbin, and Hubert Humphrey, and so on."

She is mentioned in Richard Brautigan's novel ''Trout Fishing in America'', when the narrator claims to have seen one of her movies seven times, but can't recall which one.

Filmography

+ Film credits
Title	Year	Role	Notes
''Every Sunday''	1936	Edna	short subject (opposite Judy Garland)
''Three Smart Girls''	1936	Penelope "Penny" Craig	Academy Juvenile Award
''One Hundred Men and a Girl''	1937	Patricia Cardwell
''Mad About Music''	1938	Gloria Harkinson
''That Certain Age''	1938	Alice Fullerton
''Three Smart Girls Grow Up''	1939	Penny Craig
''For Auld Lang Syne: No. 4''	1939	Herself	short subject
! scope="row"	1939	Constance "Connie" Harding
''It's a Date''	1940	Pamela Drake	a short subject, ''Gems of Song'', was excerpted from this feature in 1949
''Spring Parade''	1940	Ilonka Tolnay
''Nice Girl?''	1941	Jane "Pinky" Dana
''''	1941	Herself	short subject for the American Red Cross
''It Started with Eve''	1941	Anne Terry
''''	1943	Ruth Kirke Holliday
''Show Business at War''	1943	Herself	short subject
''Hers to Hold''	1943	Penny Craig
''His Butler's Sister''	1943	Ann Carter
''Road to Victory''	1944	Herself	short subject
''Christmas Holiday''	1944	Jackie Lamont/Abigail Martin
''Can't Help Singing''	1944	Caroline Frost	her only film in Technicolor
''Lady on a Train''	1945	Nikki Collins/Margo Martin
''Because of Him''	1946	Kim Walker
''I'll Be Yours''	1947	Louise Ginglebusher
''Something in the Wind''	1947	Mary Collins
''Up in Central Park''	1948	Rosie Moore
''For the Love of Mary''	1948	Mary Peppertree

Deanna Durbin songs

''A Heart That's Free [From "100 Men and a Girl"]''

''Alice Blue Gown''

''Alleluia [From "100 Men and a Girl"]''

''Always [From "Christmas Holiday"]''

''Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful)''

''Amapola [From "First Love"]''

''Annie Laurie''

''Any Moment Now [From "Can`t Help Singing"]''

''Ave Maria [From "Mad About Music"]''

''Ave Maria [From "It's a Date"]''

''Be A Good Scout [From "That Certain Age"]''

''Because [From "Three Smart Girls Grow Up"]''

''Begin the Beguine [From "Hers to Hold"]''

''Beneath the Lights of Home [From "Nice Girl"]''

''Brahms' Lullaby [From "I'll Be Yours"]''

''Brindisi (Libiamo ne' lieti calici) [From "100 Men and a Girl"]''

''Californ-I-Ay''

''Can't Help Singing [From "Can`t Help Singing"]''

''Can't Help Singing (Deanna Durbin & Robert Paige) [From "Can`t Help Singing"]''

''Carmena Waltz''

''Chapel Bells [From "Mad About Music"]''

''Cielito Lindo (Beautiful Heaven)''

''Ciribiribin''

''Clavelitos (J. Valverde) [From "It Started with Eve"]''

''Danny Boy [From "Because of Him"]''

''Embrace Me''

''Every Sunday'' (with Judy Garland)

''Filles de Cadiz (The Maids of Cadiz) [From "That Certain Age"]''

''Gimme a Little Kiss, Will Ya, Huh? [From "Lady on a Train"]''

''God Bless America''

''Goin' Home [From "It Started With Eve"]''

''Goodbye [From "Because of Him"]''

''Granada [From "I'll Be Yours"]''

''Home! Sweet Home! [From "First Love"]''

''Il Bacio (The Kiss) [From "Three Smart Girls"]''

''I'll Follow My Sweet Heart''

''I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen [From "For The Love Of Mary"]''

''I'll See You In My Dreams''

''I Love to Whistle [From "Mad About Music"]''

''(I'm) Happy Go Lucky and Free [From "Something in the Wind"]''

''(I'm) Happy Go Lucky and Free [From "Something in the Wind"] (Deanna Durbin & Donald O'Connor)''

''In the Spirit of the Moment [From "His Butler's Sister"]''

''Italian Street Song''

''It's a Big, Wide, Wonderful World [From "For The Love Of Mary"]''

''It's Dreamtime [From "I'll Be Yours"]''

''It's Foolish But It's Fun [From "Spring Parade"]''

''It's Only Love [From "Something In The Wind"]''

''It's Raining Sunbeams [From "100 Men and a Girl"]''

''Invitation To The Dance [From "Three Smart Girls Grow Up"]''

''Je Veux Vivre (from Roméo et Juliette) [From "That Certain Age"]''

''Kiss Me Again''

''La Estrellita (Little Star)''

''Largo Al Factotum (from The Barber of Seville) [From "For The Love Of Mary"]''

''Loch Lomond [From "It's a Date"]''

''Love At Last [From "Nice Girl"]''

''Love Is All [From "It's a Date"]''

''Lover [From "Because of Him"]''

''Love's Old Sweet Song''

''Make Believe (Jerome Kern song)''

''Mighty Like a Rose'' (From ''The Amazing Mrs. Halliday'')

''Molly Malone''

''More and More [From "Can`t Help Singing"]''

''More And More/Can't Help Singing [From "Can`t Help Singing"]''

''Musetta's Waltz (from La bohème) [From "It's a Date"]''

''My Heart Is Singing [From "Three Smart Girls Grow Up"]''

''My Hero''

''My Own [From "That Certain Age"]''

''Nessun Dorma (from Turandot) [From "His Butler's Sister"]''

''Never in a Million Years/Make Believe''

''Night and Day [From "Lady on a Train"]''

''O Come All Ye Faithful''

''Old Folks at Home [From "Nice Girl"]''

''On Moonlight Bay [From "For The Love Of Mary"]''

''One Fine Day (from Madama Butterfly) [From "First Love"]''

''One Night Of Love''

''Pace, Pace, Mio Dio (La forza del destino) [From "Up In Central Park"]''

''Pale Hands I Loved (Kashmiri Song) [From "Hers to Hold"]''

''Perhaps [From "Nice Girl"]''

''Poor Butterfly''

''Russian Medley [From "His Butler's Sister"]''

''Sari Waltz (Love's Own Sweet Song) [From "I'll Be Yours"]''

''Say a Pray'r for the Boys Over There [From "Hers to Hold"]''

''Seal It With a Kiss''

''Seguidilla (from Carmen) [From "Hers To Hold"]''

''Serenade to the Stars [From "Mad About Music"]''

''Silent Night [From "Lady On A Train"]''

''Someone to Care for Me [From "Three Smart Girls"]''

''Something in the Wind [From "Something in the Wind"]''

''Spring in My Heart [From "First Love"]''

''Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year [From "Christmas Holiday"]''

''Swanee - Old Folks At Home [From "Nice Girl"]''

''Summertime (from Porgy And Bess)''

''Sweetheart''

''Thank You America [From "Nice Girl"]''

''The Blue Danube [From "Spring Parade"]''

''The Last Rose of Summer [From "Three Smart Girls Grow Up"]''

''The Old Refrain [From "The Amazing Mrs. Holiday"]''

''The Prince''

''The Turntable Song [From "Something in the Wind"]''

''There'll Always Be An England [From "Nice Girl"]''

''Two Guitars ["Две гитары" - Russian Gypsy Folk song (Lyrics - Apollon Grigoriev, music - Ivan Vasiliev), from "His Butler's Sister" (1943)]''

''Two Hearts''

''Un bel di vedremo (from Madama Butterfly) [From "First Love"]''

''Viennese Waltz [From "For The Love Of Mary"]''

''Vissi d'arte (from Tosca) [From "The Amazing Mrs. Holiday"]''

''Waltzing in the Clouds [From "Spring Parade"]''

''When April Sings [From "Spring Parade"]''

''When I Sing [From "It Started with Eve"]''

''When The Roses Bloom Again''

''When You're Away [From "His Butler's Sister"]''

''You Wanna Keep Your Baby Looking Nice, Don't You [From "Something in the Wind"]''

''You're As Pretty As A Picture [From "That Certain Age"]''

References

External links

The Deanna Durbin Showcase

The Deanna Durbin Database

The Deanna Durbin Page

YouTube - Deanna Durbin "The Turntable Song" Something in the Wind - The opening scene of ''Something in the Wind'' - "The Turntable Song"

YouTube - Deanna Durbin "Mighty like a Rose" w. Frank Lebby Stanton m. Ethelbert Nevin (see also "Mighty Lak' a Rose")

Photographs of Deanna Durbin

Deanna Durbin Devotees

Category:1921 births Category:Living people Category:Academy Juvenile Award winners Category:Canadian expatriates in France Category:Canadian female singers Category:Canadian sopranos Category:Canadian film actors Category:Canadian people of English descent Category:People from Paris Category:People from Winnipeg Category:Decca Records artists Category:Opera crossover singers Category:20th-century actors

ca:Deanna Durbin de:Deanna Durbin es:Deanna Durbin fr:Deanna Durbin it:Deanna Durbin la:Deanna Durbin nl:Deanna Durbin ja:ディアナ・ダービン pl:Deanna Durbin ru:Дурбин, Дина simple:Deanna Durbin fi:Deanna Durbin sv:Deanna Durbin

Name	Amelia Earhart
Full name	Amelia Mary Earhart
Birth date	July 24, 1897
Birth place	Atchison, Kansas, U.S.
Disappeared date
Disappeared place	Pacific Ocean, en route to Howland Island
Disappeared status	Declared dead in absentiaJanuary 05, 1939
Nationality	American
Spouse	George P. Putnam
Known for	First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean and setting many aviation records.
Signature	Amelia_Earheart_Signature.png }}

Amelia Mary Earhart ( ; 1897–disappeared 1937) was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other records, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots. Earhart joined the faculty of the world-famous Purdue University aviation department in 1935 as a visiting faculty member to counsel women on careers and help inspire others with her love for aviation. She was also a member of the National Woman's Party, and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.

During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Purdue-funded Lockheed Model 10 Electra, Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. Fascination with her life, career and disappearance continues to this day.

Early life

Childhood

Amelia Mary Earhart, daughter of Samuel "Edwin" Stanton Earhart (March 28, 1867) and Amelia "Amy" Otis Earhart (1869–1962), was born in Atchison, Kansas, in the home of her maternal grandfather, Alfred Gideon Otis (1827–1912), a former federal judge, president of the Atchison Savings Bank and a leading citizen in Atchison. This was the second child in the marriage as an infant was stillborn in August 1896. Alfred Otis had not initially favored the marriage and was not satisfied with Edwin's progress as a lawyer.

Earhart was named, according to family custom, after her two grandmothers (Amelia Josephine Harres and Mary Wells Patton). From an early age Earhart, nicknamed "Meeley" (sometimes "Millie") was the ringleader while younger sister (two years her junior), Grace Muriel Earhart (1899–1998), nicknamed "Pidge," acted the dutiful follower. Both girls continued to answer to their childhood nicknames well into adulthood. Their upbringing was unconventional since Amy Earhart did not believe in molding her children into "nice little girls." Meanwhile their maternal grandmother disapproved of the "bloomers" worn by Amy's children and although Earhart liked the freedom they provided, she was aware other girls in the neighborhood did not wear them.

Early influence

A spirit of adventure seemed to abide in the Earhart children with the pair setting off daily to explore their neighborhood. As a child, Earhart spent long hours playing with Pidge, climbing trees, hunting rats with a rifle and "belly-slamming" her sled downhill. Although this love of the outdoors and "rough-and-tumble" play was common to many youngsters, some biographers have characterized the young Earhart as a tomboy. The girls kept "worms, moths, katydids and a tree toad" in a growing collection gathered in their outings. In 1904, with the help of her uncle, she cobbled together a home-made ramp fashioned after a roller coaster she had seen on a trip to St. Louis and secured the ramp to the roof of the family toolshed. Earhart's well-documented first flight ended dramatically. She emerged from the broken wooden box that had served as a sled with a bruised lip, torn dress and a "sensation of exhilaration." She exclaimed, "Oh, Pidge, it's just like flying!"

Although there had been some missteps in his career up to that point, in 1907 Edwin Earhart's job as a claims officer for the Rock Island Railroad led to a transfer to Des Moines, Iowa. The next year, at the age of 10, Earhart saw her first aircraft at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. Her father tried to interest her and her sister in taking a flight. One look at the rickety old "flivver" was enough for Earhart, who promptly asked if they could go back to the merry-go-round. She later described the biplane as “a thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all interesting.”

Education

The two sisters, Amelia and Muriel (she went by her middle name from her teens on), remained with their grandparents in Atchison, while their parents moved into new, smaller quarters in Des Moines. During this period, Earhart received a form of home-schooling together with her sister, from her mother and a governess. She later recounted that she was "exceedingly fond of reading" and spent countless hours in the large family library. In 1909, when the family was finally reunited in Des Moines, the Earhart children were enrolled in public school for the first time with Amelia Earhart entering the seventh grade at the age of 12 years.

Family fortunes

While the family's finances seemingly improved with the acquisition of a new house and even the hiring of two servants, it soon became apparent Edwin was an alcoholic. Five years later (in 1914), he was forced to retire and although he attempted to rehabilitate himself through treatment, he was never reinstated at the Rock Island Railroad. At about this time, Earhart's grandmother Amelia Otis died suddenly, leaving a substantial estate that placed her daughter's share in trust, fearing that Edwin's drinking would drain the funds. The Otis house, and all of its contents, was auctioned; Earhart was heart-broken and later described it as the end of her childhood.

In 1915, after a long search, Earhart's father found work as a clerk at the Great Northern Railway in St. Paul, Minnesota, where Earhart entered Central High School as a junior. Edwin applied for a transfer to Springfield, Missouri, in 1915 but the current claims officer reconsidered his retirement and demanded his job back, leaving the elder Earhart with nowhere to go. Facing another calamitous move, Amy Earhart took her children to Chicago where they lived with friends. Earhart made an unusual condition in the choice of her next schooling; she canvassed nearby high schools in Chicago to find the best science program. She rejected the high school nearest her home when she complained that the chemistry lab was "just like a kitchen sink." She eventually was enrolled in Hyde Park High School but spent a miserable semester where a yearbook caption captured the essence of her unhappiness, "A.E. – the girl in brown who walks alone."

Earhart graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1916. Throughout her troubled childhood, she had continued to aspire to a future career; she kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about successful women in predominantly male-oriented fields, including film direction and production, law, advertising, management and mechanical engineering. She began junior college at Ogontz School in Rydal, Pennsylvania but did not complete her program.

During Christmas vacation in 1917, Earhart visited her sister in Toronto. World War I had been raging and Earhart saw the returning wounded soldiers. After receiving training as a nurse's aide from the Red Cross, she began work with the Volunteer Aid Detachment at Spadina Military Hospital. Her duties included preparing food in the kitchen for patients with special diets and handing out prescribed medication in the hospital's dispensary.

1918 Spanish flu pandemic

When the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic reached Toronto, Earhart was engaged in arduous nursing duties including night shifts at the Spadina Military Hospital. She became a patient herself, suffering from pneumonia and maxillary sinusitis. She was hospitalized in early November 1918 owing to pneumonia and discharged in December 1918, about two months after the illness had started. Her sinus-related symptoms were pain and pressure around one eye and copious mucus drainage via the nostrils and throat. In the hospital, in the pre-antibiotic era, she had painful minor operations to wash out the affected maxillary sinus, but these procedures were not successful and Earhart subsequently suffered from worsening headache attacks. Her convalescence lasted nearly a year, which she spent at her sister's home in Northampton, Massachusetts. She passed the time by reading poetry, learning to play the banjo and studying mechanics. Chronic sinusitis was to significantly affect Earhart's flying and activities in later life, and sometimes even on the airfield she was forced to wear a bandage on her cheek to cover a small drainage tube.

Early flying experiences

At about that time, with a young woman friend, Earhart visited an air fair held in conjunction with the Canadian National Exposition in Toronto. One of the highlights of the day was a flying exhibition put on by a World War I "ace." The pilot overhead spotted Earhart and her friend, who were watching from an isolated clearing and dived at them. "I am sure he said to himself, 'Watch me make them scamper,'" she said. Earhart stood her ground as the aircraft came close. "I did not understand it at the time," she said, "but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by."

By 1919 Earhart prepared to enter Smith College but changed her mind and enrolled at Columbia University signing up for a course in medical studies among other programs. She quit a year later to be with her parents who had reunited in California.

In Long Beach, on December 28, 1920, Earhart and her father visited an airfield where Frank Hawks (who later gained fame as an air racer) gave her a ride that would forever change Earhart's life. "By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground," she said, "I knew I had to fly." After that 10-minute flight (that cost her father $10), she immediately became determined to learn to fly. Working at a variety of jobs, including photographer, truck driver, and stenographer at the local telephone company, she managed to save $1,000 for flying lessons. Earhart had her first lessons, beginning on January 3, 1921, at Kinner Field near Long Beach, but to reach the airfield Earhart took a bus to the end of the line, then walked four miles (6 km). Earhart's mother also provided part of the $1,000 "stake" against her "better judgement." Her teacher was Anita "Neta" Snook, a pioneer female aviator who used a surplus Curtiss JN-4 "Canuck" for training. Earhart arrived with her father and a singular request, "I want to fly. Will you teach me?"

Earhart's commitment to flying required her to accept the frequently hard work and rudimentary conditions that accompanied early aviation training. She chose a leather jacket, but aware that other aviators would be judging her, she slept in it for three nights to give the jacket a "worn" look. To complete her image transformation, she also cropped her hair short in the style of other female flyers. Six months later, Earhart purchased a second-hand bright yellow Kinner Airster biplane which she nicknamed "The Canary." On October 22, 1922, Earhart flew the Airster to an altitude of , setting a world record for female pilots. On May 15, 1923, Earhart became the 16th woman to be issued a pilot's license (#''6017'') by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).

Aviation career and marriage

Boston

According to the ''Boston Globe'', Earhart was "one of the best women pilots in the United States," although this characterization has been disputed by aviation experts and experienced pilots in the decades since. She was an intelligent and competent pilot, One serious miscalculation occurred during a record attempt that had ended with her spinning down through a cloud bank, only to emerge at . Experienced pilots admonished her, "Suppose the clouds had closed in until they touched the ground?" Earhart was chagrined, yet acknowledged her limitations as a pilot and continued to seek out assistance throughout her career from various instructors. By 1927, "Without any serious incident, she had accumulated nearly 500 hours of solo flying – a very respectable achievement."

Throughout this period, her grandmother's inheritance, which was now administered by her mother, was constantly depleted until it finally ran out following a disastrous investment in a failed gypsum mine. Consequently, with no immediate prospects for recouping her investment in flying, Earhart sold the "Canary" as well as a second Kinner and bought a yellow Kissel "Speedster" two-passenger automobile, which she named the "Yellow Peril." Simultaneously, Earhart experienced an exacerbation of her old sinus problem as her pain worsened and in early 1924, she was hospitalized for another sinus operation, which was again unsuccessful. After trying her hand at a number of unusual ventures including setting up a photography company, Earhart set out in a new direction. Following her parents' divorce in 1924, she drove her mother in the "Yellow Peril" on a transcontinental trip from California with stops throughout the West and even a jaunt up to Calgary, Alberta. The meandering tour eventually brought the pair to Boston, Massachusetts where Earhart underwent another sinus procedure, this operation being more successful. After recuperation, she returned for several months to Columbia University but was forced to abandon her studies and any further plans for enrolling at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology because her mother could no longer afford the tuition fees and associated costs. Soon after, she found employment first as a teacher, then as a social worker in 1925 at Denison House, living in Medford, Massachusetts.

When Earhart lived in Medford, she maintained her interest in aviation, becoming a member of the American Aeronautical Society's Boston chapter and was eventually elected its vice president. She flew out of Dennison Airport (later the Naval Air Station Squantum) in Quincy, Massachusetts and helped finance its operation by investing a small sum of money. Earhart also flew the first official flight out of Dennison Airport in 1927. As well as acting as a sales representative for Kinner airplanes in the Boston area, Earhart wrote local newspaper columns promoting flying and as her local celebrity grew, she laid out the plans for an organization devoted to female flyers.

1928 transatlantic flight

After Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, Amy Phipps Guest, (1873–1959), expressed interest in being the first woman to fly (or be flown) across the Atlantic Ocean. After deciding the trip was too perilous for her to undertake, she offered to sponsor the project, suggesting they find "another girl with the right image." While at work one afternoon in April 1928, Earhart got a phone call from Capt. Hilton H. Railey, who asked her, "Would you like to fly the Atlantic?"

The project coordinators (including book publisher and publicist George P. Putnam) interviewed Earhart and asked her to accompany pilot Wilmer Stultz and co-pilot/mechanic Louis Gordon on the flight, nominally as a passenger, but with the added duty of keeping the flight log. The team departed Trepassey Harbor, Newfoundland in a Fokker F.VIIb/3m on June 17, 1928, landing at Burry Port (near Llanelli), Wales, United Kingdom, exactly 20 hours and 40 minutes later. Since most of the flight was on "instruments" and Earhart had no training for this type of flying, she did not pilot the aircraft. When interviewed after landing, she said, "Stultz did all the flying—had to. I was just baggage, like a sack of potatoes." She added, "...maybe someday I'll try it alone."

While in England, Earhart is reported as receiving a rousing welcome on June 19, 1928, when landing at Woolston in Southampton, England. She flew the Avro Avian 594 Avian III, SN: R3/AV/101 owned by Lady Mary Heath and later purchased the aircraft and had it shipped back to the United States (where it was assigned “unlicensed aircraft identification mark” 7083).

When the Stultz, Gordon and Earhart flight crew returned to the United States, they were greeted with a ticker-tape parade in New York followed by a reception with President Calvin Coolidge at the White House.

Celebrity image

Trading on her physical resemblance to Lindbergh, whom the press had dubbed "Lucky Lindy," some newspapers and magazines began referring to Earhart as "Lady Lindy." The United Press was more grandiloquent; to them, Earhart was the reigning "Queen of the Air." Immediately after her return to the United States, she undertook an exhausting lecture tour (1928–1929). Meanwhile, Putnam had undertaken to heavily promote her in a campaign including publishing a book she authored, a series of new lecture tours and using pictures of her in mass market endorsements for products including luggage, Lucky Strike cigarettes (this caused image problems for her, with ''McCall's'' magazine retracting an offer) and women's clothing and sportswear. The money that she made with "Lucky Strike" had been earmarked for a $1,500 donation to Commander Richard Byrd's imminent South Pole expedition.

Rather than simply endorsing the products, Earhart actively became involved in the promotions, especially in women's fashions. For a number of years she had sewn her own clothes, but the "active living" lines that were sold in 50 stores such as Macy's in metropolitan areas were an expression of a new Earhart image. Her concept of simple, natural lines matched with wrinkle-proof, washable materials was the embodiment of a sleek, purposeful but feminine "A.E." (the familiar name she went by with family and friends). The luggage line that she promoted (marketed as Modernaire Earhart Luggage) also bore her unmistakable stamp. She ensured that the luggage met the demands of air travel; it is still being produced today. A wide range of promotional items would appear bearing the Earhart "image" and likewise, modern equivalents are still being marketed to this day. The marketing campaign by G.P. Putnam was successful in establishing the Earhart mystique in the public psyche.

Promoting aviation

The celebrity endorsements would help Earhart finance her flying. Accepting a position as associate editor at ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine, she turned this forum into an opportunity to campaign for greater public acceptance of aviation, especially focusing on the role of women entering the field. In 1929, Earhart was among the first aviators to promote commercial air travel through the development of a passenger airline service; along with Charles Lindbergh, she represented Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) and invested time and money in setting up the first regional shuttle service between New York and Washington, DC. (TAT later became TWA). She was a Vice President of National Airways, which conducted the flying operations of the Boston-Maine Airways and several other airlines in the northeast. By 1940, it had become Northeast Airlines.

Competitive flying

Although Earhart had gained fame for her transatlantic flight, she endeavored to set an "untarnished" record of her own. Shortly after her return, piloting Avian ''7083'', she set off on her first long solo flight which occurred just as her name was coming into the national spotlight. By making the trip in August 1928, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the North American continent and back. Gradually her piloting skills and professionalism grew, as acknowledged by experienced professional pilots who flew with her. General Leigh Wade flew with Earhart in 1929: "She was a born flier, with a delicate touch on the stick."

Earhart subsequently made her first attempt at competitive air racing in 1929 during the first Santa Monica-to-Cleveland Women's Air Derby (later nicknamed the "Powder Puff Derby" by Will Rogers). During the race, at the last intermediate stop before the finish in Cleveland, Earhart and her friend Ruth Nichols were tied for first place. Nichols was to take off right before Earhart, but her aircraft hit a tractor at the end of the runway and flipped over. Instead of taking off, Earhart ran to the wrecked aircraft and dragged her friend out. Only when she was sure that Nichols was uninjured did Earhart take off for Cleveland but due to the time lost, she finished third. Her courageous act was symbolic of Earhart's selflessness; typically, she rarely referred to the incident in later years.

In 1930, Earhart became an official of the National Aeronautic Association where she actively promoted the establishment of separate women's records and was instrumental in the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) accepting a similar international standard. While to a reader today it might seem that Earhart was engaged in flying "stunts," she was, with other female flyers, crucial to making the American public "air minded" and convincing them that "aviation was no longer just for daredevils and supermen."

During this period, Earhart became involved with The Ninety-Nines, an organization of female pilots providing moral support and advancing the cause of women in aviation. She had called a meeting of female pilots in 1929 following the Women's Air Derby. She suggested the name based on the number of the charter members; she later became the organization's first president in 1930.

Marriage

For a while Earhart was engaged to Samuel Chapman, a chemical engineer from Boston, breaking off her engagement on November 23, 1928. During the same period, Earhart and Putnam had spent a great deal of time together, leading to intimacy. George P. Putnam, who was known as GP, was divorced in 1929 and sought out Earhart, proposing to her six times before she finally agreed. After substantial hesitation on her part, they married on February 7, 1931, in Putnam's mother's house in Noank, Connecticut. Earhart referred to her marriage as a "partnership" with "dual control." In a letter written to Putnam and hand delivered to him on the day of the wedding, she wrote, "I want you to understand I shall not hold you to any midaevil code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly."

Earhart's ideas on marriage were liberal for the time as she believed in equal responsibilities for both "breadwinners" and pointedly kept her own name rather than being referred to as Mrs. Putnam. When ''The New York Times'', per the rules of its stylebook, insisted on referring to her as Mrs. Putnam, she laughed it off. GP also learned quite soon that he would be called "Mr. Earhart." There was no honeymoon for the newlyweds as Earhart was involved in a nine-day cross-country tour promoting autogyros and the tour sponsor, Beech-nut Gum. Although Earhart and Putnam had no children, he had two sons by his previous marriage to Dorothy Binney (1888–1982), a chemical heiress whose father's company, Binney & Smith, invented Crayola crayons: the explorer and writer David Binney Putnam (1913–1992) and George Palmer Putnam, Jr. (born 1921). Earhart was especially fond of David who frequently visited his father at their family home in Rye, New York. George had contracted polio shortly after his parents' separation and was unable to visit as often.

A few years later, a fire broke out at the Putnam residence in Rye and before it could be contained, destroyed much of the Putnam family treasures including many of Earhart's personal mementos. Following the fire, Putnam and Earhart decided to move to the West Coast, since Putnam had already sold his interest in the publishing company to his cousin Palmer, setting up in North Hollywood, which brought Putnam close to Paramount Pictures and his new position as head of the editorial board of this motion picture company.

1932 transatlantic solo flight

At the age of 34, on the morning of May 20, 1932, Earhart set off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland with the latest copy of a local newspaper (the dated copy was intended to confirm the date of the flight). She intended to fly to Paris in her single engine Lockheed Vega 5b to emulate Charles Lindbergh's solo flight. Her technical advisor for the flight was famed Norwegian American aviator Bernt Balchen who helped prepare her aircraft. He also played the role of "decoy" for the press as he was ostensibly preparing Earhart's Vega for his own Arctic flight. After a flight lasting 14 hours, 56 minutes during which she contended with strong northerly winds, icy conditions and mechanical problems, Earhart landed in a pasture at Culmore, north of Derry, Northern Ireland. The landing was witnessed by Cecil King and T. Sawyer. When a farm hand asked, "Have you flown far?" Earhart replied, "From America." The site now is the home of a small museum, the ''Amelia Earhart Centre.''

As the first woman to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic, Earhart received the Distinguished Flying Cross from Congress, the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor from the French Government and the Gold Medal of the National Geographic Society from President Herbert Hoover. As her fame grew, she developed friendships with many people in high offices, most notably Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady from 1933–1945. Roosevelt shared many of Earhart's interests and passions, especially women's causes. After flying with Earhart, Roosevelt obtained a student permit but did not pursue her plans to learn to fly. The two friends communicated frequently throughout their lives. Another famous flyer, Jacqueline Cochran, considered Earhart's greatest rival by both media and the public, also became a confidante and friend during this period.

Other solo flights

On January 11, 1935, Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California. Although this transoceanic flight had been attempted by many others, most notably by the unfortunate participants in the 1927 Dole Air Race which had reversed the route, her trailblazing flight had been mainly routine, with no mechanical breakdowns. In her final hours, she even relaxed and listened to "the broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera from New York."

That year, once more flying her faithful Vega which Earhart had tagged "old Bessie, the fire horse," she soloed from Los Angeles to Mexico City on April 19. The next record attempt was a nonstop flight from Mexico City to New York. Setting off on May 8, her flight was uneventful although the large crowds that greeted her at Newark, New Jersey were a concern as she had to be careful not to taxi into the throng.

Earhart again participated in long-distance air racing, placing fifth in the 1935 Bendix Trophy Race, the best result she could manage considering that her stock Lockheed Vega topping out at was outclassed by purpose-built air racers which reached more than . The race had been a particularly difficult one as one competitor, Cecil Allen, died in a fiery takeoff mishap and rival Jacqueline Cochran was forced to retire due to mechanical problems, the "blinding fog" and violent thunderstorms that plagued the race.

Between 1930–1935, Earhart had set seven women's speed and distance aviation records in a variety of aircraft including the Kinner Airster, Lockheed Vega and Pitcairn Autogiro. By 1935, recognizing the limitations of her "lovely red Vega" in long, transoceanic flights, Earhart contemplated, in her own words, a new "prize... one flight which I most wanted to attempt – a circumnavigation of the globe as near its waistline as could be." For the new venture, she would need a new aircraft.

1937 world flight

Planning

Earhart joined the faculty of Purdue University in 1935 as a visiting faculty member to counsel women on careers and as a technical advisor to the Department of Aeronautics. In July 1936, she took delivery of a Lockheed Electra 10E financed by Purdue and started planning a round-the-world flight. Not the first to circle the globe, it would be the longest at 29,000 miles (47,000 km), following a grueling equatorial route. Although the Electra was publicized as a "flying laboratory," little useful science was planned and the flight seems to have been arranged around Earhart's intention to circumnavigate the globe along with gathering raw material and public attention for her next book. Her first choice as navigator was Captain Harry Manning, who had been the captain of the , the ship that had brought Amelia back from Europe in 1928.

Through contacts in the Los Angeles aviation community, Fred Noonan was subsequently chosen as a second navigator because there were significant additional factors which had to be dealt with while using celestial navigation for aircraft. He had vast experience in both marine (he was a licensed ship's captain) and flight navigation. Noonan had recently left Pan Am, where he established most of the company's China Clipper seaplane routes across the Pacific. Noonan had also been responsible for training Pan American's navigators for the route between San Francisco and Manila. The original plans were for Noonan to navigate from Hawaii to Howland Island, a particularly difficult portion of the flight; then Manning would continue with Earhart to Australia and she would proceed on her own for the remainder of the project.

First attempt

On St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1937, Earhart and her crew flew the first leg from Oakland, California to Honolulu, Hawaii. In addition to Earhart and Noonan, Harry Manning and Hollywood stunt pilot Paul Mantz (who was acting as Earhart's technical advisor) were on board. Due to lubrication and galling problems with the propeller hubs' variable pitch mechanisms, the aircraft needed servicing in Hawaii. Ultimately, the Electra ended up at the United States Navy's Luke Field on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. The flight resumed three days later from Luke Field with Earhart, Noonan and Manning on board and during the takeoff run, Earhart ground-looped. The circumstances of the ground loop remain controversial. Some witnesses at Luke Field including the Associated Press journalist on the scene said they saw a tire blow. Earhart thought either the Electra's right tire had blown and/or the right landing gear had collapsed. Some sources, including Mantz, cited pilot error.

With the aircraft severely damaged, the flight was called off and the aircraft was shipped by sea to the Lockheed facility in Burbank, California for repairs.

Second attempt

While the Electra was being repaired Earhart and Putnam secured additional funds and prepared for a second attempt. This time flying west to east, the second attempt began with an unpublicized flight from Oakland to Miami, Florida and after arriving there Earhart publicly announced her plans to circumnavigate the globe. The flight's opposite direction was partly the result of changes in global wind and weather patterns along the planned route since the earlier attempt. Fred Noonan was Earhart's only crew member for the second flight. They departed Miami on June 1 and after numerous stops in South America, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, arrived at Lae, New Guinea on June 29, 1937. At this stage about 22,000 miles (35,000 km) of the journey had been completed. The remaining 7,000 miles (11,000 km) would all be over the Pacific.

Departure from Lae

On July 2, 1937 (midnight GMT) Earhart and Noonan took off from Lae in the heavily loaded Electra. Their intended destination was Howland Island, a flat sliver of land 6,500 ft (2,000 m) long and 1,600 ft (500 m) wide, 10 ft (3 m) high and 2,556 miles (4,113 km) away. Their last known position report was near the Nukumanu Islands, about 800 miles (1,300 km) into the flight. The United States Coast Guard cutter was on station at Howland, assigned to communicate with Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E and guide them to the island once they arrived in the vicinity.

Final approach to Howland Island

Through a series of misunderstandings or errors (the details of which are still controversial), the final approach to Howland Island using radio navigation was not successful. Fred Noonan had earlier written about problems affecting the accuracy of radio direction finding in navigation. Some sources have noted Earhart's apparent lack of understanding of her Bendix direction-finding loop antenna, which at the time was very new technology. Another cited cause of possible confusion was that the USCG cutter ''Itasca'' and Earhart planned their communication schedule using time systems set a half hour apart (with Earhart using Greenwich Civil Time (GCT) and the ''Itasca'' under a Naval time zone designation system).

Motion picture evidence from Lae suggests that an antenna mounted underneath the fuselage may have been torn off from the fuel-heavy Electra during taxi or takeoff from Lae's turf runway, though no antenna was reported found at Lae. Don Dwiggins, in his biography of Paul Mantz (who assisted Earhart and Noonan in their flight planning), noted that the aviators had cut off their long-wire antenna, due to the annoyance of having to crank it back into the aircraft after each use.

Radio signals

During Earhart and Noonan's approach to Howland Island the ''Itasca'' received strong and clear voice transmissions from Earhart identifying as KHAQQ but she apparently was unable to hear voice transmissions from the ship. At 7:42 am Earhart radioed "We must be on you, but cannot see you—but gas is running low. Have been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet." Her 7:58 am transmission said she couldn't hear the ''Itasca'' and asked them to send voice signals so she could try to take a radio bearing (this transmission was reported by the ''Itasca'' as the loudest possible signal, indicating Earhart and Noonan were in the immediate area). They couldn't send voice at the frequency she asked for, so Morse code signals were sent instead. Earhart acknowledged receiving these but said she was unable to determine their direction.

In her last known transmission at 8:43 am Earhart broadcast "We are on the line 157 337. We will repeat this message. We will repeat this on 6210 kilocycles. Wait." However, a few moments later she was back on the same frequency (3105 kHz) with a transmission which was logged as a "questionable": "We are running on line north and south." Earhart's transmissions seemed to indicate she and Noonan believed they had reached Howland's charted position, which was incorrect by about five nautical miles (10 km). The Itasca used her oil-fired boilers to generate smoke for a period of time but the fliers apparently did not see it. The many scattered clouds in the area around Howland Island have also been cited as a problem: their dark shadows on the ocean surface may have been almost indistinguishable from the island's subdued and very flat profile.

Whether any post-loss radio signals were received from Earhart and Noonan remains controversial. If transmissions were received from the Electra, most if not all were weak and hopelessly garbled. Earhart's voice transmissions to Howland were on 3105 kHz, a frequency restricted to aviation use in the United States by the FCC. This frequency was not thought to be fit for broadcasts over great distances. When Earhart was at cruising altitude and midway between Lae and Howland (over from each) neither station heard her scheduled transmission at 0815 GCT. Moreover, the 50-watt transmitter used by Earhart was attached to a less-than-optimum-length V-type antenna.

The last voice transmission received on Howland Island from Earhart indicated she and Noonan were flying along a line of position (taken from a "sun line" running on 157–337 degrees) which Noonan would have calculated and drawn on a chart as passing through Howland. After all contact was lost with Howland Island, attempts were made to reach the flyers with both voice and Morse code transmissions. Operators across the Pacific and the United States may have heard signals from the downed Electra but these were unintelligible or weak.

Some of these transmissions were hoaxes but others were deemed authentic. Bearings taken by Pan American Airways stations suggested signals originating from several locations, including Gardner Island. It was noted at the time that if these signals were from Earhart and Noonan, they must have been on land with the aircraft since water would have otherwise shorted out the Electra's electrical system. Sporadic signals were reported for four or five days after the disappearance but none yielded any understandable information. The captain of the later said "There was no doubt many stations were calling the Earhart plane on the plane's frequency, some by voice and others by signals. All of these added to the confusion and doubtfulness of the authenticity of the reports."

Search efforts

Beginning approximately one hour after Earhart's last recorded message, the USCG ''Itasca'' undertook an ultimately unsuccessful search north and west of Howland Island based on initial assumptions about transmissions from the aircraft. The United States Navy soon joined the search and over a period of about three days sent available resources to the search area in the vicinity of Howland Island. The initial search by the ''Itasca'' involved running up the 157/337 line of position to the NNW from Howland Island. The ''Itasca'' then searched the area to the immediate NE of the island, corresponding to the area, yet wider than the area searched to the NW. Based on bearings of several supposed Earhart radio transmissions, some of the search efforts were directed to a specific position 281 degrees NW of Howland Island without finding land or evidence of the flyers. Four days after Earhart's last verified radio transmission, on July 6, 1937, the captain of the battleship ''Colorado'' received orders from the Commandant, Fourteenth Naval District to take over all naval and coast guard units to coordinate search efforts.

Later search efforts were directed to the Phoenix Islands south of Howland Island. A week after the disappearance, naval aircraft from the ''Colorado'' flew over several islands in the group including Gardner Island, which had been uninhabited for over 40 years. The subsequent report on Gardner read: "Here signs of recent habitation were clearly visible but repeated circling and zooming failed to elicit any answering wave from possible inhabitants and it was finally taken for granted that none were there... At the western end of the island a tramp steamer (of about 4000 tons)... lay high and almost dry head onto the coral beach with her back broken in two places. The lagoon at Gardner looked sufficiently deep and certainly large enough so that a seaplane or even an airboat could have landed or takenoff [sic] in any direction with little if any difficulty. Given a chance, it is believed that Miss Earhart could have landed her aircraft in this lagoon and swum or waded ashore." They also found that Gardner's shape and size as recorded on charts were wholly inaccurate. Other Navy search efforts were again directed north, west and southwest of Howland Island, based on a possibility the Electra had ditched in the ocean, was afloat, or that the aviators were in an emergency raft.

The official search efforts lasted until July 19, 1937. At $4 million, the air and sea search by the Navy and Coast Guard was the most costly and intensive in U.S. history up to that time but search and rescue techniques during the era were rudimentary and some of the search was based on erroneous assumptions and flawed information. Official reporting of the search effort was influenced by individuals wary about how their roles in looking for an American hero might be reported by the press. Despite an unprecedented search by the United States Navy and Coast Guard no physical evidence of Earhart, Noonan or the Electra 10E was found. The United States Navy aircraft carrier and battleship ''Colorado'', the ''Itasca'' (and even two Japanese ships, the oceanographic survey vessel ''Koshu'' and auxiliary seaplane tender ''Kamoi'') searched for six–seven days each, covering .

Immediately after the end of the official search, Putnam financed a private search by local authorities of nearby Pacific islands and waters, concentrating on the Gilberts. In late July 1937 Putnam chartered two small boats and while he remained in the United States, directed a search of the Phoenix Islands, Christmas (Kiritimati) Island, Fanning (Tabuaeran) Island, the Gilbert Islands and the Marshall Islands, but no trace of the Electra or its occupants was found.

Back in the United States, Putnam acted to become the trustee of Earhart's estate so that he could pay for the searches and related bills. In probate court in Los Angeles, Putnam requested to have the "death in absentia" seven-year waiting period waived so that he could manage Earhart's finances. As a result, Earhart was declared legally dead on January 5, 1939.

Theories on Earhart's disappearance

Many theories emerged after the disappearance of Earhart and Noonan. Two possibilities concerning the flyers' fate have prevailed among researchers and historians:

Crash and sink theory

Many researchers believe the Electra ran out of fuel and Earhart and Noonan ditched at sea. Navigator and aeronautical engineer Elgen Long and his wife Marie K. Long devoted 35 years of exhaustive research to the "crash and sink" theory, which is the most widely accepted explanation for the disappearance. Capt. Laurance F. Safford, USN, who was responsible for the interwar Mid Pacific Strategic Direction Finding Net, and the decoding of the Japanese PURPLE cipher messages for the attack on Pearl Harbor, began a lengthy analysis of the Earhart flight during the 1970s. His research included the intricate radio transmission documentation. Safford came to the conclusion, "poor planning, worse execution." Rear Admiral Richard R. Black, USN, who was in administrative charge of the Howland Island airstrip and was present in the radio room on the ''Itasca,'' asserted in 1982 that "the Electra went into the sea about 10 am, July 2, 1937 not far from Howland". British aviation historian Roy Nesbit interpreted evidence in contemporary accounts and Putnam's correspondence and concluded Earhart's Electra was not fully fueled at Lae. William L. Polhemous, the navigator on Ann Pellegreno's 1967 flight which followed Earhart and Noonan's original flight path, studied navigational tables for July 2, 1937 and thought Noonan may have miscalculated the "single line approach" intended to "hit" Howland.

David Jourdan, a former Navy submariner and ocean engineer specializing in deep-sea recoveries, has claimed any transmissions attributed to Gardner Island were false. Through his company Nauticos he extensively searched a quadrant north and west of Howland Island during two deep-sea sonar expeditions (2002 and 2006, total cost $4.5 million) and found nothing. The search locations were derived from the line of position (157–337) broadcast by Earhart on July 2, 1937. Nevertheless, Elgen Long's interpretations have led Jourdan to conclude, "The analysis of all the data we have – the fuel analysis, the radio calls, other things – tells me she went into the water off Howland." Earhart's stepson George Palmer Putnam Jr. has been quoted as saying he believes "the plane just ran out of gas." Susan Butler, author of the "definitive" Earhart biography ''East to the Dawn'', says she thinks the aircraft went into the ocean out of sight of Howland Island and rests on the seafloor at a depth of . Tom D. Crouch, Senior Curator of the National Air and Space Museum, has said the Earhart/Noonan Electra is "18,000 ft. down" and may even yield a range of artifacts that could rival the finds of the ''Titanic'', adding, "...the mystery is part of what keeps us interested. In part, we remember her because she's our favorite missing person."

Gardner Island hypothesis

Immediately after Earhart and Noonan's disappearance, the United States Navy, Paul Mantz and Earhart's mother (who convinced G.P. Putnam to undertake a search in the Gardner Group) all expressed belief the flight had ended in the Phoenix Islands (now part of Kiribati), some southeast of Howland Island.

In July 2007, an editor at ''Avionews'' in Rome compared the Gardner Island hypothesis to other non-crash-and-sink theories and called it the "most confirmed" of them. In 1988, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) initiated their project to investigate the Earhart/Noonan disappearance and since then has sent six expeditions to the island. They have suggested Earhart and Noonan may have flown without further radio transmissions for two and a half hours along the line of position Earhart noted in her last transmission received at Howland, arrived at then-uninhabited Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro) in the Phoenix group, landed on an extensive reef flat near the wreck of a large freighter (the ) and ultimately perished.

TIGHAR's research has produced a range of documented archaeological and anecdotal evidence supporting this hypothesis. For example, in 1940, Gerald Gallagher, a British colonial officer and licensed pilot, radioed his superiors to inform them that he had found a "skeleton... possibly that of a woman", along with an old-fashioned sextant box, under a tree on the island's southeast corner. He was ordered to send the remains to Fiji, where in 1941, British colonial authorities took detailed measurements of the bones and concluded they were from a male about 5 ft 5 in tall. However, in 1998 an analysis of the measurement data by forensic anthropologists indicated the skeleton had belonged to a "tall white female of northern European ancestry." The bones themselves were misplaced in Fiji long ago and have not been found.

During World War II, US Coast Guard LORAN Unit 92, a radio navigation station built in the summer and fall of 1944 and operational from mid-November 1944 until mid-May 1945 was located on Gardner Island's southeast end. Dozens of US Coast Guard personnel were involved in its construction and operation, but were mostly forbidden from leaving the small base or having contact with the Gilbertese colonists then on the island and found no artifacts known to relate to Earhart.

Artifacts discovered by TIGHAR on Nikumaroro have included improvised tools, an aluminum panel (possibly from an Electra), an oddly cut piece of clear Plexiglas which is the exact thickness and curvature of an Electra window and a size 9 Cat's Paw heel dating from the 1930s which resembles Earhart's footwear in world flight photos. tall and Earhart was and wore a size 6 shoe according to her sister.|group=N}} The evidence remains circumstantial, but Earhart's surviving stepson, George Putnam Jr., has expressed enthusiasm for TIGHAR's research.

From July 21 to August 2, 2007, a TIGHAR expedition visited Nikumaroro searching for unambiguously identifiable aircraft artifacts and DNA. The group included engineers, technical experts and others. They were reported to have found additional artifacts of as yet uncertain origin on the weather-ravaged atoll, including bronze bearings which may have belonged to Earhart's aircraft and a zipper pull which might have come from her flight suit.

In December 2010, the research group said it had found bones that appeared to be part of a human finger. The following March they reported that DNA testing at the University of Oklahoma proved inconclusive as to whether the bone fragments were from a human or from a sea turtle.

Myths, urban legends and unsupported claims

The unresolved circumstances of Amelia Earhart's disappearance, along with her fame, attracted a great body of other claims relating to her last flight, all of which have been generally dismissed for lack of verifiable evidence. Several unsupported theories have become well known in popular culture.

Spies for FDR

A World War II-era movie called ''Flight for Freedom'' (1943) starring Rosalind Russell and Fred MacMurray furthered a myth that Earhart was spying on the Japanese in the Pacific at the request of the Franklin Roosevelt administration. By 1949, both the United Press and U.S. Army Intelligence had concluded this rumor was groundless. Jackie Cochran, another pioneering aviator and one of Earhart's friends, made a postwar search of numerous files in Japan and was convinced the Japanese were not involved in Earhart's disappearance.

Saipan claims

In 1966, CBS Correspondent Fred Goerner published a book claiming Earhart and Noonan were captured and executed when their aircraft crashed on Saipan Island, part of the Northern Marianas archipelago while it was under Japanese occupation. In 2009, an Earhart relative stated that the pair died in Japanese custody, citing unnamed witnesses including Japanese troops and Saipan natives. He said that the Japanese cut the valuable Lockheed aircraft into scrap and threw the pieces into the ocean.

Thomas E. Devine (who served in a postal Army unit) wrote ''Eyewitness: The Amelia Earhart Incident'' which includes a letter from the daughter of a Japanese police official who claimed her father was responsible for Earhart's execution.

Former U.S. Marine Robert Wallack claimed he and other Marines opened a safe on Saipan and found Earhart's briefcase. Former U.S. Marine Earskin J. Nabers claimed that while serving as a wireless operator on Saipan in 1944, he decoded a message from naval officials which said Earhart's aircraft had been found at Aslito AirField, that he was later ordered to guard the aircraft and then witnessed its destruction. In 1990, the NBC-TV series ''Unsolved Mysteries'' broadcast an interview with a Saipanese woman who claimed to have witnessed Earhart and Noonan's execution by Japanese soldiers. No independent confirmation or support has ever emerged for any of these claims. Purported photographs of Earhart during her captivity have been identified as either fraudulent or having been taken before her final flight.

Since the end of World War II, a location on Tinian, which is five miles (eight km) southwest of Saipan, had been rumoured to be the grave of the two aviators. In 2004 a scientifically supported archaeological dig at the site failed to turn up any bones.

Tokyo Rose rumor

A rumor which claimed that Earhart had made propaganda radio broadcasts as one of the many women compelled to serve as Tokyo Rose was investigated closely by George Putnam. According to several biographies of Earhart, Putnam investigated this rumor personally but after listening to many recordings of numerous Tokyo Roses, he did not recognize her voice among them.

Rabaul

David Billings, an Australian aircraft engineer, has asserted a map marked with notations consistent with Earhart's engine model number and her airframe's construction number has surfaced. It originates from a World War II Australian patrol stationed on New Britain Island off the coast of New Guinea and indicates a crash site southwest of Rabaul. Billings has speculated Earhart turned back from Howland and tried to reach Rabaul for fuel. Ground searches have been unsuccessful.

Assuming another identity

In November 2006, the National Geographic Channel aired episode two of the ''Undiscovered History'' series about a claim that Earhart survived the world flight, moved to New Jersey, changed her name, remarried and became Irene Craigmile Bolam. This claim had originally been raised in the book ''Amelia Earhart Lives'' (1970) by author Joe Klaas, based on the research of Major Joseph Gervais. Irene Bolam, who had been a banker in New York during the 1940s, denied being Earhart, filed a lawsuit requesting $1.5 million in damages and submitted a lengthy affidavit in which she refuted the claims. The book's publisher, McGraw-Hill, withdrew the book from the market shortly after it was released and court records indicate that they made an out of court settlement with her. Subsequently, Bolam's personal life history was thoroughly documented by researchers, eliminating any possibility she was Earhart. Kevin Richlin, a professional criminal forensic expert hired by National Geographic, studied photographs of both women and cited many measurable facial differences between Earhart and Bolam.

Legacy

Amelia Earhart was a widely known international celebrity during her lifetime. Her shyly charismatic appeal, independence, persistence, coolness under pressure, courage and goal-oriented career along with the circumstances of her disappearance at a young age have driven her lasting fame in popular culture. Hundreds of articles and scores of books have been written about her life which is often cited as a motivational tale, especially for girls. Earhart is generally regarded as a feminist icon.

Earhart's accomplishments in aviation inspired a generation of female aviators, including the more than 1,000 women pilots of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) who ferried military aircraft, towed gliders, flew target practice aircraft, and served as transport pilots during World War II.

The home where Earhart was born is now the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum and is maintained by the Ninety-Nines, an international group of female pilots of whom Amelia was the first elected president.

A small section of Earhart's Lockheed Electra starboard engine nacelle recovered in the aftermath of the Hawaii crash has been confirmed as authentic and is now regarded as a control piece that will help to authenticate possible future discoveries. The evaluation of the scrap of metal was featured on an episode of ''History Detectives'' on Season 7 in 2009.

Records and achievements

Woman's world altitude record: 14,000 ft (1922)

First woman to fly the Atlantic (1928)

Speed records for 100 km (and with cargo) (1931)

First woman to fly an autogyro (1931)

Altitude record for autogyros: 15,000 ft (1931)

First person to cross the U.S. in an autogyro (1932)

First woman to fly the Atlantic solo (1932)

First person to fly the Atlantic twice (1932)

First woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross (1932)

First woman to fly non-stop, coast-to-coast across the U.S. (1933)

Woman's speed transcontinental record (1933)

First person to fly solo between Honolulu, Hawaii and Oakland, California (1935)

First person to fly solo from Los Angeles, California to Mexico City, Mexico (1935)

First person to fly solo nonstop from Mexico City, Mexico to Newark, New Jersey (1935)

Speed record for east-to-west flight from Oakland, California to Honolulu, Hawaii (1937)

Books by Earhart

Amelia Earhart was a successful and heavily promoted writer who served as aviation editor for ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine from 1928 to 1930. She wrote magazine articles, newspaper columns, essays and published two books based upon her experiences as a flyer during her lifetime:

''20 Hrs., 40 Min.'' (1928) was a journal of her experiences as the first woman passenger on a transatlantic flight.

''The Fun of It'' (1932) was a memoir of her flying experiences and an essay on women in aviation.

''Last Flight'' (1937) featured the periodic journal entries she sent back to the United States during her world flight attempt, published in newspapers in the weeks prior to her final departure from New Guinea. Compiled by her husband GP Putnam after she disappeared over the Pacific, many historians consider this book to be only partially Earhart's original work.

Memorial flights

Two notable memorial flights by female aviators subsequently followed Earhart's original circumnavigational route. In 1967, Ann Dearing Holtgren Pellegreno and a crew of three successfully flew a similar aircraft (a Lockheed 10A Electra) to complete a world flight that closely mirrored Earhart's flight plan. On the 30th anniversary of her disappearance, Pellegreno dropped a wreath in Earhart's honor over tiny Howland Island and returned to Oakland, completing the commemorative flight on July 7, 1967.

In 1997, on the 60th anniversary of Amelia Earhart's world flight, San Antonio businesswoman Linda Finch retraced the final flight path flying the same make and model of aircraft as Earhart, a restored 1935 Lockheed Electra 10E. Finch touched down in 18 countries before finishing the trip two and a half months later when she arrived back at Oakland Airport on May 28, 1997.

In 2001, another commemorative flight retraced the route undertaken by Amelia Earhart in her August 1928 trans-continental record flight. Dr. Carlene Mendieta flew an original Avro Avian, the same type that was used in 1928.

Other honors

Amelia Earhart Centre And Wildlife Sanctuary was established at the site of her 1932 landing in Northern Ireland, Ballyarnet Country Park, Derry.

The "Earhart Tree" on Banyan Drive in Hilo, Hawaii was planted by Amelia Earhart in 1935.

The Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship Awards were established in 1938.

Earhart Light (also known as the Amelia Earhart Light), a navigational day beacon on Howland Island (has not been maintained and is crumbling).

The Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarships (established in 1939 by The Ninety-Nines), provides scholarships to women for advanced pilot certificates and ratings, jet type ratings, college degrees and technical training.

The Purdue University Amelia Earhart Scholarship, first awarded in 1940, is based on academic merit and leadership and is open to juniors and seniors enrolled in any school at the West Lafayette campus. After being discontinued in the 1970s, a donor resurrected the award in 1999.

In 1942, a United States Liberty ship named was launched (it was wrecked in 1948).

Amelia Earhart Field (1947), formerly Masters Field and Miami Municipal Airport, after closure in 1959, the Amelia Earhart Regional Park was dedicated in an area of undeveloped federal government land located north and west of the former Miami Municipal Airport and immediately south of Opa-locka Airport.

Amelia Earhart Airport (1958), located in Atchison, Kansas.

Amelia Earhart Commemorative Stamp (8¢ airmail postage) was issued in 1963 by the United States Postmaster-General.

The Civil Air Patrol Amelia Earhart Award (since 1964) is awarded to cadets who have completed the first 11 achievements of the cadet program along with receipt of the General Billy Mitchell Award.

Amelia Earhart Residence Hall opened in 1964 as a residence hall for women at Purdue University and became coed in 2002. An eight-foot sculpture of Earhart, by Ernest Shelton, was placed in front of the Earhart Hall Dining Court in 2009.

Member of National Women's Hall of Fame (1973).

Crittenton Women’s Union (Boston) Amelia Earhart Award recognizes a woman who continues Earhart’s pioneering spirit and who has significantly contributed to the expansion of opportunities for women. (since 1982)

Earhart Corona, a corona on Venus was named by the (IAU) in 1982. The Amelia Earhart Birthplace, Atchison, Kansas (a museum and historic site, owned and maintained by The Ninety-Nines since 1984).

UCI Irvine Amelia Earhart Award (since 1990).

Member of Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (1992).

3895 Earhart, a minor planet discovered in 1987, was named in 1995 after her, by its discoverer, Carolyn S. Shoemaker.

Earhart Foundation, located in Ann Arbor, MI. Established in 1995, the foundation funds research and scholarship through a network of 50 "Earhart professors" across the United States.

Amelia Earhart Festival (annual event since 1996), located in Atchison, Kansas.

Amelia Earhart Pioneering Achievement Award, Atchison, Kansas: Since 1996, the Cloud L. Cray Foundation provides a $10,000 women’s scholarship to the educational institution of the honoree’s choice.

Amelia Earhart Earthwork in Warnock Lake Park, Atchison, Kansas. Stan Herd created the landscape mural in 1997 from permanent plantings and stone to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Earhart's birth. Located at and best viewed from the air.

Amelia Earhart Bridge (1997), located in Atchison, Kansas.

Greater Miami Aviation Association Amelia Earhart Award for outstanding achievement (2006); first recipient: noted flyer Patricia "Patty" Wagstaff.

On December 6, 2006, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Amelia Earhart into the California Hall of Fame located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.

USNS ''Amelia Earhart'' (T-AKE-6) was named in her honor in May 2007.

Amelia Earhart full size bronze statue was placed at the Spirit of Flight Center located in Lafayette, Colorado in 2008.

The Amelia Earhart General Aviation Terminal, a satellite terminal at Boston's Logan Airport (formerly used by American Eagle, now unused)

Amelia Earhart Dam on the Mystic River in eastern Massachusetts.

Schools named after Amelia Earhart are found throughout the United States including the Amelia Earhart Elementary School, in Alameda, California, Amelia Earhart Elementary School, in Hialeah, Florida, Amelia Earhart Middle School, Riverside, California and Amelia Earhart International Baccalaureate World School, in Indio, California.

Amelia Earhart Hotel, located in Wiesbaden, Germany, originally used as a hotel for women, then as temporary military housing is now operated as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Europe District Headquarters with offices for the Army Contracting Agency and the Defense Contract Management Agency.

Amelia Earhart Road, located in Oklahoma City (headquarters of The Ninety-Nines), Oklahoma.

Earhart Road, located next to the Oakland International Airport North Field in Oakland, California.

Amelia Earhart Playhouse, at Wiesbaden Army Airfield.

Popular culture

Amelia Earhart's life has spurred the imaginations of many writers and others:

Literature

Earhart appears as a character in David Lippincott's 1970 novel, ''E Pluribus Bang!''.

Patti Smith published two poems dedicated to Earhart: "Amelia Earhart I" and "Amelia Earheart II" in her 1972 poetry collection ''Seventh Heaven''.

Earhart is referenced in Clive Cussler's 1992 book ''Sahara''.

''I Was Amelia Earhart'' (1996) is a faux autobiography by Jane Mendelsohn in which "Earhart" tells the story of what happened to her in 1937, complete with heavy doses of romance with her navigator.

''Flying Blind'' (1999) by Max Allan Collins is a detective novel in which the intrepid Nathan Heller is hired to be a bodyguard for Amelia Earhart. Before long they become lovers (her marriage to Putnam being described as being a union in name only) and later Heller helps her to try to escape from the Japanese following her ill-fated flight.

''Amelia And Eleanor Go For A Ride'' (1999) is a children's picture book written by Pam Munoz Ryan and illustrated by Brian Selznick. It tells the story of the impromptu flight taken by Amelia Earheart and Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933.

In Christopher Moore's 2003 novel, ''Fluke'', Earhart survived her wreck and appears as the mother of one of the characters.

Music

"Amelia Earhart's Last Flight", by "Yodelling Cowboy" Red River Dave McEnery, is thought to be the first song ever performed on commercial television (at the 1939 World's Fair). He recorded it in 1941 and it was subsequently covered by artists including Kinky Friedman and the Country Gentlemen.

Possibly the first tribute album dedicated to the legend of Amelia Earhart was by Plainsong, "In Search of Amelia Earhart", Elektra K42120, released in 1972. Both the album and the Press Pak released by Elektra are highly prized by collectors and have reached cult status.

Singer Joni Mitchell wrote a song called "Amelia" on her 1976 album, ''Hejira'', based on Amelia Earhart's legacy. A video of her live album ''Shadows and Light'' (1980) includes the song "Amelia" and incorporates clips of Earhart.

In 1979, Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO) released a song called "Amelia Earhart" on their album, Rock n' Roll Nights.

Erik Frandsen's musical: ''Song of Singapore'', that opened May 23, 1991, features a lounge singer with amnesia, recovering to discover she's Amelia Earhart.

Alternative country band The Handsome Family's 1996 album ''Milk and Scissors'' includes the song "Amelia Earhart vs. the Dancing Bear", a fictionalized account of Earhart's death in a hypothetical crash.

The disappearance of Earhart is one of the many mysteries mentioned in the song "Someday We'll Know" (1999) by the New Radicals, later covered by Mandy Moore and Jonathan Foreman for the movie ''A Walk to Remember''. The lyrics are: "Whatever happened to Amelia Earhart? Who holds the stars up in the sky?"

Singer/songwriter Deb Talan's second album, "Something Burning" (2000), begins with a song called "Thinking Amelia." The song goes on to suggest that Earhart had a "one-in-a-million bad day."

The song "Aviator" by Nemo, which appears on their 2004 debut LP ''Signs of Life'', was written about Amelia Earhart's last flight.

The song "I Miss My Sky," written by Heather Nova for her 2005 album ''Redbird'', is dedicated to Earhart, suggesting that she survived on an island after her disappearance.

Banjo player Curtis Eller of ''Curtis Eller's American Circus'' has also written a song about Earhart's disappearance, "Amelia Earhart" in his "Taking Up Serpents Again" release (2005). One of the lyrics poignantly states that she, "disappeared in a cloudbank and the static never cleared."

The Canadian Hip Hop artist Buck 65 links Amelia Earhart and other iconic women Neko Case and Frida Kahlo in the song "Blood of a Young Wolf" (2006) from the album ''Secret House Against The World''.

English singer/songwriter Tom McRae's fourth album King of Cards (2007) features a song called "The Ballad of Amelia Earhart."

Pop/rock singer-songwriter Jon Mclaughlin wrote a song titled "Amelia's Missing" (2007); the lyrics state: "and Amelia's missing somewhere out at sea."

The song "Amelia" from the 2009 album Blue Lights on the Runway by Irish band Bell X1 contemplates the last moments and fate of Earhart.

Movies and television

The 1943 Rosalind Russell film ''Flight for Freedom'' derived from a treatment, ''Stand by to Die'', was a fictionalized treatment of Earhart's life, with a heavy dose of Hollywood World War II propaganda.

"In Search of: Amelia Earhart," (1976) was episode 16 of the 1976–1982 ''In Search Of'' series, hosted by Star Trek alum Leonard Nimoy. The episode explores the possibility that Earhart was on a secret spy mission and was possibly captured by the Japanese.

A 1976 television bio production titled ''Amelia Earhart'' starring Susan Clark and John Forsythe included flying by Hollywood stunt pilot Frank Tallman whose late partner in Tallmantz Aviation, Paul Mantz, had tutored Earhart in the 1930s.

In the climax of the 1977 science fiction film ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', Amelia Earhart is seen walking out of the Mothership, along with a crowd of a hundred other alien abduction survivors. Director Steven Spielberg has acknowledged that this was specifically a nod to the legacy of Earhart and other flyers who mysteriously vanished at sea. The documentary Amelia Earhart: The Price of Courage (1993) from ''American Experience''.

''Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight'' (1994) starring Diane Keaton, Rutger Hauer and Bruce Dern was initially released as TV movie and subsequently released as a theatrical feature.

Earhart as one of many humans abducted by an alien race in 1937, only to be found in cryo-stasis on a planet on the other side of the galaxy, is portrayed by Sharon Lawrence in the ''Star Trek: Voyager'' episode "The 37's" (first aired 1995). :''Dialogue from the episode states that the flight'' was, ''in fact, espionage – the fact that such top-secret information had become common knowledge was the first thing that made her realize that the'' Voyager ''crew's tale of another planet, and in the future, might actually be true.'' Stock footage of Earhart is shown in the opening sequence for the full broadcast run of ''Star Trek: Enterprise'' (2001–2005)

Actress Jane Lynch was cast as Amelia Earhart in the 2004 film ''The Aviator'', but her scenes were cut.

Academy Award nominee Amy Adams portrayed Earhart in ''Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian'' (2009).

In ''Amelia'' (2009), Amelia Earhart is portrayed by Hilary Swank, who also served as co-executive producer of the biopic.

Advertising

The Gap khaki pants ad campaign (1993) featured Amelia Earhart's likeness as did ads for Apple computers.

Earhart's likeness was included among the icons in Apple Computer's "Think Different" advertising campaign (2002) and is now a sought-after collectible. (See: studio portrait, c. 1932 above)

See also

Amelia Earhart Park

Aviation

Aviation archaeology

Bernt Balchen

Irene Craigmile Bolam

Jacqueline Cochran

Cornelia Fort

Douglas Corrigan

Frances Wilson Grayson

Howland Island

Lae, a city in Papua New Guinea

Lockheed Model 10 Electra

Lockheed Vega

Nancy Harkness Love

Elsie Mackay

Paul Mantz

Nikumaroro (Gardner Island)

Ninety-Nines (International Organization of Women Pilots)

Opa-locka Airport

Purdue University

Harriet Quimby

Radio navigation

Neta Snook

Women Airforce Service Pilots

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography of cited sources

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Blau, Melinda. ''Whatever Happened to Amelia Earhart?'' Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Contemporary Perspectives Inc., 1977. ISBN 0-8172-1057-1.

Briand, Paul. ''Daughter of the Sky''. New York: Duell, Sloan, Pearce, 1960. No ISBN.

Brink, Randall. ''Lost Star: The Search for Amelia Earhart''. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1994. ISBN 0-393-026883-3.

Burke, John. ''Winged Legend: The Story of Amelia Earhart''. New York: Ballantine Books, 1971. ISBN 0-425-03304-X.

Butler, Susan. ''East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart''. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1997. ISBN 0-306-80887-0.

Bryan, C.D.B. ''The National Air and Space Museum''. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1979. ISBN 0-8109-0666-X.

Campbell, Mike with Thomas E. Devine. ''With Our Own Eyes: Eyewitnesses to the Final Days of Amelia Earhart''. Lancaster, Ohio: Lucky Press, LLC, 2002. ISBN 0-9706377-6-4.

Cochran, Jacqueline and Maryann Bucknum Brinkley. ''Jackie Cochran: The Autobiography of the Greatest Woman Pilot in Aviation History''. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1987. ISBN 0-553-05211-X.

Cochran, Jacqueline. ''Stars at Noon''. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1954.

Corn, Joseph J. ''The Winged Gospel''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. ISBN 0-19-503356-6.

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Oakes, Claudia M. ''United States Women in Aviation 1930–1939''. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985. ISBN 0-87474-380-X.

O'Leary, Michael. "The Earhart Discovery: Fact or Fiction?" '' Air Classics'' Vol 28, No. 8, August 1992.

Parsons, Bill with Bill Bowman. ''The Challenge of the Atlantic: A Photo-Illustrated History of Early Aviation in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland.'' St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador: Robinson-Blackmore Book Publishers, 1983. ISBN 0-920884-06-7.

Pearce, Carol Ann. ''Amelia Earhart''. New York: Facts on File, 1988. ISBN 0-8160-1520-1.

Pellegrino, Anne Holtgren. ''World Flight: The Amelia Trail''. Ames, Iowa: The Iowa State University Press, 1971. ISBN 0-8138-1760-9.

''The Radio Amateur's Handbook''. West Hartford, Connecticut: American Radio Relay League, 1945. No ISBN.

Randolph, Blythe. ''Amelia Earhart''. New York: Franklin Watts, 1987. ISBN 0-531-10331-5.

Regis, Margaret. ''When Our Mothers Went to War: An Illustrated History of Women in World War II.'' Seattle: NavPublishing, 2008. ISBN 978-1-87732-05-0.

Rich, Doris L. ''Amelia Earhart: A Biography''. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. ISBN 1-56098-725-1.

Safford, Laurance F. with Cameron A. Warren and Robert R. Payne. ''Earhart's Flight into Yesterday: The Facts Without the Fiction'', McLean, Virginia: Paladwr Press, 2003. ISBN 1-888962-20-8.

Sloate, Susan. ''Amelia Earhart: Challenging the Skies''. New York: Fawcett Books, 1990. ISBN 978-0-449-90396-4 .

Strippel, Richard G. ''Amelia Earhart: The Myth and the Reality''. New York: Exposition Press, 1972. ISBN 0-682-47447-9.

Strippel, Richard G. "Researching Amelia: A Detailed Summary for the Serious Researcher into the Disappearance of Amelia Earhart." ''Air Classics'' Vol. 31, No. 11, November 1995.

Thames, Richard. ''Amelia Earhart''. New York: Franklin Watts, 1989. ISBN 0-531-10851-1.

Van Pelt, Lori. ''Amelia Earhart: The Sky's No Limit''. London: Macmillan, 2005. ISBN 978-0-7653-1061-3.

Van Pelt, Lori. "Amelia's Autogiro Adventures." ''Aviation History'' March 2008.

Ware, Susan. ''Still Missing: Amelia Earhart and the Search for Modern Feminism''. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993. ISBN 0-393-03551-4.

Wright, Monte Duane. ''Most Probable Position, A History of Aerial Navigation to 1941''. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1972. ISBN 0-7006-0092-2.

Additional resources

Barker, Ralph. ''Great Mysteries of the Air''. London: Pan Books, 1966. ISBN 0-330-02096-X.

Cady, Barbara. ''They Changed the World: 200 Icons Who Have Made a Difference''. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2003. ISBN 1-57912-328-7.

Chapman, Sally Putnam, with Stephanie Mansfield. ''Whistled Like a Bird: The Untold Story of Dorothy Putnam, George Putnam and Amelia Earhart''. New York: Warner Books, 1997. ISBN 0-446-52055-1.

Haynsworth, Leslie and David Toomey. ''Amelia Earhart's Daughters: The Wild and Glorious Story of American Women Aviators from World War II to the Dawn of the Space Age''. New York: Harper Collins Publishers Inc., 1998. ISBN 0-380-72984-9.

Landsberg. Alan. ''In Search of Missing Persons''. New York: Bantam Books, 1978. ISBN 0-553-11459-X.

Moolman, Valerie. ''Women Aloft'' (The Epic of Flight series). Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1981. ISBN 0-8094-3287-0.

Purdue University Libraries, "George Palmer Putnam Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers"

Turner, Mary. ''The Women's Century: A Celebration of Changing Roles 1900–2000''. Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK: The National Archives, 2003. ISBN 1-903365-51-1.

External links

''A 1930's American Hope, Amelia Earhart'', Essay by Mariette Vermeulen, April 3, 1997

Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum

Amelia Earhart Collection of Papers, Memorabilia and Artifacts The world's largest collection of Earhart photographs, artifacts and correspondence. More than 600 photos are now online

Amelia Earhart's Flight Across America: Rediscovering a Legend

Amelia Earhart Official Web site

Amelia Earhart: On The Future Of Women In Flying (listen online)

Museum of Women Pilots

Amelia Earhart Memorial flight Recreation

Life magazine''">Life and Mystery of Amelia Earhart slideshow by ''Life magazine''

Transcript of interview with Earhart biographer Susan Butler, 1997

Amelia Earhart interview following the 1932 transatlantic flight

Library of Congress">General Correspondence: Earhart, Amelia, 1932–1934, The Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers at the Library of Congress

Library of Congress">Speech by Amelia Earhart from the collection American English Dialect Recordings, Library of Congress

CG cutter Itasca and the search for Earhart

FBI file on Amelia Earhart

Category:1897 births Category:1937 deaths Category:American aviators Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1937 Category:Aviation pioneers Category:Female aviators Category:Harmon Trophy winners Category:People from Atchison County, Kansas Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) Category:People declared dead in absentia Category:Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents Category:Missing people Category:Purdue University faculty Category:Writers from Kansas Category:Missing aviators

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name	Benito Mussolini
height	5' 6½" (1.69 m)
nationality	Italian
order	Head of Government of Italy/Duce
monarch	Victor Emmanuel III
term start	24 December 1925
term end	25 July 1943
predecessor	Himself(as Prime Minister)
successor	Pietro Badoglio(as Prime Minister)
order2	40th Prime Minister of Italy
monarch2	Victor Emmanuel III
term start2	31 October 1922
term end2	24 December 1925
predecessor2	Luigi Facta
successor2	Himself(as Head of Government)
order3	First Marshal of the Empire
term start3	30 March 1938
term end3	25 July 1943
alongside3	Victor Emmanuel III
order4	Head of State of the Italian Social Republic
term start4	23 September 1943
term end4	25 April 1945
successor4
birth date	July 29, 1883
birth place	Predappio, Forlì, Italy
death date	April 28, 1945
death place	Giulino di Mezzegra, Italy
party	Republican Fascist Party(1943–1945)National Fascist Party(1921–1943)Italian Socialist Party(1901–1914)
spouse	Rachele Mussolini
relations	Ida DalserMargherita SarfattiClara Petacci
children	Edda MussoliniVittorio MussoliniBruno MussoliniRomano MussoliniAnna Maria Mussolini
profession	Politician, journalist, novelist
religion	(See this section for details.)
signature	Benito Mussolini Signature.svg
allegiance
branch	Regio Esercito
serviceyears	1915–1917
rank	Corporal
unit	11th Bersaglieri Regiment
battles	World War I }}

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 1883 28 April 1945) was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism.

Mussolini became the 40th Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and began using the title ''Il Duce'' by 1925. After 1936, his official title was "''His Excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government, Duce of Fascism, and Founder of the Empire''". Mussolini also created and held the supreme military rank of First Marshal of the Empire along with King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, which gave him and the King joint supreme control over the military of Italy. Mussolini remained in power until he was replaced in 1943; for a short period after this until his death, he was the leader of the Italian Social Republic.

Mussolini was among the founders of Italian Fascism, which included elements of nationalism, corporatism, national syndicalism, expansionism, social progress, and anti-socialism in combination with censorship of subversives and state propaganda. In the years following his creation of the Fascist ideology, Mussolini influenced, or achieved admiration from, a wide variety of political figures.

Among the domestic achievements of Mussolini from the years 1924–1939 were: his public works programmes such as the taming of the Pontine Marshes, the improvement of job opportunities, the public transport, and the so-called Italian economic battles. Mussolini also solved the Roman Question by concluding the Lateran Treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See.

On 10 June 1940, Mussolini led Italy into World War II on the side of the Axis despite initially siding with France against Germany in the early 1930s. Believing the war would be short-lived, he declared war on France and the United Kingdom in order to gain territories in the peace treaty that would soon follow.

Three years later, Mussolini was deposed at the Grand Council of Fascism, prompted by the Allied invasion of Italy. Soon after his incarceration began, Mussolini was rescued from prison in the daring Gran Sasso raid by German special forces. Following his rescue, Mussolini headed the Italian Social Republic in parts of Italy that were not occupied by Allied forces. In late April 1945, with total defeat looming, Mussolini attempted to escape to Switzerland, only to be quickly captured and summarily executed near Lake Como by Italian partisans. His body was then taken to Milan where it was hung upside down at a petrol station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise.

Early life

Mussolini was born in Dovia di Predappio, a small town in the province of Forlì in Emilia-Romagna on 29 July 1883. In the Fascist era, Predappio was dubbed "Duce's town", and Forlì was "Duce's city". Pilgrims went to Predappio and Forlì, to see the birthplace of Mussolini. His father Alessandro Mussolini was a blacksmith and a socialist, while his mother Rosa Mussolini, née Maltoni, a devoutly Catholic schoolteacher. Owing to his father's political leanings, Mussolini was named ''Benito'' after Mexican reformist President Benito Juárez, while his middle names ''Andrea'' and ''Amilcare'' were from Italian socialists Andrea Costa and Amilcare Cipriani. Benito was the eldest of his parents' three children. His siblings Arnaldo and Edvige followed.

As a young boy, Mussolini would spend time helping his father in his smithy. Mussolini's early political views were heavily influenced by his father, Alessandro Mussolini, a revolutionary socialist who idolized 19th century Italian nationalist figures with humanist tendencies such as Carlo Pisacane, Giuseppe Mazzini, and Giuseppe Garibaldi. His father's political outlook combined views of anarchist figures like Carlo Cafiero and Mikhail Bakunin, the military authoritarianism of Garibaldi, and the nationalism of Mazzini. In 1902, at the anniversary of Garibaldi's death, Benito Mussolini made a public speech in praise of the republican nationalist. After joining a new school, Mussolini achieved good grades, and qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in 1901.

Emigration to Switzerland and military service

In 1902, Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland, partly to avoid military service. He worked briefly as a stonemason in Geneva, Fribourg and Bern, but was unable to find a permanent job.

During this time he studied the ideas of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, and the syndicalist Georges Sorel. Mussolini also later credited the Marxist Charles Péguy and the syndicalist Hubert Lagardelle and some of his influences. Sorel's emphasis on the need for overthrowing decadent liberal Democracy and Capitalism by the use of violence, direct action, the general strike, and the use of neo-Machiavellian appeals to emotion, impressed Mussolini deeply.

Mussolini became active in the Italian socialist movement in Switzerland, working for the paper ''L'Avvenire del Lavoratore'', organizing meetings, giving speeches to workers and serving as secretary of the Italian workers' union in Lausanne. In 1903, he was arrested by the Bernese police because of his advocacy of a violent general strike, spent two weeks in jail, was deported to Italy, set free there, and returned to Switzerland. In 1904, after having been arrested again in Lausanne for falsifying his papers, he returned to Italy to take advantage of an amnesty for desertion of which he had been convicted ''in absentia''.

He subsequently volunteered for military service in the Italian Army. After serving for two years in the military (from January 1905 until September 1906), he returned to teaching.

Political journalist and Socialist

In February 1908, Mussolini once again left Italy, this time to take the job as the secretary of the labor party in the Italian-speaking city of Trento, which at the time was under control of Austria-Hungary. He also did office work for the local Socialist Party, and edited its newspaper ''L'Avvenire del Lavoratore'' (''The Future of the Worker''). Returning to Italy, he spent a brief time in Milan, and then in 1910 he returned to his hometown of Forli, where he edited the weekly ''Lotta di classe'' (''The Class Struggle'').

During this time, he published ''Il Trentino veduto da un Socialista'' (''Trento as seen by a Socialist'') in the radical periodical ''La Voce''. He also wrote several essays about German literature, some stories, and one novel: ''L'amante del Cardinale: Claudia Particella, romanzo storico'' (''The Cardinal's Mistress''). This novel he co-wrote with Santi Corvaja, and was published as a serial book in the Trento newspaper ''Il Popolo''. It was released in installments from 20 January to 11 May 1910 The novel was bitterly anticlerical, and years later was withdrawn from circulation after Mussolini made a truce with the Vatican.

By now, he was considered to be one of Italy's most prominent Socialists. In September 1911, Mussolini participated in a riot, led by Socialists, against the Italian war in Libya. He bitterly denounced Italy's "imperialist war" to capture the Libyan capital city of Tripoli, an action that earned him a five-month jail term. After his release he helped expel from the ranks of the Socialist party two "revisionists" who had supported the war, Ivanoe Bonomi, and Leonida Bissolati. As a result, he was rewarded the editorship of the Socialist Party newspaper ''Avanti!'' Under his leadership, its circulation soon rose from 20,000 to 100,000.

In 1913, he published ''Giovanni Hus, il veridico'' (''Jan Hus, true prophet''), an historical and political biography about the life and mission of the Czech ecclesiastic reformer Jan Hus, and his militant followers, the Hussites. During this socialist period of his life Mussolini sometimes used the pen name "Vero Eretico" (sincere misbeliever).

While Mussolini was associated with socialism, he also was supportive of figures who opposed egalitarianism. For instance Mussolini was influenced by Nietszche's anti-Christian ideas and negation of God's existence. Mussolini saw Nietzsche as similar to Jean-Marie Guyau, who advocated a philosophy of action.

Expulsion from the Italian Socialist Party

With the outbreak of World War I a number of socialist parties initially supported the war when it began in August 1914. Once the war began, Austrian, British, French, German, and Russian socialists followed the rising nationalist current by supporting their country's intervention in the war. The outbreak of the war had resulted in a surge of Italian nationalism and the war supported by a variety of political factions. One of the most prominent and popular Italian nationalist supporters of the war was Gabriele d'Annunzio who promoted Italian irredentism and helped sway the Italian public to support intervention in the war. The Italian Liberal Party under the leadership of Paolo Boselli promoted intervention in the war on the side of the Allies and utilized the Società Dante Alighieri to promote Italian nationalism. Italian socialists were divided on whether to support the war or oppose it. Prior to Mussolini making a position on the war, a number of revolutionary syndicalists had announced their support of intervention, including Alceste De Ambris, Filippo Corridoni, and Angelo Oliviero Olivetti. The Italian Socialist Party decided to oppose the war after anti-militarist protestors had been killed, resulting in a general strike called Red Week.

Mussolini initially held official support for the party's decision an in an August 1914 article, Mussolini wrote "Down with the War. We remain neutral." However, he saw the war as an opportunity, both for his own ambitions as well as those of socialists and Italians. He was influenced by anti-Austrian Italian nationalist sentiments, believing that the war offered Italians in Austria-Hungary the chance to liberate themselves from rule of the Habsburgs. He eventually decided to declare support for the war by appealing to the need for socialists to overthrow the Hohenzollern and Habsburg monarchies in Germany and Austria-Hungary whom he claimed had consistently repressed socialism. He further justified his position by denouncing the Central Powers for being reactionary powers; for pursuing imperialist designs against Belgium and Serbia as well as historically against Denmark, France, and against Italians, since hundreds of thousands of Italians were under Habsburg rule. He claimed that the fall of Hohenzollern and Habsburg monarchies and the repression of "reactionary" Turkey would create conditions beneficial for the working class. While he was supportive of the Entente powers, Mussolini responded to the conservative nature of Tsarist Russia by claiming that the mobilization required for the war would undermine Russia's reactionary authoritarianism and the war would bring Russia to social revolution. He claimed that for Italy the war would complete the process of ''Risorgimento'' by uniting the Italians in Austria-Hungary into Italy and by allowing the common people of Italy to be participating members of the Italian nation in what would be Italy's first national war. Thus he claimed that the vast social changes that the war could offer meant that it should be supported as a revolutionary war.

As Mussolini's support for the intervention solidified, he became in conflict with socialists who opposed the war. He attacked the opponents of the war and claimed that those proletarians who supported pacifism were out of step with the proletarians who had joined the rising interventionist vanguard that was preparing Italy for a revolutionary war. He began to criticize the Italian Socialist Party and socialism itself for having failed to recognize the national problems that had led to the outbreak of the war. He was expelled from the party due to his support of intervention.

The following excerpts are from a police report prepared by the Inspector-General of Public Security in Milan, G. Gasti, that describe his background and his position on the First World War that resulted in his ouster from the Italian Socialist Party.

The Inspector General wrote: :Regarding Mussolini :Professor Benito Mussolini, ... 38, revolutionary socialist, has a police record; elementary school teacher qualified to teach in secondary schools; former first secretary of the Chambers in in Cesena, Forli, and Ravenna; after 1912 editor of the newspaper ''Avanti!'' to which he gave a violent suggestive and intransigent orientation. In October 1914, finding himself in opposition to the directorate of the Italian Socialist party because he advocated a kind of active neutrality on the part of Italy in the War of the Nations against the party's tendency of absolute neutrality, he withdrew on the twentieth of that month from the directorate of ''Avanti!'' Then on the fifteenth of November [1914], thereafter, he initiated publication of the newspaper ''Il Popolo d'Italia'', in which he supported – in sharp contrast to ''Avanti!'' and amid bitter polemics against that newspaper and its chief backers – the thesis of Italian intervention in the war against the militarism of the Central Empires. For this reason he was accused of moral and political unworthiness and the party thereupon decided to expel him... Thereafter he ... undertook a very active campaign in behalf of Italian intervention, participating in demonstrations in the piazzas and writing quite violent articles in Popolo d'Italia...

In his summary, the Inspector also notes: :He was the ideal editor of ''Avanti!'' for the Socialists. In that line of work he was greatly esteemed and beloved. Some of his former comrades and admirers still confess that there was no one who understood better how to interpret the spirit of the proletariat and there was no one who did not observe his apostasy with sorrow. This came about not for reasons of self-interest or money. He was a sincere and passionate advocate, first of vigilant and armed neutrality, and later of war; and he did not believe that he was compromising with his personal and political honesty by making use of every means – no matter where they came from or wherever he might obtain them – to pay for his newspaper, his program and his line of action. This was his initial line. It is difficult to say to what extent his socialist convictions (which he never either openly or privately abjure) may have been sacrificed in the course of the indispensable financial deals which were necessary for the continuation of the struggle in which he was engaged... But assuming these modifications did take place ... he always wanted to give the appearance of still being a socialist, and he fooled himself into thinking that this was the case.

Beginning of Fascism and service in World War I

After being ousted by the Italian Socialist Party for his support of Italian intervention, Mussolini made a radical transformation, ending his support for class conflict and joining in support of revolutionary nationalism transcending class lines. He formed the interventionist newspaper ''Il Popolo d'Italia'' and the ''Fasci Rivoluzionari d'Azione Internazionalista'' ("Revolutionary Fasci for International Action") in October 1914. His nationalist support of intervention enabled him to raise funds from Ansaldo (an armaments firm) and other companies to create ''Il Popolo d'Italia'' to convince socialists and revolutionaries to support the war. Further funding for Mussolini's Fascists during the war came from the French sources beginning in May 1915. A major source of this funding from France is believed to have probably been from French socialists who sent support to dissident socialists who wanted Italian intervention on France's side.

On 5 December 1914, Mussolini denounced orthodox socialism for having failed to recognize that the war had brought about national identity and loyalty as being of greater significance than class distinction. His transformation was fully demonstrated in a speech he made in which he acknowledged the nation as an entity, a notion that he had previously rejected prior to the war, saying: :The nation has not disappeared. We used to believe that the concept was totally without substance. Instead we see the nation arise as a palpitating reality before us! ... Class cannot destroy the nation. Class reveals itself as a collection of interests—but the nation is a history of sentiments, traditions, language, culture, and race. Class can become an integral part of the nation, but the one cannot eclipse the other.

:The class struggle is a vain formula, without effect and consequence wherever one finds a people that has not integrated itself into its proper linguistic and racial confines—where the national problem has not been definitely resolved. In such circumstances the class movement finds itself impaired by an inauspicious historic climate.

Mussolini continued to promote the need of a revolutionary vanguard elite to lead society, but he no longer advocated a proletarian vanguard but instead a vanguard led by dynamic and revolutionary people of any social class.

Though he denounced orthodox socialism and class conflict, he maintained at the time that he was a nationalist socialist and a supporter of the legacy of nationalist socialists in Italy's history, such as Giuseppe Garibaldi, Giuseppe Mazzini, and Carlo Pisacane. As for the Italian Socialist Party and its support of orthodox socialism, he claimed that his failure as a member of the party to revitalize and transform it to recognize the contemporary reality revealed the hopelessness of orthodox socialism as outdated and a failure. This perception of the failure of orthodox socialism in the light of the outbreak of World War I was not solely held by Mussolini, other pro-interventionist Italian socialists such as Filippo Corridoni and Sergio Panunzio had also denounced classical Marxism in favour of intervention.

These basic political views and principles formed the basis of Mussolini's newly formed political movement, the ''Fasci Rivoluzionari d'Azione Internazionalista'' in 1914, who called themselves ''Fascisti'' (Fascists). At this time, the Fascists did not have an integrated set of policies and the movement was very small, ineffective in its attempts to hold mass meetings, and was regularly harassed by government authorities and orthodox socialists. Antagonism between the interventionists, including the Fascists, versus the anti-interventionist orthodox socialists resulted in violence between the Fascists and socialists. The opposition and attacks by the anti-interventionist revolutionary socialists against the Fascists and other interventionists were so violent that even democratic socialists who opposed the war such as Anna Kuliscioff said that the Italian Socialist Party had gone too far in a campaign of silencing the freedom of speech of supporters of the war. These early hostilities between the Fascists and the revolutionary socialists shaped Mussolini's conception of the nature of Fascism in its support of political violence. thumb|upright|right|Mussolini as an Italian soldier, 1917

Mussolini became an ally with the irredentist politician and journalist Cesare Battisti, and like him he entered the Army and served in the war. "He was sent to the zone of operations where he was seriously injured by the explosion of a grenade."

The Inspector General continues: :He was promoted to the rank of corporal "for merit in war". The promotion was recommended because of his exemplary conduct and fighting quality, his mental calmness and lack of concern for discomfort, his zeal and regularity in carrying out his assignments, where he was always first in every task involving labor and fortitude.

Mussolini's military experience is told in his work ''Diario Di Guerra.'' Overall, he totalled about nine months of active, front-line trench warfare. During this time, he contracted paratyphoid fever. His military exploits ended in 1917 when he was wounded accidentally by the explosion of a mortar bomb in his trench. He was left with at least 40 shards of metal in his body He was discharged from the hospital in August 1917 and resumed his editor-in-chief position at his new paper, ''Il Popolo d'Italia''. He wrote there positive articles about Czechoslovak Legions in Italy.

On 25 December 1915, in Trevalglio, he contracted a marriage with his fellow countrywoman Rachele Guidi, who had already born him a daughter, Edda, at Forli in 1910. In 1915, he had a son with Ida Dalser, a woman born in Sopramonte, a village near Trento. He legally recognized this son on 11 January 1916.

Creation of Fascism

By the time Mussolini returned from Allied service in World War I, he had decided that socialism as a doctrine had largely been a failure. In 1917, Mussolini got his start in politics with the help of a £100 weekly wage from MI5, the British Security Service; this help was authorised by Sir Samuel Hoare. In early 1918, Mussolini called for the emergence of a man "ruthless and energetic enough to make a clean sweep" to revive the Italian nation. Much later in life Mussolini said he felt by 1919 "Socialism as a doctrine was already dead; it continued to exist only as a grudge". On 23 March 1919, Mussolini reformed the Milan ''fascio'' as the ''Fasci Italiani di Combattimento'' (Italian Combat Squad), consisting of 200 members.

An important factor in fascism gaining support in its earliest stages was the fact that it claimed to oppose discrimination based on social class and was strongly opposed to all forms of class war. Fascism instead supported nationalist sentiments such as a strong unity, regardless of class, in the hopes of raising Italy up to the levels of its great Roman past. The ideological basis for fascism came from a number of sources. Mussolini utilized works of Plato, Georges Sorel, Nietzsche, and the socialist and economic ideas of Vilfredo Pareto, to create fascism. Mussolini admired ''The Republic'', which he often read for inspiration. ''The Republic'' held a number of ideas that fascism promoted such as rule by an elite promoting the state as the ultimate end, opposition to democracy, protecting the class system and promoting class collaboration, rejection of egalitarianism, promoting the militarization of a nation by creating a class of warriors, demanding that citizens perform civic duties in the interest of the state, and utilizing state intervention in education to promote the creation of warriors and future rulers of the state. ''The Republic'' differed from fascism in that it did not promote aggressive war but only defensive war, unlike fascism it promoted very communist-like views on property, and Plato was an idealist focused on achieving justice and morality while Mussolini and fascism were realist, focused on achieving political goals.

Mussolini and the fascists managed to be simultaneously revolutionary and traditionalist; because this was vastly different to anything else in the political climate of the time, it is sometimes described as "The Third Way". The Fascisti, led by one of Mussolini's close confidants, Dino Grandi, formed armed squads of war veterans called Blackshirts (or ''squadristi'') with the goal of restoring order to the streets of Italy with a strong hand. The blackshirts clashed with communists, socialists, and anarchists at parades and demonstrations; all of these factions were also involved in clashes against each other. The government rarely interfered with the blackshirts' actions, owing in part to a looming threat and widespread fear of a communist revolution. The Fascisti grew so rapidly that within two years, it transformed itself into the National Fascist Party at a congress in Rome. Also in 1921, Mussolini was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time. In the meantime, from about 1911 until 1938, Mussolini had various affairs with the Jewish author and academic Margherita Sarfatti, called the "Jewish Mother of Fascism" at the time.

March on Rome and early years in power

The March on Rome was a coup d'état by which Mussolini's National Fascist Party came to power in Italy and ousted Prime Minister Luigi Facta. The "march" took place in 1922 between 27–29 October. On 28 October King Victor Emmanuel III refused his support to Facta and handed over power to Mussolini. Mussolini was supported by the military, the business class, and the liberal right-wing.

As Prime Minister, the first years of Mussolini's rule were characterized by a right-wing coalition government composed of Fascists, nationalists, liberals, and two Catholic clerics from the Popular Party. The Fascists made up a small minority in his original governments. Mussolini's domestic goal was the eventual establishment of a totalitarian state with himself as supreme leader (''Il Duce'') a message that was articulated by the Fascist newspaper ''Il Popolo'', which was now edited by Mussolini's brother, Arnaldo. To that end, Mussolini obtained from the legislature dictatorial powers for one year (legal under the Italian constitution of the time). He favored the complete restoration of state authority, with the integration of the ''Fasci di Combattimento'' into the armed forces (the foundation in January 1923 of the ''Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale'') and the progressive identification of the party with the state. In political and social economy, he passed legislation that favored the wealthy industrial and agrarian classes (privatisations, liberalisations of rent laws and dismantlement of the unions).

In 1923, Mussolini sent Italian forces to invade Corfu during the "Corfu Incident." In the end, the League of Nations proved powerless and Greece was forced to comply with Italian demands.

Acerbo Law

In June 1923, the government passed the Acerbo Law, which transformed Italy into a single national constituency. It also granted a two-thirds majority of the seats in Parliament to the party or group of parties which had obtained at least 25% of the votes. This law was applied in the elections of 6 April 1924. The "national alliance", consisting of Fascists, most of the old Liberals and others, won 64% of the vote largely by means of violence and voter intimidation. These tactics were especially prevalent in the south.

Squadristi violence

The assassination of the socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti, who had requested the annulment of the elections because of the irregularities committed, provoked a momentary crisis of the Mussolini government. The murderer, a squadrista named Amerigo Dumini, reported to Mussolini soon after the murder. Mussolini ordered a cover-up, but witnesses saw the car used to transport Matteotti's body parked outside Matteotti's residence, which linked Dumini to the murder. The Matteotti crisis provoked cries for justice against the murder of an outspoken critic of Fascist violence.

Mussolini later confessed that a few resolute men could have altered public opinion and started a coup that would have swept fascism away. Dumini was imprisoned for two years. On his release Dumini allegedly told other people that Mussolini was responsible, for which he served further prison time. For the next 15 years, Dumini received an income from Mussolini, the Fascist Party, and other sources.

The opposition parties responded weakly or were generally unresponsive. Many of the socialists, liberals, and moderates boycotted Parliament in the Aventine Secession, hoping to force Victor Emmanuel to dismiss Mussolini. Despite the leadership of communists such as Antonio Gramsci, socialists such as Pietro Nenni, and liberals such as Piero Gobetti and Giovanni Amendola, a mass antifascist movement never crystallized. The king, fearful of violence from the Fascist squadristi, kept Mussolini in office. Because of the boycott of Parliament, Mussolini could pass any legislation unopposed. The political violence of the squadristi had worked, for there was no popular demonstration against the murder of Matteotti. Within his own party, Mussolini faced doubts and dissension during these critical weeks.

On 31 December 1924, MVSN consuls met with Mussolini and gave him an ultimatum—crush the opposition or they would do so without him. Fearing a revolt by his own militants, Mussolini decided to drop all trappings of democracy. On 3 January 1925, Mussolini made a truculent speech before the Chamber in which he took responsibility for squadristi violence (though he did not mention the assassination of Matteotti).

He promised a crackdown on dissenters. Before his speech, MVSN detachments beat up the opposition and prevented opposition newspapers from publishing. Mussolini correctly predicted that as soon as public opinion saw him firmly in control the "fence-sitters", the silent majority, and the "place-hunters" would all place themselves behind him.

Building a dictatorship

Assassination attempts

Mussolini's influence in propaganda was such that he had surprisingly little opposition to suppress. Nonetheless, he was "slightly wounded in the nose" when he was shot on 7 April 1926 by Violet Gibson, an Irish woman and daughter of Baron Ashbourne. On 31 October 1926, 15-year-old Anteo Zamboni attempted to shoot Mussolini in Bologna. Zamboni was lynched on the spot. Mussolini also survived a failed assassination attempt in Rome by anarchist Gino Lucetti, and a planned attempt by the Italian anarchist Michele Schirru, which ended with Schirru's capture and execution.

Police state

At various times after 1922, Mussolini personally took over the ministries of the interior, foreign affairs, colonies, corporations, defense, and public works. Sometimes he held as many as seven departments simultaneously, as well as the premiership. He was also head of the all-powerful Fascist Party and the armed local fascist militia, the MVSN or "Blackshirts", who terrorised incipient resistances in the cities and provinces. He would later form the OVRA, an institutionalised secret police that carried official state support. In this way he succeeded in keeping power in his own hands and preventing the emergence of any rival.

Between 1925 and 1927, Mussolini progressively dismantled virtually all constitutional and conventional restraints on his power, thereby building a police state. A law passed on Christmas Eve 1925 changed Mussolini's formal title from "president of the Council of Ministers" to "head of the government". He was no longer responsible to Parliament and could only be removed by the king. While the Italian constitution stated that ministers were only responsible to the sovereign, in practice it had become all but impossible to govern against the express will of Parliament. The Christmas Eve law ended this practice, and also made Mussolini the only person competent to determine the body's agenda. Local autonomy was abolished, and podestàs appointed by the Italian Senate replaced elected mayors and councils.

All other parties were outlawed in 1928, though in practice Italy had been a one-party state since Mussolini's 1925 speech. In the same year, an electoral law abolished parliamentary elections. Instead, the Grand Council of Fascism selected a single list of candidates to be approved by plebiscite. The Grand Council had been created five years earlier as a party body but was "constitutionalised" and became the highest constitutional authority in the state. On paper, the Grand Council had the power to recommend Mussolini's removal from office, and was thus theoretically the only check on his power. Only Mussolini could summon the Grand Council and determine its agenda. To gain control of the South, especially Sicily, he appointed Cesare Mori as a Prefect of the city of Palermo, with the charge of eradicating the Mafia at any price. In the telegram, Mussolini wrote to Mori:

:"Your Excellency has carte blanche; the authority of the State must absolutely, I repeat absolutely, be re-established in Sicily. If the laws still in force hinder you, this will be no problem, as we will draw up new laws."

He did not hesitate laying siege to towns, using torture, and holding women and children as hostages to oblige suspects to give themselves up. These harsh methods earned him the nickname of "Iron Prefect". In 1927 Mori's inquiries brought evidence of collusion between the Mafia and the Fascist establishment, and he was dismissed for length of service in 1929. Mussolini nominated Mori as a senator, and fascist propaganda claimed that the Mafia had been defeated.

Economic policy

Mussolini launched several public construction programs and government initiatives throughout Italy to combat economic setbacks or unemployment levels. His earliest, and one of the best known, was Italy's equivalent of the Green Revolution, known as the "Battle for Grain", in which 5,000 new farms were established and five new agricultural towns on land reclaimed by draining the Pontine Marshes. In Sardinia, a model agricultural town was founded and named ''Mussolinia'', but has long since been renamed Arborea. This town was the first of what Mussolini hoped would have been thousands of new agricultural settlements across the country. This plan diverted valuable resources to grain production, away from other less economically viable crops. The huge tariffs associated with the project promoted widespread inefficiencies, and the government subsidies given to farmers pushed the country further into debt. Mussolini also initiated the "Battle for Land", a policy based on land reclamation outlined in 1928. The initiative had a mixed success; while projects such as the draining of the Pontine Marsh in 1935 for agriculture were good for propaganda purposes, provided work for the unemployed and allowed for great land owners to control subsidies, other areas in the Battle for Land were not very successful. This program was inconsistent with the Battle for Grain (small plots of land were inappropriately allocated for large-scale wheat production), and the Pontine Marsh was lost during World War II. Fewer than 10,000 peasants resettled on the redistributed land, and peasant poverty remained high. The Battle for Land initiative was abandoned in 1940. He also combated an economic recession by introducing the "Gold for the Fatherland" initiative, by encouraging the public to voluntarily donate gold jewellery such as necklaces and wedding rings to government officials in exchange for steel wristbands bearing the words "Gold for the Fatherland". Even Rachele Mussolini donated her own wedding ring. The collected gold was then melted down and turned into gold bars, which were then distributed to the national banks.

Mussolini pushed for government control of business: by 1935, Mussolini claimed that three quarters of Italian businesses were under state control. That same year, he issued several edicts to further control the economy, including forcing all banks, businesses, and private citizens to give up all their foreign-issued stocks and bonds to the Bank of Italy. In 1938, he also instituted wage and price controls. He also attempted to turn Italy into a self-sufficient autarky, instituting high barriers on trade with most countries except Germany.

In 1943 he proposed the theory of economic socialization.

Government

Mussolini's foremost priority was the subjugation of the minds of the Italian people and the use of propaganda to do so. Press, radio, education, films—all were carefully supervised to create the illusion that fascism was ''the'' doctrine of the twentieth century, replacing liberalism and democracy.

The principles of this doctrine were laid down in the article on fascism, written by Giovanni Gentile and signed by Mussolini that appeared in 1932 in the ''Enciclopedia Italiana''. In 1929, a concordat with the Vatican was signed, the Lateran treaties, by which the Italian state was at last recognised by the Roman Catholic Church, and the independence of Vatican City was recognised by the Italian state.

The 1929 treaty included a legal provision whereby the Italian government would protect the honor and dignity of the Pope by prosecuting offenders. In 1927, Mussolini was re-baptised by a Roman Catholic priest in an attempt to assuage certain Catholic opposition, who were still critical. After 1929, Mussolini, with his anti-Communist doctrines, convinced many Catholics to actively support him. In the encyclical ''Non abbiamo bisogno'', Pope Pius XI attacked the Fascist regime for its policy against the Catholic Action and certain tendencies to overrule Catholic education morals.

The law codes of the parliamentary system were rewritten under Mussolini. All teachers in schools and universities had to swear an oath to defend the fascist regime. Newspaper editors were all personally chosen by Mussolini and no one who did not possess a certificate of approval from the fascist party could practice journalism. These certificates were issued in secret; Mussolini thus skillfully created the illusion of a "free press". The trade unions were also deprived of any independence and were integrated into what was called the "corporative" system. The aim (never completely achieved), inspired by medieval guilds, was to place all Italians in various professional organizations or "corporations", all of which were under clandestine governmental control.

Large sums of money were spent on highly visible public works, and on international prestige projects such as the Blue Riband ocean liner ''SS Rex'' and aeronautical achievements such as the world's fastest seaplane the Macchi M.C.72 and the transatlantic flying boat cruise of Italo Balbo, who was greeted with much fanfare in the United States when he landed in Chicago.

Role of education and youth organizations

Nationalists in the years after the war thought of themselves as combating the both liberal and domineering institutions created by cabinets such as those of Giovanni Giolitti, including traditional schooling. Futurism, a revolutionary cultural movement which would serve as a catalyst for Fascism, argued for "''a school for physical courage and patriotism''", as expressed by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1919. Marinetti expressed his disdain for "''the by now prehistoric and troglodyte Ancient Greek and Latin courses''", arguing for their replacement with exercise modelled on those of the ''Arditi'' soldiers ("''[learning] to advance on hands and knees in front of razing machine gun fire; to wait open-eyed for a crossbeam to move sideways over their heads etc.''"). It was in those years that the first Fascist youth wings were formed Avanguardia Giovanile Fascista (Fascist Youth Vanguards) in 1919, and Gruppi Universitari Fascisti (Fascist University Groups), in 1922.

After the March on Rome that brought Benito Mussolini to power, the Fascists started considering ways to ideologize the Italian society, with an accent on schools. Mussolini assigned former ardito and deputy-secretary for Education Renato Ricci the task of "''reorganizing the youth from a moral and physical point of view''". Ricci sought inspiration with Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, meeting with him in England, as well as with Bauhaus artists in Germany. The Opera Nazionale Balilla was created through Mussolini's decree of 3 April 1926, and was led by Ricci for the following eleven years. It included children between the ages of 8 and 18, grouped as the ''Balilla'' and the ''Avanguardisti''.

According to Mussolini: "''Fascist education is moral, physical, social, and military: it aims to create a complete and harmoniously developed human, a fascist one according to our views''". Mussolini structured this process taking in view the emotional side of childhood: "''Childhood and adolescence alike ... cannot be fed solely by concerts, theories, and abstract teaching. The truth we aim to teach them should appeal foremost to their fantasy, to their hearts, and only then to their minds''".

The "''educational value set through action and example''" was to replace the established approaches. Fascism opposed its version of idealism to prevalent rationalism, and used the Opera Nazionale Balilla to circumvent educational tradition by imposing the collective and hierarchy, as well as Mussolini's own personality cult.

Foreign policy

In foreign policy, Mussolini soon shifted from the anti-imperialism of his lead-up to power to an extreme form of aggressive nationalism. He dreamt of making Italy a nation that was "great, respected, and feared" throughout Europe, and indeed the world. An early example was his bombardment of Corfu in 1923. Soon after he succeeded in setting up a puppet regime in Albania and in ruthlessly consolidating Italian power in Libya, which had been loosely a colony since 1912. It was his dream to make the Mediterranean ''mare nostrum'' ("our sea" in Latin), and he established a large naval base on the Greek island of Leros to enforce a strategic hold on the eastern Mediterranean.

His first steps into foreign policy seemed to portray him as a "statesman", for he participated in the Locarno Treaties of 1925 and the attempted Four Power Pact of 1933 was Mussolini's brainchild. Following the Stresa Front against Germany in 1935, Mussolini's policy took a dramatic turning point and revealed itself once again to be that of an aggressive nature. This domino effect of war began with the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

Conquest of Ethiopia

In an effort to create an Italian Empire – or as supporters called it, the New Roman Empire – Italy set its sights on Ethiopia with an invasion that was carried out rapidly. Italy's forces were far superior to the Abyssinian forces, especially in regards to air power, and they were soon victorious. Emperor Haile Selassie was forced to flee the country, with Italy entering the capital Addis Ababa to proclaim an empire by May 1936, making Ethiopia part of Italian East Africa.

Although all of the major European powers of the time had also colonised parts of Africa and committed atrocities in their colonies, the Scramble for Africa had finished by the beginning of the twentieth century. The international mood was now against colonialist expansion and Italy's actions were condemned. Retroactively, Italy was criticised for its use of mustard gas and phosgene against its enemies and also for its zero tolerance approach to enemy guerrillas, allegedly authorised by Mussolini.

When Rodolfo Graziani the viceroy of Ethiopia was nearly assassinated at an official ceremony, with the guerrilla bomb exploding among the people there, a very stronghanded reaction followed against the guerrillas, including those who were prisoners according to the International Red Cross. The IRC also alleged that Italy bombed their tents in areas of guerrillas military encampment; though Italy denied it had intended to, insisting that the rebels were targeted. It was not until the East African Campaign's conclusion in 1941 that Italy lost its East African territories, after taking on a fourteen nation allied force.

Spanish Civil War

Italian military help to Nationalists against the anti-clerical and anti-Catholic atrocities committed by the Republican side worked well in Italian propaganda targeting Catholics. On 27 July 1936 the first squadron of Italian airplanes sent by Benito Mussolini arrived in Spain. This active intervention in 1936–1939 on the side of Franco in the Spanish Civil War ended any possibility of reconciliation with France and Britain. As a result, his relationship with Adolf Hitler became closer, and he chose to accept the German annexation of Austria in 1938 and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in 1939. At the Munich Conference in September 1938, he posed as a moderate working for European peace, helping Nazi Germany seize control of the Sudetenland. His "axis" with Germany was confirmed when he made the "Pact of Steel" with Hitler in May 1939, as the previous "Rome-Berlin Axis" of 1936 had been unofficial. Members of TIGR, a Slovene anti-fascist group, plotted to kill Mussolini in Kobarid in 1938, but their attempt was unsuccessful.

Axis power

Rome-Berlin relations

The relationship between Mussolini and Adolf Hitler was a contentious one early on. While Hitler cited Mussolini as an influence and expressed privately great admiration for him, Mussolini had little regard for Hitler, especially after the Nazis had assassinated his friend and ally, Engelbert Dollfuss the Austrofascist dictator of Austria in 1934.

With the assassination of Dollfuss, Mussolini attempted to distance himself from Hitler by rejecting much of the racialism (particularly Nordicism and Germanicism) and anti-Semitism espoused by the German radical. Mussolini during this period rejected biological racism, at least in the Nazi sense, and instead emphasized "Italianizing" the parts of the Italian Empire he had desired to build. He declared that the ideas of Eugenics and the racially charged concept of an Aryan nation were not possible.

Mussolini was particularly sensitive to German accusations that the Italians were a mongrelized race. He retaliated by mockingly referring to the Germans' own lack of racial purity on several occasions. When discussing the Nazi decree that the German people must carry a passport with either Aryan or Jewish racial affiliation marked on it, in the summer of 1934, Mussolini wondered how they would designate membership in the "Germanic race":

When German-Jewish journalist Emil Ludwig asked about his views on race, Mussolini exclaimed:

In a speech given in Bari, he reiterated his attitude toward German racism: Mussolini's rejection of both racialism and the importance of race in 1934 during the height of his antagonism towards Hitler contradicted his own earlier statements about race, such as in 1928 in which he emphasized the importance of race:

Though Italian Fascism variated its official positions on race from the 1920s to 1934, ideologically Italian fascism did not originally discriminate against the Italian Jewish community: Mussolini recognised that a small contingent had lived there "since the days of the Kings of Rome" and should "remain undisturbed". There were even some Jews in the National Fascist Party, such as Ettore Ovazza who in 1935 founded the Jewish Fascist paper ''La Nostra Bandiera'' ("Our Flag").

By 1938, the enormous influence Hitler now had over Mussolini became clear with the introduction of the ''Manifesto of Race''. The Manifesto, which was closely modeled on the Nazi Nuremberg laws, stripped Jews of their Italian citizenship and with it any position in the government or professions. The German influence on Italian policy upset the established balance in Fascist Italy and proved highly unpopular to most Italians, to the extent that Pope Pius XII sent a letter to Mussolini protesting against the new laws.

It has been widely speculated that Mussolini's reasoning to adopt the Manifesto of Race in 1938 was merely tactical, in order to strengthen Italy's relations with Germany. In December 1943, Mussolini made a confession to Bruno Spampanato that seems to indicate that he regretted the Manifesto of Race, as Mussolini put it:

Mussolini also reached out to the Muslims in his empire and in the predominantly Arab countries of the Middle East. In 1937, the Muslims of Libya presented Mussolini with the "Sword of Islam" while Fascist propaganda pronounced him as the "Protector of Islam."

Munich Conference, war looming

Mussolini had imperial designs on Tunisia, and had some support in that country. In April 1939 with world focus on Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia, looking to restore honour from a much older defeat Italy invaded Albania. Italy defeated Albania within just five days forcing king Zog to flee, setting up a period of Albania under Italy. Until May 1939, the Axis had not been entirely official, but during that month the Pact of Steel treaty was made outlining the "friendship and alliance" between Germany and Italy, signed by each of its foreign ministers. Italy's king Victor Emanuel III was also wary of the pact, favouring the more traditional Italian allies like France.

Hitler was intent on invading Poland, though Galeazzo Ciano warned this would likely lead to war with the Allies. Hitler dismissed Ciano's comment, predicting that instead that Britain and the other Western countries would back down, and he suggested that Italy should invade Yugoslavia. The offer was tempting to Mussolini, but at that stage world war would be a disaster for Italy as the armaments situation from building the Italian Empire thus far was lean. Most significantly, Victor Emmanuel had demanded neutrality in the dispute. Thus when World War II in Europe began on 1 September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland eliciting the response of the United Kingdom and France declaring war on Germany, Italy did not become involved in the conflict.

War declared

As World War II began, Ciano and Viscount Halifax were holding secret phone conversations. The British wanted Italy on their side against Germany as it had been in World War I. French government opinion was more geared towards action against Italy; they were eager to attack Italy in Libya. In September 1939, France swung to the opposite extreme, offering to discuss issues with Italy, but as the French were unwilling to discuss Corsica, Nice and Savoy, Mussolini did not answer.

Convinced that the war would soon be over, with a German victory looking likely at that point, Mussolini decided to enter the war on the Axis side. Accordingly, Italy declared war on Britain and France on 10 June 1940. Italy joined the Germans in the Battle of France, fighting the fortified Alpine Line at the border. Just eleven days later, France surrendered to the Axis powers. Included in Italian-controlled France was most of Nice and other southeastern counties. Meanwhile in Africa, Mussolini's Italian East Africa forces attacked the British in their Sudan, Kenya and British Somaliland colonies, in what would become known as the East African Campaign. British Somaliland was conquered and became part of Italian East Africa on 3 August 1940, and there were Italian advances in Sudan and Kenya.

Just over a month later, the Italian Tenth Army commanded by General Rodolfo Graziani crossed from Italian Libya into Egypt where British forces were located; this would become the Western Desert Campaign. Advances were successful, but the Italians stopped at Sidi Barrani waiting for logistic supplies to catch up. During 25 October 1940, Mussolini sent the Italian Air Corps to Belgium, where the air force took part in the Battle of Britain for around two months. In October, Mussolini also sent Italian forces into Greece starting the Greco-Italian War. After initial success, this backfired as the Greek counterattack proved relentless, resulting in Italy losing one quarter of Albania. Germany soon committed forces to the Balkans to fight the gathering Allies.

Events in Africa had changed by early 1941 as Operation Compass had forced the Italians back into Libya, causing high losses in the Italian Army. Also in the East African Campaign, an attack was mounted against Italian forces. Despite putting up a resistance, they were overwhelmed at the Battle of Keren, and the Italian defense started to crumble with a final defeat in the Battle of Gondar. When addressing the Italian public on the events, he was completely open about the situation saying, ''"We call bread bread and wine wine, and when the enemy wins a battle it is useless and ridiculous to seek, as the English do in their incomparable hypocrisy, to deny or diminish it."'' Part of his comment was in relation to earlier success the Italians had in Africa, before being defeated by an Allied force later. In danger of losing the control of all Italian possessions in North Africa, Germany finally sent the Afrika Korps to support Italy. Meanwhile Operation Marita took place in Yugoslavia to end the Greco-Italian War, resulting in an Axis victory and the Occupation of Greece by Italy and Germany. With the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, Mussolini declared war on the Soviet Union in June 1941 and sent an army to fight there. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he declared war on the United States on 11 December 1941. An interesting evidence regarding Mussolini's response to the attack on Pearl Harbor comes from the diary of his Foreign Minister Ciano:

Dismissed and arrested

By early 1942, Italy's position in the war became more and more untenable. After the defeat at El Alamein at the end of 1942, the Axis troops had to retreat to where they were finally defeated in the Tunisia Campaign in the spring of 1943. Also at the Eastern Front were major setbacks and the war had come to the nation's very doorstep with the Allied invasion of Sicily. The Italian home front was also in bad shape as the Allied bombings were taking their toll. Factories all over Italy were brought to a virtual standstill due to a lack of raw materials, as well as coal and oil. Additionally, there was a chronic shortage of food, and what food was available was being sold at nearly confiscatory prices. Mussolini's once-ubiquitous propaganda machine lost its grip on the people; a large number of Italians turned to Vatican Radio or Radio London for more accurate news coverage. Discontent came to a head in March 1943 with a wave of labor strikes in the industrial north—the first large-scale strikes since 1925. Also in March, some of the major factories in Milan and Turin stopped production to secure evacuation allowances for workers' families. The physical German presence in Italy had sharply turned public opinion against Mussolini; for example, when the Allies invaded Sicily, the majority of the public there welcomed them as liberators.

Earlier in April 1943, Mussolini had begged Hitler to make a separate peace with Stalin and send German troops to the west to guard against an expected Allied invasion of Italy. Mussolini feared that with the losses in Tunisia and North Africa, the next logical step for Dwight Eisenhower's armies would be to come across the Mediterranean and attack the Italian peninsula. Within a few days of the Allied landings on Sicily in July 1943, it was obvious Mussolini's army was on the brink of collapse. This led Hitler to summon Mussolini to a meeting in northern Italy on 19 July 1943. By this time, Mussolini was so shaken from stress that he could no longer stand Hitler's boasting. His mood darkened further when that same day, the Allies bombed Rome—the first time that city had ever been the target of enemy bombing.

Some prominent members of the Italian Fascist government had turned against Mussolini by this point. Among them were his confidant Dino Grandi and Mussolini's son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano. With several of his colleagues close to revolt, ''il Duce'' was forced to summon the Grand Council of Fascism on 24 July 1943: the first time that body had met since the start of the war. When he announced that the Germans were thinking of evacuating the south, Grandi launched a blistering attack on him. Grandi moved a resolution asking the king to resume his full constitutional powers, in effect, a vote of no confidence in Mussolini. This motion carried by a 19–7 margin. Despite this sharp rebuke, Mussolini showed up for work the next day as usual. He allegedly viewed the Grand Council as merely an advisory body and did not think the vote would have any substantive effect. That afternoon, he was summoned to the royal palace by King Victor Emmanuel III, who had been planning to oust Mussolini earlier. When Mussolini tried to tell the king about the meeting, Victor Emmanuel cut him off and told him that he was being replaced by Marshal Pietro Badoglio. After Mussolini left the palace, he was arrested by Carabinieri on the king's orders.

By this time, discontent with Mussolini was such that when the news of his ouster was announced on the radio, there was no resistance. In an effort to conceal his location from the Germans, Mussolini was moved around the country before being sent to Campo Imperatore, a mountain resort in Abruzzo where he was completely isolated. Given the large Nazi presence in Italy, Badoglio announced that "the war continues at the side of our Germanic ally" in the hopes that chaos and Nazi retaliation against civilians could be avoided. Even as Badoglio was keeping up the appearance of loyalty to the Axis, he dissolved the Fascist Party two days after taking over. Also, his government was negotiating an Armistice with the Allies, which was signed on 3 September 1943. Its announcement five days later threw Italy into chaos, a civil war of sorts. Badoglio and the king fled Rome, leaving the Italian Army without orders. Immediately after the Italian surrender was announced, German troops started taking over the Italian Peninsula by force as part of Operation Achse and occupied Rome on 10 September. After a period of anarchy, Italy finally declared war on Nazi Germany on 13 October 1943 from Malta; thousands of troops were supplied to fight against the Germans, others refused to switch sides and had joined the Germans. The Badoglio government held a social truce with the leftist partisans for the sake of Italy and to rid the land of the Nazis.

Italian Social Republic

Only two months after Mussolini had been dismissed and arrested, he was rescued from his prison at the Hotel Campo Imperatore in the Gran Sasso raid by a special Fallschirmjäger unit on 12 September 1943; present was Otto Skorzeny. The rescue saved Mussolini from being turned over to the Allies, as per the armistice. Hitler had made plans to arrest the king, Crown Prince Umberto, Badoglio, and the rest of the government and restore Mussolini to power in Rome, but the government's escape south likely foiled those plans.

Three days following his rescue in the Gran Sasso raid, Mussolini was taken to Germany for a meeting with Hitler in Rastenberg at his East Prussian headquarters. Despite public professions of support, Hitler was clearly shocked by Mussolini's disheveled and haggard appearance as well as his unwillingness to go after the men in Rome who overthrew him. At this time, Mussolini was in very poor health which was the result of severe stress because of Italy's bleak war situation and he wanted to retire from politics altogether. Hitler firmly told him that unless he agreed to return to Italy and set up a new fascist state, the Germans would destroy Milan, Genoa and Turin. Feeling that he had to do what he could to blunt the edges of Nazi repression, Mussolini agreed to set up a new regime, the Italian Social Republic, informally known as the ''Salò Republic'' because of its administration from the town of Salò where he settled in just 11 days after his rescue by the Germans. Mussolini's new regime faced numerous territorial losses: in addition to losing the Italian lands held by the Allies and Badoglio's government, the provinces of South Tyrol, Belluno and Trentino were placed under German administration in the Operational Zone of the Alpine Foothills, while the provinces of Udine, Gorizia, Trieste, Pula (Pola), Rijeka (Fiume) and Ljubljana (Lubiana) were incorporated into the German Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral. In addition, the German army occupied the Dalmatian provinces of Split (Spalato) and Kotor (Cattaro), which were subsequently annexed by the Croatian fascist regime. Italy's gains in Greece and Albania were also lost to Germany, with the exception of the Italian Aegean Islands, which remained nominally under RSI rule. Mussolini opposed any territorial reductions of the Italian state and told his associates "I am not here to renounce even a square meter of state territory. We will go back to war for this. And we will rebel against anyone for this. Where the Italian flag flew, the Italian flag will return. And where it has not been lowered, now that I am here, no one will have it lowered. I have said these things to the ''Führer''".

For two years, Mussolini lived in Gargnano on Lake Garda in Lombardy during this period. Although he insisted in public that he was in full control, he himself knew that he was little more than a puppet ruler under the protection of his German liberators—for all intents and purposes, the ''Gauleiter'' of Lombardy. After yielding to pressures from Hitler and the remaining loyal fascists who formed the government of the Republic of Salo, Mussolini helped orchestrate a series of executions of some of the fascist leaders who had betrayed him at the last meeting of the Fascist Grand Council. One of those executed included his son-in-law, Galeazzo Ciano. As Head of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Italian Social Republic, Mussolini used much of his time to write his memoirs. Along with his autobiographical writings of 1928, these writings would be combined and published by Da Capo Press as ''My Rise and Fall''. }}

Personal life

Mussolini was first married to Ida Dalser in Trento in 1914. The couple had a son one year later and named him Benito Albino Mussolini. In December 1915, Mussolini married Rachele Guidi, his mistress since 1910, and with his following political ascendency the information about his first marriage was suppressed and both his first wife and son were later persecuted. With Rachele, Mussolini had two daughters, Edda (1910–1995) and Anna Maria (Forlì, Villa Carpena, 3 September 1929 – Rome, 25 April 1968), married in Ravenna on 11 June 1960 to Nando Pucci Negri, and three sons Vittorio (1916–1997), Bruno (1918–1941), and Romano (1927–2006). Mussolini had a number of mistresses among them Margherita Sarfatti and his final companion, Clara Petacci. Furthermore, Mussolini had innumerable brief sexual encounters with female supporters as reported by his biographer Nicholas Farrell.

Religious beliefs

Atheism and anti-clericalism

Mussolini was raised by a devoutly Catholic mother and an anti-clerical father. His mother Rosa had him baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, and took her children to services every Sunday. His father never attended. Mussolini regarded his time at a religious boarding school as punishment, compared the experience to hell, and ''"once refused to go to morning mass and had to be dragged there by force"''.

Mussolini would become anti-clerical like his father. As a young man, he "proclaimed himself to be an atheist and several times tried to shock an audience by calling on God to strike him dead." He denounced socialists who were tolerant of religion, or who had their children baptized. He believed that science had proven there was no God, and that the historical Jesus was ignorant and mad. He considered religion a disease of the psyche, and accused Christianity of promoting resignation and cowardice.

Mussolini was an admirer of Friedrich Nietzsche. According to Denis Mack Smith, "In Nietzsche he found justification for his crusade against the Christian virtues of humility, resignation, charity, and goodness." He valued Nietzsche's concept of the superman, "The supreme egoist who defied both God and the masses, who despised egalitarianism and democracy, who believed in the weakest going to the wall and pushing them if they did not go fast enough."

Mussolini made vitriolic attacks against Christianity and the Catholic Church, "which he accompanied with provocative and blasphemous remarks about the consecrated host and about a love affair between Christ and Mary Magdalen." He believed that socialists who were Christian or who accepted religious marriage should be expelled from the party. He denounced the Catholic Church for "its authoritarianism and refusal to allow freedom of thought..." Mussolini's newspaper, ''La Lotta di Classe'', reportedly had an anti-Christian editorial stance.

Lateran Pact

Despite making such attacks, Mussolini would try to win popular support by appeasing the Catholic majority in Italy. In 1924, Mussolini saw that three of his children were given communion. In 1925, he had a priest perform a religious marriage ceremony for himself and his wife Rachele, whom he had married in a civil ceremony 10 years earlier. On 11 February 1929, he signed a concordat and treaty with the Roman Catholic Church. Under the Lateran Pact, Vatican City was granted independent statehood and placed under Church law—rather than Italian law—and the Catholic religion was recognized as Italy's state religion. The Church also regained authority over marriage, Catholicism could be taught in all secondary schools, birth control and freemasonry were banned, and the clergy received subsidies from the state, and was exempted from taxation. Pope Pius XI praised Mussolini, and the official Catholic newspaper pronounced "Italy has been given back to God and God to Italy."

After this conciliation, he claimed the Church was subordinate to the State, and "referred to Catholicism as, in origin, a minor sect that had spread beyond Palestine only because grafted onto the organization of the Roman empire." After the concordat, "he confiscated more issues of Catholic newspapers in the next three months than in the previous seven years." Mussolini reportedly came close to being excommunicated from the Catholic Church around this time.

Mussolini publicly reconciled with the Pope Pius XI in 1932, but "took care to exclude from the newspapers any photography of himself kneeling or showing deference to the Pope." He wanted to persuade Catholics that "[f]ascism was Catholic and he himself a believer who spent some of each day in prayer..." The Pope began referring to Mussolini as "a man sent by Providence." Despite Mussolini's efforts to appear pious, by order of his party, pronouns referring to him "had to be capitalized like those referring to God..."

In 1938 Mussolini began reasserting his anti-clericalism. He would sometimes refer to himself as an "outright disbeliever," and once told his cabinet that "Islam was perhaps a more effective religion than Christianity" and that the "papacy was a malignant tumor in the body of Italy and must 'be rooted out once and for all', because there was no room in Rome for both the Pope and himself." He would publicly back down from these anti-clerical statements, but continued making similar statements in private.

After his fall from power in 1943, Mussolini began speaking "more about God and the obligations of conscience", although "he still had little use for the priests and sacraments of the Church,". He also began drawing parallels between himself and Jesus Christ. Mussolini's widow, Rachele, stated that her husband had remained "basically irreligious until the later years of his life. Mussolini was given a Catholic funeral in 1957.

Death

Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were stopped by communist partisans Valerio and Bellini and identified by the Political Commissar of the partisans' 52nd ''Garibaldi'' Brigade, Urbano Lazzaro, on 27 April 1945, near the village of Dongo (Lake Como), as they headed for Switzerland to board a plane to escape to Spain. During this time Claretta's brother even posed as a Spanish consul. Mussolini had been traveling with retreating German forces and was apprehended while attempting to escape recognition by wearing a German military uniform. After several unsuccessful attempts to take them to Como they were brought to Mezzegra. They spent their last night in the house of the De Maria family.

The next day, Mussolini and Petacci were both summarily executed, along with most of the members of their 15-man train, primarily ministers and officials of the Italian Social Republic. The shootings took place in the small village of Giulino di Mezzegra. According to the official version of events, the shootings were conducted by ''Colonnello Valerio'', whose real name was Walter Audisio. Audisio was the communist partisan commander who was reportedly given the order to kill Mussolini by the National Liberation Committee. When Audisio entered the room where Mussolini and the other fascists were being held, he reportedly announced, "I have come to rescue you!... Do you have any weapons?" He then had them loaded into transports and driven a short distance. Audisio ordered, "Get down"; Petacci hugged Mussolini and refused to move away from him when they were taken to an empty space. Shots were fired and Petacci fell down. Just then Mussolini opened his jacket and screamed, "Shoot me in the chest!" Audisio shot him in the chest. Mussolini fell but did not die and was breathing heavily. Audisio went near and he shot one more bullet in his chest. Mussolini's face looked as if he had significant pain. Audisio said to his driver, "Look at his face, the emotions on his face don't suit him." The other members of Mussolini's entourage were also executed before a firing squad later that same day towards nightfall.

Mussolini's body

On 29 April 1945, the bodies of Mussolini, Petacci, and the other executed Fascists were loaded into a moving van and trucked south to Milan. There, at 3:00 am, they were dumped on the ground in the old Piazzale Loreto. The piazza had been renamed "Piazza Quindici Martiri" in honor of 15 anti-Fascists recently executed there.

After being shot, kicked, and spat upon, the bodies were hung upside down on meathooks from the roof of an Esso gas station. The bodies were then stoned by civilians from below. This was done both to discourage any Fascists from continuing the fight and as an act of revenge for the hanging of many partisans in the same place by Axis authorities. The corpse of the deposed leader became subject to ridicule and abuse. Fascist loyalist Achille Starace was captured and sentenced to death and then taken to the Piazzale Loreto and shown the body of Mussolini. Starace, who once said of Mussolini "He is a god," saluted what was left of his leader just before he was shot. The body of Starace was subsequently strung up next to the body of Mussolini.

After his death and the display of his corpse in Milan, Mussolini was buried in an unmarked grave in Musocco, the municipal cemetery to the north of the city. On Easter Sunday 1946 his body was located and dug up by Domenico Leccisi and two other neo-Fascists. Making off with their hero, they left a message on the open grave: "Finally, O Duce, you are with us. We will cover you with roses, but the smell of your virtue will overpower the smell of those roses."

On the loose for months—and a cause of great anxiety to the new Italian democracy—the Duce's body was finally "recaptured" in August, hidden in a small trunk at the Certosa di Pavia, just outside Milan. Two Fransciscan brothers were subsequently charged with concealing the corpse, though it was discovered on further investigation that it had been constantly on the move. Unsure what to do, the authorities held the remains in a kind of political limbo for 10 years, before agreeing to allow them to be re-interred at Predappio in Romagna, his birth place, after a campaign headed by Leccisi and the Movimento Sociale Italiano.

Leccisi, a fascist deputy, went on to write his autobiography, ''With Mussolini Before and After Piazzale Loreto.'' Adone Zoli, the prime minister of the day, contacted Donna Rachele, the former dictator's widow, to tell her he was returning the remains, as he needed the support of the far-right in parliament, including Leccisi himself. In Predappio the dictator was buried in a crypt (the only posthumous honour granted to Mussolini). His tomb is flanked by marble fasces, and a large idealised marble bust of himself sits above the tomb.

Legacy

Mussolini was survived by his wife, Rachele Mussolini, two sons, Vittorio and Romano Mussolini, and his daughters Edda, the widow of Count Ciano, and Anna Maria. A third son, Bruno, was killed in an air accident while flying a P108 bomber on a test mission, on 7 August 1941. His oldest son, Benito Albino Mussolini, from his marriage with Ida Dalser, was ordered to stop declaring that Mussolini was his father and in 1935 forcibly committed to an asylum in Milan, where he died on 26 August 1942 after repeated coma-inducing injections. Actress Sophia Loren's sister, Anna Maria Scicolone, was formerly married to Romano Mussolini, Mussolini's son. Mussolini's granddaughter Alessandra Mussolini was a member of the European Parliament for the far right party Alternativa Sociale and currently serves in the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the ruling People of Freedom. Other relatives of Edda (Castrianni) moved to England after World War II.

Mussolini's National Fascist Party was banned in the postwar Constitution of Italy, but a number of successor neo-fascist parties emerged to carry on its legacy. Historically, the strongest neo-fascist party was MSI (''Movimento Sociale Italiano''), which was declared dissolved in 1995 and replaced by the National Alliance, which distanced itself from Fascism (its leader Gianfranco Fini once declared that Fascism was "an absolute evil"). These parties were united under Silvio Berlusconi's House of Freedoms coalition and in 2009 a broad based group of right-wing parties, including Gianfranco Fini's National Alliance and Alessandra Mussolini's Azione Sociale, were merged to create The People of Freedom party led by Prime Minister Berlusconi.

In popular culture

Charlie Chaplin's 1940 film ''The Great Dictator'' satirizes Mussolini as "Benzino Napaloni", portrayed by Jack Oakie. More serious biographical depictions include a look at the last few days of Mussolini's life in Carlo Lizzani's movie ''Mussolini: Ultimo atto'' (''Mussolini: The last act'', 1974) starring Rod Steiger and George C. Scott's portrayal in the 1985 television mini-series ''Mussolini: The Untold Story''.

Another 1985 movie was ''Mussolini and I'', in which Bob Hoskins plays the dictator (with Susan Sarandon as his daughter Edda and Anthony Hopkins as Count Ciano). Actor Antonio Banderas also played the title role in ''Benito'' in 1993, which covered his life from his school teacher days to the beginning of World War I, before his rise as dictator. Mussolini is also depicted in the films ''Tea with Mussolini'', ''Lion of the Desert'' (also with Steiger) and the award-winning Italian film ''Vincere''.

In the Sylvester Stallone film Oscar, one of the Finucci Brothers insults the other one when he says, "Shutta you face, Mussolini!"

See also

Fascist manifesto

Italian Fascism

Fascism

List of people on the cover of Time magazine (1920s) – on 6 August 1923 and 12 July 1926

References

Bibliography

''Mussolini''. Bosworth, R.J.B., London, Hodder, 2002 (hardback ISBN 0-340-73144-3); (paperback ISBN 0-340-80988-4).

"''Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Dictatorship 1915–1945''". Bosworth, R.J.B., London, Allen Lane, 2006 (hardback ISBN 0-7139-9697-8, paperback 2006 ISBN 0-14-101291-9).

''The Birth of Fascist Ideology, From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution'', Zeev Sternhell, with Mario Sznajder and Maia Asheri, trans. by David Maisel, Princeton University Press, NJ, 1994. pg 214.

''Mussolini's Cities: Internal Colonialism in Italy, 1930–1939'', Cambria Press: 2007

''Mussolini's Rome: rebuilding the Eternal City'', Borden W. Painter, Jr., 2005

''Mussolini'', Renzo De Felice, Torino: Einaudi, 1995.

''Mussolini: A biography'', by Denis Mack Smith, Borzoi Book published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1982, ISBN 0-394-50694-4

''Mussolini: A New Life'', Nicholas Farrell, London: Phoenix Press, 2003, ISBN 1-84212-123-5.

''Mussolini: An Intimate Biography'' by Rachelle Mussolini, as told to Albert Zarca, Pocket Book edition, 1977, published by arrangement with William Morrow & Company, Inc. (Morrow edition published 1974), ISBN 0-671-81272-6, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-1129

''Mussolini: The Last 600 Days of Il Duce'', Ray Moseley, Dallas: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2004.

''Mussolini in the First World War: The Journalist, the Soldier, the Fascist''. O'Brien, Paul. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2004 (hardback, ISBN 1-84520-051-9; (paperback, ISBN 1-84520-052-7)).

''Mastering Modern World History'' by Norman Lowe "Italy, 1918–1945: the first appearance of fascism.

''Europe 1870–1991'' by Terry Morris and Derrick Murphy

''Il Duce'' – Christopher Hibbert

''The Last Centurion'' by Rudolph S.Daldin www.benito-mussolini.com ISBN 0-921447-34-5

''Hitler and Mussolini. The Secret Meetings'' by Santi Corvaja translated by Robert L. Miller Enigma 2001 ISBN 1-929631-00-6

''Mussolini. The Secrets of his Death'' by Luciano Garibaldi Enigma 2004 ISBN 1-929631-23-5

''L'archivio segreto di Mussolini'', Arrigo Petacco (ed.), Mondadori, 1998, ISBN 88-04-44914-4

Writings of Mussolini

''Giovanni Hus, il Veridico(Jan Hus, True prophet)'', Rome (1913). Published in America as ''John Hus'' (New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1929). Republished by the Italian Book Co., NY (1939) as ''John Hus, the Veracious''.

''The Cardinal's Mistress'' (trans. Hiram Motherwell, New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1928)

There is an essay on "The Doctrine of Fascism" written by Benito Mussolini that appeared in the 1932 edition of the Enciclopedia Italiana, and excerpts can be read at Doctrine of Fascism. There are also links to the complete text.

''La Mia Vita'' ("My Life"), Mussolini's autobiography written upon request of the American Ambassador in Rome (Child). Mussolini, at first not interested, decided to dictate the story of his life to Arnaldo Mussolini, his brother. The story covers the period up to 1929, includes Mussolini's personal thoughts on Italian politics and the reasons that motivated his new revolutionary idea. It covers the march on Rome and the beginning of the dictatorship and includes some of his most famous speeches in the Italian Parliament (Oct 1924, Jan 1925).

''Vita di Arnaldo'', Milano, Il Popolo d'Italia, 1932.

''Scritti e discorsi di Benito Mussolini'', 12 voll., Milano, Hoepli, 1934-1940.

''Parlo con Bruno'', Milano, Il Popolo d'Italia, 1941.

''Storia di un anno. Il tempo del bastone e della carota'', Milano, Mondadori, 1944.

From 1951 to 1962 Edoardo and Duilio Susmel worked for the publisher "La Fenice" in order to print ''opera omnia'' (the complete works) of Mussolini in 35 volumes.

External links

Benito Mussolini in pictures

Comando Supremo: Benito Mussolini

Did Mussolini really make the trains run on time?

Is Mussolini quote on corporatism accurate?

Benito Mussolini Speeches

Michael Schirru's failed attempt on Mussolini's life

Il Duce 'sought Hitler ban' September 2003 BBC News

The Illustrated London News">Mussolini shaking hands with King George V. of England, 1923, The Illustrated London News

Mussolini's Piazza Augusto Imperatore

==Related information==

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name	Walt Disney
birth name	Walter Elias Disney
birth date	December 05, 1901
birth place	Hermosa, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
death date	December 15, 1966
death place	Burbank, California, U.S. Interred: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California, U.S.
occupation	Film producer, Co-founder of The Walt Disney Company, formerly known as Walt Disney Productions
yearsactive	1920–1966
spouse	Lillian Bounds (1925–1966)
parents	Elias DisneyFlora Call Disney
relations	Herbert Arthur Disney (brother)Raymond Arnold Disney (brother)Roy Oliver Disney (brother)Ruth Flora Disney (sister)Ronald William Miller (son-in-law)Robert Borgfeldt Brown (son-in-law)Roy Edward Disney (nephew)
children	Diane Marie DisneySharon Mae Disney
religion	Christian (Congregationalist)
party	Republican
signature	Walt Disney Signature 2.svg }}

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O. Disney, he was co-founder of Walt Disney Productions, which later became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. The corporation is now known as The Walt Disney Company and has annual revenues of approximately USD $35 billion.

Disney is particularly noted as a film producer and a popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He and his staff created some of the world's most well-known fictional characters including Mickey Mouse, for whom Disney himself provided the original voice. During his lifetime he received four honorary Academy Awards and won twenty-two Academy Awards from a total of fifty-nine nominations, including a record four in one year, giving him more awards and nominations than any other individual in history. Disney also won seven Emmy Awards and gave his name to the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the U.S., as well as the international resorts Tokyo Disney, Disneyland Paris, and Disneyland Hong Kong.

The year after his December 15, 1966 death from lung cancer in Burbank, California, construction began on Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. His brother Roy Disney inaugurated the Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971.

1901–1937: Beginnings

Childhood

Disney was born on December 5, 1901, at 2156 N. Tripp Avenue in Chicago's Hermosa community area to Irish-Canadian father Elias Disney and German-American mother Flora Call Disney. His great-grandfather, Arundel Elias Disney, had emigrated from Gowran, County Kilkenny, Ireland where he was born in 1801. Arundel Disney was a descendant of Robert d'Isigny, a Frenchman who had travelled to England with William the Conqueror in 1066. With the d'Isigny name anglicised as "Disney", the family settled in a village now known as Norton Disney, south of the city of Lincoln, in the county of Lincolnshire.

In 1878, Disney's father Elias had moved from Huron County, Ontario, Canada to the United States at first seeking gold in California before finally settling down to farm with his parents near Ellis, Kansas, until 1884. Elias worked for the Union Pacific Railroad and married Flora Call on January 1, 1888, in Acron, Florida. The family moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1890, hometown of his brother Robert who helped Elias financially for most of his early life. In 1906, when Walt was four, Elias and his family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, where his brother Roy had recently purchased farmland. In Marceline, Disney developed his love for drawing with one of the family's neighbors, a retired doctor named "Doc" Sherwood, paying him to draw pictures of Sherwood's horse, Rupert. His interest in trains also developed in Marceline, a town that owed its existence to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway which ran through it. Walt would put his ear to the tracks in anticipation of the coming train then try and spot his uncle, engineer Michael Martin, running the train.

The Disneys remained in Marceline for four years, before moving to Kansas City in 1911 where Walt and his younger sister Ruth attended the Benton Grammar School. At school he met Walter Pfeiffer who came from a family of theatre aficionados, and introduced Walt to the world of vaudeville and motion pictures. Before long Walt was spending more time at the Pfeiffers' than at home. As well as attending Saturday courses at the Kansas City Art Institute, Walt often took Ruth to Electric Park, 15 blocks from their home, which Disney would later acknowledge as a major influence of his design of Disneyland).

Teenage years

In 1917, Elias acquired shares in the O-Zell jelly factory in Chicago and moved his family back to the city, where in the fall Disney began his freshman year at McKinley High School and took night courses at the Chicago Art Institute. He became the cartoonist for the school newspaper, drawing patriotic topics and focusing on World War I. Despite dropping out of high school at the age of sixteen to join the army, Disney was rejected for being underage.

After his rejection by the army, Walt and a friend decided to join the Red Cross. Soon after joining he was sent to France for a year, where he drove an ambulance, but only after the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918.

Hoping to find work outside the Chicago O-Zell factory, in 1919 Walt moved back to Kansas City to begin his artistic career. After considering whether to become an actor or a newspaper artist, he decided on a career as a newspaper artist, drawing political caricatures or comic strips. But when nobody wanted to hire him as either an artist or even as an ambulance driver, his brother Roy, then working in a local bank, got Walt a temporary job through a bank colleague at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio where he created advertisements for newspapers, magazines, and movie theaters. At Pesmen-Rubin he met cartoonist Ubbe Iwerks and when their time at the studio expired, they decided to start their own commercial company together.

In January 1920, Disney and Iwerks formed a short-lived company called, "Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists". However, following a rough start, Disney left temporarily to earn money at the Kansas City Film Ad Company, and was soon joined by Iwerks who was not able to run their business alone. While working for the Kansas City Film Ad Company, where he made commercials based on cutout animations, Disney became interested in animation, and decided to become an animator. The owner of the Ad Company, A.V. Cauger, allowed him to borrow a camera from work to experiment with at home. After reading the Edwin G. Lutz book ''Animated Cartoons: How They Are Made, Their Origin and Development'', Disney considered cel animation to be much more promising than the cutout animation he was doing for Cauger. Walt eventually decided to open his own animation business, and recruited a fellow co-worker at the Kansas City Film Ad Company, Fred Harman, as his first employee. Walt and Harman then secured a deal with local theater owner Frank L. Newman, arguably the most popular "showman" in the Kansas City area at the time, to screen their cartoons at his local theater, which they titled ''Laugh-O-Grams''.

Laugh-O-Gram Studio

Presented as "Newman Laugh-O-Grams", Disney's cartoons became widely popular in the Kansas City area and through their success, he was able to acquire his own studio, also called Laugh-O-Gram, for which he hired a vast number of additional animators, including Fred Harman's brother Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, and his close friend Ubbe Iwerks. Unfortunately, studio profits were insufficient to cover the high salaries paid to employees. Unable to successfully manage money, Disney's studio became loaded with debt and wound up bankrupt whereupon he decided to set up a studio in the movie industry's capital city, Hollywood, California.

Hollywood

Disney and his brother Roy pooled their money and set up a cartoon studio in Hollywood where they needed to find a distributor for Walt's new Alice Comedies, which he had started making while in Kansas City but never got to distribute. Disney sent an unfinished print to New York distributor Margaret Winkler, who promptly wrote back to him that she was keen on a distribution deal for more live-action/animated shorts based upon ''Alice's Wonderland''.

Alice Comedies

Virginia Davis, the live-action star of ''Alice’s Wonderland'' and her family relocated from Kansas City to Hollywood at Disney's request, as did Iwerks and his family. This was the beginning of the Disney Brothers' Studio located on Hyperion Avenue in the Silver Lake district, where it remained until 1939. In 1925, Disney hired a young woman named Lillian Bounds to ink and paint celluloid. After a brief courtship, the pair married that same year.

The new series, ''Alice Comedies'', proved reasonably successful, and featured both Dawn O'Day and Margie Gay as Alice with Lois Hardwick also briefly assuming the role. By the time the series ended in 1927, its focus was more on the animated characters and in particular a cat named Julius who resembled Felix the Cat, rather than the live-action Alice.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

By 1927, Charles Mintz had married Margaret Winkler and assumed control of her business. He then ordered a new all-animated series to be put into production for distribution through Universal Pictures. The new series, ''Oswald the Lucky Rabbit'', was an almost instant success, and the character, Oswald — drawn and created by Iwerks — became a popular figure. The Disney studio expanded and Walt re-hired Harman, Rudolph Ising, Carman Maxwell, and Friz Freleng from Kansas City.

Disney went to New York in February 1928 to negotiate a higher fee per short and was shocked when Mintz told him that not only did he want to reduce the fee he paid Disney per short but also that he had most of his main animators, including Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng—but not Iwerks, who refused to leave Disney—under contract and would start his own studio if Disney did not accept the reduced production budgets. Universal, not Disney, owned the Oswald trademark, and could make the films without Walt. Disney declined Mintz's offer and as a result lost most of his animation staff whereupon he found himself on his own again.

It subsequently took his company 78 years to get back the rights to the Oswald character when in 2006 the Walt Disney Company reacquired the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from NBC Universal, through a trade for longtime ABC sports commentator Al Michaels.

Mickey Mouse

After losing the rights to Oswald, Disney felt the need to develop a new character to replace him, which was based on a mouse he had adopted as a pet while working in his Laugh-O-Gram studio in Kansas City. Ub Iwerks reworked the sketches made by Disney to make the character easier to animate although Mickey's voice and personality were provided by Disney himself until 1947. In the words of one Disney employee, "Ub designed Mickey's physical appearance, but Walt gave him his soul." Besides Oswald and Mickey, a similar mouse-character is seen in the ''Alice Comedies'', which featured "Ike the Mouse". Moreover, the first Flip the Frog cartoon called Fiddlesticks showed a Mickey Mouse look-alike playing fiddle. The initial films were animated by Iwerks with his name prominently featured on the title cards. Originally named "Mortimer", the mouse was later re-christened "Mickey" by Lillian Disney who thought that the name Mortimer did not fit. Mortimer later became the name of Mickey's rival for Minnie – taller than his renowned adversary and speaking with a Brooklyn accent.

The first animated short to feature Mickey, ''Plane Crazy'' was a silent film like all of Disney's previous works. After failing to find a distributor for the short and its follow-up, ''The Gallopin' Gaucho'', Disney created a Mickey cartoon with sound entitled ''Steamboat Willie''. A businessman named Pat Powers provided Disney with both distribution and Cinephone, a sound-synchronization process. ''Steamboat Willie'' became an instant success, and ''Plane Crazy'', ''The Galloping Gaucho'', and all future Mickey cartoons were released with soundtracks. After the release of ''Steamboat Willie'', Disney successfully used sound in all of his subsequent cartoons, and Cinephone also became the new distributor for Disney's early sound cartoons. Mickey soon eclipsed Felix the Cat as the world's most popular cartoon character and by 1930, despite their having sound, cartoons featuring Felix had faded from the screen after failing to gain attention. Mickey's popularity would subsequently skyrocket in the early 1930s.

''Silly Symphonies''

Following in the footsteps of ''Mickey Mouse series'', a series of musical shorts titled, ''Silly Symphonies'' were released in 1929. The first, ''The Skeleton Dance'' was entirely drawn and animated by Iwerks, who was also responsible for drawing the majority of cartoons released by Disney in 1928 and 1929. Although both series were successful, the Disney studio was not receiving its rightful share of profits from Pat Powers, and in 1930, Disney signed a new distribution deal with Columbia Pictures. The original basis of the cartoons was their musical novelty with the first Silly Symphony cartoons featuring scores by Carl Stalling.

Iwerks was soon lured by Powers into opening his own studio with an exclusive contract, while Stalling would also later leave Disney to join Iwerks. Iwerks launched his ''Flip the Frog'' series with the first voiced color cartoon ''Fiddlesticks'', filmed in two-strip Technicolor. Iwerks also created two other cartoon series, ''Willie Whopper'' and the ''Comicolor''. In 1936, Iwerks shut down his studio in order to work on various projects dealing with animation technology. He would return to Disney in 1940 and go on to pioneer a number of film processes and specialized animation technologies in the studio's research and development department.

By 1932, although Mickey Mouse had become a relatively popular cinema character, ''Silly Symphonies'' was not as successful. The same year also saw competition increase as Max Fleischer's flapper cartoon character, Betty Boop, gained popularity among theater audiences. Fleischer, considered Disney's main rival in the 1930s, was also the father of Richard Fleischer, whom Disney would later hire to direct his 1954 film ''20,000 Leagues Under the Sea''. Meanwhile, Columbia Pictures dropped the distribution of Disney cartoons to be replaced by United Artists. In late 1932, Herbert Kalmus, who had just completed work on the first three-strip technicolor camera, approached Walt and convinced him to reshoot the black and white ''Flowers and Trees'' in three-strip Technicolor. ''Flowers and Trees'' would go on to be a phenomenal success and would also win the first 1932 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons. After the release of ''Flowers and Trees'', all subsequent ''Silly Symphony'' cartoons were in color while Disney was also able to negotiate a two-year deal with Technicolor, giving him the sole right to use their three-strip process, a period eventually extended to five years. Through ''Silly Symphonies'', Disney also created his most successful cartoon short of all time, ''The Three Little Pigs'' (1933). The cartoon ran in theaters for many months, featuring the hit song that became the anthem of the Great Depression, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf".

First Academy Award

In 1932, Disney received a special Academy Award for the creation of "Mickey Mouse", a series which switched to color in 1935 and soon launched spin-offs for supporting characters such as Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. Pluto and Donald became standalone cartoons in 1937, with Goofy following in 1939. Of all Mickey's partners, Donald Duck, who first teamed up with Mickey in the 1934 cartoon, ''Orphan's Benefit'', was arguably the most popular, going on to become Disney's second most successful cartoon character of all time.

Children

The Disneys' first attempt at pregnancy ended when Lillian miscarried. She became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter, Diane Marie Disney, on December 18, 1933. The Disneys adopted Sharon Mae Disney (December 31, 1936 – February 16, 1993).

1937–1941: Golden age of animation

"Disney's Folly": ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''

[[Image:Walt Disney Snow white 1937 trailer screenshot (13).jpg|left|thumb|Walt Disney introduces each of the Seven Dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 ''Snow White'' theatrical trailer.]]

Following the creation of two cartoon series, in 1934 Disney began planning a full-length feature. The following year, opinion polls showed that another cartoon series, ''Popeye the Sailor'', produced by Max Fleischer, was more popular than Mickey Mouse. Nevertheless, Disney was able to put Mickey back on top as well as increase his popularity by colorizing and partially redesigning the character to become what was considered his most appealing design to date. When the film industry learned of Disney's plans to produce an ''animated'' feature-length version of ''Snow White'', they were certain that the endeavor would destroy the Disney Studio and dubbed the project "Disney's Folly". Both Lillian and Roy tried to talk Disney out of the project, but he continued plans for the feature, employing Chouinard Art Institute professor Don Graham to start a training operation for the studio staff. Disney then used the ''Silly Symphonies'' as a platform for experiments in realistic human animation, distinctive character animation, special effects, and the use of specialized processes and apparatus such as the multiplane camera – a new technique first used by Disney in the 1937 ''Silly Symphonies'' short ''The Old Mill''.

All of this development and training was used to increase quality at the studio and to ensure that the feature film would match Disney's quality expectations. Entitled ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', the feature went into full production in 1934 and continued until mid-1937, when the studio ran out of money. To obtain the funding to complete ''Snow White'', Disney had to show a rough cut of the motion picture to loan officers at the Bank of America, who then gave the studio the money to finish the picture. The film premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater on December 21, 1937 and at its conclusion the audience gave ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' a standing ovation. ''Snow White'', the first animated feature in America made in Technicolor, was released in February 1938 under a new distribution deal with RKO Radio Pictures. RKO had been the distributor for Disney cartoons in 1936, after it closed down the Van Beuren Studios in exchange for distribution. The film became the most successful motion picture of 1938 and earned over $8 million on its initial release.

Golden age of animation

Following the success of ''Snow White'', for which Disney received one full-size, and seven miniature Oscar statuettes, he was able to build a new campus for the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, which opened for business on December 24, 1939. ''Snow White'' was not only the peak of Disney's success, but also ushered in a period that would later be known as the Golden Age of Animation for the studio. Feature animation staff, having just completed ''Pinocchio'', continued work on ''Fantasia'' and ''Bambi'' as well as the early production stages of ''Alice in Wonderland'', ''Peter Pan'' and ''Wind in the Willows'' while the shorts staff carried on working on the ''Mickey Mouse'', ''Donald Duck'', ''Goofy'', and ''Pluto'' cartoon series, ending the ''Silly Symphonies'' at this time. Animator Fred Moore had redesigned Mickey Mouse in the late 1930s after Donald Duck overtook him in popularity among theater audiences.

''Pinocchio'' and ''Fantasia'' followed ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' into the movie theaters in 1940, but both proved financial disappointments. The inexpensive ''Dumbo'' was then planned as an income generator, but during production most of the animation staff went on strike, permanently straining relations between Disney and his artists.

1941–1945: World War II era

In 1941, the U.S. State Department sent Disney and a group of animators to South America as part of its Good Neighbor policy, at the same time guaranteeing financing for the resultant movie, ''Saludos Amigos''.

Shortly after the release of ''Dumbo'' in October 1941, the United States entered World War II. The U.S. Army contracted most of the Disney studio's facilities where the staff created training and instruction films for the military, home-front morale-boosting shorts such as ''Der Fuehrer's Face'' and the 1943 feature film ''Victory Through Air Power''. However, military films did not generate income, and the feature film ''Bambi'' underperformed on its release in April 1942. Disney successfully re-issued ''Snow White'' in 1944, establishing a seven-year re-release tradition for his features. In 1945, ''The Three Caballeros'' was the last animated feature released by the studio during the war.

In 1944, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' publisher William Benton, entered into unsuccessful negotiations with Disney to make six to twelve educational films per annum. Disney was asked by the US Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, Office of Inter-American Affairs (OIAA), to make an educational film about the Amazon Basin, which resulted in the 1944 animated short, ''The Amazon Awakens''.

1945–1955: Post-war period

Disney studios also created inexpensive package films, containing collections of cartoon shorts, and issued them to theaters during this period. These included ''Make Mine Music'' (1946), ''Melody Time'' (1948), ''Fun and Fancy Free'' (1947) and ''The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad'' (1949). The latter had only two sections, the first based on ''The Wind in the Willows'' by Kenneth Grahame, and the second on ''The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'' by Washington Irving. During this period, Disney also ventured into full-length dramatic films that mixed live action and animated scenes, including ''Song of the South'' and ''So Dear to My Heart''. After the war ended, Mickey's popularity would also fade.

By the late 1940s, the studio had recovered enough to continue production on the full-length features ''Alice in Wonderland'' and ''Peter Pan'', both of which had been shelved during the war years. Work also began on ''Cinderella'', which became Disney's most successful film since ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''. In 1948 the studio also initiated a series of live-action nature films, titled ''True-Life Adventures'', with ''On Seal Island'' the first. Despite its resounding success with feature films, the studio's animation shorts were no longer as popular as they once were, with people paying more attention to Warner Bros. and their animation star Bugs Bunny. By 1942, Leon Schlesinger Productions, which produced the Warner Bros. cartoons, had become the country's most popular animation studio. However, while Bugs Bunny's popularity rose in the 1940s, so did Donald Duck's, a character who would replace Mickey Mouse as Disney's star character by 1949.

During the mid-1950s, Disney produced a number of educational films on the space program in collaboration with NASA rocket designer Wernher von Braun: ''Man in Space'' and ''Man and the Moon'' in 1955, and ''Mars and Beyond'' in 1957.

Testimony before Congress

Disney was a founding member of the anti-communist Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. In 1947, during the early years of the Cold War, Disney testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), where he branded Herbert Sorrell, David Hilberman and William Pomerance, former animators and labor union organizers, Communist agitators. All three men denied the allegations and Sorrell went on to testify before the HUAC in 1946 when insufficient evidence was found to link him to the Communist Party.

Disney also accused the Screen Actors Guild of being a Communist front, and charged that the 1941 strike was part of an organized Communist effort to gain influence in Hollywood.

1955–1966: Theme parks and beyond

Planning Disneyland

On a business trip to Chicago in the late-1940s, Disney drew sketches of his ideas for an amusement park where he envisioned his employees spending time with their children. The idea for a children's theme park came after a visit to Children's Fairyland in Oakland, California. This plan was originally intended to be built on a plot located across the street to the south of the studio. These original ideas developed into a concept for a larger enterprise that would become Disneyland. Disney spent five years developing Disneyland and created a new subsidiary company, WED Enterprises, to carry out planning and production of the park. A small group of Disney studio employees joined the Disneyland development project as engineers and planners, and were dubbed Imagineers.

As Disney explained one of his earliest plans to Herb Ryman, who created the first aerial drawing of Disneyland presented to the Bank of America during fund raising for the project, he said, "Herbie, I just want it to look like nothing else in the world. And it should be surrounded by a train." Entertaining his daughters and their friends in his backyard and taking them for rides on his Carolwood Pacific Railroad had inspired Disney to include a railroad in the plans for Disneyland.

Disneyland grand opening

Disneyland officially opened on July 18, 1955. On Sunday, July 17, 1955, Disneyland hosted a live TV preview, among the thousands of people in attendance were Ronald Reagan, Bob Cummings and Art Linkletter, who shared cohosting duties, as well as the mayor of Anaheim. Walt gave the following dedication day speech:

Carolwood Pacific Railroad

During 1949, Disney and his family moved to a new home on a large piece of land in the Holmby Hills district of Los Angeles, California. With the help of his friends Ward and Betty Kimball, who already had their own backyard railroad, Disney developed blueprints and immediately set to work on creating a miniature live steam railroad for his backyard. The name of the railroad, Carolwood Pacific Railroad, came from his home's location on Carolwood Drive. The railroad's half-mile long layout included a long trestle bridge, loops, overpasses, gradients, an elevated berm, and a tunnel underneath his wife's flowerbed. He named the miniature working steam locomotive built by Disney Studios engineer Roger E. Broggie ''Lilly Belle'' in his wife's honor and had his attorney draw up right-of-way papers giving the railroad a permanent, legal easement through the garden areas, which his wife dutifully signed; however, there is no evidence of the documents ever recorded as a restriction on the property's title.

Expansion into new areas

As Walt Disney Productions began work on Disneyland, it also began expanding its other entertainment operations. In 1950, ''Treasure Island'' became the studio's first all-live-action feature, soon followed by ''20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'' (in CinemaScope, 1954), ''Old Yeller'' (1957), ''The Shaggy Dog'' (1959), ''Pollyanna'' (1960), ''Swiss Family Robinson'' (1960), ''The Absent-Minded Professor'' (1961), and ''The Parent Trap'' (1961). The studio produced its first TV special, ''One Hour in Wonderland'', in 1950. Disney began hosting a weekly anthology series on ABC entitled ''Disneyland'', after the park, on which he aired clips of past Disney productions, gave tours of his studio, and familiarized the public with Disneyland as it was being constructed in Anaheim. The show also featured a Davy Crockett miniseries, which started the "Davy Crockett craze" among American youth, during which millions of coonskin caps and other Crockett memorabilia were sold across the country. In 1955, the studio's first daily television show, ''Mickey Mouse Club'' debuted and would continue in various incarnations into the 1990s.

As the studio expanded and diversified into other media, Disney devoted less of his attention to the animation department, entrusting most of its operations to his key animators, whom he dubbed the Nine Old Men. Although he was spending less time supervising the production of the animated films, he was always present at story meetings.. During Disney's lifetime, the animation department created the successful ''Lady and the Tramp'' ( the first animated film in CinemaScope) in 1955, ''Sleeping Beauty'' ( the first animated film in Super Technirama 70mm) in 1959, ''One Hundred and One Dalmatians'' (the first animated feature film to use Xerox cels) in 1961, and ''The Sword in the Stone'' in 1963.

Production of short cartoons kept pace until 1956, when Disney shut down the responsible division although special shorts projects would continue for the remainder of the studio's duration on an irregular basis. These productions were all distributed by Disney's new subsidiary, Buena Vista Distribution, which had taken over all distribution duties for Disney films from RKO by 1955. Disneyland, one of the world's first theme parks, finally opened on July 17, 1955, and was immediately successful. Visitors from around the world came to visit Disneyland, which contained attractions based on a number of successful Disney characters and films.

After 1955, the ''Disneyland'' TV show was renamed ''Walt Disney Presents''. It switched from black-and-white to color in 1961 and changed its name to ''Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color'', at the same time moving from ABC to NBC, and eventually evolving into its current form as ''The Wonderful World of Disney''. The series continued to air on NBC until 1981, when it was picked up by CBS. Since then, it has aired on ABC, NBC, the Hallmark Channel and the Cartoon Network via separate broadcast rights deals. During its run, the Disney series offered some recurring characters, such as the newspaper reporter and sleuth "Gallegher" played by Roger Mobley with a plot based on the writings of Richard Harding Davis.

Disney had already formed his own music publishing division in 1949 and in 1956, partly inspired by the huge success of the television theme song The Ballad of Davy Crockett, he created a company-owned record production and distribution entity called Disneyland Records.

Early 1960s successes

By the early 1960s, the Disney empire had become a major success, and Walt Disney Productions had established itself as the world's leading producer of family entertainment. Walt Disney was the Head of Pageantry for the 1960 Winter Olympics.

After decades of pursuit, Disney finally acquired the rights to P.L. Travers' books about a magical nanny. ''Mary Poppins'', released in 1964, was the most successful Disney film of the 1960s and featured a memorable song score written by Disney favorites, the Sherman Brothers. The same year, Disney debuted a number of exhibits at the 1964 New York World's Fair, including Audio-Animatronic figures, all of which were later integrated into attractions at Disneyland and a new theme park project which was to be established on the East Coast.

Although the studio would probably have proved major competition for Hanna-Barbera, Disney decided not to enter the race and mimic Hanna-Barbera by producing Saturday morning TV cartoon series. With the expansion of Disney's empire and constant production of feature films, the financial burden involved in such a move would have proven too great.

Plans for Disney World and EPCOT

In early 1964, Disney announced plans to develop another theme park to be called Disney World a few miles west of Orlando, Florida. Disney World was to include "the Magic Kingdom", a larger, more elaborate version of Disneyland. It would also feature a number of golf courses and resort hotels. The heart of Disney World, however, was to be the Experimental Prototype City (or Community) of Tomorrow, known as EPCOT for short.

Mineral King Ski Resort

During the early to mid 1960s, Walt Disney developed plans for a ski resort in Mineral King, a glacial valley in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. He brought in experts such as the renowned Olympic ski coach and ski-area designer Willy Schaeffler, who helped plan a visitor village, ski runs and ski lifts among the several bowls surrounding the valley. Plans finally moved into action in the mid 1960s, but Walt died before the actual work started. Disney's death and opposition from conservationists ensured that the resort was never built.

Death

In 1966, Disney was scheduled to undergo surgery to repair an old neck injury caused by many years of playing polo at the Riviera Club in Hollywood. On November 2, during pre-operative X-rays, doctors at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, across the street from the Disney Studio, discovered a tumor in his left lung. Five days later a biopsy showed the tumor to be malignant and to have spread throughout the entire left lung. After removal of the lung, doctors informed Disney that his life expectancy was six months to two years. After several chemotherapy sessions, Disney and his wife spent a short amount of time in Palm Springs, California. On November 30, Disney collapsed at his home. He was revived by fire department personnel and rushed to St. Joseph's where on December 15, 1966, at 9:30 a.m., ten days after his 65th birthday, Disney died of acute circulatory collapse, caused by lung cancer. The last thing he reportedly wrote before his death was the name of actor Kurt Russell, the significance of which remains a mystery, even to Russell.

Disney was cremated on December 17, 1966, and his ashes interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Roy O. Disney continued out with the Florida project, insisting that the name be changed to Walt Disney World in honor of his brother.

The final productions in which Disney played an active role were the animated features ''The Jungle Book'' and ''Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day'', as well as the live-action musical comedy ''The Happiest Millionaire'', both released in 1967. Songwriter Robert B. Sherman recalled of the last time he saw Disney: }}

A long-standing urban legend maintains that Disney was cryogenically frozen, and his frozen corpse stored beneath the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. However, the first known cryogenic freezing of a human corpse did not occur until January 1967, more than a month after his death.

Legacy: 1967–present

Continuing Disney Productions

After Walt Disney's death, Roy Disney returned from retirement to take full control of Walt Disney Productions and WED Enterprises. In October 1971, the families of Walt and Roy met in front of Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom to officially open the Walt Disney World Resort.

After giving his dedication for Walt Disney World, Roy asked Lillian Disney to join him. As the orchestra played "When You Wish Upon a Star", she stepped up to the podium accompanied by Mickey Mouse. He then said, "Lilly, you knew all of Walt's ideas and hopes as well as anybody; what would Walt think of it [Walt Disney World]?". "I think Walt would have approved," she replied. Roy died from a cerebral hemorrhage on December 20, 1971, the day he was due to open the Disneyland Christmas parade. During the second phase of the "Walt Disney World" theme park, EPCOT was translated by Disney's successors into EPCOT Center, which opened in 1982. As it currently exists, EPCOT is essentially a living world's fair, different from the actual functional city that Disney had envisioned. In 1992, Walt Disney Imagineering took the step closer to Disney's original ideas and dedicated Celebration, Florida, a town built by the Walt Disney Company adjacent to Walt Disney World, that hearkens back to the spirit of EPCOT. EPCOT was also originally intended to be devoid of Disney characters which initially limited the appeal of the park to young children. However, the company later changed this policy and Disney characters can now be found throughout the park, often dressed in costumes reflecting the different pavilions.

The Disney entertainment empire

Today, Walt Disney's animation/motion picture studios and theme parks have developed into a multi-billion dollar television, motion picture, vacation destination and media corporation that carry his name. Among other assets The Walt Disney Company owns five vacation resorts, eleven theme parks, two water parks, thirty-nine hotels, eight motion picture studios, six record labels, eleven cable television networks, and one terrestrial television network. As of 2007, the company had annual revenues of over U.S. $35 billion.

Disney Animation

Walt Disney was a pioneer in character animation. He was one of the first people to move away from basic cartoons with just ''"impossible outlandish gags"'' and crudely drawn characters to an art form with heartwarming stories and characters the audience can connect to on an emotional level. The personality displayed in the characters of his films and the technological advancements remain influential when animating today. He was also considered by many of his colleagues to be a master storyteller and the animation department did not fully recover from his demise until the late 1980's in a period known as the Disney Renaissance. The most finacially and critically successful films produced during this time include Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992) and The Lion King (1994). In 1995 Walt Disney Pictures distributed Pixar's Toy Story, the first computer animated feature film. Walt Disney's nephew Roy E. Disney claimed that Walt would have loved ''Toy Story'' and that it was ''"his kind of movie"'' . With the rise of computer animated films a stream of financially unsuccessful Traditional hand-drawn animated features in the early 2000s emerged. This led to the company's controversial decision to close the traditional animation department. The two satellite studios in Paris and Orlando were closed, and the main studio in Burbank was converted to a computer animation production facility, firing hundreds of people in the process. In 2004, Disney released what was announced as their final "traditionally animated" feature film, ''Home on the Range''. However, since the 2006 acquisition of Pixar, and the resulting rise of John Lasseter to Chief Creative Officer, that position has changed with the largely successful 2009 film ''The Princess and the Frog''. This marked Disney's return to traditional hand-drawn animation and the studio hired back staff who had been laid-off in the past. Today Disney produces both traditional and computer animation.

CalArts

In his later years, Disney devoted substantial time to funding The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Formed in 1961 through a merger of the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and the Chouinard Art Institute, which had helped in the training of the animation staff during the 1930s, when Disney died, one-fourth of his estate went to CalArts, which helped in building its campus. In his will, Disney paved the way for the creation of several charitable trusts which included one for the California Institute of the Arts and other for the Disney Foundation. He also donated of the Golden Oaks ranch in Valencia for construction of the school. CalArts moved onto the Valencia campus in 1972.

In an early admissions bulletin, Disney explained: }}

Walt Disney Family Museum

In 2009, the Walt Disney Family Museum opened in the Presidio of San Francisco. Thousands of artifacts from Disney's life and career are on display, including 248 awards that he received.

Anti-Semitism accusations

Disney was long rumored to be anti-Semitic during his lifetime, and such rumors have persisted after his death. Disney biographer Neal Gabler, the first writer to gain unrestricted access to the Disney archives, concluded in 2006 that available evidence does not support such accusations. In a CBS interview Gabler summarized his findings: }} Disney eventually distanced himself from the Motion Picture Alliance in the 1950s.

The Walt Disney Family Museum acknowledges that Disney did have "difficult relationships" with some Jewish individuals, and that ethnic stereotypes common to films of the 1930s were included in some early cartoons, such as ''Three Little Pigs''. However, the museum points out that Disney employed Jews throughout his career and was named "1955 Man Of The Year" by the B'nai B'rith chapter in Beverly Hills.

Academy Awards

Walt Disney holds the record for both the most Academy Award nominations (59) and the number of Oscars awarded (22). He also earned four honorary Oscars while his last competitive Academy Award was posthumous.

1932: Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Flowers and Trees (1932)

1932: Honorary Award for: creation of Mickey Mouse.

1934: Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Three Little Pigs (1933)

1935: Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: The Tortoise and the Hare (1934)

1936: Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Three Orphan Kittens (1935)

1937: Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: The Country Cousin (1936)

1938: Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: The Old Mill (1937)

1939: Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Ferdinand the Bull (1938)

1939: Honorary Award for ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' (1937) The citation read: ''"For Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, recognized as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field"'' (the award was one statuette and seven miniature statuettes)

1940: Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Ugly Duckling (1939)

1941: Honorary Award for: Fantasia (1940), shared with: William E. Garity and J.N.A. Hawkins. The citation for the certificate of merit read: ''"For their outstanding contribution to the advancement of the use of sound in motion pictures through the production of ''Fantasia''"''

1942: Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Lend a Paw (1941)

1943: Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Der Fuehrer's Face (1942)

1949: Best Short Subject, Two-reel for: Seal Island (1948)

1949: Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (Honorary Award)

1951: Best Short Subject, Two-reel for: Beaver Valley (1950)

1952: Best Short Subject, Two-reel for: Nature's Half Acre (1951)

1953: Best Short Subject, Two-reel for: Water Birds (1952)

1954: Best Documentary, Features for: The Living Desert (1953)

1954: Best Documentary, Short Subjects for: The Alaskan Eskimo (1953)

1954: Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom (1953)

1954: Best Short Subject, Two-reel for: Bear Country (1953)

1955: Best Documentary, Features for: The Vanishing Prairie (1954)

1956: Best Documentary, Short Subjects for: Men Against the Arctic

1959: Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects for: Grand Canyon

1969: Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day

Other honors

Walt Disney was the inaugural recipient of a star on the Anaheim walk of stars awarded in recognition of his significant contribution to the city of Anaheim and specifically Disneyland, which is now the Disneyland Resort. The star is located at the pedestrian entrance to the Disneyland Resort on Harbor Boulevard. Disney has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures and the other for his television work.

Walt Disney received the Congressional Gold Medal on May 24, 1968 (P.L. 90-316, 82 Stat. 130–131) and the Légion d'Honneur awarded by France in 1935. In 1935, Walt received a special medal from the League of Nations for creation of Mickey Mouse, held to be Mickey Mouse award. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on September 14, 1964. On December 6, 2006, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Walt Disney into the California Hall of Fame located at The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts.

A minor planet, 4017 Disneya, discovered in 1980 by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina, is named after him.

The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California, opened in 2003, was named in his honor.

In 1993, HBO began development of a Walt Disney biopic directed by Frank Pierson and featuring Lawrence Turman but the project never materialized and was soon abandoned. However, ''Walt - The Man Behind the Myth'', a biographical documentary about Disney, was later made.

See also

Disney family

The Mickey Mouse Club

The Walt Disney Family Museum

Walt Disney anthology television series

Notes

References

Further reading

Barrier, Michael (1999). ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516729-5.

Broggie, Michael (1997, 1998, 2005). ''Walt Disney's Railroad Story''. Virginia Beach, Virginia. Donning Publishers. ISBN 1-56342-009-0

Eliot, Marc (1993). ''Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince''. Carol. ISBN 1-55972-174-X

Mosley, Leonard. ''Disney's World: A Biography'' (1985, 2002). Chelsea, MI: Scarborough House. ISBN 0-8128-8514-7.

Gabler, Neal. ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'' (2006). New York, NY. Random House. ISBN 0-679-43822-X

Schickel, Richard, and Dee, Ivan R. (1967, 1985, 1997). ''The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney''. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher. ISBN 1-56663-158-0.

Sherman, Robert B. and Sherman, Richard M. (1998) "Walt's Time: From Before to Beyond" ISBN 0-9646059-3-7

Watts, Steven, ''The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life'', University of Missouri Press, 2001, ISBN 0826213790

External links

Discusses Walt Disney's attitude towards unions and communism.

Walt Disney Family Museum

Neal Gabler, Inside Walt Disney

Interview with Robert Stack About Walt Disney's Involvement in Polo

Walt Disney Gravesite

Disney's Fantastic Voyage

History of Walt Disney

Category:1901 births Category:1966 deaths Category:American animators Category:American anti-communists Category:American cartoonists Category:American Congregationalists Category:American Christians Category:American entertainment industry businesspeople Category:American film directors Category:American film producers Category:American screenwriters Category:American television personalities Category:American voice actors Category:Animated film directors Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Category:California Republicans Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Deaths from lung cancer Category:Disney comics writers Category:Disney people Category:English-language film directors Category:Film studio executives Category:American artists of German descent Category:American writers of German descent Category:Illinois Republicans Category:American writers of Irish descent Category:American people of Canadian descent Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of French descent Category:Kansas City Art Institute alumni Category:National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Chicago, Illinois Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Category:Animated film producers

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