title: Sonny Liston

text: Biographer Wilfrid Sheed wrote in his book, "Muhammad Ali: A Portrait in Words and Photographs", that Clay's protests were heard by ringside members of the Nation of Islam who initially suspected Dundee had blinded his fighter, and that the trainer deliberately wiped his own eyes with the corner sponge to demonstrate to Clay's approaching bodyguards that he had not intentionally blinded him.


title: Sonny Liston

text: The commotion was not lost on referee Barney Felix, who was walking toward Clay's corner. Felix later said Clay was seconds from being disqualified. The challenger, his arms held high in surrender, was demanding that the fight be stopped and Dundee, fearing the fight might indeed be halted, gave his charge a one-word order: "Run!"


title: Sonny Liston

text: It was later theorized that a substance used on Liston's cuts by Joe Pollino, his cut man, may have caused the irritation.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Clay later said that in round five he could only see a faint shadow of Liston during most of the round, but by circling and moving frantically he managed to avoid Liston and somehow survive. At one point, Clay was wiping his eyes with his right hand while extending his left arm—"like a drunk leaning on a lamppost" Bert Sugar wrote—to keep Liston at bay.


title: Sonny Liston

text: But by the sixth round his sight had cleared, and a clearly enraged Clay fought a blisteringly aggressive round landing numerous combination punches.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Liston failed to answer the bell for the seventh round, and Clay was declared the winner by technical knockout. At that point, the fight was scored as even on the official scorecards. It was the first time since 1919—when Jack Dempsey defeated Jess Willard—that a world heavyweight champion had quit on his stool. Liston said he quit because of a shoulder injury. Dr. Alexander Robbins, chief physician for the Miami Beach Boxing Commission, diagnosed Liston with a torn tendon in his left shoulder. However, David Remnick, for his book "King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero", interviewed one of Liston's cornermen, who told him that Liston could have continued: "[The shoulder] was all BS. We had a return bout clause with Clay, but if you say your guy just quit, who is gonna get a return bout? We cooked up that shoulder thing on the spot." Hall of Fame matchmaker Teddy Brenner also disputed the shoulder injury, claiming he saw Liston use the same arm to throw a chair in his dressing room after the match.


title: Sonny Liston

text: There is ample evidence that Liston did carry an injury to his left shoulder into the fight. Sports Illustrated writer Tex Maule wrote that Liston's shoulder injury was legitimate. He cited Liston's inability to lift his arm: "There is no doubt that Liston's arm was damaged. In the sixth round, he carried it at belt level so that it was of no help in warding off the right crosses with which Clay probed at the cut under his left eye." He also cited medical evidence: "A team of eight doctors inspected Liston's arm at St. Francis Hospital in Miami Beach and agreed that it was too badly damaged for Liston to continue fighting. The torn tendon had bled down into the mass of the biceps, swelling and numbing the arm." Those findings were confirmed in a formal investigation immediately after the fight by Florida State Attorney Richard Gerstein, who also noted that there was little doubt that Liston went into the fight with a sore or lame shoulder. Despite Liston carrying an injury and being undertrained, Clay stated in 1975 that the first fight with Liston was the toughest of his career.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Liston trained hard for the rematch, which was scheduled to take place November 13, 1964, in Boston. "Time" magazine said Liston had worked himself into the best shape of his career. However, there were again rumors of alcohol abuse in training. The extent to which Liston's heavy drinking and possible drug use may have contributed to his surprisingly poor performances against Ali is not known.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Three days before the fight, Ali needed emergency surgery for a strangulated hernia. The bout would need to be delayed by six months. The new date was set for May 25, 1965. But as it approached, there were fears that the promoters were tied to organized crime and Massachusetts officials, most notably Suffolk County District Attorney Garrett H. Byrne, began to have second thoughts. Byrne sought an injunction blocking the fight in Boston because Inter-Continental Promotions was promoting the fight without a Massachusetts license. Inter-Continental said local veteran Sam Silverman was the promoter. On May 7, backers of the rematch ended the court battle by pulling the fight out of Boston. The promoters needed a new location quickly, whatever the size, to rescue their closed-circuit television commitment around the country. Governor John H. Reed of Maine stepped forward, and within a few hours the promoters had a new site: Lewiston, Maine, a mill town with a population of about 41,000 located north of Boston.


title: Sonny Liston

text: The ending of the fight remains one of the most controversial in boxing history. Midway through the first round, Liston threw a left jab and Ali went over it with a fast right, knocking the former champion down. Liston went down on his back. He rolled over, got to his right knee and then fell on his back again. Many in attendance did not see Ali deliver the punch. The fight quickly descended into chaos. Referee Jersey Joe Walcott, a former world heavyweight champion, had a hard time getting Ali to go to a neutral corner. Ali initially stood over his fallen opponent, gesturing and yelling at him, "Get up and fight, sucker!" and "Nobody will believe this!"


title: Sonny Liston

text: When Walcott got back to Liston and looked at the knockdown timekeeper, Francis McDonough, to pick up the count, Liston had fallen back on the canvas. Walcott never did pick up the count. He said he could not hear McDonough, who did not have a microphone. Also, McDonough did not bang on the canvas or motion a number count with his fingers. McDonough, however, claimed Walcott was looking at the crowd and never at him. After Liston arose, Walcott wiped off his gloves. He then left the fighters to go over to McDonough. "The timekeeper was waving both hands and saying, 'I counted him out—the fight is over,'" Walcott said after the fight. "Nat Fleischer [editor of "The Ring"] was sitting beside McDonough and he was waving his hands, too, saying it was over." Walcott then rushed back to the fighters, who had resumed boxing, and stopped the fight—awarding Ali a first-round knockout victory. Strict interpretation of the knockdown/count rule states it is the referee's count and not the timekeeper's that is the official count. Furthermore, that count cannot be started until the fighter scoring the knockdown goes to and remains in a neutral corner. Ali did neither. Walcott never began a count in the ring because of Ali's non-compliance and his physical struggle with getting Ali to go to that neutral corner. The interference of ringside reporters regarding interpretation of the rules, the fight stoppage and the controversy after the fight had not been seen since The Long Count Fight between champion Gene Tunney and challenger Jack Dempsey in 1927.


title: Sonny Liston

text: The fight ranks as one of the shortest heavyweight title bouts in history. Many in the small crowd had not even settled in their seats when the fight was stopped. The official time of the stoppage was announced as 1:00 into the first round, which was wrong. Liston went down at 1:44, got up at 1:56, and Walcott stopped the fight at 2:12.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Numerous fans booed and started yelling, "Fix!" Many did not see the punch land, and some who did questioned that it was powerful enough to knock Liston out. Skeptics called the knockout blow "the phantom punch." Ali called it "the anchor punch." He said it was taught to him by comedian and film actor Stepin Fetchit, who learned it from Jack Johnson.


title: Sonny Liston

text: There were some, however, who believed the fight was legitimate. World light-heavyweight champion José Torres said, "It was a perfect punch." Jim Murray of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that it was "no phantom punch." And Tex Maule of "Sports Illustrated" wrote, "The blow had so much force it lifted Liston's left foot, upon which most of his weight was resting, well off the canvas."


title: Sonny Liston

text: Still, some found it hard to believe that the punch could have floored a man like Liston. Hall of Fame announcer Don Dunphy said, "Here was a guy who was in prison and the guards used to beat him over the head with clubs and couldn't knock him down." But others contend he just was not the same Liston. Dave Anderson of the "New York Times" said Liston "looked awful" in his last workout before the fight. Arthur Daley of the "New York Times" wrote that Liston's handlers knew he "didn't have it anymore," and allegedly they had secretly paid sparring partner Amos Lincoln an extra $100 to take it easy on him - - the same man, incidentally, that Liston dismissed in less than two rounds a full three years later.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Former champions Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Floyd Patterson and Gene Tunney, as well as contender George Chuvalo all declared they considered the fight to be a fake. Some felt the knockdown was real but the knockout was fake. Ali biographer Wilfrid Sheed wrote, in his "Muhammad Ali: A Portrait in Words and Photographs", that Liston planned to throw the fight for reasons unknown and used the legitimate first-round knockdown for that end. Sheed says that the punch and the knockdown "may have been genuine, but when referee Joe Walcott blew the count and gave him all evening to get up, Liston's rendition of a coma wouldn't have fooled a possum."


title: Sonny Liston

text: Ali clearly did not think he knocked Liston out. In his own words in Thomas Hauser's 1991 biography: "The punch jarred him. It was a good punch, but I didn't think I hit him so hard that he couldn't have gotten up. Once he went down, I got excited. I forgot about the rules." In that same book Liston was quoted two years after the fight: "Ali knocked me down with a sharp punch. I was down but not hurt, but I looked up and saw Ali standing over me. … Ali is waiting to hit me, the ref can't control him."


title: Sonny Liston

text: While Liston publicly denied taking a dive, "Sports Illustrated" writer Mark Kram said that years later Liston told him, "That guy [Ali] was crazy. I didn't want anything to do with him. And the Muslims were coming up. Who needed that? So I went down. I wasn't hit." The fact that Liston did not complain about the clear breach of boxing rules (being declared knocked out without a count) and Ali's obvious state of bewilderment, shouting at Liston "Nobody will believe this" and asking his handlers "Did I hit him?", confirmed most people's belief that Liston had taken a dive. There have been a number of unproven theories as to the background to the purported dive including that Liston was threatened by the Muslims, or agreed to lose in return for a share in the more marketable Ali's future purses. Credence to the latter theory is provided by the fact that Liston, immediately after his fight with Chuck Wepner, seemed more concerned about supporting the proposed Ali-Frazier bout and Ali's claims to be champion than promoting his own career.


title: Sonny Liston

text: After the second loss to Ali Liston stayed out of the ring for more than a year. He returned with four consecutive knockout victories in Sweden between July 1966 and April 1967, all four co-promoted by former world heavyweight champion Ingemar Johansson. One of the victories was over Amos Johnson, Liston's former sparring partner, who had recently defeated British champion Henry Cooper.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Liston returned to the United States and won seven fights, all by knockout, in 1968, increasing his string to eleven. America's first look at Liston since the Ali rematch was when he fought fifth–ranked Henry Clark in a nationally broadcast bout in July 1968. He won by a seventh-round technical knockout, and seemed on the verge of making a comeback to the big time. He talked of a fight with Joe Frazier, claiming, "It'd be like shooting fish in a barrel." Liston won 14 consecutive bouts, 13 by knockout, before fighting third-ranked Leotis Martin, previously beaten by Clark, in December 1969. Liston decked Martin with a left hook in the fourth round and dominated most of the fight, but Martin came back and knocked Liston out cold in the ninth round. Unfortunately for Martin, however, his career ended after that fight due to a detached retina he suffered during the bout.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Liston won his final fight, a tough but one-sided match against future world title challenger Chuck Wepner in June 1970. The bout was stopped after the ninth round due to cuts over both of Wepner's eyes. Wepner needed 72 stitches and suffered a broken cheekbone and nose. Wepner, who also fought George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, said after his career was over that Liston was the hardest puncher he faced.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Writer Gilbert Rogin assessed Liston's style and physique after his win over Zora Folley. He said that Liston was not quick with his hand or footwork, that he relied too much on his ability to take a punch, and that he could be vulnerable to an opponent with more hand speed. "But can he hit!" Rogin wrote. "There is power in both his left and his right, even though the fists move with the languor of motoring royalty or as if passing through a gaseous envelope more dense than air." Rogin called Liston's physique "awesome—arms like fence posts, thighs like silos." His defense was described as "the gate-crossing of arms "à la" Archie Moore."


title: Sonny Liston

text: Future world heavyweight champion George Foreman, who sparred with Liston after Foreman's amateur career, assessed Liston's jab as the most formidable he faced and Liston as the strongest man he encountered in the ring, describing Liston as having the most natural talent and skill. Foreman stated: "There wasn't anything missing from Sonny Liston. He had the whole package." While much has been written about the effectiveness of his left jab, others have commented favorably on Liston's wide range of boxing skills. These include Muhammad Ali, who stated in a 1975 interview that he was a great admirer of Liston's talents: "Liston had a tremendous jab, could punch with either hand, was smart in the ring and as strong as any heavyweight I’ve ever seen."


title: Sonny Liston

text: Liston is ranked second in the ESPN.com list of "The Hardest Hitters in Heavyweight History." Johnny Tocco, a trainer who worked with George Foreman and Mike Tyson as well as Liston, said Liston was the hardest hitter of the three. Herb Goldman stated that Liston, when in his prime between 1958 and 1963, was the most feared fighter in boxing history.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Liston married Geraldine Chambers in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 3, 1957. Geraldine had a daughter from a previous marriage, and the Listons subsequently adopted a boy from Sweden. Liston biographer Paul Gallender claims that Liston fathered several children, though none with his wife. Geraldine remembered her husband as "Great with me, great with the kids. He was a gentle man." Although largely illiterate through lack of schooling, Liston was a more complex and interesting individual than has often been acknowledged. Former light-heavyweight champion Jose Torres said, "I have never met an athlete in baseball, basketball or football who is smarter, more intelligent than Sonny Liston".


title: Sonny Liston

text: Liston was found dead by his wife, Geraldine, in their Las Vegas home on January 5, 1971. On returning home from a two-week trip, Geraldine had smelled a foul odor emanating from the main bedroom and on entering saw him slumped up against the bed, a broken foot bench on the floor. Authorities theorized that he was undressing for bed when he fell over backward with such force that he broke the rail of the bench. Geraldine called Liston's attorney and his doctor, but did not notify the police until two to three hours later.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Following an investigation, Las Vegas police concluded there were no signs of foul play and declared Liston's death a heroin overdose. "It was common knowledge that Sonny was a heroin addict," said Sgt. Caputo, one of the investigating police officers, "The whole department knew about it." The date of death listed on his death certificate is December 30, 1970, which police estimated by judging the number of milk bottles and newspapers around the front door of the property. Coroner Mark Herman said traces of heroin byproducts were found in Liston's system, but not in amounts large enough to have caused his death. Also, scar tissue, possibly from needle marks, was found in the bend of Liston's left elbow. The toxicology report said his body was too decomposed for the tests to be conclusive. Officially, Liston died of lung congestion and heart failure. He had been suffering from hardening of the heart muscle and lung disease before his death. Liston had been hospitalized in early December, complaining of chest pains.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Liston was buried at Paradise Memorial Gardens in Las Vegas, Nevada. The grave's marker-plate bears the dedication: "A Man."


title: Sonny Liston

text: Sgt. Dennis Caputo of the Clark County Sheriff's Department was one of the first officers on the scene. He found a quarter-ounce of heroin in a balloon in the kitchen, and a half-ounce of marijuana in Liston's pants pocket, but no syringes or needles. Some found it suspicious that authorities could not locate any drug paraphernalia that Liston presumably would have needed to inject the fatal dose, such as a spoon to cook the heroin or a tourniquet to wrap around his arm. But former Las Vegas police Sgt. Gary Beckwith said, "It wasn't uncommon for family members in these cases to go through and tidy up ... to save family embarrassment."


title: Sonny Liston

text: Many people who knew Liston insisted he was afraid of needles and never would have used heroin. "He had a deadly fear of needles," said Davey Pearl, a boxing referee and friend of Liston's. "There was nothing Sonny feared more than a needle. I know!" said Liston's Philadelphia dentist, Dr. Nick Ragni. "He was afraid of needles," echoed Father Edward Murphy. "He would do everything to avoid taking shots." According to Liston's trainer, Willie Reddish, Liston cancelled a planned tour to Africa in 1963 because he refused to get the required inoculations. Liston's wife also recalled that her husband would refuse basic medical care for common colds because of his dislike of needles.


title: Sonny Liston

text: "The month before he died, some guy ran into Sonny while he was making a left turn. He had a whiplash, so they took him to the hospital," said boxing trainer Johnny Tocco. "He said: 'Look what they did!' and he was pointing at some little bandage over the needle mark in his arm. He was more angry about that shot than he was about the car wreck. A couple weeks later, he was still complainin' about that needle mark. To this day, I'm convinced that's what the coroner saw in his exam—that hospital needle mark."


title: Sonny Liston

text: Some claim Liston was murdered. There are several theories as to why: (1) publicist Harold Conrad and others believed Liston had been deeply involved as a bill collector of a loansharking ring in Las Vegas. When he tried to muscle in for a bigger share, Conrad thinks his employers got him very drunk, took him home and stuck him with a needle. (2) Professional gambler Lem Banker insists that Liston was murdered by drug dealers with whom he'd become involved. Banker said he was told by police that Liston had been seen at a house that would be the target of a drug raid. Banker said, "Sheriff [Ralph] Lamb told me, 'Tell your pal Sonny to stay away from the West Side because we're going to bust the drug dealers.'" Banker later learned that the police told Liston the same thing to his face. Liston was allegedly present at dealer Earl Cage's residence during a raid by narcotics detectives. Because of that, Cage may have thought Sonny was an informant and shot him with a hot dose as retribution. (3) The mob promised Liston some money to throw the second Ali fight, but they never paid him. As the years passed and Liston's financial situation worsened, he got angry and told the mob he would go public with the story unless they gave him the money. That got him killed. (4) Liston was supposed to take a dive when he fought Chuck Wepner six months earlier, and killing him was payback for his failure to do so.


title: Sonny Liston

text: On January 1, Liston's wife, Geraldine, called Johnny Tocco and said she had not heard from her husband in three days and was worried. A few years before Tocco died, he allegedly told one of his good friends, Tony Davi, that he went to Liston's house and found the door locked and his car in the driveway. Tocco called the police, and they broke into the house. Tocco said that the living room furniture was in disarray, but the house did not yet smell of death. He said they found Liston lying on his bed with a needle sticking out of his arm. Tocco left the house before the police did. "Johnny wasn't a braggart," Davi told Liston biographer Paul Gallender. "He told me in the strictest confidence, but it was like he wanted to get it off his chest." Gallender claimed, "A lot of officers knew Sonny was dead before Geraldine returned home on January 5, but they chose to let him rot."


title: Sonny Liston

text: A bronze copy of a marble statue of Liston sculpted by Alfred Hrdlicka in 1964 was erected in 2008 between Old Castle and Karlsplatz in Stuttgart, Germany. A successful racehorse which won the Irish St Leger classic race in 2021 was named Sonnyboyliston.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Liston played a fist fighter in the 1965 film "Harlow", made a cameo appearance in the 1968 film "Head", which starred The Monkees, and played the part of The Farmer in the 1970 film "Moonfire", which starred Richard Egan and Charles Napier. Also in 1970, Liston appeared on an episode of the TV series "Love, American Style" and in a television commercial for Braniff Airlines with Andy Warhol.


title: Sonny Liston

text: In "The Greatest", the 1977 film about the life of boxer Muhammad Ali in which Ali played himself, Liston was portrayed by Roger E. Mosley.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Liston was the subject of a 1995 HBO documentary titled "Sonny Liston: The Mysterious Life and Death of a Champion".


title: Sonny Liston

text: Liston was the subject of a 2008 feature film based upon his life titled "Phantom Punch". The film starred Ving Rhames as Liston and was produced by Rhames, Hassain Zaidi and Marek Posival.


title: Sonny Liston

text: In the 2015 British crime film "Legend", Liston is played by Mark Theodore in a scene where gangster Reggie Kray poses for a picture with the boxer.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Liston appears as a character in James Ellroy's novel "The Cold Six Thousand". In the novel, Liston not only drinks but also pops pills and works as a sometime enforcer for a heroin ring in Las Vegas. Liston also appears in the sequel, "Blood's a Rover".


title: Sonny Liston

text: Sonny Liston was featured in a novel "Girl Fighter" with a brief reference to his early life, his rise to WBC heavyweight champion and his eventual losses to Clay/Ali.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Liston has been referenced in many songs by artists such as Curtis Eller, Sun Kil Moon, the Animals, Tom Petty, Mark Knopfler, Phil Ochs, Morrissey, Freddy Blohm, Chuck E. Weiss, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, the Roots, Wu-Tang Clan, Gone Jackals, Billy Joel, the Mountain Goats, Lil Wayne, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and the Killers. Mark Knopfler's tribute to Liston, "Song for Sonny Liston", appeared on his 2004 album "Shangri-La".


title: Sonny Liston

text: A wax model of Liston appears in the front row of the iconic sleeve cover of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". He is seen in the far left part of the row, wearing a white and gold robe, standing beside the original-look Beatle wax figures.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Singer/Songwriter Rod Picott wrote and recorded a song titled "Sonny Liston" for his 2022 album "Paper Hearts and Broken Arrows."


title: Sonny Liston

text: Liston appeared on the December 1963 cover of "Esquire" magazine (cover photograph by Carl Fischer) "the last man on earth America wanted to see coming down its chimney".


title: Sonny Liston

text: Elizabeth Bear wrote the short story "Sonny Liston Takes the Fall", published in "The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy" in 2008. The story speculates that Liston threw the Ali match for the good of society.


title: Sonny Liston

text: Shaun Assael wrote "The Murder of Sonny Liston: Las Vegas, Heroin, and Heavyweights", published in 2016. The book suggests that Sonny Liston may have been murdered and a possibility that the crime was never investigated. In The Devil and Sonny Liston by Nick Tosches, published in 2000, when many of Liston's former acquaintances were still alive, Tosches posits that Liston's idol Joe Louis introduced him to heroin, and that he ultimately overdosed.


title: Sonny Liston

text: On July 28, 1963, Liston joined a group of 500 African Americans in Denver who marched to a post office to mail letters urging the Colorado congressional delegation to pass the Kennedy administration's civil rights package.


title: Garden of Eden

text: In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden (, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים "gan-Elohim"), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the biblical paradise described in Genesis 2-3 and Ezekiel 28 and 31.


title: Garden of Eden

text: The location of Eden is described in the Book of Genesis as the source of four tributaries. Various suggestions have been made for its location: at the head of the Persian Gulf, in southern Mesopotamia (now Iraq) where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers run into the sea; and in Armenia.


title: Garden of Eden

text: Like the Genesis flood narrative, the Genesis creation narrative and the account of the Tower of Babel, the story of Eden echoes the Mesopotamian myth of a king, as a primordial man, who is placed in a divine garden to guard the tree of life. The Hebrew Bible depicts Adam and Eve as walking around the Garden of Eden naked due to their sinlessness.


title: Garden of Eden

text: Mentions of Eden are also made in the Bible elsewhere in Genesis, in Isaiah 51:3, Ezekiel 36:35, and Joel 2:3; Zechariah 14 and Ezekiel 47 use paradisical imagery without naming Eden.


title: Garden of Eden

text: The name derives from the Akkadian , from a Sumerian word meaning "plain" or "steppe", closely related to an Aramaic root word meaning "fruitful, well-watered". Another interpretation associates the name with a Hebrew word for "pleasure"; thus the Vulgate reads in Genesis 2:8, and the Douay–Rheims Bible, following, has the wording "And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure".


title: Garden of Eden

text: The second part of the Genesis creation narrative, Genesis 2:4–3:24, opens with YHWH-Elohim (translated here "the God") creating the first man (Adam), whom he placed in a garden that he planted "eastward in Eden":


title: Garden of Eden

text: The man was free to eat from any tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which were taboo. Last of all, God made a woman (Eve) from a rib of the man to be a companion for the man. In Genesis 3, the man and the woman were seduced by the serpent into eating the forbidden fruit, and they were expelled from the garden to prevent them from eating of the tree of life, and thus living forever. Cherubim were placed east of the garden, "and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way of the tree of life".


title: Garden of Eden

text: Genesis 2:10-14 lists four rivers in association with the garden of Eden: Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel (the Tigris), and Phirat (the Euphrates). It also refers to the land of Cush—translated/interpreted as Ethiopia, but thought by some to equate to "Cossaea", a Greek name for the land of the Kassites. These lands lie north of Elam, immediately to the east of ancient Babylon, which, unlike Ethiopia, does lie within the region being described. In "Antiquities of the Jews", the first-century Jewish historian Josephus identifies the Pishon as what "the Greeks called Ganges" and the Geon (Gehon) as the Nile.


title: Garden of Eden

text: In Ezekiel 28:12-19 the prophet Ezekiel the "son of man" sets down God's word against the king of Tyre: the king was the "seal of perfection", adorned with precious stones from the day of his creation, placed by God in the garden of Eden on the holy mountain as a guardian cherub. However, the king sinned through wickedness and violence, and so he was driven out of the garden and thrown to the earth, where now he is consumed by God's fire: "All those who knew you in the nations are appalled at you, you have come to a horrible end and will be no more." (Ezekiel 28:19).


title: Garden of Eden

text: According to Terje Stordalen, the Eden in Ezekiel appears to be located in Lebanon. "[I]t appears that the Lebanon is an alternative placement in Phoenician myth (as in Ez 28,13, III.48) of the Garden of Eden", and there are connections between paradise, the Garden of Eden and the forests of Lebanon (possibly used symbolically) within prophetic writings. Edward Lipinski and Peter Kyle McCarter have suggested that the garden of the gods, the oldest Sumerian analog of the Garden of Eden, relates to a mountain sanctuary in the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges.


title: Garden of Eden

text: Suggestions for the location of the Garden of Eden include the head of the Persian Gulf, as argued by Juris Zarins, in southern Mesopotamia (now Iraq and Kuwait) where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers run into the sea; and in the Armenian Highlands or Armenian Plateau. British archaeologist David Rohl locates it in Iran, and in the vicinity of Tabriz, but this suggestion has not caught on with scholarly sources.


title: Garden of Eden

text: Some religious groups have believed the location of the garden to be local to them, outside of the Middle East. Some early leaders of Mormonism held that it was located in Jackson County, Missouri. The 20th-century Panacea Society believed it was located at the site of their home town of Bedford, England, while preacher Elvy E. Callaway believed it was on the Apalachicola River in Florida, near the town of Bristol. Some suggested that the location is in Jerusalem.


title: Garden of Eden

text: On his third voyage to the Americas in 1498, Christopher Columbus thought he may have reached the Earthly Paradise upon first seeing the South American mainland.


title: Garden of Eden

text: A number of parallel concepts to the biblical Garden of Eden exist in various other religions and mythologies. Dilmun in the Sumerian story of "Enki and Ninhursag" is a paradisaical abode of the immortals, where sickness and death were unknown. The garden of the Hesperides in Greek mythology was also somewhat similar to the Jewish concept of the Garden of Eden, and by the 16th century a larger intellectual association was made in the Cranach painting. In this painting, only the "action" that takes place there identifies the setting as distinct from the Garden of the Hesperides, with its golden fruit.


title: Garden of Eden

text: The word "paradise" entered English from the French , inherited from the Latin , from the Greek (). The Greek, in turn, was derived from an Old Iranian form, itself from the Proto-Iranian "*parādaiĵah-", "walled enclosure", which was derived from the Old Persian (p-r-d-y-d-a-m, , whence from the Avestan , . The literal meaning of this word is "walled (enclosure)", from "pairi-" 'around' (cognate with the Greek and the English "peri-", of identical meaning), and "-diz", "to make, form (a wall), build" (cognate with the Greek , 'wall'). The word's etymology is ultimately derived from a PIE root, , "to stick and set up (a wall)", and , "around".


title: Garden of Eden

text: By the 6th/5th century BCE, the Old Iranian word had been borrowed into the Akkadian language as , "domain". It subsequently came to indicate the expansive walled gardens of the First Persian Empire, and was subsequently borrowed into a number of languages; into Greek as (), "park for animals", in "Anabasis", the most famous work of the early 4th century BCE Athenian Xenophon; into Aramaic as , "royal park"; and into Hebrew as pardes (), "orchard", appearing thrice in the Tanakh: in the Song of Solomon (4:13), Ecclesiastes (2:5) and Nehemiah (2:8).


title: Garden of Eden

text: In the Septuagint (3rd–1st centuries BCE), the Greek () used to translate both the Hebrew () and (), meaning "garden" (e.g. (Genesis 2:8, Ezekiel 28:13): it is from this usage that the use of "paradise" to refer to the Garden of Eden derives. The same usage also appears in Arabic and in the Quran as .


title: Garden of Eden

text: The idea of a walled enclosure was not preserved in most Iranian usage, and generally came to refer to a plantation or other cultivated area, not necessarily walled. For example, the Old Iranian word survives as in New Persian, as well as its derivative (or ), which denotes a vegetable patch.


title: Garden of Eden

text: The word occurs three times in the Hebrew Bible, but always in contexts other than a connection with Eden: in the Song of Solomon 4:13: "Thy plants are an orchard () of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard"; Ecclesiastes 2:5: "I made me gardens and orchards (), and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits"; and in Nehemiah 2:8: "And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's orchard (), that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city." In these examples, clearly means "orchard" or "park", but in the apocalyptic literature and in the Talmud "paradise" gains its associations with the Garden of Eden and its heavenly prototype, and in the New Testament "paradise" becomes the realm of the blessed (as opposed to the realm of the cursed) among those who have already died, with literary Hellenistic influences.


title: Garden of Eden

text: In the Talmud and the Jewish Kabbalah, the scholars agree that there are two types of spiritual places called "Garden in Eden". The first is rather terrestrial, of abundant fertility and luxuriant vegetation, known as the "lower Eden" ( meaning garden). The second is envisioned as being celestial, the habitation of righteous, Jewish and non-Jewish, immortal souls, known as the "higher Eden". The rabbis differentiate between and Eden. Adam is said to have dwelt only in the , whereas Eden is said never to be witnessed by any mortal eye.


title: Garden of Eden

text: According to Jewish eschatology, the higher Eden is called the "Garden of Righteousness". It has been created since the beginning of the world, and will appear gloriously at the end of time. The righteous dwelling there will enjoy the sight of the heavenly carrying the throne of God. Each of the righteous will walk with God, who will lead them in a dance. Its Jewish and non-Jewish inhabitants are "clothed with garments of light and eternal life, and eat of the tree of life" (Enoch 58,3) near to God and his anointed ones. This Jewish rabbinical concept of a higher Eden is opposed by the Hebrew terms and , figurative names for the place of spiritual purification for the wicked dead in Judaism, a place envisioned as being at the greatest possible distance from heaven.


title: Garden of Eden

text: In modern Jewish eschatology it is believed that history will complete itself and the ultimate destination will be when all mankind returns to the Garden of Eden.


title: Garden of Eden

text: In the 1909 book "Legends of the Jews", Louis Ginzberg compiled Jewish legends found in rabbinic literature. Among the legends are ones about the two Gardens of Eden. Beyond Paradise is the higher Eden, where God is enthroned and explains the Torah to its inhabitants. The higher Eden contains three hundred and ten worlds and is divided into seven compartments. The compartments are not described, though it is implied that each compartment is greater than the previous one and is joined based on one's merit. The first compartment is for Jewish martyrs, the second for those who drowned, the third for "Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai and his disciples," the fourth for those whom the cloud of glory carried off, the fifth for penitents, the sixth for youths who have never sinned; and the seventh for the poor who lived decently and studied the Torah.


title: Garden of Eden

text: In chapter two, "Legends of the Jews" gives a brief description of the lower Eden. The tree of knowledge is a hedge around the tree of life, which is so vast that "it would take a man five hundred years to traverse a distance equal to the diameter of the trunk". From beneath the trees flow all the world's waters in the form of four rivers: Tigris, Nile, Euphrates, and Ganges. After the fall of man, the world was no longer irrigated by this water. While in the garden, though, Adam and Eve were served meat dishes by angels and the animals of the world understood human language, respected mankind as God's image, and feared Adam and Eve. When one dies, one's soul must pass through the lower Eden in order to reach the higher Eden. The way to the garden is the Cave of Machpelah that Adam guards. The cave leads to the gate of the garden, guarded by a cherub with a flaming sword. If a soul is unworthy of entering, the sword annihilates it. Within the garden is a pillar of fire and smoke that extends to the higher Eden, which the soul must climb in order to reach the higher Eden.


title: Garden of Eden

text: The term ("Gardens of Eden" or "Gardens of Perpetual Residence") is used in the Quran for the destination of the righteous. There are several mentions of "the Garden" in the Quran, while the Garden of Eden, without the word , is commonly the fourth layer of the Islamic heaven and not necessarily thought as the dwelling place of Adam. The Quran refers frequently over various Surah about the first abode of Adam and Hawwa (Eve), including surat Sad, which features 18 verses on the subject (38:71–88), surat al-Baqara, surat al-A'raf, and surat al-Hijr although sometimes without mentioning the location. The narrative mainly surrounds the resulting expulsion of Hawwa and Adam after they were tempted by Iblis (Satan). Despite the biblical account, the Quran mentions only one tree in Eden, the tree of immortality, from which God specifically forbade Adam and Eve. Some exegesis added an account, about Satan, disguised as a serpent to enter the Garden, repeatedly told Adam to eat from the tree, and eventually both Adam and Eve did so, resulting in disobeying God. These stories are also featured in the hadith collections, including al-Tabari.


title: Garden of Eden

text: Quranic verses Q.2:35-8, are believed to tell the story of Adam disobeying God’s command and eating the Forbidden Fruit, and of God ordered him out of the Garden. One translation (the Clear Quran) that indicates that the Garden of Eden was in Heaven goes:


title: Garden of Eden

text: Quranic verses describe Adam was being expelled from "al-Jannah", "the garden", which is the commonly used word for paradise in Islam. However, according to Ibn Kathir (d. 1372) and Ar-Razi (d. 1209), (exegetes of the Quran), four interpretations of the location of the garden prevailed among early Muslims:


title: Garden of Eden

text: According to one T.O. Shanavas however, contextual analysis of Quranic verses suggests the Garden of Eden could not have been in Paradise and must have been on earth. (For example a sahih hadith reports Muhammad said: “Allah says: I have prepared for my righteous servants that which has neither been seen by eyes, nor heard by ears, nor ever conceived by any man.” i.e. no man has ever seen Paradise. Since Adam was a man, he could not have seen paradise, therefore he could not have lived there.)


title: Garden of Eden

text: Islamic exegesis does not regard Adam and Eve's expulsion from paradise as punishment for disobedience or a result from abused free will on their part. Instead, ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1292-1350) writes, God's wisdom ("ḥikma") destined humanity to leave the garden and settle on earth. This is because God wants to unfold the full range of his attributes. If humans were not to live on earth, God couldn't express his love, forgiveness, and power to his creation. Further, if humans were not to experience suffering, they could neither long for paradise nor appreciate its delights. Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (1006–1088) describes Adam and Eve's expulsion as ultimately caused by God. Nonetheless, despite the paradoxical notion that man has no choice but to comply to God's will, this does not mean that humans should not blame themselves for their "sin" of complying. This is exemplified by Adam and Eve in the Quran (Q.7:23 “Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves. If You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will certainly be losers”), in contrast to Iblis (Satan) who blames God for leading him astray (Q.15:37).


title: Garden of Eden

text: Followers of the Latter Day Saint movement believe that after Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden they resided in a place known as Adam-ondi-Ahman, located in present-day Daviess County, Missouri. It is recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants that Adam blessed his posterity there and that he will return to that place at the time of the final judgement in fulfillment of a prophecy set forth in the Bible.


title: Garden of Eden

text: Numerous early leaders of the Church, including Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and George Q. Cannon, taught that the Garden of Eden itself was located in nearby Jackson County, but there are no surviving first-hand accounts of that doctrine being taught by Joseph Smith himself. LDS doctrine is unclear as to the exact location of the Garden of Eden, but tradition among Latter-Day Saints places it somewhere in the vicinity of Adam-ondi-Ahman, or in Jackson County.


title: Garden of Eden

text: The 2nd-century Gnostic teacher Justin held that there were three original divinities, a transcendental being called the Good, an intermediate male figure known as Elohim and Eden who is an Earth-mother. The world is created from the love of Elohim and Eden, but evil later is brought into the universe when Elohim learns of the existence of the Good above him and ascends trying to reach it.


title: Garden of Eden

text: One of oldest depictions of Garden of Eden is made in Byzantine style in Ravenna, while the city was still under Byzantine control. A preserved blue mosaic is part of the mausoleum of Galla Placidia. Circular motifs represent flowers of the garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden motifs most frequently portrayed in illuminated manuscripts and paintings are the "Sleep of Adam" ("Creation of Eve"), the "Temptation of Eve" by the Serpent, the "Fall of Man" where Adam takes the fruit, and the "Expulsion". The idyll of "Naming Day in Eden" was less often depicted. Michelangelo depicted at the Garden of Eden on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.


title: Garden of Eden

text: For many medieval writers, the image of the Garden of Eden also creates a location for human love and sexuality, often associated with the classic and medieval trope of the locus amoenus.


title: Garden of Eden

text: In the "Divine Comedy", Dante Alighieri places the Garden at the top of Mt. Purgatory. Dante, the pilgrim, emerges into the Garden of Eden in Canto 28 of "Purgatorio". Here he is told that God gave the Garden of Eden to man "in earnest, or as a pledge of eternal life," but man was only able to dwell there for a short time because he soon fell from grace. In the poem, the Garden of Eden is both human and divine: while it is located on earth at the top of Mt. Purgatory, it also serves as the gateway to the heavens.


title: Garden of Eden

text: The first act of Arthur Miller's 1972 play "Creation of the World and Other Business" is set in the Garden of Eden.


title: Nithya Menen

text: Nithya Menen (born 8 April 1988) is an Indian actress and singer who has acted in more than 50 feature films and in six different languages: Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, English, and Telugu.In her acting career, Nithya has won three Filmfare Awards South, two Nandi Awards and two South Indian International Movie Awards.


title: Nithya Menen

text: Nithya Menen appeared first on-screen as a child, when she was ten, in the English film, "Hanuman" (1998), playing the younger sister to Tabu's character. She started her acting career at the age of 17 by appearing in a supporting role in the Kannada film "7 O' Clock", which was released in 2006. She has played leading roles in Malayalam in "Aakasha Gopuram" (2008), in Telugu in "Ala Modalaindi" (2011), in Tamil with "Nootrenbadhu" (2011), and in Hindi in "Mission Mangal" (2019).


title: Nithya Menen

text: Nithya Menen was born on 8 April 1988 in Bangalore to Malayali parents settled in Karnataka. Menen cannot read or write Malayalam and identifies herself as a Kannadiga. She was educated at Poorna Prajna School and Mount Carmel College, Bangalore.


title: Nithya Menen

text: She has said that she initially wished to become a journalist, but ultimately found journalism unappealing, so she pivoted to filmmaking, and enrolled in a cinematography course at the Film and Television Institute of India at Pune. During the school's entrance exam, she met B. V. Nandini Reddy, who convinced Menen to take up acting.


title: Nithya Menen

text: As a child, Nithya had acted in a French-Indian English film named "Hanuman", at the age of 10, playing younger sister to Tabu's character.


title: Nithya Menen

text: In 2006, Menen started her acting career in a supporting role with the Kannada film "7 O' Clock" directed by cinematographer Santosh Rai Pataje. The 2008 off-beat film "Aakasha Gopuram", directed by National Film Award-winning director K. P. Kumaran, marked her Malayalam debut in a leading role in which she was paired with Mohanlal. She was in the midst of her 12th class exams when she was offered the role, after Mohanlal had spotted her on the front cover of a tourism magazine, Stark World Kerala. Her performance was well received, with critics writing that she shows "sparkle in her debut venture" and "makes her entry in an impressive role", though the film, based on the Norwegian play "The Master Builder", got mixed reviews and was a financial failure. She next made a comeback into Kannada films with the super hit film "Josh". She played a supporting role in the film, which received rave reviews, and became a commercial success as well, with her performance garnering her a nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category at the 57th Filmfare Awards South. In 2010, she starred in the Malayalam film, Apoorvaragam where she plays Nancy, a young girl who gets involved with two male students (Nishan and Asif Ali) who are later discovered to be con-artists. The film received mixed to negative reviews, but became a hit at the box office.


title: Nithya Menen

text: In 2011, her first release was Nandini Reddy's romantic comedy "Ala Modalaindi", which was Menen's maiden Telugu venture as well. The film opened to favourable reviews by critics and turned out to become a sleeper hit, while Menen received critical praise for her performance. "Idlebrain"s Jeevi in his review cited that she "epitomized Nitya character with her fabulous performance", "looks beautiful in all kinds of dresses" and was "the best debut in recent years of Telugu cinema after Samantha in "YMC"", while another critic wrote that she was a "charming find" and "...quite the Genelia replacement that our cinema so badly needs right now." She eventually won the Nandi Award for Best Actress for her performance and received a nomination for Filmfare Award for Best Actress at the 59th Filmfare Awards South. Further more, she also sang two songs for the soundtrack album of the film, tuned by Kalyani Malik. Nandini Reddy, later, went on to describe Menen as "the discovery of the decade". Following "Ala Modalaindi", she starred in Santosh Sivan's historical fiction "Urumi" as part of an ensemble cast. She portrayed a Chirakkal princess named Bala, playing the love interest of Prabhu Deva's character, which gained positive remarks, with a Sify review claiming that she "looks pretty and is a scene stealer". Menen quoted that much of her character was based on "Santosh's perception of who I am", with Sivan stating that he had written that role for her and that only she could play it. She received a nomination for Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 59th Filmfare Awards South She next appeared in ad-filmmaker Jayendra's bilingual venture "Nootrenbadhu", which was made and released in Tamil and Telugu(as "180"), in which she played a photo journalist named Vidya. She described the character as "bubbly, full of life, nosey, wide-eyed and innocent in life" and to be similar to herself. Later the year, she was seen in Sibi Malayil's "Violin" in Malayalam and the Gautham Vasudev Menon-produced "Veppam" in Tamil. She also featured in V. K. Prakash's Kannada anthology film Aidondla Aidu where she played a young bride who is obsessed with making payasam for her new husband much to his chagrin. She had sung and also choreographed one of the songs, titled "Payasa".


title: Nithya Menen

text: Menen's first 2012 release was the Telugu romance film "Ishq" with Nitin Reddy. She received the CineMAA Award for Best Actress (jury) while receiving best actress nomination at the same event and at the SIIMA Awards. She was later seen in 5 Malayalam films: "Karmayogi", V. K. Prakash's Malayalam adaptation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" co-starring Indrajith Sukumaran, "Poppins", the Malayalam remake of "Aidondla Aidu" in which she reprised her role from the original and sang the Malayalam version of "Payasa", T. K. Rajeev Kumar's "Thalsamayam Oru Penkutty", in which she portrayed a village woman whose daily life is filmed and broadcast as a reality show for a month, Amal Neerad's "Bachelor Party" in which she played Asif Ali's wife and young mother to their baby and "Ustad Hotel" directed by Anwar Rasheed where she paired up for the first time with Dulquer Salmaan.


title: Nithya Menen

text: In 2013, she starred in three Telugu films, "Okkadine", "Jabardasth" and "Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde" and one Kannada movie Mynaa. She played a character with two shades in "Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde" and she dubbed for herself as well as for the character of her co-star Isha Talwar. For this movie, she received her first Filmfare Award for Best Telugu Actress at the 61st Filmfare Awards South. Her Kannada film "Mynaa" which won the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Kannada in which she plays a character of a physically challenged girl, became very successful completing 100 days in many centers across Karnataka and her performance was well praised by the critics. She also sang the female version of "Modele Maleyante" which was well received. In 2014, she made a cameo in the Malayalam movie "Bangalore Days", which became the highest grosser of that year.


title: Nithya Menen

text: In 2015, Menen starred in numerous films which gave her more critical and commercial recognition. In the beginning of the year, she paired up with Sharwanand for the Telugu movie, "Malli Malli Idi Rani Roju", a love story between a Muslim girl and a Hindu boy which is tragically separated by fate. Her performance as Nazeera, the young Muslim student in love who later becomes a successful businesswoman in Malaysia was well praised by the critics eventually receiving her Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress South, Nandi Special Jury Award and also receiving her second nomination at Filmfare. With this Menen became the first Telugu actress ever to win Critics Award & the Best Actress Award at Filmfare. She did minor roles in the films "S/O Satyamurthy" directed by Trivikram Srinivas, "Kanchana 2" directed by and starring Raghava Lawrence and "Rudhramadevi" where she shared scenes with Anushka Shetty. She appeared opposite "Dulquer Salmaan" in two films in 2015, "100 Days of Love", a romantic Malayalam film and "OK Kanmani", a Tamil film directed by Mani Ratnam which explored a live-in relationship between a male video game designer and a female architectural student. Dulquer and Menen's on-screen chemistry was praised in the reviews of both films. For OK Kanmani, she received near universal acclaim for her role as Tara and garnered her first Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Actress nomination.


title: Nithya Menen

text: In 2016, Menen starred in three Tamil films. Beginning the year was "24" where she was paired opposite Suriya for the first time. The film was opened to high critical acclaim, with critics praising her screen presence and garnered her a Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress – Tamil nomination at 64th Filmfare Awards South. She played the main heroine in K. S. Ravikumar's bilingual project titled "Kotigobba 2" opposite Sudeep. Towards the end of the year, she starred alongside Vikram and Nayanthara in a science-fiction thriller "Iru Mugan" where she had a limited screen presence. In Telugu, she starred in two films, "Okka Ammayi Thappa" opposite Sundeep Kishan and "Janatha Garage" opposite Jr. NTR.


title: Nithya Menen

text: In 2017, her only release was a Tamil film "Mersal" opposite Vijay, where she was praised for her role as a tough yet supportive wife and garnered her a Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress – Tamil at 65th Filmfare Awards South.


title: Nithya Menen

text: In 2018, Menen's first release was Nani's Production venture, an anthology psychological thriller "Awe", where she became the first mainstream South Indian actress to play a LGBTQ character who is a psychologist. In the film, she and Eesha Rebba portray a lesbian couple who try to get the latter's parents to approve their relationship. The film opened to unanimous critical acclaim with her performance garnering much praise.


title: Nithya Menen

text: She reunited with V. K. Prakash after "Karmayogi", "Aidondla Aidu" and its remake "Poppins" in the experimental film "Praana" which also marks her comeback to Malayalam industry after 2015's romantic flick "100 Days of Love". She plays an English writer named Tara Anuradha who battles intolerance in society and is the sole actor in the film.


title: Nithya Menen

text: In 2020, she starred alongside Udhayanidhi Stalin and Aditi Rao Hydari in Mysskin's "Psycho", where she played Kamala Das, a bitter, foul-mouthed quadriplegic ex-police officer who helps nab a psychopathic serial killer. She also made her OTT debut in the Amazon Prime series "" alongside Abhishek Bachchan and Amit Sadh which received mixed to negative reviews, however she was praised for her role as a desperate mother. She received her first nomination for 'Best Actor, Series (Female): Drama' at the Filmfare OTT Awards.


title: Nithya Menen

text: In 2021, Menen starred in "Ninnila Ninnila", written and directed by Ani Sasi, co-starring Ashok Selvan and Ritu Varma where she played Maya, a childlike, adventurous girl who tragically dies in an accident, but whose spirit is still alive in the main protagonist's mind. She made her producer debut in "Skylab" where she played a rebellious and outspoken daughter of a zamindar in a village near Karimnagar who seeks to discover her identity as a writer.


title: Nithya Menen

text: In 2022, Menen starred in Bheemla Nayak opposite Pawan Kalyan, where she was praised by critics for portraying the powerful role as Nayak wife and the movie grossed over 160 cr at box office. Later she shared screen with Revathi in "Modern Love Hyderabad" which explores the estranged relationship (due to an interfaith marriage) between a mother and daughter where Menen performance as Noori Hussain was highly praised. Later she appeared in romantic drama film "Thiruchitrambalam" opposite Dhanush as his childhood best friend Shobana where a review from The News Minute complimented her performance. Nithya got 2-3 offers to act with Dhanush before this film, including for "Aadukalam" but she couldn't do that because of other reasons. Dhanush also planned to direct a movie in 2018 which would have Nithya collaborating with him, but again that project didn't materialize. While writing the script for Thiruchtrambalam Dhanush had Nithya in mind for the lead role. The film became a critical and commercial success at the box office and grossed over 100 cr.


title: Purple Heart

text: The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, which took the form of a heart made of purple cloth, the Purple Heart is the oldest military award still given to U.S. military members. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located in New Windsor, New York.


title: Purple Heart

text: The original Purple Heart, designated as the Badge of Military Merit, was established by George Washington – then the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army – by order from his Newburgh, New York headquarters on 7 August 1782. The Badge of Military Merit was only awarded to three Revolutionary War soldiers by Washington himself. Washington authorized his subordinate officers to issue Badges of Merit as appropriate. Although never abolished, the award of the badge was not proposed again officially until after World War I.


title: Purple Heart

text: On 10 October 1927, Army Chief of Staff General Charles Pelot Summerall directed that a draft bill be sent to Congress "to revive the Badge of Military Merit". The bill was withdrawn and action on the case ceased on 3 January 1928, but the office of the Adjutant General was instructed to file all materials collected for possible future use. A number of private interests sought to have the medal re-instituted in the Army; this included the board of directors of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum in Ticonderoga, New York.


title: Purple Heart

text: On 7 January 1931, Summerall's successor, General Douglas MacArthur, confidentially reopened work on a new design, involving the Washington Commission of Fine Arts. Elizabeth Will, an Army heraldic specialist in the Office of the Quartermaster General, was named to redesign the newly revived medal, which became known as the Purple Heart. Using general specifications provided to her, Will created the design sketch for the present medal of the Purple Heart. The new design, which exhibits a bust and profile of George Washington, was issued on the bicentennial of Washington's birth.


title: Purple Heart

text: The Commission of Fine Arts solicited plaster models from three leading sculptors for the medal, selecting that of John R. Sinnock of the Philadelphia Mint in May 1931. By Executive Order of the President of the United States, the Purple Heart was revived on the 200th Anniversary of George Washington's birth, out of respect to his memory and military achievements, by War Department , dated 22 February 1932.


title: Purple Heart

text: The criteria were announced in a War Department circular dated 22 February 1932, and authorized award to soldiers, upon their request, who had been awarded the Meritorious Service Citation Certificate, Army Wound Ribbon, or were authorized to wear Wound Chevrons subsequent to 5 April 1917, the day before the United States entered World War I. The first Purple Heart was awarded to MacArthur. During the early period of American involvement in World War II (8 December 1941 – 22 September 1943), the Purple Heart was awarded both for wounds received in action against the enemy and for meritorious performance of duty. With the establishment of the Legion of Merit, by an Act of Congress, the practice of awarding the Purple Heart for meritorious service was discontinued. By , dated 3 December 1942, the decoration was applied to all services; the order required reasonable uniform application of the regulations for each of the Services. This executive order also authorized the award only for wounds received. For both military and civilian personnel during the World War II era, to meet eligibility for the Purple Heart, AR 600–45, dated 22 September 1943, and 3 May 1944, required identification of circumstances.


title: Purple Heart

text: After the award was re-authorized in 1932 some U.S. Army wounded from conflicts prior to the First World War applied for, and were awarded, the Purple Heart: "...veterans of the Civil War and Indian Wars, as well as the Spanish–American War, China Relief Expedition (Boxer Rebellion), and Philippine Insurrection also were awarded the Purple Heart. This is because the original regulations governing the award of the Purple Heart, published by the Army in 1932, provided that any soldier who had been wounded in any conflict involving U.S. Army personnel might apply for the new medal. There were but two requirements: the applicant had to be alive at the time of application (no posthumous awards were permitted) and he had to prove that he had received a wound that necessitated treatment by a medical officer."


title: Purple Heart

text: Subject to the approval of the Secretary of Defense, , dated 12 February 1952, revised authorizations to include the Service Secretaries. Dated 25 April 1962, , included provisions for the posthumous award of the Purple Heart. Dated 23 February 1984, , authorized award of the Purple Heart as a result of terrorist attacks, or while serving as part of a peacekeeping force, subsequent to 28 March 1973.


title: Purple Heart

text: On 13 June 1985, the Senate approved an amendment to the 1985 Defense Authorization Bill, which changed the precedence of the Purple Heart award, from immediately above the Good Conduct Medal to immediately above the Meritorious Service Medals. Public Law 99-145 authorized the award for wounds received as a result of friendly fire. Public Law 104-106 expanded the eligibility date, authorizing the award of the Purple Heart to a former prisoner of war who was wounded after 25 April 1962. The National Defense Authorization Act for the Fiscal Year 1998 (Public Law 105-85) changed the criteria to delete authorization for the award of the Purple Heart to any non-military U.S. national serving under competent authority in any capacity with the Armed Forces. This change was effective 18 May 1998.


title: Purple Heart

text: During World War II, 1,506,000 Purple Heart medals were manufactured, many in anticipation of the estimated casualties resulting from the planned Allied invasion of Japan. By the end of the war, even accounting for medals lost, stolen, or wasted, nearly 500,000 remained. To the present date, the total combined American military casualties of the seventy years following the end of World War II—including the Korean and Vietnam Wars—have not exceeded that number. In 2000, there remained 120,000 Purple Heart medals in stock. The existing surplus allowed combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan to keep Purple Hearts on hand for immediate award to soldiers wounded in the field.


title: Purple Heart

text: The Purple Heart is awarded in the name of the President of the United States to any member of the Armed Forces of the United States who, while serving under competent authority in any capacity with one of the U.S. Armed Services after 5 April 1917, has been wounded or killed. Specific examples of services which warrant the Purple Heart includes:


title: Purple Heart

text: The two letters c) and e) were added by on 25 April 1962, as U.S. service personnel were being sent to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War as military advisors rather than combatants. As many were being killed or wounded while serving in that capacity in South Vietnam, and because the United States was not formally a participant of the war (until 1965), there was no "enemy" to satisfy the requirement of a wound or death received "in action against an enemy". In response, President John F. Kennedy signed the executive order that awarded to any person wounded or killed "while serving with friendly foreign forces" or "as a result of action by a hostile foreign force".


title: Purple Heart

text: After 28 March 1973, it may be awarded as a result of an international terrorist attack against the United States or a foreign nation friendly to the United States, recognized as such an attack by the Secretary of the Army, or jointly by the Secretaries of the separate armed services concerned if persons from more than one service are wounded in the attack. Also, it may be awarded as a result of military operations while serving outside the territory of the United States as part of a peacekeeping force.


title: Purple Heart

text: The Purple Heart differs from most other decorations in that an individual is not "recommended" for the decoration; rather he or she is entitled to it upon meeting specific criteria. A Purple Heart is awarded for the first wound suffered under conditions indicated above, but for each subsequent award an oak leaf cluster or 5/16 inch star is worn in lieu of another medal. Not more than one award will be made for more than one wound or injury received at the same instant.


title: Purple Heart

text: A "wound" is defined as an injury to any part of the body from an outside force or agent sustained under one or more of the conditions listed above. A physical lesion is not required; however, the wound for which the award is made must have required treatment by a medical officer and records of medical treatment for wounds or injuries received in action must have been made a matter of official record. When contemplating an award of this decoration, the key issue that commanders must take into consideration is the degree to which the enemy caused the injury. The fact that the proposed recipient was participating in direct or indirect combat operations is a necessary prerequisite, but is not sole justification for award. The Purple Heart is not awarded for non-combat injuries.


title: Purple Heart

text: Enemy-related injuries which "justify" the award of the Purple Heart include: injury caused by enemy bullet, shrapnel, or other projectile created by enemy action; injury caused by enemy placed land mine, naval mine, or trap; injury caused by enemy released chemical, biological, or nuclear agent; injury caused by vehicle or aircraft accident resulting from enemy fire; and, concussion injuries caused as a result of enemy generated explosions.


title: Purple Heart

text: Injuries or wounds which "do not qualify" for award of the Purple Heart include frostbite or trench foot injuries; heat stroke; food poisoning not caused by enemy agents; chemical, biological, or nuclear agents not released by the enemy; battle fatigue; disease not directly caused by enemy agents; accidents, to include explosive, aircraft, vehicular, and other accidental wounding not related to or caused by enemy action; self-inflicted wounds (e.g., a soldier accidentally or intentionally fires their own gun and the bullet strikes his or her leg), except when in the heat of battle, and not involving gross negligence; post-traumatic stress disorders; and jump injuries not caused by enemy action.


title: Purple Heart

text: It is not intended that such a strict interpretation of the requirement for the wound or injury to be caused by direct result of hostile action be taken that it would preclude the award being made to deserving personnel. Commanders must also take into consideration the circumstances surrounding an injury, even if it appears to meet the criteria. In the case of an individual injured while making a parachute landing from an aircraft that had been brought down by enemy fire; or, an individual injured as a result of a vehicle accident caused by enemy fire, the decision will be made in favor of the individual and the award will be made. As well, individuals wounded or killed as a result of "friendly fire" in the "heat of battle" will be awarded the Purple Heart as long as the "friendly" projectile or agent was released with the full intent of inflicting damage or destroying enemy troops or equipment. Individuals injured as a result of their own negligence, such as by driving or walking through an unauthorized area known to have been mined or placed off limits or searching for or picking up unexploded munitions as war souvenirs, will not be awarded the Purple Heart as they clearly were not injured as a result of enemy action, but rather by their own negligence.


title: Purple Heart

text: Animals are generally not eligible for the Purple Heart; however, there have been rare instances when animals holding military rank were honored with the award. An example includes the horse Sergeant Reckless during the Korean War.


title: Purple Heart

text: From 1942 to 1997, non-military personnel serving or closely affiliated with the armed forces—as government employees, Red Cross workers, war correspondents, and the like—were eligible to receive the Purple Heart whether in peacetime or armed conflicts. Among the earliest to receive the award were nine Honolulu Fire Department (HFD) firefighters killed or wounded in peacetime while fighting fires at Hickam Field during the attack on Pearl Harbor. About 100 men and women received the award, the most famous being newspaperman Ernie Pyle who was awarded a Purple Heart posthumously by the Army after being killed by Japanese machine gun fire in the Pacific Theater, near the end of World War II. Before his death, Pyle had seen and experienced combat in the European Theater, while accompanying and writing about infantrymen for the folks back home. Those serving in the Merchant Marine are not eligible for the award. During World War II, members of this service who met the Purple Heart criteria received a Merchant Marine Mariner's Medal instead.


title: Purple Heart

text: The most recent Purple Hearts presented to non-military personnel occurred after the terrorist attacks at Khobar Towers, Saudi Arabia, in 1996—for their injuries, about 40 U.S. civil service employees received the award.


title: Purple Heart

text: However, in 1997, at the urging of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Congress passed legislation prohibiting future awards of the Purple Heart to non-military personnel. Civilian employees of the U.S. Department of Defense who are killed or wounded as a result of hostile action may receive the new Defense of Freedom Medal. This award was created shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.


title: Purple Heart

text: The Purple Heart award is a heart-shaped medal within a gold border, wide, containing a profile of General George Washington. Above the heart appears a shield of the coat of arms of George Washington (a white shield with two red bars and three red stars in chief) between sprays of green leaves. The reverse consists of a raised bronze heart with the words below the coat of arms and leaves.


title: Purple Heart

text: The ribbon is wide and consists of the following stripes: white 67101; purple 67115; and white 67101.


title: Purple Heart

text: Additional awards of the Purple Heart are denoted by oak leaf clusters in the Army, Air Force, and Space Force, and additional awards of the Purple Heart Medal are denoted by inch stars in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.


title: Purple Heart

text: Current active duty personnel are awarded the Purple Heart upon recommendation from their chain of command, stating the injury that was received and the action in which the service member was wounded. The award authority for the Purple Heart is normally at the level of an Army Brigade, Marine Corps Division, Air Force Wing, or Navy Task Force. While the award of the Purple Heart is considered automatic for all wounds received in combat, each award presentation must still be reviewed to ensure that the wounds received were as a result of enemy action. Modern day Purple Heart presentations are recorded in both hardcopy and electronic service records. The annotation of the Purple Heart is denoted both with the service member's parent command and at the headquarters of the military service department. An original citation and award certificate are presented to the service member and filed in the field service record.


title: Purple Heart

text: During the Vietnam War, Korean War, and World War II, the Purple Heart was often awarded on the spot, with occasional entries made into service records. In addition, during mass demobilizations following each of America's major wars of the 20th century, it was common occurrence to omit mention from service records of a Purple Heart award. This occurred due to clerical errors, and became problematic once a service record was closed upon discharge. In terms of keeping accurate records, it was commonplace for some field commanders to engage in bedside presentations of the Purple Heart. This typically entailed a general entering a hospital with a box of Purple Hearts, pinning them on the pillows of wounded service members, then departing with no official records kept of the visit, or the award of the Purple Heart. Service members, themselves, complicated matters by unofficially leaving hospitals, hastily returning to their units to rejoin battle so as not to appear a malingerer. In such cases, even if a service member had received actual wounds in combat, both the award of the Purple Heart, as well as the entire visit to the hospital, was unrecorded in official records.


title: Purple Heart

text: Service members requesting retroactive awards of the Purple Heart must normally apply through the National Personnel Records Center. Following a review of service records, qualified Army members are awarded the Purple Heart by the U.S. Army Human Resources Command in Fort Knox, Kentucky. Air Force veterans are awarded the Purple Heart by the Awards Office of Randolph Air Force Base, while Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, present Purple Hearts to veterans through the Navy Liaison Officer at the National Personnel Records Center. Simple clerical errors, where a Purple Heart is denoted in military records, but was simply omitted from a WD AGO Form 53-55 (predecessor to the) DD Form 214 (Report of Separation), are corrected on site at the National Personnel Records Center through issuance of a DD-215 document.


title: Styx (band)

text: Styx () is an American rock band from Chicago that formed in 1972 and is best known for melding hard rock guitar balanced with acoustic guitar, synthesizers mixed with acoustic piano, upbeat tracks with power ballads, and incorporating elements of international musical theatre. The band established itself with a progressive rock sound in the 1970s, and began to incorporate pop rock and soft rock elements in the 1980s.


title: Styx (band)

text: Beginning with "Styx" in 1972, the band usually released an album every year throughout the 1970s. "Styx II" (1973) had the sleeper hit "Lady", a power ballad which reached No. 6 in the US, helping the album make the top 20. "Lady" was also a top 20 hit in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. "Equinox" (1975) and "Crystal Ball" (1976) reached the US top 70 with the first featuring "Lorelei", a No. 6 hit in Canada, while the latter marked the addition of Tommy Shaw to the band.


title: Styx (band)

text: Styx's commercial breakthrough in North America came with "The Grand Illusion" (1977), which peaked at No. 6 in both the US and Canada, and became the first of four straight multi-platinum albums in the US for Styx. It featured the single "Come Sail Away", a top 10 hit in both countries. The band's follow-up, "Pieces of Eight" (1978), was another No. 6 hit in the US, but peaked higher in Canada due to the top 10 hits "Renegade" and "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)". In 1979, Styx's "Cornerstone" went to No. 2 in both countries on the strength of the cross-border No. 1 hit ballad "Babe". The album became their breakthrough album in Australia and New Zealand, reaching the top 20, with "Babe" peaking at No. 3. "Babe" was a No. 6 hit in the UK, their first and only top 40 hit there, leading "Cornerstone" to be their first album to chart there (at No. 36).


title: Styx (band)

text: In 1981, Styx's "Paradise Theatre" was a No. 1 album in the US and Canada, while also reaching the top 10 in Scandinavia and the UK (their biggest album there) and the top 30 in Australia and New Zealand. "The Best of Times" from the album reached No. 1 in Canada, No. 3 in the US, and the top 30 in several other countries, while "Too Much Time on My Hands" was also a top 10 hit in North America. "Kilroy Was Here" (1983) was Styx's last major hit album, reaching the top 3 in North America and the top 10 in Scandinavia, although it was less successful elsewhere. Its lead single, "Mr. Roboto", became Styx's third chart-topper in Canada, was a No. 3 hit in the US, and was their biggest hit in Germany (No. 8). After a seven-year break, Styx returned with "Edge of the Century" (1990), which reached No. 63 in the US with its single, "Show Me the Way", becoming a top 3 hit in North America in early 1991.


title: Styx (band)

text: Overall, Styx had eight songs that hit the top 10 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, as well as 16 top 40 singles. Seven of their eight top 10 singles were written and sung by founding member and lead singer Dennis DeYoung, who has not been part of the band since 1999. Styx sold over 20 million records for A&M between their signing in 1976 and 1984.


title: Styx (band)

text: In August 1961, at 12 years of age, twin brothers Chuck (bass) and John Panozzo (drums) first played music together with their 14-year-old neighbor Dennis DeYoung who played accordion and sang, while living in the Roseland, Chicago area, eventually using the band name The Tradewinds. Chuck left to attend seminary for a year but returned to the group by 1964. Tom Nardini had been brought in to replace Chuck Panozzo on guitar, so he decided to play bass guitar when he returned to the band. John Panozzo was the drummer, while DeYoung had switched from accordion to keyboards. In 1965, the Tradewinds name was changed to TW4 (There Were 4) after another band, the Trade Winds, achieved fame nationally. By 1966, the Panozzo brothers had joined DeYoung at Chicago State College and kept the group together by performing at high schools and fraternity parties while studying to be teachers. In 1969 they added a college friend, folk guitarist John Curulewski, after Nardini departed. Hard rock guitarist James "J.Y." Young came aboard in 1970, making TW4 a quintet.


title: Styx (band)

text: In 1972 the band members decided to choose a new name when they signed to Wooden Nickel Records after being spotted by a talent scout at a concert at St. John of the Cross Parish in Western Springs, Illinois (Young's hometown). Several suggestions were made and, according to DeYoung, the name Styx was chosen because it was "the only one that none of us hated."


title: Styx (band)

text: The band released four albums with Wooden Nickel: "Styx" (1972), "Styx II" (1973), "The Serpent Is Rising" (1973), and "Man of Miracles" (1974). These albums contained straight-ahead rockers mixed with prog rock flourish with a lot of guitars, drums, keyboards, percussion, and vocal solos. They established a fan base in the Chicago area, but were unable to break into the mainstream, though the song "Best Thing" from "Styx" charted on September 16, 1972, and stayed on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart for 6 weeks, peaking at No. 82. Then, the power ballad "Lady" (from "Styx II"), began to earn some radio time, first on WLS in Chicago in 1974 and then nationwide. In the spring of 1975, nearly two years after the album had been released, "Lady" hit No. 6 in the US, and "Styx II" went gold soon after. "Lady" is considered by many classic rock critics as being the first power ballad with Dennis DeYoung being referred to as the "father of the power ballad". With the success of "Lady," a follow up single on Styx II, "You Need Love", was re-released, but only barely cracked the hot 100.


title: Styx (band)

text: On the heels of its belated hit single, Styx signed with A&M Records and released "Equinox" (1975), which sold well and yielded a minor hit in "Lorelei", which reached No. 27 in the U.S. More importantly, it contained the rock anthem "Suite Madame Blue", which gained the band considerable recognition and airplay on FM radio in the relatively new Album Oriented Rock (AOR) format. Following the move to A&M, guitarist John Curulewski suddenly left the band as they were to embark on a nationwide tour in December 1975, due to his desire to spend time with his family. After a frantic last-minute search, the band brought in guitarist Tommy Shaw as Curulewski's replacement.


title: Styx (band)

text: "Crystal Ball" (1976), the first album to feature Shaw, was moderately successful, but was overall a disappointment, failing to achieve the sales of its predecessor. The album showcased the band's newest member, as Shaw's "Mademoiselle" was another minor hit, reaching No. 36, and the album's title track, also written and sung by Shaw became another minor AOR hit.


title: Styx (band)

text: Styx's seventh album, "The Grand Illusion", was released on July 7, 1977, and became their breakthrough album, reaching Triple Platinum certification. It spawned a top-ten hit and AOR radio staple in the DeYoung-written "Come Sail Away", which reached No. 8 in 1978. Shaw's "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)" was a second radio hit and reached No. 29 the same year. The title track also received significant airplay.


title: Styx (band)

text: Through the late 1970s and early 1980s, the band enjoyed its greatest success. Their 1978 album "Pieces of Eight" found the group moving in a more straight-ahead hard-rock direction and spawned three Shaw sung hit singles "Renegade" (No. 16 in the US) and "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" (No. 21 in the US), plus a minor hit "Sing for the Day" that stopped just short of the Top Forty at No. 41.


title: Styx (band)

text: Their 1979 album "Cornerstone" yielded their first No. 1 hit, the DeYoung ballad "Babe". By early 1980, "Babe" had become the band's biggest international hit and first million-selling single, reaching No. 6 in the United Kingdom. The album also included the No. 26 DeYoung hits upbeat "Why Me" and the rocker "Borrowed Time", which was co-written with Shaw, plus Shaw's folksy "Boat on the River" (1980), which was a hit in much of Europe and Japan. The popularity of the album, which reached No. 2 on the "Billboard" 200, helped win the band a People's Choice Award for Best New Song in 1980. At the 22nd Grammy Awards, Styx was a nominee for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group and "Cornerstone"'s engineers Gary Loizzo and Rob Kingsland were nominated for a Grammy for Best Engineered Recording. The band was also named the most popular rock band in the U.S. in the 1980 year end Gallup Poll.


title: Styx (band)

text: With the success of "Babe," DeYoung's push for a more mainstream direction gained momentum, while Shaw and Young favored a more rock oriented approach. This arguing over musical direction led to ongoing tension in early 1980 after Shaw objected to the ballad "First Time" being released as the second single from "Cornerstone". Although the song was generating substantial airplay in some major markets, A&M pulled the plug on the single's official release, replacing it with "Why Me". The argument resulted in DeYoung being briefly fired. However, things were quickly smoothed over. While “First Time” did not chart in the U.S. (because it wasn't released), it became a huge hit single in the Philippines in 1981. In January 1981, Styx released "Paradise Theatre", a concept album that became their biggest hit, reaching No. 1 on the "Billboard" pop albums chart and yielding five singles, including the top ten hits "The Best of Times" by DeYoung (No. 3 Billboard, No. 1 Radio & Records) and "Too Much Time on My Hands" by Shaw (No. 9), his only top 10 single as a member of the band. "Paradise Theatre" became the band's fourth consecutive multi-platinum album. Based on yet another Dennis DeYoung concept, the Paradise Theatre was a historic Chicago theatre that had been built in the 20s only to fall on hard times and close a mere 30 years after it opened. DeYoung used the Paradise as a metaphor for the United States in the late 1970s/early 80s.


title: Styx (band)

text: An ambitious year long world tour commenced in 1981 in support of the album and was one of the top grossing tours of the year. The tour had numerous Broadway and movie infused elements, including a dramatic opening featuring a theatre sweep and DeYoung by himself next to a player piano and the show ending with traditional movie credits. Throughout the tour and throughout the 1980s and beyond, the band would open their shows with "Rockin' the Paradise", the opening track from "Paradise Theatre" which charted at No. 8 on the Top Rocks Track Chart and whose music video would be among the first to air on the MTV cable channel.


title: Styx (band)

text: The band was accused by a California religious group and later the Parents Music Resource Center of backmasking Satanic messages in their anti-cocaine anthem, "Snowblind". James "JY" Young has denied this charge during his introduction for "Snowblind" when played live. Dennis DeYoung has denied the accusation as well, joking on the "In the Studio with Redbeard" program "we had enough trouble to make the music sound right forward." Also, Young quotes, "If we were going to put some message in our songs, we would have put it so it was in the song forward. Not so you would have to buy some $400 tape recorder to hear it."


title: Styx (band)

text: The band continued to follow DeYoung's lead with their next project, "Kilroy Was Here" (1983), another more fully realized concept album, embracing the rock opera form. It is set in a future where performing and playing rock music has been outlawed due to the efforts of a charismatic evangelist, Dr. Everett Righteous, played by James "JY" Young. "Kilroy Was Here" featured DeYoung in the part of Kilroy, an unjustly imprisoned rock star. Tommy Shaw played the part of Jonathan Chance, a younger rocker who fights for Kilroy's freedom and the lifting of the ban on rock music. This future society is served by robots. Called Robotos, these automatons perform many jobs and several serve as Kilroy's prison guards.


title: Styx (band)

text: Part of the impetus for the Kilroy story was the band's reaction to the backmasking accusation. The album included Young's song "Heavy Metal Poisoning", which includes lyrics sarcastically mocking the allegations against the group. Its introduction intentionally included a backward message, the Latin phrases, "annuit coeptis" and "novus ordo seclorum", from the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States. Referring to the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776, these are translated, ""Annuit cœptis" - He (God) favors our undertakings, and "Novus ordo seclorum" - A new order of the ages." Both choices also served the Kilroy story because the villain is an evangelist that seeks to expand his Vision of Morality movement via mass demonstrations.


title: Styx (band)

text: The album "Kilroy Was Here" went Platinum in 1983, boasting two Top Ten hits written and sung by DeYoung, the synthesizer-based "Mr. Roboto" (No. 3 US) and power ballad "Don't Let It End" (No. 6 US). The album earned a nomination as Best Engineered Recording for engineer and long-time friend Gary Loizzo and fellow engineers on the album Will Rascati and Rob Kingsland, for the 26th Grammy Awards (1983).


title: Styx (band)

text: In 1983, the band mounted an ambitious stage show in support of "Kilroy Was Here" featuring theatrical presentations of three songs utilizing instrumental backing tracks, including "Mr. Roboto", which featured DeYoung singing live while disguised as a Roboto, "Heavy Metal Poisoning" with Young as the evangelist Dr. Righteous singing while the Panozzo brothers acted as his henchmen on stage and "Haven't We Been Here Before" with Shaw as Jonathan Chance and DeYoung (as Kilroy in Roboto costume) duetting. The elaborate show was expensive to produce and was not as profitable as previous tours.


title: Styx (band)

text: "Kilroy Was Here" brought the creative and competitive tensions within the band beyond the breaking point; this was further exacerbated following the band's performance at that year's Texxas Jam. Shaw departed the band for a solo career at the conclusion of the tour. In 1984, the band released its first live album, "Caught in the Act". The project featured one studio track, "Music Time", which became a Top 40 hit. The concert was also filmed and released on VHS under the same title (and on DVD in 2007). By the time of the album's release, they had already parted ways.


title: Styx (band)

text: Styx reformed in 1990, bringing in Glen Burtnik as a new guitarist since Shaw was by then committed to Damn Yankees.


title: Styx (band)

text: The new line-up released one album, "Edge of the Century", featuring the Dennis DeYoung ballad "Show Me the Way", which received an additional boost just prior to the first Persian Gulf War. Some radio stations edited the Top Three hit to include the voices of children, whose parents were deployed in Saudi Arabia between 1990 and 1991. The song went all the way to No. 3 on both the Hot 100 and at Adult Contemporary radio and notably remained in the top 40 for 23 weeks and AC for 31 weeks. With the huge success of the song "Show Me the Way", Styx joined a handful of musical acts to have top 10 singles in three decades and under four different presidential administrations.


title: Styx (band)

text: A follow-up single, “Love At First Sight", peaked at No. 25 on the Hot 100 and No. 13 on the Adult Contemporary chart.


title: Styx (band)

text: Styx toured across the US in the spring and summer of 1991 but their success was short-lived as they were dropped after A&M Records was purchased by PolyGram Records, ending an over-fifteen-year relationship. The popularity of Grunge was a major factor in PolyGram letting the band go.


title: Styx (band)

text: A set of demos titled "Son of Edge" were completed and shown to other record labels. But with grunge now dominating the rock press, video channels, and airwaves, and with singles from pop/rock bands being phased out, there was little interest from major record companies and by fall 1991, Styx disbanded once again.


title: Styx (band)

text: The band reunited once again in 1995, with guitarist Tommy Shaw returning to the fold to re-record "Lady" for "Styx Greatest Hits". Session drummer Todd Sucherman filled in for John Panozzo, who was unable to participate due to liver problems caused by years of excessive drinking, which eventually claimed his life the following year on July 16.


title: Styx (band)

text: The 1996 "Return to Paradise" tour, with Sucherman as a full member, was successful. The reunion tour was documented with a two-disc live set, 1997's "Return to Paradise", which featured three new studio tracks: "On My Way", "Paradise" (a soft rock ballad that also appears in another version on Dennis DeYoung's 1996 "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" album), and "Dear John", a tribute to the late Panozzo that has become a cult favorite among Styx fans. Later on, the concert was documented on DVD. The "Return to Paradise" album was a surprise success in 1997, achieving gold status and the single “Paradise” briefly charting on the Adult Contemporary chart at No. 27. Following the release of the album, Styx embarked on another tour, this one to mark the 20th anniversary of "The Grand Illusion".


title: Styx (band)

text: Two years later, in 1999, the band released its first new studio album in almost a decade: "Brave New World". The album received a lukewarm reception and sold very poorly while the single, "Everything Is Cool", failed to chart.


title: Styx (band)

text: Once again, during work on the album, personality conflicts drove the band members apart. While Tommy Shaw's material attempted to bring the band into the next century and JY's songs attempted to convey a hard rock vein, Dennis DeYoung's more pop and Broadway-style leanings led to divergent sounds on "Brave New World". According to DeYoung, another crucial difference was that he was not the overall producer on the album.


title: Styx (band)

text: Arguments over which songs to release as singles, the album's artwork, track sequencing, the slow album sales and the omission of DeYoung's vocals and keyboards from many of the Shaw-Young tracks fueled the fire. The band was further hindered by a viral illness DeYoung contracted, which temporarily made his eyes sensitive to light. DeYoung asked his bandmates to delay touring but they refused, deciding to go forward without him. DeYoung was replaced by Lawrence Gowan, a classically trained pianist, who had achieved platinum success as a solo act on Sony Canada. Gowan's song "A Criminal Mind" was incorporated into their tour set list and was still performed into the 2010s.


title: Styx (band)

text: Bassist Chuck Panozzo was sidelined in 1999 due to health problems related to his battle with HIV/AIDS. His public "coming out" occurred in 2001 at the annual Human Rights Campaign banquet, with James "JY" Young in attendance for support.


title: Styx (band)

text: On June 6, 1999, the group reunited briefly to perform for the Children's Miracle Network Telethon as DeYoung's final performance with the band. Glen Burtnik filled in for Chuck Panozzo on bass.


title: Styx (band)

text: On June 9, 2000 Styx made an appearance with REO Speedwagon at the Riverport Amphitheatre. A 2-CD recording of the concert was released as "", with one disc of each band's set and both discs concluding with performances of the two bands collaborating on jam versions of Styx's "Blue Collar Man" and REO's "Roll with the Changes". Each band also released their set as a separate album, with additional tracks: Styx's version was "".


title: Styx (band)

text: With Chuck Panozzo concentrating on his health problems, Glen Burtnik returned to Styx in 1999 to fill in for him on bass as Panozzo participated on a part-time basis, sitting in as his health permitted.


title: Styx (band)

text: Styx's new lineup released several live albums and released the studio album "Cyclorama" in February 2003, which reached No. 127 on the "Billboard" 200 album charts. A single "Waiting for Our Time" hit No. 37 on the "Billboard" mainstream rock chart for 1 week. Styx toured extensively during this period and released additional live albums. Styx also was part of the Super Bowl pre game entertainment in San Diego prior to the Oakland Raiders vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They played a short set in the parking lot, as well as on the field right before the game, playing Queen's "We Are the Champions".


title: Styx (band)

text: Burtnik left Styx in September 2003, to spend time with his family and to pursue a solo career and release the album "Welcome to Hollywood". He was replaced by Ricky Phillips, formerly of the Babys and Bad English. Panozzo continues to play bass for some shows with Phillips on rhythm guitar, while Phillips continues as a stand in bassist for Panozzo during shows without him. Burtnik would go on to join up with DeYoung for numerous tour dates over the next several years.


title: Styx (band)

text: On June 5, 2004, Styx participated in Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival covering songs by Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, and Slim Harpo with Jeff Baxter as a special guest.


title: Styx (band)

text: In 2005, Styx released an album of cover tunes, "Big Bang Theory", which reached the "Billboard" Top 50 on the album charts, their highest charting album since 1990. Their version of the Beatles song "I Am the Walrus" received some radio play, and a video was made for the song, which was subsequently featured in their live shows. Still, the album had a short life on the charts and failed to make much of a dent.


title: Styx (band)

text: As of April 21, 2006, according to the RIAA, which awards artists and groups gold/platinum status, Styx ranks number 127 with 17.5 million records sold within the United States. The blurb on Amazon.com about Panozzo's book "The Grand Illusion: Love, Lies, and My Life with Styx" states that Styx has sold over 54 million albums.


title: Styx (band)

text: On February 21, 2010, the current incarnation of the band performed before the Sprint Cup Auto Club 500 In Fontana, California. In a North American tour beginning in May 2010, Styx was a co-headliner of United in Rock with Foreigner and special guests Kansas. In July 2010, Styx announced the forthcoming release of "", a new release featuring six re-recorded hits and a new song entitled "Difference in the World". This coincided with "The Grand Illusion / Pieces of Eight Tour", on which both albums were played in their entirety.


title: Styx (band)

text: In November 2010, Styx announced that they would be filming their concert in Memphis on November 9 for a DVD. They also announced that they'd be touring the UK with Journey and Foreigner for five dates in June 2011. The landmark concert was recorded at the historic Orpheum Theater, where Styx performed both of their classic albums, 1977's "The Grand Illusion" and 1978's "Pieces of Eight".


title: Styx (band)

text: In early April 2011, it was announced that Styx would join up with Yes for a "Progressive US Tour" that began on July 4, 2011. On December 15, 2011, they participated in the figure skating show Improv-Ice, which was broadcast on television January 15, 2012. On January 26, 2013, the Palladia Channel premiered the concert filmed in November 2010. On November 22, 2013, they announced a benefit concert with REO Speedwagon titled "Rock to the Rescue" to raise money for the affected families of the tornado in central Illinois.


title: Styx (band)

text: The summer of 2014 found the band back on the road in a new touring package called "Soundtrack of Summer", with Foreigner and ex-Eagle Don Felder. Styx's 2015 summer tour saw them re-uniting with Def Leppard. Along with Tesla, the groups played outdoor venues across the United States. In 2016, Styx announced a series of performances to be held at the Venetian in Las Vegas in early 2017 with Felder.