In economics, bimetallism is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent both to a certain quantity of gold and to a certain quantity of silver; such a system establishes a fixed rate of exchange between the two metals. In the United States, along with establishing the mint, Alexander Hamilton proposed the adoption of bimetallism, "in order not to abridge the quantity of circulating medium." With its acceptance, Sec.11 of the Coinage Act of 1792 established: "That the proportional value of gold to silver in all coins which shall by law be current as money within the United States, shall be as fifteen to one, proportional value of gold to silver. according to quantity in weight, of pure gold or pure silver;" the proportion had slipped by 1834 to sixteen to one. The merits of the system were the subject of debate in the late 19th century. If the market forces of supply and demand for either metal caused its bullion value to exceed its nominal currency value, it tends to disappear from circulation by hoarding or melting down.

Political debate

In the United States, bimetallism became a center of political conflict toward the end of the nineteenth century. During the civil war, to finance the war the U.S. switched from bimetallism to a fiat money currency. After the war, in 1873, the government passed the Fourth Coinage Act and soon resumption of specie payments began without the free and unlimited coinage of silver. This put the U.S. on a mono-metallic gold standard. This angered the proponents of monetary silver, known as the silverites. They referred to this act as “The Crime of ’73,” as it was judged to have inhibited inflation. The Panic of 1893 was a severe nationwide depression that brought the money issue to the fore. The "silverites" argued that using silver would inflate the money supply and mean more cash for everyone, which they equated with prosperity. The gold advocates said silver would permanently depress the economy, but that sound money produced by a gold standard would restore prosperity.

Bimetallism and "Free Silver" were demanded by William Jennings Bryan who took over leadership of the Democratic Party in 1896, as well as the Populist and Silver Republican Parties. The Republican Party nominated William McKinley on a platform supporting the gold standard which was favored by financial interests on the East Coast. A faction of Republicans from silver mining regions in the West known as the Silver Republicans endorsed Bryan.

Bryan, the eloquent champion of the cause, gave the famous “Cross of Gold” speech at the National Democratic Convention on July 9, 1896 asserting that “The gold standard has slain tens of thousands.” He referred to “a struggle between ‘the idle holders of idle capital’ and ‘the struggling masses, who produce the wealth and pay the taxes of the country;’ and, my friends, the question we are to decide is: Upon which side will the Democratic party fight?” At the peroration, he said “You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” However, his presidential campaign was ultimately unsuccessful; this can be partially attributed to the discovery of the cyanide process by which gold could be extracted from low grade ore. This increased the world gold supply and caused the inflation that free coinage of silver was supposed to bring. The McKinley campaign was effective at persuading voters that poor economic progress and unemployment would be exacerbated by adoption of the Bryan platform. 1896 saw the election of McKinley. The direct link to gold was abandoned in 1934 in FDR’s New Deal program and later the link was broken by Nixon when he closed the gold window.

See also

Crime of 1873

Political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Silver standard

Free Silver

Gresham's Law

Notes

Primary sources

''Campaign Text-book of the National Democratic Party'' (1896) by Democratic Party (U.S.) National Committee: this is the Gold Democrats handbook; it strongly opposed Bryan.

Walker, ''International Bimetallism'' (New York, 1896)

Robert Giffen, ''Case against Bimetallism'' (London, 1896)

Joseph Shield Nicholson, ''Money and Monetary Problems'' (London, 1897)

Samuel Dana Horton, ''The Silver Pound'' (London, 1887)

Walker, ''Money'' (New York, 1878)

Francis Amasa Walker, ''Money, Trade and Industry'' (New York, 1879)

Elisha Benjamin Andrews, ''An honest Dollar'' (Hartford, 1894)

Helm, ''The Joint Standard'' (London, 1894)

Frank William Taussig, ''The Silver Situation in the United States'' (New York, 1893)

Horace White (writer), ''Money and Banking'' (Boston, 1896)

James Laurence Laughlin, ''History of Bimetallism in the United States'' (New York, 1897)

Langford Lovell Price, ''Money and its Relations to Prices'' (London and New York, 1896)

Utley, ''Bimetallism'' (Los Angeles, 1899)

Roger Q. Mills, ''What shall we do with silver?''  (''The North American Review,'' Volume 150, Issue 402, May 1890.)

References

James A. Barnes, "Myths of the Bryan Campaign," ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'', 34 (Dec. 1947) online in JSTOR

David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, "Gold Democrats and the Decline of Classical Liberalism, 1896-1900," Independent Review 4 (Spring 2000), 555-75.

Bordo, Michael D. "Bimetallism." In The New Palgrave Encyclopedia of Money and Finance edited by Peter K. Newman, Murray Milgate and John Eatwell. 1992.

Dighe, Ranjit S. ed. ''The Historian's Wizard of Oz: Reading L. Frank Baum's Classic as a Political and Monetary Allegory'' (2002)

Friedman, Milton, 1990a, "The crime of 1873," Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 98, No. 6, December, pp. 1159–1194

Friedman, Milton, 1990b, "Bimetallism revisited," Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 4, No. 4, Fall, pp. 85–104.

Friedman, Milton, and Anna J. Schwartz, 1963, ''A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960''Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691003548.

Jeansonne, Glen. "Goldbugs, Silverites, and Satirists: Caricature and Humor in the Presidential Election of 1896." ''Journal of American Culture'' 1988 11(2): 1-8. Issn: 0191-1813

Littlefield, Henry M., 1964, "The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism," American quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring, pp. 47–58.

Angela Redish, "Bimetallism"

Rockoff, Hugh, 1990, "The Wizard of Oz as a monetary allegory," Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 98, No. 4, August, pp. 739–760.

Velde, Francois R. "Following the Yellow Brick Road: How the United States Adopted the Gold Standard" Economic Perspectives. Volume: 26. Issue: 2. 2002.

External links

The Bimetallic Standard, a series of pages on bimetalism from Micheloud & cie.

Category:Metallism Category:History of the United States (1865–1918) Category:International trade Category:International economics Category:Numismatics Category:People's Party (United States) Category:Economic theories

az:Bimetallizm cs:Bimetalismus de:Bimetallismus es:Bimetalismo eo:Dumetalismo fr:Bimétallisme it:Bimetallismo ka:ბიმეტალიზმი kk:Биметаллизм lv:Bimetālisms hu:Bimetallizmus nl:Dubbele standaard ja:金銀複本位制 pl:Bimetalizm pt:Bimetalismo ro:Bimetalism ru:Биметаллизм sk:Bimetalizmus uk:Біметалізм zh:金银复本位

Jim Townsend (born 20 June 1937) is an Irish Labour Party politician and former senator.

Townsend stood for the Labour Party in Carlow–Kilkenny at the Irish general election, 1981, but he took only 2% of the first preference votes, and was not elected. In 1991, he was elected to Carlow County Council, representing the Muinebheag district. He was appointed to the Seanad Éireann in 1993, serving one term, but was unsuccessful in Carlow-Kilkenny again at the 1997, 2002 and 2007 elections.

At the local level, Townsend has also served on Carlow Town Council, and as Cathaoirleach of the county council.

References

Category:1937 births Category:Living people Category:Labour Party (Ireland) politicians Category:Local councillors in County Carlow Category:Members of the 22nd Seanad Category:People from County Carlow

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Gore Vidal
pseudonym	Edgar BoxCameron KayKatherine Everard
birth name	Eugene Luther Gore Vidal
birth date	October 03, 1925
birth place	West Point, New York, U.S.
occupation	Novelist, essayist, journalist, playwright
nationality	United States
Parents	Eugene Luther Vidal
genre	Drama, fictional prose, essay, literary criticism
period	1944–present
movement	Postmodernism
ideology	Fascism
influences	Petronius, Apuleius, Thomas Mann, Henry James, Mark Twain, Montaigne, Carson McCullers
influenced	William Kennedy, Clive James, Christopher Hitchens, Truman Capote, Bill Maher}}

Gore Vidal (; born October 3, 1925) is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. Early in his career he wrote ''The City and the Pillar'' (1948), which outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality. He also ran for political office twice and has been a longtime political critic.

Early years

Vidal was born Eugene Luther Gore Vidal in West Point, New York, the only child of 1st Lieutenant Eugene Luther Vidal (1895–1969) and Nina Gore (1903–1978). He was born in the Cadet Hospital of the United States Military Academy, where his father was the first aeronautics instructor, and was christened by the headmaster of St. Albans preparatory school, his future alma mater. According to "West Point and the Third Loyalty", an article Vidal wrote for ''The New York Review of Books'' (October 18, 1973), he later decided to be called Gore in honor of his maternal grandfather, Thomas Gore, Democratic senator from Oklahoma.

Vidal's father, a West Point football quarterback and captain, and an all-American basketball player, was director of the Commerce Department's Bureau of Air Commerce (1933–1937) in the Roosevelt administration, was one of the first Army Air Corps pilots and, according to biographer Susan Butler, was the great love of Amelia Earhart's life. In the 1920s and 1930s, he was a co-founder of three American airlines: the Ludington Line, which merged with others and became Eastern Airlines, Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT, which became TWA), and Northeast Airlines, which he founded with Earhart, as well as the Boston and Maine Railroad. The elder Vidal was also an athlete in the 1920 and 1924 Summer Olympics (seventh in the decathlon; U.S. pentathlon team coach).

Gore Vidal's mother was an actress and socialite who made her Broadway debut in ''Sign of the Leopard'' in 1928. She married Eugene Luther Vidal, Sr. in 1922 and divorced him in 1935. She later married twice more; one husband, Hugh D. Auchincloss, was later the stepfather of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and, according to Gore Vidal, she had "a long off-and-on affair" with actor Clark Gable. She was an alternate delegate to the 1940 Democratic National Convention.

Vidal had four half-siblings from his parents' later marriages (the Rev. Vance Vidal, Valerie Vidal Hewitt, Thomas Gore Auchincloss, and Nina Gore Auchincloss Steers Straight) and four stepbrothers from his mother's third marriage to Army Air Forces Major General Robert Olds, who died in 1943, ten months after marrying Vidal's mother. Vidal's nephews include the brothers Burr Steers, writer and film director, and painter Hugh Auchincloss Steers (1963–1995).

Vidal was raised in Washington, D.C., where he attended Sidwell Friends School and then St. Albans School. Since Senator Gore was blind, his grandson read aloud to him and was his guide. The senator's isolationism contributed a major principle of his grandson's political philosophy, which is critical of foreign and domestic policies shaped by American imperialism. Gore attended High school in Exeter, New Hampshire at Phillips Exeter Academy, and after graduating in 1943 he joined the U.S. Army Reserve. He was deployed to the Aleutian Islands during World War II, where he served in the Transportation Corps as a Warrant Officer on an Army search and rescue boat and later on a supply vessel.

Personal life

Vidal has had affairs with both men and women. The novelist Anaïs Nin claimed an involvement with Vidal in her memoir ''The Diary of Anaïs Nin'' but Vidal denied it in his memoir ''Palimpsest''. Vidal has also discussed having dalliances with people such as actress Diana Lynn, and has alluded to the possibility that he may have a daughter. He was briefly engaged to Joanne Woodward, before she married Paul Newman; after eloping, the couple shared a house with Vidal in Los Angeles for a short time. In 1950, he met his long-term partner Howard Austen.

During the latter part of the twentieth century Vidal divided his time between Italy and California. In 2003, he sold his 5,000-square-foot (460 m²) Italian Villa, ''La Rondinaia'' (The Swallow's Nest), and moved to Los Angeles. Austen died in November 2003 and, in February 2005, was buried in a plot for himself and Vidal at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Writing career

Fiction

Vidal, whom a ''Newsweek'' critic called "the best all-around American man of letters since Edmund Wilson," began his writing career at nineteen, with the publication of the military novel ''Williwaw'', based upon his Alaskan Harbor Detachment duty. The novel was successful and the first novel about World War II. A few years later, ''The City and the Pillar'' caused a furor for its dispassionate presentation of homosexuality. The novel was dedicated to "J.T." Decades later, after a magazine published rumors about J.T.'s identity, Vidal confirmed they were the initials of his St. Albans-era love, James "Jimmy" Trimble III, killed in the Battle of Iwo Jima on February 29, 1945; Vidal later said that Trimble was the only person he had ever loved.

Orville Prescott, the book critic for the ''New York Times'', found ''The City and the Pillar'' so objectionable that he refused to review or allow the ''Times'' to review Vidal's next five books. In response, Vidal wrote several mystery novels the early 1950s under the pseudonym "Edgar Box". Featuring public relations man Peter Cutler Sargeant II, their success financed Vidal for more than a decade.

He wrote plays, films, and television series. Two plays, ''The Best Man'' (1960) and ''Visit to a Small Planet (1955),'' were both Broadway and film successes.

In 1956, Vidal was hired as a contract screenwriter for Metro Goldwyn Mayer. In 1959, director William Wyler needed script doctors to re-write the script for ''Ben-Hur'', originally written by Karl Tunberg. Vidal collaborated with Christopher Fry, reworking the screenplay on condition that MGM release him from the last two years of his contract. Producer Sam Zimbalist's death complicated the screenwriting credit. The Screen Writers Guild resolved the matter by listing Tunberg as sole screenwriter, denying credit to both Vidal and Fry. This decision was based on the WGA screenwriting credit system which favors original authors. Vidal later claimed in the documentary film ''The Celluloid Closet'' that in order to explain the animosity between Ben-Hur and Messala, he had inserted a gay subtext suggesting that the two had had a prior relationship, but that actor Charlton Heston was oblivious. Heston denied that Vidal contributed significantly to the script.

In the 1960s, Vidal wrote three novels. The first, ''Julian'' (1964) dealt with the apostate Roman emperor, while the second, ''Washington, D.C.'' (1967) focused on a political family during the Franklin D. Roosevelt era. The third was the satirical transsexual comedy ''Myra Breckinridge'' (1968), a variation on Vidal's familiar themes of sex, gender, and popular culture. In the novel, Vidal showcased his love of the American films of the 30s and 40s, and he resurrected interest in the careers of the forgotten players of the time including, for example, that of the late Richard Cromwell, who, he wrote, "was so satisfyingly tortured in ''The Lives of a Bengal Lancer''."

After the staging of the plays ''Weekend'' (1968) and ''An Evening With Richard Nixon'' (1972), and the publication of the novel ''Two Sisters: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir'' (1970), Vidal focused on essays and two distinct themes in his fiction. The first strain comprises novels dealing with American history, specifically with the nature of national politics. Critic Harold Bloom wrote, "Vidal's imagination of American politics...is so powerful as to compel awe." Titles in this series, the Narratives of Empire, include ''Burr'' (1973), ''1876'' (1976), ''Lincoln'' (1984), ''Empire'' (1987), ''Hollywood'' (1990), ''The Golden Age'' (2000). Another title devoted to the ancient world, ''Creation'', appeared in 1981 and then in expanded form in 2002.

The second strain consists of the comedic "satirical inventions": ''Myron'' (1974, a sequel to ''Myra Breckinridge''), ''Kalki'' (1978), ''Duluth'' (1983), ''Live from Golgotha: The Gospel according to Gore Vidal'' (1992), and ''The Smithsonian Institution'' (1998).

Vidal occasionally returned to writing for film and television, including the television movie ''Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid'' with Val Kilmer and the mini-series ''Lincoln''. He also wrote the original draft for the controversial film ''Caligula'', but later had his name removed when director Tinto Brass and actor Malcolm McDowell rewrote the script, changing the tone and themes significantly. The producers later made an attempt to salvage some of Vidal's vision in the film's post-production.

Essays and memoirs

Vidal is—at least in the U.S.—even more respected as an essayist than as a novelist. The critic John Keats praised him as "[the twentieth] century's finest essayist." Even an occasionally hostile critic like Martin Amis admits, "Essays are what he is good at ... [h]e is learned, funny and exceptionally clear-sighted. Even his blind spots are illuminating."

For six decades, Gore Vidal has applied himself to a wide variety of sociopolitical, sexual, historical, and literary themes. In 1987, Vidal wrote the essays titled ''Armageddon?'', exploring the intricacies of power in contemporary America. He pilloried the incumbent president Ronald Reagan as a "triumph of the embalmer's art." In 1993, he won the National Book Award for his collection of essays, ''United States (1952–1992)'', the citation noting: "Whatever his subject, he addresses it with an artist's resonant appreciation, a scholar's conscience, and the persuasive powers of a great essayist." A subsequent collection of essays, published in 2000, is ''The Last Empire''. Since then, he has published such self-described "pamphlets" as ''Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace'', ''Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta'', and ''Imperial America'', critiques of American expansionism, the military-industrial complex, the national security state, and the George W. Bush administration. Vidal also wrote an historical essay about the U.S.'s founding fathers, ''Inventing a Nation''. In 1995, he published a memoir ''Palimpsest'', and in 2006 its follow-up volume, ''Point to Point Navigation''. Earlier that year, Vidal also published ''Clouds and Eclipses: The Collected Short Stories.''

Because of his matter-of-fact treatment of same-sex relations in such books as ''The City and The Pillar'', Vidal is often seen as an early champion of sexual liberation. ''Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings'', a representative sampling of his views, contains literary and cultural essays. Focusing on, in his view, the anti-sexual heritage of Judeo-Christianity, irrational and destructive sex laws, feminism, heterosexism, homophobia, gay liberation and pornography, the essays frequently return to a favorite Vidal motif: the fluidity of sexual identity. Vidal argues that "there are no homosexual people, only homosexual acts." Given the diversity of human desire, Vidal resists any effort to categorize him as exclusively "homosexual"—either as writer or human being.

In 2005, Jay Parini was appointed as Vidal's literary executor.

Acting and popular culture

In the 1960s, Vidal moved to Italy; he gave a cameo appearance in Federico Fellini's film ''Roma''. In 1992, Vidal appeared in the film ''Bob Roberts'' (starring Tim Robbins) and has appeared in other films, notably ''Gattaca'', ''With Honors'', and ''Igby Goes Down''. Vidal has voiced himself on both ''The Simpsons'' and ''Family Guy'' and appeared on the ''Da Ali G Show'', where Ali G (intentionally) mistakes him for Vidal Sassoon. He provided the narrative for the Royal National Theatre's production of Brecht's Mother Courage in the autumn of 2009.

Vidal was portrayed in ''Amelia'' (2009), as a child, by Canadian actor William Cuddy, and in ''Infamous'' (2006), the story of Truman Capote, as a young adult, by American actor Michael Panes.

Political views and activities

Besides his politician grandfather, Vidal has other connections with the Democratic Party: his mother, Nina, married Hugh D. Auchincloss, Jr., who later was stepfather of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Gore Vidal is a fifth cousin of Jimmy Carter. Vidal may be a distant cousin of Al Gore.

As a political activist, in 1960, Gore Vidal was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Congress, losing an election in New York's 29th congressional district, a traditionally Republican district on the Hudson River, encompassing all of Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Schoharie, and Ulster Counties to J. Ernest Wharton, by a margin of 57% to 43%. Campaigning with a slogan of "You'll get more with Gore", he received the most votes any Democrat in 50 years received in that district. Among his supporters were Eleanor Roosevelt, Paul Newman, and Joanne Woodward; the latter two, longtime friends of Vidal's, campaigned for him and spoke on his behalf.

On the December 15, 1971 taping of ''The Dick Cavett Show'', with Janet Flanner, Norman Mailer allegedly head-butted Vidal during an altercation prior to their appearance on the show.

From 1970 to 1972, Vidal was one of the chairmen of the People's Party. In 1971, he wrote an article in ''Esquire'' advocating consumer advocate Ralph Nader for president in the 1972 election.

In 1982 he campaigned against incumbent Governor Jerry Brown for the Democratic primary election to the United States Senate from California and this was documented in the film, ''Gore Vidal: The Man Who Said No'' directed by Gary Conklin. Vidal lost to Brown in the primary election.

Frequently identified with Democratic causes and personalities, Vidal wrote in the 1970s: }} Despite this, Vidal has said "I think of myself as a conservative." Vidal has a protective, almost proprietary attitude toward his native land and its politics: "My family helped start [this country]", he has written, "and we've been in political life... since the 1690s, and I have a very possessive sense about this country." At a 1999 lecture in Dublin, Vidal said:

He has suggested that President Roosevelt deliberately provoked the Japanese to attack the U.S. at Pearl Harbor to facilitate American entry to the war, and believes FDR had advance knowledge of the attack. During an interview in the 2005 documentary ''Why We Fight'', Vidal asserts that during the final months of World War II, the Japanese had tried to surrender to the United States, to no avail. He said, "They were trying to surrender all that summer, but Truman wouldn't listen, because Truman wanted to drop the bombs." When the interviewer asked why, Vidal replied, "To show off. To frighten Stalin. To change the balance of power in the world. To declare war on communism. Perhaps we were starting a pre-emptive world war."

During domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh's imprisonment, Vidal corresponded with McVeigh and concluded that he bombed the federal building as retribution for the FBI's role in the 1993 Branch Davidian Compound massacre in Waco, Texas.

Vidal was a member of the advisory board of the World Can't Wait organization, a left-wing organization seeking to repudiate the Bush administration's program, and advocating the impeachment of George W. Bush for war crimes.

In 1997, Vidal was one of 34 celebrities to sign an open letter to then-German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, published as a newspaper advertisement in the ''International Herald Tribune'', which protested the treatment of Scientologists in Germany.

Vidal contributed an article to ''The Nation'' in which he expressed support for Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, citing him as "the most eloquent of the lot" and that Kucinich "is very much a favorite out there in the amber fields of grain".

In May 2008, Vidal proclaimed to Esquire magazine: "Everything’s wrong on Wikipedia."

In April 2009, Vidal accepted appointment to the position of honorary president of the American Humanist Association, succeeding Kurt Vonnegut.

On September 30, 2009, ''The Times'' of London published a lengthy interview with him headlined "We’ll have a dictatorship soon in the US - The grand old man of letters Gore Vidal claims America is ‘rotting away’ — and don’t expect Barack Obama to save it", which brings up-to-date his views on his own life, and a variety of political subjects.

Vidal versus Buckley

In 1968, ABC News invited Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr. to be political analysts of the Republican and Democratic presidential conventions. Verbal and nearly physical combat ensued. After days of mutual bickering, their debates devolved to vitriolic, ad hominem attacks. During discussions of the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests, the men were arguing about freedom of speech in regards to American protesters displaying a Viet Cong flag when Vidal told Buckley to "shut up a minute" and, in response to Buckley's reference to "pro-Nazi" protesters, went on to say "As far as I'm concerned, the only sort of pro-crypto-Nazi I can think of is yourself." The visibly livid Buckley replied, "Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a crypto-Nazi, or I'll sock you in the goddamn face and you'll stay plastered." After an interruption by anchor and facilitator Howard K. Smith, the men continued to discuss the topic in a less hostile manner. Buckley later expressed regret for having called Vidal a "queer," but nonetheless described Vidal as an "evangelist for bisexuality."

Later, in 1969, the feud was continued as Buckley further attacked Vidal in the lengthy essay, "On Experiencing Gore Vidal", published in the August 1969 issue of ''Esquire''. The essay is collected in ''The Governor Listeth'', an anthology of Buckley's writings of the time. In a key passage attacking Vidal as an apologist for homosexuality, Buckley wrote, "The man who in his essays proclaims the normalcy of his affliction [i.e., homosexuality], and in his art the desirability of it, is not to be confused with the man who bears his sorrow quietly. The addict is to be pitied and even respected, not the pusher."

Vidal responded in the September 1969 issue of ''Esquire'', variously characterizing Buckley as "anti-black", "anti-semitic", and a "warmonger". The presiding judge in Buckley's subsequent libel suit against Vidal initially concluded that "[t]he court must conclude that Vidal's comments in these paragraphs meet the minimal standard of fair comment. The inferences made by Vidal from Buckley's [earlier editorial] statements cannot be said to be completely unreasonable." However, Vidal also strongly implied that, in 1944, Buckley and unnamed siblings had vandalized a Protestant church in their Sharon, Connecticut, hometown after the pastor's wife had sold a house to a Jewish family. Buckley sued Vidal and ''Esquire'' for libel. Vidal counter-claimed for libel against Buckley, citing Buckley's characterization of Vidal's novel ''Myra Breckinridge'' as pornography.

The court dismissed Vidal's counter-claim; Buckley settled for $115,000 in attorney's fees and an editorial statement from ''Esquire'' magazine that they were "utterly convinced" of the untruthfulness of Vidal's assertion. However, in a letter to ''Newsweek'', the ''Esquire'' publisher stated that "the settlement of Buckley's suit against us" was not "a 'disavowal' of Vidal's article. On the contrary, it clearly states that we published that article because we believed that Vidal had a right to assert his opinions, even though we did not share them."

As Vidal's biographer, Fred Kaplan, later commented, "The court had 'not' sustained Buckley's case against ''Esquire''... [t]he court had 'not' ruled that Vidal's article was 'defamatory.' It had ruled that the case would have to go to trial ''in order to determine as a matter of fact whether or not it was defamatory.'' [italics original.] The cash value of the settlement with ''Esquire'' represented 'only' Buckley's legal expenses [not damages based on libel]... " Ultimately, Vidal bore the cost of his own attorney's fees, estimated at $75,000.

In 2003, this affair re-surfaced when ''Esquire'' published ''Esquire's Big Book of Great Writing'', an anthology that included Vidal's essay. Buckley again sued for libel, and ''Esquire'' again settled for $55,000 in attorney's fees and $10,000 in personal damages to Buckley.

After Buckley's death on February 27, 2008, Vidal summed up his impressions of his rival with the following obituary on March 20, 2008: "RIP WFB—in hell." In a June 15, 2008, interview with the ''New York Times'', Vidal was asked by Deborah Solomon, "How did you feel when you heard that Buckley died this year?" Vidal responded:

Criticism of the George W. Bush administration

Vidal was strongly critical of the George W. Bush administration, listing it among administrations he considered to have either an explicit or implicit expansionist agenda. He has described George W. Bush as "the stupidest man in the United States".

He is of the view that for several years the Bush administration and their associates aimed to control the petroleum of Central Asia (after gaining effective control of the petroleum of the Persian Gulf in 1991). In October 2006, Vidal derided NORAD for what he claimed was a conspiracy against the US public, perpetrated by an alliance of the US Air Force and the government of Canada at the time.

In May 2007, Vidal clarified his views, saying: }}

Bibliography

Essays and non-fiction

''Rocking the Boat'' (1963)

''Reflections Upon a Sinking Ship'' (1969)

''Sex, Death and Money'' (1969) (paperback compilation)

''Homage to Daniel Shays'' (1972)

''Matters of Fact and of Fiction'' (1977)

''Views from a Window'' Co-Editor (1981)

''The Second American Revolution'' (1982)

''Vidal In Venice'' (1985) ISBN 0-671-60691-3

''Armageddon?'' (1987) (UK only)

''At Home'' (1988)

''A View From The Diner's Club'' (1991) (UK only)

''Screening History'' (1992) ISBN 0-233-98803-3

''Decline and Fall of the American Empire'' (1992) ISBN 1-878825-00-3

''United States: essays 1952–1992'' (1993) ISBN 0-7679-0806-6

''Palimpsest: a memoir'' (1995) ISBN 0-679-44038-0

''Virgin Islands'' (1997) (UK only)

''The American Presidency'' (1998) ISBN 1-878825-15-1

''Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings'' (1999)

''The Last Empire: essays 1992–2000'' (2001) ISBN 0-375-72639-X (there is also a much shorter UK edition)

''Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace or How We Came To Be So Hated'', Thunder's Mouth Press, 2002, (2002) ISBN 1-56025-405-X

''Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta'', Thunder's Mouth Press, (2002) ISBN 1-56025-502-1

''Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson'' (2003) ISBN 0-300-10171-6

''Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia'' (2004) ISBN 1-56025-744-X

''Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir'' (2006) ISBN 0-385-51721-1

''The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal'' (2008) ISBN 0-385-52484-6

''Gore Vidal: Snapshots in History's Glare'' (2009) ISBN 0-810-95049-9

Plays

''Visit to a Small Planet'' (1957) ISBN 0-8222-1211-0

''The Best Man'' (1960)

''On the March to the Sea'' (1960–1961, 2004)

''Romulus'' (adapted from Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 1950 play ''Romulus der Große'') (1962)

''Weekend'' (1968)

''Drawing Room Comedy'' (1970)

''An Evening with Richard Nixon'' (1970) ISBN 0-394-71869-0

''On the March to the Sea'' (2005)

Novels

''Williwaw'' (1946) ISBN 0-226-85585-6

''In a Yellow Wood'' (1947)

''The City and the Pillar'' (1948) ISBN 1-4000-3037-4

''The Season of Comfort'' (1949) ISBN 0-233-98971-4

''A Search for the King'' (1950) ISBN 0-345-25455-4

''Dark Green, Bright Red'' (1950) ISBN 0-233-98913-7 (prophecy of the Guatemala coup d'état of 1954, see "In the Lair of the Octopus" ''Dreaming War'')

''The Judgment of Paris'' (1952) ISBN 0-345-33458-2

''Messiah'' (1954) ISBN 0-14-118039-0

''A Thirsty Evil'' (1956) (short stories)

''Julian'' (1964) ISBN 0-375-72706-X

''Washington, D.C.'' (1967) ISBN 0-316-90257-8

''Myra Breckinridge'' (1968) ISBN 1125979488

''Two Sisters'' (1970) ISBN 0-434-82958-7

''Burr'' (1973) ISBN 0-375-70873-1

''Myron'' (1974) ISBN 0-586-04300-4

''1876'' (1976) ISBN 0-375-70872-3

''Kalki'' (1978) ISBN 0-14-118037-4

''Creation'' (1981) ISBN 0-349-10475-1

''Duluth'' (1983) ISBN 0-394-52738-0

''Lincoln'' (1984) ISBN 0-375-70876-6

''Empire'' (1987) ISBN 0-375-70874-X

''Hollywood'' (1990) ISBN 0-375-70875-8

''Live from Golgotha: The Gospel according to Gore Vidal'' (1992) ISBN 0-14-023119-6

''The Smithsonian Institution'' (1998) ISBN 0-375-50121-5

''The Golden Age'' (2000) ISBN 0-375-72481-8

''Clouds and Eclipses: The Collected Short Stories'' (2006) (short stories, this is the same collection as ''A Thirsty Evil'' (1956), with one previously unpublished short story – ''Clouds and Eclipses'' – added)

Screenplays

''Climax!: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde'' (1954) (TV adaptation)

''The Catered Affair'' (1956)

''I Accuse!'' (1958)

''The Scapegoat'' (1959)

''Ben Hur'' (1959) (uncredited)

''Suddenly, Last Summer'' (1959)

''The Best Man'' (1964)

''Is Paris Burning?'' (1966)

''Last of the Mobile Hot Shots'' (1970)

''Caligula'' (1979)

''Dress Gray'' (1986)

''The Sicilian'' (1987) (uncredited)

''Billy the Kid'' (1989)

''Dimenticare Palermo'' (1989)

Works under pseudonyms

''A Star's Progress'' (aka ''Cry Shame!'') (1950) as Katherine Everard

''Thieves Fall Out'' (1953) as Cameron Kay

''Death Before Bedtime'' (1953) as Edgar Box

''Death in the Fifth Position'' (1952) as Edgar Box

''Death Likes It Hot'' (1954) as Edgar Box

Film & TV appearances

''Profile of a Writer: Gore Vidal'' – RM Productions (1979 documentary film)

''Gore Vidal: The Man Who Said No'' (1983 documentary film)

''Weekend In Wallop'' (1984)

''Vidal in Venice'' – Antelope Films for Channel Four Television (1987 documentary film)

''Bob Roberts'' – as Senator Brickley Paiste (1992 film)

''With Honors'' – Plays the pessimistic and right-wing Prof. Pitkannan (1994 film)

''The Celluloid Closet'' – (1995 documentary film)

''Gattaca'' – Plays Director Josef in science-fiction film (1997)

''The Education of Gore Vidal'' (2003) Documentary by ''Deborah Dickson'', aired in the US on ''PBS''

''Thinking XXX'' (2004 documentary)

''Da Ali G Show'' (2004 TV)

''Why We Fight'' (2005 film)

''Inside Deep Throat'' (2005 film)

''One Bright Shining Moment'' (2005 film)

''Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula'' (2005 spoof trailer)

''Foreign Correspondent'' – with former NSW premier Bob Carr

''The U.S. Versus John Lennon'' (2006 film)

Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra concert, August 2, 2007 – Narrated Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait (conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas) from a wheelchair.

''The Henry Rollins Show'' (2007 TV)

"The Simpsons" episode: "Moe'N'a Lisa"

"Family Guy" episode: "Mother Tucker"

Alex Jones radio show (2006)

''Terrorstorm: Final Cut Special Edition'' (2007)

''Lateline – ABC Television Australia Interview'' (May 2, 2008)

''Democracy Now'' – interview: on the Bush Presidency, History and the "United States of Amnesia" (May 14, 2008)

''The South Bank Show'' (May 18, 2008)

''Hardtalk – BBC News'' (May 22, 2008)

''The Andrew Marr Show (May 25, 2008)

''The US is not a republic anymore'' (June, 2008)

''Zero: An Investigation Into 9/11'' (June, 2008)

''Interview on the BBC's US Presidential Election Coverage with David Dimbleby (04/11/08)

"Writer Against the Grain": Gore Vidal in conversation with Jay Parini at the 2009 Key West Literary Seminar (audio, 59:09)

''Real Time with Bill Maher'' (April 10, 2009)

''Shrink'' (2009 film)

''"Gore Vidal's America"'' on The Real News Network (December 24, 2010)

See also

Politics in fiction

References

External links

The Gore Vidal Index, by Harry Kloman

The Gore Vidal Pages

Gore Vidal New York Review of Books author profile including a list of his reviews and essays from over 40 years, along with a bibliography

Audio recording: Gore Vidal at the Key West Literary Seminar, 2009: "Writer Against the Grain"

Gore Vidal's America - Seven part interview with Gore Vidal on The Real News - (video) July 5, 2009

Gore Vidal Interview with Melvyn Bragg in ''New Statesman'' Magazine - 11 October 2010

Category:1925 births Category:Living people Category:People from Orange County, New York Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:American essayists Category:American expatriates in Italy Category:American historical novelists Category:American humanists Category:American memoirists Category:American novelists Category:American political writers Category:American screenwriters Category:American tax resisters Category:Edgar Award winners Category:Bisexual actors Category:Bisexual writers Category:Conspiracy theorists Category:LGBT memoirists Category:American LGBT military personnel Category:LGBT screenwriters Category:LGBT writers from the United States Category:Military brats Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:United States Army soldiers Category:National Book Award winners Category:Postmodern writers

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George Robert "Bob" Crosby (August 23, 1913, Spokane, Washington – March 9, 1993, La Jolla, California) was an American dixieland bandleader and vocalist, best known for his group the Bob-Cats.

Family

He was the youngest of seven children: five boys, Larry (1895–1975), Everett (1896–1966), Ted (1900–1973), Harry (1903–1977, popularly known as Bing Crosby) and Bob; and two girls, Catherine (1905–1988) and Mary Rose (1907–1990). His parents were English-American bookkeeper Harry Lowe Crosby (1871–1950) and Irish-American Catherine Harrigan (1873–1964), (affectionately known as Kate), the daughter of a builder from County Mayo in Ireland.

Career

Singer and bandleader

Bob Crosby began singing in the early 1930s with the Delta Rhythm Boys which included vocalist Ray Hendricks and guitarist Bill Pollard also with Anson Weeks (1931–34) and the Dorsey Brothers (1934–35). He led his first band in 1935, when the former members of Ben Pollack's band elected him as titular leader. He recorded with the Clark Randall Orchestra in 1935, led by Gil Rodin and featuring singer Frank Tennille, whose pseudonym was Clark Randall. Glenn Miller was a member of that orchestra which recorded the Glenn Miller novelty composition "When Icky Morgan Plays the Organ" in 1935. His most famous band, the Bob-Cats, was a Dixieland jazz group with members from the Bob Crosby Orchestra. Both the Bob Crosby Orchestra and the smaller Bob-Cats group specialized in Dixieland jazz, presaging the traditional jazz revival of the 1940s. Crosby's singing voice was remarkably similar to that of his brother Bing, but without its range.

The Bob Crosby Orchestra and the Bob-Cats included (at various times) Yank Lawson, Billy Butterfield, Muggsy Spanier, Matty Matlock, Irving Fazola, Ward Silloway, Warren Smith, Eddie Miller, Joe Sullivan, Bob Zurke, Jess Stacy, Nappy Lamare, Bob Haggart, Walt Yoder, Jack Sperling, and Ray Bauduc. Arrangements for the orchestra were often done by a young trumpeter by the name of Gilbert Portmore who, during the time he was a decorated WWII fighter pilot in the South Pacific, started an Air Force swing band known as Cap'n Portmore's Hepcats.

The orchestra was actually led by sax player Gil Rodin, with Crosby himself simply the front man, chosen for his personality, looks, and famous last name.

Hits included "Summertime" (theme song), "In a Little Gypsy Tea Room", "Whispers in The Dark", "South Rampart Street Parade", "March of the Bob Cats", "Day In, Day Out", "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby", "Dolores" and "New San Antonio Rose" (last three with Bing Crosby). A bass and drums duet between Haggart and Bauduc, "Big Noise from Winnetka," became a hit in 1938-39.

The enduring popularity of the Bob Cats lead by Bob Crosby, whose biography was written by British jazz historian John Chilton, was evident during the frequent reunions in the 1950s and 1960s. Bob Haggart and Yank Lawson organized a band that kept the spirit alive, combining Dixieland and swing with a roster of top soloists. From the late 1960s until the mid-1970s, the group was known as The World's Greatest Jazzband. Since neither leader was happy with that name, they eventually reverted to The Lawson Haggart Jazzband. The Lawson-Haggart group was consistent in keeping the Bob Crosby tradition alive.

Three of his songs ("Way Back Home", "Happy Times" and "Dear Hearts and Gentle People") were featured in the hit video game Fallout 3 by Bethesda Studios. Most of the popularity of all of these songs were achieved by the use of them in the game trailers, in which they used his lighthearted music to contrast with the combat taking place in the video.

Bob Crosby has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for Television and Recording.

Radio

During World War II, Bob Crosby spent 18 months in the Marines, touring with bands in the Pacific. His radio variety series, ''The Bob Crosby Show'', aired on NBC and CBS in different runs between the years 1943 to 1950, followed by ''Club Fifteen'' on CBS from 1947 through 1953 and a half-hour CBS daytime series, ''The Bob Crosby Show'' (1953–1957). He introduced the Canadian singer Gisele MacKenzie to American audiences and subsequently guest starred in 1957 on her NBC television series, ''The Gisele MacKenzie Show.

On September 14, 1952, Bob replaced Phil Harris as the bandleader on ''The Jack Benny Program'', remaining until Benny retired the radio show in 1955 after 23 years. In joining the show, he became the leader of the same group of musicians who had played under Harris. According to Benny writer Milt Josefsberg, the issue was budget. Because radio had strong competition from TV, the program budget had to be reduced, so Bob replaced Phil. Prior to joining Benny on the radio, Crosby, who was based on the East Coast, would often play with Benny during Benny's live New York appearances, and he was seen frequently throughout the 1950s on Benny's television series.

As a performer, Crosby had tremendous charisma and wit combined with a laid back persona. He was able to swap jokes competently with Benny, including humorous references to his brother Bing's wealth and his string of losing racehorses. An exchange during one of the popular Christmas programs ran thus: Crosby muses to Jack that he's bought gifts for everyone but bandmember Frank Remley. When Jack suggests "a cordial, like a bottle of Drambuie," Crosby counters that Drambuie is an after-dinner drink and adds, alluding to Remley's penchant for alcohol, that "Remley never quite makes it to after dinner."

Television

Bob Crosby guest starred in the television series ''The Gisele MacKenzie Show''. He also starred in his own afternoon variety show, The Bob Crosby show, that aired between 1953 and 1957.

Personal life

Crosby married socialite June Kuhn at his home in Spokane on 22nd September 1938. They had five children, three boys (Christopher, George and Stephen) and two girls (Cathleen and Junie). Crosby died in 1993 due to complications from cancer.

Notes

External links

Big Band Library: Bob Crosby

Solid!: Bob Crosby

Media

Haendiges Listening Lounge: ''The Jo Stafford Show'' with vocal by Bob Crosby

Pandora: Bob Crosby

Radio Lovers: ''The Bob Crosby Show'' with Eileen Barton

An episode of ''The Bob Crosby Show'' from 1954

Category:1913 births Category:1993 deaths Category:Dixieland bandleaders Category:Big band bandleaders Category:American male singers Category:American musicians Category:Bandleaders Category:Big bands Category:Bell Records artists Category:United States Marines Category:1940s American radio programs Category:1950s American radio programs Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American musicians of English descent

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Teddy Grace (June 26, 1905, Arcadia, Louisiana – January 4, 1992, La Mirada, California) was an American female jazz singer.

Biography

Grace first sang professionally in 1931. She sang on radio in the American South and worked with the bands of Al Katz (1933), Tommy Christian (1934), and Mal Hallett (1934-37). From 1937 to 1940 she recorded for Decca Records, and her sidemen on these recordings included Bobby Hackett, Jack Teagarden, Charlie Shavers, Buster Bailey, Pee Wee Russell, and Bud Freeman.

She left the music industry in 1940 and joined the Women's Army Corps a short time later, where she sang at war bond rallies and other political events. She lost her voice as a result of these activities. She was unable to speak for years and was never again able to sing.

Twenty two of the thirty sides she recorded for Decca were reissued on CD by Timeless Records in 1996.

Footnotes

References

Scott Yanow, [ Teddy Grace] at Allmusic

Category:1905 births Category:1992 deaths Category:American jazz singers Category:American female singers Category:Jazz-blues musicians Category:Musicians from Louisiana Category:Decca Records artists

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