title: Rob Corddry

text: Corddry has appeared in a "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode entitled "The Seder" as a sex offender who moves into Larry David's neighborhood. He also appeared in two episodes of Fox's "Arrested Development" as Moses Taylor, an actor who plays "Frank Wrench", an obsessively by-the-books detective on a fictional television series "Wrench". Corddry has also done some voice work as Gordon the animated Devil on Cartoon Network's "Weighty Decisions" (alongside fellow "Daily Show" correspondent Ed Helms). He also appeared in a commercial for Cartoon Network's "Ed, Edd n Eddy" series and a 2001 promotional ad as an anger management therapist to the Townsville Villains of the cartoon series "The Powerpuff Girls".


title: Rob Corddry

text: Corddry's voice appears in the History Channel production World War II in HD. He is the voice of World War II soldier and jazz musician Roscoe "Rockie" Blunt.


title: Rob Corddry

text: Corddry wrote, directed, and starred in the web series "Childrens Hospital" for The WB on its online network at TheWB.com. After talks fell through with Comedy Central, Turner's Adult Swim picked up the series and began airing new episodes August 22, 2010.


title: Rob Corddry

text: On March 29, 2010, he was a co-guest host of WWE Raw with fellow cast member Clark Duke from "Hot Tub Time Machine".


title: Rob Corddry

text: Corddry played an important role in proliferating Justin Halpern's Twitter account "Shit My Dad Says". An early enthusiast of the quotes made by Halpern's father, Rob tweeted a link to Shit My Dad Says which "jump-started" the phenomenon, helping expose Halpern's Twitter feed to a larger audience.


title: Rob Corddry

text: Corddry also has starred in three commercials for the Holiday Inn in both 2010 and 2011. He appeared in three episodes of "Community" playing a lawyer, Alan Connor, an old acquaintance of Jeff Winger, who is also a lawyer.


title: Rob Corddry

text: In August 2011, Corddry appeared on episode 29 of the podcast "Back to Work", distributed by the 5by5 podcast network, where he was interviewed by Merlin Mann about his writing and acting career.


title: Rob Corddry

text: In 2012, Corddry began a recurring role on the third season of "Happy Endings", playing "The Car Czar", Jane's new boss at the car dealership. He also had a recurring role on the short-lived FOX series "Ben and Kate", as Buddy, the boorish owner of the bar where Kate and BJ work, also BJ's on-and-off boyfriend.


title: Rob Corddry

text: As recently as October 2013, Rob appeared again as a recurring guest on "The Jason Ellis Show". A talk show featured exclusively on SiriusXm Satellite Radio, Corddry accepted an invitation to host his own show airing on the soon to be launched "Jason Ellis Channel".


title: Rob Corddry

text: He was the subject the episode #16, titled "Rob," of the podcast "Heavyweight" by Jonathan Goldstein.


title: Rob Corddry

text: On December 3, 2019, it was revealed that Corddry would be a host of the revived "Top Gear America", which debuted on Motor Trend in January 2021.


title: Rob Corddry

text: In 2009, Corddry was nominated for a Streamy Award Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series for "Children's Hospital"; in 2011, it won Best Sketch/Alternative Comedy in the first annual Comedy Awards.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) than they are to shelled nautiloids such as the living "Nautilus" species. The earliest ammonites appeared during the Devonian, with the last species vanishing during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Ammonites are excellent index fossils, and linking the rock layer in which a particular species or genus is found to specific geologic time periods is often possible. Their fossil shells usually take the form of planispirals, although some helically spiraled and nonspiraled forms (known as heteromorphs) have been found.


title: Ammonoidea

text: The name "ammonite", from which the scientific term is derived, was inspired by the spiral shape of their fossilized shells, which somewhat resemble tightly coiled rams' horns. Pliny the Elder ( 79 AD near Pompeii) called fossils of these animals ("horns of Ammon") because the Egyptian god Ammon (Amun) was typically depicted wearing rams' horns. Often, the name of an ammonite genus ends in -"ceras", which is from () meaning "horn".


title: Ammonoidea

text: Ammonites (subclass Ammonoidea) can be distinguished by their septa, the dividing walls that separate the chambers in the phragmocone, by the nature of their sutures where the septa join the outer shell wall, and in general by their siphuncles.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Ammonoid septa characteristically have bulges and indentations and are to varying degrees convex when seen from the front, distinguishing them from nautiloid septa, which are typically simple concave, dish-shaped structures. The topology of the septa, especially around the rim, results in the various suture patterns found.


title: Ammonoidea

text: While nearly all nautiloids show gently curving sutures, the ammonoid suture line (the intersection of the septum with the outer shell) is variably folded, forming saddles ("peaks" that point towards the aperture) and lobes ("valleys" which point away from the aperture). The suture line has four main regions. The external or ventral region refers to sutures along the lower (outer) edge of the shell, where the left and right suture lines meet. The external saddle lies directly on the lower midline of the shell and is edged by external lobes. On suture diagrams the external saddle is supplied with an arrow which typically points towards the aperture. The lateral region involves the first saddle and lobe pair past the external region as the suture line extends up the side of the shell. Additional lobes developing towards the inner edge of a whorl are labelled umbilical lobes, which increase in number through ammonoid evolution as well as an individual ammonoid's development. Lobes and saddles which are so far towards the center of the whorl that they are covered up by succeeding whorls are labelled internal lobes and saddles. Three major types of suture patterns are found in the Ammonoidea:


title: Ammonoidea

text: The siphuncle in most ammonoids is a narrow tubular structure that runs along the shell's outer rim, known as the venter, connecting the chambers of the phragmocone to the body or living chamber. This distinguishes them from living nautiloides ("Nautilus" and "Allonautilus") and typical Nautilida, in which the siphuncle runs through the center of each chamber. However the very earliest nautiloids from the Late Cambrian and Ordovician typically had ventral siphuncles like ammonites, although often proportionally larger and more internally structured. The word "siphuncle" comes from the New Latin "siphunculus", meaning "little siphon".


title: Ammonoidea

text: Originating from within the bactritoid nautiloids, the ammonoid cephalopods first appeared in the Devonian ("circa" 409 million years ago (Mya)) and became extinct shortly after Cretaceous (66 Mya). The classification of ammonoids is based in part on the ornamentation and structure of the septa comprising their shells' gas chambers.


title: Ammonoidea

text: The Ammonoidea can be divided into six orders, listed here starting with the most primitive and going to the more derived:


title: Ammonoidea

text: In some classifications, these are left as suborders, included in only three orders: Goniatitida, Ceratitida and Ammonitida.


title: Ammonoidea

text: The "Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology" (Part L, 1957) divides the Ammonoidea, regarded simply as an order, into eight suborders, the Anarcestina, Clymeniina, Goniatitina and Prolecanitina from the Paleozoic; the Ceratitina from the Triassic; and the Ammonitina, Lytoceratina and Phylloceratina from the Jurassic and Cretaceous. In subsequent taxonomies, these are sometimes regarded as orders within the subclass Ammonoidea.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Because ammonites and their close relatives are extinct, little is known about their way of life. Their soft body parts are very rarely preserved in any detail. Nonetheless, much has been worked out by examining ammonoid shells and by using models of these shells in water tanks.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Many ammonoids probably lived in the open water of ancient seas, rather than at the sea bottom, because their fossils are often found in rocks laid down under conditions where no bottom-dwelling life is found. Many of them (such as "Oxynoticeras") are thought to have been good swimmers, with flattened, discus-shaped, streamlined shells, although some ammonoids were less effective swimmers and were likely to have been slow-swimming bottom-dwellers. Synchrotron analysis of an aptychophoran ammonite revealed remains of isopod and mollusc larvae in its buccal cavity, indicating at least this kind of ammonite fed on plankton. They may have avoided predation by squirting ink, much like modern cephalopods; ink is occasionally preserved in fossil specimens.


title: Ammonoidea

text: The soft body of the creature occupied the largest segments of the shell at the end of the coil. The smaller earlier segments were walled off and the animal could maintain its buoyancy by filling them with gas. Thus, the smaller sections of the coil would have floated above the larger sections.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Many ammonite shells have been found with round holes once interpreted as a result of limpets attaching themselves to the shells. However, the triangular formation of the holes, their size and shape, and their presence on both sides of the shells, corresponding to the upper and lower jaws, is more likely evidence of the bite of a medium-sized mosasaur preying upon ammonites.


title: Ammonoidea

text: The chambered part of the ammonite shell is called a phragmocone. It contains a series of progressively larger chambers, called camerae (sing. camera) that are divided by thin walls called septa (sing. septum). Only the last and largest chamber, the body chamber, was occupied by the living animal at any given moment. As it grew, it added newer and larger chambers to the open end of the coil. Where the outer whorl of an ammonite shell largely covers the preceding whorls, the specimen is said to be "involute" (e.g., "Anahoplites"). Where it does not cover those preceding, the specimen is said to be "evolute" (e.g., "Dactylioceras").


title: Ammonoidea

text: A thin living tube called a siphuncle passed through the septa, extending from the ammonite's body into the empty shell chambers. Through a hyperosmotic active transport process, the ammonite emptied water out of these shell chambers. This enabled it to control the buoyancy of the shell and thereby rise or descend in the water column.


title: Ammonoidea

text: A primary difference between ammonites and nautiloids is the siphuncle of ammonites (excepting Clymeniina) runs along the ventral periphery of the septa and camerae (i.e., the inner surface of the outer axis of the shell), while the siphuncle of nautiloids runs more or less through the center of the septa and camerae.


title: Ammonoidea

text: One feature found in shells of the modern "Nautilus" is the variation in the shape and size of the shell according to the sex of the animal, the shell of the male being slightly smaller and wider than that of the female. This sexual dimorphism is thought to be an explanation for the variation in size of certain ammonite shells of the same species, the larger shell (the macroconch) being female, and the smaller shell (the microconch) being male. This is thought to be because the female required a larger body size for egg production. A good example of this sexual variation is found in "Bifericeras" from the early part of the Jurassic period of Europe.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Only recently has sexual variation in the shells of ammonites been recognized. The macroconch and microconch of one species were often previously mistaken for two closely related but different species occurring in the same rocks. However, because the dimorphic sizes are so consistently found together, they are more likely an example of sexual dimorphism within the same species.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Whorl width in the body chamber of many groups of ammonites, as expressed by the width:diameter ratio, is another sign of dimorphism. This character has been used to separate "male" (Largiventer conch "L") from "female" (Leviventer conch "l").


title: Ammonoidea

text: The majority of ammonite species feature planispiral, flat-coiled shells, but other species feature nearly straight (as in baculites) shells. Still other species' shells are coiled helically, similar in appearance to some gastropods (e.g., "Turrilites" and "Bostrychoceras"). Some species' shells are even initially uncoiled, then partially coiled, and finally straight at maturity (as in "Australiceras"). These partially uncoiled and totally uncoiled forms began to diversify mainly during the early part of the Cretaceous and are known as heteromorphs.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Perhaps the most extreme and bizarre-looking example of a heteromorph is "Nipponites", which appears to be a tangle of irregular whorls lacking any obvious symmetric coiling. Upon closer inspection, though, the shell proves to be a three-dimensional network of connected "U" shapes. "" occurs in rocks of the upper part of the Cretaceous in Japan and the United States.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Ammonites vary greatly in the ornamentation (surface relief) of their shells. Some may be smooth and relatively featureless, except for growth lines, and resemble that of the modern "Nautilus". In others, various patterns of spiral ridges and ribs or even spines are shown. This type of ornamentation of the shell is especially evident in the later ammonites of the Cretaceous.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Some ammonites have been found in association with a single horny plate or a pair of calcitic plates. In the past, these plates were assumed to serve in closing the opening of the shell in much the same way as an operculum, but more recently they are postulated to have been a jaw apparatus.


title: Ammonoidea

text: The plates are collectively termed the aptychus or aptychi in the case of a pair of plates, and anaptychus in the case of a single plate. The paired aptychi were symmetric to one another and equal in size and appearance.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Anaptychi are relatively rare as fossils. They are found representing ammonites from the Devonian period through those of the Cretaceous period.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Calcified aptychi only occur in ammonites from the Mesozoic era. They are almost always found detached from the shell, and are only very rarely preserved in place. Still, sufficient numbers have been found closing the apertures of fossil ammonite shells as to leave no doubt as to their identity as part of the anatomy of an ammonite.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Large numbers of detached aptychi occur in certain beds of rock (such as those from the Mesozoic in the Alps). These rocks are usually accumulated at great depths. The modern "Nautilus" lacks any calcitic plate for closing its shell, and only one extinct nautiloid genus is known to have borne anything similar. "Nautilus" does, however, have a leathery head shield (the hood) which it uses to cover the opening when it retreats inside.


title: Ammonoidea

text: There are many forms of aptychus, varying in shape and the sculpture of the inner and outer surfaces, but because they are so rarely found in position within the shell of the ammonite it is often unclear to which species of ammonite one kind of aptychus belongs. A number of aptychi have been given their own genus and even species names independent of their unknown owners' genus and species, pending future discovery of verified occurrences within ammonite shells.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Although ammonites do occur in exceptional lagerstatten such as the Solnhofen Limestone, their soft-part record is surprisingly bleak. Beyond a tentative ink sac and possible digestive organs, no soft parts were known until 2021. They likely bore a radula and beak, a marginal siphuncle and ten arms. They operated by direct development with sexual reproduction, were carnivorous, and had a crop for food storage. They are unlikely to have dwelt in fresh or brackish water. Many ammonites were likely filter feeders, so adaptations associated with this lifestyle like sieves probably occurred.


title: Ammonoidea

text: A 2021 study found ammonite specimens with preserved hook-like suckers, providing a general shape to ammonite tentacles. A contemporary study found an ammonite isolated body, offering for the first time a glimpse into these animals' organs.


title: Ammonoidea

text: The smallest ammonoid was "Maximites" from the Upper Carboniferous. Adult specimens reached only in shell diameter. Few of the ammonites occurring in the lower and middle part of the Jurassic period reached a size exceeding in diameter. Much larger forms are found in the later rocks of the upper part of the Jurassic and the lower part of the Cretaceous, such as "Titanites" from the Portland Stone of Jurassic of southern England, which is often in diameter, and "Parapuzosia seppenradensis" of the Cretaceous period of Germany, which is one of the largest-known ammonites, sometimes reaching in diameter. The largest-documented North American ammonite is "Parapuzosia bradyi" from the Cretaceous, with specimens measuring in diameter.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Starting from the mid-Devonian, ammonoids were extremely abundant, especially as ammonites during the Mesozoic era. Many genera evolved and ran their course quickly, becoming extinct in a few million years. Due to their rapid evolution and widespread distribution, ammonoids are used by geologists and paleontologists for biostratigraphy. They are excellent index fossils, and it is often possible to link the rock layer in which they are found to specific geologic time periods.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Due to their free-swimming and/or free-floating habits, ammonites often happened to live directly above seafloor waters so poor in oxygen as to prevent the establishment of animal life on the seafloor. When upon death the ammonites fell to this seafloor and were gradually buried in accumulating sediment, bacterial decomposition of these corpses often tipped the delicate balance of local redox conditions sufficiently to lower the local solubility of minerals dissolved in the seawater, notably phosphates and carbonates. The resulting spontaneous concentric precipitation of minerals around a fossil, a concretion, is responsible for the outstanding preservation of many ammonite fossils.


title: Ammonoidea

text: When ammonites are found in clays, their original mother-of-pearl coating is often preserved. This type of preservation is found in ammonites such as "Hoplites" from the Cretaceous Gault clay of Folkestone in Kent, England.


title: Ammonoidea

text: The Cretaceous Pierre Shale formation of the United States and Canada is well known for the abundant ammonite fauna it yields, including "Baculites", "Placenticeras", "Scaphites", "Hoploscaphites" and "Jeletzkytes", as well as many uncoiled forms. Many of these also have much or all of the original shell, as well as the complete body chamber, still intact. Many Pierre Shale ammonites, and indeed many ammonites throughout earth history, are found inside concretions.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Other fossils, such as many found in Madagascar and Alberta, Canada display iridescence. These iridescent ammonites are often of gem quality (ammolite) when polished. In no case would this iridescence have been visible during the animal's life; additional shell layers covered it.


title: Ammonoidea

text: The majority of ammonoid specimens, especially those of the Paleozoic era, are preserved only as internal molds; the outer shell (composed of aragonite) has been lost during the fossilization process. Only in these internal-mould specimens can the suture lines be observed; in life, the sutures would have been hidden by the outer shell.


title: Ammonoidea

text: The ammonoids as a group continued through several major extinction events, although often only a few species survived. Each time, however, this handful of species diversified into a multitude of forms. Ammonite fossils became less abundant during the latter part of the Mesozoic, and although they seemingly survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, all known Paleocene ammonite lineages are restricted to the Paleocene epoch (65–61 Ma).


title: Ammonoidea

text: Goniatites, which were a dominant component of Early and Middle Permian faunas, became rare in the Late Permian, and no goniatite is thought to have crossed into the Triassic.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Ceratitida originated during the Middle Permian, likely from the Daraelitidae, and radiated in the Late Permian. In the aftermath of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, Ceratitids represent the dominant group of Triassic ammonites.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Ammonites were devastated by the end-Triassic extinction, with only a handful of genera belonging to the family Psiloceratidae of the suborder Phylloceratina surviving and becoming ancestral to all later Jurassic and Cretaceous ammonites. Ammonites explosively diversified during the Early Jurassic, with the orders Psiloceratina, Ammonitina, Lytoceratina, Haploceratina, Perisphinctina and Ancyloceratina all appearing during the Jurassic.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Heteromorph ammonites (ammonites with open or non-spiral coiling) of the order Ancyloceratina became common during the Cretaceous period.


title: Ammonoidea

text: At least 57 species of ammonites, which were widespread and belonged to six superfamilies, were extant during the last 500,000 years of the Cretaceous, indicating that ammonites remained highly diverse until the very end of their existence. All ammonites were wiped out during or shortly after the K-Pg extinction event, caused by the Chicxulub impact. It has been suggested that ocean acidification generated by the impact played a key role in their extinction, as the larvae of ammonites were likely small and planktonic, and would have been heavily affected. Nautiloids, exemplified by modern nautiluses, are conversely thought to have had a reproductive strategy in which eggs were laid in smaller batches many times during the lifespan, and on the sea floor well away from any direct effects of such a bolide strike, and thus survived. Many ammonite species were filter feeders, so they might have been particularly susceptible to marine faunal turnovers and climatic change.


title: Ammonoidea

text: In medieval Europe, fossilised ammonites were thought to be petrified coiled snakes, and were called "snakestones" or, more commonly in medieval England, "serpentstones". They were considered to be evidence for the actions of saints, such as Hilda of Whitby, a myth referenced in Sir Walter Scott's "Marmion", and Saint Patrick, and were held to have healing or oracular powers. Traders would occasionally carve the head of a snake onto the empty, wide end of the ammonite fossil, and then sell them as petrified snakes. In other cases, the snake's head would be simply painted on.


title: Ammonoidea

text: Ammonites from the Gandaki River in Nepal are known as saligrams, and are believed by Hindus to be a concrete manifestation of Vishnu.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: Tilman Joseph Fertitta (born 1957) is an American billionaire businessman and television personality. He is the chairman, CEO, and owner of Landry's, Inc. He also owns the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s Houston Rockets. Fertitta is chairman of the board of regents of the University of Houston System.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: As of September 2022, his net worth was estimated at $7.6 billion. He was placed at No. 260 on the Forbes Billionaires List. "Forbes" calls him the "World's Richest Restaurateur".


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: Fertitta became the star of "Billion Dollar Buyer" on CNBC. On September 5, 2017, Fertitta reached an agreement to buy the Houston Rockets for $2.2 billion.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: Tilman Fertitta was born in Galveston, Texas in 1957. He is of Sicilian descent. His father, Vic, owned a seafood restaurant on Galveston Island, and after school, Tilman would peel shrimp in his father's restaurant.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: Fertitta attended Texas Tech University and the University of Houston, studying business administration and hospitality management. His first entrepreneurial experience involved selling and promoting Shaklee vitamins.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: In the 1980s, Fertitta founded and ran a construction and development business, and developed his first major project, the Key Largo Hotel in Galveston.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: Fertitta was a partner in the first Landry's Restaurant, Landry's Seafood, which opened its doors in the Houston suburb of Katy, Texas, in 1980. A year later, he helped open Willie G's Seafood & Steaks, a more upscale restaurant in Uptown Houston.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: In 1986, Fertitta gained controlling interests of both locations, and in 1988, became sole owner of Landry's Restaurants. In 1993, he took Landry's, Inc. public and the company grew quickly, adding concept after concept.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: In 2004, Fertitta was elected to the Texas Business Hall of Fame, becoming the second-youngest Texan to ever earn that distinction, behind only Michael Dell.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: In 2010, Fertitta, who already owned the majority of Landry's, Inc. stock, purchased all outstanding shares, becoming sole owner again. In 1993, the company was valued at approximately $30 million.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: By 2011, the company's value had skyrocketed to a value of more than $1.7 billion. As of 2013, the company, under the leadership of Fertitta, owns and operates more than 500 restaurant/entertainment/gaming/hospitality locations. In total, Landry's, Inc. employs more than 50,000 people and controls $3.2 billion in assets.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: His portfolio includes: The Golden Nugget Hotel and Casinos; Morton's The Steakhouse; Rainforest Cafe; Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.; McCormick & Schmick's Seafood & Steaks; Saltgrass Steak House; Claim Jumper; Chart House; The Oceanaire; Mastro's Restaurants; Grotto Restaurants, The Boathouse Restaurants and Vic & Anthony's Steakhouse. In 2017 he acquired half of


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: Fertitta first built the Key Largo Hotel in Galveston, Texas to buy the rights to Landry's. After acquiring restaurants under the company, Fertitta started focusing more on the hospitality division of Landry's and acquired the San Luis Resort, Spa, & Conference Center in Galveston, Texas. He also partnered with the City of Galveston to build the conference center in 2004 inside the resort. Fertitta since acquired two additional hotels on the island, including the Holiday Inn On the Beach in 2003, and the Hilton Galveston Island Resort in 2004, which stands adjacent to his San Luis Resort. In 2015, Fertitta added the Villas at San Luis section of the hotel, which consists of ultra-luxury villas with direct access to both the beach and the hotel's pool.In June 2022, he was recognized by the International Hospitality Institute on the Global 100 in Hospitality, on a list featuring the 100 Most Powerful People in Global Hospitality.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: Landry's first expanded to casinos in 2005 when it bought Golden Nugget Casinos, including locations in Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nevada. Since then, Landry's has opened casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey; Biloxi, Mississippi; and Lake Charles, Louisiana. The Golden Nugget Atlantic City was previously called the Trump Marina. Fertitta purchased this casino from Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2011.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: The Golden Nugget Lake Charles was bought after Fertitta found a license and resort land for sale from Pinnacle Entertainment, which owns the adjacent L'Auberge du Lac Resort. Fertitta stated he built the casino with the idea of having a casino in close proximity to his Houston hometown. After the first year proved the casino was successful, a new 300 room tower began construction on the property.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: In addition to restaurants, hotels, and casinos, Landry's also owns amusement parks, aquariums, and the Kemah Boardwalk. Landry's, Inc. first acquired the Kemah Boardwalk in 1999. After acquiring the boardwalk, Fertitta added a few Landry's restaurants, and a few rides. In 2007, he added the Boardwalk Bullet which is a high speed wooden roller coaster. He also added the Boardwalk Fanta Sea, which is a luxury yacht cruise service where guests ride along the Galveston Bay.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: The marina on the boardwalk is the largest concentration of boats and yachts in Greater Houston, as well as one of the largest in the nation. The boardwalk also includes an aquarium, which is under the same Landry's line of aquarium restaurants with locations in Houston, Denver, and Nashville. "Travel + Leisure" magazine named the Kemah boardwalk a top 10 American boardwalk.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: In 2000, Landry's acquired the land on the 400 block of Bagby in Downtown Houston. The deal came from a proposal of the City of Houston to redevelop the fire station. After redeveloping the building, the aquarium added the shark tank and restaurant before opening in 2003.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: Fertitta redeveloped the pleasure pier in Galveston, Texas, after the pier had closed after damages by Hurricane Ike. The pier reopened in 2012 as the Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier. The redeveloped pier includes an amusement park, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant, as well as shops.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: During the process of building the Houston Texans as an NFL team, Fertitta was one of the original investors in creating the franchise. He was a partner of Texans owner Bob McNair until 2008 when he had to sell his interest in the franchise because he owns the Golden Nugget casino chain (a Landry's subsidiary) and NFL rules state any staff member of a team cannot be associated with gambling. Both Fertitta and McNair were disappointed, as Fertitta was part of the franchise since its establishment.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: In 2003, Fertitta bought the naming rights to the Crawford Boxes seating section of Minute Maid Park, calling it "Landry's Crawford Boxes". The term has become a commercial moniker during radio and television broadcasts. A Landry's sign is placed above the section, along with many of the company's subsidiaries. Traditionally, when a fan catches a home run, they are awarded a gift certificate to one of Landry's restaurants. Landry's promoters often visit the section and give away items such as T-shirts.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: On September 4, 2017, he agreed to purchase the Rockets from Leslie Alexander, pending league approval, for an NBA record $2.2 billion. On October 6, 2017, Fertitta was approved by the NBA to own the Houston Rockets. Fertitta paid for the Rockets by selling $1.415 billion worth of bonds and was competing with Houston-native singer Beyonce Knowles to purchase the team. By buying the Houston Rockets he also became the owner of Clutch Gaming, a professional eSports organization focused on League of Legends.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: After Fertitta bought the Rockets and Toyota Center in 2017, he expressed interest in an expansion team or relocating an NHL team to Houston, with both options most likely playing at Toyota Center. In 2018, he held preliminary talks with commissioner Gary Bettman to discuss ownership of a team. While he hasn't stated much about potential ownership in recent months, it is speculated he may be working on a deal to purchase the Arizona Coyotes, though this hasn't been confirmed or denied by him.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: Fertitta partnered with Richard Handler and announced a special-purpose acquisition company called Landcadia, a portmanteau of Fertitta's "Landry's" and Handler's "Leucadia". The company plans to raise as much as $300 million in initial public offering.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: On October 4, 2019, the Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey issued a tweet that supported the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests which drew criticism from Fertitta who said that while Morey was the best general manager in the NBA, the Rockets were not a political organization. Morey later deleted the tweet.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: In April 2020, Governor Greg Abbott named Fertitta to the Strike Force to Open Texas – a group "tasked with finding safe and effective ways to slowly reopen the state" during the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: Fertitta is known to support political leaders in both the Republican and Democratic parties. In particular, Fertitta has been a supporter of both Bill Clinton and the Bush family.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: Mark Kelly, a Democrat and current United States Senator from Arizona, is considered to be a very close friend of Fertitta.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: On January 12, 2016, it was announced that Fertitta would star in his own reality TV show titled "Billion Dollar Buyer" on CNBC. Billion Dollar Buyer premiered on March 22, 2016, at 10 P.M. Eastern Time. After receiving success during the first season, a second season was announced, featuring over twice as many episodes.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: On September 17, 2019, Fertitta released a book, "Shut Up and Listen! Hard Business Truths That Will Help You Succeed", in which he details his journey to success and offers advice to other entrepreneurs on their business ventures. Each chapter contains "Tilmanism's" which focus on 6 important rules for any entrepreneur to follow:


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: In 1991 Fertitta married Paige Farwell with whom he has four children, a daughter and three sons. Fertitta is now married to a Houston attorney, Lauren Ware.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: He is third-cousin to former UFC owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta. An avid sports fan, Fertitta is a vocal supporter of the University of Houston Cougars and can be seen at most Cougar football and basketball games as well as court side for Houston Rockets basketball games. In 2016, Fertitta donated $20 million to rebuild the University of Houston's basketball home of Hofheinz Pavilion, since renamed Fertitta Center, along with donations for the construction of TDECU Stadium.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: Fertitta is a close friend of retired NASA astronaut Arizona senator Mark Kelly, and former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: Fertitta is chairman of the board of the Houston Children's Charity. In 2009, Texas Governor Rick Perry appointed Fertitta to the board of regents of the University of Houston System. In 2008, Fertitta was named chairperson of the Houston Police Department's Police Foundation, supplying gear and equipment for Houston Police Officers. He is on the executive committee for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. He is a board member of the Texas Heart Institute, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Greater Houston Partnership.


title: Tilman Fertitta

text: In May 2022, The University of Houston College of Medicine received a $50 million pledge from Fertitta, the school was renamed the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine.


title: High Line

text: The High Line is a elevated linear park, greenway and rail trail created on a former New York Central Railroad spur on the west side of Manhattan in New York City. The High Line's design is a collaboration between James Corner Field Operations, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Piet Oudolf. The abandoned spur has been redesigned as a "living system" drawing from multiple disciplines which include landscape architecture, urban design, and ecology. The High Line was inspired by the long Promenade plantée (tree-lined walkway), a similar project in Paris completed in 1993.


title: High Line

text: The park is built on a disused, southern viaduct section of the New York Central Railroad's West Side Line. Originating in the Meatpacking District, the park runs from Gansevoort Street – three blocks below 14th Street – through Chelsea to the northern edge of the West Side Yard on 34th Street near the Javits Center. The West Side Line formerly extended south to a railroad terminal at Spring Street, just north of Canal Street, and north to 35th Street at the site of the Javits Center. Due to a decline in rail traffic along the rest of the viaduct, it was effectively abandoned in 1980 when the construction of the Javits Center required the demolition of the viaduct's northernmost portion. The southern portion of the viaduct was demolished in segments during the late 20th century.


title: High Line

text: A nonprofit organization called Friends of the High Line was formed in 1999 by Joshua David and Robert Hammond, advocating its preservation and reuse as public open space, an elevated park or greenway. Celebrity New Yorkers joined in on fundraising and support for the concept. The administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced plans for a High Line park in 2003. Repurposing the railway into an urban park began in 2006 and opened in phases during 2009, 2011, and 2014. The Spur, an extension of the High Line that originally connected with the Morgan General Mail Facility at Tenth Avenue and 30th Street, opened on June 4, 2019, as the final part of the park to open.


title: High Line

text: Since opening in June 2009, the High Line has become an icon of American contemporary landscape architecture. The High Line's success has inspired cities throughout the United States to redevelop obsolete infrastructure as public space. The park became a tourist attraction and spurred real estate development in adjacent neighborhoods, increasing real-estate values and prices along the route. By September 2014, the park had nearly five million visitors annually, and by 2019, it had eight million visitors per year.


title: High Line

text: The park extends for from Gansevoort Street to 34th Street. At 30th Street the elevated tracks turn west around the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on 34th Street, As of 2014, it was expected that could be integrated with the Hudson Yards development and the Hudson Park and Boulevard. When the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project's Western Rail Yard is finished in 2018 it will be elevated above the High Line Park, so an exit along the viaduct over the West Side Yard will lead to the Western Rail Yard. The 34th Street entrance is at grade, with wheelchair access.


title: High Line

text: The park is open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in winter, until 10 p.m. in spring and fall, and until 11 p.m. in summer (except for the Interim Walkway west of 11th Avenue, which is open until dusk). It can be reached through eleven entrances, five of which are accessible to people with disabilities. The wheelchair-accessible entrances, each with stairs and an elevator, are at Gansevoort, 14th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th Streets. Additional staircase-only entrances are located at 18th, 20th, 26th, and 28th Streets, and 11th Avenue. Street-level access is available at 34th Street via the Interim Walkway, which runs from 30th Street and 11th Avenue to 34th Street west of 11th Avenue.


title: High Line

text: At the Gansevoort Street end (which runs north–south), the stub over Gansevoort Street is named the Tiffany and Co. Foundation Overlook and was dedicated in July 2012; the foundation was a major supporter of the park. The route then passes under The Standard, High Line hotel and through a passage at 14th Street. At 14th Street, the High Line splits into two sides at different elevations; the Diller-Von Furstenberg Water Feature (opened in 2010) is on the lower side, and a sundeck is on the upper side.


title: High Line

text: The route passes through the west edge of the Chelsea Market (image above), a food hall, at 15th Street. A spur, connecting the viaduct to the National Biscuit Company building and closed to the public, splits off at 16th Street. The railroad tracks on the spur are left in situ but the trackbeds are planted with greenery. The Tenth Avenue Square, an amphitheater on the viaduct, is at 17th Street where the High Line crosses over Tenth Avenue from southeast to northwest. At the 23rd Street Lawn, visitors can rest. Between 25th and 26th Streets a ramp takes visitors above the viaduct, with a scenic overlook facing east at 26th Street. The Philip Falcone and Lisa Maria Falcone Flyover, named after two major donors to the park, was based on plans for a Phase 1 flyover which was never built. Additionally, there was a second separate gravel pathway that separated from the main pathway at around 25th Street that ran on the viaduct below the ramp. The gravel pathway rejoined the main pathway at around 27th Street. The gravel pathway was initially open to the public at the time Phase 2 was completed but was subsequently closed. However, the pathway remains in view of the main pathway.


title: High Line

text: The park then curves west to Phase 3 and merges into the Tenth Avenue Spur, which stretches over 30th Street to Tenth Avenue. The Tenth Avenue Spur is composed of three parts: the Coach Passage, with ceilings; the High Line's largest planted garden; and a plaza with temporary art exhibitions that get replaced every 18 months. Phase 3 has another ramp taking visitors above the viaduct at 11th Avenue and a play area with rail ties and the Pershing Beams (modified, silicone-covered beams and stanchions coming out of the structure), a gathering space with benches, and a set of three railroad tracks where one can walk between the rails. The play area also has a seesaw-like bench and a "chime bench", with keys which make sounds when tapped. The Interim Walkway, from 11th Avenue and 30th Street to 34th Street divides the viaduct into two sides: a gravel walkway and an undeveloped section with rail tracks. The temporary walkway closed for renovation when the Tenth Avenue Spur was completed. The High Line turns north to a point just east of Twelfth Avenue. At 34th Street it curves east and descends, ending at street level midway between 12th and 11th Avenues.


title: High Line

text: , the High Line Moynihan Connector, a walkway from the Tenth Avenue Spur to Moynihan Train Hall at Ninth Avenue, is being developed. The planned spur would run east along 30th Street for one block to Dyer Avenue, using a new structure called the Woodlands Bridge. The walkway would then turn north to 31st Street across the Timber Bridge. It would terminate to a public space within Manhattan West that ends at the west side of Ninth Avenue, directly across from Moynihan Train Hall.


title: High Line

text: The park's attractions include naturalized plantings, inspired by plants which grew on the disused tracks, and views of the city and the Hudson River. The pebble-dash concrete walkways swell and constrict, swing from side to side, and divide into concrete tines which meld the hardscape with plantings embedded in railroad-gravel mulch. "By opening the paving, we allow the plants to bleed through," said landscape architect James Corner, "almost as if the plants were colonizing the paved areas. There's a sort of blending or bleeding or suturing between the hard paving, the surface for people to stroll on, and the planting ... " Stretches of track and ties recall the High Line's former use, and portions of track are re-used for rolling lounges positioned for river views. The 120-species plant palette, curated by Dutch landscape architect Piet Oudolf, includes sturdy meadow plants (such as clump-forming grasses, liatris, and coneflowers) and scattered stands of sumac and smokebush and is not limited to native plants. At the Gansevoort Street end, a grove of mixed species of birch provides shade by late afternoon. Ipê timber for the built-in benches came from a managed forest certified by the Forest Stewardship Council to ensure sustainability and the conservation of biological diversity, water resources, and fragile ecosystems. According to James Corner Field Operations, the High Line's design "is characterized by an intimate choreography of movement."


title: High Line

text: The High Line also has cultural attractions as part of a long-term plan for the park to host temporary installations and performances. Creative Time, Friends of the High Line, and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation commissioned "The River That Flows Both Ways" by Spencer Finch as the inaugural art installation. The work is integrated into the window bays of the former Nabisco factory loading dock as a series of 700 purple and gray glass panes. Each color is calibrated to match the center pixel of 700 digital pictures (one taken every minute) of the Hudson River, making up an extended portrait of the river. Creative Time worked with Finch to realize his site-specific concept after he saw the rusted, disused mullions of the old factory, with metal-and-glass specialists Jaroff Design helping to prepare and reinstall.


title: High Line

text: A summer 2010 sound installation by Stephen Vitiello was composed from bells heard throughout New York. Lauren Ross, former director of the alternative art space White Columns, was the High Line's first curator. During the construction of the second phase (between 20th and 30th Streets) several artworks were installed, including Sarah Sze's "Still Life with Landscape (Model for a Habitat)": a steel-and-wood sculpture near 20th and 21st Streets built as a house for fauna such as birds and butterflies. Kim Beck's "Space Available" was installed on the roofs of three buildings visible from the southern end. Three sculptures, resembling the armature of empty billboards and constructed like theater backdrops, looks three-dimensional from a distance. Also installed during the second phase of construction was Julianne Swartz's "Digital Empathy", a work utilizing audio messages at restrooms, elevators, and water fountains. In 2012-13 the Ghanaian born Nigerian artist El Anatsui's large scale sculpture "Broken Bridge ll" (at the time his largest work to date) fashioned from recycled pressed tin and broken mirrors was positioned on a wall on the west side of the street between West 21st and West 22nd street facing and sidelining the High Line. In 2016 Tony Matelli's controversial sculpture "Sleepwalker" was exhibited upon the High Line. In 2017 Max Hooper Schneider's aquarium was displayed on the passageway. In 2018 the High Line hosted the British sculptor Phyllida Barlow's first public commission "Prop" which has been described as a concrete colossus.


title: High Line

text: In 1847, the City of New York authorized the construction of railroad tracks along Tenth and Eleventh Avenues on Manhattan's West Side. The street-level tracks were used by the New York Central Railroad's freight trains, which shipped commodities such as coal, dairy products, and beef. For safety the railroad hired "West Side cowboys", men who rode horses and waved flags in front of the trains. However, so many accidents occurred between freight trains and other traffic that the nickname "Death Avenue" was given to Tenth and Eleventh Avenues. In 1910, one organization estimated that there had been 548 deaths and 1,574 injuries over the years along Eleventh Avenue.


title: High Line

text: Public debate about the hazard began during the early 1900s. In 1929 the city, the state, and New York Central agreed on the West Side Improvement Project, conceived by New York City park commissioner Robert Moses. The project eliminated 105 street-level railroad crossings, added to Riverside Park, and included construction of the West Side Elevated Highway. The plans also included the construction of the St. John's Freight Terminal at Spring Street, which was completed in 1936 and replaced the street-level St. John's Park Terminal in present-day Tribeca. The West Side Improvement cost more than $150 million, worth about $ billion in dollars. The last stretch of street-level track was removed from Eleventh Avenue in 1941.


title: High Line

text: The first train on the High Line viaduct, part of New York Central's West Side Line, ran along the structure in 1933. The elevated structure was dedicated on June 29, 1934, and was the first part of the West Side Improvement Project to be completed. The High Line, which originally ran from 35th Street to St. John's Freight Terminal, was designed to go through the center of blocks rather than over an avenue. As a result, the viaduct's construction necessitated the demolition of 640 buildings. It connected directly to factories and warehouses, allowing trains to load and unload inside buildings. Milk, meat, produce, and raw and manufactured goods could be transported and unloaded without disturbing street traffic. This reduced the load on the Bell Laboratories Building (which has housed the Westbeth Artists Community since 1970) and the former Nabisco plant in Chelsea Market, which were served from protected sidings in the buildings.


title: High Line

text: The line also passed under the Western Electric complex at Washington Street. Although the section still existed , it is not connected to the developed park.


title: High Line

text: The growth of interstate trucking during the 1950s led to a drop in rail traffic throughout the U.S. St. John's Freight Terminal was abandoned in 1960, and the southernmost section of the line was demolished in the following decade due to low use. The West Village Apartments were then built on part of the former segment's right of way. The demolished section began at Bank Street and ran down Washington Street to Spring Street (just north of Canal Street).


title: High Line

text: By 1978, the High Line viaduct was used to deliver just two carloads of cargo per week. The viaduct was shut down in 1980, when owner Conrail had to disconnect the viaduct from the rest of the national rail system for a year. The closure was necessitated as a result of the construction of Javits Center at 34th Street, which required that the curve at 35th Street be rebuilt. The last train on the viaduct was a three-car consist carrying frozen turkeys. During the time the viaduct was disconnected, two large customers along the route moved to New Jersey. The curve to the viaduct from 35th Street was demolished during the construction of Javits Center and was replaced by the current curve at 34th Street. The tracks leading to the High Line were reconnected in 1981, but as there were no more customers along the route, the curve at 34th Street was never completed, and the viaduct did not see any further usage. At this point, Conrail still owned the right of way and the tracks.


title: High Line

text: During the mid-1980s, a group of property owners with land under the line lobbied for the demolition of the entire structure. Peter Obletz, a Chelsea resident, activist, and railroad enthusiast, challenged the demolition efforts in court and tried to re-establish rail service on the line. Obletz offered to buy the viaduct for $10 in order to run a small amount of freight trains on the line, and Conrail accepted, mainly because demolition would have cost $5 million. However, this offer was also disputed in court. By 1988, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was negotiating with Conrail for the possibility for using the line's right of way to construct a light rail route. These negotiations did not proceed further, and by the end of the 1980s, it was expected that the High Line would be demolished.


title: High Line

text: As part of the construction of the Empire Connection to Penn Station, which opened in spring 1991, the West Side Line tracks north of 35th Street were routed to the new Empire Connection tunnel to Penn Station. A small section of the High Line in the West Village, from Bank to Gansevoort Streets, was taken apart in 1991 despite objections by preservationists. The remaining riveted-steel elevated structure was unused and in disrepair during the 1990s, but it remained structurally sound. Around this time, it became known to urban explorers and local residents for the tough, drought-tolerant wild grasses, shrubs (such as sumac) and rugged trees which had sprung up in the gravel along the abandoned railway. The administration of mayor Rudy Giuliani planned to demolish the structure. The Interstate Commerce Commission approved plans to demolish the structure in 1992, but demolition was delayed due to disputes between various city government agencies and the railroad companies. Ownership of the viaduct ultimately passed to CSX Transportation in 1999.


title: High Line

text: A nonprofit organization called Friends of the High Line was formed in October 1999 by Joshua David and Robert Hammond. They advocated its preservation and reuse as public open space, an elevated park or greenway similar to the Promenade Plantée in Paris. The concept also drew inspiration from Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, Germany — a precedent for urban and industrial repurposing in modern landscaping. The organization was initially a small community group advocating the High Line's preservation and transformation when the structure was threatened with demolition during Rudy Giuliani’s second term as mayor. In 2000, CSX Transportation gave photographer Joel Sternfeld permission to photograph it for a year. Sternfeld's photographs of its meadow-like natural beauty, discussed in an episode of the documentary series "Great Museums", were used at public meetings when the subject of saving the High Line was discussed. Mary Boone's art gallery, as well as Martha Stewart and Edward Norton, hosted fundraising benefits for the High Line in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg (who had moved her New York City headquarters to the Meatpacking District in 1997) and her husband, Barry Diller, also organized fundraising events in her studio.


title: High Line

text: In 2003, Friends of the High Line sponsored a design competition that attracted more than 720 participants from 38 countries. Proposals included a sculpture garden, an elongated swimming pool, and a linear amusement park/campground. In July 2003, Edward Norton and Robert Caro hosted a benefit event at Grand Central Terminal, where the submissions for the design contest were exhibited. The same month, a bipartisan group of city officials began petitioning the federal Surface Transportation Board to hand over title to the viaduct for park use. In anticipation of this handover, the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced plans for a High Line park that September. The following year, the New York City government committed $50 million to establish the proposed park. Mayor Bloomberg and City Council speakers Gifford Miller and Christine C. Quinn were among the major supporters. Fundraising for the park raised a total of over $150 million (). The Surface Transportation Board issued a certificate of interim trail use on June 13, 2005, allowing the city to remove most of the line from the national rail system. Ownership officially passed from CSX to the city that November.


title: High Line

text: On April 10, 2006, Mayor Bloomberg presided over a ceremony to mark the beginning of construction. The park was designed by James Corner's New York-based landscape architecture firm Field Operations and architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with garden design by Piet Oudolf of the Netherlands, lighting design from L'Observatoire International, and engineering design by Buro Happold and Robert Silman Associates. New York City Department of City Planning director and city planning commission chair Amanda Burden contributed to the project's development. Major supporters included Philip Falcone, Diane von Fürstenberg, Barry Diller, and von Fürstenberg's children Alexander and Tatiana von Fürstenberg. Hotel developer Andre Balazs, owner of the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, built the 337-room Standard Hotel straddling the High Line at West 13th Street.


title: High Line

text: The southernmost section, from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street, opened as a city park on June 8, 2009. The section includes five stairways and elevators at 14th Street and 16th Street. Around the same time, construction of the second section began. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on June 7, 2011, to open the second section (from 20th Street to 30th Street), with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City Council speaker Christine Quinn, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Congressman Jerrold Nadler in attendance. CSX Transportation, owner of the northernmost section from 30th to 34th Streets, agreed in principle to donate the section to the city in 2011; the Related Companies, which owns development rights for the West Side Rail Yards, agreed not to tear down the spur crossing 10th Avenue. Construction on the final section was started in September 2012.


title: High Line

text: A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the High Line's third phase was held on September 20, 2014, followed the next day by the opening of its third section and a procession down the park. The third phase, costing $76 million, was divided into two parts. The first part (costing $75 million) is from the end of phase 2 of the line to its terminus at 34th Street, west of 11th Avenue. The second part, a spur above Tenth Avenue and 30th Street, has room to install artworks curated by the public art program. The spur was scheduled to open by 2018, but was then delayed to April 2019, and later to June 2019. It opened on June 4, 2019, with the installation of a plinth as its initial artwork. It contains entrances to 10 Hudson Yards, built above the spur.


title: High Line

text: The High Line closed temporarily in early 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City; while most parks remained open during the pandemic, the High Line is a linear park with few means to spread out for social distancing measures. The High Line reopened on July 16, 2020, with limited capacity: the section between Gansevoort and 23rd streets were only open to visitors with timed-entry passes, and were only able to walk northbound from Gansevoort Street, with the other access points being for egress only. , weekend admissions still required a pass but weekday admissions did not.


title: High Line

text: On January 11, 2021, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced proposals to extend the High Line east to Moynihan Train Hall and north to Hudson River Park. The Moynihan Train Hall spur, was planned to cost $60 million and run east to Ninth Avenue. A second spur would diverge from the Phase 3 walkway at 34th Street, running north to the Javits Center and then turning west to cross the West Side Highway to Hudson River Park. At the time of the spurs' announcement, neither of the projects had been funded. As of September 2021, the Moynihan project was funded and was projected to be completed in early 2023 at a cost of $50 million. A groundbreaking for the project occurred on February 24, 2022.


title: High Line

text: The line is maintained by Friends of the High Line, which was founded by Joshua David and Robert Hammond. The organization is credited with saving the structure by rallying public support for the park and convincing Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration in 2002 to support the project by filing a request with the Surface Transportation Board to create a public trail on the site. Friends of the High Line played a role in the line's visual aesthetic, holding a competition in conjunction with the city of New York in 2004 to determine the design team which would lead the project. Since the park's opening in 2009, Friends of the High Line has had an agreement with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to serve as its primary steward. The organization is responsible for the daily operation and maintenance of the park, with an annual budget of over $5 million. It has an annual operating budget of $11.5 million, in addition to capital construction and management and fundraising expenses.


title: High Line

text: Friends of the High Line has raised more than $150 million in public and private funds toward the construction of the first two sections of the park. Unlike the first two phases, to which the city significantly contributed, Friends of the High Line was responsible for raising funds for phase three (an estimated $35 million). The organization raises over 90 percent of the High Line's annual operating budget from private donations. When the city donated $5 million to the High Line in 2012, there was criticism that most city parks had received less funding that year, especially since Friends of the High Line had raised an extra $85 million that year.


title: High Line

text: The organization has an office on Washington Street, near the park's southern end. It has 80 full-time, year-round employees and about 150 full-time summer employees. Friends of the High Line has been run by president and co-founder Josh David after executive director Jenny Gersten stepped down in 2014. Co-founder Robert Hammond served as executive director until he stepped down in February 2013. Friends of the High Line has a 38-member board of directors consisting of many New York City businesspeople and philanthropists, including Amanda Burden of Bloomberg Associates, Jane Lauder of Estée Lauder Companies, Jon Stryker of the Arcus Foundation and Darren Walker of the Ford Foundation.


title: High Line

text: Since its opening, the High Line has become one of the most popular visitors attractions in New York City. By September 2014, the park had nearly five million visitors annually, and in 2019, it had eight million visitors per year. Most of these visits came from tourists; a 2019 study found that tourists made up four-fifths of the High Line's total visitor count. Residents quoted in "The New York Times" stated that the park has become a "tourist-clogged catwalk" since it opened, and one critic called a "tourist-clogged cattle chute".


title: High Line

text: The recycling of the rail line into an urban park and tourist attraction has revitalized Chelsea, which was "gritty" and in generally poor condition during the late twentieth century. It has also spurred real-estate development in the neighborhoods along the line. According to mayor Bloomberg, by 2009 more than 30 projects were planned or under construction nearby, and by 2016 more than 11 projects were under construction. It has also helped raise the value of properties directly adjacent to the High Line by an average of 10 percent over properties a few blocks away. At least 20 properties abutting the High Line have sold for at least $10 million since the park's opening in 2009, with an apartment in a building directly adjacent to the park selling for an average of $6 million. Apartments located near Phase 1 of the High Line are, on average, more than twice as costly as those between Seventh and Eighth Avenues (two blocks east). In August 2016, the park continued to increase real-estate values along it in an example of the halo effect.


title: High Line

text: Residents who have bought apartments next to the High Line adapted to its presence in various ways, but most responses were positive. However, many established businesses in west Chelsea have closed due to loss of their neighborhood customer base or rent increases. Chelsea has significant minority communities, many of whom live in two large public housing developments. In a 2017 interview, Friends of the High Line co-founder Robert Hammond said that he "failed" the community; the High Line did not fulfill its original purpose of serving the surrounding neighborhood, which had become demographically divided around the park.


title: High Line

text: Due to the High Line's popularity, several museums were proposed or built along its path. The Dia Art Foundation considered (but rejected) a proposal to build a museum at the Gansevoort Street terminus. On that site, the Whitney Museum has built a new home for its collection of American art. The building, designed by Renzo Piano, opened on May 1, 2015.


title: High Line

text: Crime has been low in the park. Shortly after the second section opened in 2011, "The New York Times" reported that there had been no reports of major crimes (such as assault or robbery) since the first phase opened two years earlier. Parks Enforcement Patrols have written summonses for infractions of park rules such as walking dogs or riding bicycles on the walkway at a lower rate than in Central Park. Park advocates attributed this to the visibility of the High Line from surrounding buildings, a feature of urban life espoused by author Jane Jacobs nearly fifty years before. According to Joshua David, "Empty parks are dangerous ... Busy parks are much less so. You're virtually never alone on the High Line." In a review of the Highliner restaurant – which has now reverted to its previous name, the Empire Diner – Ariel Levy wrote in "The New Yorker" that... "The new Chelsea that is emerging on weekends as visitors flood the elevated park ... [is] touristy, overpriced, and shiny."


title: High Line

text: The High Line's success in New York City has encouraged leaders in other cities such as Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who sees it as "a symbol and catalyst" for gentrifying neighborhoods. Several cities nationwide have plans to renovate railroad infrastructure into parkland, including Philadelphia's Rail Park, Atlanta's Belt Line, and Chicago's Bloomingdale Trail. The High Line has helped pioneer the creation of elevated parks worldwide. In Queens, the Queensway (a proposed aerial rail trail) is being considered for reactivation along the right-of-way of the former Long Island Rail Road Rockaway Beach Branch. Other cities around the world are planning elevated rails-to-trails parks in what a writer has called the "High Line effect".


title: High Line

text: According to some estimates, it costs substantially less to redevelop an abandoned urban rail line into a linear park than to demolish it. Landscape architect James Corner (who led the High Line's design team) noted that "The High Line is not easily replicable in other cities," however, observing that building a "cool park" requires a "framework" of neighborhoods around it to succeed.


title: High Line

text: In 2016, Friends of the High Line launched the High Line Network to support similar infrastructure re-use projects being developed in other cities. , there are 19 projects in the network, including River LA, the Atlanta Beltline, Crissy Field, Dequindre Cut, the Lowline, Klyde Warren Park, the Bentway, Bergen Arches, Destination Crenshaw and the Trinity River Project.


title: High Line

text: The line has been depicted in a variety of media before its redevelopment. The 1979 film "Manhattan" includes a shot of the High Line as director and star Woody Allen speaks the first line: "Chapter One. He adored New York City." Director Zbigniew Rybczyński shot the music video for Art of Noise's single, "Close (to the Edit)" on the line in 1984.


title: High Line

text: In 2001 (two years after the formation of the Friends of the High Line), photographer Joel Sternfeld documented the High Line's flora and dilapidation in his book, "Walking the High Line". The book also contains essays by writer Adam Gopnik and historian John R. Stilgoe. Sternfeld's work was regularly discussed and exhibited during the 2000s as the rehabilitation project developed. Alan Weisman's 2007 book, "The World Without Us", cites the High Line as an example of the reappearance of the wild in an abandoned area. Kinetics & One Love's 2009 song, "The High Line", uses the line (before its conversion to a park) as an example of nature's reclamation of man-made structures.


title: High Line

text: A number of films and television programs have utilized the High Line since the park opened. In 2011, the television series "Louie" used it as a setting for one of the title character's dates. Other works with scenes on the High Line since its conversion include "The Simpsons" 2012 episode "Moonshine River" and the 2012 film, "What Maisie Knew".


title: Chloe Frazer

text: Chloe Frazer is a fictional character in the "Uncharted" series, developed by Naughty Dog. Chloe, like series protagonist Nathan Drake, is a treasure hunter. Introduced in "", where she has a romantic history with Drake, she later appears in "", and becomes the main protagonist in "". Chloe is initially depicted as a strong character who aggressively looks out for her own interests, although over the course of "The Lost Legacy" she evolves into a more heroic and selfless individual. She is portrayed by Claudia Black through voice and motion capture.


title: Chloe Frazer

text: Chloe was designed to provide a darker counterpart to Drake, while Black compared her personality to that of Indiana Jones. The character was well-received by gamers and the press, who noted her independence and sensuality while also considering her to be unique and fun; character designer Justin Richmond stated that she was one of his favorite characters in the series to create.


title: Chloe Frazer

text: Chloe Frazer was designed to play off of the personality of Nathan Drake, the main protagonist of the "Uncharted" series. Through interaction, she brings out particular facets of Drake's personality. Amy Hennig, series writer, wanted Chloe to act as a foil to Drake, essentially acting as a darker version of the main character. She also contrasts to Elena Fisher, who acts as the "good girl" of "Uncharted".


title: Chloe Frazer

text: Chloe was voiced by Claudia Black. For the series, motion capture actors acted as if performing in a movie. Motion capture was done on a soundstage, and the dialog recorded during this process was used in the game. The chemistry and interactions between Black and Nolan North, voice actor for Drake, had a hand in determining Chloe's personality. Black compared the process to a combination of stage, movie, and voice acting.


title: Chloe Frazer

text: Chloe is of Indian ancestry on her father's side and was brought up in Australia. She is an impulsive and reckless adventurer. She is witty, devious, and fun seeking. Chloe is also a very sexually forward character; when she and Drake have a love scene, she acts as the initiator. At first, she appears only to look out for her own interests, caring little for anything but her goal.


title: Chloe Frazer

text: Chloe was used heavily in promotion for "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves", to showcase the fact that new characters were central to the story. She was displayed so heavily that at first some thought that Fisher, the female protagonist of the first game, would not be in the second.


title: Chloe Frazer

text: Near the beginning of "", Chloe and business associate Harry Flynn convince Drake to help with a museum robbery. They have been hired by a wealthy benefactor to steal a piece of ancient Chinese pottery, which Kublai Khan had given to Marco Polo. Inside this ceramic lamp is a map and blue resin which reveal the location of Marco Polo's lost fleet. Unbeknownst to Flynn, Chloe and Drake had a previous relationship in the past, and resume their romance behind Flynn's back. Without Chloe's knowledge, Flynn betrays Drake, who ends up in a Turkish jail where he stays for three months. Chloe eventually engineers Drake's release, along with his associate Victor Sullivan. Chloe then begins traveling with Flynn, and war criminal Zoran Lazarevic. She discovers that they are after the fabled city of Shambhala and the Cintamani stone, seeking immortality. She acts as a double agent within Lazarevic's criminal organization, and seemingly betrays Drake to keep her "cover". She meets up with Drake in Nepal to assist in searching for the location of Shambhala before Flynn can find it. Later, Drake attempts to rescue her from a train controlled by Lazarevic, but she refuses to go with him, due to him bringing Elena and Jeff earlier. She appears later in the game in a monastery in the Himalayas, where she follows Drake and Lazarevic into the entrance of Shambhala, and assists in taking down Lazarevic's army, while Drake stops the leader himself. At the end of the game, seeing that Drake loves Elena, she leaves the two in the mountains.


title: Chloe Frazer

text: Chloe returns in "", working with Nathan, Sully and new character Charlie Cutter to infiltrate the inner circle of Katherine Marlowe, who possesses the clues about the details of Sir Francis Drake's voyage to Arabia. They discover that the final clues lie in Crusader crypts in France and Syria, and Nate sends Chloe and Cutter to Syria to uncover it. During the search, Marlowe's men ambush them and a gunfight and chase ensues. Though they manage to escape alive, Cutter breaks his leg, and Chloe subsequently backs out of the adventure to get Cutter medical aid.


title: Chloe Frazer

text: Chloe does not appear in the main story of "", however, during the beginning events of the game, it is shown that she sent a note to Nathan, saying she's available if he were to ever start treasure hunting again. She also is available to play as in the multiplayer. A standalone expansion was revealed, called "" featuring Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross in a standalone story apart from the events of the "Uncharted" series, set after the events of "Uncharted 4" after Nadine escapes. In the standalone expansion, Chloe's backstory is revealed. Her father was a treasure hunter who, while on the hunt for the Tusk of Ganesh, was killed by bandits when defending it. Chloe then hunts for the Tusk with Nadine's help while coming into conflict with Asav and his insurgency as well as Nadine's former army Shoreline. Later it is revealed that she initially teamed with Nathan's brother Sam, sending him to do recon for her but when he was abducted by Asav, enlisted Nadine's aid due to her history with Asav. She and Nadine then learn Asav was not seeking the tusk but actually wanted it so he could sell it for bomb which he can then use to destroy the city triggering a civil war. Chloe, Nadine and Sam then race against time and eventually stop Asav and his army, saving the day. She and Nadine then agree to partner up after the latter moves on from her initial goal of claiming Shoreline and develops a newfound interest in treasure hunting.


title: Chloe Frazer

text: Sophia Ali portrayed Chloe in the 2022 film adaptation. In the film, she is Victor Sullivan's contact when Nathan and Sully reach Spain to find the treasure. She steals the first cross from Nathan but is convinced by both Nate and Sully to work with them. When they find out that the map indicates that the treasure is in The Philippines, she betrays Nate and takes the map, and it is later revealed that she had been hired by Moncada and Braddock to steal the map. After Moncada is killed, Chloe goes into hiding and helps Nate take out Braddock's henchmen before they both escape from the plane and land in the Philippines where they realize that the map doesn't pinpoint to the treasure. But Nate discovers the treasure's true location through hints left by postcards from his missing brother Sam and leaves the fake coordinates when he suspects that Chloe would betray him again. Chloe is last seen empty handed when Nate and Sully escape with a few pieces of treasure from Magellan's ships.


title: Chloe Frazer

text: Most critics have received Chloe Frazer positively, focusing on her strength and sexuality; they often cite her as an exceptional example of an independent female video game character. Tom Cross of Gamasutra called Chloe a strong woman, and compared her to Elika from "Prince of Persia". He further called her a "first" in video games – a heterosexual female who badgers the male protagonist and displays competency and guile: "Chloe Frazer stands head and shoulders above all video game characters, but compared to most women in games, she is truly unique". He also characterizes her as one of "the most fun, interesting, inoffensive characters in video games". Cross also cited her as a character who accurately reflects the nature of human sexual desire and frustration. GamesRadar named Chloe "Miss 2009" of the "Sexiest New Characters of the Decade", calling her exotic and flirtatious. "Entertainment Weekly"s Darren Franich listed her as one of "15 Kick-Ass Women in Videogames", describing her as "tough, funny, and prone to backstabbing".


title: Chloe Frazer

text: Claudia Black commented that Chloe was fun to portray, and is essentially "Indiana Jones with nice hair". "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves" game designer Justin Richmond called Chloe his favorite character. Black was nominated at the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards under the category "Best Voice" for her work as Chloe. Chloe was added to "Fortnite Battle Royale" with Drake in February 2022.


title: Greta Kline

text: Greta Simone Kline (born March 21, 1994), formerly known by the stage name Frankie Cosmos, is an American musician and singer-songwriter. She is known for her independent releases, inspired by Frank O'Hara's poetry, DIY ethics of K Records and the early 2000s New York City's anti-folk scene. She is the daughter of actors Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates. Her former stage name "Frankie Cosmos" is now the name of her band.


title: Greta Kline

text: Kline was born on March 21, 1994, in New York City, the daughter of Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Kline and actress Phoebe Cates. Her father is of German-Jewish and Irish descent and her mother has Russian-Jewish and Chinese-Filipino ancestry. She has one older brother, Owen Kline, who is an actor and filmmaker.


title: Greta Kline

text: Kline was introduced to music by her family. She settled on guitar as her primary instrument of choice at seventh grade, after playing the piano and briefly the drums. Home-schooled for most of high school, she spent time by attending underground rock shows in New York and getting involved in the Westchester music scene. Kline attended New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study for two years, and studied English and/or poetry. Kline found the school to be unaccommodating of her touring schedule, and dropped out.


title: Greta Kline

text: Kline and her brother Owen both appeared in the films "The Anniversary Party" (2001) and "The Squid and the Whale" (2005).


title: Greta Kline

text: Kline started performing and recording independently under the alias Ingrid Superstar. She released a number of lo-fi recordings mainly under her Bandcamp account. In early 2010s, she was also introduced to the music community of Purchase College, which introduced her to independent Double Double Whammy record label. In late 2011, she started to perform under the alias Frankie Cosmos, a name coined by her now ex-boyfriend Aaron Maine of the band Porches. Maine played drums for Frankie Cosmos and Kline played bass for Porches at one point in time.


title: Greta Kline

text: On April 12, 2017, Frankie Cosmos announced a slew of tour dates and that they recently had signed to Sub Pop records. They stated around this time that they are working on a new album. On June 9, 2017, Kline opened for IAN SWEET and Girlpool at Warsaw in Brooklyn as part of her new project Lexie. Joined by Warehouse members Alex Bailey and Doug Bleichner, their first release is on Bandcamp and it is called "Record Time!".


title: Greta Kline

text: In January 2018, Kline released the lead single "Jesse" from the album "Vessel". The album was released on March 30, 2018, through Sub Pop records. On March 13, 2019, Kline released "Haunted Items", featuring just herself on vocals and piano. The band Frankie Cosmos released their fourth studio album, "Close It Quietly" on September 6, 2019.


title: Greta Kline

text: Two of Kline's songs, "Fool" and "The End", were both showcased during two episodes on the Netflix drama series Hilda (TV series).


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Hedda Hopper (born Elda Furry; May 2, 1885February 1, 1966) was an American gossip columnist and actress. At the height of her influence in the 1940s, her readership was 35 million. A strong supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings, Hopper named suspected communists and was a major proponent of the Hollywood blacklist. Hopper continued to write gossip until the end of her life, her work appearing in many magazines and later on radio. She had an extended feud with another gossip columnist, arch-rival Louella Parsons.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Hopper was born Elda Furry in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Margaret (née Miller; 1856–1941) and David Furry, a butcher, both members of the German Baptist Brethren. Her family was of Pennsylvania Dutch (German) descent. The family moved to Altoona when Elda was three.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: She eventually ran away to New York City and began her career in the chorus on the Broadway stage. Hopper was not successful in this venture. Florenz Ziegfeld called the aspiring starlet a "clumsy cow" and brushed off her pleas for a slot in his lavish Follies. After a few years, she joined the theater company of matinee idol DeWolf Hopper, whom she called "Wolfie" and would later marry.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: She remained in the chorus and they toured the country. While in the Hopper company, she realized that chorus and understudy jobs were not acting. She wanted to act, and she knew she would have to prove herself before she could hope to get anywhere in the theater. Hearing that Edgar Selwyn was casting his play "The Country Boy" for a road tour, she went to his office and talked him into letting her audition for the lead. She was given the role and that show toured for thirty-five weeks through forty-eight states. She studied singing during the summer and, in the fall, toured with "The Quaker Girl" in the second lead, the prima donna role. The show closed in Albany.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: In 1913, she became the fifth wife of DeWolf Hopper, whose previous wives were named Ella, Ida, Edna and Nella. The similarity in names caused some friction, as he would sometimes call Elda by the name of one of his former wives. Consequently, Elda Hopper paid a numerologist $10 to tell her what name she should use, and the answer was "Hedda". She began acting in silent movies in 1915. Her motion picture debut was in "The Battle of Hearts" (1916) with William Farnum, but she made a major splash in "Virtuous Wives" (1918), in which she established her pattern of playing society women. Hopper decided to upstage the film's headline starlet, Anita Stewart, by spending all of her $5,000 salary on a lavish wardrobe from the upscale boutique Lucile, which she wore in the film. By 1920, she was commanding $1,000 per week as a free agent in New York; in 1923 she moved to Hollywood and became a contract player for Louis B. Mayer Pictures. She appeared in more than 120 movies over her 23 year acting career.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: As Hopper's movie career waned in the mid-1930s, she looked for other sources of income. In 1935, she agreed to write a weekly Hollywood gossip column for "The Washington Herald" at $50 a week (), which was cancelled after four months when she refused to take a $15 pay cut.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: In 1937, Hopper was offered another gossip column opportunity, this time with the "Los Angeles Times". Her column, entitled "Hedda Hopper's Hollywood", debuted on February 14, 1938. Hopper could not type, nor spell very well, so she dictated her column to a typist over the phone. Hopper used her extensive contacts forged during her acting days to gather material for her column. Her first major scoop had national implications: in 1939, Hopper printed that President Franklin Roosevelt's son James Roosevelt was divorcing his wife Betsey after being caught in an affair with a nurse at the Mayo Clinic.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Part of Hopper's public image was her fondness for wearing extravagant hats, for which the Internal Revenue Service gave her a $5,000 annual tax credit as a work expense. During the Second World War, the Nazis used photographs of Hopper in her extravagant hats for propaganda, as a symbol of "American decadence". Her annual income was $250,000, enabling her to live an upscale lifestyle and maintain a mansion in Beverly Hills, which she described as "the house that fear built".


title: Hedda Hopper

text: After Hopper printed a story about an extramarital affair between Joseph Cotten and Deanna Durbin, Cotten ran into Hopper at a social event and pulled out her chair, only to continue pulling it out from under her when she sat down. The next day, he received dozens of flower bouquet deliveries and congratulatory telegrams from others in the industry, thanking him for having the courage to do what everyone else dreamed of doing.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Hopper spread rumors that Michael Wilding and Stewart Granger had a sexual relationship; Wilding sued Hopper for libel and won.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Hopper was an advocate for actress Joan Crawford, whose career suffered in the early 1940s after she was labelled "Box-Office Poison" and forced to resign from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1945, Hopper reprinted a press release for "Mildred Pierce" in her column, which described Crawford as a leading contender for the Best Actress Oscar. Such was Hopper's influence that she was credited with swinging the decision in Crawford's favor when she won the award. Hopper's support has been described as the first instance of lobbying the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to favor a certain nominee.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Joan Bennett sent Hopper a "$435 valentine. The $35 went for a skunk which carried a note: 'Won't you be my valentine? Nobody else will. I stink and so do you.'" Hopper reportedly commented that the skunk was beautifully behaved. She called it Joan, and passed it on to actor James Mason and his wife as a present, as they had made the first bid after the story about the unusual gift made the news.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: During World War II, Hopper's only child, actor William "Bill" Hopper, served in the Navy in Underwater Demolitions. She chastised Douglas Fairbanks Jr., the son of her old friend Douglas Fairbanks, because she thought the younger Fairbanks was shirking his duty to his country. Fairbanks Jr. recalled in his memoirs "Salad Days" that he was already in uniform serving in the United States Navy, and despised Hopper for her insinuations.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Actor Kirk Douglas recounted an interaction between Hopper and Elizabeth Taylor. At the premiere of Taylor and husband Richard Burton's film "The Sandpiper" (1965), Hopper began to complain when she saw screenwriter Dalton Trumbo's screen credit (she had led the charge in blacklisting Trumbo for his Communist party membership). This led Taylor to turn around and say "Hedda, why don't you just shut the fuck up?"


title: Hedda Hopper

text: In 1963, Hopper complained in her column that three out of five Best Actor Oscar nominees were British and only two were American: "The weather's so foul on that tight little isle that, to get in out of the rain, they all gather in theatres and practise "Hamlet" on each other."


title: Hedda Hopper

text: When Hopper had initially come to Hollywood, she and Louella Parsons had a mutually beneficial arrangement. Hopper was then a moderately successful actress, and according to Parson's successor, Dorothy Manners, "if anything happened on a set—if a star and leading man were having an affair—Hedda would give Louella a call.” In return, Hedda was guaranteed a few lines of copy under Louella's increasingly influential byline.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: After MGM canceled her contract, Hopper struggled to maintain her career as an actress. She was offered a position as a Hollywood columnist by the Esquire Feature Syndicate due to a recommendation by Andy Hervey of MGM’s publicity department.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: One of the first papers to pick up “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood” was the "Los Angeles Times", a morning paper like Louella's "Examiner". Hopper first publicly scooped Parsons with the divorce of the president's son Jimmy Roosevelt (a Goldwyn employee), who was involved with a Mayo Clinic nurse, from his wife, Betsey. The story became front-page news across the country.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: When rumors began to surface that Orson Welles debut film "Citizen Kane" was inspired by Hearst's life, Parsons lunched with the director, and believed his evasions and denials. Hopper arrived uninvited to an early screening of the film and wrote a scathing critique, calling it a "vicious and irresponsible attack on a great man". As a result, Hearst sent Parsons a letter complaining that he had learned about "Citizen Kane" from Hopper, and not her.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: On the warpath, Parsons then demanded a private screening of the film, and threatened RKO chief George Schaefer on Hearst's behalf, first with a lawsuit, and then with a vague but powerful threat of consequences for everyone in Hollywood. On January 10, Parsons and two lawyers working for Hearst were given a private screening of the film. Horrified by what she saw, Louella rushed out of the studio screening room to cable Hearst, who telegraphed back the terse message "Stop Citizen Kane". Soon after, Parsons called Schaefer and threatened RKO with a lawsuit if they released "Kane". She also warned other studio heads that she would expose the private lives of people throughout the industry and reveal long-suppressed scandalous information.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: When Schaefer—who had also been threatened by Hearst with legal action—announced that "Citizen Kane" was scheduled to premiere in February 1941 at Radio City Music Hall, Parsons contacted the manager of Radio City Music Hall and advised him that exhibiting the film would result in a press blackout. The premiere was canceled. Other exhibitors were fearful of being sued by Hearst and refused to show the film. As a result, despite support from Hearst adversaries such as Henry Luce, on release overall the film lost money. Parsons was by no means alone in her campaign against "Citizen Kane" but Welles never quite recovered his position in Hollywood afterward.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: In the early 1950s, the "Los Angeles Examiner" ran on its front page above Parsons's byline: "Ingrid Bergman Baby Due in Three Months at Rome". Bergman had left her husband, neurologist Peter Lindstrom, to live in Italy with director Roberto Rossellini, but the news that she might be pregnant was met with some skepticism. Bergman was well known for the angelic role of Sister Benedict in "The Bells of St. Mary's".


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Hopper, who had been a public supporter of Bergman, had believed the actress' denial of the pregnancy, and printed a fervent repudiation of the rumor. However, Bergman was indeed pregnant and Hopper, enraged at being scooped, launched a PR campaign decrying Bergman for being pregnant out of wedlock, and carrying a married man's child. Parsons had allegedly received the tip from Howard Hughes, who was incensed at Bergman for being unable to shoot a film for him as promised.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Reportedly, whereas Hopper was more inclined to see their much-publicized antagonism as funny and good for business, Parsons took it personally and saw Hopper as a rival in every possible way. Hopper also referred to Doc Martin as "that goddamn clap doctor", which infuriated Parsons.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: It has been suggested that Hopper was set up as a columnist by Louis B. Mayer (with the blessing of other studio chiefs) to offset Louella's monopolistic power. Gossip columnist Liz Smith, stated that: "The studios created both of them. And they thought they could control both of them. But they became Frankenstein monsters escaped from the labs." Hopper and Parsons had a combined readership of 75 million in a country of 160 million.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Hopper was a fervent Republican. During the 1944 presidential election, for instance, she spoke before a massive rally organized by David O. Selznick in the Los Angeles Coliseum in support of the Dewey-Bricker ticket, as well as Governor Earl Warren of California, who later became Dewey's running mate in 1948, and later the Chief Justice of the United States. The gathering drew 93,000, with Cecil B. DeMille as the master of ceremonies, and Walt Disney as one of the speakers. Others in attendance included Ronald Reagan, Barbara Stanwyck, Ann Sothern, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott, Adolphe Menjou, Dick Powell, Gary Cooper, Edward Arnold, and William Bendix. Despite the good turnout at the rally, most Hollywood celebrities who took a public position sided with the Roosevelt-Truman ticket.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Hopper strongly supported the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings, and was a guest and speaker of the Women's Division at the 1956 Republican National Convention held in San Francisco to renominate the Eisenhower–Nixon ticket.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: She was so well known for her conservatism that rumor had it she planned to stand up, unfurl an American flag, and walk out of the 23rd Academy Awards ceremony in March 1951 if Jose Ferrer, who was known to be a socialist, should win Best Actor. The rumor was untrue, but Hopper joked that she wished she had thought of it. Screenwriter Jay Bernstein related that when he told Hopper that many people in Hollywood privately called her a Nazi because of her extreme conservatism, the gossip columnist began to cry and replied: "Jay, all I've ever tried to be is a good American."


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Hopper was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Hollywood blacklist, using her 35 million strong readership to destroy the careers of those in the entertainment industry whom she suspected of being a Communist, having Communist sympathies, being homosexual, or leading dissolute lives. She was a leading member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, founded in 1944 and devoted to rooting out suspected Communists in Hollywood. She considered herself to be a guardian of moral standards in Hollywood and bragged that she need only wag her finger at a producer and he would break off an adulterous affair instantly.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: One of Hopper's victims was screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who was blacklisted throughout the late 1940s and 1950s partially through Hopper's consistently negative coverage of his Communist Party membership. When actor Kirk Douglas hired Trumbo to write the screenplay for "Spartacus" (1960), Hopper denounced the film in her column, stating that "[the script is based on] a book written by a Commie and the screen script was written by a Commie, so don't go see it." The film was a critical and financial success.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Charlie Chaplin was another target of Hedda Hopper's vitriol because of his alleged Communist sympathies and his relationships with much younger women, which she considered immoral despite her own marriage to a man 27 years her senior. She also objected to him for remaining a British citizen and not becoming an American, which she considered an act of ingratitude towards a country which had given him so much. When in 1943, he denied that he was the father of 22-year old actress Joan Barry's child, Hopper assisted Barry in filing a paternity suit against Chaplin, launching a campaign of attrition against him through her column, and calling for him to be deported for his "moral turpitude". She defended her behavior by stating that she wished to make an example of Chaplin as "a warning to others involved in dubious relationships." Her grudge deepened when, later in the year, Chaplin married 18-year old Oona O'Neill and gave the scoop to Louella Parsons out of dislike for Hopper. For years after the paternity trial, Hopper cooperated with the FBI to destabilize Chaplin's career. This involved her printing damaging information leaked by the FBI concerning Chaplin's past Communist affiliations, while Hopper in turn provided the agency with unsavory gossip about Chaplin's personal life gleaned from her informants. Her sustained criticism of Chaplin was one of the factors which contributed to his being denied re-entry to the United States in 1952.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Actress Ingrid Bergman was also blacklisted as a result of Hedda Hopper's sustained negative coverage in her columns. Hopper had supported Bergman in her column throughout the 1940s, advocating for her to land starring roles in "The Bells of St. Mary's" (1945) and "Joan of Arc" (1948). She was enraged when Bergman lied to her about being pregnant with married director Roberto Rossellini's baby. Hopper had believed Bergman's denial of the pregnancy, printing a fervent repudiation of the rumor in 1949. However, Bergman was indeed pregnant, and the news was leaked to Hopper's arch-rival Louella Parsons, who gained the scoop. Seeking revenge, Hopper launched a PR campaign decrying Bergman for being pregnant out of wedlock and carrying a married man's child.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Hopper had an acting role in a radio soap opera, playing Portia Brent on the Blue Network's "Brenthouse" beginning in February 1939. She debuted as host of her own radio program, "The Hedda Hopper Show", November 6, 1939. Sponsored by Sunkist, she was heard on CBS three times a week for 15 minutes until October 30, 1942. From October 2, 1944, to September 3, 1945, Armour Treet sponsored a once-a-week program. On September 10, 1945, she moved to ABC, still sponsored by Armour, for a weekly program that continued until June 3, 1946. Hopper moved back to CBS beginning on October 5, 1946 with a weekly 15-minute program, "This Is Hollywood", sponsored by Procter & Gamble. It ran until June 28, 1947.


title: Hedda Hopper

text: Expanding to 30 minutes on NBC, she was host of a variety series, "The Hedda Hopper Show", broadcast from October 14, 1950, to November 11, 1950 on Saturdays, then from November 19, 1950, to May 20, 1951 on Sundays. This program featured music, talk and dramatized excerpts from movies with well-known guests, such as Broderick Crawford reprising a scene from "All the King's Men" (1949).