Thanksgiving Day
Saying grace before carving a turkey at Thanksgiving dinner, Pennsylvania, U.S., 1942
Observed by	Canada  Liberia  Norfolk Island  United States  Puerto Rico
Type	National, cultural
Date	2nd Monday in October (Canada) 1st Thursday in November (Liberia) Last Wednesday in November (Norfolk Island) 4th Thursday in November (USA)
2012 date	October 8, 2012 (Canada); November 1, 2012 (Liberia); November 28, 2012 (Norfolk Island); November 22, 2012 (USA)
2013 date	October 14, 2013 (Canada); November 7, 2013 (Liberia); November 27, 2013 (Norfolk Island); November 28, 2013 (USA, Puerto Rico)

Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. Because of the longstanding traditions of the holiday, the celebration often extends to the weekend that falls closest to the day it is celebrated. Several other places around the world observe similar celebrations. Historically, Thanksgiving had roots in religious and cultural tradition. Today, Thanksgiving is primarily celebrated as a secular holiday.

History[link]

Prayers of thanks to God and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common among almost all religions after harvests and at other times.^[1] The holiday's history in North America is rooted in English traditions dating from the Protestant Reformation. It also has aspects of a harvest festival, even though the harvest in New England occurs well before the late-November date of the holiday^[2][1]

In the English tradition, days of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services became important during the English Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII and in reaction to the large number of religious holidays on the Catholic calendar. Before 1536 there were 95 Church holidays, plus 52 Sundays, when people were required to attend church and forego work and sometimes pay for expensive celebrations. The 1536 reforms reduced the number of Church holidays to 27, but some Puritans, the radical reformers of their age, wished to completely eliminate all Church holidays, including Christmas and Easter. The holidays were to be replaced by specially called Days of Fasting or Days of Thanksgiving, in response to events that the Puritans viewed as acts of special providence. Unexpected disasters or threats of judgement from on high called for Days of Fasting. Special blessings, viewed as coming from God, called for Days of Thanksgiving. For example, Days of Fasting were called on account of drought in 1611, floods in 1613, and plague in 1604 and 1622. Days of Thanksgiving were called following the victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588, and following the deliverance of Queen Anne in 1705. An unusual annual Day of Thanksgiving began in 1606 following the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, and developed into Guy Fawkes Day.^[3]

In Canada[link]

The Order of Good Cheer, 1606 by Charles William Jefferys, (1925).

The origin of the first Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to the explorer Martin Frobisher who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean. Frobisher's Thanksgiving celebration was not for harvest but was in thanks for surviving the long journey from England through the perils of storms and icebergs. In 1578, on his third and final voyage to these regions, Frobisher held a formal ceremony in Frobisher Bay in Baffin Island (present-day Nunavut) to give thanks to God and in a service ministered by the preacher Robert Wolfall they celebrated Communion — the first-ever service in these regions.^[4] Years later, the tradition of a feast would continue as more settlers began to arrive in the Canadian colonies.^[5]

Oven roasted turkey

The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving can also be traced to the French settlers who came to New France with explorer Samuel de Champlain in the early 17th century, who also took to celebrating their successful harvests. The French settlers in the area typically had feasts at the end of the harvest season and continued throughout the winter season, even sharing their food with the indigenous peoples of the area.^[6] Champlain had also proposed for the creation of the Order of Good Cheer in 1606.^[7]

As many more settlers arrived in Canada, more celebrations of good harvest became common. New immigrants into the country, such as the Irish, Scottish and Germans, would also add their own traditions to the harvest celebrations. Most of the U.S. aspects of Thanksgiving (such as the turkey or what were called Guineafowls originating from Madagascar), were incorporated when United Empire Loyalists began to flee from the United States during the American Revolution and settled in Canada.^[6]

In the United States[link]

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth By Jennie A. Brownscombe (1914)

In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition traces its origins to a 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. There is also evidence for an earlier celebration on the continent by Spanish explorers in Texas at San Elizario in 1598, as well as thanksgiving feasts in the Virginia Colony.^[8] The initial thanksgiving observance at Virginia in 1619 was prompted by the colonists' leaders on the anniversary of the settlement.^[9] The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. In later years, the tradition was continued by civil leaders such as Governor Bradford who planned a thanksgiving celebration and fast in 1623.^[10][11][12] While initially, the Plymouth colony did not have enough food to feed half of the 102 colonists, the Wampanoag Native Americans helped the Pilgrims by providing seeds and teaching them to fish. The practice of holding an annual harvest festival like this did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.^[13]

According to historian Jeremy Bangs, director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, the Pilgrims may have been influenced by watching the annual services of Thanksgiving for the relief of the siege of Leiden in 1574, while they were staying in Leiden.^[14]

Pilgrims and Puritans who began emigrating from England in the 1620s and 1630s carried the tradition of Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving with them toNew England. Several days of Thanksgiving were held in early New England history that have been identified as the "First Thanksgiving", including Pilgrim holidays in Plymouth in 1621 and 1623, and a Puritan holiday in Boston in 1631.^[15][16]

Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly by church leaders in New England up until 1682, and then by both state and church leaders until after the American Revolution. During the revolutionary period, political influences affected the issuance of Thanksgiving proclamations. Various proclamations were made by royal governors, John Hancock, General George Washington, and the Continental Congress, each giving thanks to God for events favorable to their causes.^[17] As President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first nation-wide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, "as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God".^[18]

Debate about first celebrations[link]

The traditional representation of where the first Thanksgiving was held in the United States, and even the Americas, has often been a subject of debate. Author and teacher Robyn Gioia and Michael Gannon of the University of Florida have argued that the earliest attested "Thanksgiving" celebration in what is now the United States was celebrated by the Spanish on September 8, 1565, in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida.^[19][20]

Similarly, many historians point out that the first thanksgiving celebration in the United States was held in Virginia, and not in Plymouth. Thanksgiving services were routine in what was to become the Commonwealth of Virginia as early as 1607.^[21] A day of Thanksgiving was codified in the founding charter of Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia in 1619.^[22]

Fixing the date of the holiday[link]

The reason for the earlier Thanksgiving celebrations in Canada has often been attributed to the earlier onset of winter in the north, thus ending the harvest season earlier.^[23] Thanksgiving in Canada did not have a fixed date until the late 19th century. Prior to Canadian Confederation, many of the individual colonial governors of the Canadian provinces had declared their own days of Thanksgiving. The first official Canadian Thanksgiving occurred on April 15, 1872, when the nation was celebrating the Prince of Wales' recovery from a serious illness.^[23] By the end of the 19th Century, Thanksgiving Day was normally celebrated on November 6. However, when World War I ended, the Armistice Day holiday was usually held during the same week. To prevent the two holidays from clashing with one another, in 1957 the Canadian Parliament proclaimed Thanksgiving to be observed on its present date on the second Monday of October.^[6] Since 1971, when the American Uniform Monday Holiday Act took effect, the American observance of Columbus Day has coincided with the Canadian observance of Thanksgiving.^[24][25]

Thanksgiving in the United States, much like in Canada, was observed on various dates throughout history. The dates of Thanksgiving in the era of the Founding Fathers until the time of Lincoln had been decided by each state on various dates. The first Thanksgiving celebrated on the same date by all states was in 1863 by presidential proclamation. The final Thursday in November had become the customary date of Thanksgiving in most U.S. states by the beginning of the 19th century. And so, in an effort by President Abraham Lincoln (influenced by the campaigning of author Sarah Josepha Hale who wrote letters to politicians for around 40 years trying to make it an official holiday), to foster a sense of American unity between the Northern and Southern states, proclaimed the date to be the final Thursday in November.^[21]

It was not until December 26, 1941, that the unified date changed to the fourth Thursday (and not always final) in November—this time by federal legislation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, after two years earlier offering his own proclamation to move the date earlier, with the reason of giving the country an economic boost, agreed to sign a bill into law with Congress, making Thanksgiving a national holiday on the fourth Thursday in November.

Observance in North America[link]

Canada[link]

Pumpkin pie is commonly served on and around Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day (Canadian French: Jour de l'Action de grâce), occurring on the second Monday in October, is an annual Canadian holiday to give thanks at the close of the harvest season. Although the original act of Parliament references God and the holiday is celebrated in churches, the holiday is mostly celebrated in a secular manner. Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in all provinces in Canada, except for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. While businesses may remain open in these provinces, the holiday is nonetheless, recognized and celebrated regardless of its status.^{[26][27][28][29][30]}

United States[link]

Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, currently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November by federal legislation in 1941, has been an annual tradition in the United States by presidential proclamation since 1863 and by state legislation since the Founding Fathers of the United States. Historically, Thanksgiving began as a tradition of celebrating the harvest of the year.^[31]

Other observances known as Thanksgiving[link]

Grenada[link]

In the West Indian island of Grenada, there is a national holiday known as Thanksgiving Day which is celebrated on October 25. Even though it bears the same name, and is celebrated at roughly the same time as the American and Canadian versions of Thanksgiving, this holiday is unrelated to either of those celebrations. Instead the holiday marks the anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of the island in 1983, in response to the deposition and execution of Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.^[32]

Japan[link]

Labor Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday in Japan. It takes place annually on November 23. The law establishing the holiday cites it as an occasion for commemorating labor and production and giving one another thanks.

Liberia[link]

In the West African country of Liberia, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the first Thursday of November.^[33]

The Netherlands[link]

Many of the Pilgrims who migrated to the Plymouth Plantation had resided in the city of Leiden from 1609–1620, many of whom had recorded their birth, marriages and deaths at the Pieterskerk.^[34] To commemorate this, a non-denominational Thanksgiving Day service is held each year on the morning of the American Thanksgiving Day in the Pieterskerk, a Gothic church in Leiden, to commemorate the hospitality the Pilgrims received in Leiden on their way to the New World.^[35]

Norfolk Island[link]

In the Australian external territory of Norfolk Island, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the last Wednesday of November, similar to the pre-World War II American observance on the last Thursday of the month. This means the Norfolk Island observance is the day before or six days after the United States' observance. The holiday was brought to the island by visiting American whaling ships.^[36]

See also[link]

• Black Friday (shopping)

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Baker, James W. (2009). Thanksgiving: the biography of an American holiday. UPNE. pp. 273. ISBN 9781584658016. http://books.google.com/books?id=yoMhqK9Z5HwC&dq. 
• Colman, Penny (2008). Thanksgiving: The True Story. Macmillan. pp. 149. ISBN 9780805082296. http://books.google.com/books?id=mrEqiLORTFoC. 
• Dow, Judy; Slapin, Beverly (2006-06-12). "Deconstructing the Myths of "The First Thanksgiving"". Oyate.org. http://www.oyate.org/resources/shortthanks.html. Retrieved 2010-11-29. 
• Hillstrom, Laurie Collier (2007). The Thanksgiving book: a companion to the holiday covering its history, lore, .... Omnigraphics. pp. 328. ISBN 9780780804036. http://books.google.com/books?id=LpAXAQAAMAAJ. 
• Hodgson, Godfrey (2006). A Great and Godly Adventure; The Pilgrims and the Myth of the First Thanksgiving. New York: Public Affairs. pp. 212. 978-1-58648-373-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=4xQwAxAkBUUC. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Thanksgiving

Media related to Thanksgiving at Wikimedia Commons

• Thanksgiving at the Open Directory Project

Eli Roth
Roth at a premiere for Inglourious Basterds in August 2009
Born	Eli Raphael Roth (1972-04-18) April 18, 1972 (age 40) Newton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Other names	David Kaufbird Eli R. Roth
Occupation	Actor Animator Director Producer Screenwriter
Years active	1996–present

Eli Raphael Roth (born April 18, 1972) is an American film director, producer, writer and actor. He is known for his role as Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds for which he won both a SAG Award (Best Ensemble) and a BFCA Critic's Choice Award (Best Acting Ensemble). He is part of a group of filmmakers dubbed the Splat Pack,^[1] because of their dedication to the genre and their relentless horror films.

Early life[link]

Roth was born in Newton, Massachusetts, to Dr. Sheldon Roth, a psychiatrist/psychoanalyst and assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School, and Cora Roth, a painter.^[2] His grandparents emigrated from Austria, Russia, and Poland; Roth was raised Jewish.^[3][4][5]

Roth began shooting films at the age of eight after watching Ridley Scott's Alien (1979).^[6] He made over 50 short films with his brothers Adam and Gabe^[7] before graduating at Newton South High School and attending film school (the Tisch School of the Arts) at New York University, from which he graduated in 1994. By the age of 20, and while still a student at NYU, Roth ran the office of producer Frederick Zollo,^[7] eventually leaving to devote himself to writing full-time.

Actress Camryn Manheim gave Roth one of his first jobs in Hollywood, putting him on as an extra on The Practice when he first moved to Los Angeles. Roth would stay in Manheim's dressing room working on his scripts while she filmed the show. The two had met and become friends while Roth was working for Fred Zollo in New York City. Roth also met Manheim's cousin Howie Nuchow (former EVP of Mandalay Sports Entertainment and also from the Boston, MA area) at Camryn's family passover seder—this led to Roth's first animation project "Chowdaheads" in the year that followed. Roth also co-wrote a project called "The Extra" with Manheim;^[8] Manheim would later sell the pitch to producer (and former CEO and Chairman of Fox Studios) Bill Mechanic's Pandemonium company.

He graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1994 from NYU.^{[citation needed]}

Film career[link]

In his final years (1993/1994) at NYU film school, Roth wrote and directed a student film called Restaurant Dogs as an homage to Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. The film was nominated for a Student Academy Award in 1995, and won its division (Division III.)

Through his internship with producer Fred Zollo in years prior, Roth met David Lynch and remained in contact with him over the years, eventually producing content for Lynch with his fledgling website in the late 1990s.^[8] Roth met film and TV composer Angelo Badalamenti through Lynch; he would later use Badalamenti's music in his first feature film. He also met a member of special effects company KNB EFX through Lynch; KNB EFX would later contribute to his first feature.

Roth moved from NYC to LA in 1999; shortly thereafter he wrote, directed, edited, produced, animated, and provided voices for a series of animated shorts called Chowdaheads for Mandalay Sports Entertainment. The shorts were intended to be shown between WCW Monday Nitro pro wrestling matches, but the C.E.O. of WCW who had green lit the project was fired the weekend before they were supposed to be aired, and they were never actually broadcast, despite being completed. Roth's friend Noah Belson co-wrote the shorts and provided the other character voiceds

After receiving financial backup from the website Z.com to deliver a 5-minute pilot, Roth wrote, directed, animated and produced a series of stop-motion shorts in mid-2000 called The Rotten Fruit.^[8] The company (z.com) folded shortly after several episodes were completed, and the domain name "z.com" was picked up by Nissan years later to promote their sports car of the same name. A portion of the work for The Rotten Fruit was done at the Snake Pit studios in Burbank using miniature sets, poseable clay and foam figures, two high-end digital still cameras, and a pair of Macintosh computers. Roth's friend Noah Belson co-wrote the shorts and performed the character voices along with Roth.

[edit] Cabin Fever

In 1995, a year after graduating from NYU, Roth cowrote Cabin Fever with his roommate and friend from NYU, Randy Pearlstein. Roth based the premise of the script on his own encounter with a skin infection he contracted while training horses at a farm in Selfoss, Iceland, in 1991. Much of the script was written while Roth was working as a production assistant in 1996 for Howard Stern's movie Private Parts.

The film was made in 2001 on a budget of $1.5 million raised from private investors. Roth sold the film to Lionsgate at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival for $3.5 million, the biggest sale of the festival that year. The film was released in 2003 and was Lionsgate's highest grossing film of the year, earning $22 million at the U.S. box office and $35 million worldwide. Lionsgate used the theatrical success of Cabin Fever to raise the money to purchase Artisan Entertainment. Lionsgate stock rose from $1.98 a share at the time Cabin Fever was purchased at the Toronto Film Festival to nearly $6 a share after Cabin Fever was released theatrically.^[9] The film made Roth a new star in the horror genre. In his 2004 Premiere Magazine interview for Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino called Cabin Fever his favorite new film and Roth "the future of horror."^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Hostel

Roth's second feature film, Hostel, was made in 2005 on a budget of a little more than $4 million. It opened to No. 1 at the box office in January 2006, taking in $20 million over its opening weekend.^[10][11] It went on to gross $80 million worldwide in box office, and more than $180 million worldwide on DVD. In April 2006 on Eli Roth's birthday, Hostel opened on DVD at No. 1.^{[citation needed]} The movie plot is said to take place in Slovakia, however, all the exteriors were shot in the Czech Republic.

The story line is naively simple – three friends are lured to visit a hostel in which they think their sexual fantasies will come true. Instead, they drop into the clutches of an international syndicate offering a first-hand torturing and killing experience to the sadistic pleasure of rich tourists. The film was voted the No. 1 scariest movie moment on the Bravo TV special 30 Even Scarier Movie Moments.^[12] Empire Magazine readers voted Hostel the Best Horror Film of 2007.^[13]

Roth reportedly turned down numerous studio directing jobs to make Hostel. He took a directing salary of only $10,000 on Hostel in order to keep the budget as low as possible so there would be no limitations on the violence. In January 2006, film critic David Edelstein in New York Magazine credited Roth with creating the horror sub-genre 'torture porn,' or 'gorno,' using excessive violence to excite audiences like a sexual act.^[14]

[edit] Thanksgiving

In 2007, Roth directed the faux trailer segment Thanksgiving for Grindhouse in addition to appearing in Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino's segment of the film. Roth and cowriter Jeff Rendell won a 2007 Spike TV Scream Award for best "screamplay" for their writing in Grindhouse, sharing the honor with Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Rob Zombie and Edgar Wright. Roth also provided the narration for the faux trailer.^[15] According to IMDb, Roth will be directing a feature-film version of Thanksgiving to be released in 2013.^[16]

[edit] Hostel: Part II

Eli Roth with Ruggero Deodato on the set of Hostel: Part II (2007)

Hostel: Part II opened in sixth place with $8.2 million and went on to total $17.6 million by the end of its theatrical run. The film cost $10.2 million and made $35 million dollars worldwide and another $50 million on DVD and pay television.^[17]

Lionsgate attributed the lower grosses to the summer release date opposite summer blockbusters such as Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Ocean's 13, as well as the film's workprint being leaked from a Lionsgate studio executive online prior to the film's release. Close to 2 million illegal workprint downloads were tracked the day Hostel 2 opened theatrically in the U.S.

I don't know if it was the most downloaded film of all time, but there are tracking services that track what movies are being downloaded. And a copy of Hostel 2 leaked out before its release and they had it, it was like millions and millions of hits. Not only was it downloaded, but in the countries it was downloaded — like Mexico and Brazil — there were copies on the street for practically a penny. You could buy Hostel 2 for a quarter in Mexico City. As a result, in a lot of countries where the piracy was bad, they just didn't even release it.^[18]

Hostel Part II was nominated for six Spike TV Scream Awards, including best horror film and best director. It was on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 20 best horror films of the past 20 years.^[19]

[edit] Endangered Species

Eli Roth announced that after Inglourious Basterds was done he would begin work on his next film, Endangered Species.^[20]

I can’t say anything without giving anything away!… I saw Transformers and Cloverfield and thought, ‘I have an idea for a mass destruction movie.’ But it’s going to be very different from those films. And it’s science fiction, but a little more grounded than that.^[21]

Other projects[link]

Roth at the Spike TV Scream Awards, 2007

He has talked about doing a film called Trailer Trash, a film made of fake trailers; according to an appearance on G4, Roth was quoted saying "Trailer Trash is not a horror film, it's a comedy. It will be very R-rated and completely insane, and I'm producing it with Mike Fleiss".^[22]

He is currently producing a kung fu movie entitled The Man with the Iron Fist. It is being written, directed, and scored by The RZA, who stars in the film. According to Roth, Quentin Tarantino is involved with the movie as well. In a recent interview with CHUD, Roth said:

This movie will have everything martial arts fans could want, combined with RZA's superb musical talent. This project has been his dream for years, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it. And fans should know that yes, there will be blood... This ain't no PG-13.^[23][24]

Roth has also been a frequent contributor to DVD extras content (liner notes and video commentary) for horror film distributors Grindhouse Releasing/Box Office Spectaculars, particularly on two of his favorite films Juan Piquer Simon's Pieces and the upcoming North American DVD release of Lucio Fulci's Cat in the Brain.^[25][26][27]

Men's Fitness magazine voted Roth Most Fit Director in their July 2006 issue, a title Roth takes very seriously, with a strict workout routine that he documents on the Hostel DVDs. Roth claims he treats every red carpet like it was a Milan runway, and often jokes that he only makes films as a way to live out his lifelong dream of being a male supermodel. He spoke of his love for fashion in his interview in the October 2007 issue of Italian Vogue.

Roth is an animator, having written, produced, directed, animated and voiced two series: Chowdaheads (1999) and The Rotten Fruit (2000). Chowdaheads was co-written and co-voiced with friend Noah Belson, and was made with traditional hand-drawn animation. The Rotten Fruit, which Roth again co-wrote and co-voiced with Belson, was made with stop-motion animation done with foam puppets.

Roth also participated in the 2006 animated comedy film, Disaster!, voicing the lumberjack during the opening moments of the film. The comical 'death by squirrels' the lumberjack suffers is inspired by Roth's gruesome and often ironic ways of killing characters in his own films.

Roth recorded an audio commentary for Troma's 2005 DVD release of Blood Sucking Freaks having no formal credit, billed only as a "Blood and Guts Expert." The DVD is one of Troma's highest selling. Roth often makes uncredited cameos in Troma films. He made an unbilled cameo as a Tromaville citizen in Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV in 2000.

Roth had a role in Quentin Tarantino's half of Grindhouse, Death Proof, in a scene with Jordan Ladd. Tarantino was so impressed by Roth's brief role as Justin in Cabin Fever, he asked Roth to audition for the film. Roth left his preproduction on Hostel Part II in Prague to fly to Austin, Texas for one week to film the scene at the Texas Chili Parlor. Roth said working as an actor for Tarantino was like taking a masterclass in directing, and said the only directors he would ever act for were people who had won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Roth also made appearances in several projects that David Lynch directed for Davidlynch.com.

Roth was profiled on the G4 TV show Icons, and was on the cover of Forbes magazine's "Hollywood's most profitable stars" issue.^{[citation needed]}

Eli Roth brought a Raiders of the Lost Ark shot-for-shot remake by kids to the attention of both Harry Knowles and Steven Spielberg. Roth had a copy in his collection of videos for years before showing it at Harry Knowles' Butt-Numb-A-Thon film festival in December, 2002. The response was so overwhelming that Roth took the tape to his very first meeting at Dreamworks, and gave it to an executive to give to Steven Spielberg. The executive called Roth the next week saying that Spielberg loved it and wanted to contact the filmmakers. Roth had never met the filmmakers, but Google searched every name in the credits until he got a hold of Jayson Lamb, the cinematographer. The three filmmakers, Lamb, Chris Strompolis, and Eric Zala (a former Activision employee), had not spoken to each other in years when Roth contacted them out of the blue, saying that Spielberg wanted to write them a letter. This reunited the friends, who began touring the world doing charity screenings with the film. Roth felt that the film was so powerful he had to do whatever he could to make sure fans around the world saw it. Roth introduced the film at its premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in May 2008, five and a half years after he first got the tape to Knowles and Spielberg.

Roth co-starred with Brad Pitt in Quentin Tarantino's World War II epic Inglourious Basterds, playing Donny Donowitz, a.k.a. "The Bear Jew." He also guest directed the Nazi propaganda film-within-the-film, Nation's Pride.^[28]

Roth wrote, directed and acted in a P.S.A. for P.E.T.A. about the link between violence against animals leading to violence against people. Roth won a Telly Award for his spot (Public Service Category: Bronze.)

Roth, through his company Arcade with Eric Newman and Strike producer Marc Abraham,^[29] produced the horror film The Last Exorcism, (originally titled Cotton) which was directed by Daniel Stamm.^[30] It was completed in December 2009 and in February 2010 retitled The Last Exorcism.^[31] The Last Exorcism, which cost $1.5 million to produce, opened to over $20 million dollars in the U.S., and earned the #1 opening spots in Canada and the U.K. The film was completely paid for by selling off a few foreign territories and in profits before shooting began. It earned over $40 million dollars at the U.S. box office, totaling $70 million worldwide.^[32] Roth also had a cameo as a contest emcee in Alexandre Aja's Piranha 3-D.^[33]

Roth is a curator at the EMP Museum's exhibit "Can't Look Away" about the history of horror. Roth was selected along with directors John Landis and Roger Corman to represent three generations of film directors who have impacted the genre. The installation opened in September 2011, and will be open through 2014.

Roth hosted and executive produced an episode of Discovery channel's series "Curiosity," called "How Evil Are You." In the episode Roth explored the scientific aspect of evil, undergoing a brain scan and DNA sequencing at U.C. Davis with neuropsychiatrist Dr. James Fallon. Roth also recreated the infamous Milgram experiments, and found the results were identical to those done 50 years prior.

On March 8, 2006, Ain't It Cool News announced that Dimension Films had bought the film rights of the Cell by Stephen King and would produce a film to be directed by Eli Roth (Hostel, Cabin Fever) for a 2009 release. Roth will opened his Haunted house "Eli Roth’s Goretorium" as Tourist attraction on 27 September 2012 in Las Vegas.^[34][35]

On May 17, 2011, Roth announced his return to the director's chair with a film titled The Green Inferno. ^[36]

Filmography[link]

Year	Film	Credited as
		Director	Producer	Writer	Actor	Role	Notes
2002	Cabin Fever	N	N	N	N	Justin aka Grim
2004	Tales from the Crapper				N	Gay Party-goer
2005	2001 Maniacs		N		N	Justin
	Hostel	N	N	N	N	American Stoner	Cameo
2007	Hostel: Part II	N		N	N	Head on stick
	Death Proof				N	Dov
	Thanksgiving	N		N	N	Tucker/Trailer Announcer	Fake trailer
2009	Don't Look Up				N	Béla Olt
	Inglourious Basterds				N	Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz
	Nation's Pride	N					Film within a film
2010	The Last Exorcism		N[37]
	Piranha 3D				N	Wet T-shirt contest MC	Cameo
2012	The Man with the Iron Fists		N	N
2013	Thanksgiving	N		N		TBA
TBA	Endangered Species	N	N	N	N
	Clown		N

Collaborations[link]

This section may contain previously unpublished synthesis of published material that conveys ideas not attributable to the original sources. See the talk page for details. (June 2011)

Eli Roth has cast certain actors in more than one of his films.

	Cabin Fever	Hostel	Hostel: Part II	Thanksgiving
Derek Richardson		N	N2
Jay Hernandez		N	N	N3
Rick Hoffman		N	N2
Jana Kaderabkova		N	N2
Jordan Ladd	N		N	N3
Barbara Nedeljáková		N	N2
Eli Roth	N	N1	N1	N3

¹ Normal cameo.
² Flashback cameo.
³ Possible upcoming role.

References[link]

External links[link]

• My Son Killed Adolf Hitler by Sheldon Roth on Patheos
• Eli Roth at the Internet Movie Database
• Eli Roth on Myspace
• Eli Roth on Twitter
• D-Listed profile

George Winston (born 1949) is an American pianist who was born in Michigan, and grew up mainly in Miles City, Montana, as well as Mississippi and Florida. He attended Stetson University in Deland, Florida, and lives in Santa Cruz, California.^[1]

Background[link]

George Winston was first recorded by John Fahey for Fahey's Takoma Records. The album Ballads and Blues disappeared without much notice, although it was later reissued on Winston's Dancing Cat Records. However, in 1979, William Ackerman talked with Winston about having Winston record for Ackerman's new record label, Windham Hill Records. At first Winston played some guitar pieces he liked and then he played some of his nighttime music on the piano, which became the basis for the record Autumn, which Ackerman produced. Autumn soon became the best-selling record in the Windham Hill catalog,^{[citation needed]} and his albums December and Winter into Spring both went platinum (million-plus sales in the United States). He has recorded 7 more solo piano albums, and he is one of the best known performers playing contemporary instrumental music.

Winston was 16 when Charles Schulz's A Charlie Brown Christmas premiered in 1965, and he ran out and bought the soundtrack the next day.^[2] He eagerly awaited each new Peanuts special to hear Guaraldi's newest music. In 1996, Winston released Linus and Lucy – The Music of Vince Guaraldi. Much of the album is devoted to the theme music Guaraldi wrote for the Peanuts cartoons: 15 television specials and one feature film from 1965 until Guaraldi’s death in 1976. "I love his melodies and his chord progressions," Winston said of Guaraldi. "He has a really personal way of doing voicings."^[3] Winston recorded a follow-up album, Love Will Come – The Music of Vince Guaraldi, Volume 2, released in February 2010.^[4]

Winston's 2002 album Night Divides the Day – The Music of the Doors took the music of the 1960s band The Doors and transformed it into solo pianos. The title of Winston's album is a lyric from "Break on Through (To the Other Side)", the first track of the Doors' self-titled first album.

Concerts[link]

Winston dresses unassumingly for his shows, playing in stocking feet, stating that it quiets his "hard beat pounding" left foot.^[5] For years, the balding, bearded Winston would walk out on stage in a flannel shirt and jeans, and the audience would think he was a technician, coming to tune the 9-foot Steinways that are his piano of choice.^[6] As The Boston Globe reported in 1986, “Much of his playing is introspective, mood-setting and, frequently, tranquilizing. Casting my gaze about the auditorium, I observed members of the audience with their attention fixed upon the pianist and others absorbing the music with eyes closed. Winston is not a self-indulgent performer who protracts his renditions to the point where he dangerously tiptoes between a yawn and a snore. Instead, he keeps his presentations pithy and free of excess and his audience awake.”^[7]

On April 19, 2010 he appeared as the sole guest on show 575 of the multimedia WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour.^[8] Twenty minutes into the program he describes an unusual method of playing the piano he developed that was inspired by watching blues guitar players. He can be seen reaching into the piano with his left hand muting the strings while he is playing with his right hand "Breaths, An African in New York".

Career[link]

When growing up his interest in music was listening to instrumentals in the R&B, rock, pop, and jazz genres, especially by organists. When he heard The Doors in 1967 he was inspired to start playing the organ. In 1971 he switched to solo piano after hearing recordings from the 1920s and the 1930s of the great stride pianist Thomas “Fats” Waller, and soon after of Waller’s contemporaries Teddy Wilson, Earl Hines, and Donald Lambert. Many of Winston’s melodic pieces are self-described as "rural folk piano" or "folk piano", which is a style he came up with in 1971 to have an approach to complement the uptempo stride piano. These melodic pieces evoke the essence of a season and reflect natural landscapes. The third style he plays, and is currently working on the most, is New Orleans R&B piano, influenced mainly by Professor Longhair, James Booker, and Henry Butler, as well as Dr. John and Jon Cleary.

Winston also is known for his two tribute albums to jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, composer for the first sixteen Peanuts animated films, who died suddenly in 1976.

Outside of his own piano compositions, adaptations of other people’s songs, and performances, he plays blues harmonica (mainly Appalachian fiddle tunes) and solo acoustic guitar (mainly Appalachian fiddle tunes, and Hawaiian slack-key guitar). While he mainly plays these instruments in concert and not on recordings, both his harmonica and guitar playing can be heard on his benefit album Remembrance - A Memorial Benefit, which was released shortly after 9/11. In 2006, he recorded another benefit album Gulf Coast Blues & Impressions: A Hurricane Relief Benefit, and a second hurricane relief benefit album is planned.

Winston also produces recordings of Hawaiian slack-key guitarists for his own record label, Dancing Cat Records, including artists Keola Beamer, Sonny Chillingworth, Leonard Kwan, Ray Kane, Cyril Pahinui, Led Kaapana, Dennis Kamakahi, Bla Pahinui, Martin Pahinui, George Kahumoku, Moses Kahumoku, George Kuo, Ozzie Kotani, and others. He is also working on recording several old-time musicians, including the venerable harmonica player/folksinger Sam Hinton, harmonica player Rick Epping, and multi-instrumentalist Curt Bouterse.

Discography[link]

• 1972 Ballads and Blues
• 1980 Autumn
• 1982 Winter into Spring
• 1982 December
• 1991 Summer
• 1994 Forest
• 1996 Linus and Lucy – The Music of Vince Guaraldi
• 1998 All The Seasons
• 1999 Plains
• 2001 Remembrance - A Memorial Benefit
• 2002 Night Divides the Day – The Music of the Doors
• 2005 Montana – A Love Story
• 2006 Gulf Coast Blues & Impressions: A Hurricane Relief Benefit
• 2010 Love Will Come – The Music of Vince Guaraldi, Volume 2
• 2012 Gulf Coast Blues & Impressions 2: A Louisiana Wetlands Benefit