Betty Comden (May 3, 1917 – November 23, 2006) was one-half of the musical-comedy duo Comden and Green, who provided lyrics, libretti, and screenplays to some of the most beloved and successful Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century. Her writing partnership with Adolph Green lasted for six decades, during which time they collaborated with other leading entertainment figures such as the famed "Freed Unit" at MGM, Jule Styne and Leonard Bernstein.

Early life[link]

Betty Comden was born Basya Cohen in New York City,^[1] attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, and studied drama at New York University.^[2] In 1938, mutual friends introduced her to Adolph Green, an aspiring actor. Along with the young Judy Holliday and Leonard Bernstein, Comden and Green formed a troupe called the Revuers, which performed at the Village Vanguard, a club in Greenwich Village. Due to the act's success, the Revuers appeared in the 1944 film Greenwich Village, but their roles were so small they barely were noticed, and they quickly returned to New York.

Comden and Green's first Broadway effort was On the Town, a musical romp about three sailors on leave in New York City that was an expansion of a ballet entitled Fancy Free on which Bernstein had been working with choreographer Jerome Robbins. Comden and Green wrote the book and lyrics, which included sizable parts for themselves. Their next musical, 1945's Billion Dollar Baby (music by Morton Gould) was not a success, and their 1947 show Bonanza Bound closed out-of-town and never reached Broadway.

Broadway and film success[link]

Comden and Green headed back to California and soon found work at MGM. They wrote the screenplays for Good News and The Barkleys of Broadway (which reunited Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers), and then adapted On the Town for Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, scrapping most of Bernstein's music at the request of Arthur Freed, who did not care for the Bernstein score.

Comden and Green reunited with Gene Kelly for their most successful project, the classic Singin' in the Rain, about Hollywood in the final days of the silent film era. Comden and Green provided the story and screenplay; the songs were old 1920s hits by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown.

They followed this with another hit, The Band Wagon, in which the characters of Lester and Lily, a husband-and-wife musical-writing team, were patterned after themselves. They were Oscar-nominated twice, for their screenplays for The Band Wagon and It's Always Fair Weather. They also earned three Screen Writers Guild Awards: for the two aforementioned movies as well as On the Town.

Their stage work of the 1950s included the revue Two on the Aisle, starring Bert Lahr and Dolores Gray, with music by Jule Styne; Wonderful Town, a musical adaptation of the play My Sister Eileen with music by Bernstein; and Bells Are Ringing, which reunited them with Judy Holliday and Jule Styne. The score, including the standards "Just in Time", "Long Before I Knew You", and "The Party's Over", proved to be one of their richest. Comden and Green contributed additional lyrics to the 1954 musical Peter Pan, translated and streamlined Die Fledermaus for the Metropolitan Opera, and collaborated with Styne on songs for the play-with-music Say, Darling.

In 1958, they appeared on Broadway in A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green, a revue that included some of their early sketches. It was a critical and commercial success, and they brought an updated version back to Broadway in 1977.

Comden and Green's Broadway work in the 1960s included four collaborations with Jule Styne. They wrote the lyrics for Do Re Mi, and the book and lyrics for Subways Are For Sleeping, Fade Out - Fade In, and Hallelujah, Baby! Their Hallelujah, Baby! score won a Tony Award.

Comden and Green wrote the libretto for the 1970 musical Applause, an adaptation of the film All About Eve, and wrote the book and lyrics for 1978's On the Twentieth Century, with music by Cy Coleman. Comden also played the role of Letitia Primrose in that musical when original star Imogene Coca left the show. Comden and Green's final musical hit was 1991's The Will Rogers Follies, providing lyrics to Cy Coleman's music.

In the early 1980s, Betty Comden appeared as an actress in Wendy Wasserstein's non-musical play Isn't It Romantic, portraying the heroine's mother.

Comden and Green's biggest failure was 1982's A Doll's Life, an attempt to figure out what Nora did after she abandoned her husband in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, which ran for only five performances, although they received Tony Award nominations for its book and score.

In 1980, Betty Comden was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.^[3] And, in 1981, she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.^[4]

Comden and Green received Kennedy Center Honors in 1991.

Betty Comden died of heart failure following an undisclosed illness of several months at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan on Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 2006, aged 89.

Family[link]

Comden married Steven Kyle, a designer and businessman, in 1942. He died in 1979 and she never remarried. They had two children, a daughter, Susanna, and a son, Alan, who died in 1990 of complications of AIDS.

Theatre awards and nominations[link]

• 1991 Tony Award for Best Original Score (The Will Rogers Follies, winner)
• 1986 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (Singin' in the Rain, nominee)
• 1983 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (A Doll's Life, nominee)
• 1983 Tony Award for Best Original Score (A Doll's Life, nominee)
• 1978 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (On the Twentieth Century, winner)
• 1978 Tony Award for Best Original Score (On the Twentieth Century, winner)
• 1970 Tony Award for Best Musical (Applause, winner)
• 1968 Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist (Hallelujah, Baby!, winner)
• 1968 Tony Award for Best Musical (Hallelujah, Baby!, winner)
• 1961 Tony Award for Best Musical (Do Re Mi, nominee)
• 1957 Tony Award for Best Musical (Bells Are Ringing, nominee)
• 1953 Tony Award for Best Musical (Wonderful Town, winner)

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Betty Comden at the Internet Movie Database
• Betty Comden at the Internet Broadway Database
• Betty Comden at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Betty Comden—writes about teaching
• Betty Comden at Find a Grave
• Comden and Green papers, 1933-2003. Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library
• Betty Comden Papers, 1929-2004. Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library
• New York Public Library Blog on Comden and Green's Unproduced Screenplay Wonderland

Further Reading[link]

• Off Stage, a memoir by Betty Comden published in 1995

Adolph Green (December 2, 1914  – October 23, 2002) was an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for some of the most beloved movie musicals, particularly as part of Arthur Freed's production unit at MGM, during the genre's heyday. Many people thought the pair were married; they were not, but they shared a unique comic genius and sophisticated wit that enabled them to forge a six-decade-long partnership that produced some of Hollywood and Broadway's greatest hits.

Biography[link]

Green was born in The Bronx to Hungarian-Jewish immigrants Daniel and Helen Weiss Green. After high school, he worked as a runner on Wall Street while he tried to make it as an actor. He met Comden through mutual friends in 1938 while she was studying drama at New York University. They formed a troupe called the Revuers, which performed at the Village Vanguard, a club in Greenwich Village. Among the members of the company was a young comedian named Judy Tuvim, who later changed her name to Judy Holliday, and Green's good friend, a young musician named Leonard Bernstein, frequently accompanied them on the piano. The act's success earned them a movie offer and the Revuers traveled west in hopes of finding fame in Greenwich Village, a 1944 movie starring Carmen Miranda and Don Ameche, but their roles were so small they barely were noticed, and they quickly returned to New York.

Their first Broadway effort joined them with Bernstein for On the Town, a musical romp about three sailors on leave in New York City that was an expansion of a ballet entitled Fancy Free on which Bernstein had been working with choreographer Jerome Robbins. Comden and Green wrote the lyrics and book, which included sizeable parts for themselves. Their next two musicals, Billion Dollar Baby (1945) and Bonanza Bound (1947) were not successful, and once again they headed to California, where they immediately found work at MGM.

They wrote the screenplay for Good News, starring June Allyson and Peter Lawford, The Barkleys of Broadway for Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, and then adapted On the Town for Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, scrapping much of Bernstein's music at the request of Arthur Freed, who did not care for the Bernstein score.

They reunited with Kelly for their most successful project, the classic Singin' in the Rain, about Hollywood in the final days of the silent film era. Considered by many film historians to be the best movie musical of all time, it ranked #10 on the list of the 100 Best American Movies of the 20th Century, compiled by the American Film Institute in 1998. They followed this with another hit, The Band Wagon, in which the characters of Lester and Lily, a husband-and-wife team that writes the screenplay for the show-within-a-show, were patterned after themselves. They were Oscar-nominated twice, for their screenplays for The Band Wagon and It's Always Fair Weather, both of which earned them a Screen Writers Guild Award, as did On the Town.

Their stage work during the next few years included the revue Two on the Aisle, starring Bert Lahr and Dolores Gray, Wonderful Town, an adaptation of the comedy hit My Sister Eileen, with Rosalind Russell and Edie Adams as two sisters from Ohio trying to make it in the Big Apple, and Bells Are Ringing, which reunited them with Judy Holliday as an operator at a telephone answering service. The score, including the standards "Just in Time", "Long Before I Knew You," and "The Party’s Over," proved to be one of their richest.

In 1958, they appeared on Broadway in A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green, a revue that included some of their early sketches. It was a critical and commercial success, and they brought an updated version back to Broadway in 1977.

Among their other credits are the Mary Martin version of Peter Pan for both Broadway and television, a streamlined Die Fledermaus for the Metropolitan Opera, and stage musicals for Carol Burnett, Leslie Uggams, and Lauren Bacall, among others. Their many collaborators included Garson Kanin, Cy Coleman, Jule Styne, and André Previn.

The team was not without its failures. In 1982, A Doll's Life, an attempt to figure out what Nora did after she abandoned her husband in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, ran for only five performances, although they received Tony Award nominations for its book and score.

In 1980, Green was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.^[1] And, in 1981, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.^[2]

Comden and Green received Kennedy Center Honors in 1991.

Green's third wife was actress Phyllis Newman, who had understudied Holliday in Bells Are Ringing. They had two children, Adam and Amanda.^[3]

His Broadway memorial, with such luminaries as Lauren Bacall, Kevin Kline, Joel Grey, Kristin Chenoweth, Arthur Laurents, Peter Stone, and, of course, Betty Comden in attendance was held at the Shubert Theater on December 4, 2002.^[4]

Additional Broadway credits[link]

• The Will Rogers Follies (1991)
• Singin' in the Rain (1952)
• The Madwoman of Central Park West (1979)
• On the Twentieth Century (1978)
• Lorelei (1974)
• Applause (1970)
• Hallelujah, Baby! (1967)
• Fade Out - Fade In (1964)
• Subways Are For Sleeping (1961)
• Do Re Mi (1960)
• Say, Darling (1958)

Film credits (incomplete list)[link]

• Simon (1980)
• My Favorite Year (1982)
• I Want to Go Home (1989)

Theatre awards and nominations[link]

• 1991 Tony Award for Best Original Score (The Will Rogers Follies, winner)
• 1986 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (Singin' in the Rain, nominee)
• 1983 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (A Doll's Life, nominee)
• 1983 Tony Award for Best Original Score (A Doll's Life, nominee)
• 1978 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (On the Twentieth Century, winner)
• 1978 Tony Award for Best Original Score (On the Twentieth Century, winner)
• 1970 Tony Award for Best Musical (Applause, winner)
• 1968 Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist (Hallelujah, Baby!, winner)
• 1968 Tony Award for Best Musical (Hallelujah, Baby!, winner)
• 1961 Tony Award for Best Musical (Do Re Mi, nominee)
• 1957 Tony Award for Best Musical (Bells Are Ringing, nominee)
• 1953 Tony Award for Best Musical (Wonderful Town, winner)

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Off Stage, a memoir by Betty Comden published in 1995

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Adolph Green at the Internet Broadway Database
• Adolph Green at the Internet Movie Database
• Adolph Green at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Adolph Green papers, 1944-2002. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library
• Comden and Green papers, 1933-2003. Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library
• New York Public Library Blog on Comden and Green's Unproduced Screenplay Wonderland

Thunderstorm near Garajau, Madeira

Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy.^[1] Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere,^[2][3] just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate is the term for the average atmospheric conditions over longer periods of time.^[4] When used without qualification, "weather" is understood to be the weather of Earth.

Weather is driven by density (temperature and moisture) differences between one place and another. These differences can occur due to the sun angle at any particular spot, which varies by latitude from the tropics. The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the jet stream. Weather systems in the mid-latitudes, such as extratropical cyclones, are caused by instabilities of the jet stream flow. Because the Earth's axis is tilted relative to its orbital plane, sunlight is incident at different angles at different times of the year. On Earth's surface, temperatures usually range ±40 °C (100 °F to −40 °F) annually. Over thousands of years, changes in Earth's orbit affect the amount and distribution of solar energy received by the Earth and influence long-term climate and global climate change.

Surface temperature differences in turn cause pressure differences. Higher altitudes are cooler than lower altitudes due to differences in compressional heating. Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location. The atmosphere is a chaotic system, so small changes to one part of the system can grow to have large effects on the system as a whole. Human attempts to control the weather have occurred throughout human history, and there is evidence that human activity such as agriculture and industry has inadvertently modified weather patterns.

Studying how the weather works on other planets has been helpful in understanding how weather works on Earth. A famous landmark in the Solar System, Jupiter's Great Red Spot, is an anticyclonic storm known to have existed for at least 300 years. However, weather is not limited to planetary bodies. A star's corona is constantly being lost to space, creating what is essentially a very thin atmosphere throughout the Solar System. The movement of mass ejected from the Sun is known as the solar wind.

Cause[link]

Stratocumulus perlucidus clouds

On Earth,such as selena common weather phenomena include wind, cloud, rain, snow, fog and dust storms. Less common events include natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons and ice storms. Almost all familiar weather phenomena occur in the troposphere (the lower part of the atmosphere).^[3] Weather does occur in the stratosphere and can affect weather lower down in the troposphere, but the exact mechanisms are poorly understood.^[5]

Weather occurs primarily due to density (temperature and moisture) differences between one place to another. These differences can occur due to the sun angle at any particular spot, which varies by latitude from the tropics. In other words, the farther from the tropics you lie, the lower the sun angle is, which causes those locations to be cooler due to the indirect sunlight.^[6] The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the jet stream.^[7] Weather systems in the mid-latitudes, such as extratropical cyclones, are caused by instabilities of the jet stream flow (see baroclinity).^[8] Weather systems in the tropics, such as monsoons or organized thunderstorm systems, are caused by different processes.

Because the Earth's axis is tilted relative to its orbital plane, sunlight is incident at different angles at different times of the year. In June the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the sun, so at any given Northern Hemisphere latitude sunlight falls more directly on that spot than in December (see Effect of sun angle on climate).^[9] This effect causes seasons. Over thousands to hundreds of thousands of years, changes in Earth's orbital parameters affect the amount and distribution of solar energy received by the Earth and influence long-term climate. (see Milankovitch cycles).^[10]

The uneven solar heating (the formation of zones of temperature and moisture gradients, or frontogenesis) can also be due to the weather itself in the form of cloudiness and precipitation.^[11] Higher altitudes are cooler than lower altitudes, which is explained by the lapse rate.^[12][13] On local scales, temperature differences can occur because different surfaces (such as oceans, forests, ice sheets, or man-made objects) have differing physical characteristics such as reflectivity, roughness, or moisture content.

Surface temperature differences in turn cause pressure differences. A hot surface heats the air above it and the air expands, lowering the air pressure and its density.^[14] The resulting horizontal pressure gradient accelerates the air from high to low pressure, creating wind, and Earth's rotation then causes curvature of the flow via the Coriolis effect.^[15] The simple systems thus formed can then display emergent behaviour to produce more complex systems and thus other weather phenomena. Large scale examples include the Hadley cell while a smaller scale example would be coastal breezes.

The atmosphere is a chaotic system, so small changes to one part of the system can grow to have large effects on the system as a whole.^[16] This makes it difficult to accurately predict weather more than a few days in advance, though weather forecasters are continually working to extend this limit through the scientific study of weather, meteorology. It is theoretically impossible to make useful day-to-day predictions more than about two weeks ahead, imposing an upper limit to potential for improved prediction skill.^[17]

Shaping the planet Earth[link]

Weather is one of the fundamental processes that shape the Earth. The process of weathering breaks down the rocks and soils into smaller fragments and then into their constituent substances.^[18] These are then free to take part in chemical reactions that can affect the surface further (such as acid rain) or are reformed into other rocks and soils. In this way, weather plays a major role in erosion of the surface.^[19]

Effect on humans[link]

Effects on populations[link]

New Orleans, Louisiana, after being struck by Hurricane Katrina. Katrina was a Category 3 hurricane when it struck although it had been a category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.

Weather has played a large and sometimes direct part in human history. Aside from climatic changes that have caused the gradual drift of populations (for example the desertification of the Middle East, and the formation of land bridges during glacial periods), extreme weather events have caused smaller scale population movements and intruded directly in historical events. One such event is the saving of Japan from invasion by the Mongol fleet of Kublai Khan by the Kamikaze winds in 1281.^[20] French claims to Florida came to an end in 1565 when a hurricane destroyed the French fleet, allowing Spain to conquer Fort Caroline.^[21] More recently, Hurricane Katrina redistributed over one million people from the central Gulf coast elsewhere across the United States, becoming the largest diaspora in the history of the United States.^[22]

The Little Ice Age caused crop failures and famines in Europe. The 1690s saw the worst famine in France since the Middle Ages. Finland suffered a severe famine in 1696–1697, during which about one-third of the Finnish population died.^[23]

Effects on individuals[link]

The human body is negatively affected by extremes in temperature, humidity, and wind.^[24]

Forecasting[link]

Forecast of surface pressures five days into the future for the north Pacific, North America, and north Atlantic ocean as on 9 June 2008

Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since at least the nineteenth century.^[25][26] Weather forecasts are made by collecting quantitative data about the current state of the atmosphere and using scientific understanding of atmospheric processes to project how the atmosphere will evolve.^[27]

Once an all-human endeavor based mainly upon changes in barometric pressure, current weather conditions, and sky condition,^[28][29] forecast models are now used to determine future conditions. Human input is still required to pick the best possible forecast model to base the forecast upon, which involves pattern recognition skills, teleconnections, knowledge of model performance, and knowledge of model biases. The chaotic nature of the atmosphere, the massive computational power required to solve the equations that describe the atmosphere, error involved in measuring the initial conditions, and an incomplete understanding of atmospheric processes mean that forecasts become less accurate as the difference in current time and the time for which the forecast is being made (the range of the forecast) increases. The use of ensembles and model consensus helps to narrow the error and pick the most likely outcome.^[30][31][32]

There are a variety of end users to weather forecasts. Weather warnings are important forecasts because they are used to protect life and property.^[33][34] Forecasts based on temperature and precipitation are important to agriculture,^{[35][36][37][38]} and therefore to commodity traders within stock markets. Temperature forecasts are used by utility companies to estimate demand over coming days.^[39][40][41] On an everyday basis, people use weather forecasts to determine what to wear on a given day. Since outdoor activities are severely curtailed by heavy rain, snow and the wind chill, forecasts can be used to plan activities around these events, and to plan ahead and survive them.

Modification[link]

The aspiration to control the weather is evident throughout human history: from ancient rituals intended to bring rain for crops to the U.S. Military Operation Popeye, an attempt to disrupt supply lines by lengthening the North Vietnamese monsoon. The most successful attempts at influencing weather involve cloud seeding; they include the fog- and low stratus dispersion techniques employed by major airports, techniques used to increase winter precipitation over mountains, and techniques to suppress hail.^[42] A recent example of weather control was China's preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. China shot 1,104 rain dispersal rockets from 21 sites in the city of Beijing in an effort to keep rain away from the opening ceremony of the games on 8 August 2008. Guo Hu, head of the Beijing Municipal Meteorological Bureau (BMB), confirmed the success of the operation with 100 millimeters falling in Baoding City of Hebei Province, to the southwest and Beijing's Fangshan District recording a rainfall of 25 millimeters.^[43]

Whereas there is inconclusive evidence for these techniques' efficacy, there is extensive evidence that human activity such as agriculture and industry results in inadvertent weather modification:^[42]

• Acid rain, caused by industrial emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere, adversely affects freshwater lakes, vegetation, and structures.
• Anthropogenic pollutants reduce air quality and visibility.
• Climate change caused by human activities that emit greenhouse gases into the air is expected to affect the frequency of extreme weather events such as drought, extreme temperatures, flooding, high winds, and severe storms.^[44]

The effects of inadvertent weather modification may pose serious threats to many aspects of civilization, including ecosystems, natural resources, food and fiber production, economic development, and human health.^[45]

Extremes on Earth[link]

Early morning sunshine over Bratislava, Slovakia.

On Earth, temperatures usually range ±40 °C (100 °F to −40 °F) annually. The range of climates and latitudes across the planet can offer extremes of temperature outside this range. The coldest air temperature ever recorded on Earth is −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F), at Vostok Station, Antarctica on 21 July 1983. The hottest air temperature ever recorded was 57.7 °C (135.9 °F) at 'Aziziya, Libya, on 13 September 1922,^[46] but that reading is queried. The highest recorded average annual temperature was 34.4 °C (93.9 °F) at Dallol, Ethiopia.^[47] The coldest recorded average annual temperature was −55.1 °C (−67.2 °F) at Vostok Station, Antarctica.^[48] The coldest average annual temperature in a permanently inhabited location is at Eureka, Nunavut, in Canada, where the annual average temperature is −19.7 °C (−3.5 °F).^[49]

Extraterrestrial within the Solar System[link]

Jupiter's Great Red Spot in 1979.

Studying how the weather works on other planets has been seen as helpful in understanding how it works on Earth.^[50] Weather on other planets follows many of the same physical principles as weather on Earth, but occurs on different scales and in atmospheres having different chemical composition. The Cassini–Huygens mission to Titan discovered clouds formed from methane or ethane which deposit rain composed of liquid methane and other organic compounds.^[51] Earth's atmosphere includes six latitudinal circulation zones, three in each hemisphere.^[52] In contrast, Jupiter's banded appearance shows many such zones,^[53] Titan has a single jet stream near the 50th parallel north latitude,^[54] and Venus has a single jet near the equator.^[55]

One of the most famous landmarks in the Solar System, Jupiter's Great Red Spot, is an anticyclonic storm known to have existed for at least 300 years.^[56] On other gas giants, the lack of a surface allows the wind to reach enormous speeds: gusts of up to 600 metres per second (about 2,100 km/h or 1,300 mph) have been measured on the planet Neptune.^[57] This has created a puzzle for planetary scientists. The weather is ultimately created by solar energy and the amount of energy received by Neptune is only about ¹⁄₉₀₀ of that received by Earth, yet the intensity of weather phenomena on Neptune is far greater than on Earth.^[58] The strongest planetary winds discovered so far are on the extrasolar planet HD 189733 b, which is thought to have easterly winds moving at more than 9,600 kilometres per hour (6,000 mph).^[59]

Space weather[link]

Aurora Borealis

Weather is not limited to planetary bodies. Like all stars, the sun's corona is constantly being lost to space, creating what is essentially a very thin atmosphere throughout the Solar System. The movement of mass ejected from the Sun is known as the solar wind. Inconsistencies in this wind and larger events on the surface of the star, such as coronal mass ejections, form a system that has features analogous to conventional weather systems (such as pressure and wind) and is generally known as space weather. Coronal mass ejections have been tracked as far out in the solar system as Saturn.^[60] The activity of this system can affect planetary atmospheres and occasionally surfaces. The interaction of the solar wind with the terrestrial atmosphere can produce spectacular aurorae,^[61] and can play havoc with electrically sensitive systems such as electricity grids and radio signals.^[62]

See also[link]

• Weather station
• Personal weather station
• Climate
• Outline of meteorology

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Weather

• Climate and Weather from UCB Libraries GovPubs
• The Economics of Extreme Weather Events on Society NOAA Economics
• RainRadar: Worldwide radar directory
• National Weather Service

Jule Styne (December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994) was a British-born American songwriter especially famous for a series of Broadway musicals, which included several very well known and frequently revived shows.

Early life[link]

Styne was born in London, England as Julius Kerwin Stein of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine.^[1] At the age of eight he moved with his family to Chicago, where at an early age he began taking piano lessons. He proved to be a prodigy and performed with the Chicago, St. Louis, and Detroit Symphonies before he was ten years old.

Career[link]

Styne attended Chicago Musical College, but before then he had already attracted attention of another teenager, Mike Todd, later a successful film producer, who commissioned him to write a song for a musical act that he was creating. It would be the first of over 1,500 published songs Styne would compose in his career.

Styne established his own dance band, which brought him to the notice of Hollywood, where he was championed by Frank Sinatra and where he began a collaboration with lyricist Sammy Cahn, with whom he wrote many songs for the movies, including "It's Been a Long, Long Time" (#1 for 3 weeks for Harry James and His Orchestra in 1945), "Five Minutes More," and the Oscar-winning "Three Coins in the Fountain". He collaborated on the score for the 1955 musical film My Sister Eileen with Leo Robin. Ten of his songs were nominated for the Oscar, many written with Cahn, including "I've Heard That Song Before" (#1 for 13 weeks for Harry James and His Orchestra in 1943), "I'll Walk Alone", "It's Magic" (a #2 hit for Doris Day in 1948) and "I Fall in Love Too Easily".

In 1947, Styne wrote his first score for a Broadway musical, High Button Shoes with Cahn, and over the next several decades wrote the scores for many Broadway shows, most notably Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Peter Pan (additional music), Bells Are Ringing, Gypsy, Do Re Mi, Funny Girl, Sugar (with a story based on the movie Some Like It Hot, but all new music), and the Tony-winning Hallelujah, Baby!.

His collaborators included, among others, Sammy Cahn, Leo Robin, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Stephen Sondheim, and Bob Merrill.

Styne wrote original music for the short-lived, themed amusement park Freedomland U.S.A. which opened on June 19, 1960.

Styne was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972^[2] and the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981,^[3] and he was a recipient of a Drama Desk Special Award and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1990.

Songs[link]

A selection of the many songs that Styne wrote:

• "The Christmas Waltz"
• "Don't Rain on My Parade" (from Funny Girl)
• "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"
• "Everything's Coming Up Roses" (from Gypsy)
• "Every Street's a Boulevard in Old New York"
• "Fiddle Dee Dee"
• "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry"
• "How Do You Speak To An Angel"
• "I Don't Want to Walk Without You"
• "I Fall In Love Too Easily"
• "I Still Get Jealous"
• "I'll Walk Alone"
• "It's Been a Long, Long Time"
• "It's Magic" (from Romance on the High Seas)
• "I've Heard That Song Before"
• "Just In Time"
• "Let Me Entertain You"
• "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!"
• "Long Before I Knew You"
• "Make Someone Happy"
• "Neverland"
• "Papa, Wont You Dance with Me?"
• "The Party's Over"
• "People" (from Funny Girl)
• "Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)" sung by Frank Sinatra
• "Sunday" with Ned Miller
• "Time After Time"
• "Three Coins in the Fountain"

Credits

• Ice Capades of 1943 (1942) - Styne contributed one song
• Glad to See You! (1944) - closed in Philadelphia PA during tryout
• High Button Shoes (1947)
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949)
• Michael Todd's Peep Show (1950) - Styne contributed 2 numbers
• Two on the Aisle (1951)
• Hazel Flagg (1953)
• Peter Pan (1954) (additional music)
• My Sister Eileen (1955)
• Bells Are Ringing (1956)
• Say, Darling (1958)
• A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green (1958)
• Gypsy (1959)
• Do Re Mi (1960)
• Subways Are For Sleeping (1961)
• Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962)
• Arturo Ui (1963) - Styne contributed incidental music to this Bertolt Brecht play
• Funny Girl (1964)
• Wonderworld (1964) - lyrics by Styne's son, Stanley
• Fade Out - Fade In (1964)
• Something More! (1964) -directed by Styne
• The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood (1965)
• Hallelujah, Baby! (1967)
• Darling of the Day (1968)
• Look to the Lilies (1970)
• The Night the Animals Talked (1970)
• Prettybelle (1971) - closed in Boston
• Sugar (1972)
• Lorelei (1974) - essentially a sequel/revival of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
• Hellzapoppin'! (1976) - closed in Baltimore during pre-Broadway tryout
• Side by Side by Sondheim (1976)
• Bar Mitzvah Boy (1978)
• One Night Stand (1980) - closed during preview period
• Pieces of Eight (1985)
• The Red Shoes (1993)

See also[link]

• Pico and Sepulveda

Footnotes[link]