Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA (ASA).^[1] The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in arcade games, home video game consoles, and home computers. The company's products, such as Pong and the Atari 2600, helped define the computer entertainment industry from the 1970s to the mid 1980s.

In 1984, the original Atari Inc. was split, and the arcade division was turned into Atari Games Inc.^[2] Atari Games received the rights to use the logo and brand name with appended text "Games" on arcade games, as well as rights to the original 1972 - 1984 arcade hardware properties. The Atari Consumer Electronics Division properties were in turn sold to Jack Tramiel's Tramel Technology Ltd., which then renamed itself to Atari Corporation.^[3][4] In 1996, Atari Corporation reverse merged with disk drive manufacturer JT Storage (JTS),^[5] becoming a division within the company.

In 1998, Hasbro Interactive acquired all Atari Corporation related properties from JTS,^[6] creating a new subsidiary, Atari Interactive.^[7] IESA bought Hasbro Interactive in 2001 and renamed it to Infogrames Interactive.^[8] IESA changed the company name entirely to Atari Interactive in 2003.^[1]

The company that currently bears the name Atari Inc. was founded in 1993 under the name GT Interactive. IESA acquired a 62% controlling interest in GT Interactive in 1999, and renamed it Infogrames, Inc.^[9] Following IESA's acquisition of Hasbro Interactive, Infogrames, Inc. intermittently published Atari branded titles for Infogrames Interactive. In 2003, Infogrames Inc. licensed the Atari name and logo from Atari Interactive and changed its name to Atari Inc.^[10] On October 11, 2008, Infogrames completed its acquisition of Atari, Inc., making it a wholly owned subsidiary.^[11]

History[link]

Atari Inc. (1972–1984)[link]

In 1971, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded an engineering firm, Syzygy Engineering,^[12] that designed and built the first arcade video game - Computer Space for Nutting Associates. On June 27, 1972 Atari, Inc. was incorporated and soon hired Al Alcorn as their first design engineer. Bushnell decided to have Alcorn produce as a test of his abilities, an arcade version of the Magnavox Odyssey's Tennis game,^[13] which would be named Pong. While Bushnell incorporated Atari in June 1972, Syzygy Company was never formally incorporated. Before Atari's official incorporation, Bushnell wrote down several words from the game go, eventually choosing atari, a term which in the context of the game means a state where a stone or group of stones is imminently in danger of being taken by one's opponent. In Japanese, atari　(当たり, あたり, or アタリ) is the nominalized form of ataru （当たる, あたる, or アタル） (verb), meaning "to hit the target" or "to receive something fortuitously". The word 'atari' is used in Japanese when a prediction comes true or when someone wins a lottery. Atari was incorporated in the state of California on June 27, 1972.^[14]

The third version of the Atari Video Computer System sold from 1980 to 1982

In 1973, Atari secretly spawned a "competitor" called Kee Games, headed by Nolan's next door neighbor Joe Keenan, to circumvent pinball distributors' insistence on exclusive distribution deals; both Atari and Kee could market (virtually) the same game to different distributors, with each getting an "exclusive" deal. Though Kee's relationship to Atari was discovered in 1974, Joe Keenan did such a good job managing the subsidiary that he was promoted to president of Atari that same year.

In 1976, Bushnell, through a Grass Valley, CA. engineering firm — Cyan Engineering, started an effort to produce a flexible video game console that was capable of playing all four of Atari's then-current games. The result was the Atari Video Computer System, or "VCS" (Later renamed the Atari 2600 when the Atari 5200 was released). Bushnell knew he had another potential hit on his hands, but bringing the machine to market would be extremely expensive. Looking for outside investors, in 1976 Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications for an estimated $28 – $32 million, using part of the money to buy the Folgers Mansion. Nolan continued to have disagreements with Warner Management over the direction of the company, the discontinuing of the Pinball division and most importantly, he felt that the Atari 2600 should be discontinued. In 1978, the Kee Games brand was dropped.^[15] In December of that year during a heated argument between Nolan Bushnell and Manny Gerard, Bushnell was fired.

A project to design a successor to the 2600 started as soon as the system shipped. The original development team estimated the 2600 had a lifespan of about three years, and decided to build the most powerful machine they could, given that time frame. Midway into the effort's time-frame, the home computer revolution was taking off, so the new machines were adapted, with the addition of a keyboard and various inputs, to produce the Atari 800, and its smaller cousin, the 400. Although a variety of issues made them less attractive than the Apple II for some users, the new machines had some success when they finally became available in quantity in 1980. In 1982, the Atari 5200 was released, based heavily on the 400 and 800 models, but without a keyboard.

Under Warner, Atari Inc. achieved its greatest success, selling millions of 2600s and computers. At its peak, Atari accounted for a third of Warner's annual income and was the fastest-growing company in the history of the United States at the time. However, Atari Inc. ran into problems in the early 1980s. Its home computer, video game console, and arcade divisions operated independently of one another and rarely cooperated. Faced with fierce competition and price wars in the game console and home computer markets, Atari was never able to duplicate the success of the 2600.

These problems were followed by the infamous video game crash of 1983, with losses that totaled more than $500 million. Warner's stock price slid from $60 to $20, and the company began searching for a buyer for its troubled division. In 1983, Ray Kassar was forced to resign, and executives involved in the Famicom lost track of the negotiations, and the deal eventually died. With Atari's further financial problems and the Famicom's runaway success in Japan after its July 16, 1983 release date, Nintendo decided to go it alone.

Financial problems continued to mount and Ray's successor, James J. Morgan, had less than a year in which to tackle his predecessor's problems, he began a massive restructuring of the company and worked with Warner Communications in May 1984 to create "NATCO" which stood for New Atari Company which would further lean the company facilities, personnel and spending and make the company profit. Unknown to James Morgan and the senior management of Atari, Warner had been in talks with Tramel Technology to buy Atari's Consumer electronics and Home Computer divisions. Negotiating up until close to midnight of July 1, 1984 Jack Tramiel purchased Atari. Warner sold the home computing and game console divisions of Atari to Tramiel for $50 cash and $240 million in promisary notes and stocks, giving Warner a 20% stake in Atari Corporation ^[16] who then used it to create a new company under the name Atari Corporation. Warner retained the arcade division, continuing it under the name Atari Games, but sold it to Namco in 1985. Warner also sold the fledgling Ataritel to Mitsubishi.

Atari Corporation (1984–1996)[link]

Atari ST

Under Tramiel's ownership, Atari Corp. used the remaining stock of game console inventory to keep the company afloat while they finished development on a 16/32-bit computer system, the Atari ST. ("ST" stands for "sixteen/thirty-two", referring to the machines' 16-bit bus and 32-bit processor core.) In April 1985, they released the first update to the 8-bit computer line — the Atari 65XE, the Atari XE series. June 1985 saw the release of the Atari 130XE, Atari User Groups received early sneak-preview samples of the new Atari 520ST's, and major retailer shipments hit store shelves in September 1985 of Atari's new 32-bit Atari ST computers. In 1986, Atari launched two consoles designed under Warner — the Atari 2600jr and the Atari 7800 console (which saw limited release in 1984). Atari rebounded, earning a $25 million profit that year.

In 1989, Atari released the Atari Lynx, a handheld console with color graphics, to much fanfare. A shortage of parts kept the system from being released nationwide for the 1989 Christmas season, and the Lynx lost market share to Nintendo's Game Boy which, despite only having a black and white display, was cheaper, had better battery life and had much higher availability. Tramiel emphasized computers over game consoles but Atari's proprietary computer architecture and operating system fell victim to the success of the Wintel platform while the game market revived. In 1989, Atari Corp. sued Nintendo for $250 million, alleging it had an illegal monopoly.^[17] Atari eventually lost the case when it was rejected by a US district court in 1992.^[18]

In 1993, Atari positioned its Jaguar as the only 64-bit interactive media entertainment system available but it sold poorly.

By 1996, a series of successful lawsuits^[19] had left Atari with millions of dollars in the bank, but the failure of the Lynx and Jaguar left Atari without a product to sell. Tramiel and his family also wanted out of the business. The result was a rapid succession of changes in ownership. In July 1996, Atari merged with JTS Inc., a short-lived maker of hard disk drives, to form JTS Corp.^[20] Atari's role in the new company largely became that of holder for the Atari properties and minor support, and consequently the name largely disappeared from the market.

As a division of Hasbro (1998–2001)[link]

In March 1998, JTS sold the Atari name and assets to Hasbro Interactive for $5 million—less than a fifth of what Warner Communications had paid 22 years earlier. This transaction primarily involved the brand and intellectual property, which now fell under the Atari Interactive division of Hasbro Interactive. The brand name changed hands again in December 2000 when French software publisher Infogrames took over Hasbro Interactive.

Atari Inc., a division of Atari, SA (2001-)[link]

In October 2001 Infogrames (now Atari, SA) announced that it was "reinventing" the Atari brand with the launch of two new games featuring a prominent Atari branding on their boxarts : Splashdown and MX Rider.^[21] On May 7, 2003, Infogrames had its majority-owned, but discrete US subsidiary Infogrames NA officially renamed Atari, Inc., renamed its European operations to Atari Europe but kept the original name of the main company Infogrames Entertainment. The original Atari holdings division purchased from Hasbro, Atari Interactive, was also made a separate corporate entity.

On March 6, 2008, Infogrames made an offer to Atari Inc. to buy out all remaining public shares for a value of $1.68 per share, or $11 million total. The offer would make Infogrames sole owner of Atari Inc., thus making it a privately held company.^[22] On April 30, 2008, Atari Inc. announced its intentions to accept Infogrames' buyout offer and to merge with Infogrames.^[23] On October 11, 2008, Infogrames completed its acquisition of Atari Inc., making it a wholly owned subsidiary.^[11]

On December 9, 2008, Atari announced that it had acquired Cryptic Studios, an MMORPG developer.^[24]

Namco Bandai has purchased a 34% stake in Atari Europe on May 14, 2009, paving the way for its acquisition from Infogrames.^[25] Atari has had significant financial issues for several years now, posting losses in the tens of millions since 2005.

Atari, SA (2009-)[link]

In May 2009 Infogrames Entertainment, SA, the parent company of Atari Inc. and Atari Interactive Inc., announced it would be changing Infogrames' name to Atari, SA. In April 2010, Atari board member and former CEO David Gardner resigned. His replacement is Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell.^[26]

See also[link]

	Computer Science portal
	Video Games portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Atari

• History of video game companies
• Golden Age of Video Arcade Games
• Atari Democrat
• Tengen (company)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Atari brand's official global site
• The Atari History Museum - Atari historical archive site.
• Atari Times, supporting all Atari consoles.
• AtariAge.com
• Atari Gaming Headquarters - Atari historical archive site.
• Atari On Film - List of Atari products in films.
• The Dot Eaters: classic video game history - Comprehensive history of videogames, extensive info on Atari offerings and history

Alan Alda
Alda in December 2008
Born	Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo (1936-01-28) January 28, 1936 (age 76) Bronx, New York, U.S.
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Fordham University
Occupation	Actor, author, activist, director, screenwriter
Years active	1958–present
Home town	Chicago, Illinois
Television	M*A*S*H
Spouse	Arlene Alda (1957–present)
Children	3
Parents	Robert Alda, Joan Browne
Awards	Six Emmy Awards, Golden Globe Award

Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo (born January 28, 1936), better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Journalism and a member of the advisory board of The Center for Communicating Science.^[1]

In 1996, Alda was ranked #41 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.^[2]

Family and early life[link]

Alda was born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo in The Bronx, New York City. His father, Robert Alda (born Alphonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D'Abruzzo), was an actor and singer, and his mother, Joan Browne, was a former showgirl. His father was of Italian descent and his mother was of Irish ancestry.^[3] His adopted surname, "Alda," is a portmanteau of ALphonso and D'Abruzzo. When Alda was seven years old, he contracted Poliomyelitis. To combat the disease, his parents administered a painful treatment regimen developed by Sister Elizabeth Kenny that consisted of applying hot woolen blankets to his limbs and stretching his muscles.^[4] Alda attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York.^[5] In 1956, he received his Bachelor of Science degree in English from Fordham College of Fordham University in the Bronx, where he was a student staff member of its FM radio station, WFUV. Alda's half-brother, Antony Alda, was born the same year and would also become an actor.

During Alan Alda's junior year, he studied in Paris, acted in a play in Rome, and performed with his father on television in Amsterdam. After graduation, he joined the U.S. Army Reserve, and served a six-month tour of duty as a gunnery officer.^[6] A year after graduation, he married Arlene Weiss, with whom he has three daughters, Eve, Elizabeth Alda, and Beatrice Alda. He also has seven grandchildren, two of whom are aspiring actors. The Aldas have been longtime residents of Leonia, New Jersey.^[7] Alda frequented Sol & Sol Deli on Palisade Avenue in the nearby town of Englewood, New Jersey—a fact mirrored in his character's daydream about eating whitefish from the establishment, in an episode of M*A*S*H in which Hawkeye sustains a head injury.^[8]

Career[link]

Early acting[link]

Alda began his career in the 1950s, as a member of the Compass Players comedy revue. In 1966, he starred in the musical The Apple Tree on Broadway; he was nominated for the Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical for that role.

Alda made his Hollywood acting debut as a supporting player in Gone are the Days! – a film version of the highly successful Broadway play Purlie Victorious, which co-starred veteran actors Ruby Dee and her husband, Ossie Davis. Other film roles would follow, such as his portrayal of author, humorist, and actor George Plimpton in the film Paper Lion (1968),^[5] as well as The Extraordinary Seaman (1969), and the occult-murder-suspense thriller The Mephisto Waltz, with actress Jacqueline Bisset. During this time, Alda frequently appeared as a panelist on the 1968 revival of What's My Line?. He also appeared as a panelist on I've Got a Secret during its 1972 syndication revival.

[edit] M*A*S*H Series (1972–83)

Alda (left of center) as Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H, 1972

In early 1972, Alda auditioned for and was selected to play the role of "Hawkeye Pierce" in the TV adaptation of the 1970 film MASH.^[5] He was nominated for 21 Emmy Awards, and won five. He took part in writing 19 episodes, including the finale, and directed 32. When he won his first Emmy Award for writing, he was so happy that he performed a cartwheel before running up to the stage to accept the award. He was also the first person to win Emmy Awards for acting, writing, and directing for the same series.^{[citation needed]} Richard Hooker, who wrote the novel on which M*A*S*H was based, did not like Alda's portrayal of Hawkeye Pierce (Hooker, a Republican, had based Hawkeye on himself, whereas Alda and the show's writers took the character in a more liberal direction).^{[citation needed]} Alda also directed the show's 1983 2½-hour series finale "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", which remains the single most-watched episode of any television series.^[5] Alda is the only series regular to appear in all 251 episodes.^[9]

Alda commuted from Los Angeles to his home in New Jersey every weekend for 11 years while starring in M*A*S*H.^[10] His wife and daughters lived in New Jersey, and he did not want to uproot his family to L.A., especially because he did not know how long the show would last.

Alan Alda, father Robert Alda, and half-brother Antony Alda appeared together in an episode of M*A*S*H, "Lend a Hand", during Season 8. Robert had previously appeared in "The Consultant" in Season 3.

During the first five seasons of the series, the tone of "M*A*S*H" was largely that of a traditional "service comedy", in the vein of shows like "McHale's Navy". However, as the original writers gradually left the series, Alda gained increasing control, and by the final seasons had become a producer and creative consultant. Under his watch, M*A*S*H retained its comedic foundation, but gradually assumed a somewhat more serious tone, openly addressing political issues. As a result, the 11 years of M*A*S*H are generally split into two eras: the Larry Gelbart/Gene Reynolds "comedy" years (1972–1977), and the Alan Alda "dramatic" years (1977–1983).

In his 1981 autobiography, Jackie Cooper (who directed several early episodes) wrote that Alda concealed a lot of hostility beneath the surface, and that the two of them barely spoke to each other by the time Cooper’s directing of M*A*S*H ended.^[11]

During his M*A*S*H years, Alda made several game-show appearances, most notably in The $10,000 Pyramid and as a frequent panelist on To Tell the Truth.

His favorite episodes of M*A*S*H are "Dear Sigmund" and "In Love and War".^[12]

Writing and Directing Credits[link]

The following is a list of M*A*S*H episodes written and/or directed by Alda.

Season One

• Episode 19: "The Long John Flap" (Written)

Season Two

• Episode 5: "Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde" (Written with Robert Klane)
• Episode 23: "Mail Call" (Directed)

Season Three

• Episode 16: "Bulletin Board" (Directed)

Season Four

• Episode 4: "The Late Captain Pierce" (Directed)
• Episode 7: "Dear Mildred" (Directed)
• Episode 8: "The Kids" (Directed)
• Episode 16: "Dear Ma" (Directed)

Season Five

• Episode 2: "Margaret's Engagement" (Directed)
• Episode 7: "Dear Sigmund (Written and Directed)
• Episode 12: "Exorcism" (Directed)
• Episode 19: "Hepatitis" (Written and Directed)

Season Six

• Episode 2: "Fallen Idol" (Written and Directed)
• Episode 4: "War of Nerves" (Written and Directed)
• Episode 7: "In Love and War" (Written and Directed)
• Episode 12: "Comrades in Arms, Part 1" (Written; Directed with Burt Metcalfe)
• Episode 13: "Comrades in Arms, Part 2" (Written; Directed with Burt Metcalfe)

Season Seven

• Episode 5: "The Billfold Syndrome" (Directed)
• Episode 8: "Major Ego" (Directed)
• Episode 14: "Dear Sis" (Written and Directed)
• Episode 16: "Inga" (Written and Directed)
• Episode 25: "The Party" (Written with Burt Metcalfe)

Season Eight

• Episode 3: "Guerilla My Dreams" (Directed)
• Episode 11: "Life Time" (Written with Walter D. Dishell, M.D.; Directed)
• Episode 15: "Yessir, That's Our Baby" (Directed)
• Episode 20: "Lend a Hand" (Written and Directed)
• Episode 22: "Dreams" (Teleplay; Story with James Jay Rubinfier; Directed)

Season Nine

• Episode 4: "Father's Day" (Directed)
• Episode 12: "Depressing News" (Directed)
• Episode 15: "Bottoms Up" (Directed)
• Episode 20: "The Life You Save" (Written with John Rappaport; Directed)

Season Ten

• Episode 6: "Communication Breakdown" (Directed)
• Episode 10: "Follies of the Living—Concerns of the Dead" (Written and Directed)
• Episode 16: "Where There's a Will, There's a War" (Directed)

Season Eleven

• Episode 1: "Hey, Look Me Over" (Written with Karen Hall)
• Episode 16: "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" (Written with Burt Metcalfe, John Rappaport, Dan Wilcox, Thad Mumford, Elias Davis, David Pollock and Karen Hall; Directed)

[edit] Post-M*A*S*H

Alda's prominence in the enormously successful M*A*S*H gave him a platform to speak out on political topics, and he has been a strong and vocal supporter of women's rights and the feminist movement.^[5] He co-chaired, with former First Lady Betty Ford, the ERA Countdown campaign. In 1976, The Boston Globe dubbed him "the quintessential Honorary Woman: a feminist icon" for his activism on behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment. As a liberal and often progressive activist, he has been a target for some political and social conservatives.

Alda played Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman in the play QED, which had only one other character. Although Peter Parnell wrote the play, Alda both produced and inspired it. Alda has also appeared frequently in the films of Woody Allen, and was a guest star five times on ER, playing Dr. Kerry Weaver's mentor, Gabriel Lawrence. During the later episodes, it was revealed that Dr. Lawrence was suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Alda also had a co-starring role as Dr. Robert Gallo in the 1993 TV movie And the Band Played On.

During M*A*S*H's run and continuing through the 1980s, Alda embarked on a successful career as a writer and director, with the ensemble dramedy The Four Seasons being perhaps his most notable hit. Betsy's Wedding was his last directing credit to date. After M*A*S*H, Alda took on a series of roles that either parodied or directly contradicted his "nice guy" image.^[5] His role as a pompous celebrity television producer in Crimes and Misdemeanors was widely seen as a self-parody, although Alda has denied this.

Recent work[link]

Alda at the 1994 Emmys.

In 1993 he co-starred with Woody Allen (also the director), Diane Keaton, and Anjelica Huston in the comedy/mystery Manhattan Murder Mystery. The four play a quartet of amateur crime solvers who become entangled in a murder plot possibly perpetrated by Keaton and Allen's neighbor. Alda's character is Ted, a playwright secretly in love with Keaton's character Carol, but who eventually falls for Huston's character Marcia.

In 1995, he starred as the President in Michael Moore's political satire/comedy film Canadian Bacon. Around this time, rumors circulated that Alda was considering running for the United States Senate in New Jersey, but he denied this. In 1996, Alda played Henry Ford in Camping With Henry and Tom, based on the book by Mark St. Germain.

Beginning in 2004, Alda was a regular cast member on the NBC program The West Wing, portraying Republican U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Arnold Vinick, until the show's conclusion in May 2006. He made his premiere in the sixth season's eighth episode, "In The Room," and was added to the opening credits with the thirteenth episode, "King Corn." In August 2006, Alda won an Emmy for his portrayal of Arnold Vinick in the final season of The West Wing.

In 2004, Alda portrayed conservative Maine Senator Owen Brewster in Martin Scorsese's Academy-Award winning film The Aviator, in which he co-starred with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Throughout his career, Alda has received 31 Emmy Award nominations and two Tony Award nominations, and has won seven People's Choice Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, and three Directors Guild of America awards. However, it was not until 2005, after a long distinguished acting career, that Alda received his first Academy Award nomination, for his role in The Aviator.

Alda also wrote several of the stories and poems that appeared in Marlo Thomas's Free to Be... You and Me television show.

Alda starred in the original Broadway production of the play Art, which opened on March 1, 1998, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. The play won the Tony Award for best original play.

Alda also had a part in the 2000 romantic comedy What Women Want, as the CEO of the advertising firm where the main characters worked.

In the spring of 2005, Alda starred as Shelly Levene in the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Throughout 2009 and 2010, he appeared in three episodes of 30 Rock as Milton Greene, the biological father of Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin).

In 2011, Alda was scheduled to guest star on Law & Order: LA, portraying former police and naval officer John Winters, the father of the former main character Rex Winters. It is unknown if he filmed his role before the series was redesigned and Rex Winters written off.

After the release of the movie Tower Heist, Alda was devastated, when on December 7, 2011, he lost his idol and decades-long friend Harry Morgan, who played opposite Alda as Colonel Sherman T. Potter on M*A*S*H. Upon Morgan's death, Alda released a statement: "We had just a wonderful time reminiscing. That was the last time I saw Harry."^[13]

Charitable work and other interests[link]

Alda has done extensive charity work. He helped narrate a 2005 St. Jude's Children's Hospital produced one-hour special TV show Fighting for Life.^[14] He and his wife, Arlene, are also close friends of Marlo Thomas, who is very active in fund-raising for the hospital her father founded. The special featured Ben Bowen as one of six patients being treated for childhood cancer at Saint Jude. Alda and Marlo Thomas had also worked together in the early 70s on a critically acclaimed children's album entitled Free to Be You and Me, which featured Alda, Thomas and a number of other well-known character actors. This project remains one of the earliest public signs of his support of women's rights.

In 2005, Alda published his first round of memoirs, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: and Other Things I've Learned.^[10] Among other stories, he recalls his intestines becoming strangulated while on location in Chile for his PBS show Scientific American Frontiers, during which he mildly surprised a young doctor with his understanding of medical procedures, which he had learned from M*A*S*H. He also talks about his mother's battle with schizophrenia. The title comes from an incident in his childhood, when Alda was distraught about his dog dying and his well-meaning father had the animal stuffed. Alda was horrified by the results, and took from this that sometimes we have to accept things as they are, rather than desperately and fruitlessly trying to change them.

In 2006, Alda contributed his voice to a part in the audio book of Max Brooks' World War Z. In this book, he voiced Arthur Sinclair Jr., the director of the United States Government's fictional "Department of Strategic Resources (DeStRes)".

His second memoir, Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, weaves together advice from public speeches he has given with personal recollections about his life and beliefs.

Alda also has an avid interest in cosmology, and participated in BBC coverage of the opening of the Large Hadron Collider, at CERN, Geneva, in September 2008.^[15]

After years of interviews, Alda helped inspire the creation of the The Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University in 2009. He remains on the advisory board as of 2012.^[16]

Alda has been an activist for feminism for many years.^[17]

Religious views[link]

In the mentioned memoir, Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, Alda candidly describes how briefly, at one time in his life he realized that he had begun thinking like an agnostic or atheist, although he had been raised as a Roman Catholic:

For a while in my teens, I was sure I had it. It was about getting to heaven. If heaven existed and lasted forever, then a mere lifetime spent scrupulously following orders was a small investment for an infinite payoff. One day, though, I realized I was no longer a believer, and realizing that, I couldn’t go back. Not that I lost the urge to pray. Occasionally, even after I stopped believing, I might send off a quick memo to the Master of the Universe, usually on a matter needing urgent attention, like Oh, God, don’t let us crash. These were automatic expulsions of words, brief SOS messages from the base of my brain. They were similar to the short prayers that were admired by the church in my Catholic boyhood, which they called “ejaculations.” I always liked the idea that you could shorten your time in purgatory with each ejaculation; what boy wouldn’t find that a comforting idea? But my effort to keep the plane in the air by talking to God didn’t mean I suddenly was overcome with belief, only that I was scared. Whether I’d wake up in heaven someday or not, whatever meaning I found would have to occur first on this end of eternity.

Speaking further on agnosticism, Alda goes on to say:

I still don't like the word agnostic. It's too fancy. I'm simply not a believer. But, as simple as this notion is, it confuses some people. Someone wrote a Wikipedia entry about me, identifying me as an atheist because I'd said in a book I wrote that I wasn't a believer. I guess in a world uncomfortable with uncertainty, an unbeliever must be an atheist, and possibly an infidel. This gets us back to that most pressing of human questions: why do people worry so much about other people's holding beliefs other than their own?

Alda made these comments in an interview for the 2008 question section of the Edge Foundation website.^[18]

Awards and nominations[link]

Awards

• Emmy Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series" in 2006, for his portrayal of Senator & Presidential candidate Arnold Vinick in The West Wing
• Emmy Award for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series" in 1980
• Emmy Award for "Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Comedy-Variety or Music Series" in 1979
• Emmy Award for "Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series" in 1977
• Emmy Award for "Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series" in 1972
• Emmy Award for "Actor of the Year – Series" in 1972
• Golden Globe for "Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series – Musical/Comedy" in 1983
• Golden Globe for "Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series – Musical/Comedy" in 1982
• Golden Globe for "Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series – Musical/Comedy" in 1981
• Golden Globe for "Best TV Actor – Musical/Comedy" in 1980
• Golden Globe for "Best TV Actor – Musical/Comedy" in 1976
• Golden Globe for "Best TV Actor – Musical/Comedy" in 1975
• DGA Award for "Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series" in 1983
• DGA Award for "Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series" in 1982
• DGA Award for "Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series" in 1977
• Drama Desk Award for "Outstanding Ensemble Performance" in 2005 for Glengarry Glen Ross.
• Became Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006^[19]

Nominations

• The audiobook version of Things I Overheard While Talking To Myself was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category of Best Spoken Word Album.

• Alda received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Senator Ralph Owen Brewster in Martin Scorsese's film The Aviator.

Filmography[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Alda, Alan (2006). Never Have Your Dog Stuffed. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 978-0-09-179652-5. OCLC 64931144. 
•   (2007). Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6617-9. OCLC 122309367. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alan Alda

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alan Alda

• Alan Alda at AllRovi
• Alan Alda at the Internet Movie Database
• Alan Alda at the Internet Broadway Database
• Alan Alda at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Never Have Your Dog Stuffed and Things I Learned While Talking To Myself - Alan Alda books Website
• Bio on Scientific American Frontiers
• Military Service
• Alan Alda Discusses Science, Improv and Richard Feynman at USC's Annenberg School]
• A film clip "The Open Mind - Alan Alda . . . on Celebrity and Its Discontents (2007)" is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• Interview with Alda on NPR's Fresh Air (September 21, 2005)
• Alan Alda's Charity Work
• Performance Working in the Theatre seminar video at American Theatre Wing.org, April 1992
• Alan Alda Interview at Archive of American Television

Boots Riley
Boots Riley
Background information
Birth name	Raymond Riley
Genres	Hip hop, spoken word, Rap-metal, Funk
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, activist, producer, organizer[1]
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1991–present
Associated acts	The Coup, Street Sweeper Social Club

Boots Riley (born Raymond Lawrence Riley in 1971) is an American musician, vocalist, writer, and public speaker most known for being the front man and producer of The Coup as well as the front man for Street Sweeper Social Club.

Biography[link]

Boots Riley was born in 1971 into a family of radical organizers in Chicago. The family later moved to Detroit and then to Oakland. His interest in politics began at a young age, inspiring him to join the Progressive Labor Party and the International Committee Against Racism.

In 1991 Riley founded the political hip hop group The Coup with fellow United Parcel Service worker E-roc. Pam the Funkstress, DJ for the group, joined in 1992. Boots was chief lyric writer and produced the music on the albums. They released a song on a 1991 compilation album called Dope Like A Pound Or A Key along with fellow former UPS worker Spice-1 and future Thug Life member Mopreme Shakur, then known as Mocedes. The album was released on Wax That Azz Records, which was owned by Pierre "The Beat Fixer" James, Too Short's DJ.

In 1991, he and other Hip-Hop artists created the Mau Mau Rhythm Collective. They put on "Hip-Hop Edutainment Concerts" which allied with and promoted the campaigns of community based organizations like Women's Economic Agenda Project (WEAP), Copwatch, International Campaign To Free Geronimo Pratt, and the Black Panther Alumni Association. The Mau Mau Rhythm Collective was actively involved in the campaign to stop the FBI's "Weed And Seed" program (which was used in the '60s in conjunction with CoIntelPro) from coming to Oakland. They used the growing popularity of their concerts to bring a large number of youth to take over a closed Oakland city council meeting and hold a public meeting.

In 1992, The Coup signed to Wild Pitch Records/EMI. The group released their debut album Kill My Landlord in 1993. Two singles from that album, "Dig It" and "Not Yet Free", received play on BET, Yo! MTV Raps, and mix shows on national Black radio.

Also, in 1993, E-40 released the video for "Practice Lookin' Hard". It was a song based around Boots's lyric, "I got a mirror in my pocket and I practice lookin' hard" from the song "Not Yet Free" on Kill My Landlord. The video featured Boots Riley singing the chorus while he, Tupac Shakur, and E-40 reflected light into the camera from a handheld mirror while dancing around.

In 1994, The Coup released their second album, Genocide & Juice. It featured guest appearances by E-40 and Spice-1. Fueled by video play and some radio play for the single "Fat Cats And Bigga Fish", the album shot up the charts, but stalled when EMI suddenly absorbed Wild Pitch. At this point, E-roc left The Coup on amicable terms.

At this time, Boots decided to stop making music in favor of forming an organization called The Young Comrades, with a few other radical, black community organizers. The organization mounted a few important campaigns in Oakland which yielded some minor victories, such as the campaign against Oakland's "no cruising" ordinance. The organization folded and Boots went back to music.

1998's Steal This Album, released on indie label Dogday Records, was called "a masterpiece" by Rolling Stone magazine. The single from that album “Me And Jesus The Pimp In a ‘79 Granada Last Night” was an 8-minute song about the grown-up son of a prostitute driving his mother’s killer to a secluded place in which to murder him. A novel, Too Beautiful For Words by Monique W. Morris, based on the story characters and \ descriptions in the song, was published by HarperCollins in 2000. The album also featured a guest appearance by Del The Funky Homosapien.

In 2000, Boots, through his workshop on Art and Organizing at La Peña Cultural Center, led a group of young artists to create “Guerilla Hip-Hop Concerts” on a flatbed truck which traveled throughout Oakland to protest California’s Proposition 21. The workshop also distributed tens of thousands free cassettes of “The Rumble”, which he called "newspapers on tape".

The group's fourth album, Party Music, was released on 75 Ark Records in 2001. It was re-released in 2005 by Epitaph Records. Its cover art depicted group members standing in front of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center as they explode. Riley is depicted pushing a button on a bass guitar tuner and DJ Pam the Funkstress is shown holding conductor's wands. The photo was taken in May 2001. The album was scheduled to be released just after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In response to the uncanny similarity of the artwork with the attacks, the album release was held back until alternative cover art could be prepared. The album hit #8 in the 2001 Village Voice Pazz and Jop Poll- the most important year-end critic's list, was named “Pop Album Of The Year” by the Washington Post, and "Hip-Hop Album Of The Year" by Rolling Stone. The album included a guest appearance by dead prez on the song "Get Up". Boots Riley released a controversial press release one week after the 9/11 events, which was later published in the book, Another World Is Possible. The press release stated that "last week's events were symptomatic of a larger backlash against U.S. corporate imperialism." The controversy surrounding the cover art, press release, and the lyrics from Party Music (specifically the song "5 Million Ways To Kill A CEO") led to Boots appearing on local network news affiliates all over the U.S. He also appeared on Fox News's Hannity and Colmes and ABC's Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. During this time, syndicated right-wing columnist and sometimes Fox News host Michelle Malkin called Boots's lyrics “a stomach-turning example of anti-Americanism disguised as highbrow intellectual expression.”

In 2002, Riley taught a daily high school class, "Culture and Resistance: Persuasive Lyric Writing", at the School of Social Justice and Community Development in East Oakland.

In 2003, Vibe Magazine named Boots Riley one of the 10 most influential people of 2002.

That same year, Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello invited Riley to be part of the "Tell Us the Truth Tour". The tour was meant to shed light on the monopolization of the media and the coming FTAA agreements. It featured acoustic performances by Riley, Morello, Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, Mike Mills and Jill Sobule. It was hosted by Janeane Garofalo and Naomi Klein.

Boots Riley was invited in Paris to play and record with Ursus Minor and Jeff Beck (on the Zugzwang album)

At around that time, he founded ShoYoAss Words, Sounds, & Pictures, a media company specializing in music and art that he calls "relevant to social change."

Boots Riley produced the score for the 2005 episode of The Simpsons, "Pranksta Rap". In 2006, The Coup released Pick a Bigger Weapon on Epitaph Records. The album was named "Album Of The Year" by Associated Press. It featured guest appearances by Tom Morello, Talib Kweli, Black Thought from The Roots, and Jello Biafra.

In 2007 and 2008, Riley toured heavily with New Orleans-based band Galactic. The band performed Coup songs behind Riley's vocals and they also performed their collaboration, "Hustle Up". In 2008, while performing with Galactic in Norfolk, VA, police interrupted the concert and Riley was charged with "public profanity"- a charge that had, until then, never been used in its 26 years of existence. The case was thrown out of court, with the judge citing that the law itself was unconstitutional. At their next meeting, the Norfolk city council voted to get rid of the law in question.

Back in 2006, Morello approached Riley to form a band together under the name Street Sweeper. The duo who later changed their name to Street Sweeper Social Club, releasing their self-titled debut album in 2009. They toured in support of it along with Nine Inch Nails and the recently reunited Jane's Addiction. Two songs, "100 Little Curses" and "Promenade", from their self-titled debut received rotation on Rock radio in major markets. On May 24, a press release went out announcing Street Sweeper Social Club as one of the headliners of the 2010 Rock The Bells tour. Street Sweeper Social Club released "The Ghetto Blaster EP" in late July 2010.

In 2010 and 2011, Boots Riley recorded with Ursus Minor again on I will not take "but" for an answer and toured with the group in France. During the fall of 2011, Riley became heavily involved with the Occupy Oakland movement.^[2]

Boots is also working on a script for a feature length film.^[3]

Discography[link]

With The Coup:

• 1991 - "The EP"
• 1993 - Kill My Landlord
• 1994 - Genocide & Juice
• 1998 - Steal This Album
• 2001 - Party Music
• 2006 - Pick a Bigger Weapon

With Street Sweeper Social Club:

• 2009 - NINJA 2009 Tour Sampler
• 2009 - Street Sweeper Social Club
• 2010 - The Ghetto Blaster EP

Other appearances:

• 1991 Dope Like A Pound Or A Key (Compilation)
• 1994 "Practice Lookin' Hard" from The Mailman by E-40
• 1994 "Streets Of Oakland" from The Big Bad Ass by Ant Banks
• 1994 Zugzwang by Ursus Minor
• 2004 - Axis of Justice: Concert Series Volume 1
• 2007 - "Hustle Up" from From the Corner to the Block by Galactic
• 2011 I will not take "but" for an answer by Ursus Minor
• 2011 - "9/11 'til Infinity" from From the Dumpster to the Grave by Star Fucking Hipsters
• 2011 - "Black Flags" (Single) by Atari Teenage Riot

References[link]

• Abdul Hassan (2006-01-26) Love for the Underdog: PA Talks with Raptivist Boots Riley politicalaffairs.net Retrieved: 2009-07-09
• Eric K. Arnold (2006-04-26) The Life of Riley eastbayexpress.com Retrieved: 2009-07-09
• Michelle Malkin (2001-12-28) Stop giving America a bad rap jewishworldreview.com Retrieved: 2009-07-09
• Tom Morello and Boots Riley Join Forces to Form Street Sweeper guitarplayer.com Retrieved: 2009-07-09
• Mark Pollard (1991-09-10) An Interview w/ Boots of the Coup daveyd.com Retrieved: 2009-07-09
• The Coup’s Boots Riley San Francisco PF profiling victim hiphopcongress.com Retrieved: 2009-07-09
• Deborah Kong (2003-1-12) Alternative School in Oakland Raps to Tap Students' Potential latimes.com
• Associated Press (2008-7-25) Profanity Ordinance Unconstitutional whsv.com
• Harry Minium (2008-8-20) Norfolk City Council revises ban on public cursing hamptonroads.com
• Kristin Davis (2008-6-23) Charge of profanity stops show at Norfolk's Town Point Park pilotonline.com
• Boots Riley Interview cbrap.com
• T. Eve Greenaway (2002-1-08) Post-9/11 Anthology Released alternet.org
• Eric K. Arnold (2010-5-19) Generation Vexed eastbayexpress.com

External links[link]

• Boots Riley Twitter
• Street Sweeper Social Club Website
• Street Sweeper Social Club MySpace
• "Revolutionary Party Music" - video report by Democracy Now!