Years in film
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The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.

Events[link]

• May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda. The two were married in 1927.
• A reproduction of "America's First Movie Studio", Thomas Edison's Black Maria, is constructed
• September 29 - A Star is Born premieres and marks Judy Garland's comeback after her termination from her contract at MGM.
• November 3 - The movie Godzilla premieres in Japan. It became a huge success and became the first in series of Godzilla movies, the longest running film series in history^{[citation needed]}.

Top grossing films (U.S.)[link]

(*) After theatrical re-issue(s)

Awards[link]

Academy Awards:

Best Picture: On the Waterfront - Horizon-American, Columbia

Best Director: Elia Kazan - On The Waterfront

Best Actor: Marlon Brando - On the Waterfront

Best Actress: Grace Kelly - The Country Girl

Best Supporting Actor: Edmond O'Brien - The Barefoot Contessa

Best Supporting Actress: Eva Marie Saint - On The Waterfront

Golden Globe Awards:

Drama:

Best Picture: On the Waterfront

Best Actor: Marlon Brando - On the Waterfront

Best Actress: Grace Kelly - The Country Girl

Musical or comedy:

Best Picture: Carmen Jones

Best Actor: James Mason - A Star Is Born

Best Actress: Judy Garland - A Star Is Born

Other

Best Director: Elia Kazan - On the Waterfront

Best Foreign Film: Twenty-Four Eyes (Nijushi no hitomi), Japan

Best Foreign Film: No Way Back (Weg Ohne Umkehr), West Germany

Best Foreign Film: The Lady of the Camellias (La Mujer de las camelias), Argentina

Best Foreign Film: Genevieve, United Kingdom

Grand Prix (Cannes Film Festival):

Jigokumon 地獄門, (Gate of Hell), directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa, Japan

Golden Lion (Venice Film Festival):

Romeo and Juliet (Romeo e Giulietta), directed by Renato Castellani, Italy / U.K.

Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival):

Hobson's Choice, directed by David Lean, United Kingdom

Films released in 1954[link]

U.S.A. unless stated

• 3 Ring Circus, starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, starring Kirk Douglas and James Mason

A

• The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Aventuras de Robinson Crusoe), directed by Luis Buñuel - (Mexico)
• Alaska Seas, starring Robert Ryan
• Animal Farm, an animated film - (U.K.)
• Apache, starring Burt Lancaster
• The Atomic Kid
• Attila, starring Anthony Quinn and Sophia Loren - (France/Italy)

B

• The Barefoot Contessa, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Rossano Brazzi
• Beau Brummell, starring Stewart Granger, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov
• Beautiful Stranger - (U.K./U.S.)
• The Belles of St Trinian's, starring Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfell and George Cole - (U.K.)
• Betrayed, fourth and final film co-starring Clark Gable and Lana Turner
• The Black Knight - (U.K./U.S.)
• The Black Shield of Falworth, starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh
• Black Tuesday
• Black Widow, starring Ginger Rogers and Gene Tierney
• Boot Polish - (India)
• Bread, Love and Dreams (U.S. release)
• The Bridges at Toko-Ri, starring William Holden, Grace Kelly, Fredric March, Mickey Rooney
• Brigadoon, starring Gene Kelly and Van Johnson
• Broken Lance, starring Spencer Tracy, Robert Wagner, Jean Peters, Richard Widmark, Katy Jurado

C

• The Caine Mutiny, directed by Edward Dmytryk, starring Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray
• Carmen Jones, starring Dorothy Dandridge (first African-American to be Oscar-nominated for Best Actress)
• Casanova's Big Night, starring Bob Hope
• The Country Girl, starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, William Holden
• Creature from the Black Lagoon
• Crime Wave, starring Sterling Hayden
• The Crucified Lovers (Chikamatsu Monogatari), directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, starring Kazuo Hasegawa - (Japan)

D

• Dangerous Mission, starring Victor Mature and Piper Laurie
• Demetrius and the Gladiators, starring Victor Mature and Susan Hayward
• Désirée, starring Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons
• Dial M for Murder, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ray Milland and Grace Kelly
• Doctor in the House, starring Dirk Bogarde first of "Doctor" series - (U.K.)

E-F

• The Egyptian, starring Jean Simmons and Gene Tierney
• Elephant Walk, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Finch
• Executive Suite, starring William Holden, Barbara Stanwyck, June Allyson, Fredric March, Louis Calhern, Walter Pidgeon
• Father Brown, starring Alec Guinness - (U.K.)
• Fear, directed by Roberto Rossellini, starring Ingrid Bergman - (Germany/Italy)
• Flame and the Flesh, starring Lana Turner
• French Cancan - (France/Italy)

G-H

• Gate of Hell (American release)
• The Glenn Miller Story starring Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson
• Godzilla, directed by Ishirō Honda - (Japan)
• The Gold of Naples (L'oro di Napoli), directed by Vittorio de Sica, starring Silvana Mangano and Sophia Loren - (Italy)
• The Good Die Young, directed by Lewis Gilbert, starring Stanley Baker and Laurence Harvey - (U.K.)
• Hansel and Gretel: An Opera Fantasy, a Stop motion animated film
• Hell and High Water
• The High and the Mighty, starring John Wayne, Robert Stack, Laraine Day, Claire Trevor, Phil Harris
• Hobson's Choice, directed by David Lean, starring Charles Laughton and John Mills - (U.K.)
• Human Desire, starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford

I-J

• Indiscretion of an American Wife, starring Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift (U.S. release)
• An Inspector Calls, with Alastair Sim, based on the J.B. Priestley play - (U.K.)
• It Should Happen to You, starring Judy Holliday, Peter Lawford, Jack Lemmon
• Jagriti - (India)
• Johnny Guitar, starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge
• Journey to Italy (Viaggio in Italia), directed by Roberto Rossellini, starring Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders - (France/Italy)

K-L

• King Richard and the Crusaders, starring Rex Harrison and Virginia Mayo
• Knights of the Round Table, starring Robert Taylor and Ava Gardner
• Knock on Wood, starring Danny Kaye
• The Lady of the Camellias (La Mujer de las camelias) - (Argentina)
• The Last Bridge (Die Letzte Brücke), starring Maria Schell and Bernhard Wicki - (Austria)
• Late Chrysanthemums (bangiku) - (Japan)
• Letter with Feather - (China)
• Living It Up, starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
• The Long, Long Trailer, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz
• The Long Wait, starring Anthony Quinn

M-N

• The Maggie - (U.K.)
• Magnificent Obsession, starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson
• The Million Pound Note, starring Gregory Peck - (U.K.)
• Monster from the Ocean Floor
• Nagin, starring Vyjayanthimala and Pradeep Kumar - (India)
• Naked Alibi, starring Sterling Hayden and Gloria Grahame
• The Naked Jungle
• Night People, starring Gregory Peck, Broderick Crawford, Buddy Ebsen

O-P

• On the Waterfront, directed by Elia Kazan, starring Marlon Brando with Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger -- winner of eight Oscars
• The Outcast
• Phffft!, starring Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, Kim Novak
• Prince Valiant, starring Robert Wagner, James Mason, Janet Leigh
• Pushover, starring Fred MacMurray and Kim Novak (in her film debut)

Q-R

• Radio Cab Murder directed by Vernon Sewell, starring Jimmy Hanley and Lana Morris (U.K.)
• Rear Window, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly
• Riot in Cell Block 11
• River of No Return, starring Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe
• Robinson Crusoe
• Rogue Cop, starring Robert Taylor and Janet Leigh
• Romeo and Juliet, starring Lawrence Harvey - (Italy/U.K.)
• La Ronde (American release)

S

• Sabrina, starring Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden
• Salt of the Earth
• Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (Miyamoto Musashi), directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, starring Toshirō Mifune - (Japan)
• Sansho the Bailiff (Sanshō Dayũ), directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, starring Kinuyo Tanaka - (Japan)
• Saskatchewan, starring Alan Ladd
• The Sea Shall Not Have Them, starring Dirk Bogarde and Michael Redgrave - (U.K.)
• Secret of the Incas, starring Charlton Heston
• Senso, directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Alida Valli and Farley Granger - (Italy)
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, directed by Stanley Donen, starring Jane Powell and Howard Keel
• Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai), directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshirō Mifune and Takashi Shimura - (Japan)
• The Silver Chalice, starring Paul Newman (in his film debut)
• Silver Lode, starring Dan Duryea
• Sira` Fi al-Wadi, directed by Youssef Chahine - (Egypt)
• Sitting Bull
• Sound of the Mountain (Yama no Oto), directed by Mikio Naruse - (Japan)
• A Star Is Born, starring Judy Garland and James Mason, musical remake of 1937 film
• La strada (The Road), directed by Federico Fellini, starring Anthony Quinn - (Italy)
• Suddenly, starring Frank Sinatra and Sterling Hayden
• Susan Slept Here, starring Debbie Reynolds and Dick Powell

T-V

• Tanganyika
• Taza, Son of Cochise
• Them!, starring James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, James Arness, cameos by Fess Parker and Leonard Nimoy.
• There's No Business Like Show Business, starring Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, Marilyn Monroe
• They Who Dare - (U.K.)
• Three Coins in the Fountain, starring Jean Peters, Dorothy McGuire, Maggie McNamara
• Top Banana
• Touchez pas au grisbi (Hands Off the Loot), starring Jean Gabin - (France/Italy)
• Twenty-Four Eyes (Nijū-shi no Hitomi) - (Japan)
• Vera Cruz, starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster

W-Z

• White Christmas, starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, Dean Jagger
• Woman's World
• Wyoming Renegades
• Young at Heart, starring Frank Sinatra and Doris Day
• The Young Lovers, directed by Anthony Asquith (U.K.)

Serials[link]

• Gunfighters of the Northwest, starring Clayton Moore and Phyllis Coates
• Man with the Steel Whip, starring Dick Simmons
• Riding with Buffalo Bill
• Trader Tom of the China Seas, starring Harry Lauter and Aline Towne

Short film series[link]

• Looney Tunes (1930–1969)
• Terrytoons (1930–1964)
• Merrie Melodies (1931–1969)
• Popeye (1933–1957)
• The Three Stooges (1934–1959)
• Bugs Bunny (1940–1962)
• Tom and Jerry (1940–1958)
• Mighty Mouse (1942–1955)
• Chip and Dale (1943–1956)
• Droopy (1943–1958)
• Yosemite Sam (1945–1963)
• Speedy Gonzales (1953–1968)
• Ranger Don (1953–1956)

Births[link]

• January 1 - Helen Wellington-Lloyd, actress
• January 6 - Anthony Minghella, director (died 2008)
• January 22 - Chris Lemmon, actor & author
• January 29 - Oprah Winfrey (The Color Purple)
• Febrauary 2 - Christie Brinkley (National Lampoon's Vacation)
• February 17 - Rene Russo, actress
• February 18 - John Travolta, actor & dancer
• March 1 - Ron Howard, director & actor
• March 4 - Catherine O'Hara, Canadian actress
• March 15 - Craig Wasson, actor
• March 17 - Lesley-Anne Down, English actress
• March 24 - Robert Carradine, actor
• April 7 - Jackie Chan, Hong Kong-born actor
• April 9 - Dennis Quaid, actor
• April 16 - Ellen Barkin, actress
• May 7 - Amy Heckerling, director
• May 8 - David Keith, actor
• June 14 - Will Patton, actor
• June 15 - James Belushi, actor
• June 19 - Kathleen Turner, actress
• June 28 - Alice Krige, South African actress
• August 12 - Sam J. Jones, actor
• August 16 - James Cameron, Canadian-born director
• October 23 - Ang Lee, Taiwanese director
• November 7 - Kamal Haasan, actor/director/script-writer/producer/singer
• November 29 - Joel Coen, director, producer & screenwriter
• December 4 - Tony Todd, actor & producer
• December 28 - Denzel Washington, actor

Deaths[link]

• January 18 - Sydney Greenstreet, actor (born 1879)
• February 12 - Dziga Vertov, filmmaker (born 1896)
• April 10 - Auguste Lumiere, French film pioneer (born 1862)
• July 24 - Effie Shannon, stage and film actress (born 1867)
• November 15 - Lionel Barrymore, actor (1878)
• December 8 - Gladys George, actress (born 1904)

Film Debuts[link]

• Zbigniew Cybulski
• Jack Lemmon
• Paul Newman
• Eva Marie Saint
• Omar Sharif
• Godzilla

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (September 2011)

Pau Casals

Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈpaw kəˈzaɫs]; December 29, 1876 – October 22, 1973), known during his professional career as Pablo Casals,^[1][2][3] was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time. He made many recordings throughout his career, of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, also as conductor, but he is perhaps best remembered for the recordings of the Bach Cello Suites he made from 1936 to 1939.

Biography[link]

Childhood and early years[link]

Casals was born in El Vendrell, Catalonia, Spain. His father, Carlos Casals i Ribes (1852–1908), was a parish organist and choirmaster. He gave Casals instruction in piano, song, violin, and organ. He was also a very strict disciplinarian. When Casals was young his father would pull the piano out from the wall and have him and his brother, Arturo, stand behind it and name the notes and the scales that his father was playing. At age four Casals could play the violin, piano and flute; at the age of six he played the violin well enough to perform a solo in public. His first encounter with a cello-like instrument was from witnessing a local traveling Catalan musician, who played a cello-strung broom handle. Upon request, his father built him a crude cello, using a gourd as a sound-box. When Casals was eleven, he first heard the real cello performed by a group of traveling musicians, and decided to dedicate himself to the instrument.^{[citation needed]}

In 1888 his mother, Pilar Defilló de Casals, who was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico of Catalonian ancestry, took him to Barcelona, where he enrolled in the Escola Municipal de Música.^[4] There he studied cello, theory, and piano. In 1890, when he was 13, he discovered in a second-hand sheet music store in Barcelona a tattered copy of Bach's six cello suites. He spent the next 13 years practicing them every day before he would perform them in public for the first time.^[5] Casals would later make his own personal version of the six suites.^[6] He made prodigious progress as a cellist; on February 23, 1891 he gave a solo recital in Barcelona at the age of fourteen. He graduated from the Escola with honours five years later.

Youth and studies[link]

In 1893, another Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz heard him playing in a trio in a café and gave him a letter of introduction to the private secretary to María Cristina, the Queen Regent. Casals was asked to play at informal concerts in the palace, and was granted a royal stipend to study composition at the Conservatorio de Música y Declamación in Madrid with Víctor Mirecki. He also played in the newly organized Quartet Society.

In 1895 he went to Paris, where, having lost his stipend from Catalonia, he earned a living by playing second cello in the theater orchestra of the Folies Marigny. In 1896, he returned to Catalonia and received an appointment to the faculty of the Escola Municipal de Música in Barcelona. He was also appointed principal cellist in the orchestra of Barcelona's opera house, the Liceu. In 1897 he appeared as soloist with the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, and was awarded the Order of Carlos III from the Queen.^{[citation needed]}

International career[link]

In 1899, Casals played at The Crystal Palace in London, and later for Queen Victoria at Osborne House, her summer residence, accompanied by Ernest Walker. On November 12, and December 17, 1899, he appeared as a soloist at Lamoureux Concerts in Paris, to great public and critical acclaim. He toured Spain and the Netherlands with the pianist Harold Bauer in 1900–1901; in 1901–1902 he made his first tour of the United States; and in 1903 toured South America.

On January 15, 1904, Casals was invited to play at the White House for President Theodore Roosevelt. On March 9, of that year he made his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York, playing Richard Strauss's Don Quixote under the baton of the composer. In 1906 he became associated with the talented young Portuguese cellist Guilhermina Suggia,^[7] who studied with him and began to appear in concerts as Mme. P. Casals-Suggia, although they were not legally married. Their relationship ended in 1912.

The New York Times of April 9, 1911 announced that Pablo Casals would perform at the London Musical Festival to be held at the Queen's Hall on the second day of the Festival (May 23,). The piece chosen was Haydn's Cello Concerto in D and Casals would later join Fritz Kreisler for Brahms's Double Concerto for Violin and Cello.^[2]

In 1914 Casals married the American socialite and singer Susan Metcalfe; they were separated in 1928, but did not divorce until 1957.

Although Casals made his first recordings in 1915 (a series for Columbia), it would not be until 1926 that he again released a recording (on the Victor label).^[3]

Back in Paris, Casals organized a trio with the pianist Alfred Cortot and the violinist Jacques Thibaud; they played concerts and made recordings until 1937. Casals also became interested in conducting, and in 1919 he organized, in Barcelona, the Orquesta Pau Casals and led its first concert on October 13, 1920. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the Orquesta Pau Casals ceased its activities.

Casals was an ardent supporter of the Spanish Republican government, and after its defeat vowed not to return to Spain until democracy was restored. Casals performed at the Gran Teatre del Liceu on October 19, 1938, possibly his last performance in Catalonia before his exile.^[8]

He settled in the French village of Prada de Conflent, on the Spanish frontier; between 1939 and 1942 he made sporadic appearances as a cellist in the unoccupied zone of southern France and in Switzerland. So fierce was his opposition to the dictatorial regime of Francisco Franco in Spain that he refused to appear in countries that recognized the authoritarian Spanish government. He made a notable exception when he took part in a concert of chamber music in the White House on November 13, 1961, at the invitation of President John F. Kennedy, whom he admired. On December 6, 1963, Casals was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.^[9]

Presidential Medal of Freedom

Throughout most of his professional career, he played on a cello that was labeled and attributed to "Carlo Tononi ... 1733" but after playing it for 50 years it was discovered to have been created by the Venetian luthier Matteo Goffriller around 1700. It was acquired by Casals in 1913.^[10] He also played another cello by Goffriller dated 1710, and a Tononi from 1730.

Prades Festivals[link]

In 1950 he resumed his career as conductor and cellist at the Prades Festival in Conflent, organized in commemoration of the bicentenary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach; Casals agreed to participate on condition that all proceeds were to go to a refugee hospital in nearby Perpignan.^[3]

In 1952, Casals met Marta Angélica Montañez y Martinez, a 17-year-old Puerto Rican student who had gone to Spain to participate in the Festival. Casals was very impressed with her and encouraged her to return to Mannes College of Music in New York to continue her studies. He continued leading the Prades Festivals until 1966.^{[citation needed]}

Puerto Rico[link]

Casals first traveled to Puerto Rico in 1955, inaugurating the annual Casals Festival the next year. In 1955 Casals married as his second wife long-time associate Francesca Vidal de Capdevila, who died that same year. On April 3, 1957 (or August 3), at 80, Casals married 20-year-old Marta Montañez y Martinez.^[11] They made their permanent residence in the town of Ceiba, and lived in a house called "El Pesebre" (The Manger).^[12] He made an impact in the Puerto Rican music scene, by founding the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra in 1958, and the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico in 1959.

Later years[link]

In the 1960s, Casals gave many master classes throughout the world in places such as Gstaad, Zermatt, Tuscany, Berkeley, and Marlboro (where he also conducted and recorded unique versions of the six Brandenburg Concerti)^{[citation needed]}. Several of these master classes were televised.

In 1961, he performed at the White House by invitation of President Kennedy. This performance was recorded and released as an album.

Casals was also a composer. Perhaps his most effective work is La Sardana, for an ensemble of cellos, which he composed in 1926. His oratorio El Pessebre was performed for the first time in Acapulco, Mexico, on December 17, 1960. He also presented it to the United Nations during their anniversary in 1963. He was initiated as an honorary member of the Epsilon Iota Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity at The Florida State University in 1963.^[13] He was later awarded the fraternity's Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award in 1973.

One of his last compositions was the "Hymn of the United Nations".^[14] He conducted its first performance in a special concert at the United Nations on October 24, 1971, two months before his 95th birthday. On that day, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, U Thant, awarded Pau Casals the U.N. Peace Medal in recognition of his stance for peace, justice and freedom.^[15] Casals accepted the medal and made his famous "I am a Catalan" speech,^[16] where he stated that Catalonia had the first democratic parliament, long before England did. (In fact, both Iceland and the Isle of Man had parliaments before Catalonia.]

Casals' memoirs were taken down by Albert E. Kahn, and published as Joys and Sorrows: Pablo Casals, His Own Story (1970).

Death[link]

Casals died in 1973 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the age of 96 and was buried at the Puerto Rico National Cemetery. He did not live to see the end of the Franco dictatorial regime, but he was posthumously honoured by the Spanish government under King Juan Carlos I which, in 1976, issued a commemorative postage stamp to Pau Casals in honour of the centenary of his birth.^[17] In 1979 his remains were laid to rest in his hometown of El Vendrell, Catalonia. In 1989, Casals was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.^[18]

Legacy[link]

Centenary statue, Montserrat

The International Pablo Casals Cello Competition is held in Kronberg and Frankfurt am Main, Germany, under the auspices of the Kronberg Academy once every four years, starting in 2000, to discover and further the careers of the future cello elite, and is supported by the Pau Casals Foundation, under the patronage of Marta Casals Istomin. One of the prizes is the use of one of the Gofriller cellos owned by Casals. The first top prize was awarded in 2000 to Claudio Bohórquez.

American comedian George Carlin, in his interview for the Archive of American Television, refers to Casals when discussing the restless nature of an artist's persona. As Carlin states, when Casals (then aged 93) was asked why he continued to practice the cello three hours a day, Casals replied, "'I'm beginning to notice some improvement...' [A]nd that's the thing that's in me. I notice myself getting better at this," Carlin continued.

In Puerto Rico, the Casals Festival is still celebrated annually. There is also a museum dedicated to the life of Casals located in Old San Juan. On October 3, 2009, Sala Sinfonica Pablo Casals, a symphony hall named in Casals' honor, opened in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The $34 million building, designed by Rodolfo Fernandez, is the latest addition to the Centro de Bellas Artes complex. It is the new home of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra.

In Tokyo, the Casals Hall opened in 1987 as a venue for chamber music.^[19]

Socio-political columnist and economist David P. Goldman has called Caslas the greatest classical musician of the 20th century.^[20]

Partial Discography[link]

• 1926–1928: Casals, Jacques Thibaud and Alfred Cortot – the first trios of Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn, the Beethoven "Archduke," Haydn's G Major and Beethoven's "Kakadu" Variations (Recorded in London)
  

  

  Pau Casals bust, Wolfenbüttel, Germany
• 1929, Brahms: Double Concerto with Thibaud and Cortot conducting Casals' own orchestra.
• 1929: Dvorak and Brahms Concerti
• 1929: Beethoven: Fourth Symphony (Recorded in Barcelona)
• 1930: Beethoven: Cello Sonata Op. 69, with Otto Schulhof.
• 1936–1939: Bach: Cello Suites
• 1936: Beethoven: Cello Sonata Op. 102 No. 1; and Brahms: Cello Sonata Op. 99, both with Mieczysław Horszowski.
• 1936: Boccherini: Cello Concerto in B-flat; and Bruch: Kol Nidrei – London Symphony conducted by Landon Ronald.
• 1937: Dvořák: Cello Concerto – Czech Philharmonic conducted by George Szell.
• 1939: Beethoven: Cello Sonatas Nos. 1, 2, and 5, with Mieczysław Horszowski.
• 1945: Elgar and Haydn Cello Concertos – BBC Symphony conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.
• 1950: The first of the Prades Festival recordings on Columbia, including:
  • Bach: Sonatas for Viola da Gamba, BWV 1027–1029, with Paul Baumgartner
  • Schumann: Fünf Stücke im Volkston, with Leopold Mannes
  • Schumann: Cello Concerto, with Casals conducting from the cello.
• 1951: At the Perpignan Festival, including:
  • Beethoven: Cello Sonata Op. 5 No. 2, and three sets of Variations, with Rudolf Serkin
  • Beethoven: Trios, Op. 1 No. 2, Op. 70 No. 2, Op. 97, and the Clarinet Op. 11 transcription; also
  • Schubert: Trio No. 1, D.898, all with Alexander Schneider and Eugene Istomin.
• 1952: At Prades, including:
  • Brahms: Trio Op. 8, with Isaac Stern and Myra Hess
  • Brahms: Trio Op. 87, with Joseph Szigeti and Myra Hess
  • Schumann: Trio Op. 63, and Schubert: Trio No. 2, D.929, both with Alexander Schneider and Mieczysław Horszowski
  • Schubert: C Major Quintet, with Isaac Stern, Alexander Schneider, Milton Katims, and Paul Tortelier
  • Brahms: Sextet No. 1, again with Stern, Schneider, and Katims, plus Milton Thomas and Madeline Foley
• 1953: At Prades, including:
  • Beethoven: Cello Sonatas Nos. 1, 3, 4, and 5, with Rudolf Serkin
  • Beethoven: Trios Op. 1 No. 1, and Op. 70 No. 1, with Joseph Fuchs and Eugene Istomin
  • Schumann: Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129, with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Festival orchestra
• 1954: At Prades (all live performances), including:
  • Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 5, and Op. 66 Variations, with Mieczysław Horszowski
  • Beethoven: Trios Op. 70 No. 1, and Op. 121a, with Szymon Goldberg and Rudolf Serkin
• 1955: At Prades (all live performances), including:
  • Brahms: Trios Nos. 1–3, with Yehudi Menuhin and Eugene Istomin
  • Brahms: Clarinet Trio Op. 114, with clarinetist David Oppenheim and Eugene Istomin
  • Beethoven: Trio Op. 70 No. 2, with Szymon Goldberg and Rudolf Serkin
• 1956: At Prades (all live performances), including:
  • Bach: Sonata BWV 1027 for Viola da Gamba, with Mieczysław Horszowski
  • Schumann: Trio No. 2, with Yehudi Menuhin and Mieczysław Horszowski
  • Schumann: Trio No. 3, with Sándor Végh and Rudolf Serkin
• 1958: At Beethoven-Haus in Bonn (all live performances), including:
  • Beethoven: Sonata Op. 5 No. 1, with Wilhelm Kempff
  • Beethoven: Sonatas Op. 5 No. 2, Op. 102 No. 2, and the Horn Op. 17 transcription, with Mieczysław Horszowski
  • Beethoven: Trios Op. 1 No. 3, and Op. 97, with Sándor Végh and Mieczysław Horszowski
  • Beethoven: Trio Op. 70 No. 1, with Sándor Végh and Karl Engel
• 1959: At Prades (all live performances), including:
  • Haydn: "Farewell" Symphony (No. 45) and Mozart "Linz" Symphony (No. 36)
  • Beethoven: Trio Op. 1 No. 3, with Yehudi and Hephzibah Menuhin
  • Schubert: String Quintet, with the Budapest String Quartet
• 1961: Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 1 with Alexander Schneider and Mieczysław Horszowski (Recorded live November 13, 1961 at the White House)
• 1963: Beethoven: Eighth Symphony
• 1963: Mendelssohn: Fourth Symphony, at Marlboro
• 1964–65: Bach: Brandenburg Concerti, at Marlboro
• 1966: Bach: Orchestral Suites, at Marlboro
• 1969: Beethoven: First, Second, Fourth, Sixth ("Pastorale"), and Seventh Symphonies
• 1974: El Pessebre (The Manger) oratorio

See also[link]

• C-32 (highway), a highway in Catalonia named after Casals
• List of Catalans
• List of Puerto Ricans
• Windjammer (1958 film)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Joys and Sorrows; Reflections, Pau Casals, (1973) ISBN 0-671-21774-7
• Song of the birds, Julian Lloyd Webber, (1985) ISBN 0-86051-305-X
• Just Play Naturally, Vivien Mackie (in conversation with Joe Armstrong), (2002) ISBN 978-0-9717004-0-6

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pau Casals

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Pablo Casals

• Pau Casals Foundation
• Photo feature on L'espace Casals in Prades
• Pau Casals' home town of El Vendrell
• Speach of Pau Casals on October 24, 1971 in the ONU
• Casals Festival, San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Festival Casals de Prades Prades, Pyrénées-Orientales, France
• 'In search of Pablo Casals' on Overgrown Path music website
• Pablo Casals at Allmusic
• Historic 26min video of Pablo Casals' exiled in Prada 1939–1942 – J.S.Bach Suite n.1 in the Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa * Discography and bibliography
• Trio with Alfred Cortot and Jacques Thibaud – Performances records, Recordings and discography (Youngrok Lee's Classical Music page)

Marina Vlady
Born	Marina de Poliakoff-Baidaroff (1938-05-10) 10 May 1938 (age 74) Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1949–2001
Spouse	Robert Hossein (1955-1959) (divorced) Jean-Claude Brouillet (1963-1966) (divorced) Vladimir Vysotsky (1970-1980) (his death)

Marina Vlady (born Marina de Poliakoff-Baidaroff in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine on 10 May 1938) is a French actress.

She won the Best Actress Award at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival for The Conjugal Bed.^[1] From 1955 to 1959 she was married to actor/director Robert Hossein. From 1963 to 1966 she was married to Jean-Claude Brouillet, a French "entrepreneur", owner of two airlines and member of French Resistance during the WW II. From 1969 until his death in 1980 she was married to Russian poet and songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky.

Marina Vlady is the sister of actresses Odile Versois, Hélène Vallier and Olga Baïdar-Poliakoff; her father was a noted artist of Russian heritage. Like her siblings, she began acting as a child and for a while pursued a ballet career. Projecting a more sensual, alluring image than her sisters, she gained international renown. She was also starred by Jean-Luc Godard in the female lead in 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle (1967). One of her few English roles was Kate Percy in Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight. Her TV credits include the 1983 mini series La Chambre des Dames.

She wrote "Vladimir, or the Aborted Flight" a memoir of her great and tragic relationship with Vladimir Vysotsky, translated into Russian, German, Armenian and many other languages. Marina Vlady was Vladimir Vysotsky's last wife from 1969 to his death in 1980.

1996

Marina had been married before and had 3 children, while Vladimir had two. Fueled by Marina's exotic status as a Frenchwoman in the Soviet Union, and Vladimir's unmatched popularity in his country, their love was passionate and impulsive. They were married in 1969. For 10 years the two maintained a long-distance relationship as Marina compromised her career in France in order to spend more time in Moscow, and Vladimir's friends pulled strings in order for him to be allowed to travel abroad to stay with his wife. Marina eventually joined the Communist Party of France, which essentially gave her an unlimited-entry visa into the Soviet Union, and provided Vladimir with some immunity against prosecution by the government, which was becoming weary of his covertly anti-Soviet lyrics and his odds-defying popularity with the masses. The problems of his long-distance relationship with Vlady inspired several of Vysotsky's songs.

Selected filmography[link]

• The Lady from Boston (1951)
• Dans la vie tout s'arrange (1952)
• 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle (1967)
• A Few Days of Respite (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Marina Vlady

• Marina Vlady at the Internet Movie Database
• Marina Vlady at Cinémathèque française
• Marina Vlady at AllRovi
• Marina Vlady at the TCM Movie Database

This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (March 2012)

Meher Baba

Born	(1894-02-25)25 February 1894 Poona (now Pune), India
Died	31 January 1969(1969-01-31) (aged 74) Meherazad, India
Era	20th century
Region	India
School	Sufism, Vedanta, Mysticism
Main interests	Religion, Metaphysics, Aesthetics, Ethics
Influenced by Hazrat Babajan, Sai Baba of Shirdi, Upasni Maharaj, Hazrat Tajuddin Baba, Narayan Maharaj
Signature

Meher Baba (Devanagari: मेहेर बाबा, Urdu: مہر بابا), (February 25, 1894 – January 31, 1969), born Merwan Sheriar Irani, was an Indian mystic and spiritual master who declared publicly in 1954 that he was the Avatar of the age.

Merwan Sheriar Irani was born in 1894 and led a normal childhood, showing no particularly strong inclination toward spiritual matters. At the age of 19, a brief contact with the Muslim holy woman Hazrat Babajan began his seven-year process of spiritual transformation.^[1][2] Over the next months, he contacted four additional spiritual figures whom, along with Babajan, he called "the five Perfect Masters." He spent seven years with Upasni Maharaj, one of the masters, before beginning his public work.^[3] The name Meher Baba means "Compassionate Father" in Persian and was given to him by his first followers.^[4]

From 10 July 1925 to the end of his life, Meher Baba maintained silence, communicating by means of an alphabet board or by unique hand gestures.^[5][6][7][8] With his mandali (circle of disciples), he spent long periods in seclusion, during which time he often fasted. He also traveled widely, held public gatherings, and engaged in works of charity with lepers, the poor, and the mentally ill.

In 1931, Meher Baba made the first of many visits to the West, where he attracted many followers.^[9] Throughout most of the 1940s, Meher Baba worked with a category of spiritual aspirant called masts,^[10] whom he said are entranced or spellbound by internal spiritual experiences. Starting in 1949, along with selected mandali, he traveled incognito about India in what he called "The New Life." On 10 February 1954, Meher Baba declared that he was the Avatar (an incarnation of God), ^[11] and on 10 July 1958 he released his Universal Message.

After being injured as a passenger in two automobile accidents, one in the United States in 1952 and one in India in 1956, his ability to walk became severely limited.^[12][13] In 1962, he invited his Western followers to India for a mass darshan called "The East-West Gathering."^[14] Concerned by an increasing use of LSD and other psychedelic drugs,^[15] in 1966 Baba stated that they did not convey real benefits.^[16] Despite deteriorating health, he continued what he called his "Universal Work," which included fasting and seclusion, until his death on 31 January 1969. His samadhi (tomb-shrine) in Meherabad, India has become a place of international pilgrimage.^[17]

Early life[link]

Meher Baba at 16 years old in 1910

Meher Baba was an Irani^[18] born in Pune, India to a Zoroastrian family.^[19] His given name was Merwan Sheriar Irani. He was the second son of Sheriar Mundegar Irani, a Persian Zoroastrian who had spent years wandering in search of spiritual experience before settling in Poona (now Pune), and Sheriar's young wife, Shireen.^[20]

His schoolmates nicknamed him "Electricity." As a boy he formed "The Cosmopolitan Club," which was dedicated to remaining informed in world affairs and giving money to charity. Money was raised by donations and sometimes by gambling, e.g. betting at the horse races.^[21] He had an excellent singing voice and was a multi-instrumentalist and poet. Fluent in several languages, he was especially fond of the poetry of Hafiz, Shakespeare, and Shelley.^[22]

In his youth, he had no mystical inclinations or experiences, and was "[u]ntroubled as yet by a sense of his own destiny..."^[23] He was more interested in sports, especially cricket, and was co-captain of his high school cricket team. Baba later explained that a veil is always placed over the Avatar until the time is right for him to begin his work.^[24] At the age of 19, during his second year at Deccan College in Poona (now Pune), he met a very old Muslim woman, a spiritual master named Hazrat Babajan, who kissed him on the forehead. The event affected him profoundly; he experienced visions and mystical feelings so powerful that he gave up his normal activities.^[25] He began to beat his head against a stone to maintain, as he later put it, contact with the physical world. He also contacted other spiritual figures, who (along with Babajan) he later said were the five "Perfect Masters" of the age: Hazrat Tajuddin Baba of Nagpur, Narayan Maharaj of Kedgaon, Sai Baba of Shirdi, and Upasni Maharaj of Sakori.^[26]

Upasni helped him, he later said, to integrate his mystical experiences with normal consciousness, thus enabling him to function in the world without diminishing his experience of God-realization.^[27] In 1921, at the age of 27, after living for seven years with Upasni, Merwan started to attract a following of his own. His early followers gave him the name "Meher Baba," meaning Compassionate Father.^[28]

In 1922, Meher Baba and his followers established "Manzil-e-Meem" (House of the Master) in Bombay (now Mumbai). There Baba began his practice of demanding strict discipline and obedience from his disciples.^[29] A year later, Baba and his mandali moved to an area a few miles outside Ahmednagar that he named "Meherabad" (Meher flourishing).^[30] This ashram would become the center for his work. In 1924, Meher Baba created a resident school at Meherabad that he named the "Prem Ashram" (in several languages "prem" means "love"). The school was free and open to all castes and faiths. The school drew multi-denominational students from around India and Iran.^[31]

Silence[link]

From 10 July 1925 until his death in 1969, Meher Baba was silent.^[6][32] He communicated first by using an alphabet board and later by unique hand gestures which were interpreted and spoken out by one of his mandali, usually by his disciple Eruch Jessawala.^[5] Meher Baba said that his silence was not undertaken as a spiritual exercise but solely in connection with his universal work.

Man’s inability to live God’s words makes the Avatar’s teaching a mockery. Instead of practicing the compassion he taught, man has waged wars in his name. Instead of living the humility, purity, and truth of his words, man has given way to hatred, greed, and violence. Because man has been deaf to the principles and precepts laid down by God in the past, in this present Avataric form, I observe silence.^[33]

From 1925 until 1954 Meher Baba communicated by pointing to letters on an alphabet board.

Meher Baba often signaled the moment "that he would 'break' his silence by speaking the 'Word' in every heart, thereby giving a spiritual push forward to all living things."^[34]

When I break My Silence, the impact of My Love will be universal and all life in creation will know, feel and receive of it. It will help every individual to break himself free from his own bondage in his own way. I am the Divine Beloved who loves you more than you can ever love yourself. The breaking of My Silence will help you to help yourself in knowing your real Self.^[35]

Meher Baba said that the breaking of his silence would be a defining event in the spiritual evolution of the world.

When I speak that Word, I shall lay the foundation for that which is to take place during the next seven hundred years.^[36]

On many occasions Meher Baba promised to break his silence with an audible word^[37] before he died, often stating a specific time and place when this would occur.^[38] His failure to fulfill these promises disappointed some of his followers, while others regarded these broken promises as a test of their faith.^[39] Some followers speculate that "the Word" will yet be "spoken," or that Meher Baba did break his silence but in a spiritual rather than a physical way.^[36]

According to all contemporary accounts, Meher Baba remained silent until his death, but more than thirty years later one close disciple recalled that Meher Baba had spoken to him a few hours before he died,^[40] although this recollection contradicted his own earlier accounts.^[41]

Each 10 July, many of Baba's followers celebrate Silence Day to honor him.

1930s[link]

First contacts with the West[link]

In the 1930s, Meher Baba began a period of extensive world travel, with several trips to Europe and the United States. It was during this period that he established contact with his first close group of Western disciples.^[9] He traveled on a Persian passport because he had given up writing as well as speaking and would not sign the forms required by the British government of India.^[42]

On his first trip to England in 1931 he traveled on the Rajputana, the same ship that was carrying Mahatma Gandhi, who was sailing to the second Round Table Conference in London. Baba and Gandhi had three meetings onboard, including one that lasted for three hours.^[43] The British press highlighted these meetings,^[44] but an aide to Gandhi said, "You may say emphatically that Gandhi never asked Meher Baba for help or for spiritual or other advice."^[45]

Meher Baba in 1925, the year he began his lifelong silence

On the journey he was interviewed on behalf of the Associated Press, which quoted him describing his trip as a "new crusade . . . to break down all religious barriers and destroy America's materialism and amalgamate all creeds into a common element of love".^[46] His intention, according to the resulting article, was to convert thousands of Americans from sin. Describing Baba as "The Messiah," the article also claims he listed miracles he had performed, and said that a person who becomes one with the truth can accomplish anything, but that it is a weakness to perform miracles only to show spiritual power. However, another description of the interview states that when Baba was asked about the miracles attributed to him, he replied "The only miracle for the Perfect Man to perform is to make others perfect too. I want to make the Americans realize the infinite state which I myself enjoy."^[47]

Baba was invited to the "Meherashram" retreat in Harmon, New York by Malcolm and Jean Schloss. A Time magazine article on the visit states that Schloss referred to him in uppercase as "He, Him, His, Himself" and that Baba was described by his followers variously as the "God Man," "Messiah" or "Perfect Master."^[48]

On 20 May 1932 Baba arrived in New York and provided the press with a 1,000-word written statement, which was described by devotee Quentin Tod as his Message to America. In the statement Baba proclaimed himself "one with the infinite source of everything," and declared his intention to break his silence: "When I speak, my original message will be delivered to the world and it will have to be accepted". When asked about the Indo-British political situation, he had no comment, but his followers explained that he had told Gandhi to abandon politics.^[49]

Meher Baba at Paramount Film Studio, London, April 1932

In the West, Meher Baba met with a number of celebrities and artists, including Hollywood notables Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, Tallulah Bankhead, Boris Karloff, Tom Mix, Maurice Chevalier, Ernst Lubitsch and others.^[50] On 1 June 1932 Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. held a reception for Baba at Pickfair where he delivered a message to Hollywood.^[51][52] As a result, Meher Baba emerged as "one of the enthusiasms of the ‘30s." ^[53]

In 1934, after announcing that he would break his self-imposed silence in the Hollywood Bowl, Baba suddenly changed his plans and boarded the Empress of Canada and sailed to Hong Kong without explanation. The Associated Press reported that "Baba had decided to postpone the word-fast breaking until next February because 'conditions are not yet ripe'."^[54] He returned to England in 1936^[55] but did not return to the United States again until the early 1950s.^[56]

In the late 1930s, Meher Baba invited a group of Western women to join him in India, where he arranged a series of trips throughout India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) that became known as the Blue Bus Tours. When they returned home, many newspapers treated their journey as an occasion for scandal.^[57] Time Magazine's 1936 review of God is my Adventure describes the US's fascination with the "long-haired, silky-mustached Parsee named Shri Sadgaru [sic] Meher Baba" four years earlier.^[58]

[edit] Discourses

During the course of early gatherings of his close circle and followers, Meher Baba gave discourses on various spiritual subjects. Between 1938 and 1943, at the request of Princess Norina Matchabelli, one of his earliest Western devotees, Meher Baba dictated a series of discourses on his alphabet board for the Meher Baba Journal.^[59] These discourses, transcribed or worked up by close disciples from points given by Baba, address many aspects of the spiritual life and provide practical and simple direction for the spiritual aspirant. During those years, at least one discourse appeared each month in the journal. Chakradhar Dharnidhar Deshmukh, a close disciple of Meher Baba, compiled and edited the discourses.

Between 1939 and 1954 in India, a five-volume compilation titled Discourses of Meher Baba was printed several times. In 1967 Baba personally supervised the editing and publication of a new three-volume version of the Discourses, which became known as the sixth edition.^[60] A widely-available seventh edition of the Discourses, first published in 1987 (after Baba's death), contains numerous editorial changes not specifically authorized by Baba.^[61]

1940s[link]

Work with 'masts'[link]

Meher Baba with mast Shariat Khan in Bangalore, 1940

In the 1930s and 1940s, Meher Baba did extensive work with a category of people he termed masts, who are persons "intoxicated with God."^[62] According to Baba these individuals are essentially disabled by their enchanting experience of the higher spiritual planes. Although outwardly masts may appear irrational or even insane, Baba indicated that their spiritual status was actually quite elevated, and that by meeting with them he helped them to move forward spiritually while enlisting their aid in his spiritual work.^[10] One of the best known of these masts, known as Mohammed Mast, lived at Meher Baba's encampment at Meherabad until his death in 2003.^[63]

The New Life[link]

In 1949 Baba began an enigmatic period that he called "The New Life". Following a series of questions on their readiness to obey even the most difficult of his requests, Baba selected twenty companions to join him in a life of complete "hopelessness, helplessness and aimlessness."^[64]

He made provisions for those dependent on him, after which he and his companions otherwise gave up almost all property and financial responsibilities. They then traveled about India incognito while begging for food and carrying out Baba's instructions in accordance with a strict set of "conditions of the New Life." These included absolute acceptance of any circumstance and consistent good cheer in the face of any difficulty. Companions who failed to comply were sent away.^[65]

About the New Life Meher Baba wrote:

This New Life is endless, and even after my physical death it will be kept alive by those who live the life of complete renunciation of falsehood, lies, hatred, anger, greed and lust; and who, to accomplish all this, do no lustful actions, do no harm to anyone, do no backbiting, do not seek material possessions or power, who accept no homage, neither covet honor nor shun disgrace, and fear no one and nothing; by those who rely wholly and solely on God, and who love God purely for the sake of loving; who believe in the lovers of God and in the reality of Manifestation, and yet do not expect any spiritual or material reward; who do not let go the hand of Truth, and who, without being upset by calamities, bravely and wholeheartedly face all hardships with one hundred percent cheerfulness, and give no importance to caste, creed and religious ceremonies. This New Life will live by itself eternally, even if there is no one to live it.^[66]

After a period of seclusion and fasting Meher Baba ended the New Life in February 1952^[67] and once again began a round of public appearances throughout India and the West.^[68]

1950s[link]

Automobile accident in the United States[link]

In the 1950s Baba established two centers outside of India: the Meher Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in the United States and Avatar's Abode near Brisbane, Australia. He inaugurated the Meher Spiritual Center in April 1952. On 24 May 1952, en route from the Meher Spiritual Center to Meher Mount in Ojai, California, the car in which he was a passenger was struck head-on near Prague, Oklahoma. He and his companions were thrown from the vehicle and suffered many injuries. Baba's leg was severely broken and he sustained facial injuries, including a broken nose. The injured were treated at Duke Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, after which they returned to Myrtle Beach to recuperate.^[12] While recuperating at Youpon Dunes, a home owned by Elizabeth Patterson, in Myrtle Beach, he worked on the charter for his group, which he named "Sufism Reoriented".

Declaration of Avatarhood[link]

Meher Baba began dictating his major book about the purpose of creation, God Speaks, in Dehradun, August 1953.^[70] In it he explained the difference between the Avatar and the Sadgurus.^[71] In September 1953, at Dehradun, Meher Baba declared that he was "The Highest of the High."^[72] On 10 February 1954 in Meherastana U.P., India, Meher Baba publicly and explicitly declared his Avatarhood for the first time, spelling out on his alphabet board "Avatar Meher Baba Ki Jai."^[11]

In September of that year, Meher Baba gave a "men-only" sahavas at Meherabad that later became known as the "Three Incredible Weeks."^[73] During this time Baba issued a declaration, "Meher Baba's Call," wherein he affirmed his Avatarhood "irrespective of the doubts and convictions" of others.^[74] At the end of this sahavas Meher Baba gave the completed manuscript of his book God Speaks to two attending American Sufis, Lud Dimpfl and Don E. Stevens, for editing and publication in America.^[75] The book was published by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. On 30 September 1954 Meher Baba gave his "Final Declaration" message, in which he made various enigmatic predictions.^[76]

In October 1954, Meher Baba discarded his alphabet board and began using a unique set of hand gestures to communicate.^[77]

Automobile accident in India[link]

On 2 December 1956, outside Satara, India, the car in which Baba was being driven went out of control and a second serious automobile accident occurred. Baba suffered a fractured pelvis and other severe injuries. Dr. Nilu, one of Baba's mandali, was killed.^[13] This collision seriously incapacitated Baba. Despite his physicians' predictions to the contrary, after great effort Baba managed to walk again, but from that point on he was in constant pain and was severely limited in his ability to move. In fact, during his trip to the West in 1958 he often needed to be carried from venue to venue.^[78] Baba indicated that his automobile accidents and the suffering that attended them were, like his silence, purposeful and brought about by his will.^[79]

Final visits to the West[link]

In 1956, during his fifth visit to the US, Baba stayed at New York's Hotel Delmonico before traveling to the Meher Center at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. In July he traveled to Washington, D.C. and received friends and disciples at the home of Mrs. James Terry (Ivy) Duce,^[80] wife of the vice-president of the Arabian American Oil Co.^[81] He then traveled to Meher Mount at Ojai, California before continuing on to Australia. His final visits to the United States and Australia were made in 1958.^[82]

1960s[link]

Seclusion and East-West Gathering[link]

Baba returned to India and began more periods of fasting and seclusion. He conveyed that although the work was draining and exhausting, it was done on behalf of the spiritual welfare of all humanity.^[83][84]

In 1962, Baba gave one of his last public functions, a series of meetings he called The East-West Gathering. At these meetings, in which his western followers were invited to meet his Indian disciples, Baba gave darshan to many thousands of people despite the physical strain this caused.^[85]

Addressing the drug culture[link]

In the mid 1960s Baba became concerned with the increasingly prevalent drug culture in the West and began a correspondence with several Western academics, including Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, in which he strongly discouraged the use of all hallucinogenic drugs for spiritual purposes.^[86] In 1966 Baba's responses to questions on drugs were published in a pamphlet titled God in a Pill? Meher Baba stated that drug use was spiritually damaging and that if enlightenment were possible through drugs then "God is not worthy of being God."^[87] Meher Baba instructed some of his young Western disciples to spread this message; in doing so, they increased awareness of Meher Baba's teachings among the young during this period. In an interview with Frederick Chapman, a Harvard graduate and Fulbright scholar who met Baba during a year of study in India, Baba stated that LSD is "harmful physically, mentally and spiritually", and warned that "the continued use of LSD leads to madness or death."^[88]

On this basis, an anti-drug campaign was initiated by Baba lovers in the United States, Europe and Australia. Although the campaign was largely unsuccessful,^[89] it created a wave of new followers, and some of Baba’s views found their way into academic debate on the merits and dangers of hallucinogens.^[90]

Final seclusion and death[link]

From the East-West Gathering onward, Baba's health steadily deteriorated. Despite the physical toll it took on his body, he continued to undergo long periods of seclusion and fasting.^[91] In late July 1968, Baba completed a particularly taxing period of seclusion and stated that his work was "completed 100% to my satisfaction."^[92] By this point he was using a wheelchair. Within a few months his condition worsened and he was bed ridden. His body was wracked by intense muscular spasms that had no clear origin. Despite the care of several doctors, the spasms grew progressively worse.^[93]

On 31 January 1969, Meher Baba died,^[94] conveying by his last gestures, "Do not forget that I am God."^[93] In time his devotees called this day Amartithi (deathless day). Meher Baba's body was laid out for public viewing at his samadhi (tomb-shrine) at Meherabad. Covered with roses, and cooled by ice, his body was kept available to the public for one week before its final burial.^[95] Before his death, Meher Baba had made extensive preparations for a public darshan program to be held in Poona (now Pune), India. His mandali decided to proceed with the arrangements despite the physical absence of the host. Several thousand attended this "Last Darshan," including many hundreds of people from the United States, Europe, and Australia.^[96][97]

Metaphysics[link]

Source: Baba, Meher, Dodd Mead, God Speaks, The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose^[98]

Meher Baba's metaphysical views are most notably described in God Speaks. His cosmology incorporates concepts and terms from Vedanta, Sufism, and Christianity.^[99][100] Baba upheld the concept of nonduality, the view that diverse creation, or duality, is an illusion and that the goal of life is conscious realization of the absolute Oneness of God inherent in all animate and inanimate beings and things. Meher Baba compares God's original state to an infinite, shoreless ocean that has only unconscious divinity — unaware of itself because this original unconscious state has no means for any self-knowledge. From this state, God had the "whim" to know Himself,^[101] and asked "Who am I?"^[102] In response to this question, creation came into existence. In this analogy, what was previously a still, shoreless Ocean now stirred,^[103] forming innumerable "drops" of itself or souls. Baba often remarked "You will find all the answers to your questions in God Speaks. Study the book thoroughly and absorb it.".^[104]

Evolution and Involution[link]

According to Baba, each soul pursues conscious divinity by evolving: that is, experiencing form in seven "kingdoms" — stone/metal, vegetable, worm, fish, bird, animal, and human. The soul gathers sanskaras (impressions) in each form; these impressions lead to further evolution expressed by taking new, more complex forms. With each new form, increasing consciousness is gained until the soul experiences and discards forms from all the evolutionary kingdoms. The final form of the soul's evolution is the human form. Only in the human form can the soul experience its own divinity by entering into involution, through which it gradually eliminates all impressions that cause the appearance of separateness from God.^[105]

Reincarnation and God-realization[link]

Baba asserts that in the human form, the soul becomes subject to reincarnation, the "involuntary process of association and disassociation of consciousness".^[106] The purpose of reincarnation is to provide the opportunity for liberation from illusion. The soul reincarnates innumerable times in all conditions of life encompassing the whole range of human experience (e.g. man/woman, rich/poor, powerful/weak, etc.).^[107] Through the experience of opposites, sanskaras gradually grow fainter and scarcer.^[108] Meher Baba describes the process of God-realization this way:

From out of the depth of unbroken Infinity arose the Question, "Who am I?" And to that Question there is the answer, "I am God!"^[102]

Meher Baba described heaven and hell as transitory and illusory states between incarnations:^[109]

The states of heaven and hell are nothing but states of intensive experiences of the consciousness of the soul, experiencing either of the predominant counterparts of the opposite impressions while the soul is dissociated from the gross human body or form.^[110]

Perfect Masters and the Avatar[link]

Baba explained that at all times on Earth there are fifty-six incarnate God-realized souls and that of these souls there are always five who constitute the five Perfect Masters of their era.^[111] When one of the five Perfect Masters dies, Baba asserted that another God-realized soul among the fifty-six immediately replaces him or her by taking up that office.^[112]

The Avatar, according to Baba, is a special Perfect Master, the first soul to achieve God-realization. This soul, the original Perfect Master, or the "Ancient One," never ceases to incarnate. Baba indicated that this particular soul personifies the state of God which in Hinduism is named Vishnu and in Sufism is named Parvardigar, i.e. the sustainer or preserver state of God. According to Meher Baba the Avatar appears on Earth every 700–1400 years and is 'brought down' into human form by the five Perfect Masters of the time to aid in the process of moving creation in its never-ending journey toward Godhood. Baba asserted that in other ages this role was fulfilled by Zoroaster, Rama, Krishna, Gautama Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad.^[113]

Baba described the Avatar as "a gauge against which man can measure what he is and what he may become. He trues the standard of human values by interpreting them in terms of divinely human life."^[114]

Most of Meher Baba's followers accept his claim of avatarhood^[99] and he is said to be "revered by millions around the world as the Avatar of the age and a God realized being."^[88]

Legacy[link]

1966 Don't worry, be happy card

Baba's travels and teachings left a legacy of followers and devotees worldwide. Although Baba participated in large public gatherings, he discouraged evangelizing, stating, "I need no propaganda or publicity."^[115] Rather, he encouraged his followers to "let your life itself be my message of love and truth to others"^[116] and to "spread my message of Love and Truth as far and wide as possible."^[117]

The Avatar Meher Baba Trust, established by Meher Baba, maintains his tomb and pilgrimage facilities, provides support for aging mandali, and engages in other activities. The Trust, however, does not act as a central spiritual authority.^[118]

Followers of Meher Baba have no obligatory rites, rituals or duties, as in most religions. Many followers do undertake certain rituals and prayers, but the choice is personal.^[119] The primary focus for followers is living a life Meher Baba would approve of, for example, refraining from the use of psychedelic drugs, including marijuana,^[120] and trying to remember God with love.