title: Stanford University

text: Companies founded by Stanford alumni generate more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue and have created some 5.4 million jobs since the 1930s. When combined, these companies would form the tenth-largest economy in the world.


title: Stanford University

text: Stanford enrolled 6,996 undergraduate and 10,253 graduate students as of the 2019–2020 school year. Women made up 50.4% of undergraduates and 41.5% of graduate students. In the same academic year, the freshman retention rate was 99%.


title: Stanford University

text: Stanford awarded 1,819 undergraduate degrees, 2,393 master's degrees, 770 doctoral degrees, and 3270 professional degrees in the 2018–2019 school year. The four-year graduation rate for the class of 2017 cohort was 72.9%, and the six-year rate was 94.4%. The relatively low four-year graduation rate is a function of the university's coterminal degree (or "coterm") program, which allows students to earn a master's degree as a 1-to-2-year extension of their undergraduate program.


title: Stanford University

text: As of 2013, 89% of undergraduate students lived in on-campus university housing. First-year undergraduates are required to live on campus, and all undergraduates are guaranteed housing for all four undergraduate years. Undergraduates live in 80 different houses, including dormitories, co-ops, row houses, and fraternities and sororities. At Manzanita Park, 118 mobile homes were installed as "temporary" housing from 1969 to 1991, but as of 2015 was the site of newer dorms Castano, Kimball, Lantana, and the Humanities House, completed in 2015.


title: Stanford University

text: Most student residences are just outside the campus core, within ten minutes (on foot or bike) of most classrooms and libraries. Some are reserved for freshmen, sophomores, or upper-class students and some are open to all four classes. Most residences are co-ed; seven are all-male fraternities, three are all-female sororities, and there is also one all-female non-sorority house, Roth House. In most residences, men and women live on the same floor, but a few dorms are configured for men and women to live on separate floors (single-gender floors).


title: Stanford University

text: Several residences are considered theme houses. The Academic, Language, and Culture Houses include EAST (Education and Society Themed House), Hammarskjöld (International Themed House), Haus Mitteleuropa (Central European Themed House), La Casa Italiana (Italian Language and Culture), La Maison Française (French Language and Culture House), Slavianskii Dom (Slavic/East European Themed House), Storey (Human Biology Themed House), and Yost (Spanish Language and Culture). Cross-Cultural Themed Houses include Casa Zapata (Chicano/Latino Theme in Stern Hall), Muwekma-tah-ruk (American Indian/Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Themed House), Okada (Asian-American Themed House in Wilbur Hall), and Ujamaa (Black/African-American Themed House in Lagunita Court). Focus Houses include Freshman-Sophomore College (Academic Focus), Branner Hall (Community Service), Kimball (Arts & Performing Arts), Crothers (Global Citizenship), and Toyon (Sophomore Priority). Theme houses predating the current "theme" classification system are Columbae (Social Change Through Nonviolence, since 1970), and Synergy (Exploring Alternatives, since 1972).


title: Stanford University

text: Co-ops or "Self-Ops" are another housing option. These houses feature cooperative living, where residents and eating associates each contribute work to keep the house running, such as cooking meals or cleaning shared spaces. These houses have unique themes around which their community is centered. Many co-ops are hubs of music, art and philosophy. The co-ops on campus are 576 Alvarado Row (formerly Chi Theta Chi), Columbae, Enchanted Broccoli Forest (EBF), Hammarskjöld, Kairos, Terra (the unofficial LGBT house), and Synergy. Phi Sigma, at 1018 Campus Drive was formerly Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity, but in 1973 became a Self-Op.


title: Stanford University

text: As of 2015 around 55 percent of the graduate student population lived on campus. First-year graduate students are guaranteed on-campus housing. Stanford also subsidizes off-campus apartments in nearby Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Mountain View for graduate students who are guaranteed on-campus housing but are unable to live on campus due to a lack of space.


title: Stanford University

text: As of 2016 Stanford had 16 male varsity sports and 20 female varsity sports, 19 club sports and about 27 intramural sports In 1930, following a unanimous vote by the executive committee for the Associated Students, the athletic department adopted the mascot "Indian." The Indian symbol and name were dropped by President Richard Lyman in 1972, after objections from Native American students and a vote by the student senate. The sports teams are now officially referred to as the "Stanford Cardinal," referring to the deep red color, not the cardinal bird. Stanford is a member of the Pac-12 Conference in most sports, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in several other sports, and the America East Conference in field hockey with the participation in the inter-collegiate NCAA's Division I FBS.


title: Stanford University

text: Its traditional sports rival is the University of California, Berkeley, the neighbor to the north in the East Bay. The winner of the annual "Big Game" between the Cal and Cardinal football teams gains custody of the Stanford Axe.


title: Stanford University

text: As of May 9, 2022, Stanford has won 130 NCAA team championships, more than any other school. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 46 consecutive years, starting in 1976–77 and continuing through 2021–22. The second-longest NCAA championship streak was 19 years, achieved by USC from 1959 to 1960 through 1977–78. As of January 1, 2022, Stanford athletes have won 529 NCAA individual championships. No other Division I school is within 100 of Stanford's total. Stanford won 25 consecutive NACDA Directors' Cups, from 1994 to 1995 through 2018–19, awarded annually to the most successful overall college sports program in the nation.


title: Stanford University

text: 177 Stanford-affiliated athletes have won a total of 296 Summer Olympic medals (150 gold, 79 silver, 67 bronze), including 26 medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 27 medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. In the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Stanford-affiliated athletes won 26 medals, more than any other university. Stanford athletes have won medals in every Summer Olympic Games since 1912.


title: Stanford University

text: Students and staff at Stanford are of many different religions. The Stanford Office for Religious Life's mission is "to guide, nurture and enhance spiritual, religious and ethical life within the Stanford University community" by promoting enriching dialogue, meaningful ritual, and enduring friendships among people of all religious backgrounds. It is headed by a dean with the assistance of a senior associate dean and an associate dean.


title: Stanford University

text: Stanford Memorial Church, in the center of campus, has a Sunday University Public Worship service (UPW) usually in the "Protestant Ecumenical Christian" tradition where the Memorial Church Choir sings and a sermon is preached usually by one of the Stanford deans for Religious Life. UPW sometimes has multifaith services. In addition, the church is used by the Catholic community and by some of the other Christian denominations at Stanford. Weddings happen most Saturdays and the university has for over 20 years allowed blessings of same-gender relationships and now legal weddings.


title: Stanford University

text: In addition to the church, the Office for Religious Life has a Center for Inter-Religious Community, Learning, and Experiences (CIRCLE) on the third floor of Old Union. It offers a common room, an interfaith sanctuary, a seminar room, a student lounge area, and a reading room, as well as offices housing a number of Stanford Associated Religions (SAR) member groups and the Senior Associate Dean and Associate Dean for Religious Life. Most though not all religious student groups belong to SAR. The SAR directory includes organizations that serve atheist, Bahá’í, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islam, Jewish, and Sikh groups, though these groups vary year by year.


title: Stanford University

text: The Windhover Contemplation Center was dedicated in October 2014, and was intended to provide spiritual sanctuary for students and staff in the midst of their course and work schedules; the center displays the "Windhover" paintings by Nathan Oliveira, the late Stanford professor and artist.


title: Stanford University

text: Some religions have a larger and more formal presence on campus in addition to the student groups; these include the Catholic Community at Stanford and Hillel at Stanford.


title: Stanford University

text: Fraternities and sororities have been active on the Stanford campus since 1891 when the university first opened. In 1944, University President Donald Tresidder banned all Stanford sororities due to extreme competition. However, following Title IX, the Board of Trustees lifted the 33-year ban on sororities in 1977. Students are not permitted to join a fraternity or sorority until spring quarter of their freshman year.


title: Stanford University

text: As of 2016 Stanford had 31 Greek organizations, including 14 sororities and 16 fraternities. Nine of the Greek organizations were housed (eight in University-owned houses and one, Sigma Chi, in their own house, although the land is owned by the university). Six chapters were members of the African American Fraternal and Sororal Association, 11 chapters were members of the Interfraternity Council, seven chapters belonged to the Intersorority Council, and six chapters belonged to the Multicultural Greek Council.


title: Stanford University

text: As of 2020, Stanford had more than 600 student organizations. Groups are often, though not always, partially funded by the university via allocations directed by the student government organization, the ASSU. These funds include "special fees," which are decided by a Spring Quarter vote by the student body. Groups span athletics and recreation, careers/pre-professional, community service, ethnic/cultural, fraternities and sororities, health and counseling, media and publications, the arts, political and social awareness, and religious and philosophical organizations.


title: Stanford University

text: In contrast to many other selective universities, Stanford policy mandates that all recognized student clubs be "broadly open" for all interested students to join.


title: Stanford University

text: Stanford is home to a set of student journalism publications. "The Stanford Daily" is a student-run daily newspaper and has been published since the university was founded in 1892. The student-run radio station, KZSU Stanford 90.1 FM, features freeform music programming, sports commentary, and news segments; it started in 1947 as an AM radio station. The Stanford Review is a conservative student newspaper founded in 1987. "The Fountain Hopper" ("FoHo") is a financially independent, anonymous student-run campus rag publication, notable for having broken the Brock Turner story.


title: Stanford University

text: Stanford hosts numerous environmental and sustainability-oriented student groups, including Students for a Sustainable Stanford, Students for Environmental and Racial Justice, and Stanford Energy Club.


title: Stanford University

text: Stanford is also home to a large number of pre-professional student organizations, organized around missions from startup incubation to paid consulting. The Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students (BASES) is one of the largest professional organizations in Silicon Valley, with over 5,000 members. Its goal is to support the next generation of entrepreneurs. StartX is a non-profit startup accelerator for student and faculty-led startups. It is staffed primarily by students. Stanford Women In Business (SWIB) is an on-campus business organization, aimed at helping Stanford women find paths to success in the generally male-dominated technology industry. Stanford Marketing is a student group that provides students hands-on training through research and strategy consulting projects with Fortune 500 clients, as well as workshops led by people from industry and professors in the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Stanford Finance provides mentoring and internships for students who want to enter a career in finance. Stanford Pre Business Association is intended to build connections among industry, alumni, and student communities.


title: Stanford University

text: Stanford's Department of Public Safety is responsible for law enforcement and safety on the main campus. Its deputy sheriffs are peace officers by arrangement with the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office. The department is also responsible for publishing an annual crime report covering the previous three years as required by the Clery Act. Fire protection has been provided by contract with the Palo Alto Fire Department since 1976.


title: Stanford University

text: Murder is rare on the campus, although a few cases have been notorious, including the 1974 murder of Arlis Perry in Stanford Memorial Church, which was not solved until 2018. Also notorius was Theodore Streleski's murder of his faculty advisor in 1978.


title: Stanford University

text: In 2014, Stanford was the tenth highest in the nation in "total of reports of rape" on their main campus, with 26 reports of rape.


title: Stanford University

text: In Stanford's 2015 Campus Climate Survey, 4.7 percent of female undergraduates reported experiencing sexual assault as defined by the university, and 32.9 percent reported experiencing sexual misconduct. According to the survey, 85% of perpetrators of misconduct were Stanford students and 80% were men. Perpetrators of sexual misconduct were frequently aided by alcohol or drugs, according to the survey: "Nearly three-fourths of the students whose responses were categorized as sexual assault indicated that the act was accomplished by a person or persons taking advantage of them when they were drunk or high, according to the survey. Close to 70 percent of students who reported an experience of sexual misconduct involving nonconsensual penetration and/or oral sex indicated the same." Associated Students of Stanford and student and alumni activists with the anti-rape group Stand with Leah criticized the survey methodology for downgrading incidents involving alcohol if students did not check two separate boxes indicating they were both intoxicated and incapacity while sexually assaulted. Reporting on the Brock Turner rape case, a reporter from "The Washington Post" analyzed campus rape reports submitted by universities to the U.S. Department of Education, and found that Stanford was one of the top ten universities in campus rapes in 2014, with 26 reported that year, but when analyzed by rapes per 1000 students, Stanford was not among the top ten.


title: Stanford University

text: On the night of January 17–18, 2015, 22-year-old Chanel Miller, who was visiting the campus to attend a party at the Kappa Alpha fraternity, was sexually assaulted by Brock Turner, a nineteen-year-old freshman student-athlete from Ohio. Two Stanford graduate students witnessed the attack and intervened; when Turner attempted to flee the two held him down on the ground until police arrived. Stanford immediately referred the case to prosecutors and offered Miller counseling, and within two weeks had barred Turner from campus after conducting an investigation. Turner was convicted on three felony charges in March 2016 and in June 2016 he received a jail sentence of six months and was declared a sex offender, requiring him to register as such for the rest of his life; prosecutors had sought a six-year prison sentence out of the maximum 14 years that was possible. The case and the relatively lenient sentence drew nationwide attention. Two years later the judge in the case, Stanford graduate Aaron Persky, was recalled by the voters.


title: Stanford University

text: In February 2015, Elise Clougherty filed a sexual assault and harassment lawsuit against venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale. Lonsdale and Clougherty entered into a relationship in the spring of 2012 when she was a junior and he was her mentor in a Stanford entrepreneurship course. By the spring of 2013 Clougherty had broken off the relationship and filed charges at Stanford that Lonsdale had broken the Stanford policy against consensual relationships between students and faculty and that he had sexually assaulted and harassed her, which resulted in Lonsdale being banned from Stanford for 10 years. Lonsdale challenged Stanford's finding that he had sexually assaulted and harassed her and Stanford rescinded that finding and the campus ban in the fall of 2015. Clougherty withdrew her suit that fall as well.


title: Stanford University

text: As of late 2021, Stanford had 2,288 tenure-line faculty, senior fellows, center fellows, and medical center faculty.


title: Stanford University

text: Stanford's faculty and former faculty includes 48 Nobel laureates, 5 Fields Medalists, as well as 17 winners of the Turing Award, the so-called "Nobel Prize in computer science," comprising one-third of the awards given in its 44-year history. The university has 27 ACM fellows. It is also affiliated with 4 Gödel Prize winners, 4 Knuth Prize recipients, 10 IJCAI Computers and Thought Award winners, and about 15 Grace Murray Hopper Award winners for their work in the foundations of computer science. Stanford alumni have started many companies and, according to "Forbes", has produced the second highest number of billionaires of all universities.


title: Stanford University

text: As of 2020, 15 Stanford alumni have won the Nobel Prize. As of 2022, 128 Stanford students or alumni have been named Rhodes Scholars.


title: James Bond

text: The James Bond series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have written authorised Bond novels or novelisations: Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Sebastian Faulks, Jeffery Deaver, William Boyd, and Anthony Horowitz. The latest novel is "With a Mind to Kill" by Anthony Horowitz, published in May 2022. Additionally Charlie Higson wrote a series on a young James Bond, and Kate Westbrook wrote three novels based on the diaries of a recurring series character, Moneypenny.


title: James Bond

text: The character—also known by the code number 007 (pronounced "double-oh-seven")—has also been adapted for television, radio, comic strip, video games and film. The films are one of the longest continually running film series and have grossed over US$7.04 billion in total at the box office, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film series to date, which started in 1962 with "Dr. No", starring Sean Connery as Bond. , there have been twenty-five films in the Eon Productions series. The most recent Bond film, "No Time to Die" (2021), stars Daniel Craig in his fifth portrayal of Bond; he is the sixth actor to play Bond in the Eon series. There have also been two independent productions of Bond films: "Casino Royale" (a 1967 spoof starring David Niven) and "Never Say Never Again" (a 1983 remake of an earlier Eon-produced film, 1965's "Thunderball", both starring Connery). In 2015, the series was estimated to be worth $19.9 billion in total (based on box-office grosses, DVD sales and merchandise tie-ins), making "James Bond" one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.


title: James Bond

text: The Bond films are renowned for a number of features, including the musical accompaniment, with the theme songs having received Academy Award nominations on several occasions, and three wins. Other important elements which run through most of the films include Bond's cars, his guns, and the gadgets with which he is supplied by Q Branch. The films are also noted for Bond's relationships with various women, who are popularly referred to as "Bond girls".


title: James Bond

text: Ian Fleming created the fictional character of James Bond as the central figure for his works. Bond is an intelligence officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond is known by his code number, 007, and was a Royal Naval Reserve Commander. Fleming based his fictional creation on a number of individuals he came across during his time in the Naval Intelligence Division and 30 Assault Unit during the Second World War, admitting that Bond "was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war". Among those types were his brother, Peter, who had been involved in behind-the-lines operations in Norway and Greece during the war. Aside from Fleming's brother, a number of others also provided some aspects of Bond's make up, including Conrad O'Brien-ffrench, Patrick Dalzel-Job and Bill "Biffy" Dunderdale.


title: James Bond

text: The name James Bond came from that of the American ornithologist James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide "Birds of the West Indies". Fleming, a keen birdwatcher himself, had a copy of Bond's guide and he later explained to the ornithologist's wife that "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born". He further explained that:


title: James Bond

text: On another occasion, Fleming said: "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, 'James Bond' was much better than something more interesting, like 'Peregrine Carruthers'. Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure—an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department."


title: James Bond

text: Fleming decided that Bond should resemble both American singer Hoagy Carmichael and himself and in "Casino Royale", Vesper Lynd remarks, "Bond reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but there is something cold and ruthless." Likewise, in "Moonraker", Special Branch officer Gala Brand thinks that Bond is "certainly good-looking ... Rather like Hoagy Carmichael in a way. That black hair falling down over the right eyebrow. Much the same bones. But there was something a bit cruel in the mouth, and the eyes were cold."


title: James Bond

text: Fleming endowed Bond with many of his own traits, including sharing the same golf handicap, the taste for scrambled eggs, and using the same brand of toiletries. Bond's tastes are also often taken from Fleming's own as was his behaviour, with Bond's love of golf and gambling mirroring Fleming's own. Fleming used his experiences of his career in espionage and all other aspects of his life as inspiration when writing, including using names of school friends, acquaintances, relatives and lovers throughout his books.


title: James Bond

text: It was not until the penultimate novel, "You Only Live Twice", that Fleming gave Bond a sense of family background. The book was the first to be written after the release of "Dr. No" in cinemas, and Sean Connery's depiction of Bond affected Fleming's interpretation of the character, henceforth giving Bond both a dry sense of humour and Scottish antecedents that were not present in the previous stories. In a fictional obituary, purportedly published in "The Times", Bond's parents were given as Andrew Bond, from the village of Glencoe, Scotland, and Monique Delacroix, from the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. Fleming did not provide Bond's date of birth, but John Pearson's fictional biography of Bond, "", gives Bond a birth date on 11 November 1920, while a study by John Griswold puts the date at 11 November 1921.


title: James Bond

text: Whilst serving in the Naval Intelligence Division, Fleming had planned to become an author and had told a friend, "I am going to write the spy story to end all spy stories." On 17 February 1952, he began writing his first James Bond novel, "Casino Royale", at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica, where he wrote all his Bond novels during the months of January and February each year. He started the story shortly before his wedding to his pregnant girlfriend, Ann Charteris, in order to distract himself from his forthcoming nuptials.


title: James Bond

text: After completing the manuscript for "Casino Royale", Fleming showed it to his friend (and later editor) William Plomer to read. Plomer liked it and submitted it to the publishers, Jonathan Cape, who did not like it as much. Cape finally published it in 1953 on the recommendation of Fleming's older brother Peter, an established travel writer. Between 1953 and 1966, two years after his death, twelve novels and two short-story collections were published, with the last two books—"The Man with the Golden Gun" and "Octopussy and The Living Daylights"—published posthumously. All the books were published in the UK through Jonathan Cape.


title: James Bond

text: After Fleming's death, a continuation novel, "Colonel Sun", was written by Kingsley Amis (as Robert Markham) and published in 1968. Amis had already written a literary study of Fleming's Bond novels in his 1965 work "The James Bond Dossier". Although novelisations of two of the Eon Productions Bond films appeared in print, "James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me" and "James Bond and Moonraker", both written by screenwriter Christopher Wood, the series of novels did not continue until the 1980s. In 1981, the thriller writer John Gardner picked up the series with "Licence Renewed". Gardner went on to write sixteen Bond books in total; two of the books he wrote were novelisations of Eon Productions films of the same name: "Licence to Kill" and "GoldenEye". Gardner moved the Bond series into the 1980s, although he retained the ages of the characters as they were when Fleming had left them. In 1996, Gardner retired from writing James Bond books due to ill health.


title: James Bond

text: In 1996, the American author Raymond Benson became the author of the Bond novels. Benson had previously been the author of "The James Bond Bedside Companion", first published in 1984.


title: James Bond

text: By the time he moved on to other, non-Bond related projects in 2002, Benson had written six Bond novels, three novelisations and three short stories.


title: James Bond

text: After a gap of six years, Sebastian Faulks was commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications to write a new Bond novel, which was released on 28 May 2008, the 100th anniversary of Fleming's birth. The book—titled "Devil May Care"—was published in the UK by Penguin Books and by Doubleday in the US. American writer Jeffery Deaver was then commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications to produce "Carte Blanche", which was published on 26 May 2011. The book turned Bond into a post-9/11 agent, independent of MI5 or MI6. On 26 September 2013, "Solo" by William Boyd, set in 1969, was published. In October 2014, it was announced that Anthony Horowitz was to write a "Bond" continuation novel. Set in the 1950s two weeks after the events of "Goldfinger", it contains material written, but previously unreleased, by Fleming. "Trigger Mortis" was released on 8 September 2015. Horowitz's second Bond novel, "Forever and a Day", tells the origin story of Bond as a 00 agent prior to the events of "Casino Royale". The novel, also based on unpublished material from Fleming, was released on 31 May 2018. Horowitz's third Bond novel, "With a Mind to Kill", will be published on 26 May 2022.


title: James Bond

text: The "Young Bond" series of novels was started by Charlie Higson and, between 2005 and 2009, five novels and one short story were published. The first Young Bond novel, "SilverFin" was also adapted and released as a graphic novel on 2 October 2008 by Puffin Books. In October 2013 Ian Fleming Publications announced that Stephen Cole would continue the series, with the first edition scheduled to be released in Autumn 2014.


title: James Bond

text: "The Moneypenny Diaries" are a trilogy of novels chronicling the life of Miss Moneypenny, M's personal secretary. The novels are written by Samantha Weinberg under the pseudonym Kate Westbrook, who is depicted as the book's "editor". The first instalment of the trilogy, subtitled "", was released on 10 October 2005 in the UK. A second volume, subtitled "" was released on 2 November 2006 in the UK, published by John Murray. A third volume, subtitled "" was released on 1 May 2008.


title: James Bond

text: In 1954, CBS paid Ian Fleming $1,000 ($ in dollars) to adapt his novel "Casino Royale" into a one-hour television adventure, "Casino Royale", as part of its "Climax!" series. The episode aired live on 21 October 1954 and starred Barry Nelson as "Card Sense" James Bond and Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre. The novel was adapted for American audiences to show Bond as an American agent working for "Combined Intelligence", while the character Felix Leiter—American in the novel—became British onscreen and was renamed "Clarence Leiter".


title: James Bond

text: In 1973, a BBC documentary "Omnibus: The British Hero" featured Christopher Cazenove playing a number of such title characters (e.g. Richard Hannay and Bulldog Drummond). The documentary included James Bond in dramatised scenes from


title: James Bond

text: "Goldfinger"—notably featuring 007 being threatened with the novel's circular saw, rather than the film's laser beam—and "Diamonds Are Forever". In 1991, a kids's spin-off TV cartoon series, "James Bond Jr.", was produced with Corey Burton in the role of Bond's nephew, also called James Bond.


title: James Bond

text: In 1958, the novel "Moonraker" was adapted for broadcast on South African radio, with Bob Holness providing the voice of Bond. According to "The Independent", "listeners across the Union thrilled to Bob's cultured tones as he defeated evil master criminals in search of world domination".


title: James Bond

text: The BBC have adapted five of the Fleming novels for broadcast: in 1990 "You Only Live Twice" was adapted into a 90-minute radio play for BBC Radio 4 with Michael Jayston playing James Bond. The production was repeated a number of times between 2008 and 2011. On 24 May 2008 BBC Radio 4 broadcast an adaptation of "Dr. No". The actor Toby Stephens, who played Bond villain Gustav Graves in the Eon Productions version of "Die Another Day", played Bond, while Dr. No was played by David Suchet. Following its success, a second story was adapted and on 3 April 2010 BBC Radio 4 broadcast "Goldfinger" with Stephens again playing Bond. Sir Ian McKellen was Goldfinger and Stephens' "Die Another Day" co-star Rosamund Pike played Pussy Galore. The play was adapted from Fleming's novel by Archie Scottney and was directed by Martin Jarvis.


title: James Bond

text: In 2012, the novel "From Russia, with Love" was dramatised for Radio 4; it featured a full cast again starring Stephens as Bond. In May 2014 Stephens again played Bond, in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", with Alfred Molina as Blofeld, and Joanna Lumley as Irma Bunt.


title: James Bond

text: In 1957, the "Daily Express" approached Ian Fleming to adapt his stories into comic strips, offering him £1,500 per novel and a share of takings from syndication. After initial reluctance, Fleming, who felt the strips would lack the quality of his writing, agreed. To aid the "Daily Express" in illustrating Bond, Fleming commissioned an artist to create a sketch of how he believed James Bond looked. The illustrator, John McLusky, however, felt that Fleming's 007 looked too "outdated" and "pre-war" and changed Bond to give him a more masculine look. The first strip, "Casino Royale" was published from 7 July 1958 to 13 December 1958 and was written by Anthony Hern and illustrated by John McLusky.


title: James Bond

text: Most of the Bond novels and short stories have since been adapted for illustration, as well as Kingsley Amis's "Colonel Sun"; the works were written by Henry Gammidge or Jim Lawrence with Yaroslav Horak replacing McClusky as artist in 1966. After the Fleming and Amis material had been adapted, original stories were produced, continuing in the "Daily Express" and "Sunday Express" until May 1977.


title: James Bond

text: Several comic book adaptations of the James Bond films have been published through the years: at the time of "Dr. No"'s release in October 1962, a comic book adaptation of the screenplay, written by Norman J. Nodel, was published in Britain as part of the "Classics Illustrated" anthology series. It was later reprinted in the United States by DC Comics as part of its "Showcase" anthology series, in January 1963. This was the first American comic book appearance of James Bond and is noteworthy for being a relatively rare example of a British comic being reprinted in a fairly high-profile American comic. It was also one of the earliest comics to be censored on racial grounds (some skin tones and dialogue were changed for the American market).


title: James Bond

text: With the release of the 1981 film "For Your Eyes Only", Marvel Comics published a two-issue comic book adaptation of the film. When "Octopussy" was released in the cinemas in 1983, Marvel published an accompanying comic; Eclipse also produced a one-off comic for "Licence to Kill", although Timothy Dalton refused to allow his likeness to be used. New Bond stories were also drawn up and published from 1989 onwards through Marvel, Eclipse Comics, Dark Horse Comics and Dynamite Entertainment.


title: James Bond

text: Eon Productions, the company of Canadian Harry Saltzman and American Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli, released the first cinema adaptation of an Ian Fleming novel, "Dr. No" (1962), based on the eponymous 1958 novel and featuring Sean Connery as 007. Connery starred in a further four films before leaving the role after "You Only Live Twice" (1967), which was taken up by George Lazenby for "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969). Lazenby left the role after just one appearance and Connery was brought back for his last Eon-produced film "Diamonds Are Forever".


title: James Bond

text: Roger Moore was appointed to the role of 007 for "Live and Let Die" (1973). He played Bond a further six times over twelve years, before being replaced by Timothy Dalton for two films. After a six-year hiatus, during which a legal wrangle threatened Eon's productions of the Bond films, Irish actor Pierce Brosnan was cast as Bond in "GoldenEye" (1995); he remained in the role for a total of four films through 2002. In 2006, Daniel Craig was given the role for "Casino Royale" (2006), which rebooted the series. Craig appeared for a total of five films. The series has grossed well over $7 billion to date, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film series.


title: James Bond

text: In 1967, "Casino Royale" was adapted into a parody Bond film starring David Niven as Sir James Bond and Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd. Niven had been Fleming's preference for the role of Bond. The result of a court case in the High Court in London in 1963 allowed Kevin McClory to produce a remake of "Thunderball" titled "Never Say Never Again" in 1983. The film, produced by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm production company and starring Sean Connery as Bond, was not part of the Eon series of Bond films. In 1997, the Sony Corporation acquired all or some of McClory's rights in an undisclosed deal, which were then subsequently acquired by MGM, whilst on 4 December 1997, MGM announced that the company had purchased the rights to "Never Say Never Again" from Taliafilm. , Eon holds the full adaptation rights to all of Fleming's Bond novels.


title: James Bond

text: The "James Bond Theme" was written by Monty Norman and was first orchestrated by the John Barry Orchestra for 1962's "Dr. No", although the actual authorship of the music has been a matter of controversy for many years. In 2001, Norman won £30,000 in libel damages from "The Sunday Times" newspaper, which suggested that Barry was entirely responsible for the composition. The theme, as written by Norman and arranged by Barry, was described by another Bond film composer, David Arnold, as "bebop-swing vibe coupled with that vicious, dark, distorted electric guitar, definitely an instrument of rock 'n' roll ... it represented everything about the character you would want: It was cocky, swaggering, confident, dark, dangerous, suggestive, sexy, unstoppable. And he did it in two minutes." Barry composed the scores for eleven Bond films and had an uncredited contribution to "Dr. No" with his arrangement of the Bond Theme.


title: James Bond

text: A Bond film staple are the theme songs heard during their title sequences sung by well-known popular singers. Shirley Bassey performed three Bond theme songs, with her 1964 song "Goldfinger" inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008. Several of the songs produced for the films have been nominated for Academy Awards for Original Song, including Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die", Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better", Sheena Easton's "For Your Eyes Only", Adele's "Skyfall", Sam Smith's "Writing's on the Wall", and


title: James Bond

text: Billie Eilish's "No Time to Die". Adele won the award at the 85th Academy Awards, Smith won at the 88th Academy Awards, and Eilish won at the 94th Academy Awards. For the non-Eon produced "Casino Royale", Burt Bacharach's score included "The Look of Love" (sung by Dusty Springfield), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.


title: James Bond

text: In 1983, the first Bond video game, developed and published by Parker Brothers, was released for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 800, Commodore 64, and ColecoVision. Since then, there have been numerous video games either based on the films or using original storylines. In 1997, the first-person shooter video game "GoldenEye 007" was developed by Rare for the Nintendo 64, based on "GoldenEye". The game received highly positive reviews, won the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award for UK Developer of the Year in 1998, and sold over eight million copies worldwide, grossing $250 million, making it the third-best-selling Nintendo 64 game. It is frequently cited as one of the greatest video games of all time.


title: James Bond

text: In 1999, Electronic Arts acquired the licence and released "Tomorrow Never Dies" on 16 December 1999. In October 2000, they released "The World Is Not Enough" for the Nintendo 64 followed by "007 Racing" for the PlayStation on 21 November 2000. In 2003, the company released "", which included the likenesses and voices of Pierce Brosnan, Willem Dafoe, Heidi Klum, Judi Dench and John Cleese, amongst others. In November 2005, Electronic Arts released a video game adaptation of "", which involved Sean Connery's image and voice-over for Bond. In 2006, Electronic Arts announced a game based on then-upcoming film "Casino Royale": the game was cancelled because it would not be ready by the film's release in November of that year. With MGM losing revenue from lost licensing fees, the franchise was removed from EA to Activision. Activision subsequently released the "" game on 31 October 2008, based on the film of the same name.


title: James Bond

text: A new version of "GoldenEye 007" featuring Daniel Craig was released for the Wii and a handheld version for the Nintendo DS in November 2010. A year later a new version was released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 under the title "". In October 2012 "007 Legends" was released, which featured one mission from each of the Bond actors of the Eon Productions' series. In November 2020, IO Interactive announced "Project 007", an original James Bond video game, working closely with licensors MGM and Eon Productions.


title: James Bond

text: From 1983 to 1987, a licensed tabletop role-playing game, "James Bond 007: Role-Playing In Her Majesty's Secret Service", was published by Victory Games (a branch of Avalon Hill) and designed by Gerard Christopher Klug. It was the most popular espionage role-playing game for its time. In addition to providing materials for players to create original scenarios, the game also offered players the opportunity to have adventures modelled after many of the Eon Productions film adaptations, albeit with modifications to provide challenges by preventing players from slavishly imitating Bond's actions in the stories.


title: James Bond

text: For the first five novels, Fleming armed Bond with a Beretta 418 until he received a letter from a thirty-one-year-old Bond enthusiast and gun expert, Geoffrey Boothroyd, criticising Fleming's choice of firearm for Bond, calling it "a lady's gun—and not a very nice lady at that!" Boothroyd suggested that Bond should swap his Beretta for a 7.65mm Walther PPK and this exchange of arms made it to "Dr. No". Boothroyd also gave Fleming advice on the Berns-Martin triple draw shoulder holster and a number of the weapons used by SMERSH and other villains. In thanks, Fleming gave the MI6 Armourer in his novels the name Major Boothroyd and, in "Dr. No", M, the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, introduces him to Bond as "the greatest small-arms expert in the world". Bond also used a variety of rifles, including the Savage Model 99 in "For Your Eyes Only" and a Winchester .308 target rifle in "The Living Daylights". Other handguns used by Bond in the Fleming books included the Colt Detective Special and a long-barrelled Colt .45 Army Special.


title: James Bond

text: The first Bond film, "Dr. No", saw M ordering Bond to leave his Beretta behind and take up the Walther PPK, which Bond used in eighteen films. In "Tomorrow Never Dies" and the two subsequent films, Bond's main weapon was the Walther P99 semi-automatic pistol.


title: James Bond

text: In the early Bond stories Fleming gave Bond a battleship-grey Bentley Litre with an Amherst Villiers supercharger. After Bond's car was written off by Hugo Drax in "Moonraker", Fleming gave Bond a Mark II Continental Bentley, which he used in the remaining books of the series. During "Goldfinger", Bond was issued an Aston Martin DB Mark III with a homing device, which he used to track Goldfinger across France. Bond returned to his Bentley for the subsequent novels.


title: James Bond

text: The Bond of the films has driven a number of cars, including the Aston Martin V8 Vantage, during the 1980s, the V12 Vanquish and DBS during the 2000s, as well as the Lotus Esprit; the BMW Z3, BMW 750iL and the BMW Z8. He has, however, also needed to drive a number of other vehicles, ranging from a Citroën 2CV to a Routemaster Bus, amongst others.


title: James Bond

text: Bond's most famous car is the silver grey Aston Martin DB5, first seen in "Goldfinger"; it later featured in "Thunderball", "GoldenEye", "Tomorrow Never Dies", "Casino Royale", "Skyfall" and "Spectre". The films have used a number of different Aston Martins for filming and publicity, one of which was sold in January 2006 at an auction in the US for $2.1 million to an unnamed European collector. In 2010, another DB5 used in Goldfinger was sold at auction for $4.6m million (£2.6 million).


title: James Bond

text: Fleming's novels and early screen adaptations presented minimal equipment such as the booby-trapped attaché case in "From Russia, with Love", although this situation changed dramatically with the films. However, the effects of the two Eon-produced Bond films "Dr. No" and "From Russia with Love" had an effect on the novel "The Man with the Golden Gun", through the increased number of devices used in Fleming's final story.


title: James Bond

text: For the film adaptations of Bond, the pre-mission briefing by Q Branch became one of the motifs that ran through the series. "Dr. No" provided no spy-related gadgets, but a Geiger counter was used; industrial designer Andy Davey observed that the first ever onscreen spy-gadget was the attaché case shown in "From Russia with Love", which he described as "a classic 007 product". The gadgets assumed a higher profile in the 1964 film "Goldfinger". The film's success encouraged further espionage equipment from Q Branch to be supplied to Bond, although the increased use of technology led to an accusation that Bond was over-reliant on equipment, particularly in the later films.


title: James Bond

text: Davey noted that "Bond's gizmos follow the zeitgeist more closely than any other ... nuance in the films" as they moved from the potential representations of the future in the early films, through to the brand-name obsessions of the later films. It is also noticeable that, although Bond uses a number of pieces of equipment from Q Branch, including the Little Nellie autogyro, a jet pack and the exploding attaché case, the villains are also well-equipped with custom-made devices, including Scaramanga's golden gun, Rosa Klebb's poison-tipped shoes, Oddjob's steel-rimmed bowler hat and Blofeld's communication devices in his agents' vanity case.


title: James Bond

text: Cinematically, Bond has been a major influence within the spy genre since the release of "Dr. No" in 1962, with 22 secret agent films released in 1966 alone attempting to capitalise on the Bond franchise's popularity and success. The first parody was the 1964 film "Carry On Spying", which shows the villain Dr. Crow being overcome by agents who included James Bind (Charles Hawtry) and Daphne Honeybutt (Barbara Windsor). One of the films that reacted against the portrayal of Bond was the Harry Palmer series, whose first film, "The Ipcress File", starring Michael Caine, was released in 1965. The eponymous hero is a rough-edged, petty crook turned spy, and was what academic Jeremy Packer called an "anti-Bond", or what Christoph Lindner calls "the thinking man's Bond". The Palmer series were produced by Harry Saltzman, who also used key crew members from the Bond series, including designer Ken Adam, editor Peter R. Hunt and composer John Barry. The four "Matt Helm" films starring Dean Martin (released between 1966 and 1969), the "Flint" series starring James Coburn (comprising two films, one each in 1966 and 1969), while "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." also moved onto the cinema screen, with eight films released: all were testaments to Bond's prominence in popular culture. More recently, the "Austin Powers" series by writer, producer and comedian Mike Myers, and other parodies such as the "Johnny English" trilogy of films, have also used elements from or parodied the Bond films.


title: James Bond

text: Following the release of the film "Dr. No" in 1962, the line "Bond ... James Bond", became a catch phrase that entered the lexicon of Western popular culture: writers Cork and Scivally said of the introduction in "Dr. No" that the "signature introduction would become the most famous and loved film line ever". In 2001, it was voted as the "best-loved one-liner in cinema" by British cinema goers, and in 2005, it was honoured as the 22nd greatest quotation in cinema history by the American Film Institute as part of their 100 Years Series. The 2005 American Film Institute's '100 Years' series recognised the character of James Bond himself as the third greatest film hero. He was also placed at number 11 on a similar list by "Empire" and as the fifth greatest movie character of all time by "Premiere".


title: James Bond

text: The 24 James Bond films produced by Eon are the longest continually running film series of all time, and including the two non Eon produced films, the 26 Bond films have grossed over $7.04 billion in total, making it the sixth-highest-grossing franchise to date. It is estimated that since "Dr. No", a quarter of the world's population have seen at least one Bond film. The UK Film Distributors' Association have stated that the importance of the Bond series of films to the British film industry cannot be overstated, as they "form the backbone of the industry".


title: James Bond

text: Television also saw the effect of Bond films, with the NBC series "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", which was described as the "first network television imitation" of Bond, largely because Fleming provided advice and ideas on the development of the series, even giving the main character the name Napoleon Solo. Other 1960s television series inspired by Bond include "I Spy", and "Get Smart".


title: James Bond

text: Considered a British cultural icon, James Bond had become such a symbol of the United Kingdom that the character, played by Craig, appeared in the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics as Queen Elizabeth II's escort. From 1968 to 2003, and since 2016, the Cadbury chocolate box Milk Tray has been advertised by the 'Milk Tray Man', a tough James Bond–style figure who undertakes daunting 'raids' to surreptitiously deliver a box of Milk Tray chocolates to a lady. Bond has been commemorated numerous times on a UK postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail, most recently in their March 2020 series to mark the 25th Bond film release.


title: James Bond

text: Throughout the life of the film series, a number of tie-in products have been released. "Bondmania", a term deriving from the adjacent "Beatlemania" and initiated in 1964 following the enormous success of "Goldfinger", described the clamour for Bond films and their related products, from soundtrack LPs to children's toys, board games, alarm clocks playing the Bond theme, and 007-branded shirts. In 2018, a James Bond museum opened atop the Austrian Alps. The futuristic museum is constructed on the summit of Gaislachkogl Mountain in Sölden at 10,000 ft (3,048 m) above sea level.


title: James Bond

text: The real MI6 has an ambiguous relationship with Bond. The films may attract job applicants who may be unsuited for espionage, while dissuading more-qualified candidates. While serving as Chief of SIS, Alex Younger said that were Bond to apply for a MI6 job "he would have to change his ways". Younger said, however, that the franchise had "created a powerful brand for MI6 ... Many of our counterparts envy the sheer global recognition of our acronym", and that being depicted to global audiences as a "ubiquitous intelligence presence" was "quite a force multiplier". The Russian Federal Security Service so envied Bond that it created an annual award for fictional depictions of Russian spies.


title: James Bond

text: The James Bond character and related media have received a number of criticisms and reactions across the political spectrum, and are still highly debated in popular culture studies. Some observers accuse the Bond novels and films of misogyny and sexism. Geographers have considered the role of exotic locations in the movies in the dynamics of the Cold War, with power struggles among blocs playing out in the peripheral areas. Other critics claim that the Bond films reflect imperial nostalgia. In September 2021, "No Time to Die" director Cary Fukunaga described Sean Connery's version of Bond as 'basically a rapist'.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Kiss (stylized as KI"ϟϟ") is an American rock band formed in New York City in 1973 by Paul Stanley (vocals, rhythm guitar), Gene Simmons (vocals, bass), Ace Frehley (lead guitar, vocals), and Peter Criss (drums, vocals). Known for their face paint and stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid-1970s with shock rock-style live performances, which featured fire-breathing, blood-spitting, smoking guitars, shooting rockets, levitating drum kits, and pyrotechnics. The band has gone through several lineup changes, with Stanley and Simmons remaining the only consistent members. The original and best-known lineup consisted of Stanley, Simmons, Frehley, and Criss.


title: Kiss (band)

text: With their makeup and costumes, the band members took on the personae of comic book-style characters: the Starchild (Stanley), the Demon (Simmons), the Spaceman or Space Ace (Frehley), and the Catman (Criss). Due to creative differences, Criss departed the band in 1980 and Frehley in 1982, though both would return later.


title: Kiss (band)

text: In 1983, Kiss began performing without makeup and costumes, marking the beginning of the band's "unmasked" era that would last for over a decade. The band experienced a commercial resurgence during this era, with the 1983 platinum-certified album "Lick It Up" successfully introducing them to a new generation of fans, and its music videos receiving regular airplay on MTV. Eric Carr, who had replaced Criss in 1980, died in 1991 of heart cancer and was replaced by Eric Singer. In response to a wave of Kiss nostalgia in the mid-1990s, the original lineup reunited in 1996, which also saw the return of its makeup and stage costumes. The resulting reunion tour was highly successful, grossing $143.7 million, making it the band's most successful tour to date. Criss and Frehley subsequently left the band again, and have been replaced by Singer and Tommy Thayer, respectively. The band has continued with its original stage makeup, with Singer and Thayer using the original Catman and Spaceman makeup, respectively. In September 2018, Kiss announced that, after 45 years of recording and performing, it would embark on its final tour, the End of the Road World Tour, which started in January 2019 and is currently set to conclude in 2023.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Kiss is regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of all time, as well as one of the bestselling bands of all time, claiming to have sold more than 100 million records worldwide, including 21 million RIAA-certified albums. Kiss has also earned 30 Gold albums, the most of any band from the United States. Kiss has 14 Platinum albums, three of which earned multi-Platinum. On April 10, 2014, the four original members of Kiss were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Kiss was ranked by MTV as the ninth "Greatest Metal Band of All Time", and placed tenth on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" list, as well as being ranked as the third "Best Metal and Hard Rock Live Band of All Time" by "Loudwire" magazine.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Kiss traces its roots to Wicked Lester, a New York City–based rock band led by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. That band recorded one album, which was shelved by Epic Records, and played a handful of live shows. Simmons and Stanley, feeling a new musical direction was needed, abandoned Wicked Lester in 1972 and began forming a new group.


title: Kiss (band)

text: After breaking up Wicked Lester late in 1972, Simmons and Stanley came across an ad in the East Coast version of "Rolling Stone" placed by Peter Criss, a drummer from the New York City scene who had previously played in the bands Lips and Chelsea. Simmons and Stanley met Criss in a nightclub where he was playing drums. After hearing Criss sing, they thought Criss should be in the new band they were forming. Criss then auditioned for, and later joined their new band. The three focused on a much harder style of rock than that played by Wicked Lester. In November 1972, the band played a showcase for Epic Records A&R director Don Ellis, in an effort to secure a record deal. In early January 1973, the group added lead guitarist Ace Frehley. Frehley impressed the group with his first audition, and was asked back for a second audition. A few weeks after Frehley joined, the classic lineup was solidified as the band to be named Kiss. They also began experimenting with their image, by wearing makeup and various outfits.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Stanley came up with the name while he, Simmons, and Criss were driving around New York City. Criss mentioned that he had been in a band called Lips, so Stanley said something to the effect of "What about Kiss?" Frehley created the now-iconic logo, making the "SS" look like lightning bolts, when he went to write the new band name over "Wicked Lester" on a poster outside the club where they were going to play. (Some of Wicked Lester's artwork included one lightning bolt for the "S" in Lester.) Later, Stanley designed the logo with a Sharpie and a ruler and accidentally drew the two S's nonparallel because he did it "by eye". The art department asked him if he wanted it to be redrafted to be perfect and he said, "It got us this far, let's leave well enough alone. Our number one rule has always been no rules."


title: Kiss (band)

text: The letters happened to look similar to the insignia of the Nazi SS, a symbol that is outlawed in Germany by Section 86a of the German criminal code. However, Simmons and Stanley, both Jewish, have denied any intentional likeness to Nazi symbolism in the logo. Since 1979, most of the band's album covers and merchandise in Germany have used a different logo, in which the letters "SS" look like the letters "ZZ" backwards. This logo is also used in Austria, Switzerland, Lithuania, Hungary and Israel to avoid controversy.


title: Kiss (band)

text: The band's name has repeatedly been the subject of rumors pertaining to alleged hidden meanings. Among these rumors are theories that the name is an acronym for "Knights in Satan's Service", "Kinder SS", or "Kids in Satan's Service". Simmons has denied all of these claims.


title: Kiss (band)

text: The first Kiss performance took place on January 30, 1973, for an audience of fewer than ten people at the Popcorn Club (renamed Coventry shortly afterward) in Queens. The band was paid $50 for performing two sets that evening, following a cold-call Simmons had made to the venue, convincing them to hire the new band for a three-night stand. For the first three gigs, January 30 to February 1, they wore makeup, but the iconic character designs associated with Kiss made their debuts during the March 9–10 shows at The Daisy in Amityville, New York.


title: Kiss (band)

text: On March 13 of that year, the band recorded a five-song demo tape with producer Eddie Kramer. Former TV director Bill Aucoin, who had seen the group at a handful of showcase concerts in the summer of 1973, offered to become the band's manager in mid-October. Kiss agreed, with the condition that Aucoin signs the band to a record label within two weeks. On November 1, 1973, Kiss became the first act signed to former teen pop singer and Buddah Records executive Neil Bogart's new label, Casablanca Records.


title: Kiss (band)

text: The band entered Bell Sound Studios in New York City on October 10, 1973, to begin recording its first album. On December 31, the band had its official industry premiere at the Academy of Music in New York City, opening for Blue Öyster Cult. It was at this concert that, for the first of many times, Simmons accidentally set his hair (which was coated in hairspray) ablaze while performing his fire-breathing routine.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Kiss's first tour started on February 5, 1974, in Edmonton, Alberta, at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, as an opening act. The band's self-titled debut album was released on February 18. Casablanca and Kiss promoted the album heavily throughout the spring and summer of 1974.


title: Kiss (band)

text: On February 19, in its first television appearance, the band performed "Nothin' to Lose", "Firehouse" and "Black Diamond" on ABC's "In Concert" (aired March 29). On April 29, the band performed "Firehouse" on "The Mike Douglas Show". This broadcast included Simmons's first televised interview, a conversation with Mike Douglas in which Simmons declared himself "evil incarnate", eliciting uncomfortable reactions from a confused studio audience. Fellow Jewish-American guest Totie Fields said it would be humorous if beneath all the makeup Simmons was "just a nice Jewish boy". Simmons responded, "You should only know", to which Fields replied, "I do. You can't hide the hook", a reference to the stereotypical "Jewish" nose.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Despite the publicity and constant touring, "Kiss" initially sold just 75,000 copies. Meanwhile, the group and Casablanca Records were losing money quickly. The band (while touring) stopped in Los Angeles in August 1974 to begin recording its second album, "Hotter Than Hell", which was released on October 22, 1974. The only single, "Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll", failed to chart, and the album stalled at No. 100.


title: Kiss (band)

text: With "Hotter Than Hell" quickly dropping off the charts, Kiss was pulled from its tour to quickly record a new album. Casablanca head Bogart stepped in to produce the next album, trading in the murky, distorted sound of "Hotter Than Hell" for a cleaner and slightly poppier sound. "Dressed to Kill", released on March 19, 1975, fared slightly better commercially than "Hotter Than Hell". It also contained what later became the band's signature song, "Rock and Roll All Nite".


title: Kiss (band)

text: Although Kiss albums had not proved to be big sellers, the band was quickly gaining a reputation for its live performances. Kiss concerts featured such spectacles as Simmons spitting "blood" (an effect made primarily from eggs, yogurt, red food coloring, and maple syrup) and "breathing fire" (spitting flammable liquid at a torch), Frehley soloing as his guitar burst into flames (light and smoke bombs placed inside the guitar), Criss's elevating drum riser that emitted sparks, Stanley's Townshend-style guitar smashing, and pyrotechnics throughout the show.


title: Kiss (band)

text: By mid-1975, Casablanca was almost bankrupt, and Kiss was in danger of losing its record contract. Both parties desperately needed a commercial breakthrough if they were to survive. That breakthrough came in an unlikely form: a "double live" album.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Kiss wanted to express the excitement felt at its concerts (which its studio albums had so far failed to do) with its first live album. Compiled from concerts recorded between May and July in Wildwood, New Jersey, Detroit and Cleveland, and released on September 10, 1975, "Alive!" achieved Gold status and spawned Kiss's first top 40 single: a live version of "Rock and Roll All Nite". It was the first version of the song with a guitar solo, and this recording has become the best-known version. It is also the basis of most covers, such as the cover by Poison in 1987. In recent years the band admitted that additional audience noise had been added to the album, as well as overdubs on select guitar and vocal spots, not to deceive fans, but to add more "excitement and realism" to the record.


title: Kiss (band)

text: The success of "Alive!" not only brought Kiss the breakthrough they had been seeking but arguably saved Casablanca, which was close to bankruptcy. Following this success, Kiss partnered with producer Bob Ezrin, who had previously worked with Alice Cooper. The result was "Destroyer" (released March 15, 1976), Kiss's most musically ambitious studio album to date. "Destroyer", with its rather intricate production (using an orchestra, choir, and numerous tape effects), was a departure from the raw sound of the first three studio albums. Album art was designed by Ken Kelly, who had drawn Tarzan and Conan the Barbarian and also produced album covers for acts such as Rainbow and Manowar. While the album sold well initially and became the group's second Gold album, it quickly dropped down the charts. Only when the ballad "Beth", the B-side of the single "Detroit Rock City", began to gain more airplay on FM radio did the album's sales rebound. The single was subsequently reissued with the A- and B-sides reversed. "Beth" peaked at No. 7 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming the band's first Top 10 single in the United States.


title: Kiss (band)

text: In October 1976, Kiss appeared on "The Paul Lynde Halloween Special" (aired on ABC the 29th), lip-synching "Detroit Rock City", "Beth" and "King of the Night Time World". The show, co-produced by Bill Aucoin, helped introduce Kiss to an even wider audience. In addition to the three songs, Kiss was the subject of a brief comedic "interview" conducted by Paul Lynde. This included Lynde noting, when hearing the member's first names, "Oh, I love a good religious group."


title: Kiss (band)

text: Two more highly successful studio albums were released in less than a year: "Rock and Roll Over" (November 11, 1976) and "Love Gun" (June 30, 1977). A second live album, "Alive II", was released on October 14, 1977. All three albums were certified Platinum soon after their release. Between 1976 and 1978, Kiss earned $17.7 million from record royalties and music publishing. A 1977 Gallup poll named Kiss the most popular band in America. In Japan, Kiss performed five sold-out shows at Tokyo's Budokan Hall, breaking the previous record of four set by the Beatles.


title: Kiss (band)

text: In May 1977, Kiss made the first of its many comics appearances, in "Howard the Duck" issue 12, published by Marvel Comics.


title: Kiss (band)

text: The first Kiss compilation album, "Double Platinum", was issued on April 2, 1978. This double album included many remixed versions of the band's hits, as well as "Strutter '78", a re-recorded version of a song from the group's first album. At Bogart's request, this version of the song featured a disco influence.


title: Kiss (band)

text: During this period, Kiss merchandise became a substantial source of income for the group. Some of the products released included a pair of comic books issued by Marvel (the first contained ink mixed with actual blood donated by the group), a pinball machine, dolls, "Kiss Your Face Makeup" kits, Halloween masks, board games, lunch boxes, trading cards and many other pieces of memorabilia. Membership in the Kiss Army, the band's fan club, was in the six figures. Between 1977 and 1979, worldwide merchandise sales (in-store and on tour) reached an estimated $100 million.


title: Kiss (band)

text: "Alive II" was the band's fourth Platinum album in just under two years, and the ensuing tour had the highest average attendance in the group's history. In addition, Kiss's gross income for 1977 was $10.2 million. The group, along with manager Aucoin, sought to push the brand harder. To that end, an ambitious, two-pronged strategy was devised for 1978.


title: Kiss (band)

text: The first part involved the simultaneous release of four solo albums from the members of Kiss. Although Kiss has claimed that the solo albums were intended to ease rising tensions within the band, its 1976 record contract did in fact call for four solo records, each of them counting as half an album toward the group's five-record commitment. Each album was a solo effort (none of the group appeared on another's album), however all were released and marketed as Kiss albums (with similar cover art and poster inserts). It was the first time that all current members of a rock band had released solo albums on the same day.


title: Kiss (band)

text: For the band members, it was a chance to showcase their individual musical styles and tastes outside of Kiss, and in some cases to collaborate with contemporary artists. Stanley's and Frehley's albums were most similar to Kiss's hard rock style, while Criss' album featured an R&B style with multiple ballads. Simmons' was the most diverse of the four, featuring hard rock, ballads, Beatles-influenced pop and a cover version of "When You Wish Upon a Star" from the Disney film "Pinocchio". Simmons' many collaborators included Aerosmith's Joe Perry, Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen, the Doobie Brothers' Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Donna Summer, Janis Ian, Helen Reddy, Bob Seger, Katey Sagal, and his then-girlfriend Cher.


title: Kiss (band)

text: The solo albums were released on September 18, 1978. Casablanca spent $2.5 million on the marketing campaign for the albums, and announced they were shipping five million copies, guaranteeing Platinum status. Despite the large shipments, none of the albums sold particularly well and were later sold as cut-outs. Of the four, Simmons's album charted the highest in the U.S., peaking at #22, while Frehley's spawned the only resulting Top Forty hit single, a cover of "New York Groove", written by Russ Ballard and originally performed by Hello. Frehley's album has gone on to be the biggest seller since the introduction of Soundscan in 1991.


title: Kiss (band)

text: The second part of Kiss's and Aucoin's plan called for the band to appear in a film that would cement its image of larger-than-life rock-and-roll superheroes. Filming commenced in the spring of 1978. Although the project was proposed to the band as a cross between "A Hard Day's Night" and "Star Wars", the final result fell far short of those expectations. The final product, "Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park", debuted on NBC on October 28, 1978. It was released theatrically, after many changes, outside the U.S. in 1979 under the title "Attack of the Phantoms". The band members were unhappy with the finished film and would speak about their filmmaking experience in later interviews with a mix of humorous embarrassment and regret. They felt that the film portrayed them more as clowns than superheroes. The artistic failure of the film led to a rift between the band and Aucoin.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Kiss' first album of new material in two years, "Dynasty" (1979), continued the band's Platinum streak. The disco-flavored "I Was Made for Lovin' You" became one of the band's biggest hit singles to date, peaking at No. 11. Session drummer Anton Fig performed almost all the percussion on the album while Criss recovered from an automobile accident. The only song to feature Criss's drumming was "Dirty Living, on which he also sang lead. The album is also notable due to Frehley singing three lead vocals versus Simmons two, which he put down to increased confidence following the success of his solo album.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Billed as "The Return of Kiss", the Dynasty Tour was expected by Kiss and their management to build on the success of previous tours. Plans were drawn up for a Kiss-themed traveling amusement park called "Kiss World", but were abandoned because of the immense costs involved; however, "The Return of Kiss" saw a marked decline in attendance.


title: Kiss (band)

text: The crowds on this tour were much younger than previous audiences had been, with many preadolescent children in Kiss makeup with their mothers and fathers (who were sometimes wearing the makeup themselves) in tow at most concerts. Kiss themselves did little to dissuade this new fan base, donning colorful costumes that reinforced a cartoonish image for these younger fans.


title: Kiss (band)

text: The fans were unaware of the dissension within the band. One very public indication of the heightened friction within the group was an infamous October 31, 1979, interview on Tom Snyder's late-night "The Tomorrow Show". During the episode, a visibly irritated Simmons and Stanley attempted, unsuccessfully, to contain the inebriated Frehley, whose frequent laughter and joking overshadowed the conversation between Snyder and the rest of the band. Criss made references to his large gun collection, to the chagrin of Simmons.


title: Kiss (band)

text: By the end of the "Dynasty" tour in December 1979, tensions between Criss and the rest of the band were at an all-time high. His drumming skills had noticeably eroded, and he even intentionally slowed down—or stopped playing altogether—during some concerts. The final show of the tour (December 16, 1979) was the last time Criss performed with the group for almost 17 years, although he remained an official member for nearly six more months.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Anton Fig played all the drums on the next album, "Unmasked", although he was not credited, while Criss appeared on the cover. Showcasing a slick, contemporary pop sound, "Unmasked" (released May 20, 1980) had the dubious distinction of being the first non-Platinum Kiss album since "Dressed to Kill". Soon after the album's release, Criss's departure was officially announced. Fig, considered a member of Kiss for one day following the departure of Criss, was then fired by Stanley and Simmons, who felt he was not a good fit for the band. He would ultimately join Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band, acting as the drummer for David Letterman's television programs until the host's retirement.


title: Kiss (band)

text: The band auditioned dozens of replacements for Criss in June 1980. One of the many who auditioned was Tico Torres (who would later be with Bon Jovi). They finally settled on a little-known drummer-guitarist-pianist-keyboardist-singer from Brooklyn named Paul Charles Caravello (born July 12, 1950) who adopted the stage name Eric Carr. His first makeup design was modeled on a hawk, though it was rejected as Stanley felt it looked more like a chicken. Carr ultimately settled on a "Fox" persona. In his Fox makeup, he was introduced on ABC's "Kids Are People Too!", and debuted with the group on July 25, 1980, at the Palladium concert hall in New York City. This was Kiss's only U.S. show in support of "Unmasked". The band's 1980 tour of Australia and New Zealand, on the other hand, was one of the biggest in its history, as they played to sold-out crowds and received overwhelmingly positive press coverage.


title: Kiss (band)

text: For its next album, the band worked again with producer Ezrin, with whom Kiss had found success on "Destroyer". Early press reports indicated that the new album would be a return to the hard rock style that had originally brought the band success. However, 1981's "Music from "The Elder"" was a concept album featuring medieval horns, strings, harps, and synthesizers.


title: Kiss (band)

text: The album was presented as a soundtrack to a film that was never made, making it difficult to follow the storyline. To make matters worse, having received negative feedback following its record company's preview of the album, Kiss altered the record's track sequence in most countries to emphasize potential singles "The Oath" and "A World Without Heroes", which all but guaranteed the inability of listeners to understand the already-muddled storyline. Once released, fan reaction to "The Elder" was harsh; it failed to achieve Gold status and peaked at No. 75 on the "Billboard" album chart.


title: Kiss (band)

text: The band made only two appearances in support of the new album, both in January 1982. One was a performance on the ABC late-night variety program "Fridays", while the second was a lip-synced performance that was broadcast via satellite during Italy's Sanremo Music Festival.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Absent from the satellite performance was Frehley, who had become increasingly frustrated with Kiss' new musical direction. Upset with the band's decision to record "Music from "The Elder"", he did not actively participate in the album's creation, providing lead vocals for only one track, "Dark Light". He did not appear at a special concert at Studio 54 in New York City, leaving Kiss to perform as a trio. He recorded his guitar parts at his home studio in Wilton, Connecticut, and mailed them to Ezrin. Another source of frustration for Frehley was that with the departure of Criss, and with Carr not being an equal partner in the band, he was often outvoted 2-to-1 on group decisions. In June 1982, Frehley's departure from the band was negotiated, although he did not officially leave until December.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Simmons stated in his autobiography "Kiss and Make-Up" that Van Halen founder Eddie Van Halen was eager to replace Frehley as Kiss's lead guitarist. Simmons and Eddie's brother Alex convinced Eddie to remain with Van Halen. Eddie was willing to break up Van Halen due to tensions between himself and lead vocalist David Lee Roth, who ultimately left the band in 1985. Paul Stanley, however, has since denied the rumors of Eddie Van Halen wanting to join Kiss. Other notable guitarists who auditioned to replace Frehley included Punky Meadows of Angel, Doug Aldrich of Whitesnake and Dio, Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi, and Yngwie Malmsteen.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Soon afterward, Kiss made major changes to its business dealings – chief among them was severing ties with its manager of nine years, Bill Aucoin, and cutting back on its unwieldy organizational tree. Although Frehley had already decided to leave the band, he was pictured on the covers of 1982's "Killers" and "Creatures of the Night", although he did not participate in the recording of either album.


title: Kiss (band)

text: "Creatures of the Night" (October 13, 1982) was Kiss's heaviest album to date, and although it fared better than "Music from "The Elder"", it peaked at only No. 45 on the charts and was not certified Gold until 1994. In Frehley's absence, Kiss utilized a number of guitarists for the recording of the album, including Vinnie Vincent.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Frehley's last appearance with the band (until the 1996 reunion) was in the music video for the single "I Love It Loud", which was co-written by Vincent. Frehley also appeared on the cover of the original "Creatures of the Night" album artwork. When the album was remixed and re-released in 1985 with a non-makeup cover and a slightly different song order, to reflect the band's roster change and abandonment of its makeup and costumes, Vincent was again absent from the album cover, as then-current lead guitarist, Bruce Kulick, appeared instead. The liner notes accompanying the remixed LP, however, credited both Frehley and Vincent with lead guitar performances on the "Creatures of the Night" album. Vincent officially replaced Frehley as lead guitarist in December 1982, as the band embarked on its 10th Anniversary Tour.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Vincent originally wanted to use his birth name (Cusano) in the band, but this was vetoed by Simmons on the grounds that it sounded "too ethnic". Specifically, according to Simmons, "it sounded like a fruit vendor". Simmons went on to note that "fairly or unfairly, rock and roll is about the image". Vincent then suggested the name "Mick Fury", but this was also disallowed. Simmons later suggested the name change to "Vinnie Vincent". Vincent started actively pushing to join Kiss as a full member. Despite the misgivings that both Simmons and Stanley harbored about his personality, Vincent was taken into the band. Stanley designed a character, "the Wiz" also known as "the Egyptian Warrior", and makeup centered around an Egyptian ankh, for Vincent. According to the official authorized Kiss biography, written by David Leaf and Ken Sharp, "the Egyptian Ankh Warrior" refers to Vincent's makeup and persona, while the nickname "the Wiz" refers to his virtuosity as a guitar player. According to the Simmons autobiography "Kiss and Make-Up", Vincent's Kiss persona was solely "the Wiz". A persona as "the Ankh Warrior" or similar is not mentioned in the book at all.


title: Kiss (band)

text: From 1982 to 1983, the new lineup of Kiss became Simmons (the Demon), Stanley (the Starchild), Eric Carr (the Fox) and Vincent (the Egyptian Warrior) or the Wiz.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Vincent's personality did not mesh well with either Stanley or Simmons, and he was dismissed from Kiss at the end of the "Creatures" tour. He was quickly reinstated before recording started for "Lick It Up" because Simmons and Stanley could not find a new lead guitarist on such short notice. Vincent appeared on the cover of "Lick It Up" and was credited as the lead guitarist. He received a writing credit for eight of the ten songs on the album.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Personality issues arose once again, and Vincent was fired following the "Lick It Up" tour, due in part to excessive guitar soloing at a 1984 concert in Quebec. He was replaced by Mark St. John. Vincent was later utilized by Kiss as a songwriter on the 1992 album "Revenge", contributing to the songs "Unholy", "Tough Love", "Heart of Chrome" and "I Just Wanna". Vincent and the band parted ways. Persistent rumors circulated for years among Kiss fans regarding the true reason for Vincent's dismissals from Kiss, with at least one band member refusing to comment except to say that legally it was not up for discussion. Simmons stated in an interview several years later that Vincent's firing was for "unethical behavior", but he did not elaborate:


title: Kiss (band)

text: Sensing it was time for a change, Kiss made the decision to abandon its trademark makeup and costumes. The band officially appeared in public without makeup for the first time since its very early days on a September 18, 1983, appearance on MTV, which coincided with the release of "Lick It Up". The tour to promote the new album and the unmasked band members began in Lisbon, Portugal, on October 11, 1983, at Pavilhão Dramático de Cascais, the band's first concert without makeup since early 1973. "Lick It Up" became Kiss's first Gold record in three years, but the tour was even more sparsely attended than the previous one. Vincent did not get along with Simmons and Stanley, and he left the band at the conclusion of the tour in March 1984. Vincent's replacement was Mark St. John, a session player and guitar tutor.


title: Kiss (band)

text: With St. John, Kiss released the album "Animalize" on September 13, 1984. "Animalize" followed the success of "Lick It Up", and due in part to consistent MTV play for the "Heaven's on Fire" video, "Animalize" was the band's bestselling record in America during the decade, with over two million albums sold. With the success of the album and subsequent tour, Kiss had recaptured some of its earlier glory (though not to the level of its 1970s heyday). St. John, however, came down with reactive arthritis during tour rehearsals, and only performed at a handful of shows before being dismissed from the band in December 1984. The band hired Bruce Kulick to replace St. John. Kulick had previously filled in for St. John during the first two months of the "Animalize" tour. Kulick was Kiss's fourth lead guitarist in less than three years, but he stayed with the band for 12 years. Kulick was one of the band's longest-serving members, with the longest continuous tenure of anyone other than Simmons and Stanley, until Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer broke his record in 2014 and 2016 respectively.


title: Kiss (band)

text: One of the first concerts Kulick played as an official member of the band was at Detroit, Michigan's Cobo Hall. It was filmed for the MTV special "Animalize Live".


title: Kiss (band)

text: The lineup of Stanley, Simmons, Carr and Kulick turned out to be the most stable since the original, and for the rest of the 1980s, Kiss released a series of Platinum albums: 1985's "Asylum", 1987's "Crazy Nights" and the 1988 greatest hits compilation "Smashes, Thrashes & Hits". "Crazy Nights", in particular, was one of Kiss's most successful albums overseas. The single "Crazy Crazy Nights" reached No. 4 on the singles chart in the United Kingdom, the band's highest-charting single in that country.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Kiss ended the decade with the October 1989 release "Hot in the Shade". Although the album failed to achieve Platinum status, it spawned the hit ballad "Forever", co-written by Michael Bolton. Peaking at No. 8 in the US, it was the group's highest-charting single since "Beth" and was the band's second Top 10 single.


title: Kiss (band)

text: During this time, Kiss struggled with its identity and fan base. Simmons, arguably the driving force in Kiss during the 1970s, became less involved with the group in the 1980s as he pursued outside interests, most notably a film career. Stanley took a more prominent role as a result.


title: Kiss (band)

text: In February 1991, the band decided to once again enlist Ezrin to produce its next album. Before recording could begin in earnest, however, tragedy struck. In March 1991, it was discovered that Carr had a tumor on his heart. It was successfully removed the following month, but more tumors were soon discovered in his lungs. Carr received chemotherapy and was pronounced cancer-free in July. However, in September he suffered the first of two cerebral hemorrhages. He died on November 24, 1991, at the age of 41.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Despite the tragic loss of a longtime member, Kiss continued, introducing veteran drummer Eric Singer (born Eric Doyle Mensinger on May 12, 1958, in Cleveland, Ohio). Singer had played with Paul Stanley previously, as part of Stanley's backing band during a 1989 solo tour.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Kiss released "Revenge" on May 19, 1992. It featured a leaner, harder-edged sound, as indicated by the first single, "Unholy". In a surprise move, Kiss enlisted Vincent to help with songwriting duties. The album debuted in the Top 10 and went Gold. Kiss embarked on a brief club tour of the U.S. in the spring of 1992, before beginning an American tour in September 1992. The tour was documented on the album "Alive III", released on May 14, 1993. Four days later, Kiss were inducted into Hollywood's RockWalk.


title: Kiss (band)

text: In 1995, the group released the book "Kisstory", a 440-page, , detailed chronicle of the group's history to that point. That same year, the band embarked on a unique and well-received Worldwide Kiss Convention Tour. The conventions were all-day events, featuring displays of vintage Kiss stage outfits, instruments and memorabilia; performances by Kiss cover bands; and dealers selling Kiss merchandise from every stage of the band's career. Kiss appeared live at the conventions, conducted question and answer sessions, signed autographs, and performed a two-hour acoustic set composed mostly of spontaneous fan requests. On the first U.S. date (June 17, 1995), Criss appeared onstage with Kiss to sing "Hard Luck Woman" and "Nothin' to Lose". It was the first time Criss had performed publicly with the band in nearly 16 years.


title: Kiss (band)

text: On August 9, 1995, Kiss joined the long line of musicians to perform on "MTV Unplugged". The band contacted Criss and Frehley and invited them to participate in the event. Both joined Kiss on stage for several songs at the end of the set: "Beth", "2000 Man", "Nothin' to Lose" and "Rock and Roll All Nite". The "Unplugged" appearance set off months of speculation that a possible reunion of the original Kiss lineup was in the works. In the weeks following the "Unplugged" concert, however, the band (with Kulick and Singer) returned to the studio for the first time in three years to record a follow-up to "Revenge". "" was completed in February 1996, but its release was delayed for almost two years. Bootleg copies of the album circulated widely among fans. While Kiss continued to exist publicly as Simmons, Stanley, Kulick and Singer, arrangements for a reunion of the original lineup were in the works. These efforts culminated with a public event as dramatic as any the band had staged since its 1983 unmasking on MTV. With the following statements, Tupac Shakur introduced the original Kiss lineup, in full makeup and "Love Gun"-era stage outfits, to a rousing ovation at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards:


title: Kiss (band)

text: On April 16, the band members held a press conference aboard the in New York City, where they announced their plans for a full-fledged reunion tour, with the help of new manager Doc McGhee. The conference, MC'd by Conan O'Brien, was simulcast to 58 countries. On April 20, nearly 40,000 tickets for the tour's first show sold out in 47 minutes.


title: Kiss (band)

text: The first public concert featuring the newly reunited Kiss was an hour-long warm-up show on June 15 for the annual KROQ Weenie Roast in Irvine, California, during which the band nearly ignited the stage of the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater. On June 28, the Kiss Alive/Worldwide Tour began at Tiger Stadium in Detroit in front of a sold-out crowd of 39,867 fans. The tour lasted for 192 shows over the course of one year and earned $43.6 million, making Kiss the top-drawing concert act of 1996. The average attendance of 13,737 is the highest in the group's history.


title: Kiss (band)

text: In September 1998, the reunited group issued "Psycho Circus". Although it was the first album with the original lineup since 1979's "Dynasty", the contributions of Frehley and Criss were minimal. While the images of Frehley and Criss are featured prominently on the album, most of the lead guitar work was later revealed to have been performed by future band member Tommy Thayer. Former member Kulick made an appearance on the intro of the song "Within". Most drum duties were handled by session musician Kevin Valentine. Despite the controversy, the album achieved a No. 3 chart debut, the highest position for a Kiss album until "Sonic Boom" debuted at No. 2 in 2009. The title track received a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance. The Psycho Circus Tour opened at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Halloween in 1998, and was simulcast on FM radio across the U.S. It proved to be another success, and was historic for being the first to ever incorporate 3D visuals into a stage show.


title: Kiss (band)

text: On August 11, 1999, Kiss was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in the "Recording Industry" category. The next month, the group worked in collaboration with World Championship Wrestling to produce a Kiss-themed wrestler known as the Demon, whose face was painted to resemble Simmons' makeup. The group performed "God of Thunder" live on "WCW Monday Nitro" to debut the character. The band received $500,000 for the one-night, one-song performance.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Kiss launched a U.S. Farewell Tour in March 2000. The group quickly added dates to the tour, which ran through April 2001.


title: Kiss (band)

text: On the eve of the Japanese and Australian leg of the Farewell Tour on January 31, 2001, Criss suddenly left the band once again, because he and the band could not come to agreement with his contract salary. Taking his place was previous Kiss drummer Singer who, in a move that was controversial among longtime fans, assumed Criss's Cat persona as the Farewell Tour continued.


title: Kiss (band)

text: With the band supposedly set to retire by early 2001, a career-encompassing collection entitled simply "The Box Set", consisting of 94 tracks on five CDs, was released in November of that year, while the summer saw perhaps the most outrageous item of Kiss merchandise yet – the Kiss Kasket. In introducing the Kiss Kasket, Simmons quipped, "I love livin', but this makes the alternative look pretty damn good."


title: Kiss (band)

text: On December 4, 2001, Kiss was one of the honorees at the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences ("The Recording Academy") Heroes Award ceremony, at the NARAS New York Chapter. NARAS has 12 chapters throughout the United States, hence 12 ceremonies throughout the year, with the honorees each being honored by the chapter closest to their residence. By receiving this honor, which NARAS has renamed the "Recording Academy Honors", Kiss effectively received NARAS' second-highest career honor, right behind the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Kiss was relatively quiet through the rest of the year, but 2002 started with some controversy as Simmons took part in a controversial interview on National Public Radio with host Terry Gross. In February 2002, Kiss (with Singer on drums and Frehley on lead guitar) performed during the closing ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah which was Frehley's final performance as a member of Kiss.


title: Kiss (band)

text: On March 6, 2002, Kiss performed a private concert at a resort in Trelawny, Jamaica. Frehley, who was no longer under contract, did not perform with the group. He was replaced by Thayer, who donned Frehley's Spaceman makeup and costume for his first live appearance with Kiss. That month, the band (with Thayer) taped an appearance on the American sitcom "That '70s Show". The episode, "That '70s Kiss Show", aired in August 2002. Thayer again performed with the group in April 2002, when Kiss performed "Detroit Rock City" (with pre-recorded music and live vocals) for an appearance on "Dick Clark's American Bandstand 50th Anniversary" show, which aired on May 3.


title: Kiss (band)

text: In February 2003, Kiss traveled to Australia and recorded "" with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at Marvel Stadium (then known as Telstra Dome) in Melbourne. Thayer once again replaced Frehley, while Criss returned to the group.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Despite claims made prior to the Farewell Tour that it would be the group's last, Kiss toured with Aerosmith in 2003. Frehley announced that his departure from the band was permanent, stating that he believed the Farewell Tour would be Kiss's last, and that he did not want to open for Aerosmith. He was permanently replaced by Thayer, as Kiss moved into a post-reunion phase that saw the band easing into a new lineup, permanently featuring Thayer as "Spaceman" and Singer as "the Catman". On this tour, still featuring Criss, the group introduced the "Platinum" tickets package, with the most expensive packages costing $1,000. This package included a seat in the first five rows, a meet-and-greet with Kiss after their performance and a photograph with the band. The tour earned more than $64 million in 2003, which ranked seventh for the year.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Simmons and Stanley did not renew Criss's contract when it expired in March 2004. Criss, on his website, stated that "No one, again, no one has called me, or my attorney about an extension for future touring. As a founding member I find this to be disrespectful to me, and to the fans that have made us one of the biggest bands in the world."


title: Kiss (band)

text: During the summer of 2004, Kiss headlined the Rock the Nation 2004 World Tour, with Poison as the opening act. The tour ended in August with a sold-out show in Mexico City. Selected dates on the tour were filmed for the "Rock the Nation Live!" concert DVD, released on December 13, 2005. Stanley, who had been experiencing increasing difficulty with his hip, had his mobility limited during the tour. He has already had two hip surgeries performed, with more likely in the future.


title: Kiss (band)

text: After the conclusion of the Rock the Nation Tour, Kiss performed only sporadically for a number of years. The group played two shows in 2005, and another six in 2006. Four of the 2006 shows were July concerts in Japan, including two dates (July 22 and 23) as a headlining act at the 2006 Udo Music Festival. Kiss performed four July 2007 concerts, three of which were dubbed the Hit 'N Run Tour. Prior to the final show on July 27, Stanley was hospitalized with an extremely rapid heartbeat. In his absence, Kiss performed in concert as a trio for the first time since 1982. This was the first Kiss concert that Stanley had missed during his then 34-year tenure with the group.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Kiss (along with Queen, Def Leppard and Judas Priest) were honored at the inaugural "VH1 Rock Honors" event, held May 25, 2006, in Las Vegas. In June 2006, Simmons and Stanley attended the opening of the Kiss Coffeehouse in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. On October 15, 2006, Simmons, Stanley and Criss were inaugural inductees into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame, along with performers such as Neil Diamond, Billy Joel, Louis Armstrong, the Ramones and Tony Bennett.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Stanley released his second solo album, "Live to Win", on October 24, 2006, and undertook a brief solo tour in support. On October 31 the same year, the group released "", the first of 10 possible DVD sets featuring complete concert footage, interviews and never-before-seen clips. By January 2007, the set had been certified 5× Platinum in the United States. A was released on August 14, 2007. It was certified 6× Platinum by the RIAA on October 24. What seemed to be the final entry, "", was released on December 18, 2007, and has been certified 8× Platinum by the R.I.A.A.


title: Kiss (band)

text: In April 2007, former guitarist St. John died from an apparent cerebral hemorrhage at age 51. After being forced to leave Kiss in 1984, St. John formed the short-lived glam metal group White Tiger.


title: Kiss (band)

text: Though Kiss had been eligible for enshrinement in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 1999, they were not nominated until 2009 and were not inducted until 2014. While this snub displeased some fans, Stanley and Simmons maintained that it was meaningless to them. Nevertheless, a group of about 200 Kiss fans held a protest rally in front of the Hall of Fame in Cleveland on August 5, 2006. It was the first known organized demonstration seeking the induction of a band into the Hall.


title: Kiss (band)

text: In 2007, a new comic book series featuring the band was released by the Kiss Comics Group in association with Platinum Studios, titled "Kiss 4K: Legends Never Die".


title: Kiss (band)

text: The band picked up their pace in 2008, embarking on their first proper tour of Europe in nearly a decade. On January 30, 2008, Stanley confirmed that Kiss would launch the Kiss Alive/35 World Tour, playing arena and stadium shows in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. On March 16, 2008, Kiss closed the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit as well as performing in Brisbane and Sydney as part of this tour. Kiss played at the Rock2Wgtn two-day festival held in Wellington, New Zealand, on March 22 and 23, 2008; the festival also featured Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Poison, Alice Cooper, Lordi, Sonic Altar and Symphony of Screams, with special effects provided by WETA Workshop (of "The Lord of the Rings" and "King Kong" fame).


title: Kiss (band)

text: Throughout the summer of 2008, Kiss headlined festivals as well as their own shows and played to a record audience of about 400,000 people. As part of this tour, Kiss headlined the Download Festival at England's Donington Park on June 13. Three days later, they headlined the Arrow Rock Festival in Nijmegen, Netherlands. On June 28, Kiss headlined the Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel, Belgium. It was the last show of the European leg of the Kiss Alive/35 Tour. On August 4, Kiss played at Rockin' the Rally at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally as part of the tour. South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds proclaimed August 4, 2008, to be "Kiss Rock and Roll Day" in South Dakota. In September 2008, both Simmons and Stanley confirmed rumors that the Kiss Alive/35 Tour would continue with extensive tours of North America in the beginning of 2009, as well as South America. The latter tour included shows on April 5 in Argentina, April 7 and 8 in Brazil, April 14 in Peru (the first Kiss show ever in Peru), and other concerts in Venezuela (the first Kiss show ever in Venezuela) and Chile. That summer, Kiss came back to North America to continue the Alive/35 World Tour, starting on July 18 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.