title: Airbus A320neo family

text: Some are cautious about the potential market: Lufthansa sees the variant as a "niche aircraft" less comfortable than widebodies, and a large lessor is hesitant as it expects a 400–500 aircraft market.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: Airbus argues that the minimal changes mean it can be used as a regular A321neo and ALC forecast potential for 50 operators in the next five years.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: On 29 October 2019, IndiGo placed a firm order for 300 A320neo Family aircraft comprising a mix of A320neo, A321neoLR and A321XLR aircraft, taking IndiGo's total number of A320neo family aircraft orders to 730. Airbus monthly reports lists the 300 order as 87 A320neo and 213 A321neoLR/A321XLR.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: On 3 December 2019, United Airlines announced an order to purchase 50 new Airbus A321XLR aircraft, with deliveries beginning in 2024, to replace their Boeing 757-200 fleet. Valued at $7.1 billion before discounts ($142.0M each), United plans to use these aircraft for additional destinations in Europe from its East Coast hubs in Washington and Newark, New Jersey.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: Engines used for now generate of thrust and could be sufficient, and no more than the already certified are needed for the XLR.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: The XLR is a low-risk, high-commonality variant but more substantial upgrades could include a composite wing or a stretch.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: By April 2020, Airbus had cut the first metal for the centre wingbox, while Safran had begun undercarriage forgings production.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: Premium Aerotec will manufacture the specific aft centre fuel tank primary structure, Spirit AeroSystems will build the inboard single-slotted flap, FACC AG will produce a modified belly fairing, while Collins Aerospace and Parker Aerospace are developing the fuel systems.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: By August 2020, Premium Aerotec had started producing the rear centre tank for the first A321XLR in Augsburg, to be transferred to Airbus's Hamburg plant in early 2021.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: By April 2021, a standard A321LR fuselage section had been withdrawn from the Hamburg production line for use as a "pre-industrial system accelerator" to test the integration of XLR-specific systems; at Saint-Nazaire, a nose section was serving as an integration test bed for a new instrument panel assembly, before being used to analyse structural reinforcements needed for the XLR.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: By then, Airbus had completed the first centre wing box 16 months after the first metal cuts, with 200 modifications from the standard design, delivered from Nantes to Hamburg for structural assembly.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: The fuselage sections, wings, landing gear and tailplanes of the first test airplane were delivered to the Hamburg Final Assembly Line in November, and its structure was completed by early December, among three planned development aircraft, and before entry into service in 2023.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: However, entry into service was pushed back to 2024 from the original 2023 to address fuel tank issues raised by regulators. A revised design with special conditions was approved by the United States Federal Aviation Administration in December 2022.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: Two Airbus Corporate Jets variants are offered: the ACJ319neo, carrying eight passengers up to , and the ACJ320neo, carrying 25 up to .


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: The CFM LEAP or Pratt & Whitney PW1100G lower fuel-burn provides additional range along with lower engine noise while the cabin altitude does not exceed .


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: To increase its fuel capacity, the ACJ319neo is offered with up to five additional centre tanks (ACT).


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: The first ACJ320neo was delivered in January 2019, with deliveries of the ACJ319neo expected to start a few months later.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: On 25 April 2019, the ACJ319neo, outfitted with five ACTs, completed its first flight, before a short test campaign and subsequent delivery to German K5 Aviation. The following day, the aircraft completed an endurance test flight lasting 16 hours and 10 minutes and setting a record for the longest A320-family flight by an Airbus crew.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: , 2,341 A320neo family aircraft were in service with 127 operators, 85 of which use CFM engines, and 42 PW engines. The five largest operators were IndiGo operating 212, China Southern Airlines 95, Frontier Airlines 78, China Eastern Airlines 74 and easyJet 58 airplanes.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: At the A320neo programme launch on 1 December 2010, Airbus anticipated "a market potential of 4,000 A320neo Family aircraft over the next 15 years". The six month head-start of the A320neo allowed Airbus to rack up 1,000 orders before Boeing announced the MAX. In less than a year, by the November 2011 Dubai Airshow, the family had reached 1,420 orders and commitments, making it the "fastest selling aircraft ever". By March 2013, a little over two years after launch, It had received 2,000 orders. At the first jet delivery in January 2016, the family had received almost 4,500 orders from nearly 80 customers.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: By December 2021, as many orders migrated to the larger A321neo, it became the most popular variant with 3,958 orders compared to 3,748 orders for the A320neo, while the previous A321 achieved a third of the A320 family orders.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: , a total of 8,502 A320neo family aircraft had been ordered by 130 customers, of which 2,341 aircraft had been delivered.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: In early January 2011, IndiGo reached a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for 150 A320neos along 30 A320ceos.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: At the June 2011 Paris Air Show, it gathered 667 commitments worth US$60.9 billion, raising the backlog to 1,029.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: Airbus received orders from GECAS, Scandinavian Airlines, TransAsia Airways, IndiGo, LAN Airlines, AirAsia, GoAir, Air Lease Corporation and Avianca.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: On 20 July 2011, American Airlines announced an order for 460 narrowbody jets including 130 A320ceos and 130 A320neos, and intended to order 100 re-engined 737 with CFM LEAPs, pending Boeing confirmation.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: As this sale included a Most-Favoured-Customer Clause, the European airframer must refund any price difference to American if it sells to another airline at a lower price. As a result, Airbus was unable to offer the A320neo at a price which United Airlines deemed "competitive", leaving it with a Boeing-skewed fleet.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: On 27 July 2011, Lufthansa ordered 25 A320neos and 5 A321neos. The November Dubai Airshow saw a further 130 orders, raising the total to 1,420 orders and commitments, making it the fastest selling aircraft ever.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: In November, Virgin America deferred the deliveries of the A320neo aircraft until 2020, making ILFC the new launch customer along with the A321neo. In December 2012 Pegasus Airlines, the second largest airline in Turkey, signed a deal for up to 100 A320neo family aircraft, of which 75 (57 A320neo and 18 A321neo models) are firm orders.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: Lufthansa ordered an additional 70 A320neo and A321neo aircraft on 14 March 2013. easyJet, who already operates 195 A320ceo family aircraft, intends to acquire 100 Airbus A320neo for delivery between 2017 and 2022. As part of the deal, easyJet have options on a further 100 A320neo aircraft, and the Japanese carrier ANA is to order the A320neo and A321neo. Lion Air ordered 183.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: On 15 March 2013, Turkish Airlines ordered 82 A320s with 35 options including four A320neo and 53 A321neo.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: On 15 October 2014 IndiGo signed a MoU with Airbus for purchasing 250 A320neo family aircraft. The deal would be worth over $25.5 billion as per the list price per aircraft. This order will also be the largest by the airline, marking the largest number of jets ever sold by the European planemaker in a single order. The airline had earlier ordered 100 aircraft in 2005 and another 180 aircraft in 2011.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: On 15 November 2017 Airbus announced the signing of a MoU with Indigo Partners' four portfolio airlines for 430 A320neo family aircraft – a deal worth nearly $50 billion. On 14 December 2017 Delta Air Lines announced an order for 100 A321neo aircraft and 100 options, powered by Pratt & Whitney PW1100Gs.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: By September 2018, Airbus should deliver 3,174 A320neos compared with 2,999 Boeing 737 MAX through 2022.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: On 29 October 2019, IndiGo placed a firm order for 300 A320neo Family aircraft, marking one of Airbus' largest aircraft orders ever with a single airline operator. The order comprised a mix of A320neo, A321neo and A321XLR aircraft. This takes IndiGo's total number of A320neo Family aircraft orders to 730.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: On 18 November 2019, the low cost carrier Air Arabia ordered 120 A320neo family jets worth $14 billion at list prices: 70 A320neos and 50 A321neos/XLRs, to be delivered from 2024.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: In September 2022, a TAP Air Portugal Airbus A320neo operating flight TP1492 from Lisbon to Conakry International Airport hit a motorbike during landing. Both occupants of the motorbike were killed and the aircraft received damage to its right engine. One rider of the motorbike was identified as the airport's security guard.


title: Airbus A320neo family

text: On 18 November 2022, a LATAM Perú Airbus A320neo taking off from Jorge Chávez International Airport as Flight 2213 to Juliaca collided with a fire engine that was crossing the runway during a training exercise, killing two firefighters and injuring a third. All 102 passengers and 6 crew aboard escaped unharmed. The aircraft was reportedly written off.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Harry James Potter is a fictional character and the titular protagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of eponymous novels. The majority of the books' plot covers seven years in the life of the orphan Harry, who, on his eleventh birthday, learns he is a wizard. Thus, he attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to practise magic under the guidance of the kindly headmaster Albus Dumbledore and other school professors along with his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Harry also discovers that he is already famous throughout the novel's magical community, and that his fate is tied with that of Lord Voldemort – the internationally feared Dark Wizard and murderer of his parents, Lily and James. The book and film series revolve around Harry's struggle to adapt to the wizarding world and defeat Voldemort.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Harry is regarded as a fictional icon and has been described by many critics, readers, and audiences as one of the greatest literary and film characters of all time. He is portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe in all eight "Harry Potter" films from "Philosopher's Stone" (2001) to "Deathly Hallows – Part 2" (2011).


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: According to Rowling, the idea for both the Harry Potter books and its eponymous character came while waiting for a delayed train from Manchester, England to London in 1990. She stated that the idea of "this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard became more and more real to me". While developing the ideas for her book, she also decided to make Harry an orphan who attended a boarding school called Hogwarts. She explained in a 1999 interview with "The Guardian": "Harry had to be an orphan—so that he's a free agent, with no fear of letting down his parents, disappointing them ... Hogwarts has to be a boarding school—half the important stuff happens at night! Then there's the security. Having a child of my own reinforces my belief that children above all want security, and that's what Hogwarts offers Harry."


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Her own mother's death on 30 December 1990 inspired Rowling to write Harry as a boy longing for his dead parents, his anguish becoming "much deeper, much more real" than in earlier drafts because she related to it herself. In a 2000 interview with "The Guardian", Rowling also established that the character of Wart in T. H. White's novel "The Once and Future King" is "Harry's spiritual ancestor". Finally, she established Harry's birth date as 31 July, the same as her own. However, she maintained that Harry was not directly based on any real-life person: "he came just out of a part of me".


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Rowling has also maintained that Harry is a suitable real-life role model for children. "The advantage of a fictional hero or heroine is that you can know them better than you can know a living hero, many of whom you would never meet ... if people like Harry and identify with him, I am pleased, because I think he is very likeable."


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Harry is an orphan living with his abusive aunt and uncle, Vernon and Petunia Dursley and their bullying son, Dudley. On his eleventh birthday, Harry discovers he is a wizard when Rubeus Hagrid delivers him an acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He learns that his parents, James and Lily Potter, were murdered by a powerful dark wizard, Lord Voldemort. Harry, instead, survived Voldemort's killing curse, which ended up bouncing back and apparently killing Voldemort, leaving a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. Thus Harry became famous in the wizarding world.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Hagrid takes Harry to Diagon Alley to shop for his school supplies. He gifts Harry an owl that he names Hedwig, while Harry buys his very first wand at Ollivanders. The owner reveals to him that the cores of Harry and Lord Voldemort's wands have feathers from the same phoenix bird, establishing a powerful connection between the two. At the end of the summer, Harry boards the Hogwarts Express, where he befriends Ronald Weasley and meets Hermione Granger, who both him and Ron initially dislike. Upon his arrival at Hogwarts, Harry is sorted into Gryffindor House after begging the Sorting Hat not to put him in Slytherin House. He finds mentors in Transfiguration professor and head of Gryffindor Minerva McGonagall and headmaster Albus Dumbledore, whereas he forms a rivalry with Draco Malfoy, a classmate from an elitist wizarding family, and the condescending Potions master, Severus Snape, Draco's mentor and the head of Slytherin House. Following an unfortunate accident during his Flying class, Harry becomes the youngest Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team in a century. Harry and Ron are tricked by Malfoy into leaving their dorms at night and Hermione follows them. While trying to hide, they come across a gigantic three-headed dog guarding a trapdoor. The three finally become best friends when Harry and Ron save Hermione from a troll. During Christmas holidays, Harry receives an anonymous gift – his father's invisibility cloak. Aided by the cloak, he is able to explore the school undisturbed. On one of his nightly trips, he sees his parents in an abandoned mirror. It is the Mirror of Erised, which shows what the viewer most desires.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Professor Snape's behavior and leg injury arouse the suspicion of Harry, Ron and Hermione, who believe he is attempting to enter the trapdoor. After Harry loses control of his broomstick, Hermione thinks Snape has jinxed Harry's broom. News arrives that someone attempted to rob the same Gringotts Bank's vault from which Hagrid had previously retrieved an item on Dumbledore's orders. Harry and his friends suspect it is the same object as the one beneath the trapdoor, which they identify with the philosopher's stone. Harry and his friends decide to descend through the trapdoor to protect the stone, but they are presented with a series of obstacles and Ron and Hermione are forced to remain behind. Harry faces the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Quirinus Quirrell, who reveals he was behind all the difficulties they encountered throughout the school year. Voldemort now inhabits Quirrell's body and is trying to obtain the philosopher's stone, hidden in the Mirror of Erised. The mirror recognises Harry's lack of greed for the stone and deposits it into his pocket, but Quirrel soon discovers it and tries to snatch it from Harry. The professor attempts to kill him. However, his flesh burns upon contact with Harry's skin. Harry's scar begins hurting and he passes out.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Harry awakens in the school's infirmary, where Dumbledore explains how Harry originally survived Voldemort. His mother's sacrifice created a magical protection for him, which also acted against professor Quirrell. Voldemort unfortunately survived, while the philosopher's stone has been destroyed to prevent it being stolen. During the school's year-end feast, Gryffindor is awarded the House Cup thanks to the many points Harry and his friends obtained with their adventure. Harry returns to the Dursleys for the summer.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: In the second book, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", Rowling pits Harry against Tom Riddle, Lord Voldemort's "memory" within a secret diary which has possessed Ron's younger sister Ginny. When Muggle-born students are suddenly being Petrified, many suspect that Harry may be behind the attacks, further alienating him from his peers. Furthermore, Harry begins to doubt his worthiness for House of Gryffindor, particularly considering he discovers he shares Lord Voldemort's ability to communicate with snakes via Parseltongue. In the climax, Ginny disappears. To rescue her, Harry battles Riddle and the monster he controls that is hidden in the Chamber of Secrets. To defeat the monster, Harry summons the Sword of Godric Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat supplied by Dumbledore's pet phoenix, Fawkes. In doing so, Dumbledore later restores Harry's self-esteem by explaining that that feat is clear proof of his worthiness of his present house.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: In the third book, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", Rowling uses a time travel premise. Harry learns that his parents were betrayed to Voldemort by their friend Peter Pettigrew, who framed Harry's godfather Sirius Black for the crimes, condemning him to Azkaban, the wizard prison. When Sirius escapes to find Harry, Harry and Hermione use a Time Turner to save him and a hippogriff named Buckbeak. When Pettigrew escapes, an innocent Sirius becomes a hunted fugitive once again. Harry learns how to create a Patronus, which takes the form of a stag, the same as his late father's.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: In the previous books, Harry is written as a child, but Rowling states that in the fourth novel, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", "Harry's horizons are literally and metaphorically widening as he grows older." Harry's developing maturity becomes apparent when he becomes romantically interested in Cho Chang, a student in Ravenclaw house. Tension mounts, however, when Harry is mysteriously chosen by the Goblet of Fire to compete in the dangerous Triwizard Tournament, even though another Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory, has already been selected. Voldemort uses the Tournament for an elaborate scheme to lure Harry into a deadly trap. During the Tournament's final challenge, Harry and Cedric are transported to a graveyard, using a portkey, where Cedric is killed by Peter Pettigrew, and Voldemort, aided by Pettigrew, uses Harry's blood in a gruesome ritual to resurrect his body. When Harry duels Voldemort, their wands' magical streams connect, forcing the spirit echoes of Voldemort's victims, including Cedric and James and Lily Potter, to be expelled from his wand. The spirits briefly protect Harry as he escapes to Hogwarts with Cedric's body. For Rowling, this scene is important because it shows Harry's bravery, and by retrieving Cedric's corpse, he demonstrates selflessness and compassion. Says Rowling, "He wants to save Cedric's parents additional pain." She added that preventing Cedric's body from falling into Voldemort's hands is based on the classic scene in the "Iliad" where Achilles retrieves the body of his best friend Patroclus from the hands of Hector. Rowling also mentioned that book four rounds off an era in Harry's life, and the remaining three books are another, "He's no longer protected. He's been very protected until now. But he's very young to have that experience. Most of us don't get that until a bit later in life. He's only just coming up to 15 and that's it now."


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: In the fifth book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", the Ministry of Magic has been waging a smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore, disputing their claims that Voldemort has returned. Harry is made to look like an attention-seeking liar, and Dumbledore a trouble-maker. A new character is introduced when the Ministry of Magic appoints Dolores Umbridge as the latest Hogwarts' Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor (and Ministry spy). Because the paranoid Ministry suspects that Dumbledore is building a wizard army to overthrow them, Umbridge refuses to teach students real defensive magic. She gradually gains more power, eventually ousting Dumbledore and seizing control of the school. As a result, Harry's increasingly angry and erratic behaviour nearly estranges him from Ron and Hermione.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Rowling says she put Harry through extreme emotional stress to show his emotional vulnerability and humanity—a contrast to his nemesis, Voldemort. "[Harry is] a very "human" hero, and this is, obviously, a contrast, between him, as a very human hero, and Voldemort, who has deliberately "de"humanised himself. And Harry, therefore, did have to reach a point where he did almost break down, and say he "didn't" want to play any more, he "didn't" want to be the hero any more – and he'd lost too much. And he didn't want to lose anything else. So that – "Phoenix" was the point at which I decided he would have his breakdown."


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: At Hermione's urging, Harry forms a secret student organisation called Dumbledore's Army to teach more meaningful defence against the dark arts as Professor Umbridge is making them read off a textbook. Their plan is thwarted, however, when a Dumbledore's Army member, Marietta Edgecombe, betrays them and informs Umbridge about the D.A., causing Dumbledore to be ousted as Headmaster. Harry suffers another emotional blow, when his beloved godfather, Sirius, is killed during a duel with Sirius' cousin, the Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, at the Department of Mysteries, but Harry ultimately defeats Voldemort's plan to steal an important prophecy. Rowling stated: "And now he [Harry] will rise from the ashes strengthened." A side plot of "Order of the Phoenix" involves Harry's romance with Cho Chang, but the relationship quickly unravels. Says Rowling: "They were never going to be happy, it was better that it ended early!"


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: In the sixth book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", Harry enters a tumultuous puberty that, Rowling says, is based on her and her younger sister's own difficult teenage years. Rowling also made an intimate statement about Harry's personal life: "Because of the demands of the adventure that Harry is following, he has had less sexual experience than boys of his age might have had." This inexperience with romance was a factor in Harry's failed relationship with Cho. Now his thoughts concern Ginny, and a vital plot point in the last chapter includes Harry ending their budding romance to protect her from Voldemort.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: A new character appears when former Hogwarts Potions master Horace Slughorn replaces Snape, who assumes the Defence Against the Dark Arts post. Harry suddenly excels in Potions, using an old textbook once belonging to a talented student known only as "The Half-Blood Prince". The book contains many handwritten notes, revisions, and new spells; Hermione, however, believes Harry's use of it is cheating. Through private meetings with Dumbledore, Harry learns about Voldemort's orphaned youth, his rise to power, and how he splintered his soul into Horcruxes to achieve immortality. Two Horcruxes have been destroyed—the diary and a ring; and Harry and Dumbledore locate another, although it is a fake. When Death Eaters invade Hogwarts, Snape kills Dumbledore. As Snape escapes, he proclaims that he is the Half-Blood Prince (being the son of a muggle father and the pure-blood Eileen Prince). It now falls upon Harry to find and destroy Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes and to avenge Dumbledore's death. In a 2005 interview, Rowling stated that [after the events in the sixth book] Harry has, "taken the view that they are now at war. He does become more battle-hardened. He's now ready to go out fighting. And he's after revenge [against Voldemort and Snape]."


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: This book also focuses on the mysterious activities of Harry's rival Draco Malfoy. Voldemort has coerced a frightened Malfoy into attempting to kill Dumbledore. During a duel in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, Harry uses the Half-Blood Prince's spell, "Sectumsempra", on Malfoy, who suffers near-fatal injuries as a result. Harry is horrified by what he has done and also comes to feel sympathy for Draco, after learning he was forced to do Voldemort's bidding under the threat of his and his parents' deaths.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: In "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave Hogwarts to complete Dumbledore's task: to search for and destroy Voldemort's remaining four Horcruxes, then find and kill the Dark Lord. The three pit themselves against Voldemort's newly formed totalitarian police state, an action that tests Harry's courage and moral character. Voldemort's seizure of the Ministry of Magic leads to discriminatory and genocidal policies against Muggle-borns, fuelled by propaganda and fear. According to J. K. Rowling, telling scenes are when Harry uses "Cruciatus Curse" and "Imperius Curse", unforgivable curses for torture and mind-control, on Voldemort's servants, and also when he casts "Sectumsempra" on Draco Malfoy during the bathroom fight in the sixth book. Each time shows a "flawed and mortal" side to Harry. However, she explains, "He is also in an extreme situation and attempting to defend somebody very good against a violent and murderous opponent."


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Harry experiences occasional disturbing visions of Draco being forced to perform the Death Eaters' bidding and feels "sickened ... by the use to which Draco was now being put by Voldemort", again showing his compassion for an enemy.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Each Horcrux Harry must defeat cannot be destroyed easily. They must be destroyed with basilisk venom, Godric Gryffindor's sword, or some other destructive substance. In Book Two, Harry destroys the first horcrux, Tom Riddle's diary, with a basilisk fang, and in Book Six Dumbledore destroys the ring with Gryffindor's sword. Ron destroys Slytherin's locket with the sword, Hermione destroys Hufflepuff's cup with a basilisk fang, and Crabbe destroys Ravenclaw's diadem with Fiendfyre (cursed flame). Neville kills the snake Nagini with the sword, and Voldemort destroys the final accidental Horcrux: a fragment of soul embedded in Harry's scar.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Harry comes to recognise that his own single-mindedness makes him predictable to his enemies and often clouds his perceptions. When Voldemort kills Snape later in the story, Harry discovers that Snape was not the traitorous murderer he believed him to be, but a tragic antihero who was loyal to Dumbledore. In Chapter 33 ('The Prince's Tale') Snape's memories reveal that he loved Harry's mother Lily, but their friendship ended over his association with future Death Eaters and his "blood purity" beliefs. When Voldemort murdered the Potters, a grieving Snape vowed to protect Lily's child, although he loathed young Harry for being James Potter's son. The memories also reveal that Snape did not murder Dumbledore, but carried out Dumbledore's prearranged plan. Dumbledore, dying from a slow-spreading curse, wanted to protect Snape's position within the Death Eaters and to spare Draco from completing Voldemort's task of murdering him.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: To defeat Harry, Voldemort steals the most powerful wand ever created, the Elder Wand, from Dumbledore's tomb and twice casts the Killing Curse on Harry with it. The first attempt merely stuns Harry into a deathlike state; the murder attempt fails because Voldemort used Harry's blood in his resurrection during book four. The protection that his mother gave Harry with her sacrifice tethers Harry to life, as long as his blood and her sacrifice run in the veins of Voldemort. In the chapter "King's Cross", Dumbledore's spirit talks to Harry whilst in this deathlike state. Dumbledore informs Harry that when Voldemort disembodied himself during his failed attempt to kill Harry as a baby, Harry became an unintentional Horcrux; Harry could not kill Voldemort while the Dark Lord's soul shard remained within Harry's body. The piece of Voldemort's soul within Harry was destroyed through Voldemort's first killing curse with the Elder Wand because Harry willingly faced death, which cast a sacrificial protection on the defenders of Hogwarts.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: In the book's climax, Voldemort's second Killing Curse hurled at Harry also fails and rebounds upon Voldemort, finally killing him. The spell fails because Harry, not Voldemort, had become the Elder Wand's true master and the wand could not harm its own master. Harry has each of the Hallows (the Invisibility Cloak, the Resurrection Stone, and the Elder Wand) at some point in the story but never unites them. However, J. K. Rowling said the difference between Harry and Voldemort is that Harry willingly accepts mortality, making him stronger than his nemesis. "The real master of Death accepts that he must die, and that there are much worse things in the world of the living." At the very end, Harry decides to leave the Elder Wand in Dumbledore's tomb and the Resurrection Stone hidden in the forest, but he keeps the Invisibility Cloak because it had belonged to his father.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: In the epilogue of "Deathly Hallows", which is set 19 years after Voldemort's death, Harry and Ginny are a couple and have three children: James Sirius Potter, who has already been at Hogwarts for at least one year, Albus Severus Potter, who is starting his first year there, and Lily Luna Potter, who is two years away from her first year at the school. According to Rowling, after Voldemort's defeat, Harry joins the "reshuffled" Auror Department under Kingsley Shacklebolt's mentoring, and ends up eventually rising to become Head of said department in 2007. Rowling said that his old rival Draco has a grudging gratitude towards Harry for saving his life in the final battle, but the two are not friends.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: In the eight "Harry Potter" films screened from 2001 to 2011, Harry Potter was portrayed by British actor Daniel Radcliffe. Radcliffe was asked to audition for the role of Harry in 2000 by producer David Heyman, while in attendance at a play titled "Stones in His Pockets" in London.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: In a 2007 interview with MTV, Radcliffe stated that, for him, Harry is a classic coming of age character: "That's what the films are about for me: a loss of innocence, going from being a young kid in awe of the world around him, to someone who is more battle-hardened by the end of it." He also said that for him, important factors in Harry's psyche are his survivor's guilt in regard to his deceased parents and his lingering loneliness. Because of this, Radcliffe talked to a bereavement counsellor to help him prepare for the role. Radcliffe was quoted as saying that he wished for Harry to die in the books, but he clarified that he "can't imagine any other way they can be concluded". After reading the last book, where Harry and his friends do indeed survive and have children, Radcliffe stated he was glad about the ending and lauded Rowling for the conclusion of the story. Radcliffe stated that the most repeated question he has been asked is how "Harry Potter" has influenced his own life, to which he regularly answers it has been "fine", and that he did not feel pigeonholed by the role, but rather sees it as a huge privilege to portray Harry.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Radcliffe's Harry was named the 36th greatest movie character of all time in 2011, and 67th in 2018 by "Empire".


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: In "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child", Harry appears again with his son Albus Severus, who was one of the two main protagonists of the series with Draco's son Scorpius.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Throughout the series, Harry is described as having his father's perpetually untidy black hair, his mother's bright green eyes, and a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. He is further described as "small and skinny for his age" with "a thin face" and "knobbly knees", and he wears Windsor glasses. In the first book, his scar is described as "the only thing Harry liked about his own appearance". When asked about the meaning behind Harry's lightning bolt scar, Rowling said, "I wanted him to be physically marked by what he has been through. It was an outward expression of what he has been through inside ... It is almost like being the chosen one or the cursed one, in a sense."


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Rowling has also stated that Harry inherited his parents' good looks. In the later part of the series Harry grows taller, and by the seventh book is said to be 'almost' the height of his father, and 'tall' by other characters.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Rowling explained that Harry's image came to her when she first thought up Harry Potter, seeing him as a "scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy". She also mentioned that she thinks Harry's glasses are the clue to his vulnerability.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: According to Rowling, Harry is strongly guided by his own conscience, and has a keen feeling of what is right and wrong. Having "very limited access to truly caring adults", Rowling said, Harry "is forced, for such a young person, to make his own choices". He "does make mistakes", she conceded, but in the end, he does what his conscience tells him to do. According to Rowling, one of Harry's pivotal scenes came in the fourth book when he protects his dead schoolmate Cedric Diggory's body from Voldemort, because it shows he is brave and selfless.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Rowling has stated that Harry's character flaws include anger and impulsiveness; however, Harry is also innately honourable. "He's not a cruel boy. He's competitive, and he's a fighter. He doesn't just lie down and take abuse. But he does have native integrity, which makes him a hero to me. He's a normal boy but with those qualities most of us really admire." For the most part, Harry shows humility and modesty, often downplaying his achievements; though he uses a litany of his adventures as examples of his maturity early in the fifth book. However, these very same accomplishments are later employed to explain why he should lead Dumbledore's Army, at which point he asserts them as having just been luck, and denies that they make him worthy of authority. After the seventh book, Rowling commented that Harry has the ultimate character strength, which not even Voldemort possesses: the acceptance of the inevitability of death.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Throughout the series, Harry Potter is described as a gifted wizard apprentice. He has a particular talent for flying, which manifests itself in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" the first time he tries it, and gets him a place on a Quidditch team one year before the normal minimum joining age. He captains it in his sixth year. In his fourth year ("Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"), Harry is able to confront a dragon on his broomstick.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Harry is also gifted in Defence Against the Dark Arts, in which he becomes proficient due to his repeated encounters with Voldemort and various monsters. In his third year, Harry becomes able to cast the very advanced Patronus Charm, and by his fifth year he has become so talented at the subject that he is able to teach his fellow students in Dumbledore's Army, some even older than him how to defend themselves against Dark Magic. At the end of that year, he achieves an 'Outstanding' Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L., something that not even Hermione achieved. He is a skilled duellist, the only one of the six Dumbledore's Army members to be neither injured nor incapacitated during the battle with Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". He also fends off numerous Death Eaters during his flight to the Burrow at the beginning of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Harry also had the unusual ability to speak and understand "Parseltongue", a language associated with Dark Magic. This, it transpires, is because he harbours a piece of Voldemort's soul. He loses this ability after the part of Voldemort's soul inside him is destroyed at the end of "The Deathly Hallows". However, in the events of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child", it was revealed that he had not lost the ability to recognise or speak the language when he encountered Delphini, Voldemort's daughter, who was trying to use his son and Draco Malfoy's son Scorpius to fulfill a prophecy that could guarantee the return of Voldemort by changing time.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Harry's parents left behind a somewhat large pile of wizard's gold, used as currency in the world of magic, in a vault in the wizarding bank, Gringotts. After Sirius' death later in the series, all of his remaining possessions are also passed along to Harry, including Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, and Sirius's vast amount of gold were transferred into Harry's account at Gringotts.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Among the school items Harry purchases in Diagon Alley after discovering his gold inheritance is his first wand, an 11-inch-long holly and phoenix feather model that he learns is the twin of Voldemort's wand, as the feathers that both wands contain as their cores both comes from Fawkes, the phoenix that Dumbledore keeps as a pet in his office until his death in "Half-Blood Prince". Harry's wand is broken in "Deathly Hallows". For a time, he borrows Hermione's wand, and later steals Draco's. With his defeat of Voldemort at the end of the series, he comes into the possession of the Elder Wand, but uses it only to repair his holly wand, before returning it to Dumbledore's tomb, from which Voldemort had stolen it. In the film version of "Deathly Hallows Part 2", Harry destroys the Elder Wand.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Harry also inherits indirectly two of his father's prized possessions. One is the Marauder's Map, given to him by interim owners Fred and George Weasley, which endows Harry with comprehensive knowledge of Hogwarts' facilities, grounds, and occupants. The other is his father's Invisibility Cloak, given to him by Dumbledore, which eventually proves Harry's descent from the Peverell family. Harry uses these tools both to aid in excursions at school and to protect those he cares about; the Invisibility Cloak, in particular, can hide two full-grown people. If three fully-grown people hide under the cloak their feet will be visible. When Harry reaches his age of maturity at seventeen, Molly Weasley gives him a pocket watch which had once belonged to her brother Fabian Prewett, as it is traditional to give a boy a watch when he turns seventeen.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Throughout the majority of the books, Harry also has a pet owl named Hedwig, used to deliver and receive messages and packages. Hedwig is killed in the seventh book, about which Rowling says: "The loss of Hedwig represented a loss of innocence and security. She has been almost like a cuddly toy to Harry at times. I know that death upset a lot of people!" As a Quidditch player, Harry has owned two high-quality brooms. The first, a Nimbus Two Thousand, was procured for him by Professor Minerva McGonagall when Harry was added to Gryffindor's Quidditch team despite being a first-year student. This broom was destroyed by the Whomping Willow during a match in Harry's third year. It was replaced by a Firebolt, an even faster (and more expensive) broom, purchased for Harry by Sirius; however, as Sirius was believed to be trying to murder Harry at the time, the broom was subjected to stringent security inspections before Harry was allowed to ride it. Harry used it throughout his Hogwarts career until it, along with Hedwig, was lost during the July escape from Privet Drive in the final book.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Harry also owns a moleskin pouch, or small 'bag' that is used for storing items, which no one but the owner can get out. He receives this from Hagrid as a 17th birthday present. Harry uses the pouch throughout the course of "Deathly Hallows" to keep several sentimental (yet, as he himself admits, otherwise worthless) objects such as the Marauder's Map, a shard of the magical mirror given to him by his god-father Sirius, the fake Horcrux locket that had belonged to Sirius's brother R.A.B. (Regulus Arcturus Black), the Snitch bequeathed to him by Dumbledore, containing the Resurrection Stone that had previously been set into Voldemort's grandfather Marvolo Gaunt's signet ring, which Harry discovers is actually the second Hallow, a letter from his mother to Sirius with part of a photo (of him and his father, James), and eventually, his own broken wand (which Harry later repairs with the Elder Wand).


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: In the novels, Harry is the only child of James and Lily Potter, orphaned as an infant. Rowling made Harry an orphan from the early drafts of her first book. She felt an orphan would be the most interesting character to write about. However, after her mother's death, Rowling wrote Harry as a child longing to see his dead parents again, incorporating her own anguish into him. Harry is categorised as a "half-blood" wizard in the series, because although both his parents were magical, Lily was "Muggle-born", and James was a pure-blood.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Harry's aunt and uncle kept the truth about his parents' deaths from Harry, telling him that they had died in a car crash. James Potter is a descendant of Ignotus Peverell, the third of the three original owners of the Deathly Hallows, and thus so is Harry, a realisation he makes during the course of the final book. The lineage continues at the end of the saga through his three children with Ginny: James Sirius Potter, Albus Severus Potter and Lily Luna Potter.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: In an original piece published on the Pottermore website in September 2015, Rowling described the history of the Potter family in greater detail, beginning with the 12th-century wizard Linfred of Stinchcombe, "a locally well-beloved and eccentric man, whose nickname, 'the Potterer', became corrupted in time to 'Potter'". Linfred was the inventor of a number of remedies that evolved into potions still used in the modern day, including Skele-Gro and Pepperup Potion. These successful products garnered Linfred the earnings that formed the basis of the family's wealth, which grew with the work of successive generations. Linfred's oldest son, Hardwin, married a beautiful young witch from Godric's Hollow named Iolanthe Peverell, the granddaughter of Ignotus Peverell, who continued the tradition of passing down Ignotus' Invisibility Cloak through the generations. Two of Harry Potter's ancestors have sat on the Wizengamot: Ralston Potter and Henry Potter. Ralston was a member from 1612–1652, and an ardent supporter of the Statute of Secrecy. Henry Potter, known as "Harry" to his closest loved ones, was a direct descendant of Hardwin and Iolanthe, and a paternal great-grandfather of Harry Potter. Henry served on the Wizengamot from 1913–1921, and caused a minor controversy when he publicly condemned then Minister for Magic, Archer Evermonde, for prohibiting the magical community from helping Muggles waging the First World War. Henry's son, Fleamont Potter, who was given his grandmother's surname as his given name in order to grant the dying wish of Henry's mother to continue her family name, garnered a reputation for his duels at Hogwarts, which were provoked when others mocked him for his name. Fleamont quadrupled the family gold by creating magical Sleekeazy's Hair Potion, selling his company at a vast profit when he retired. Fleamont and his wife, Euphemia, had given up hope of having a child when she became pregnant with their son, James, who would go on to marry Lily Evans and bear a son of their own, Harry Potter. Fleamont and Euphemia lived to see James and Lily marry, but they would never meet their famous grandson, as they both died of dragon pox, stemming from their advanced age.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: In 2002, Harry Potter was voted No. 85 among the "100 Best Fictional Characters" by "Book" magazine and also voted the 35th "Worst Briton" in Channel 4's "100 Worst Britons We Love to Hate" programme. "Entertainment Weekly" ranked Harry Potter number two on its 2010 "100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years" list, saying "Long after we've turned the last page and watched the last end credit, Harry still feels like someone we know. And that's the most magical thing about him." UGO Networks listed Harry as one of their best heroes of all time, who said that "Harry is a hero to the often oppressed and downtrodden young fan boys and girls out there, who finally have an icon that is respected and revered by those who might otherwise look down on robe-wearing and wand waving as dork fodder". Harry Potter was also ranked number thirty-six on "Empire" 2008 list of "100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time". IGN said that Harry Potter was their favourite "Harry Potter" character, calling him a "sympathetic figure" and saying in response to his fights against Voldemort that "everybody loves an underdog story of good vs. evil".


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: On the other hand, he has received criticism. In "The Irish Times", Ed Power wrote "Potter, by contrast, is an anointed cherub, told he is special from the very outset. He has no winning attributes yet ... is fawned over endlessly. Harry is thus the ultimate 'Special One' – celebrated as an overachiever before he's achieved anything. ... In Potter, [Rowling] encourages the underage reader to identify with a young man who is exceptional only because the author insists this to be the case. You're extraordinary no matter what. Is that an outlook I want to pass onto my kids?" Author Lannah Marshall criticised the character, saying "What I hear about Harry Potter, more often than not, is that he is a bland character. Defence of this includes that he is an audience surrogate, or what I call a 'puppet protagonist'. A puppet protagonist is a main character with dull, limited personality, enabling the audience to step inside the role and use their imagination to fill in the rest. The prevalence of first-person narration within Young Adult (YA) simply adds to the tide of puppet protagonists; introducing hundreds of bland, forgetful leads into interesting and complex stories to allow the reader to feel part of the tale. It's like we’re going back to the second-person horrors of choose-your-own-adventure books."


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: Despite blowback from some Christian fundamentalists critical of Rowling's usage of witchcraft and magic in the series, other Christian critics, including Rev. John Killinger, have argued that Potter is a Christ figure in the series. Killinger opined in 2002 that "J.K. Rowling has written "the" Christ story of the 21st century, and it's wonderful that she has attained such a magnificent following worldwide." He noted several allusions to Jesus in Potter's character arcs in "Philosopher's Stone" and "Chamber of Secrets". Rowling herself later admitted that the Gospel story inspired that of Harry Potter, especially with his ultimate sacrifice in "Deathly Hallows" and apparent death before returning to defeat Voldemort once and for all.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: According to halloweenonline.com, "Harry Potter" sets were the fifth-best selling Halloween costume of 2005. In addition, wizard rock bands like Harry and the Potters and others regularly dress up in the style of Harry Potter, sporting painted forehead scars, black wigs, and round bottle top glasses. Wizard rock is a musical movement dating from 2002 that consists of at least 200 bands made up of young musicians, playing songs about "Harry Potter". The movement started in Massachusetts with the band Harry and the Potters, who cosplay as Harry during live performances.


title: Harry Potter (character)

text: In April 2009, a group of University of Michigan students eventually known as StarKid Productions performed "Harry Potter: The Musical", a two-act musical parody that featured major elements from all seven books and an original score. They posted the entire musical on their YouTube channel but removed it in late June, to edit some more mature elements from the videos. The musical, re-titled "A Very Potter Musical", was reposted on 5 July 2009, starring Darren Criss as Harry Potter. A sequel was premiered at the 2010 HPEF Harry Potter Conference Infinitus, and released on YouTube on 22 July at 8 pm EST. The sequel was called "A Very Potter Sequel" and featured the Death Eaters using the Time-Turner to go back in time to Harry's first year in Hogwarts. Harry Potter is spoofed in the "Barry Trotter" series by American writer Michael Gerber, where a "Barry Trotter" appears as the eponymous antihero. On his homepage, Gerber describes Trotter as an unpleasant character who "drinks too much, eats like a pig, sleeps until noon, and owes everybody money". The author stated "[s]ince I really liked Rowling's books ... I felt obligated to try to write a spoof worthy of the originals".


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Fenerbahçe Spor Kulübü (, "Fenerbahçe Sports Club") are a Turkish professional football club based in Istanbul, Turkey. They are the men's football department of Fenerbahçe SK, a major professional multi-sport club. Fenerbahçe, known informally as Fener, are one of the most successful and best supported football teams in Turkey, having never been relegated, and currently compete in the Turkish Super League, the Turkish Cup and UEFA Europa League.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: They are nicknamed "Sarı Kanaryalar" (Turkish for "Yellow Canaries") and play their home games at Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, their own traditional home ground in Kadıköy, Istanbul. The club's name translates as "Lighthouse in the Garden" and comes from the Fenerbahçe neighbourhood of the Kadıköy district in Istanbul.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Fenerbahçe have won 19 Turkish Super League titles, 6 Turkish Cups and 9 Turkish Super Cups, among others. With 28 League titles in total (19 Super League, 6 National Division, and 3 former Turkish Football Championship titles) Fenerbahçe hold the record for most national championship titles won. The club also lead the all-time table of the Turkish Super League.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: In international club football, Fenerbahçe have won the Balkans Cup in 1968, which is marked as the first ever non-domestic trophy won by a Turkish football club. In UEFA competitions, Fenerbahçe have reached the quarter-finals in the 1963–64 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and in the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League. The club's semi-final performance in the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League is marked as one of its greatest achievements in European competitions. Fenerbahçe are a member of the European Club Association.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: They are one of the most popular clubs in Turkey, and the most popular in Istanbul and Ankara. Fenerbahçe have a large fanbase throughout the country, in Northern Cyprus, Azerbaijan, South Korea and in the Turkish diaspora. In their home at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, Fenerbahçe's average attendances have been among the highest in Turkey. Fenerbahçe's longest-running and deepest rivalry is with their nearest major neighbours, Galatasaray, with matches between the two being referred to as Intercontinental derby, being considered to be one of the fiercest and most intense derbies in the world. Matches against Beşiktaş are also derbys, but the rivalry is not as intense and fierce.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Fenerbahçe were founded in 1907 in Kadıköy, Istanbul, by local men Ziya Songülen, Ayetullah Bey and Necip Okaner. This group founded the club secretly in order to keep a low profile and not get into any trouble with the strict Ottoman rule, so strict that the Sultan Abdul Hamid II forbade the Turkish youth to set up a club or engage in the game of football played by the English families that was watched in envy. The three men came together and concluded that Kadıköy was in desperate need of its own football club, where locals would get a chance to practise the game of football. Ziya Songülen was elected the first president of the club, Ayetullah Bey became the first general secretary and Necip Okaner was given the post of general captain.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: The lighthouse situated on the Fenerbahçe cape was a big influence on the design of the club's first crest, which sported the yellow and white colors of daffodils around the lighthouse. The kits were also designed with yellow and white stripes. The crest of the club was changed in 1910 when Hikmet Topuzer redesigned the badge after Ziya Songülen had changed the colors to yellow and navy in the fall of 1909, still seen today. Fenerbahçe's activities were kept in secrecy until a legislation reform in 1908, when, under a new law, all football clubs had to register to exist legally.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: The founding line-up included Ziya Songülen, Ayetullah Bey, Necip Okaner, Galip Kulaksızoğlu, Hassan Sami Kocamemi, Asaf Beşpınar, Enver Yetiker, Şevkati Hulusi Bey, Fuat Hüsnü Kayacan, Hamit Hüsnü Kayacan and Nasuhi Baydar.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Struggling with financial difficulties, Fenerbahçe joined the Istanbul Football League in 1909, finishing fifth in their first year. The first coach of the Fenerbahçe was Hüseyin Dalaklı, who was also the team's player. Fenerbahçe won the 1911–12 season of the Istanbul Football League without losing. This championship was the clubs first success in their long history. In the 1913–14 and 1914–15 seasons, the team under the coaching of Galip Kulaksızoğlu won the Istanbul Football League. Fenerbahçe finished the seasons 1920–21 and 1922–23 as champions in the Istanbul Friday League. Fenerbahçe completed the season with a score of 58–0 without losing or conceding goals in the season of 1922–23.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Fenerbahçe played against the staff of the Royal Navy that occupied Istanbul during the Turkish War of Independence. Some British soldiers formed football teams that were named after the players' speciality, for example Essex Engineers, Irish Guards, Grenadiers and Artillery. These teams played against each other and against local football teams in Istanbul. Fenerbahçe won many of these matches. The most known match played against the British was the match that would determine the winner of the General Harrington Cup. Fenerbahçe won the match held on 29 June 1923 at Taksim Stadium with two goals scored by Zeki Rıza Sporel, one of the important players of the period.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Fenerbahçe won the championship 6 times in 1937, 1940, 1943, 1945, 1946 and 1950, and became the team that achieved the most victories in the Turkish National Division. Lefter Küçükandonyadis, one of the important names of Fenerbahçe, scored 423 goals in 615 matches between 1947–1951 and 1953–64.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Fenerbahçe won the Istanbul Football League 16 times, the Turkish National Division 6 times, and the former Turkish Football Championship 3 times, all of them records, profiling themselves as forerunners and dominating side in Turkish football before the introduction of the professional nationwide league in 1959.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: The Turkish Football Federation founded a professional national league in 1959, which continues today under the name of the Süper Lig. Fenerbahçe won the first tournament, beating archrivals Galatasaray 4–1 on aggregate. The next year, Fenerbahçe participated in the European Cup for the first time. They qualified through a 4–3 win over Csepel SC, being the first Turkish club to advance to the next round by eliminating its opponent. They lost their first-round match to Nice 1–5 in a playoff game after drawing on aggregate. Fenerbahçe reached the quarter-final of the 1963–64 European Cup Winners' Cup where it was eliminated by MTK Budapest.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Fenerbahçe won four more league titles in the 1960s and were runners-up three times, making it the most successful club of that era. Fenerbahçe was coached by Ignác Molnár at the time, a famous Hungarian coach who had introduced a new style of football in Turkey. Under his guidance, Fenerbahçe managed to eliminate English champions Manchester City in the first round of the 1968–69 European Cup.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: In the 1966–67 Balkans Cup (a competition set up for Eastern European clubs from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia that existed between the 1960–61 and 1993–94 seasons), Fenerbahçe won the cup after three final matches against Greek club AEK Athens, making them the first Turkish club to win a non-domestic competition. This success would remain unparalleled by a Turkish club until Sarıyer and Samsunspor won the cup many years later in the 1990s, when the competition lost much of its popularity.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: The 1970s saw Fenerbahçe bring in the famous Didi as their new coach. Fenerbahçe won four more league titles, including a double with Cemil Turan being the top goal scorer three times. The 1970s also established a rivalry with Trabzonspor, where for almost a decade Fenerbahçe and Trabzonspor were competing with each other for the title. The 1980s saw Fenerbahçe win three more league titles. Under the guidance of Kálmán Mészöly, Fenerbahçe managed to eliminate French champions Bordeaux in the first round of the 1985–86 European Cup. This victory marked a turning point as for almost a decade no Turkish club managed to get past the first round in European competitions.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Galatasaray and Beşiktaş dominated the Turkish League during the 1990s, combining to win nine out of ten titles. Fenerbahçe's only Turkish League success during the 1990s came in the 1995–96 season under the guidance of Carlos Alberto Parreira. In the 1996–97 UEFA Champions League season, Fenerbahçe completed the group stage with seven points and, among others, defeated Manchester United 1–0 at Old Trafford, undoing the record of the English giants being unbeaten for 40 years in their homeground.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Fenerbahçe won the league title in 2001, denying Galatasaray a fifth consecutive title. It followed up the next season with a second-place behind Galatasaray with new coach Werner Lorant. However, the next season did not go so well as Fenerbahçe finished in sixth place. Despite this, that season is memorable to many Fenerbahçe fans due to a 6–0 win against arch-rivals Galatasaray at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium on 6 November 2002. After firing Werner Lorant, the club hired another German coach, Christoph Daum. Daum had previously coached in Turkey, winning the league with Beşiktaş in 1994–95. Fenerbahçe brought in players including Pierre van Hooijdonk, Mehmet Aurélio and Fábio Luciano as a rebuilding process. These new players lead Fenerbahçe to its 15th title and third star (one being awarded for every five league titles won by a club).


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: The next year was followed by a narrow championship over Trabzonspor, winning a then record 16 Turkish Football League championships. Fenerbahçe lost the title in the last week of the 2005–06 season to Galatasaray. Fenerbahçe needed a win, but instead drew 1–1 with Denizlispor while Galatasaray won 3–0 over Kayserispor. Soon after, Christoph Daum resigned as manager and was replaced by Zico on 4 July 2006. Zico began his reign by signing two new defenders: highly touted Uruguayan international Diego Lugano and Zico's fellow Brazilian Edu Dracena. Zico also signed two strikers in Serbian international Mateja Kežman and another Brazilian, Deivid. Fenerbahçe's 2006–07 domestic season started with a 6–0 win over relegation candidates Kayseri Erciyesspor. In the 32nd week of the Süper Lig, Fenerbahçe drew Trabzonspor 2–2, while Beşiktaş lost to Bursaspor 0–3, putting the former out of contention for the title. Fenerbahçe won its 17th Süper Lig title in 2006–07.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: On 11 January 2007, Fenerbahçe were officially invited to G-14. G-14 was an association which consists of top European clubs.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Under Zico's command, Fenerbahçe qualified from the 2007–08 Champions League group stage for the first time and went on to beat Sevilla to become a quarter-finalist in the 2007–08 season. Zico is also the most successful manager of the team's history in the Champions League. After successful scores both in the Turkish league and international matches, Zico gained a new nickname from the Fenerbahçe fans: "Kral Arthur (meaning "King Arthur" in Turkish)." In February 2009, Fenerbahçe became the first Turkish club to enter the Deloitte Football Money League. Since 2000, Fenerbahçe improved the club's finances and facilities, bringing world stars to the club such as Ariel Ortega, Pierre van Hooijdonk, Alex, Stephen Appiah, Nicolas Anelka and, more recently, Mateja Kežman, Roberto Carlos, Dani Güiza, Dirk Kuyt, Diego, Nani, Robin van Persie, and Mesut Özil.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: In the 2009–10 season Fenerbahçe lost the title on the last matchday; Fenerbahçe players were told that a draw would be enough towards the end of the match only to find out that the other critical game went against their favour, as Bursaspor beat Beşiktaş 2–1 to win the title. Despite the title loss, Fenerbahçe ended the season with the most clean sheets (10), as well as the joint longest winning streak (8). In July 2011, Fenerbahçe fans invaded the pitch during a friendly against the Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk. As punishment, Fenerbahçe were sentenced to two Süper Lig games in an empty stadium. The TFF later allowed those two games to be filled with spectators; men were barred, while women and children under 12 were admitted for free. On 29 October 2012, Antalyaspor ended Fenerbahçe's 47-match unbeaten run in the Süper Lig at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium. Fenerbahçe had not lost a match at home since they were beaten 2–3 by eventual champions Bursaspor in week 22, on 22 February 2010. Fenerbahçe won 38 and drew 9 in the 47 matches they played within 980 days since 22 February 2010. On 3 November 2012, Fenerbahçe pecked Akhisar Belediyespor to break a 181-day away jinx. On 2 May 2013, Fenerbahçe were eliminated by Benfica 3–2 on aggregate in the semi-final of the 2012–13 Europa League, one of the biggest successes in Fenerbahçe's history in UEFA competitions.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: On 28 June 2013, Ersun Yanal agreed to take charge of Fenerbahçe to replace Aykut Kocaman, who resigned in late May. Ersun Yanal's appointment coincided with tough times for Fenerbahçe, who had just been banned from European competitions for two seasons over their alleged involvement in a domestic sports corruption scandal. Fenerbahçe, which finished second in the Süper Lig in 2012–13, thus missed-out on the 2013–14 Champions League, which it had been due to enter in the third qualifying round. Fenerbahçe finished the 2014–15 season as runners-up, forcing the board of directors to undertake some major changes. For the 2015–16 season, Fenerbahçe brought in Vítor Pereira as their new coach. Portuguese star Nani, Danish defender Simon Kjær and Robin van Persie were added to the squad to fulfill the club's ambitions to be successful in the Süper Lig and European competitions. On 10 December 2015, Fenerbahçe played their 200th European game against Celtic.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: When it was first founded in 1907, Fenerbahçe had a large squad. One of these players, Galip Kulaksızoğlu, was the longest serving player of the original squad, spending 17 years at the club, retiring in 1924 after 216 matches. Zeki Rıza Sporel and Bekir Refet, the first Turkish footballer ever to play abroad, were among the first products of the Fenerbahçe youth system. During his 18-year career with the club, Zeki Rıza scored 470 goals in 352 matches, or 1.3 goals every match, making him the all-time top scorer of Fenerbahçe. Zeki Rıza was also capped for the Turkish national team 16 times, scoring 15 goals. Cihat Arman became the first in a long-line of long-serving goalkeepers, playing 12 seasons and in 308 matches with the club.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Lefter Küçükandonyadis was one of the first Turkish football players to play in Europe. Lefter spent two seasons in Europe, playing for Fiorentina and Nice before returning to Fenerbahçe. All in all, Lefter scored 423 goals in 615 matches for the club, helping them to two Istanbul Football League titles and three Turkish League titles.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Another notable player, Can Bartu, became the next big Turkish export to Europe. He was also the first Turkish football player to play in a European competition final, doing so with Fiorentina against Atlético Madrid in 1962. Can also spent some seasons playing for Venezia and Lazio before returning to Fenerbahçe in 1967. He was a four-time league champion with Fenerbahçe and scored 162 goals in 330 matches. Some of the other most notable Turkish players who played for Fenerbahçe include: Fikret Arıcan, Fikret Kırcan, Halit Deringör, Melih Kotanca, Burhan Sargun, Nedim Doğan, Cemil Turan, Selçuk Yula, Müjdat Yetkiner, Oğuz Çetin, Rıdvan Dilmen, Aykut Kocaman, Rüştü Reçber and Tuncay Şanlı.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Former Romania goalkeeper Ilie Datcu was the first foreigner to reach 100 caps for Fenerbahçe. In recent decades, Fenerbahçe have gained an influx of foreigners who have helped the club to 19 Süper Lig titles. Among these include Uche Okechukwu, who after 13 seasons with Fenerbahçe and İstanbulspor became the longest serving foreigner in Turkey. During Uche's career with Fenerbahçe, he won two league titles and became a fan favourite. More recently, Fenerbahçe have been the home to Brazilian-born Mehmet Aurélio who, in 2006, became the first naturalized Turkish citizen to play for the Turkish national team.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Alex is another Brazilian player who scored the most goals of all foreign players who have played for Fenerbahçe. He managed to become top scorer of the Turkish Süper Lig on two occasions (in 2006–07 and 2010–11), Turkish Footballer of the Year twice (in 2005 and 2010), as well as assist leader in the 2007–08 season of the UEFA Champions League. Based on all those achievements, as well as his exemplary character and sportsmanship on and off the field, acknowledged by fans of Fenerbahçe and their rivals alike, he became the most successful and renowned foreign player to have ever played for the club and one of a few whose statue has been erected by the supporters of the club in the Yoğurtçu Park, in the near of Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium. Some of the other foreign top players who played for Fenerbahçe over the years include: Toni Schumacher (1988–91), Jes Høgh (1995–99), Jay-Jay Okocha (1996–98), Elvir Bolić (1995–2000), Kennet Andersson (2000–02), Ariel Ortega (2002–03), Pierre van Hooijdonk (2003–05), Nicolas Anelka (2005–06), Stephen Appiah (2005–08), Mateja Kežman (2006–09), Diego Lugano (2006–11), Roberto Carlos (2007–09), Dirk Kuyt (2012–15), Robin van Persie (2015–2018) and Nani (2015–16).


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Fenerbahçe have developed a strong following since their foundation in 1907. They are one of the most popular clubs in Turkey, with about 35% of the fans supporting them, and the most popular in Istanbul and Ankara. They have a large fanbase throughout the country, in Northern Cyprus, Azerbaijan and in the Turkish diaspora. Since the rebuilding of the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, Fenerbahçe's average attendances have been among the highest in Turkey.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Fenerbahçe have several supporter organisations, including Genç Fenerbahçeliler (GFB), Kill For You (KFY), Antu/Fenerlist, EuroFeb (Fenerbahçe supporters in Europe), Group CK (Cefakâr Kanaryalar), 1907 ÜNİFEB, Vamos Bien, and SUADFEB. Many fanzines, blogs, podcasts, forums and fan websites have been dedicated to the club.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: More recently, in November 2011 Fenerbahçe's Genç Fenerbahçeliler created a friendly relationship with Torcida Sandžak, the organized supporters of Serbian club Novi Pazar. During a Süper Lig match against İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor at the Şükrü Saraçoğlu Stadium, the Genç Fenerbahçeliler and 1907 Gençlik stand deployed a giant banner reading ""Kalbimiz Seninle Novi Pazar"" ("Novi Pazar, Our Hearts Are With You") and after then, in the game against Radnicki Kragujevac in the Serbian SuperLiga, Torcida Sandžak members deployed a giant banner reading ""Sancak'ta atıyor, Fenerbahçe'nin kalbi"" ("The heart of Fenerbahçe beats in Sandžak").


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: On 2 March 2012, Fenerbahçe's Genç Fenerbahçeliler and 1907 Gençlik members were invited to Novi Pazar for the match against Partizan in the Serbian SuperLiga. Thousands of Torcida Sandžak members welcomed Genç Fenerbahçeliler and 1907 Gençlik's 17 members.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: "The big three" clubs of Istanbul, Beşiktaş, Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe, have a century-long history of rivalry. The Fenerbahçe–Galatasaray rivalry is the primary Istanbul derby and the most important rivalry in Turkish football; matches between the two teams are known as "The Intercontinental Derby" (). The rivalry started on 23 February 1934, when a friendly game between both clubs turned into a riot, forcing the match to be abandoned. The rivalry has led to violence among supporters on numerous occasions. Torches, smoke, flags, and giant posters are used to create visual grandeur and apply psychological pressure on visiting teams, which fans call ""welcoming them to hell"."


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Fenerbahçe play their home matches at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, their own traditional home ground in the Kadıköy district of Istanbul, since 1908. Most recently renovated between 1999 and 2006, its capacity is 50,509. The club's museum has been situated in the stadium since 2005, after having been housed at a variety of locations. Before Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium was built, the field was known as Papazın Çayırı ("The field of the priest"). The field, however, became the very first football pitch of Turkey, where the first league games of the Istanbul Football League were all held successively. In 1908, local teams of the league needed a regular football field, so this land was leased from the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II for 30 Ottoman gold pounds a year. The total construction cost was 3,000 Ottoman gold pounds. The name was changed to the Union Club Field after the club which made the highest donation for the construction.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: The Union Club Field was used by many teams in İstanbul, including the owner, Union Club (which changed its name to İttihatspor after World War I), Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray, and Beşiktaş. However, it had lost its importance when a bigger venue, the Taksim Stadium, was built in 1922, inside the courtyard of the historic Taksim Topçu Kışlası (Taksim Artillery Barracks), which was located at the present-day Taksim Gezi Parkı (Taksim Park). İttihatspor (which had close relations with the political İttihat ve Terakki), was forced to sell it to the state, in which Şükrü Saracoğlu was a member of the CHP government. Thus, the ownership of the stadium passed to the state, but the field was immediately leased to Fenerbahçe.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Later, on 27 May 1933, Fenerbahçe purchased the stadium from the government when Şükrü Saracoğlu was the president of Fenerbahçe, for either the symbolic amount of 1 TL or the worth of the stadium which was 9,000 TL. The name of the field was changed to Fenerbahçe Stadium, and this made Fenerbahçe the first football club in Turkey to own their stadium, with the help of the government. In the following years, Fenerbahçe renovated the stadium and increased its seating capacity. By 1949, Fenerbihç Stadium was the largest football venue in Turkey, with a seating capacity of 25,000. The name of the stadium was changed once more in 1998, becoming Fenerbahçe Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, named after Fenerbahçe's president and Turkey's fifth Prime Minister, Şükrü Saracoğlu. In 1999, the latest round of renovations and capacity increasing projects started. The tribunes on the four sides of the stadium were torn down one at a time, as the Turkish Super League seasons progressed, and the entire renewal and construction project was finalised in 2006, with the efforts of Fenerbahçe president Aziz Yıldırım and the team's board of directors.


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Since the club's foundation, Fenerbahçe have used the same badge, which has only undergone minor alterations. It was designed by Hikmet Topuzer, nicknamed Topuz Hikmet, who played as a right winger, in 1910, and had made as lapel pins by Tevfik Haccar Taşçı in London. The crest consists of five colours. The white section which includes the writing "Fenerbahçe Spor Kulübü ★ 1907 ★" represents purity and open-heartedness, the red section represents love and attachment to the club and symbolises the Turkish flag. The yellow section symbolises other ones' envy and jealousy about Fenerbahçe, while the navy symbolises nobility. The oak leaf which rises from the navy and yellow section shows the force and the power of being a member of Fenerbahçe. The green colour of the leaf shows that the success of Fenerbahçe is imperative. Hikmet Topuzer describes the story of the emblem as below:


title: Fenerbahçe S.K. (football)

text: Fenerbahçe Futbol A.Ş. is a listed company in Borsa Istanbul as ; Fenerbahçe Spor Kulübü owns a 67.07% stake. The company had a negative equity of 424,317,388 Turkish lire; total assets of 311,233,179 lire; revenue 317,610,262 lire and a net loss of 181,234,264 in the 2014–15 season. The club was required to have an aggregate break-even in 2019 (2016–17, 2017–18 and 2018–19 season), and more specifically a maximum annual net loss of €30 million, €20 million and €10 million in 2015–16, 2016–17 and 2017–18 seasons. Turkish clubs Beşiktaş, Kardemir Karabükspor and Trabzonspor (twice) also entered into settlement agreements in 2014, 2015 and 2016, with Bursaspor and Galatasaray being banned from European football in 2015 and 2016 respectively due to breaching overdue payable and the settlement agreement respectively.


title: Studio 54

text: Studio 54 is a Broadway theater and a former disco nightclub at 254 West 54th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Operated by the Roundabout Theatre Company, Studio 54 has 1,006 seats on two levels. The theater was designed by Eugene De Rosa for producer Fortune Gallo and opened in 1927 as the Gallo Opera House. The current Broadway theater is named after a nightclub on the same site, founded by Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, which operated within the theater's space in the late 1970s and the 1980s.


title: Studio 54

text: Plans for the Gallo Opera House announced in 1926, and it opened on November 8, 1927, as a legitimate theater and opera house for the San Carlo Grand Opera Company. The theater went bankrupt within two years and was renamed the New Yorker Theatre in 1930. The Casino de Paree nightclub operated at the theater from December 1933 to April 1935, and the theater briefly hosted the Palladium Music Hall in early 1936. The Federal Music Project took over the theater in 1937 and presented shows there for three years. CBS began using the theater as a soundstage called Radio Playhouse No. 4 in 1942; when television broadcasts began in 1949, the theater was renamed Studio 52.


title: Studio 54

text: Schrager and Rubell took over the venue in 1976, retaining much of the former theatrical and broadcasting equipment while turning it into a nightclub. The club opened on April 26, 1977, at the peak of the disco dancing and music trend and quickly became popular. The original iteration of Studio 54 was noted for its celebrity guest lists, restrictive and subjective entry policies, extravagant events, rampant club drug use, and open sexual activity. Schrager and Rubell's club was short-lived and controversial, and it closed in early 1980 after the men were convicted of tax evasion. Mark Fleischman operated a scaled-down version of the nightclub from 1981 to 1986, after which it continued to operate under new management for three more years. Studio 54's space housed the Ritz rock club from 1989 to 1993, then the Cabaret Royale bar from 1994 to 1996.


title: Studio 54

text: The Roundabout Theatre Company renovated the theater in 1998, relocating its production of the musical "Cabaret" to Studio 54 that November following a construction accident. "Cabaret" closed at the beginning of 2004; since then, the theater has generally hosted two productions per season. A separate restaurant and nightclub, 54 Below, has operated in the theater's basement since 2012, while a cabaret named Upstairs at 54 is located on the second floor. Although the first iteration of the Studio 54 nightclub was short-lived, it inspired the creation of a record label, a radio station, and several similar nightclubs. The original club has been featured in several exhibitions, films, and music albums, and memorabilia from the club have been sold for thousands of dollars.


title: Studio 54

text: Studio 54 was originally designed by Eugene De Rosa as the Gallo Opera House, which contained 1,400 seats when it opened in 1927. De Rosa's original plans called for lounges, restrooms, and promenades on three stories, as well as an opera museum below the primary floors. By 1933, when it was being used as the Casino de Paree nightclub, the theater had 650 seats on the orchestra level and 500 seats in the balcony. CBS documents show that, when the theater was used as CBS Studio 52 in the mid-20th century, it had 828 seats on three levels: 312 in the orchestra, 371 in the balcony, and 145 in a mezzanine. The modern-day theater has 1,006 seats across two levels: 519 in the orchestra and 487 in the balcony. The theater contained nightclub tables during the late 20th century, which were removed in 1998 after Studio 54's re-conversion into a theater and replaced with raked seating.


title: Studio 54

text: Ida Louise Killam designed the original interior with a gold, blue, and rose palette. One early observer described the theater as having "a Roxy foyer and a Paramount promenade". The orchestra seats were originally divided by five aisles. The orchestra-level walls were clad with walnut, and the trimmings at balcony level and in the mezzanine lounge were also made of walnut. The vaulted ceiling contained a dome measuring across, as well as indirect lighting. This dome is decorated with medallions. According to CBS documents, Studio 54's proscenium arch measures high and wide. There was a fly system above the stage. Backstage were six dressing rooms, as well as a rehearsal space at stage left.


title: Studio 54

text: To avoid disrupting the construction of the New York City Subway's Eighth Avenue Line, structural engineer David M. Oltarsh placed the Gallo Opera House's foundation, orchestra, and balcony within an enclosure that was suspended from the theater building's roof. The modern mezzanine-level promenade has an exhibit with information on the theater's current production. The theater also contains a bar in its lobby, which is a tribute to the former Studio 54 nightclub.


title: Studio 54

text: The cabaret club 54 Below opened in Studio 54's basement on June 5, 2012. It was designed by architect Richard H. Lewis, set designer John Lee Beatty, lighting designer Ken Billington, and sound designer Peter Hylenski. A staircase from ground level leads to a rectangular room with leather and wood decorations, as well as a red, purple, and brown color palette. The room contains 140 seats in a cabaret-style arrangement and 16 seats in a bar to the right. Originally, 54 Below presented shows every day of the week, with 4,000 performances in its first five years. In partnership with musician Michael Feinstein, the club was renamed Feinstein's/54 Below in 2015; the club reverted to the name 54 Below when the partnership ended in July 2022.


title: Studio 54

text: Josh Hadar of Allied Partners created a 175-seat cabaret space on the second floor, called Upstairs at Studio 54. The space opened in February 2001 and is accessed via its own entrance at ground level. This space was used exclusively for special events. Performances occurred during nights when plays were not being staged. The musical "Newsical" was staged there from October 2004 to April 2005.


title: Studio 54

text: In July 1926, theatrical impresario Fortune Gallo leased a site at 254 West 54th Street and hired Eugene De Rosa to design a 16-story office building at the site, with a 1,400-seat theater at its base. Z. D. Berry and Robert Podgur would build the venue at an estimated cost of $2 million. Gallo planned to present the San Carlo Grand Opera Company's productions at the theater during the autumn, renting it out for legitimate shows at other times. The venue was originally supposed to open in January 1927, but this was delayed because the opera company had an extended engagement in San Francisco. Prior to the Gallo Opera House's opening, Gallo transferred his interest in the San Carlo Company to his nephew, Aurelio Gallo, so he could focus on operating the new theater.


title: Studio 54

text: The opera house opened on November 8, 1927, with the San Carlo Company's large-scale production of "La bohème". The Gallo was one of three legitimate theaters to open in New York City during 1927; at the time, the city had over 200 legitimate theaters. The San Carlo Company performed for two weeks. A revival of the play "Electra" opened at the Gallo that December, followed the same month by "Juno and the Paycock". A $660,000 mortgage was placed on the theater building in January 1928. The American Opera Company opened its season there the same month, performing there until March. Ballet Moderne also performed there for two weeks in April 1928.


title: Studio 54

text: Philip Goodman leased the theater for five years in mid-1928. Goodman used the theater to stage a production of Laurence Stallings and Oscar Hammerstein II's musical "Rainbow", which ran for less than a month in late 1928. In the meantime, the theater also hosted events such as dance performances, a violin recital, and a choir performance. Radiant Productions leased the theater in September 1929, with plans to present a dozen plays for three weeks each. Their first and only production, "Ladies Don't Lie", was a critical failure. That October, Radiant transferred its lease to William R. Kane, who staged a short-lived revival of the comedy "A Tailor-Made Man" there. At a foreclosure auction in December 1929, the theater's mortgagee Hemphill Realty Corporation bought the theater for $1,045,000.


title: Studio 54

text: Gallo sold his lease to an unidentified buyer in January 1930, as he wanted to focus on operating a radio station. Richard Herndon took over as the theater's managing director, renaming it the New Yorker Theatre the next month. The first production at the renamed theater was the Henrik Ibsen play "The Vikings", which had a short run in May 1930. The New Yorker hosted more dance recitals before the opening of its next legitimate show, "Electra", in December 1930. Oliver D. Bailey signed a five-year lease for the theater in January 1931. In general, the theater suffered from low attendance during the Great Depression. Among the theater's productions in 1931 were the plays "Gray Shadow", "Young Sinners", "Ebb Tide", and "It Never Rains"; the musical "Fast and Furious"; and performances by the New Yorker Grand Opera Company. The next year, the theater hosted several plays performed by the Spanish-speaking theatrical company La Compania Dramatic Espanola, as well as another dance festival. The Bowery Savings Bank bought the New Yorker and the adjacent office building for $650,000 in December 1932.


title: Studio 54

text: The bank leased the theater to Continental Music Halls Inc. for five years in September 1933. Continental announced plans to convert the theater into a nightclub called Casino de Paree (sometimes spelled Casino de Paris), with dining areas on two stories and a kitchen in the basement. The club's operators spent $200,000 on renovations, reopening the venue on December 12, 1933. It was one of three theaters near 54th Street that were converted to nightclubs in the mid-1930s. There were 1,150 seats on two levels. The stage was used as a dance floor, accessed by steps from the orchestra level, and was flanked by two bands. Billy Rose organized two shows a night, for which guests paid $1.50 to $2 per ticket. According to "Variety", the nightclub "just about satisfies the gastronomic, bibulous, and entertainment needs of any mortal".


title: Studio 54

text: The club's operators bought the theater and adjacent office building in March 1934. The club's cheap revues competed with Broadway musicals with higher-priced tickets. Rose withdrew from the venture in September 1934 because of disagreements over pay. The Casino de Paree was closed for renovations in February 1935, reopening two weeks later. The Casino de Paree abruptly closed after filing for bankruptcy in April 1935. That December, the Bowery Savings Bank leased the theater to the Palladium Operating Corporation, which planned to convert it into an "English"-style music hall. The Palladium Music Hall opened the next month; it was to host a new show every two weeks, with two bands performing during dinnertime. The Palladium had trouble paying wages within three weeks of its opening, and it closed permanently at the beginning of February 1936.


title: Studio 54

text: The Works Progress Administration (WPA)'s Federal Music Project leased the theater, as well as four of the office floors, in November 1936; the venue would host operas and concerts by the WPA's Theatre of Music. The WPA renovated the theater over the next two months, opening the Theater of Music on January 24, 1937. The WPA renewed its lease later the same year. An all-black WPA cast from Chicago presented "The Swing Mikado" at the New Yorker Theatre in early 1939; after two months, the production moved to the 44th Street Theatre. The play "Medicine Show" then premiered at the New Yorker in April 1940, closing after a month. This was the theater's last Broadway show for nearly six decades.


title: Studio 54

text: The Bowery Savings Bank again owned the New Yorker Theatre by late 1940, and the bank's real-estate agent Joseph O'Gara was looking to lease the venue. That October, RCA Manufacturing signed a one-year lease for the theater, exhibiting television projectors there. RCA subsidiary NBC installed a television screen by the end of 1940. Early the following year, NBC installed a projection screen on the stage, spending $25,000 to $30,000 on the project. The first public exhibition of the theater's screen was in May 1941, when over a thousand audience members watched a live broadcast of a boxing match between Billy Soose and Ken Overlin at Madison Square Garden. In September 1941, the Top Dollar Theatre company unsuccessfully tried to lease the venue from the Bowery Savings Bank. The New Yorker Theatre then briefly hosted the children's play "The Adventures of Marco Polo" at the end of that December.


title: Studio 54

text: The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) leased the New Yorker Theatre in August 1942 for use as a radio soundstage. For three decades, the theater operated as a radio and television studio. Originally, the theater was known as Radio Playhouse No. 4 or Theater No. 4. The onetime New Yorker Theatre was converted for television in 1949, and it became CBS-TV Studio 52. Shielded television cameras had to be developed due to strong magnetic interference from equipment at a neighboring power substation for the New York City Subway system. The studio was one of seven that CBS operated in New York City. At that time, several Broadway theaters had been converted to TV studios due to a lack of studio space in the city.


title: Studio 54

text: Likely the first television show to be produced at Studio 52, was "The 54th Street Revue", which premiered in May 1949. Another early show produced at Studio 52 was "The Fred Waring Show," which was taped there in 1950. By the early 1960s, Studio 52 and the neighboring Studio 50 (now the Ed Sullivan Theater) were among CBS's busiest stages. The theater hosted such shows as "What's My Line?", "The $64,000 Question", "Video Village", "Password", "To Tell the Truth", "Beat the Clock", "The Jack Benny Show", "I've Got a Secret", "Ted Mack and the Original Amateur Hour", and "Captain Kangaroo". Studio 52 was used to tape many of the CBS shows that involved panel discussions. Members of the public could also buy tickets to view these tapings. "The New York Times" said in 1965 that many of the regular audience members were older women. The soap opera "Love of Life" was produced at Studio 52 until 1975 and was the last show to be taped there. CBS moved most of its broadcast operations out of Studio 52 in 1976 and placed the theater up for sale.


title: Studio 54

text: By 1976, German-born male model Uva Harden was planning to open a nightclub in New York City, which he tentatively called "Studio". Harden and Israeli entrepreneur Yoram Polany agreed to take over the old CBS Studio 52 that year. Polany and another friend of Harden's independently recommended that the nightclub be called "Studio 54" because it was on 54th Street. Harden and Polany formed a corporation to operate the nightclub, but they struggled to obtain a liquor license from the New York State Liquor Authority (NYSLA). They hired , who had hosted monthly parties at Maurice Brahms's Infinity nightclub, as the club's publicist. To finance the nightclub, the operators of the Marlborough Gallery bought nearly all of the stock in Harden and Polany's corporation in November 1976. At the time, the gallery's owner Frank Lloyd had just been ordered to pay $9 million to artist Mark Rothko's estate in the Rothko case.


title: Studio 54

text: After continued delays, Harden met with entrepreneurs Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, who agreed to partner with him in the nightclub's operation. Harden was eventually forced out of the club's operation, while Polany left on his own volition. In November 1976, "Billboard" magazine reported that Schrager and Rubell planned to convert the theater into a nightclub called Studio 54. It would be one of several discotheques to operate in Midtown Manhattan during the late 1970s. Rubell and Schrager formed the Broadway Catering Corp., which spent $400,000 to transform the theater into a nightclub. Rubell, Schrager, and Jack Dushey each owned a one-third stake in the venture, and they had hired several people to create the club by early 1977. These included architect Scott Bromley, interior designer Ron Doud, lighting designer Brian Thompson, and set designer Richie Williamson. Lighting designers Jules Fisher and Paul Marantz were hired to design the dance floor and rigging system. Rubell and Schrager retained D'Alessio to promote Studio 54.


title: Studio 54

text: The renovation involved the construction of a dance floor, a balcony, and a disco booth, as well as the addition of mirrors, light bars, and floating vinyl platforms. The orchestra seated 250 people, and the balcony had another 500 seats. The lighting system, which required three people to operate, included a dozen poles with flashing lights. Fisher and Marantz adapted the existing rigging system to generate special effects such as confetti, snow, fog, and weather. On the ceiling was a cyclorama, which could project images of many different galaxies. Other decorations included depictions of volcanos, sunrises, and sunsets. Aero Graphics designed a backlit moon and spoon, which became an icon of the Studio 54 nightclub. The club's promoters mailed out 8,000 invitations and made phone calls to numerous figures on "a good social list". Studio 54 officially opened on April 26, 1977, with workers rushing to finish the decorations just hours before the grand opening. Although the space could fit 2,500 guests, four thousand people attended the club on opening day. Hundreds of prospective patrons lined up around the block to enter, and several celebrities could not get in, despite having been invited.


title: Studio 54

text: Studio 54 had been launched at the peak of the disco dancing and music trend. Its popularity grew rapidly, especially after the publication of a widely-circulated picture that showed actress Bianca Jagger at the club, riding a white horse. In the month after its opening, the club served an average of 2,000 guests per night, although it was only open on Tuesdays through Saturdays. By August 1977, the club had become so successful that Rubell and Schrager were considering opening similar nightclubs in Los Angeles and London. Rubell ultimately chose not to open similar clubs around the world, saying: "I'm very cautious about protecting the name and not cheapening it." In November 1977, Dan Dorfman of "New York" magazine quoted Rubell as saying that "only the Mafia made more money" than Studio 54, which made $7 million in its first year.


title: Studio 54

text: Upon Studio 54's first anniversary in April 1978, which attracted 3,000 guests, Rubell said the club's popularity contradicted sentiments that the club "wouldn't last more than a couple of months". That October, Rubell and Schrager closed the club for nine days, spending $500,000 on renovations. The work included adding spotlights and mirrored walls, as well as a movable bridge.


title: Studio 54

text: To be admitted to Studio 54 was a status symbol, even on nights when the club was open to the public. When Studio 54 opened, admission generally cost $7 or $8, but guests could pay for an annual membership in exchange for discounted tickets. Tickets were more expensive on weekends, and all ticket prices were increased on nights with performances. Rubell made the final decisions over whether guests were allowed in the club. Celebrities usually were allowed to enter immediately. According to a 1977 "Wall Street Journal" article, "very beautiful" members of the public were almost always admitted, while men entering alone were invariably rejected to prevent predatory behavior. Guests were divided into four categories, ranging from the "No Goods" (who could never be admitted) to the "No Fuck-ups" (important clients who were admitted instantly). Rubell bragged about the club's exclusivity, saying in a November 1977 interview with "New York" magazine: "I turned away 1,400 people last Saturday."


title: Studio 54

text: The club's doormen could be extremely selective, sometimes to the point that "they propelled themselves into a comedy universe" according to Haden-Guest. Rubell once told a "ravishingly beautiful woman" that she could enter for free if she took off all her clothes; the woman was later hospitalized for frostbitten nipples. The selective admissions policies led some guests to bypass the front door in an attempt to enter. According to Haden-Guest, one potential guest got stuck in a ventilation shaft and died, an account that Schrager later confirmed. Some of Studio 54's spurned clientele fled to other clubs such as New York, New York. When the club was renovated in 1978, Rubell and Schrager sealed its courtyard to prevent people from entering there. There was also a private entrance on 53rd Street, reflecting the "stratification" of the nightclub.