title: Fannie Mae

text: The Administration PR effort was not enough, by itself, to save the GSEs. Their government directive to purchase bad loans from private banks, in order to prevent these banks from failing, as well as the 20 top banks falsely classifying loans as AAA, caused instability. Paulson's plan was to go in swiftly and seize the two GSEs, rather than provide loans as he did for AIG and the major banks; he told president Bush that "the first sound they hear will be their heads hitting the floor", in a reference to the French revolution. The major banks have since been sued by the Feds for a sum of $200,000,000, and some of the major banks have already settled.<ref name="NYT 9/2/11"></ref> In addition, a lawsuit has been filed against the federal government by the shareholders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, for a) creating an environment by which Fannie and Freddie would be unable to meet their financial obligations b) forcing the executive management to sign over the companies to the conservator by (a), and c) the gross violation of the (fifth amendment) taking clause.


title: Fannie Mae

text: On September 7, 2008, James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were being placed into conservatorship of the FHFA. The action was "one of the most sweeping government interventions in private financial markets in decades". Lockhart also dismissed the firms' chief executive officers and boards of directors, and caused the issuance to the Treasury new senior preferred stock and common stock warrants amounting to 79.9% of each GSE. The value of the common stock and preferred stock to pre-conservatorship holders was greatly diminished by the suspension of future dividends on previously outstanding stock, in the effort to maintain the value of company debt and of mortgage-backed securities. FHFA stated that there are no plans to liquidate the company.


title: Fannie Mae

text: The authority of the U.S. Treasury to advance funds for the purpose of stabilizing Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac is limited only by the amount of debt that the entire federal government is permitted by law to commit to. The July 30, 2008, law enabling expanded regulatory authority over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increased the national debt ceiling US$800 billion, to a total of US$10.7 Trillion in anticipation of the potential need for the Treasury to have the flexibility to support the federal home loan banks.


title: Fannie Mae

text: On June 16, 2010, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced their stocks would be delisted from the NYSE. The Federal Housing Finance Agency directed the delisting after Fannie's stock traded below $1 a share for over 30 days. Since then the stocks have continued to trade on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board.


title: Fannie Mae

text: In May 2013, Fannie Mae announced that it is going to pay a dividend of $59.4 billion to the United States Treasury.


title: Fannie Mae

text: Fannie Mae's 2014 financial results enabled it to pay $20.6 billion in dividends to Treasury for the year, resulting in a cumulative total of $134.5 billion in dividends through December 31, 2014 – approximately $18 billion more than Fannie Mae received in support. As of March 31, 2015, Fannie Mae expects to have paid a total of $136.4 billion in payments to the Treasury.


title: Fannie Mae

text: Fannie Mae makes money partly by borrowing at low rates, and then reinvesting its borrowings into whole mortgage loans and mortgage backed securities. It borrows in the debt markets by selling bonds, and provides liquidity to loan originators by purchasing whole loans. It purchases whole loans and then securitizes them for the investment market by creating MBS that are either retained or sold.


title: Fannie Mae

text: As a Government Sponsored Enterprise, or GSE, Fannie Mae is compelled by law to provide liquidity to loan originators in all economic conditions. It must legally ignore adverse market conditions which appear to be unprofitable. If there are loans available for purchase that meet its predetermined underwriting standards, it must purchase them if no other buyers are available. Because of the size, scale, and scope of the United States single-family residential and commercial residential markets, market participants viewed Fannie Mae corporate debt as having a very high probability of being repaid. Fannie Mae is able to borrow very inexpensively in the debt markets as a consequence of market perception. There usually exists a large difference between the rate at which it can borrow and the rate at which it can 'lend'. This was called "The big, fat gap" by Alan Greenspan. By August 2008, Fannie Mae's mortgage portfolio was in excess of $700 billion.


title: Fannie Mae

text: Fannie Mae also earns a significant portion of its income from guaranty fees it receives as compensation for assuming the credit risk on mortgage loans underlying its single-family Fannie Mae MBS and on the single-family mortgage loans held in its retained portfolio. Investors, or purchasers of Fannie Mae MBSs, are willing to let Fannie Mae keep this fee in exchange for assuming the credit risk; that is, Fannie Mae's guarantee that the scheduled principal and interest on the underlying loan will be paid even if the borrower defaults.


title: Fannie Mae

text: Fannie Mae's charter has historically prevented it from guaranteeing loans with a loan-to-values over 80% without mortgage insurance or a repurchase agreement with the lender; however, in 2006 and 2007 Fannie Mae did purchase subprime and Alt-A loans as investments.


title: Fannie Mae

text: Fannie Mae is a purchaser of mortgages loans and the mortgages that secure them, which it packages into mortgaged-backed securities (MBS). Fannie Mae buys loans from approved mortgage sellers and securitizes them; it then sells the resultant mortgage-backed security to investors in the secondary mortgage market, along with a guarantee that the stated principal and interest payments will be timely passed through to the investor.. In addition, Fannie MBS, like those of Freddie Mac MBS and Ginnie Mae MBS, are eligible to be traded in the "to-be-announced" or "TBA" market. By purchasing the mortgages, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide banks and other financial institutions with fresh money to make new loans. This gives the United States housing and credit markets flexibility and liquidity.


title: Fannie Mae

text: In order for Fannie Mae to provide its guarantee to mortgage-backed securities it issues, it sets the guidelines for the loans that it will accept for purchase, called "conforming" loans. Fannie Mae produced an automated underwriting system (AUS) tool called Desktop Underwriter (DU) which lenders can use to automatically determine if a loan is conforming; Fannie Mae followed this program up in 2004 with Custom DU, which allows lenders to set custom underwriting rules to handle nonconforming loans as well. The secondary market for nonconforming loans includes jumbo loans, which are loans larger than the maximum that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will purchase. In early 2008, the decision was made to allow TBA (To-be-announced)-eligible mortgage-backed securities to include up to 10% "jumbo" loans.


title: Fannie Mae

text: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a limit on the maximum sized loan they will guarantee. This is known as the "conforming loan limit". The conforming loan limit for Fannie Mae, along with Freddie Mac, is set by Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the regulator of both GSEs. OFHEO annually sets the limit of the size of a conforming loan based on the October to October changes in mean home price, above which a mortgage is considered a non-conforming jumbo loan. The conforming loan limit is 50 percent higher in Alaska and Hawaii. The GSEs only buy loans that are conforming to repackage into the secondary market, lowering the demand for non-conforming loans. By virtue of the law of supply and demand, then, it is harder for lenders to sell these loans in the secondary market; thus these types of loans tend to cost more to borrowers (typically 1/4 to 1/2 of a percent). Indeed, in 2008, since the demand for bonds not guaranteed by GSEs was almost non-existent, non-conforming loans were priced nearly 1% to 1.5% higher than conforming loans.


title: Fannie Mae

text: Originally, Fannie had an 'explicit guarantee' from the government; if it got in trouble, the government promised to bail it out. This changed in 1968. Ginnie Mae was split off from Fannie. Ginnie retained the explicit guarantee. Fannie, however, became a private corporation, chartered by Congress and with a direct line of credit to the US Treasury. It was its nature as a Government Sponsored Enterprise (GSE) that provided the 'implied guarantee' for their borrowing. The charter also limited their business activity to the mortgage market. In this regard, although they were a private company, they could not operate like a regular private company.


title: Fannie Mae

text: Fannie Mae received no direct government funding or backing; Fannie Mae securities carried no actual explicit government guarantee of being repaid. This was clearly stated in the law that authorizes GSEs, on the securities themselves, and in many public communications issued by Fannie Mae. Neither the certificates nor payments of principal and interest on the certificates were explicitly guaranteed by the United States government. The certificates did not legally constitute a debt or obligation of the United States or any of its agencies or instrumentalities other than Fannie Mae. During the sub-prime era, every Fannie Mae prospectus read in bold, all-caps letters: "The certificates and payments of principal and interest on the certificates are not guaranteed by the United States, and do not constitute a debt or obligation of the United States or any of its agencies or instrumentalities other than Fannie Mae." (Verbiage changed from all-caps to standard case for readability).


title: Fannie Mae

text: However, the implied guarantee, as well as various special treatments given to Fannie by the government, greatly enhanced its success.


title: Fannie Mae

text: For example, the implied guarantee allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to save billions in borrowing costs, as their credit rating was very good. Estimates by the Congressional Budget Office and the Treasury Department put the figure at about $2 billion per year. Vernon L. Smith, recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, has called FHLMC and FNMA "implicitly taxpayer-backed agencies". The Economist has referred to "the implicit government guarantee" of FHLMC and FNMA. In testimony before the House and Senate Banking Committee in 2004, Alan Greenspan expressed the belief that Fannie Mae's (weak) financial position was the result of markets believing that the U.S. Government would never allow Fannie Mae (or Freddie Mac) to fail.


title: Fannie Mae

text: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were allowed to hold less capital than normal financial institutions: e.g., they were allowed to sell mortgage-backed securities with only half as much capital backing them up as would be required of other financial institutions. Regulations exist through the FDIC Bank Holding Company Act that govern the solvency of financial institutions. The regulations require normal financial institutions to maintain a capital/asset ratio greater than or equal to 3%. The GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are exempt from this capital/asset ratio requirement and can, and often do, maintain a capital/asset ratio less than 3%. The additional leverage allows for greater returns in good times, but put the companies at greater risk in bad times, such as during the subprime mortgage crisis. FNMA is exempt from state and local taxes, except for certain taxes on real estate. In addition, FNMA and FHLMC are exempt from SEC filing requirements; they file SEC 10-K and 10-Q reports, but many other reports, such as certain reports regarding their REMIC mortgage securities, are not filed.


title: Fannie Mae

text: Lastly, money market funds have diversification requirements, so that not more than 5% of assets may be from the same issuer. That is, a worst-case default would drop a fund not more than five percent. However, these rules do not apply to Fannie and Freddie. It would not be unusual to find a fund that had the vast majority of its assets in Fannie and Freddie debt.


title: Fannie Mae

text: In 1996, the Congressional Budget Office wrote "there have been no federal appropriations for cash payments or guarantee subsidies. But in the place of federal funds the government provides considerable unpriced benefits to the enterprises ... Government-sponsored enterprises are costly to the government and taxpayers ... the benefit is currently worth $6.5 billion annually."


title: Fannie Mae

text: FNMA is a financial corporation which uses derivatives to "hedge" its cash flow. Derivative products it uses include interest rate swaps and options to enter interest rate swaps ("pay-fixed swaps", "receive-fixed swaps", "basis swaps", "interest rate caps and swaptions", "forward starting swaps"). Duration gap is a financial and accounting term for the difference between the duration of assets and liabilities, and is typically used by banks, pension funds, or other financial institutions to measure their risk due to changes in the interest rate. "The company said that in April its average duration gap widened to plus 3 months in April from zero in March." "The Washington-based company aims to keep its duration gap between minus 6 months to plus 6 months. From September 2003 to March, the gap has run between plus to minus one month."


title: Fannie Mae

text: In late 2004, Fannie Mae was under investigation for its accounting practices. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight released a report on September 20, 2004, alleging widespread accounting errors.


title: Fannie Mae

text: Fannie Mae was expected to spend more than $1 billion in 2006 alone to complete its internal audit and bring it closer to compliance. The necessary restatement was expected to cost $10.8 billion, but was completed at a total cost of $6.3 billion in restated earnings as listed in Fannie Mae's Annual Report on Form 10-K.


title: Fannie Mae

text: Concerns with business and accounting practices at Fannie Mae predate the scandal itself. On June 15, 2000, the House Banking Subcommittee On Capital Markets, Securities And Government-Sponsored Enterprises held hearings on Fannie Mae.


title: Fannie Mae

text: On December 18, 2006, U.S. regulators filed 101 civil charges against chief executive Franklin Raines; chief financial officer J. Timothy Howard; and the former controller Leanne G. Spencer. The three were accused of manipulating Fannie Mae earnings to maximize their bonuses. The lawsuit sought to recoup more than $115 million in bonus payments, collectively accrued by the trio from 1998 to 2004, and about $100 million in penalties for their involvement in the accounting scandal. After 8 years of litigation, in 2012, a summary judgment was issued clearing the trio, indicating the government had insufficient evidence that would enable any jury to find the defendants guilty.


title: Fannie Mae

text: In June 2008, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that two former CEOs of Fannie Mae, James A. Johnson and Franklin Raines, had received loans below market rate from Countrywide Financial. Fannie Mae was the biggest buyer of Countrywide's mortgages. The "Friends of Angelo" VIP Countrywide loan program included many people from Fannie Mae; lawyers, executives, etc.


title: Fannie Mae

text: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have given contributions to lawmakers currently sitting on committees that primarily regulate their industry: The House Financial Services Committee; the Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee; or the Senate Finance Committee. The others have seats on the powerful Appropriations or Ways & Means committees, are members of the congressional leadership or have run for president.


title: Fannie Mae

text: In December 2011, six Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives, including Daniel Mudd, were charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with securities fraud. "The SEC alleges they 'knew and approved of' misleading statements claiming the companies had minimal exposure to subprime loans at the height of home mortgage bubble." Former Freddie chief financial officer Anthony "Buddy" Piszel, who in February 2011, was CFO of CoreLogic, "had received a notice from the SEC that the agency was considering taking action against him". He then resigned from CoreLogic. Piszel was not among the executives charged in December 2011. Piszel had been succeeded at Freddie by David Kellermann. Kellermann committed suicide during his tenure at Freddie.


title: Fannie Mae

text: "Now it appears that the government has negotiated a deal to hold the government, and government-appointed executives who have signed the same disclosures since my departure, blameless – so that it can sue individuals it fired years ago," he said in a statement last week.


title: Fannie Mae

text: In 2011, the agency had a number of other big banks in the crosshairs as well. JPMorgan Chase was one of 18 financial institutions the FHFA sued back in 2011, accusing them of selling to Fannie and Freddie securities that "had different and more risky characteristics than the descriptions contained in the marketing and sales materials". Fannie and Freddie, the government-backed housing finance firms, sustained massive losses on mortgage-backed securities as the housing market imploded, requiring a bailout of over $187 billion. The firms have been controlled by the FHFA since their 2008 rescue. Swiss lender UBS has already reached an $885 million settlement with the FHFA in connection with losses Fannie and Freddie sustained on over $6.4 billion worth of mortgage securities. The agency also settled for undisclosed sums earlier this year with Citigroup and General Electric. The FHFA is reportedly seeking $4 billion from JPMorgan to resolve its claims over $33 billion worth of securities sold to Fannie and Freddie by JPMorgan, Bear Stearns and WaMu. Bank of America (BAC), which acquired Countrywide and Merrill Lynch during the crisis era, could be on the hook for even more. The Charlotte-based firm is facing claims from the FHFA over $57 billion worth of mortgage bonds. In all, the 18 FHFA lawsuits cover more than $200 billion in allegedly misrepresented securities. The question of whether any individual bankers will be held to account is another matter. Thus far, criminal cases related to the packaging and sale of mortgage-backed securities have been conspicuously absent. The proposed JPMorgan settlement covers only civil charges, and would not settle the question of whether any individual executives engaged in wrongdoing. There is an ongoing federal criminal probe based in Sacramento, Calif., the state where Washington Mutual was based. JPMorgan originally sought to be protected from any criminal charges as part of this deal, but that request was rejected by the government.


title: Fannie Mae

text: On May 29, 2013, the "Los Angeles Times" reported that a former foreclosure specialist at Fannie Mae has been charged but pleaded "not guilty" to accepting a kickback from an Arizona real estate broker in a Santa Ana Federal court. Another lawsuit filed earlier in Orange County Superior Court, this one for wrongful termination, has been filed against Fannie Mae by an employee who claims she was fired when she tried to alert management to kickbacks. The employee claims that she started voicing her suspicions in 2009.


title: Fannie Mae

text: On May 8, 2013, Representative Scott Garrett introduced the Budget and Accounting Transparency Act of 2014 (H.R. 1872; 113th Congress) into the United States House of Representatives during the 113th United States Congress. The bill, if it were passed, would modify the budgetary treatment of federal credit programs, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bill would require that the cost of direct loans or loan guarantees be recognized in the federal budget on a fair-value basis using guidelines set forth by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. The changes made by the bill would mean that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were counted on the budget instead of considered separately and would mean that the debt of those two programs would be included in the national debt. These programs themselves would not be changed, but how they are accounted for in the United States federal budget would be. The goal of the bill is to improve the accuracy of how some programs are accounted for in the federal budget.


title: Fannie Mae

text: On May 11, 2015 "The Wall Street Journal" reported that A U.S. District Court judge said Nomura Holdings Inc. was not truthful in describing mortgage-backed securities sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, giving a victory to the companies' conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Judge Denise Cote asked the FHFA to propose updated damages to be paid by Nomura and co-defendant RBS Securities Inc., which underwrote some of the investments. At the outset of the case, the FHFA asked for about $1.1 billion. The order brought to conclusion a rare trial addressing alleged mortgage-related infractions committed during the housing boom. Over the past few years, more than a dozen firms chose to settle similar allegations brought by the FHFA rather than face a court battle. The settlements have brought Fannie and Freddie $18 billion in penalties. In her decision, Judge Cote wrote that Nomura, in offering documents for mortgage-backed securities sold to Fannie and Freddie, didn't accurately describe the loans' quality. "The magnitude of falsity, conservatively measured, is enormous", she wrote. During the boom, Fannie and Freddie invested billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities issued by such companies as Nomura. Those investments bolstered profits but, in the bust, contributed to steep losses that ultimately resulted in the companies' 2008 government takeover. Nomura and RBS were two of 18 financial institutions, including Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., targeted in 2011 by the FHFA, which alleged that the companies lied about the quality of the loans underlying the securities. During the nonjury trial, lawyers for the FHFA said that Nomura and RBS inflated values of homes behind some mortgages and sometimes said a home was owner-occupied when it was not.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Astoria is a port city and the seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1811, Astoria is the oldest city in the state and was the first permanent American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. The county is the northwest corner of Oregon, and Astoria is located on the south shore of the Columbia River, where the river flows into the Pacific Ocean. The city is named for John Jacob Astor, an investor and entrepreneur from New York City, whose American Fur Company founded Fort Astoria at the site and established a monopoly in the fur trade in the early 19th century. Astoria was incorporated by the Oregon Legislative Assembly on October 20, 1876.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: The city is served by the deepwater Port of Astoria. Transportation includes the Astoria Regional Airport. U.S. Route 30 and U.S. Route 101 are the main highways, and the Astoria–Megler Bridge connects to neighboring Washington across the river. The population was 10,181 at the 2020 census.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: During archeological excavations in Astoria and Fort Clatsop in 2012, trading items from American settlers with Native Americans were found, including Austrian glass beads and falconry bells. The present area of Astoria belonged to a large, prehistoric Native American trade system of the Columbia Plateau.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: The Lewis and Clark Expedition spent the winter of 1805–1806 at Fort Clatsop, a small log structure southwest of modern-day Astoria. The expedition had hoped a ship would come by that could take them back east, but instead, they endured a torturous winter of rain and cold. They later returned overland and by internal rivers, the way they had traveled west. Today, the fort has been recreated and is part of Lewis and Clark National Historical Park.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: In 1811, British explorer David Thompson, the first person known to have navigated the entire length of the Columbia River, reached the partially constructed Fort Astoria near the mouth of the river. He arrived two months after the Pacific Fur Company's ship, the "Tonquin". The fort constructed by the "Tonquin" party established Astoria as a U.S., rather than a British, settlement and became a vital post for American exploration of the continent. It was later used as an American claim in the Oregon boundary dispute with European nations.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: The Pacific Fur Company, a subsidiary of John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company, was created to begin fur trading in the Oregon Country. During the War of 1812, in 1813, the company's officers sold its assets to their Canadian rivals, the North West Company, which renamed the site Fort George. The fur trade remained under British control until U.S. pioneers following the Oregon Trail began filtering into the town in the mid-1840s. The Treaty of 1818 established joint U.S. – British occupancy of the Oregon Country.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Washington Irving, a prominent American writer with a European reputation, was approached by John Jacob Astor to mythologize the three-year reign of his Pacific Fur Company. "Astoria" (1835), written while Irving was Astor's guest, promoted the importance of the region in the American psyche. In Irving's words, the fur traders were "Sinbads of the wilderness", and their venture was a staging point for the spread of American economic power into both the continental interior and outward in Pacific trade.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: In 1846, the Oregon Treaty divided the mainland at the 49th parallel north, making Astoria officially part of the United States.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: As the Oregon Territory grew and became increasingly more colonized by Americans, Astoria likewise grew as a port city near the mouth of the great river that provided the easiest access to the interior. The first U.S. post office west of the Rocky Mountains was established in Astoria in 1847 and official state incorporation in 1876.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Astoria attracted a host of immigrants beginning in the late 19th century: Nordic settlers, primarily Swedes, Swedish speaking Finns, and Chinese soon became larger parts of the population. The Nordic settlers mostly lived in Uniontown, near the present-day end of the Astoria–Megler Bridge, and took fishing jobs; the Chinese tended to do cannery work, and usually lived either downtown or in bunkhouses near the canneries. By the late 1800s, 22% of Astoria's population was Chinese. Astoria also had a significant population of Indians, especially Sikhs from Punjab; the Ghadar Party, a political movement among Indians on the West Coast of the U.S. and Canada to overthrow British rule in India, was officially founded on July 15, 1913, in Astoria.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: In 1883, and again in 1922, downtown Astoria was devastated by fire, partly because the buildings were constructed mostly of wood, a readily available material. The buildings were entirely raised off the marshy ground on wooden pilings. Even after the first fire, the same building format was used. In the second fire, flames spread quickly again, and the collapsing streets took out the water system. Frantic citizens resorted to dynamite, blowing up entire buildings to create fire stops.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Astoria has served as a port of entry for over a century and remains the trading center for the lower Columbia basin. In the early 1900s, the Callendar Navigation Company was an important transportation and maritime concern based in the city. It has long since been eclipsed in importance by Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, as economic hubs on the coast of the Pacific Northwest. Astoria's economy centered on fishing, fish processing, and lumber. In 1945, about 30 canneries could be found along the Columbia River.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: In the early 20th century, the North Pacific Brewing Company contributed substantially to the economic well-being of the town. Before 1902, the company was owned by John Kopp, who sold the firm to a group of five men, one of whom was Charles Robinson, who became the company's president in 1907. The main plant for the brewery was located on East Exchange Street.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: As the Pacific salmon resource diminished, canneries were closed. In 1974, the Bumble Bee Seafoods corporation moved its headquarters out of Astoria and gradually reduced its presence until closing its last Astoria cannery in 1980. The lumber industry likewise declined in the late 20th century. Astoria Plywood Mill, the city's largest employer, closed in 1989. The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway discontinued service to Astoria in 1996, as it did not provide a large enough market.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: From 1921 to 1966, a ferry route across the Columbia River connected Astoria with Pacific County, Washington. In 1966, the Astoria–Megler Bridge was opened. The bridge completed U.S. Route 101 and linked Astoria with Washington on the opposite shore of the Columbia, replacing the ferry service.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Today, tourism, Astoria's growing art scene, and light manufacturing are the main economic activities of the city. Logging and fishing persist, but at a fraction of their former levels. Since 1982 it has been a port of call for cruise ships, after the city and port authority spent $10 million in pier improvements to accommodate these larger ships.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: To avoid Mexican ports of call during the swine flu outbreak of 2009, many cruises were rerouted to include Astoria. The floating residential community MS "The World" visited Astoria in June 2009.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: The town's seasonal sport fishing tourism has been active for several decades. Visitors attracted by heritage tourism and the historic elements of the city have supplanted fishing in the economy. Since the early 21st century, the microbrewery/brewpub scene and a weekly street market have helped popularize the area as a destination.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: In addition to the replicated Fort Clatsop, another point of interest is the Astoria Column, a tower high, built atop Coxcomb Hill above the town. Its inner circular staircase allows visitors to climb to see a panoramic view of the town, the surrounding lands, and the Columbia flowing into the Pacific. The tower was built in 1926. Financing was provided by the Great Northern Railway, seeking to encourage tourists, and Vincent Astor, a great-grandson of John Jacob Astor, in commemoration of the city's role in the family's business history and the region's early history.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Since 1998, artistically inclined fishermen and women from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest have traveled to Astoria for the Fisher Poets Gathering, where poets and singers tell their tales to honor the fishing industry and lifestyle.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Another popular annual event is the Dark Arts Festival, which features music, art, dance, and demonstrations of craft such as blacksmithing and glassblowing, in combination with offerings of a large array of dark craft brews. Dark Arts Festival began as a small gathering at a community arts space. Now Fort George Brewery hosts the event, which draws hundreds of visitors and tour buses from Seattle.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Astoria is the western terminus of the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail, a coast-to-coast bicycle touring route created in 1976 by the Adventure Cycling Association.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Three United States Coast Guard cutters: the "Steadfast", "Alert", and "Elm", are homeported in Astoria.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are covered by water.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Astoria lies within the Mediterranean climate zone (Köppen "Csb"), with cool winters and mild summers, although short heat waves can occur. Rainfall is most abundant in late fall and winter and is lightest in July and August, averaging about of rain each year. Snowfall is relatively rare, averaging under a year and frequently having none. Nevertheless, when conditions are ripe, significant snowfalls can occur.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Astoria is tied with Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Port Arthur, Texas, as the city with the highest average relative humidity in the contiguous United States. The average relative humidity in Astoria is 89% in the morning and 73% in the afternoon.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Annually, an average of only 4.2 afternoons have temperatures reaching or higher, and readings are rare. Normally, only one or two nights per year occur when the temperature remains at or above . An average of 31 mornings have minimum temperatures at or below the freezing mark. The record high temperature was on July 1, 1942, and June 27, 2021. The record low temperature was on December 8, 1972, and on December 21, 1990. Even with such a cold record low, afternoons usually remain mild in winter. On average. the coldest daytime high is whereas the lowest daytime maximum on record is . Even during brief heat spikes, nights remain cool. The warmest overnight low is set as early in the year as in May during 2008. Nights close to that record are common with the normally warmest night of the year being at .


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: On average, 191 days have measurable precipitation. The wettest "water year", defined as October 1 through September 30 of the next year, was from 1915 to 1916 with and the driest from 2000 to 2001 with . The most rainfall in one month was in December 1933, and the most in 24 hours was on November 25, 1998. The most snowfall in one month was in January 1950, and the most snow in 24 hours was on December 11, 1922.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: As of the 2010 census, 9,477 people, 4,288 households, and 2,274 families were residing in the city. The population density was . The 4,980 housing units had an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 89.2% White, 0.6% African American, 1.1% Native American, 1.8% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 3.9% from other races, and 3.3% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 9.8% of the population.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Of the 4,288 households, 24.6% had children under 18 living with them, 37.9% were married couples living together, 10.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.3% had a male householder with no wife present, and 47.0% were not families. About 38.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.1% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.15, and the average family size was 2.86.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: The median age in the city was 41.9 years; 20.3% of residents were under 18; 8.6% were between 18 and 24; 24.3% were from 25 to 44; 29.9% were from 45 to 64; and 17.1% were 65 or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.4% male and 51.6% female.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: As of the 2000 census, 9,813 people, 4,235 households, and 2,469 families resided in the city. The population density was 1,597.6 people per square mile (617.1 per km). The 4,858 housing units had an average density of 790.9 per square mile (305.5 per km). The racial makeup of the city was 91.08% White, 0.52% Black or African American, 1.14% Native American, 1.94% Asian, 0.19% Pacific Islander, 2.67% from other races, and 2.46% from two or more races. About 5.98% of the population were Hispanics or Latinos of any race.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: By ethnicity, 14.2% were German, 11.4% Irish, 10.2% English, 8.3% United States or American, 6.1% Finnish, 5.6% Norwegian, and 5.4% Scottish according to the 2000 United States Census.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Of the 4,235 households, 28.8% had children under 18 living with them, 43.5% were married couples living together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.7% were not families. About 35.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.6% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.26, and the average family size was 2.93.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: In the city the age distribution was 24.0% under 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 26.4% from 25 to 44, 24.5% from 45 to 64, and 15.9% were 65 or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.3 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 89.9 males.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: The median income for a household in the city was $33,011, and for a family was $41,446. Males had a median income of $29,813 versus $22,121 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,759. About 11.6% of families and 15.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 22.0% of those under 18 and 9.6% of those 65 or over.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Astoria operates under a council–manager form of city government. Voters elect four councilors by ward and a mayor, who each serve four-year terms. The mayor and council appoint a city manager to conduct the ordinary business of the city. The current mayor is Bruce Jones, a retired US Coast Guard captain, who took office in January 2019. His predecessor, Arline Lamear, served from 2015 to 2018.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: The Astoria School District has four primary and secondary schools, including Astoria High School. Clatsop Community College is the city's two-year college. The city also has a library and many parks with historical significance, plus the second oldest Job Corps facility (Tongue Point Job Corps) in the nation. Tongue Point Job Corps center is the only such location in the country which provides seamanship training.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: "The Astorian" (formerly "the Daily Astorian") is the main newspaper serving Astoria. It was established nearly , in 1873, and has been in publication continuously since that time. The "Coast River Business Journal" is a monthly business magazine covering Astoria, Clatsop County, and the Northwest Oregon coast. It, as with the Astorian, is part of the EO Media Group (formerly the East Oregonian Publishing Company) family of Oregon and Washington newspapers. The local NPR station is KMUN 91.9, and KAST 1370 is a local news-talk radio station.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Leroy E. "Ed" Parsons, called the "Father of Cable Television", developed one of the first community antenna television stations (CATV) in the United States in Astoria starting in 1948.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: The early 1960s television series "Route 66" filmed the episode entitled "One Tiger to a Hill" in Astoria; it was broadcast on September 21, 1962.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: "Shanghaied in Astoria" is a musical about Astoria's history that has been performed in Astoria every year since 1984.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: In recent popular culture, Astoria is most famous for being the setting of the 1985 film "The Goonies", which was filmed on location in the city. Other notable movies filmed in Astoria include "Short Circuit", "The Black Stallion", "Kindergarten Cop", "Free Willy", "", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III", "Benji the Hunted", "Come See the Paradise," "The Ring Two", "Into the Wild", "The Guardian" and "Green Room."


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: A scene in "The Real Thing", episode two of season five (in the 7th year), of the television series "Eureka" was set in Astoria. The character Jo Lupo parks her vehicle in an unauthorized location while she is meditating on the oceanfront. A tow truck is called to remove the vehicle. A law-enforcement officer whose shoulder clearly displays a patch that reads "Astoria, Oregon" speaks to Jo about the parking violation.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: The fourth album of the pop punk band The Ataris was titled "So Long, Astoria" as an allusion to "The Goonies". A song of the same title is the album's first track. The album's back cover features news clippings from Astoria, including a picture of the port's water tower from a 2002 article on its demolition.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: The pop punk band Marianas Trench has an album titled "Astoria". The band states the album was inspired by 1980s fantasy and adventure films, and "The Goonies" in particular. That film inspired the title, as it was set in Astoria, the album's artwork, as well as the title of their accompanying US tour ("Hey You Guys!!").


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: In the series finale of the TV show "Dexter", the title character, Dexter Morgan, ends up in Astoria as the series ends.


title: Astoria, Oregon

text: Two U.S. Navy cruisers were named USS "Astoria": A New Orleans-class heavy cruiser (CA-34) and a Cleveland class light cruiser (CL-90). The former was lost in the Pacific Ocean in combat at the Battle of Savo Island in August 1942, during World War II, and the latter was scrapped in 1971 after being removed from active duty in 1949.


title: Opera Mini

text: Opera Mini is a mobile web browser made by Opera. It was primarily designed for the Java ME platform, as a low-end sibling for Opera Mobile, but it is now developed exclusively for Android. It was previously developed for iOS, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone 8.1, BlackBerry, Symbian, and Bada. As of 2022, the Android build is the only version still under active development.


title: Opera Mini

text: Opera Mini was derived from the Opera web browser. Opera Mini requests web pages through Opera Software's compression proxy server. The compression server processes and compresses requested web pages before sending them to the mobile phone. The compression ratio is 90% and the transfer speed is increased by two to three times as a result. The pre-processing increases compatibility with web pages not designed for mobile phones. However, interactive sites which depend upon the device processing JavaScript do not work properly.


title: Opera Mini

text: In July 2012, Opera Software reported that Opera Mini had 168.8 million users as of March 2012. In February 2013, Opera reported 300 million unique Opera Mini active users and 150 billion page views served during that month. This represented an increase of 25 million users from September 2012.


title: Opera Mini

text: Opera Mini was derived from the Opera web browser for personal computers, which has been publicly available since 1996. Opera Mini was originally intended for use on mobile phones not capable of running a conventional Web browser. It was introduced on 10 August 2005, as a pilot project in cooperation with the Norwegian television station TV 2, and only available to TV 2 customers.


title: Opera Mini

text: A beta version was made available in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland on 20 October 2005. After the final version was launched in Germany on 10 November 2005, and quietly released to all countries through the Opera Mini website in December, the browser was officially launched worldwide on 24 January 2006.


title: Opera Mini

text: On 3 May 2006, Opera Mini 2.0 was released. It included new features such as the ability to download files, new custom skins, more search engine options on the built-in search bar, a speed dial option, new search engines, and improved navigation.


title: Opera Mini

text: On 1 November 2006, Opera Mini 3 beta introduced secure browsing, RSS feeds, photo uploading and content folding into its list of features and capabilities. Content folding works by folding long lists such as navigation bars into a single line that can be expanded as needed. A second beta was released on 22 November, and on 28 November, the final version of Opera Mini 3 was released.


title: Opera Mini

text: On 7 November 2007, Opera Mini 4 was released. According to Johan Schön, technical lead of Opera Mini development, the entire code was rewritten. Opera Mini 4 includes the ability to view web pages similarly to a desktop based browser by introducing Overview and Zoom functions, and a landscape view setting. In Overview mode, the user can scroll a zoomed-out version of certain web pages. Using a built-in pointer, the user can zoom into a portion of the page to provide a clearer view; this is similar to the functionality of Opera's Nintendo-based web browsers. This version also includes the ability to synchronise with Opera on a personal computer.


title: Opera Mini

text: Prior to Opera Mini 4, the browser was offered in two editions: Opera Mini Advanced for high-memory MIDP 2 phones, and Opera Mini Basic for low-memory MIDP 1 phones. Opera Mini 4 replaced Opera Mini Advanced. Originally, Google was the default search engine on Opera Mini. On 8 January 2007, Opera Software and Yahoo! announced a partnership to make Yahoo! search the default instead. On 27 February 2008, Opera Software announced that Google would henceforth be the default search engine for Opera Mini and Opera Mobile.


title: Opera Mini

text: A version for the Android operating system was announced on 10 April 2008. Rather than port the code to Android, a wrapper was created to translate Java ME API calls to Android API calls.


title: Opera Mini

text: On 16 August 2009, Opera Software released Opera Mini 5.0 beta, which included tabbed browsing, a password manager, improved touch screen support, and a new interface, with a visual Speed Dial similar to the one introduced by Opera Software in their desktop browser.


title: Opera Mini

text: The browser's use of compression and encrypted proxy-based technology to reduce traffic and speed page display has the side effect of allowing it to circumvent several approaches to Internet censorship. Since 20 November 2009, there have been reports from Chinese users that when they use Opera Mini, they are redirected to an error page leading them to download Opera Mini China version. This is almost certainly due to the Chinese government being concerned that users are using Opera Mini to bypass the Great Firewall of China. Opera agreed to route all of their traffic through government servers.


title: Opera Mini

text: In 2009–10: A press release announcing that Indonesia's Smart Telecom had chosen Opera Mini for their devices said that Opera Mini was the world's most popular mobile browser, and that Russia and Indonesia were the largest users.


title: Opera Mini

text: On 3 September 2014, Opera started taking registrations for the beta version of Opera Mini for Windows Phone. Opera Mini was released for Windows Phone six days later, on 9 September 2014, as a public beta. This marked Opera's return to Microsoft's mobile platform since the demise of Windows Mobile.


title: Opera Mini

text: Opera Mini uses a server to translate HTML, CSS and JavaScript into a more compact format. It can also shrink any images to fit as the handset screen. This step makes Opera Mini fast.


title: Opera Mini

text: Most Opera Mini versions use only the server-based compression method, with maximal compression but some issues with interactive web apps. Opera Mini can operate in three compression modes: "mini" (or "extreme" on Android versions), "turbo" (or "high" on Android versions) and uncompressed. The turbo and the mini modes reduce the amount of data transferred, and increase speed on the slower connections.


title: Opera Mini

text: The functionality of the Mini mode is somewhat different from a conventional Web browser, with the amount of data which has to be transferred much reduced, but with some loss to functionality. Unlike straightforward web browsers, Opera Mini fetches all content through a proxy server, renders it using the Presto layout engine, and reformats web pages into a format more suitable for small screens. A page is compressed, then delivered to the phone in a markup language called Opera Binary Markup Language (OBML), which Opera Mini can interpret. According to Opera Software, the data compression makes transfer time about two to three times faster, and the pre-processing improves the display of web pages not designed for small screens. The turbo mode was added later and is similar to Mini mode but bypasses compression for interactive functionality, at the expense of less extreme data compression. The turbo and uncompressed modes use the "WebView" on Android and the WebKit layout engine on iOS.


title: Opera Mini

text: The Java ME and Windows Phone versions only have access to the mini compression mode. Other versions can switch between various modes, gaining functionality at the cost of lower or no compression. Opera Software claims that Opera Mini reduced the amount of data transmitted up to 90% in the mini (extreme) mode; in turbo (high) mode, it reduced amount up to 60%, similar to Google Chrome's Reduced Data mode.


title: Opera Mini

text: By default, Opera Mini opens one connection to the proxy servers, which it keeps open and re-uses as required. This improves transfer speed and enables the servers to quickly synchronize changes to bookmarks stored in Opera Mini server.


title: Opera Mini

text: When the Opera Software company launched Opera Mini in 2006, they had over 100 Linux-based proxy servers to handle Opera Mini traffic.


title: Opera Mini

text: From 16 March 2015, Opera Mini's extreme compression mode uses an upgraded version of the Presto layout engine that is included in Opera 12. Consequently, Opera Mini supports most of the web standards supported in Opera 12. Presto's development has continued for Opera Mini and further support was added for HTML5 input types, CSS Flexbox model, CSS rem units and ECMAScript 5. However, unlike the desktop edition of Opera, frames are flattened because of client limitations, and dotted or dashed borders are displayed as solid borders due to bandwidth and memory issues. As Opera Mini reformats web pages, it does not pass the Acid2 standards compliance test. Opera Mini supports bi-directional text, meaning that it can correctly display right-to-left scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew in addition to languages written left-to-right. However, it will not display right-to-left text if the font size is set to "small" or "very small". Indic and Chinese scripts are supported only if an appropriate font is installed on the device as the default system font.


title: Opera Mini

text: For devices with screens 128 pixels wide or smaller, the default rendering mode is Small-Screen Rendering (SSR). In this mode, the page is reformatted into a single vertical column so that it need only be scrolled vertically. Long lists and navigation bars are automatically collapsed (hiding most of the list or bar) by a feature known as "content folding". A plus (+) sign is displayed next to the collapsed content; when clicked, it toggles content folding. Web developers can turn on SSR on the desktop edition of Opera to see how their websites will be displayed on mobile editions of Opera. In SSR mode images are scaled down to no more than 70% of the screen size in either direction.


title: Opera Mini

text: Opera Mini can send content in bitmap image form if a font required is not available on the device, which is useful for indic scripts. Hindi, Bengali and a few other non-Latin character sets are supported.


title: Opera Mini

text: When browsing the Web in Opera Mini mode, JavaScript is "processed" by the proxy server, and is merely "rendered" on the device. This limits interactivity. Scripts cannot be run in the background on the device. If a script is paused (on the server), the browser must communicate with the server to unpause it. JavaScript will only run for a couple of seconds on the Mini server before pausing, due to resource constraints. On Opera Mini, before the page is sent to the mobile device, its codice_1 events are fired and all scripts are allowed a maximum of two seconds to execute. The codice_2 and codice_3 functions are disabled, so scripts designed to wait a certain amount of time before executing will not execute at all. After the scripts have finished or the timeout is reached, all scripts are stopped and the page is compressed and sent to the mobile device. Once on the device, only a handful of events are allowed to trigger scripts:


title: Opera Mini

text: When one of these events is triggered, it sends a request to the proxy server to process the event. The proxy server then executes the JavaScript and returns the revised page to the mobile device. Pop-ups, if not blocked by the JavaScript restrictions, replace the web page being viewed. Opera has published Web content authoring guidelines to assist authors.


title: Opera Mini

text: Opera Mini can run in Turbo and Uncompressed modes, in addition to Mini mode. In Turbo mode, the amount of data transferred is still much reduced by compression, but, unlike Mini mode, JavaScript is not intercepted by the server and works properly.


title: Opera Mini

text: Opera Mini encrypts the connection between the mobile device and the Opera proxy server for security. The encryption key is obtained on the first start by requesting random keys a certain number of times. Opera Mini supports most advanced version of Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol


title: Opera Mini

text: However, Opera Mini's Extreme mode does not offer true end-to-end security when visiting HTTPS encrypted websites only for data saving purpose. With "Extreme/Mini mode" when visiting an encrypted web page, first the Opera Mini's servers decrypt the page, compress it for data saving then re-encrypt it themselves and finally forward it to the destination phone.


title: Opera Mini

text: While browsing a secured site with "High/Turbo mode" or "Uncompressed mode" the connection isn't intercepted by the Opera Mini server. That means High mode or Uncompressed mode does not break end-to-end integrity.


title: Opera Mini

text: Opera Mini uses cloud acceleration and data compression technology. Opera Mini servers act as a proxy which compresses and renders the data of web pages before sending it to users. This process helps to load web content faster.


title: Opera Mini

text: The display may be toggled between portrait and landscape mode by keystrokes, or will switch automatically on phones with orientation sensors. The default orientation can be changed.


title: Opera Mini

text: The image quality may be set to "Low", "Medium", or "High". Page load times are affected by the chosen image quality setting.


title: Opera Mini

text: Opera Mini supports only one font, which can be set to "Small", "Medium", or "Large" size. If a web page uses Courier or a generic monospaced font, the one font is still used, but the characters are spaced out so that each character takes up the same amount of space.


title: Opera Mini

text: Opera Mini's address bar is capable of using several pre-configured search engines. The user can add more search engines. The default search engines are Google and Wikipedia.


title: Opera Mini

text: Opera Mini features an ad blocker. When activated, Opera Mini servers try to filter out advertisement before rendering the page and sending it to the client phone.


title: Opera Mini

text: Opera Mini features an AI-powered news aggregator, serving personalised news, night mode and private browsing. And can save bookmarks, download files, streaming, save web pages for offline reading, and it remembers the user's browsing history.


title: Opera Mini

text: By signed into an Opera Account; Saved Bookmarks, Speed Dials, Opened Tabs could be backed-up and synchronized between different phones or with the Opera browser on computers, using the "Opera Sync" service. And can be accessed through web interface at Opera synchronization


title: Opera Mini

text: Opera Mini relies on data centers processing the Web page before sending it back to the phone in a compressed binary form. Opera Software operates data centers in the United States, Norway, China, Korea, Poland and Iceland.


title: Opera Mini

text: Several mobile network companies pre-install Opera Mini on their mobile phones, including Telenor, AT&T, Vodafone, T-Mobile, KDDI, Omnitel, Pannon GSM, Telefónica Móviles de España and TMN.


title: Opera Mini

text: The following devices came pre-installed with Opera Mini . Some listed devices only included Opera Mini when bought from certain network operators.


title: Opera Mini

text: While not officially supported on ChromeOS, Vlad Filippov published a guide that teaches how to run Opera Mini inside the Chromium browser.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: Bugsy Malone is a 1976 gangster musical comedy film written and directed by Alan Parker (in his feature film directorial debut). A co-production of United States and United Kingdom, it features an ensemble cast, featuring only child actors playing adult roles, with Jodie Foster, Scott Baio and John Cassisi in major roles. The film tells the story of the rise of "Bugsy Malone" and the battle for power between "Fat Sam" and "Dandy Dan".


title: Bugsy Malone

text: Set in New York City, it is a gangster movie spoof, substituting machine guns that fire gobs of whipped cream instead of bullets. The film is based loosely on events in New York and Chicago during Prohibition era, specifically the exploits of real-life gangsters such as Al Capone and Bugs Moran. Parker lightened the subject matter considerably for the children's market and the film received a G rating in the U.S. "Bugsy Malone" premiered at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. It was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on July 12, 1976 by Fox-Rank Distributors, and in the United States by Paramount Pictures on September 15. Although a commercial success in the UK, it was not a financial success overseas. The film received critical acclaim, with praise drawn for Parker's screenplay and direction, its musical numbers, unique narrative and the performances of the cast .


title: Bugsy Malone

text: In 2003, was voted #19 on a list of the 100 greatest musicals, as chosen by viewers of Channel 4 in the UK. In 2008, "Empire" ranked it 353rd on their list of 500 greatest movies of all time.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: The film received eight nominations at the 30th British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film and won three: Best Supporting Actress and Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles for Foster and Best Screenplay for Parker. The film also received three nominations at the 34th Golden Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: During the prohibition era, a mobster named Roxy Robinson is "splurged" by members of a rival gang, using rapid-fire cream-shooting "splurge guns". Once splurged, a gangster is "all washed up... finished". Mob boss Fat Sam Staccetto introduces himself in the opening narration, as well as introducing Bugsy Malone, a penniless boxing promoter who is 'a little too popular with the broads... but a nice guy' ("Bugsy Malone").


title: Bugsy Malone

text: At Fat Sam's Grand Slam Speakeasy, there is much dancing and singing ("Fat Sam's Grand Slam"). Fat Sam rants about the loss of Roxy, who was one of his best men, laying the blame on up-and-coming rival mob boss Dandy Dan and worried that Dan is trying to take control of his criminal empire. Blousey Brown, an aspiring singer and actress, has come for an audition at the speakeasy, but Sam is too distracted to see her. Bugsy meets Blousey when he trips over her luggage; he is instantly smitten and attempts to flirt with her. Just then, Fat Sam's is raided by Dandy Dan's men, who shoot up the place. Over the next few weeks Dan's men continue to attack Fat Sam's empire, eventually taking over all of Sam's moneymaking rackets and splurging members of Fat Sam's gang until only the speakeasy remains. Sam sends all his available men except his personal enforcer Knuckles, to see if they can track down the guns but they are ambushed at a laundry and splurged by Dandy Dan's gang ("Bad Guys").


title: Bugsy Malone

text: Bugsy returns to Fat Sam's to arrange a new audition for Blousey. Fat Sam's girlfriend, the chanteuse Tallulah, makes a pass at him and, although Bugsy rejects her flirtation, Tallulah plants a big kiss on Bugsy's forehead just as Blousey enters. Blousey is jealous but performs anyway, using her personal feelings to boost her performance ("I'm Feelin' Fine"). Fat Sam hires Blousey after her audition and she leaves quickly, refusing to speak to Bugsy.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: Since most of his gang have been splurged, Sam hires Bugsy as a driver to accompany him to a truce meeting with Dandy Dan. He also takes along "Looney" Bergonzi, a top Chicago mob enforcer. The meeting is a trap, but Bugsy helps Fat Sam escape and is paid $200 by a grateful Sam. Bugsy and Blousey reconcile and have a romantic outing on a lake where Bugsy promises to take her to Hollywood. When he returns Sam's car to the garage he is attacked and his money is stolen. Bugsy is saved by Leroy Smith, who assaults the attackers and drives them away. Bugsy realizes that Leroy has the potential to be a great boxer and introduces him to boxing coach Cagey Joe ("So You Wanna Be a Boxer?"). Fat Sam again seeks Bugsy's aid after Knuckles is accidentally splurged by a malfunctioning splurge gun knockoff. Bugsy resists but Fat Sam offers him $400, enough money to keep his promise to Blousey, although she is disappointed when she learns that Bugsy hasn't bought the tickets to California yet ("Ordinary Fool"). Bugsy and Leroy follow Dandy Dan's men to a warehouse where the guns are being stashed. They realize the two of them can't take the place alone, so Bugsy recruits a large group of down-and-out workers at a soup kitchen ("Down and Out"). They successfully assault the warehouse and take the crates of guns.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: Taking refuge at Fat Sam's Speakeasy, Bugsy and his army disguise themselves as waiters and patrons and await Dan's arrival. Chaos ensues as a massive splurge gun fight erupts and unarmed patrons throw cream pies, covering everyone (except Bugsy and Blousey). Razamataz the piano player is hit from behind and falls onto the keys, striking a single bass note. The tone silences the room, and the cream-covered crowd realize they can all be friends. They perform the final number ("Bad Guys Reprise" / "You Give a Little Love") as Bugsy and Blousey leave for Hollywood.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: "Bugsy Malone" was Alan Parker's first feature film. Parker was trying to find a film project that was not "parochial" and decided upon an American gangster setting: "I had four young children and we used to go to a cottage in Derbyshire at weekends. On the long, boring car journey up there, I started telling them the story of a gangster called Bugsy Malone. They’d ask me questions and I’d make up answers, based on my memories of watching old movie reruns as a kid." His eldest son suggested children should be cast as the "heroes".


title: Bugsy Malone

text: The director chose to cast several unknown actors in the film. To find his Fat Sam, Parker visited a Brooklyn classroom, asking for "the naughtiest boy in class". The students were unanimous in selecting John Cassisi, and Parker gave him the role. Florrie Dugger (Blousey) originally was cast in a smaller role; when the actress cast as Blousey suddenly grew taller than Baio, Dugger was promoted. She had been "discovered" at RAF Chicksands, an air force base in Bedfordshire where her American father was stationed. At the time of filming, all of the cast were under 17 years old.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: Parker cast Baio after he slammed down the script and stormed out of his audition. Baio later remembered:


title: Bugsy Malone

text: In Los Angeles, Parker met a 12 year old Jodie Foster, who at the time was about to start the filming of Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver". About casting Foster as Tallulah and working with her, Parker said:


title: Bugsy Malone

text: Parker chose Paul Williams to score the film in order to get a more "palatable" modern sound, and simply because he liked him. Williams had scored Brian De Palma's commercial failure "Phantom of the Paradise", but had also written huge pop-radio hits (such as "We've Only Just Begun" (lyrics), and "(Just An) Old Fashioned Love Song"). In fact, Williams would soon win an Oscar for his song "Evergreen" from the film "A Star Is Born" (1976).


title: Bugsy Malone

text: Williams felt that "... the challenge for me was to provide songs that reflected the period ... and yet maintained an energy that would hold the young audiences attention." According to Parker, Williams was writing while on tour, recording songs in different cities, and sending the completed tapes to Hollywood. Arriving during the first pre-shoot rehearsals, the songs had to be accepted and used as they were, with voices by Williams, Archie Hahn, and others.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: Neither the director nor the songwriter were comfortable with the results. Williams later wrote "I'm really proud of the work and the only thing I've ever doubted is the choice of using adult voices. Perhaps, I should have given the kids a chance to sing the songs." Parker also commented: "Watching the film after all these years, this is one aspect that I find the most bizarre. Adult voices coming out of these kids' mouths? I had told Paul that I didn't want squeaky kids' voices and he interpreted this in his own way. Anyway, as the tapes arrived, scarcely weeks away from filming, we had no choice but to go along with it!"


title: Bugsy Malone

text: The film was rehearsed and shot in England, largely on Pinewood Studios' "H" stage, with locations in Black Park Country Park (Wexham, Buckinghamshire) and primarily the former Huntley & Palmers buildings in Reading, Berkshire.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: The "splurge firearm" proved to be problematic. After initial experiments with cream-filled wax balls proved painful, Parker decided to abandon the idea of filming the firearms directly. Instead, the firearms fired ping-pong balls, and a fast cut to a victim being pelted with "splurge" was used to convey the impression of the rapid-firing firearms.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "Bugsy Malone" holds a score of 81% based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 6.50/10. The website's consensus reads, "Delightfully bizarre, "Bugsy Malone" harnesses immense charm from its cast of child actors playing wise guys with precocious pluck." Metacritic gave the film a score of 71 based on seven reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Bugsy Malone

text: Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "a charming one" with "yet another special performance by Jodie Foster". Gene Siskel also gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and said that "what makes "Bugsy Malone" really worth watching—as opposed to being just a cute idea—are the fine performers, terrific choreography, catchy songs, and bright photography." "Variety" wrote that the film had "charm, neat acting by an all-youngster cast, a tongue-in-cheek script and dialog, lilting songs, and score", but that audiences may find it "a bit fragile over its hour-and-a-half duration, and its content and approach just that bit too clever." Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" wrote "The world that Alan Parker has created in 'Bugsy Malone' is very peculiar, but he is remarkably successful considering the terrible odds against such a stunt in the first place." Charles Champlin of the "Los Angeles Times" called it "a rare, original, tuneful, lighthearted, charming, and preposterously innocent family film". Gary Arnold of "The Washington Post" panned the film as "a freakish embarrassment" and an "icky misconception", though he singled out Jodie Foster for praise as an actress whose "precociousness is truly extraordinary". Pauline Kael of "The New Yorker" called the film "nothing but its godawful idea", writing "We're not watching actors in a story, we're watching kids doing a stunt, and so we're primed to ooh and aah, the way the audience does for a chimp on the Carson show."


title: Bugsy Malone

text: "Bugsy Malone" was not a commercial success in the U.S., bringing in just over $2.7 million. Paramount gave it a limited release, usually in second-tier theaters in a double-bill with "The Bad News Bears", which had been out for six months and was no longer much of a draw. According to Parker, the film was "quite successful" in the United Kingdom. By 1985, it had earned an estimated profit of £1,854,000.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: The film garnered 15 award nominations, including "Best Motion Picture (Musical/Comedy)", "Best Original Score" and "Best Original Song" (for the title track) from the Golden Globes, and an Oscar for "Best Original Song Score" (Paul Williams). The film was in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival. Jodie Foster received two BAFTAs, "Best Supporting Actress" and "Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles", however, both her nominations were for her previous year's work in "Taxi Driver", in addition to her work on "Bugsy Malone". Alan Parker received the BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay, and a nomination for Best Direction. Geoffrey Kirkland won the BAFTA Award for Best Production Design. Additionally, Paul Williams received a nomination for the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music, and Monica Howe a Best Costume Design nomination. The film received a Best Picture nomination.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: In the early 1980s, "Bugsy Malone" was released on VHS. On 16 April 1996, it was re-released by Paramount on VHS. A region 2 DVD has been available since 2003 and although the film has never been released on Region 1 DVD, it has been available through Internet sites as an Asian import supporting Region 1 (US). On 9 September 2008, Arista/SME released a Blu-ray version, encoded for "all regions", as a United Kingdom import. This edition includes a director's commentary as well as other special features. A new 4K restoration was released as part of the "Paramount Presents" line on 31 August 2021.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: The film soundtrack album was originally released as an LP in 1976. In March 1996, Polydor UK released the soundtrack on CD.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: Parker wrote the book for a stage adaptation of "Bugsy Malone", using Williams' music. This premiered in the West End in 1983 at Her Majesty's Theatre and ran for 300 performances. It was directed by Michael Dolenz and the cast featured Catherine Zeta-Jones as Tallulah. Unlike the film version, the young cast perform their own songs rather than being dubbed by adult voices. In 1997, the National Youth Music Theatre mounted an all-youth version at the Queen's Theatre, starring Sheridan Smith and Jamie Bell. Another revival played in 2015 and again in 2016 at the Lyric Hammersmith where it was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival. The Lyric Hammersmith production toured the UK from July 2022, before a Christmas run at Alexandra Palace in London.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: The only cast recording of the stage show released to date is by the National Youth Music Theatre, released in 1998. This includes all the songs featured in the film and two new songs written by Williams : "That's Why They Call Him Dandy" and "Show Business". There is also some additional incidental orchestral score, such as an "Overture" and "Exit Music", with music arranged by John Pearson. The recording features a young Sheridan Smith as Tallulah. As the film version dubbed the songs with adult voices, this is the only released version with the songs performed by children and young adults. Track Listing -


title: Bugsy Malone

text: In 2003, "Bugsy Malone" was voted #19 on a list of the 100 greatest musicals, as chosen by viewers of Channel 4 in the UK, placing it higher than "The Phantom of the Opera", "Cats", and "The King and I". In 2005, "Bugsy Malone" was voted 39th on a list of the 100 greatest family films (also compiled by Channel 4) ahead of "Beetlejuice" and "The Princess Bride" and behind "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" and "It's a Wonderful Life". "Bugsy Malone" ranks 353rd on "Empire Magazine"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: A 2003 television documentary called "Bugsy Malone: After They Were Famous" features a reunion and interviews with Jodie Foster, Scott Baio, John Cassisi, and Florrie Dugger. The British actors who played Fat Sam's gang are also reunited at Pinewood Studios. The documentary reported that Dugger, who (unlike her co-stars) had never acted again, had chosen to pursue a career in the United States Air Force Medical Service.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: In 2010, UK band Silvery included a cover of "You Give a Little Love" on their second album "Railway Architecture", and Olly Murs, runner-up in the 2009 UK series of "The X Factor", sampled "So You Wanna Be a Boxer" in his song "Hold On" that can be found on his debut album.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: In 2017, the song "You Give A Little Love" was sung by a children's chorus at the end of a Netflix "Black Mirror" episode (Season 4 Episode 3 "Crocodile").


title: Bugsy Malone

text: Sometime in the 2000s, Coca-Cola Ltd. (Canada) made an animated ad using 'You Give A Little Love' that was only screened in movie theaters before any trailers.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: The song "Ordinary Fool" has been covered by numerous artists including Ella Fitzgerald and The Carpenters.


title: Bugsy Malone

text: Graham Thompson adapted the film into a 1976 comic book, which was only released in the United Kingdom.


title: Fantastic Planet

text: Fantastic Planet (; , lit. "The Wild Planet") is a 1973 experimental adult animated science fiction film, directed by René Laloux and written by Laloux and Roland Topor, the latter of whom also completed the film's production design. The film was animated at Jiří Trnka Studio in Prague. The film was an international co-production between companies from France and Czechoslovakia. The allegorical story, about humans living on a strange planet dominated by giant humanoid aliens who consider them animals, is based on the 1957 novel "Oms en série" by French writer Stefan Wul.


title: Fantastic Planet

text: A working title while in development was "Sur la planète Ygam" ("On the Planet Ygam"), which is where most of the story takes place; the actual title ("The Fantastic/Savage Planet") is the name of Ygam's moon. Production began in 1963. "Fantastic Planet" was awarded the Grand Prix special jury prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, and in 2016, it was ranked the 36th greatest animated movie ever by "Rolling Stone".


title: Fantastic Planet

text: In the distant future, the gargantuan blue humanoid Traags (in French and Czech spelling: Draag) have brought human beings (who are called Oms as a play on the French word for "man", "homme") from Earth to the planet Ygam, where they maintain a technologically and spiritually advanced society. The Traags consider Oms animals, and while they keep some as pets, others live in the wilderness and are periodically slaughtered by the Traags to control their population. Traags have much longer lifespans than Oms, but reproduce much less.


title: Fantastic Planet

text: When an Om mother is tortured to death by three Traag children, her orphaned infant is found by Master Sinh, a key Traag leader, and his daughter Tiwa, who keeps the boy as a pet and names him Terr. Tiwa loves Terr and is careful not to hurt him, but, in accordance with her parents' instructions, gives him a collar with which she can pull him in any direction. She brings Terr to sessions in which she receives her education using a headset that transmits knowledge into her mind; a defect in Terr's collar allows him to receive the knowledge too. Around the time that Tiwa grows into her teens and first performs Traag meditation, which allows the species to travel with their minds, she loses some interest in Terr, who has become a young man and acquired much Traag knowledge. He escapes into the wilderness, stealing Tiwa's headset.


title: Fantastic Planet

text: There he runs into a wild female Om, who cuts off his collar and introduces him to her tribe, which lives in an abandoned Traag park full of strange creatures and landscapes. Terr shows them how to use the headset to acquire Traag knowledge and literacy, winning the right to do so in a duel. The literacy they gain allows them to read a Traag announcement that the park will be purged of Oms, and, when the purge comes, some are slaughtered by Traag technology while others escape, joining forces with another tribe. They are attacked by two Traag passers-by and manage to kill one of them before escaping to an abandoned Traag rocket depot, much to the outrage of Traag leaders.


title: Fantastic Planet

text: They live there for years, joined by many other Oms. Due to the knowledge acquired from Terr's headset, they manage to replicate Traag technology, including two rockets; they hope to leave Ygam for its moon, the Fantastic Planet, and live there safe from Traags. When a large-scale Traag purge hits the depot and many Oms are slaughtered, a group led by Terr uses the rockets to flee to the Fantastic Planet, where they discover large statues that Traags travel to during meditation and use to meet beings from other galaxies in a strange mating ritual that maintains their species. The Oms destroy some of the statues, threatening the Traags' existence; the genocide of Oms is halted on Ygam, and, facing a crisis, the Traags negotiate for peace. The Oms agree to leave the Fantastic Planet to the Traags for their meditations, and in return, an artificial satellite is put into orbit around Ygam and given to the Oms as a new home. This leads to an era of peaceful coexistence between the two species, who now benefit from each other's way of thinking.


title: Fantastic Planet

text: The soundtrack was originally pressed on vinyl during the mid-70's in France. These original pressings command a high dollar on the secondary market given the soundtrack's limited release. In 2000, DC Recordings released the soundtrack on CD, and the soundtrack was later reissued on LP.


title: Fantastic Planet

text: The film's narrative has been considered to be an allegory about animal rights and human rights, as well as racism. Sean Axmaker of Turner Classic Movies referred to the film as "nothing if not allegorical", writing that "it's not a stretch to see the fight against oppression reflected in the civil rights struggle in the United States, the French in Algeria, apartheid in South Africa, and (when injustice takes a turn to wholesale annihilation of the 'inferior' race) the Holocaust itself".


title: Fantastic Planet

text: Liz Ohanesian of "LA Weekly" speculated on the film being a commentary on animal rights, using the Traag's treatment of the Oms as evidence and writing that the film places "humans in roles of pets and pests". Mike D'Angelo of "The A.V. Club" wrote that "The Traag-Om dynamic is broad enough to be multipurpose, reflecting both racism and animal rights via 'How would "you" like it?' role reversal".


title: Fantastic Planet

text: "Fantastic Planet" has received generally positive reviews. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 91% based on 32 reviews with an average rating of 7.24/10. The site's critical consensus reads ""Fantastic Planet" is an animated epic that is by turns surreal and lovely, fantastic and graceful".


title: Fantastic Planet

text: Howard Thompson of "The New York Times" wrote that the film offers "original, thoughtful, often strong (but tasteful) animation". Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" called it "disquieting, eerie and vastly imaginative." Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "an animated piece of science-fiction pretending to be a Meaningful Statement … According to publicists for the film, the visuals and story begin to make sense if your mind is chemically altered. I doubt it."


title: Fantastic Planet

text: Among retrospective reviews, Carson Lund of "Slant Magazine" gave the film a score of three-and-a-half out of five possible stars, writing that "by the film’s conclusion, it’s hard to feel comfortable with similar episodes on our own imperfect planet". Mike D'Angelo of "The A.V. Club" gave the film a rating of "B+", writing that ""Fantastic Planet" [should] seem extremely dated, yet it’s ultimately too singular to feel beholden to a particular era. It truly earns the adjective in its title". Alan Morrison of "Empire" gave the film four out of five stars and called it "Surreal and wonderful in a way not often seen from Europe".


title: Fantastic Planet

text: Maitland McDonagh of "TV Guide" gave the film three out of four stars, calling it an "Eerie, surreal and a welcome respite from Disney-style animation". Scott Thill of "Wired" called the film "a sterling example of the trippy animation ambition of the late '60s and early '70s". Gary Dauphin of "The Village Voice" wrote that "Although the visuals are worth the ticket alone, "Fantastic Planet" also crackles with emotional and political resonance". Paul Trandahl of Common Sense Media gave the film a rating of four out of five stars, calling the film "A jarring examination of racism and intolerance".


title: Fantastic Planet

text: Following various public domain VHS releases of the film, it was released by Anchor Bay Entertainment on VHS and DVD on 16 February 1999. In 2006, Eureka Entertainment released the film on DVD in the United States as #34 in their Masters of Cinema line. In August 2010, Eureka released a restored high-definition transfer of the film on Blu-ray, with special features including a collection of Laloux's short films and a 27-minute documentary called "Laloux sauvage". Eureka, a London-based company, has produced the edition only as a Region B release.


title: Fantastic Planet

text: On 23 October 2007, Facets Video and Accent Cinema released a newly restored version on DVD, including many bonus features never available before. In June 2016, the Criterion Collection released the film on Blu-ray and DVD.


title: Midway Games

text: Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included "Mortal Kombat", "Rampage", "Spy Hunter", "NBA Jam", "Cruis'n", and "NFL Blitz". Midway also acquired the rights to video games that were originally developed by Williams Electronics and Atari Games, such as "Defender", "Joust", "Robotron 2084", "Gauntlet", and the "Rush" series.


title: Midway Games

text: The company was founded as Midway Manufacturing in 1958, as an amusement game manufacturer. The company was then purchased by Bally Manufacturing in 1969, and used the Bally Midway name in the 1980s. In 1973, Midway moved into the interactive entertainment industry, developing and publishing arcade video games. The company scored its first mainstream hit with the U.S. distribution of "Space Invaders" in 1978. Bally then merged its pinball division into Midway in 1982. In 1988, Midway was purchased and re-incorporated by WMS Industries Inc. In 199, WMS purchased Tradewest to bring home video game market in-house, with it becoming Midway Home Entertainment in 1996, the same year that Midway made its initial public offering of stock. In 1998, WMS spun off its remaining shares of Midway. Midway was ranked the fourth largest-selling video game publisher in 2000.


title: Midway Games

text: After 2000, Midway continued to develop and publish video games for home and handheld video game machines, but it experienced large annual net losses and engaged in a series of stock and debt offerings and other financings and borrowings. Sumner Redstone, the head of Viacom and CBS Corporation, increased his stake in Midway from about 15% in 1998 to about 87% by the end of 2007. In December 2008, Redstone sold all his stock and $70 million of Midway debt to Mark Thomas, a private investor, for $100,000.


title: Midway Games

text: In February 2009, Midway Games filed in Delaware for bankruptcy. Warner Bros. purchased most of Midway's assets, and Midway settled with Mark Thomas to relinquish his Midway stock and debt. The U.S. District Court in Chicago dismissed a lawsuit alleging that former officers of Midway misled shareholders while selling their own stock. In 2010, the bankruptcy court dismissed claims against Redstone concerning his sale of the company to Thomas and approved Midway's plan of liquidation. Midway terminated the public registration of its securities in June 2010.


title: Midway Games

text: Midway Mfg. Co. began in 1958 as an independent manufacturer of amusement equipment founded by Henry Ross and Marcine Wolverton. It was purchased by Bally in 1969. Bally, at that time, was a leader in the manufacture of slot machines. After some years making mechanical arcade games such as puck bowling and simulated western shoot-out, Midway became an early American maker of arcade video games. Throughout the 1970s, Midway had a close alliance with Japanese video game publisher Taito, with both companies regularly licensing their games to each other for distribution in their respective country.


title: Midway Games

text: Meanwhile, Midway's breakthrough success came in 1978, with the licensing and distribution of Taito's seminal arcade game "Space Invaders" in America. This was followed by Midway's licensing and distributing the U.S. version of Namco's "Pac-Man" in 1980, and its sequel, "Ms. Pac-Man", in 1982. Also in 1982, Midway became Bally Midway Mfg. Co. after Bally merged its pinball division with Midway. Three games released that year, including "Satan's Hollow", were the first to feature the Bally/Midway brand. From the late 1970s through the late 1980s, Midway was the leading producer of arcade video games in the United States.


title: Midway Games

text: Bally Midway was purchased in 1988 by the arcade and pinball game company Williams Electronics Games through its holding company WMS Industries Inc. and its name was changed back to Midway Manufacturing. Midway moved its headquarters from Franklin Park, Illinois to Williams' then-headquarters in Chicago, and WMS reincorporated Midway as a Delaware corporation. Although WMS retained many R&D employees from the original Midway, only two game designers were retained: "Rampage" designers Brian Colin and Jeff Nauman. WMS obtained the right from Bally to use the "Bally" brand for its pinball games since Bally had completely left the arcade/pinball industry to concentrate on casinos and slot machines.


title: Midway Games

text: Under WMS ownership, Midway initially continued to produce arcade games under the Bally/Midway label, while producing pinball machines under the "Bally" brand. In 1991, however, Midway absorbed Williams' video game division and stopped using the "Bally/Midway" label for its arcade games. In 1992, the company's "The Addams Family" machine became the best selling pinball game of all time. In 1996, WMS purchased Time Warner Interactive, which included Atari Games, originally a part of Atari, Inc. Also in 1996, Midway changed its original corporate name, Midway Manufacturing, to Midway Games Inc., due to its entrance in the home console market. This was facilitated by WMS transferring its former home console division, Williams Entertainment, Inc., to Midway. The division had previously been known as Tradewest while part of the Leland corporation, which WMS had acquired in 1994. The original arcade division of the company became Midway Amusement Games and the newly created home division was named Midway Home Entertainment.


title: Midway Games

text: In 1996, WMS made a public offering of Midway stock and, at the same time, WMS transferred its video game copyrights and trademarks, including "Defender, " and "Joust", to Midway. In 1998, WMS spun off its remaining 86.8% interest in Midway to the WMS shareholders, making Midway an independent entity for the first time in almost 30 years. Midway kept Atari Games as a wholly owned subsidiary as part of this spin-off. Midway retained or shared some of the WMS executive staff and used some common facilities with WMS for a few more years. Over several years, Midway gradually terminated all material agreements and executive overlap with WMS and had a declining number of common members of its board of directors, until it shared only one with its former parent company.


title: Midway Games

text: In 1999, Midway left the pinball industry (it had earlier transferred most of its pinball assets to WMS in 1996 in exchange for video game assets of WMS) and changed the name of its "Atari Games" subsidiary to Midway Games West, Inc. to avoid confusion with Atari Interactive. On June 22, 2001, Midway announced that it was closing its arcade division due to a decline in the arcade market. Midway shut down Midway Games West in February 2003, but it remained as an entity. After losing money each year since 2000, Midway's losses accelerated in 2003, as it lost $115 million on sales of about $93 million. Despite these losses, the company was able to finance its business with stock and debt offerings and various credit arrangements. In 2003, Sumner Redstone, a significant minority shareholder since the company's spinoff, began to increase his stake in the company and soon owned 80% of the stock.


title: Midway Games

text: In 2004, in an effort to expand its market share, Midway began a purchasing spree of independent video game development studios to strengthen its product development teams In April 2004, Midway acquired Surreal Software of Seattle, Washington. In October 2004, it acquired Inevitable Entertainment of Austin, Texas (which became Midway Austin). In December 2004, it acquired Paradox Development of Moorpark, California. On August 4, 2005, Midway acquired privately held Australian developer Ratbag Games. The studio was renamed Midway Studios—Australia. Four months later, on December 13, Midway announced to its employees there that it was shutting the studio down, leaving its employees based at that studio without a job. Two days later, on December 15, the studio was closed and their Adelaide premises emptied. During 2004 and 2005, Midway lost $20 million on sales of $162 million, and $112 million on sales of $150 million, respectively. Redstone voted his shares to elect his daughter Shari Redstone to Midway's board of directors and later as the chair of the board.


title: Midway Games

text: On February 15, 2005, Midway signed an agreement with Cartoon Network to publish games, based on properties, namely that of Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, and had option to expand their own properties.


title: Midway Games

text: Midway was ranked as the No. 4 video game publisher by sales in 2000. It was ranked as the No. 19 video game publisher in 2005 and had fallen to No. 20 in 2006, according to the magazine "Game Developer".


title: Midway Games

text: In 2006 and 2007, Midway lost a further $77 million on sales of $166 million and $100 million on sales of $157 million, respectively. It continued to finance its business with debt offerings and other credit arrangements. As of 2007, Midway Games was engaged in a legal battle with Mindshadow Entertainment for the "Psi-Ops" video game rights. Mindshadow alleged that Midway copied "Psi-Ops"s story from a screenplay written and owned by their client. On December 2, 2008, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper of the United States District Court for the Central District of California issued a ruling granting summary judgment on all counts in Midway's favor. Judge Cooper found no evidence of copyright infringement.


title: Midway Games

text: On March 6, 2007, Midway reported that it had entered into a new $90m credit agreement with National Amusements, a company controlled by Sumner Redstone. Midway's CEO, David Zucker, stated that the introduction of "Unreal Tournament 3", and the company's growing success in mass-market games, were setting it up for a "significant 2008". On March 21, 2008, Zucker resigned as CEO. He was the third executive to resign from the company in three months. Succeeding Zucker as CEO was former Senior Vice President Matt Booty. During the summer of 2008, in an effort to trim costs, Midway closed its Los Angeles and Austin studios. These closures left Midway with four studios, in Chicago, Seattle, San Diego and Newcastle, England. During this time, Midway just released "TNA Impact!" and "" around September/October 2008, under the Midway Studios Los Angeles office (before its closure) and the San Diego branch (Midway Studios San Diego/Midway Home Entertainment). In November 2008, Midway reported that its cash and other resources "may not be adequate to fund... working capital requirements" and that it "would need to initiate cost cutting measures or seek additional liquidity sources". On November 20, 2008, Midway retained Lazard to assist it "in the evaluation of strategic and financial alternatives". The next day, Midway received a NYSE delisting notice, after its stock's price fell below one dollar. Midway's last title, "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe", released around this time, in November 2008.


title: Midway Games

text: On December 2, 2008, Sumner Redstone sold his 87 percent stake in Midway Games to Mark Thomas, a private investor, through his company MT Acquisition Holdings LLC. Thomas's company paid approximately $100,000, or $0.0012 per share. Thomas also received $70 million of Midway's debt that was owed to Redstone. National Amusements took a significant loss on the sale, although the loss allowed it to benefit from tax losses. In December 2008, Midway disclosed that it might default on $240 million of debt after the sale of stock to Thomas triggered clauses in two bond issues totalling $150 million of debt that allowed the bondholders to demand full repayment.


title: Midway Games

text: In 2008, Midway lost $191 million on sales of $220 million, and Redstone's sale of his shares to Thomas eliminated Midway's ability to take advantage of accumulated net operating losses and other tax assets potentially worth more than $700 million. On February 12, 2009, Midway and its U.S. subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The company began to operate as a Debtor in possession. A company spokesperson said, "We felt this was a logical next step for our organization, considering the change in control triggered the acceleration of the repayment options ... we're looking to reorganize and to come out on the other side stronger."


title: Midway Games

text: Midway announced on May 21, 2009, that it had received a takeover bid from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, valued at more than $33 million, to acquire most of the company's assets, including Midway's Chicago and Seattle studios and rights to the "Mortal Kombat" and "Wheelman" series. The offer did not include the San Diego and Newcastle studios or the "TNA" video game series. Midway had previously worked with Warner Bros. on several games including "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe". Midway announced on May 28, 2009, that it would "accept binding offers up to June 24, 2009, to acquire some or all of the Company's assets." An auction was to be held on June 29, followed by a court hearing to approve the sale to the winning bidder or bidders. However, no other bids were placed for Midway's assets, and so the auction was canceled. On July 1, 2009, the bankruptcy court approved the sale of most of the company's assets to Warner Bros. subject to the intellectual property claims of a third party, Threshold Entertainment, which produced two "Mortal Kombat" films and some other "Mortal Kombat" entertainment properties.


title: Midway Games

text: On July 8, 2009, Midway disclosed that it intended to close the San Diego studio by September. However, on August 19, 2009, THQ purchased the San Diego studio for $740,000 and extinguished Midway obligations to it. On July 10, 2009, pursuant to the terms of the Settlement Agreement that was approved by the bankruptcy court, Midway agreed to pay to affiliates of its majority owner, Mark Thomas, approximately $4.7 million in full satisfaction of all Midway debt to Thomas and his affiliates, and Thomas and his affiliates granted to Midway's Creditors' Committee an irrevocable proxy to vote his controlled shares of common stock in Midway and forever relinquished the right to vote or dispose of the shares. The settlement reduced Thomas's claims by 93 percent, and Midway continued to operate as a Debtor in Possession. Also on July 10, 2009, the sale of assets to Warner Bros. was completed. The total gross purchase price for the sale was approximately $49 million, including receivables, and Warner Bros. assumed liabilities. The sale also triggered payments under Midway's Key Employee Incentive Plan of approximately $2.4 million to company executives. The Midway Chicago studio, responsible for the "Mortal Kombat" series and other games, became part of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and was later rebranded NetherRealm Studios.


title: Midway Games

text: On July 14, 2009, Midway announced that it had closed the Newcastle studio and terminated 75 employees. On August 19, 2009, Midway sold its French and German subsidiaries to holding companies called Spiess Media Holding UG and F+F Publishing GmbH, respectively. Spiess also purchased Midway's London publishing subsidiary on the same day. The European sales resulted in cash proceeds of $1.7 million and the elimination of related intercompany claims. In September 2009, Midway shut down its Chicago headquarters and terminated all but a few of its remaining employees. Many of the former Midway employees at the Chicago studio acquired by Warner Bros. were retained by Warner Bros. On October 2, 2009, Midway and two of its subsidiaries, Midway Home Entertainment and Midway Studios Los-Angeles, sold intellectual property assets, including Midway's TNA video game licenses, to SouthPeak Games for $100,000 and the assumption of related liabilities; Midway was no longer selling games and had been disposed of all fixed assets at that time.