title: Revised NEO Personality Inventory

text: Juni, in another review of the NEO PI-R for the MMY, praised the NEO PI-R for including both self- and other-report scales, making it easier for psychologists to corroborate information provided by a client or research participant. However, Juni criticized the NEO PI-R for its conceptualization using the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality. Juni argued that the existence of the FFM was phenomenological and atheoretical, the model gaining popularity as a result of the influence of the authors (McCrae and Costa) in the psychological community. The NEO PI-R has also been criticized because of its market-oriented, proprietary nature. In response to the expense involved in using proprietary personality inventories such as the NEO, other researchers have contributed to the development of the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP); IPIP items and scales are available free of charge.


title: Revised NEO Personality Inventory

text: NEO PI-R was also critised for being possibly too complex to undersand for less educated or less intelligent individuals.


title: Revised NEO Personality Inventory

text: A shortened version of NEO PI-R has been published. The shortened version is the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). It comprises 60 items and is designed to take 10 to 15 minutes to complete; by contrast, the NEO PI-R takes 45 to 60 minutes to complete. The NEO-FFI was revised in 2004. With the publication of the NEO PI-3 in 2005, a revised version of the NEO-FFI was also published. The revision of the NEO-FFI involved the replacement of 15 of the 60 items. The revised edition is thought to be more suitable for younger individuals. The new version had a stronger factor structure and increased reliability.


title: Revised NEO Personality Inventory

text: Public domain inventories that correlate well with NEO PI-R have been published using items from the International Personality Item Pool and are collectively known as the "IPIP-NEO". Lewis Goldberg published a 300-question version of the 30-facet scale in 1999. John Johnson and Maples et al. have developed a few 120-question versions based on IPIP questions.


title: Revised NEO Personality Inventory

text: Very short (5 items each) IPIP-based analogues to the NEO PI-R scales are also part of the Analog for Multiple Broadband Inventories, an inventory designed to approximate a large number of different personality scales with a minimal number of items.


title: Revised NEO Personality Inventory

text: Evidence of the NEO scales' stability in different countries and cultures can be considered evidence of its validity. A great deal of cross-cultural research has been carried out on the Five-Factor Model of Personality. Much of the research has relied on the NEO PI-R and the shorter NEO-FFI. McCrae and Allik (2002) edited a book consisting of papers bearing on cross-cultural research on the FFM. Research from China, Estonia, Finland, the Philippines, France, German-speaking countries, India, Portugal, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe have shown the FFM to be robust across cultures.


title: Revised NEO Personality Inventory

text: Rolland, on the basis of the data from a number of countries, asserted that the neuroticism, openness, and conscientiousness dimensions are cross-culturally valid. Rolland further advanced the view that the extraversion and agreeableness dimensions are more sensitive to cultural context. Age differences in the five-factors of personality across the adult life span are parallel in samples from Germany, Italy, Portugal, Croatia, and South Korea. Data examined from many different countries have shown that the age and gender differences in those countries resembled differences found in U.S. samples. An intercultural factor analysis yielded a close approximation to the five-factor model.


title: Revised NEO Personality Inventory

text: McCrae, Terracciano et al. (2005) further reported data from 51 cultures. Their study found a cross-cultural equivalency between NEO PI-R five factors and facets.


title: Revised NEO Personality Inventory

text: With the recent development of the NEO PI-3, cross-cultural research will likely begin to compare the newer version with the NEO PI-R. Piedmont and Braganza (2015) compared the NEO PI-R to the NEO PI-3 using an adult sample from India. They used an English version of the NEO PI-3 in order to measure its utility in individuals who speak English as a second language. Piedmont and Braganza found that the NEO PI-3 had slightly higher item/total correlations and better test-retest reliability than the NEO PI-R. They suggested that the NEO PI-3 has the potential to be utilized with those who do not speak English as their first language.


title: Revised NEO Personality Inventory

text: The NEO PI-R has been used in research pertaining to both (a) genotype and personality and (b) brain and personality. Such studies, however, have not always been conclusive. For example, one study found some evidence for an association between NEO PI-R facets and polymorphism in the tyrosine hydroxylase gene, while another study could not confirm the finding.


title: Revised NEO Personality Inventory

text: In a study published in Science, Lesch et al. (1996) found a relationship between the serotonin transporter gene regulatory region (5-HTTLPR) and the neuroticism subscale. Individuals with a shorter allele had higher neuroticism scores than individuals with the longer allele. The effect was significant for heterozygotes and even stronger for people homozygous for the shorter allele. Although the finding is important, this specific gene contributes to only 4% of the phenotypic variation in neuroticism. The authors concluded that "if other genes were hypothesized to contribute similar gene dosage effects to anxiety, approximately 10 to 15 genes might be predicted to be involved."


title: Dhanya Balakrishna

text: Dhanya Balakrishna (born 6 August 1989) is an Indian actress who has appeared mostly in Telugu films along with Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam films. After making her debut in A. R. Murugadoss's "7aum Arivu" (2011), she appeared in ventures including Gautham Vasudev Menon's "Neethaane En Ponvasantham" (2012), Atlee's "Raja Rani" (2013) and Srikanth Addala's "Seethamma Vaakitlo Sirimalle Chettu" (2013). Dhanya made her debut as female lead in Telugu with "Chinni Chinni Aasa" (2013).


title: Dhanya Balakrishna

text: Dhanya Balakrishna was born on August 6, 1989, in Bangalore, Karnataka. Kannada is her mother tongue. She was educated at MES.


title: Dhanya Balakrishna

text: Dhanya began her acting career with performances in theatre, before playing a supporting role in A. R. Murugadoss's "7aum Arivu" (2011) alongside Suriya and Shruti Haasan. She was next seen in two bilingual projects, portraying supporting roles -Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi" (2012) and then Gautham Vasudev Menon's "Neethaane En Ponvasantham" (2012).


title: Dhanya Balakrishna

text: Dhanya, portrayed supporting role in the 2013 Telugu film "Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu" as a girl who proposes to the character played by Mahesh Babu; while in "Raja Rani" (2013), she was seen as Nivitha, a friend of Nayantara's character. Her first leading role was in the Telugu film "Chinni Chinni Aasa" (2013), released in November 2013, while other projects, "Amrutham Chandamamalo" and "Second Hand", were released thereafter. She has been part of nearly 40 movies and 10 web series.


title: Lintel

text: A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of windows, the bottom span is instead referred to as a sill, but, unlike a lintel, does not serve to bear a load to ensure the integrity of the wall.


title: Lintel

text: Modern day lintels are made using prestressed concrete and are also referred to as beams in beam and block slabs or ribs in rib and block slabs. These prestressed concrete lintels and blocks are components that are packed together and propped to form a suspended floor concrete slab.


title: Lintel

text: In worldwide architecture of different eras and many cultures, a lintel has been an element of post and lintel construction. Many different building materials have been used for lintels.


title: Lintel

text: In classical Western architecture and construction methods, by "Merriam-Webster" definition, a lintel is a load-bearing member and is placed over an entranceway. Called an architrave, the lintel is a structural element that is usually rested on stone pillars or stacked stone columns, over a portal or entranceway. An example from the Mycenaean Greece cultural period (c. 1600 – 1100 BCE) is the Treasury of Atreus in Mycenae, Greece. It weighs 120 tons, with approximate dimensions 8.3 × 5.2 × 1.2 m, one of the largest in the world.


title: Lintel

text: A lintel may support the chimney above a fireplace, or span the distance of a path or road, forming a stone lintel bridge.


title: Lintel

text: The use of the lintel form as a decorative building element over portals, with no structural function, has been employed in the architectural traditions and styles of most cultures over the centuries.


title: Lintel

text: Examples of the ornamental use of lintels are in the hypostyle halls and slab stelas in ancient Egypt and the Indian rock-cut architecture of Buddhist temples in caves. Preceding prehistoric and subsequent Indian Buddhist temples were wooden buildings with structural load-bearing wood lintels across openings. The rock-cut excavated cave temples were more durable, and the non-load-bearing carved stone lintels allowed creative ornamental uses of classical Buddhist elements. Highly skilled artisans were able to simulate the look of wood, imitating the nuances of a wooden structure and the wood grain in excavating cave temples from monolithic rock.


title: Lintel

text: In freestanding Indian building examples, the Hoysala architecture tradition between the 11th and 14th centuries produced many elaborately carved non-structural stone lintels in the Southern Deccan Plateau region of southern India. The Hoysala Empire era was an important period in the development of art and architecture in the South Indian Kannadiga culture. It is remembered today primarily for its Hindu temples' "mandapa", lintels, and other architectural elements, such as at the Chennakesava Temple.


title: Lintel

text: The Maya civilization in the Americas was known for its sophisticated art and monumental architecture. The Mayan city of Yaxchilan, on the Usumacinta River in present-day southern Mexico, specialized in the stone carving of ornamental lintel elements within structural stone lintels. The earliest carved lintels were created in 723 CE. At the Yaxchilan archaeological site there are fifty-eight lintels with decorative pieces spanning the doorways of major structures. Among the finest Mayan carving to be excavated are three temple door lintels that feature narrative scenes of a queen celebrating the king's anointing by a god.


title: Lintel

text: Lintels may also be used to reduce scattered radiation in medical applications. For example, Medical linacs operating at high energies will produce activated neutrons which will be scattered outside the treatment bunker maze with a dose rate that depends on the maze cross section. Lintels may be visible or recessed in the roof of the facility, and reduce dose rate in publicly accessible areas by reducing the maze cross section.


title: Parade (musical)

text: Parade is a musical with a book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. The musical is a dramatization of the 1913 trial and imprisonment, and 1915 lynching, of Jewish American Leo Frank in Georgia.


title: Parade (musical)

text: The musical premiered on Broadway in December 1998 and won Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Original Score (out of nine nominations) and six Drama Desk Awards. After closing on Broadway in February 1999, the show has had a US national tour and a few professional productions in the US and UK.


title: Parade (musical)

text: The musical dramatizes the 1913 trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank, who was accused and convicted of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old employee, Mary Phagan. The trial, sensationalized by the media, aroused antisemitic tensions in Atlanta and the U.S. state of Georgia. When Frank's death sentence was commuted to life in prison by the departing Governor of Georgia, John M. Slaton, in 1915 due to his detailed review of over 10,000 pages of testimony and possible problems with the trial, Leo Frank was transferred to a prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, where a lynching party seized and kidnapped him. Frank was taken to Phagan's hometown of Marietta, Georgia, and he was hanged from an oak tree. The events surrounding the investigation and trial led to two groups emerging: the revival of the defunct KKK and the birth of the Jewish Civil Rights organization, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).


title: Parade (musical)

text: Director Harold Prince turned to Jason Robert Brown to write the score after Stephen Sondheim turned the project down. Prince's daughter, Daisy, had brought Brown to her father's attention. Book writer Alfred Uhry, who grew up in Atlanta, had personal knowledge of the Frank story, as his great-uncle owned the pencil factory run by Leo Frank.


title: Parade (musical)

text: The musical's story concludes that the likely killer was the factory janitor Jim Conley, the key witness against Frank at the trial. The villains of the piece are the ambitious and corrupt prosecutor Hugh Dorsey (later the governor of Georgia and then a judge) and the rabidly anti-semitic publisher Tom Watson (later elected a U.S. senator). Prince and Uhry emphasized the evolving relationship between Frank and his wife Lucille. Their relationship shifts from cold to warm in songs like "Leo at Work/What am I Waiting For?," "You Don't Know This Man," "Do it Alone," and "All the Wasted Time". The poignancy of the couple, who fall in love in the midst of adversity, is the core of the work. It makes the tragic outcome – the miscarriage of justice – even more disturbing.


title: Parade (musical)

text: The show was Brown's first Broadway production. His music, according to critic Charles Isherwood, has "subtle and appealing melodies that draw on a variety of influences, from pop-rock to folk to rhythm and blues and gospel."


title: Parade (musical)

text: The musical opens in Marietta, Georgia, in the time of the American Civil War. The sounds of drums herald the appearance of a young Confederate soldier, bidding farewell to his sweetheart as he goes to fight for his homeland. The years pass and suddenly it is 1913. The young soldier has become an old one-legged veteran who is preparing to march in the annual Confederate Memorial Day parade ("The Old Red Hills of Home"). As the Parade begins ("The Dream of Atlanta"), Leo Frank, a Yankee Jew from Brooklyn, NYC, is deeply uncomfortable in the town in which he works and lives, feeling out of place due to his Judaism and his college education ("How Can I Call This Home?"). His discomfort is present even in his relationship with his wife, Lucille, who has planned an outdoor meal spoiled by Leo's decision to go into work on a holiday. Meanwhile, two local teens, Frankie Epps and Mary Phagan, ride a trolley car and flirt. Frankie wants Mary to go to the picture show with him, but Mary playfully resists, insisting her mother will not let her ("The Picture Show"). Mary leaves to collect her pay from the pencil factory managed by Leo.


title: Parade (musical)

text: While Leo is at work, Lucille bemoans the state of their marriage, believing herself unappreciated by a man so wrapped up in himself. She reflects on her unfulfilled life and wonders whether or not Leo was the right match for her ("Leo at Work" / "What Am I Waiting For?"). Mary Phagan arrives in Leo's office to collect her paycheck. That night, police Detective Starnes and Officer Ivey rouse Leo from his sleep, and without telling him why, demand he accompany them to the factory, where Mary's body has been found raped and murdered in the basement. The Police immediately suspect Newt Lee, the African-American night watchman who discovered the body ("Interrogation"). Throughout his interrogation, he maintains his innocence, but inadvertently directs Starnes' suspicion upon Leo, who did not answer his telephone when Lee called him to report the incident. Leo is arrested, but not charged, and Mrs. Phagan, Mary's mother, becomes aware of Mary's death.


title: Parade (musical)

text: Across town, a reporter named Britt Craig is informed about Mary's murder and sees the possibility of a career-making story ("Big News"). Craig attends Mary's funeral, where the townspeople of Marietta are angry, mournful, and baffled by the tragedy that has so unexpectedly shattered the community. ("There is a Fountain" / "It Don't Make Sense"). Frankie Epps swears revenge on Mary's killer, as does Tom Watson, a writer for "The Jeffersonian", an extremist right-wing newspaper ("Tom Watson's Lullaby") who has taken a special interest in the case. In the meantime, Governor John Slaton pressures the local prosecutor Hugh Dorsey to get to the bottom of the whole affair. Dorsey, an ambitious politician with a "lousy conviction record", resolves to find the murderer. Dorsey, along with Starnes and Ivey interrogate Newt Lee, but they get no information. Dorsey releases Newt, reasoning that "hanging another Nigra ain't enough this time. We gotta do better." He then attaches the blame to Leo Frank and sends Starnes and a reluctant Ivey out to find eyewitnesses ("Something Ain't Right"). Craig exalts in his opportunity to cover a "real" story and begins an effective campaign vilifying Leo. ("Real Big News").


title: Parade (musical)

text: Leo meets with his lawyer, Luther Z. Rosser, who vows to "win this case, and send him home". Meanwhile, Dorsey makes a deal with factory janitor and ex-convict Jim Conley to testify against Leo in exchange for immunity for a previous escape from prison. Lucille, hounded by reporters, collapses from the strain and privately rebukes Craig when he attempts to get an interview ("You Don't Know This Man"). She tells her husband that she cannot bear to see his trial, but he begs her to stay in the courtroom, as her not appearing would make him look guilty.


title: Parade (musical)

text: The trial of Leo Frank begins, presided over by Judge Roan. A hysterical crowd gathers outside the courtroom, as Tom Watson spews invective ("Hammer of Justice") and Hugh Dorsey begins the case for the prosecution ("Twenty Miles from Marietta"). The prosecution produces a series of witnesses, most of whom give trumped evidence which was clearly fed to them by Dorsey. Frankie Epps testifies, falsely, that Mary mentioned that Leo "looks at her funny" when they last spoke, a sentiment echoed verbatim by three of Mary's teenage co-workers, Lola, Essie, and Monteen ("The Factory Girls"). In a fantasy sequence, Leo becomes the lecherous seducer of their testimony ("Come Up to My Office"). Testimony is heard from Mary's mother ("My Child Will Forgive Me") and Minnie McKnight before the prosecution's star witness, Jim Conley, takes the stand, claiming that he witnessed the murder and helped Leo cover up the crime ("That's What He Said"). Leo is desperate. As prosecutor Hugh Dorsey whips the observers and jurors at the trial into a frenzy, Leo is given the opportunity to deliver a statement. Leo offers a heartfelt speech, pleading to be believed ("It's Hard to Speak My Heart"), but it is not enough. He is found guilty and sentenced to hang. The crowd breaks out into a jubilant cakewalk as Lucille and Leo embrace, terrified ("Summation and Cakewalk").


title: Parade (musical)

text: It's now 1914 and Leo has begun his process of appeal. The trial has been noted by the press in the north, and the reaction is strongly disapproving of the way in which it was conducted, but the African-American domestics wonder if the reaction would have been as strong if the victim had been black ("A Rumblin' and a Rollin'"). Lucille tries to help Leo with his appeal, but reveals crucial information to Craig, provoking an argument between Leo and Lucille ("Do it Alone"). Lucille then finds Governor Slaton at a party ("Pretty Music") and attempts to advocate for Leo. She accuses him of either being a fool or a coward if he accepts the outcome of the trial as is. Meanwhile, Tom Watson approaches Hugh Dorsey and tells him that he will support his bid for governor should he choose to make it. Dorsey and Judge Roan go on a fishing trip, where they discuss the political climate and the upcoming election ("The Glory").


title: Parade (musical)

text: The governor agrees to re-open the case, and Leo and Lucille rejoice ("This Is Not Over Yet"). Slaton visits the factory girls, who admit to their exaggeration (“Factory Girls (Reprise)”), and Minnie, who claims that Dorsey intimidated her and made her sign a statement (“Minnie McKnight's Reprise”). Slaton also visits Jim Conley, who is back in jail as an accessory to the murder, who refuses to change his story despite the noticeable inconsistencies with the evidence, and along with his Chain Gang, does not give any information, much to the chagrin of Slaton ("Blues: Feel the Rain Fall"). A year later, after much consideration, he agrees to commute Leo's sentence to life in prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, a move that effectively ends his political career. The citizens of Marietta, led by Dorsey and Watson, are enraged and riot ("Where Will You Stand When the Flood Comes?").


title: Parade (musical)

text: Leo has been transferred to a prison work-farm. Lucille visits, and he realizes his deep love for his wife and how much he has underestimated her ("All the Wasted Time"). After Lucille departs from the prison, a party of masked men (including Starnes, Ivey, Frankie Epps, the Fulton Tower guard and the Old Confederate Soldier) arrives and kidnaps Leo. They take him to Marietta and demand he confess to the murder on pain of death. Leo refuses, and although Ivey is convinced of his innocence, the rest of group is determined to kill him. As his last request, Leo has a sack tied around his waist, since he is wearing only his nightshirt, and gives his wedding ring to Ivey to be given to Lucille. The group hangs him from an oak tree ("Sh'ma"). In 1916, a remorseful Britt Craig gives Leo's ring, which has been delivered to him anonymously, to Lucille. He is surprised to discover that she has no plans to leave Georgia, which is now governed by Dorsey, but she refuses to let Leo's ordeal be for nothing. Alone, she gives in to her grief, but she takes comfort in believing that Leo is with God and free from his ordeal. The Confederate Memorial Day Parade begins again ("Finale").


title: Parade (musical)

text: The musical premiered on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center on December 17, 1998 and closed February 28, 1999, after 39 previews and 84 regular performances. Directed by Harold Prince, it starred Brent Carver as Leo Frank, Carolee Carmello as Lucille Frank, and Christy Carlson Romano as Mary Phagan. Judith Dolan designed costumes for the production.


title: Parade (musical)

text: Most critics praised the show, especially the score. However, the public and some critics received the show coolly. A number felt the show took too many liberties in the use of racial slurs. When the show closed, Livent had filed for bankruptcy protection (Chapter 11). Lincoln Center was the other producer solely responsible for covering the weekly running costs.


title: Parade (musical)

text: A U. S. national tour, directed by Prince, started at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia; it ran from June to October 2000, with Jason Robert Brown conducting at some venues. It starred David Pittu as Leo, Andrea Burns as Lucille, Keith Byron Kirk as Jim and Kristen Bowden as Mary.


title: Parade (musical)

text: The first major production in the United Kingdom played at the Donmar Warehouse from September 24 to November 24, 2007. It was directed by Rob Ashford and starred Lara Pulver as Lucille, Bertie Carvel as Leo, Jayne Wisener as Mary and Stuart Matthew Price as Young Soldier/Frankie. Pulver was nominated for the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical and Carvel was nominated for Best Actor in a Musical. A double-CD cast recording of this production has been released by First Night Records. The recording includes new material written by Brown for the production and contains all songs and dialogue from the Donmar production. The large Broadway orchestration was reduced by David Cullen and Brown to a nine piece ensemble consisting of two pianos, accordion, percussion, clarinet, horn and strings.


title: Parade (musical)

text: Another off-West End production opened on August 10, 2011 for a 6-week engagement ending September 17, at the Southwark Playhouse's Vault Theatre. It was directed by Thom Southerland, with musical staging by Tim Jackson. Alastair Brookshaw played Leo, Laura Pitt-Pulford was Lucille, Simon Bailey was Tom and Mark Inscoe was Hugh.


title: Parade (musical)

text: "Parade" was staged at the Neighborhood Playhouse in Palos Verdes Estates, California, from July 9, 2008. The production was directed by Brady Schwind. The production starred Craig D'Amico as Leo, Emily Olson as Lucille and Alissa Anderegg as Mary.


title: Parade (musical)

text: The Donmar production transferred to the Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, California, in September 2009, for a run through November 15, 2009. Pulver reprised her role as Lucille opposite T. R. Knight as Leo. The cast also included Michael Berresse, Christian Hoff, Hayley Podschun, Rose Sezniak and Phoebe Strole.


title: Parade (musical)

text: On February 16, 2015, a concert production of "Parade" was staged at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center by Manhattan Concert Productions, directed by Gary Griffin and conducted by composer Jason Robert Brown. Jeremy Jordan and Laura Benanti starred as Leo and Lucille, with Ramin Karimloo as Tom, Joshua Henry as Jim, Andy Mientus as Britt, Emerson Steele as Mary, Katie Rose Clarke as Mrs. Phagan, John Ellison Conlee as Hugh, Davis Gaines as Judge Roan/Old Soldier and Alan Campbell as Governor Slaton.


title: Parade (musical)

text: New York City Center staged "Parade" as the gala concert presentation of its 2022/2023 season, with a benefit performance on November 1 and a run continuing through November 6, 2022. Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond played Leo and Lucille Frank. Michael Arden directed and incorporated projections and photography of the real-life trial in the production. Other notable cast members included John Dossett as Old Soldier/Judge Roan, Manoel Felciano as Tom Watson, Jay Armstrong Johnson as Britt Craig, Sean Allan Krill as Governor Slaton, Jennifer Laura Thompson as Sally Slaton, Erin Mackey as Mrs. Phagan, Gaten Matarazzo as Frankie Epps, Howard McGillin as Luther Rosser, Grace McLean as Sally Slaton and Paul Alexander Nolan as Hugh Dorsey. Jason Robert Brown conducted the onstage orchestra. Script and score changes from the 2007 Donmar production were retained. Reviews for the run were strongly favorable, with Steven Suskin giving it 5 out of 5 stars and writing in "New York Stage Review": "Rather than leaving its audience suitably impressed but emotionally unmoved as in prior viewings, Michael Arden’s spare but meticulous production unleashes the gripping theatricality of the writing that has heretofore been trapped within."


title: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

text: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum () is a 2017 Indian Malayalam-language crime drama film directed by Dileesh Pothan and written by Sajeev Pazhoor. The film stars Fahadh Faasil and Suraj Venjaramoodu , with Nimisha Sajayan, Alencier Ley Lopez, Vettukili Prakash, and Sibi Thomas in supporting roles. Syam Pushkaran served as a creative director of the film. Bijibal composed the music and Rajeev Ravi handled the cinematography.


title: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

text: "Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum" was produced on a budget of 65 million. The film was released on 30 June 2017 in Kerala. It received critical acclaim and was also a commercial success at the box office, grossing 179.3 million from Kerala alone "The Hindu" included the film in their "Top 5 Malayalam movies in 2017" and "The 25 best Malayalam films of the decade".


title: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

text: The film won three National Film Awards, two Kerala State Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards South, three South Indian International Movie Awards, eight Asianet Film Awards, six CPC Cine Awards, four Vanitha Film Awards, three Kerala Film Critics Association Awards, two Asiavision Awards and one at International Film Festival of Kerala.


title: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

text: The story follows a newly married inter-caste couple, Sreeja and Prasad, from Cherthala who move up north to Kasaragod. During a bus journey, Sreeja's gold chain gets stolen by a thief also called Prasad. He swallows the chain, but not before Sreeja notices it. He gets caught by the passengers, who take him to a nearby police station.


title: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

text: On police inquiry, Prasad (thief) denies the act. Police accompany him to the toilet the next morning but don't find any chain. Eventually, after an x-ray, the chain is found stuck inside his stomach. How to extract the chain, then, becomes the question. Next morning, he is again accompanied by the police to the toilet where he tries to run away. He was caught by Prasad (Sreeja's husband) near a canal and brought back to the police station. At the police station, he claims that a police officer called ASI Chandran had told him to run away after taking the chain. Prasad (thief) was again scanned for the chain and this time, there was no chain in his stomach. Finding his job in danger, ASI Chandran gives Sreeja another gold chain to settle the matter in a way that finds Prasad (thief) being guilty.


title: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

text: Next day Sreeja falsely confesses that the chain found by police belongs to her and signs the document which claims that Prasad (thief) is guilty. In a momentary absence of police, Prasad convinces Sreeja and her husband that she should not lie and tells his sympathetic story. Prasad (thief) tells Sreeja that she should tell the court that the chain does not belong to her and tells her husband where he actually threw her gold chain. Sreeja's husband (Prasad) finds the chain.


title: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

text: In the end, Prasad is writing a thank you note to Sreeja presumably for telling the truth in the court which freed him.


title: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

text: Initially Pazhoor thought of directing the film himself, before Pothan came on-board. About the genre of the film, Pothen said that he is not sure which genre the film falls in, but it surely has the elements of a "family drama". For some of the police roles, the film features real-life police officers in the cast. Newcomer Nimisha Sajayan was selected from general auditions. Principal photography commenced from 7 December 2016 in Kasaragod. Other locations include Vaikom and Cherthala.


title: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

text: The music and background score for the film is composed by Bijibal, who has previously worked with Dileesh Pothan in "Maheshinte Prathikaaram".


title: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

text: Critic Veeyen termed the movie has sardonic wisecracks and the continual cackles, which fundamentally holds the charm of an otherwise unexciting film. He closes of by signifying the exceptional intelligence and grace the film has in terms of flow.


title: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

text: Bharadwaj, in the review of the film, stated that "Fahadh Faasil's equal parts lazy and wily trickster acting and Alencier Ley Lopez's character acting as luminously exceptional." He praises on the beauty of police office politics that Dileesh & Sajeev was able to portray as the drive that calibrates the film. Manorama praises real-life police officer Sibi Thomas for his comedic and yet balanced performance.


title: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

text: Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion South wrote "Simply put, Pothan’s films aren’t about the incidents suggested by the titles, but around them. Instead of zooming in, narratively speaking, he goes for the wide shot. This is a generous approach to filmmaking. It says that the main characters are a part of the world around them, and this world needs to be acknowledged as well."


title: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

text: Director Shekhar Kapur, jury chairman of 65th National Film Awards commented: "Brilliant film, impressive performance. First you will think it is a simple film with usual romance and elopement. But how subtle are the things introduced in the film? The movie takes a serious turn by the end, leaving you appalled. I have never seen such an excellent performance by actors,".


title: Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

text: "Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum" has collected 50 million gross in the first weekend, in 50-days movie collected 173 million gross from Kerala box office. The film was a commercial success. It grossed 175 million from Kerala box office in its lifetime.


title: Canvey Island

text: Canvey Island is a town, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170. It is separated from the mainland of south Essex by a network of creeks. Lying only just above sea level, it is prone to flooding at exceptional tides and has been inhabited since the Roman conquest of Britain.


title: Canvey Island

text: The island was mainly agricultural land until the 20th century, when it became the fastest-growing seaside resort in Britain between 1911 and 1951. The North Sea flood of 1953 devastated the island, killing 58 islanders and leading to the temporary evacuation of the 13,000 residents. Canvey is consequently protected by modern sea defences comprising of concrete sea walls.


title: Canvey Island

text: Canvey Island is also notable for its relationship to the petrochemical industry. The island was the site of the first delivery in the world of liquefied natural gas by container ship and later became the subject of an influential assessment on the risks to a population living within the vicinity of petrochemical shipping and storage facilities.


title: Canvey Island

text: Excavations on Canvey have unearthed a collection of early man-made objects comprising axes from the Neolithic era, a bracelet dating from the Bronze Age, and Iron Age pottery. However, the remains of Roman structures and objects suggests the first settlement of Canvey occurred between AD 50 and 250. The remains point to a community existing with a farmstead, a garrison, a burial ground, and the operation of a large salt-making industry (revealed by the existence of several red hills).


title: Canvey Island

text: The discovery of a Roman road found to terminate across the creek in neighbouring Benfleet suggests a means may have existed to facilitate the salt's distribution to Chelmsford and Colchester, and the recovery of rich items of pottery and glassware of a variety only matched elsewhere by excavations of port facilities suggests the Romans may also have exploited Canvey's location in the Thames for shipping.


title: Canvey Island

text: In 1607 the Elizabethan antiquarian William Camden noted in his work "Britannia" (a topographical and historical survey of all of Great Britain and Ireland) that Canvey Island (which he called "Island Convennon") was documented in the 2nd century by the Alexandrian geographer Ptolemy. In his work "Geographia", Ptolemy mentions a headland in the mouth of the Thames to the east of the Trinovantes region called "Counus Island". However, the difficulties faced in determining the location of land areas in Ptolemy's ancient work have led modern researchers to question the correlation between Ptolemy's island and contemporary Canvey. MacBean and Johnson, 18th-century historians, contend that Counus Island would have existed much further out to sea (or may even have been the Isle of Sheppey), so any similarity between the names is mere coincidence. Without any suitable island matching Ptolemy's Counus Island, 20th-century historians White and Yearsley posit the documented island to have been lost or reduced to an insignificant sandbank by subsidence and the constant effects of the sea.


title: Canvey Island

text: The settlement and agricultural development of Essex by the Saxons from the 5th century saw the introduction of sheep farming, which would dominate the island's industry until the 20th century. After the Norman conquest the area of Canvey was recorded in the "Domesday Book" as a sheep-farming pasture under the control of nine parishes across south inland and coastal Essex; some of these parishes were on the adjacent mainland, but others were as far afield as Laindon and Prittlewell. Apart from the meat and wool produced from the sheep, the milk from the ewes was used for cheese-making. The abundance in later centuries would see the cheeses become a commodity taken for sale at the London markets, and at one stage exported via Calais to the continent.


title: Canvey Island

text: The existence of several place names on modern Canvey using the "wick" suffix (denoting the sheds in which the cheese was made) shows the influence of the early Saxon culture. Yearsley states that the name of the island is derived from the Anglo-Saxon "Caningaege", meaning "the Island of Cana's People". Developments in the English language yielded the more familiar form "Caneveye" found in manorial records of 1254. The period of transition from Old to Early Middle English often give rise to confusions of orthography, leading, in this instance, to such variant spellings as "Canefe", "Kaneweye", "Kaneveye" and "Koneveye". By the 12th century, Essex and subsequently Canvey were in the possession of Henry de Essex who inherited the land from his grandfather, Swein, son of Robert fitz Wymarch. During the reign of Henry II (1154–1189) the land was confiscated from de Essex and redistributed among the King's favoured nobles.


title: Canvey Island

text: Shown on John Norden's 1594 map with the second word "insula" with the traditional middle "s", facing the 'Isle' of Grain rather than a Latinised "Sheppey insula" to the southeast, is a close eastern division which is perhaps the part which later almost wholly merged into the present island, with a ditch being the current boundary, having the same far eastern points as the Canvey Point and Leighbeck Point marshes. Two Tree Island to the north is also recognisable, if halved in length.


title: Canvey Island

text: The third eastern island or mudflat could well be the Counus (i.e. "council") Island, where the Trinovantes, Cantiaci and the Catuvellauni counselled with the Iceni, shortly before staging Boudicca's rebellion against the Romans.


title: Canvey Island

text: If so, Counus occupies an area from the Canvey Point Sand Bank until just before Shoeburyness, the eastern point of the relatively straight estuary so stretched the whole length of Southend on Sea, giving a reason for the tidal flats along this shore being so shallow (see for instance the world's longest pier which is in the town).


title: Canvey Island

text: Cana's People were descendants of both Cantiaci and the Catuvellauni. If a boundary point, Counus would then be in tribal terms placed at the southern border of the Trinovantes on the eastern extent of the loose tribes also seen as the Tames (Thames).


title: Canvey Island

text: During Edward II's reign (1307–1327) the land was under the possession of John de Apeton and the first attempts were made at managing the effects of the sea with rudimentary defences, but periodical flooding continued to blight the small population of mostly shepherds and their fat-tailed variety of sheep for a further 300 years. William Camden wrote of the island in 1607 that it was so low that it was often quite flooded, except the hills, upon which the sheep had a place of safe refuge. The uniform flatness of Canvey suggests that these hills are likely to be the red hills of the Roman saltmaking industry, or the early makeshift sea defences constructed by some of the landowners around their farms.


title: Canvey Island

text: In 1622, Sir Henry Appleton (a descendant of John de Apeton) and Canvey's other landowners instigated a project to reclaim the land and wall the island from the Thames. The scheme was managed by an acquaintance of Appleton's – Joas Croppenburg, a Dutch Haberdasher of Cheapside in London. An agreement reached in 1623 stipulated that in return for inning and recovering the island, the landowners would grant a third of the land as payment for the work.


title: Canvey Island

text: The presence of the Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden, a relation of Croppenburg's, in England at the time of the project on a commission to drain the Fens and involved in repairing the seawall at Dagenham, has led to speculation that Vermuyden oversaw the project, but proof appears to be vague; nevertheless, the work was completed by around 300 Dutch workers skilled in the construction of dykes and other sea defences. The engineers successfully reclaimed by walling the island with local chalk, limestone and the heavy clay of the marshes, with the main length along the Thames faced with Kentish ragstone.


title: Canvey Island

text: A broad drainage ditch was dug inland off the area facing the river while smaller inlets were filled in. Excess water would have collected in the broad ditch and then been discharged into the river by the means of seven sluices (later known as Commissioners Dykes). The completion of the work saw a considerable number of the Dutch engineers take land as payment for their work, and consequently settle on the island. Approximately one-third of Canvey's streets have names of Dutch origin.


title: Canvey Island

text: The Chapman Lighthouse, briefly described in Joseph Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness", was on the coast of Canvey Island. It is believed that the peril of the mudflats below such shallow waters off the Canvey Island coast prompted the Romans to devise some form of beacon as a warning in the area. In 1851 a hexagonal lighthouse was constructed by the engineer James Walker, a consultant lighthouse engineer at Trinity House at the time. This all-iron lighthouse replaced a lightship which had been moored in the area for the preceding four years. The lighthouse was demolished in 1957–1958 because of its poor condition.


title: Canvey Island

text: The Lobster Smack Inn saw many bare-knuckle fights in the 1850s, but few as dramatic as that between Tom 'the Brighton Boy' Sayers (1826–65) and Aaron Jones on 6 January 1857. The fight lasted for three hours and 65 rounds, and was finally declared a draw when it became too dark to see. Sayers won at the rematch a month later in London.


title: Canvey Island

text: Sometimes the bouts were between local families, the best known being that between champion Ben Caunt and Nat Langham. The fight arose from a family feud and Caunt took Langham to 60 rounds in September 1853. Langham was knocked down 59 times during the bout and because, it is said, of his sportsmanship Caunt agreed to settle their differences with a handshake.


title: Canvey Island

text: Philip Benton reported about Canvey Chapel in 1867: "The seats are open and unappropriated, except one, which is set apart for the officer and the men under him of the Preventive Service; there being a station on the island for nine men, an officer and a chief boatman." The Preventive Men had their own special row of cottages close to the seafront near the old Lobster Smack Inn. That ancient pub was itself described by Charles Dickens in "Great Expectations". So out of the way (and therefore the smugglers) was the inn behind the sea wall, in the 18th century it was known as 'The World's End'. In the 19th century, the isolation made it an ideal point for the meetings of pugilists. The row of Preventive Men's Cottages has survived against the odds. Today they are surrounded by a small housing estate.


title: Canvey Island

text: During the Victorian era Canvey became a very fashionable place to visit, and its air was promoted as having healing properties. This started in 1899, after the Black Monday floods, when an entrepreneur called Frederick Hester bought Leigh Beck Farm, and started what was to be called Southview Park estate. The properties sold very quickly so Frederick bought more plots of land, selling them as dream homes for London's Eastenders. Hester wanted to create Canvey as a great seaside resort for Londoners, and so built the first promenade, a pier and a magnificent winter garden and palace, which he planned to cover six miles (but only covered a mile), as well as a monorail system (initially horse-drawn then later electric). Hester marketed Canvey as "Ye Old Dutch Island", giving many of the new roads Dutch-sounding names and enticing potential buyers with free rail tickets. The project started well with thousands of plots sold, but by 1905 had fallen apart due to materials not being delivered and issues with land ownership with the laying of the monorail. Hester was declared bankrupt and everything was sold off at an auction held at Chimney's Farm.


title: Canvey Island

text: A new seafront was developed in the 1930s, with Canvey Casino – an amusement arcade and park – opening as the first building on what would become Eastern Esplanade.


title: Canvey Island

text: Since then further amusements, a cinema, the pioneering Labworth Cafe, the Monico pub and nightclubs such as the Goldmine were built. Canvey Island remained a popular holiday and weekend destination until the cheap foreign package holiday became popular in the 1970s.


title: Canvey Island

text: During the Second World War the island was a part of the GHQ Line, a line of concrete pillboxes constructed as a part of the defence against the expected German invasion. Some of the old pillboxes are still in place. Also, concrete barges were used extensively just off the south coast of the island, partly as a sea-barrier and also as a mounting point for anti-aircraft guns; one of which was beached on the east end of the island and remained for many years as a point of interest for visitors and a play area for many generations of the island's children. It has since been demolished by the Island Yacht Club as it was considered dangerous.


title: Canvey Island

text: Along with the Coalhouse Fort at nearby East Tilbury, Thorney Bay on the southern coast of the island was the site of a degaussing station built to monitor the effectiveness of the equipment on board the allied ships passing along the Thames. The structure is the last intact degaussing station on the north side of the river, and was still operating in 1974. Known as the Canvey loop, the building was occupied by the Women's Royal Naval Service and used for monitoring merchant ships. The building has since been re-opened as a museum dubbed the "Bay Museum" and has First World War exhibits on the ground floor and Second World War exhibits on the first floor.


title: Canvey Island

text: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records four civilian residents of Canvey Island Urban District died as a result of enemy action during the war.


title: Canvey Island

text: On 1 February 1953, the infamous North Sea Flood hit the island during the night and caused the deaths of 58 people. Many of the victims were in the holiday bungalows of the eastern Newlands estate and perished as the water reached ceiling level.


title: Canvey Island

text: The small village area of the island is approximately two feet (60 cm) above sea level and consequently escaped the effects of the flood. This included the Red Cow pub, which was later renamed the King Canute in reference to the legend of the 11th-century Danish king of England commanding the tide to halt with the sea lapping at his feet. The King Canute pub was closed in May 2014. In 2016 a scheme to convert the building into retail space and apartments was proposed.


title: Canvey Island

text: After the flooding of 1953, a new seawall was built, which was then replaced with a significantly larger construction in the 1980s.


title: Canvey Island

text: The southern area of the Canvey Island West ward at Hole Haven has predominantly existed as petrochemical site since the first construction of an oil terminal there in 1936. In 1959, as part of a pioneering Anglo-American project designed to assess the viability of transporting liquefied natural gas overseas, a gas terminal with two 1000-tonne storage tanks was constructed at the site alongside the oil terminal. The gas terminal built by the British Gas Council was designed to store and distribute imported gas to the whole of Britain via the facilities at Thames Haven and the local refinery at Shellhaven in Coryton. The first delivery of 2,020 tonnes arrived on 20 February 1959 from Lake Charles, Louisiana, by a specially modified liberty ship "Normarti" renamed the "Methane Pioneer". The success of seven further deliveries over the following 14 months established the international industry for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) by sea, but the discovery of oil and gas in North Sea limited further British development. Canvey continued to receive 50 shipments of LNG per year from Arzew Algeria in the "Methane Princess" and the "Methane Progress", until about 1982, British Gas closed the site in 1994.


title: Canvey Island

text: In 1964 the Italian company Agip Ltd were given an industrial development certificate to build a £15 million oil refinery in the north west of the island. The refinery was never built.


title: Canvey Island

text: In 1972 Occidental Petroleum began construction of an oil refinery. Access roads, about 20 oil-storage tanks, a river jetty and a concrete chimney were constructed, but work was halted in 1975 pending a major design study review following the oil crisis of 1973–4 and OPEC's increase of oil prices.


title: Canvey Island

text: On 28 March 1973 planning permission was granted to United Refineries Ltd to develop a site to the north of the Occidental refinery site for the construction of another oil refinery. An exploratory public inquiry was held in February/March 1975 into the possible revocation of the planning permission for the United Refineries development. The report of 30 April 1975 recommended revocation and further expert evaluation of the totality of risks facing people who lived in and around Canvey. In March 1976 the Secretaries of State for the Environment and Employment asked the Health and Safety Commission to investigate the risks to health and safety of various installations on Canvey and the neighbouring part of Thurrock. The Commission invited the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to carry out an investigation.


title: Canvey Island

text: In 1978 the HSE concluded that the residents of the island faced a risk more than five times higher than those in neighbouring South Benfleet.


title: Canvey Island

text: On 27 July 1978 Castle Point District Council asked the Secretary of State "to revoke the planning permission granted to United Refineries Ltd in accordance with his Inspector's recommendation at the exploratory inquiry in 1975".


title: Canvey Island

text: The issue of risk was again highlighted in an attack by the IRA in January 1979 on a storage tank at the island's Texaco oil terminal. A bomb was detonated at a tank containing aviation fuel, but failed to ignite with the fuel escaping into a safety moat. The Occidental site was abandoned in 1975 leaving a half-built oil refinery, storage tanks, and an unused mile-long jetty that cost around £10 million of the approximate total of £60 million spent on the project. However, in the following years the disused and undisturbed site flourished as a haven for wildlife, and in 2003, the final storage tanks were removed in a clean-up operation, and the site was renamed as Canvey Wick and opened as a nature reserve.


title: Canvey Island

text: In September 1997, the celebrity steeplejack Fred Dibnah was hired by Safeway supermarkets to demolish the unused concrete chimney that was part of the abandoned oil refinery. Safeway had planned for the 2,500-ton chimney to be demolished on 18 September in front of a large crowd of invited guests. This would have been the first time Dibnah's demolition technique of pit props and fire (without explosives) had been attempted on a concrete chimney and it was also the tallest chimney he had ever attempted to fell. However the chimney unexpectedly collapsed the previous day whilst Dibnah and his team were making the final preparations for the controlled demolition, fortunately without injury. The incident is described in detail in various biographies and by Dibnah himself in his public speaking events afterwards. Dibnah later presented Safeway head office staff with brass paperweights (made from material salvaged from the chimney) stamped "The Great Canvey Island Chimney Disaster 1997".


title: Canvey Island

text: Calor Gas Ltd now operate the former British Gas site. The site imports, stores, bottles and exports liquified petroleum gases (LPG), propane and butane. There were plans in 2005–7 to convert the plant back to the import of liquified natural gas (LNG) but the planning application was rejected.


title: Canvey Island

text: Oikos Storage Limited now operate the former London & Coastal Wharves Ltd. The site offers a bulk liquid storage facility for refined petroleum products.


title: Canvey Island

text: Neither of the refineries proposed in the 1970s were completed or commissioned. The Occadential site was demolished and the tanks removed, though the former river jetty is still extant.


title: Canvey Island

text: Canvey Island lies off the south coast of Essex east of London, and west of Southend-on-Sea. The island is separated from the mainland to the north and west by Benfleet, East Haven and Vange creeks, and faces the Thames Estuary to the east and south. Along with neighbouring Two Tree Island, Lower Horse and Upper Horse, Canvey is an alluvial island formed in the Holocene period from silt in the River Thames and material entering the estuary on the tides of the North Sea from the coast of Norfolk. An unsuccessful search for coal beneath the island in 1953 revealed that the alluvium rests upon layers of London Clay, Lower London Tertiaries, Chalk, Lower Greensand and Gault Clay, with the basement rocks at a depth of consisting of hard Old Red Sandstone of Devonian age.


title: Canvey Island

text: The island is extremely flat, lying below mean high water level and consequently is at risk of flooding. Before reclamation, the surrounding area contained a number of islands separated by tidal creeks. Flood defences have been constructed since the Middle Ages, and the first sea wall to completely surround the island was built as part of the island's reclamation in 1622. The island suffered extensive flooding in 1731, 1736, 1791, 1881 and 1897, and substantial loss of life in the North Sea Flood of 1953. , the flood defences consist of a concrete seawall, flood sirens and an internal surface storm water drainage system.


title: Canvey Island

text: The extensive sea wall, completed in 1982, is long and surrounds 75% of the island's perimeter terminating with flood barriers spanning Benfleet Creek to the north and East Haven Creek in the west. The drainage system consists of sewers, culverts, natural and artificial dykes and lakes which feed seven pumping stations and gravity sluices that discharge the water into the Thames and creeks. Four of the discharge sites are "high flow" stations capable of discharging 600 litres of water per second at any tide level. The levels within the system are managed by a further five "low flow" pumping stations. The Environment Agency's Thames Estuary 2100 flood defence plan includes Canvey Island as one site for alleviating the flood risks to London and the Thames estuary area. It is proposed that the western side of Canvey is developed as a site which is either temporarily flooded at times of risk, or transformed into a permanent wetland.


title: Canvey Island

text: Developments in the 20th century have produced a marked contrast between the environments in the east and west of the island. The eastern half of the island is allocated to residential areas, the main public amenities and a small holiday camp and seafront, while the western half of the island is mainly farmland, marshes and industrial areas. The marshes in the west include the 30 hectares known as West Canvey marshes, acquired by the RSPB in 2007, and the Canvey Wick nature reserve. Canvey Wick is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) at the site of the abandoned and incomplete oil refinery. The foundations of the 100-hectare (0.4 sq mile) site were prepared in the 1970s by laying thousands of tonnes of silt dredged from the Thames; the abandoned and undisturbed area has flourished as a haven for around 1,300 species of wildlife, some of which are endangered or were thought to be extinct in the UK, including the shrill carder bee, the emerald damselfly and the weevil hunting wasp.


title: Canvey Island

text: It has been said that the site may have one of the highest levels of biodiversity in Western Europe. Other areas of natural interest include the of Canvey Lake Local Nature Reserve owned by Castle Point Borough Council. The lake was used for salt-making during the Roman settlement of the island, and is also thought to have functioned as an oyster bed. At the eastern point of the island is the Canvey Heights Country Park which was reclaimed from the Newlands landfill site that operated there between 1954 and 1989. The park is the highest land on the island and thus has wide views across the creeks and marshes and along the Thames. The environment supports an array of birds including skylarks, dark-bellied brent geese and grey plover.


title: Canvey Island

text: Canvey Island coalesced into a separate civil parish and ecclesiastical parish in 1881. These with separate remits replaced the 17 divisions of the land split largely into grazing meadowland since the Norman era by the neighbouring parishes of North Benfleet, South Benfleet, Bowers Gifford, Prittlewell, Southchurch, Hadleigh, Laindon, Pitsea and Vange. In 1926, the parish was converted to the Canvey Island Urban District, then dissolved along with the Benfleet Urban District in the Local Government Act 1972 to form the local government district and borough of Castle Point.


title: Canvey Island

text: Since the 2010 General Election, the Member of Parliament representing the parliamentary constituency of Castle Point has been Rebecca Harris of the Conservative Party.


title: Canvey Island

text: four of the UKs emergency services. Essex Police has a small police station located near to an On Call fire station crewed by Essex County Fire and Rescue Service. Her Majestys Coastguard also have a station located on Charfleets Industrial Estate close to Holehaven Creek. There is also a small localised ambulance station run by East of England Ambulance Service Trust.


title: Canvey Island

text: Canvey is represented on Castle Point Borough Council by 17 councillors elected from six wards: Canvey Island Central, East, North, South, West and Winter Gardens. 16 of the 17 councillors belong to the Canvey Island Independent Party (CIIP) formed in 2003 by ex-Labour deputy Council leader and local resident Dave Blackwell. The remaining councillor is Conservative.


title: Canvey Island

text: The Canvey Island town council was formed in 2007 after a petition spearheaded by islander Albert Payne, with the signatures of 3,000 islanders, was accepted by the government. , the council has 11 councillors, all of whom are Canvey Island Independent members, and functions with Councillor surgeries and through four committees – Community Relations, Environment and Open Spaces, Planning and Policy and Finance. The surgeries are held at the town council offices, while the committees meet at various venues every fortnight.


title: Canvey Island

text: Like much of Essex, the population of Canvey has increased significantly in the last 100 years, with migration from London, especially East London, driving the growth. Government policy and the island's former popularity as a holiday resort were important factors. An example of the policy of moving East Londoners to Canvey and elsewhere, was the introduction of council estates for 100 families from the Dagenham and Walthamstow boroughs in 1959. Since the 2011 census, this trend has been renewed with a number of orthodox Jewish families moving to the island from the Stamford Hill neighbourhood of Hackney.


title: Canvey Island

text: At the 2001 UK census, the population of Canvey was 37,479 of which 87.9% of people were living within the five wards of the eastern area of the island at a population density of 38 persons per hectare, while the population density within the west ward – covering a larger area of the island – was 4.6 persons per hectare.


title: Canvey Island

text: There were 15,312 dwellings on Canvey of which 98.7% were households. 42.4% were occupied by married couples, 13.9% of households contained three or more adults and no children, 26% were one person households and 8.1% were occupied by co-habiting couples. Canvey had a higher proportion at 35.2% of households owning their properties outright compared with the average of 29.2% for England, but had a lower proportion when compared to the average for Castle Point at 39.9%.


title: Canvey Island

text: There was a higher proportion of female residents than male by 0.03%. The median age of the population was 40 years, and 23% were under 18, while 15% of residents were over 65.


title: Canvey Island

text: The island has a high proportion of white people compared to national figures; the ethnicity recorded was 98.2% white compared with 91% for England. 0.6% of the population of Canvey were of a mixed ethnic group, while 0.6% were Asian, 0.2% Black and 0.2% Chinese.


title: Canvey Island

text: 4.2% of the population were foreign born, with 1.7% of residents born in another constituent country of the UK. 2.5% of the population were born outside the UK; and 1.2% of residents born outside Europe.


title: Canvey Island

text: Religion was recorded as 74% Christian, 0.2% Muslim, 0.1% Jewish, 0.1% Hindu, while 16% of islanders had no religion.


title: Canvey Island

text: The proportion of unemployed persons on Canvey was lower at 2.2% than for Castle Point at 2.4%, and England at 3.3%.


title: Canvey Island

text: Canvey Island has several shopping areas. The main town centre known by older locals as the Haystack (after the pub in the town centre) is based around Furtherwick Road and the High Street. Most shops are located either in the Knightswick Centre (opened 1978) and Furtherwick Road with the lead store being Sainsbury's (formerly Key Markets). The other main store on Canvey is Morrisons which is located on Northwick Road, some way from the town centre. There are small shopping parades in St Michael's Road, The village on Long Road, Jones Corner on Long Road, Third Avenue, Point Road and dotted along the High Street. Castle Point Council are currently planning a £50m regeneration scheme for the town centre including building a larger Sainsbury's on the current Knightswick Car Park (with parking on the roof) and better connection to the town centre and the lake.


title: Canvey Island

text: Canvey currently has a small multi screen cinema located on the seafront called Movi-Starr (opened late 1990s) which replaced the former Rio Cinema which closed in the 1970s and was replaced by Rio Bingo Hall (Furtherwick Road). There are several arcades along this stretch of the seafront, along with a small amusement park and the Monico public house. The island had previously been known for its nightlife with both the Goldmine (hosted big name DJs including Emperor Rosko and Chris Hill) and King's Nightclubs (acts included comedian Mike Read) being well known hot spots but these closed in the 1980s and 1990s respectively.


title: Canvey Island

text: Canvey's industry is primarily based in two locations. The main location is Charfleet Industrial Estate, while there is further industrial buildings in Point Road. Canvey Island was home to Prout's Catamarans from 1949 to 2002. Canvey is also home to a Calor Gas Storage Terminal, and an Oikos Oil depot located off Thames Road and Holehaven Road.


title: Canvey Island

text: Additionally private developers have announced a new retail park to be built next to the Morrisons supermarket at Roscommon Way on Canvey Island which will be due to open in 2018. A Marks & Spencer's opened next to Morrisons in 2019 and was later accompanied by a Costa Coffee, Sports Direct, and B&M Bargains Store.


title: Canvey Island

text: The "Lobster Smack" public house at the southwest corner of the island is a grade II listed building dated to the 17th century. The pub was known to Charles Dickens who mentioned it in "Great Expectations". Alongside the pub is a row of wooden Coastguard cottages that date from the late 19th century which are also of grade II listed status.


title: Canvey Island

text: Landmarks from the era of Canvey's development as a seaside resort in the 20th century include the International style Labworth Café built 1932–33 and designed by Ove Arup. The building fell into a state of disrepair in the 1970s and 1980s but was renovated in 1996 and now functions as both a beach bistro and restaurant.


title: Canvey Island

text: Opened in 1979, the Heritage Centre along Canvey Road is housed in the former St. Katherine's Church, which was built in 1874. Originally timber-framed, the church was rendered over in the 1930s to give it its present appearance; it closed as a place of worship in 1962. It now contains an art and craft centre with a small folk museum.


title: Canvey Island

text: The island is also home to two Dutch Cottages, one in Haven Road and the other on Canvey Road, which were built during the 17th century by Dutch immigrants working on the sea walls. The cottage at Canvey Road is home to the Dutch Cottage museum.


title: Canvey Island

text: Some of Canvey's lost landmarks include the Goldmine club on Western Esplanade, the original Oysterfleet public house and lighthouse and Cherry Stores.


title: Canvey Island

text: Canvey Island is connected to the mainland in the northwest by two roads with bridges: the A130 (Canvey Way) and the B1014 (Canvey Road). Built in 1972, the A130 crosses East Haven Creek to Bowers Gifford and joins the London-Southend A13 at Sadler's Farm Roundabout. The two lanes of the A130 are currently the island's primary access route with 25,000 vehicles using the road and bridge per day. The B1014 and Canvey Road Bridge (or Canvey Bridge) crosses Benfleet Creek to South Benfleet, and provides access to the c2c London (Fenchurch Street) to Shoeburyness line via Benfleet railway station.


title: Canvey Island

text: Canvey Road Bridge was built in 1973, and replaced the island's first bridge to the mainland, which dated from 1931. The Colvin Bridge – named after the Lord Lieutenant of Essex, Brigadier-General R.B. Colvin – operated with a sliding central section that retracted for boats passing along Benfleet Creek. Prior to the Colvin Bridge's construction, crossing the creek was achieved by either rowing-boat ferry or by a gravel causeway or stepping-stones at low tides.


title: Canvey Island

text: Since the late 1970s, residents and local politicians have campaigned for the construction of a third access route (or "third road") to ease the island's congestion at rush hour and as a viable means of evacuation from flooding or industrial accidents at the petrochemical facilities. In 2008, the congestion and failure to secure the construction of such a route or significant improvements has had the island at "breaking point" and on the verge of "civil unrest". Plans for the third access route have included a tunnel to Kent, and road bridges to places such as Leigh-on-Sea and Coryton. Opposition to the route cite the enormous cost, the environmental damage, and the increase of vehicles to districts with already overburdened traffic systems.


title: Canvey Island

text: The island's access congestion was partially addressed by Essex Council in December 2011 with its completion of the £12.1 million Roscommon Way Extension. The road runs from Northwick Road to Haven Road, providing a bypass for small numbers of traffic and adding a new entrance to Charfleet Industrial Estate while also remaining navigable in the case of flooding.


title: Canvey Island

text: However, the road did not gain public support, and the extension has become known as 'The Road to Nowhere'. This road is used by boy racers to do drifting in cars. As such, there are talks about putting speed restrictions in place such as road humps.


title: Canvey Island

text: Bus services have been running on Canvey since 1906. From 1934, the services ran from the island's local bus depot at Leigh Beck by the Canvey & District Bus Co, later to be incorporated into the Eastern National Omnibus Company. The depot closed in 1978, but the building re-opened a year later as the "Castle Point Transport Museum". The museum currently houses a collection of buses, commercial, military and emergency vehicles, and general items related to public road transport. Organised by volunteers, the museum's annual show and open days coincide with a classic vehicle cruise that convenes at the car parks of the seafront.


title: Canvey Island

text: The current bus services on the island are operated by First Essex from the Hadleigh bus depot, and NIBS Buses based in Wickford. First Essex is the main operator providing the island's internal services via the town centre, and provides services to places such as Southend, Basildon and Bournes Green. NIBS Buses run the 21C bus from Canvey to Hadleigh via Essex Way.


title: Canvey Island

text: Both bus companies provide services to Benfleet railway station, which is located close to Canvey Bridge, just north of the island. The railway station has a taxi rank. Train services are provided by c2c between London Fenchurch Street and Southend Central/Shoeburyness.


title: Canvey Island

text: Canvey Island has two comprehensive schools: the Cornelius Vermuyden School and Castle View School. Both were rebuilt in 2012 as replacements for the island's three ageing comprehensives, and as a response to the island's decreasing numbers of 11- to 16-year-olds.


title: Canvey Island

text: Cornelius Vermuyden occupies the same site as its predecessor near Waterside Farm, while Castle View School – within the town centre and centre of the island – has replaced Furtherwick Park School, having previously existed within the island's north/central Winter Gardens Ward, overlooked by Hadleigh Castle. Furtherwick Park School shut in 2010, remaining pupils were then moved to Castle View School to finish their education. This site is now the location of Canvey Skills Campus which was built in 2013 and provides vocational education for 14- to 19-year-olds, and adult learning and is run by PROCAT.


title: Canvey Island

text: The island has only been populated since the 17th century when the Dutch including reputedly Cornelius Vermuyden made the marshlands habitable. There are local legends of a Dutchman carrying a sack wandering the northern parts of the island.


title: Canvey Island

text: Canvey has its own 'lady of the lake' in the form of a woman who was drowned there many years ago. Though the stories about her are inconsistent, some even saying that it was a man who drowned, the majority speak of a female ghost who has wandered the area since her horse-drawn carriage plummeted into the lake. A recent clean-up of the lake found remains of two horses and fragments of a wooden carriage.


title: Canvey Island

text: The story of 'The Black Man' and 'The White Lady' is believed to be a mythical tale conjured up by smugglers to stop people wandering onto the 'saltings' and finding their smuggled goods. It was said that 'The Black Man' offered a price for your soul, while the 'White Woman' would tempt you to dance with her. Men often spoke of trying to chase away the figures, only to watch them vanish before their eyes.


title: Canvey Island

text: Many night fishermen have reported seeing a tall, burly Viking standing on the mudflats at The Point, on the far eastern side of the island. It is believed that he was left behind by his fleet and waited for his ship to return; only to drown in the rising tide.


title: Canvey Island

text: According to an urban legend, a female farmhand at the now demolished Knightswick Farm watched a nun approach the farm from the fields one afternoon from the porch of the farmhouse. Puzzled as to why the nun had walked across the muddy fields, the girl left the porch and walked towards the nun intending to greet her. Allegedly the nun began to vanish into the ground as she walked.


title: Canvey Island

text: According to local legend a tunnel used to run from the Lobster Smack to Hadleigh Castle, and was said to be used by smugglers bringing in French wines.


title: Canvey Island

text: Canvey Island was an influential destination in the 1970s for artists of the pub rock genre of music such as Graham Parker, Elvis Costello, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Nick Lowe, and The Kursaal Flyers, while also being home to "Canvey Island's finest" band Dr. Feelgood. During the 1970s The Goldmine opened in the former Bay Country Club and the name became synonymous with the Brit funk movement with regular DJ Chris Hill.


title: Canvey Island

text: The island continues to be a source of inspiration for artists such as British Sea Power who included a song entitled "Canvey Island" on their 2008 album "Do You Like Rock Music?"


title: Canvey Island

text: Canvey Island is the setting for the British author Nicola Barker's 2002 novel" Behindlings". The island was also the subject of 2006 Turner Prize nominee Rebecca Warren's 2003 painted clay sculpture titled "Canvey Island". Canvey was also home to a Prada fashion shoot in 2014 starring James McAvoy, and featured in BBC's "Silent Witness" shown on 2 and 3 February 2015.


title: Canvey Island

text: Canvey Island has two senior semi-professional football teams in Canvey Island F.C. ('The Gulls') and Concord Rangers F.C. ('The Beachboys'). The older of the two clubs, Canvey Island F.C. (founded in 1926) currently play one step lower than their newer rivals Concord Rangers F.C. (founded in 1967) in the Isthmian League, whilst 'The Beachboys' compete in National League South. Despite Canvey Island F.C. having historical successes reaching the National League in 2004 and winning the FA Trophy in 2001, it is Concord Rangers F.C. who are currently more successful, being crowned Essex Senior Cup champions consecutively between 2013 and 2016.


title: Canvey Island

text: Amateur participation in sport is popular on the island, with sports such as rugby union, cricket, and martial arts represented by clubs and corresponding facilities. The Castle Point Golf Course is situated on Canvey, and the Waterside Farm Sports Centre (recently refurbished 2013) provides members of Castle Point district with access to a swimming pool, an athletics track, general purpose sports halls, and a full size artificial surface football pitch. It is also the headquarters of Canvey Island Swimming Club, which provides coaching for children ages 4 and upwards from beginners to competitive swimming through to national standard.


title: Canvey Island

text: Water sports are also popular recreational pursuits. Canvey has two sailing clubs, the Island Yacht Club and the Chapman Sands Sailing Club, with Benfleet Yacht Club and slipway also situated on the island at Benfleet Creek in the north. A region between Thorney bay and Labworth beach is designated by the Port of London Authority as an approved windsurfing area. The Canvey Island Swimming Club provides lessons and training and is based at Waterside Farm Leisure Centre.


title: Canvey Island

text: The British record for the largest shore-caught angler fish ("Lophius piscatorius") is from Canvey Island, caught by H. Legerton in 1967. During 1953 and 1954 two unusual fish were washed up the shoreline and are known as Canvey Island Monster.


title: U.S. history of tobacco minimum purchase age by state

text: The minimum purchasing age for tobacco in the United States before 2020 varied by state and territory. Since December 20, 2019, the smoking age in all states and territories is 21 after federal law was passed by Congress and signed by former President Donald Trump.


text: In the United States, laws regarding the minimum age to purchase and consume tobacco products have been made by states, territories, the District of Columbia and the federal government. Before 1992, states had the sole power to enforce their own minimum ages. These laws first appeared in the late 19th-century, with New Jersey becoming the first state to set a minimum purchase age of sixteen in 1883. By 1920, around half of states had their minimum purchase age of twenty-one and some simply prohibited "minors" (ages 14–24) from purchasing. During the 1920s, due to tobacco industry lobbying, the minimum ages were lowered across the U.S. and ranged from sixteen to nineteen. By 1939, all states had age restrictions for tobacco. However, these laws kept changing throughout the 1950s, with Maryland repealing its age restrictions. The American Cancer Society recommended the minimum age of eighteen in 1963, the American Medical Association recommended twenty-one in 1985, and the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General recommended nineteen or twenty-one.


text: State tobacco laws partly changed in 1992 under the Bill Clinton administration when Congress enacted the Synar Amendment, forcing states to create their own laws to have a minimum age of eighteen to purchase tobacco or else lose funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The amendment was passed in response to the teenage smoking rates. All states raised their ages to either eighteen or nineteen by 1993. In 1997, the Food and Drug Administration enacted regulations making the federal minimum age eighteen, though later the U.S. Supreme Court later terminated the FDA's jurisdiction over tobacco, ending its enforcement practices and leaving it up to states.


text: In 2009, the "Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act" was enacted under the Barack Obama administration, once again setting a federal minimum age of eighteen and prohibited the FDA from setting a higher minimum purchase age. From 1993 to 2012, the smoking age in all states was either eighteen or nineteen. In 2005, the town of Needham, Massachusetts became the first jurisdiction in the country to raise the minimum purchase age to 21. Between 2012 to 2015, local municipalities across the U.S. began raising their smoking ages to twenty-one, with Hawaii becoming the first state to raise its age to twenty-one in 2015. This began the shift in states eventually raising their ages to twenty-one due to the teenage vaping crisis. By 2019, eighteen states had their minimum purchase ages at twenty-one, thirty states had their ages at eighteen, two had it at nineteen and the District of Columbia had it at twenty-one. On December 20, 2019, with the enactment of the Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2020 signed by President Donald Trump, the federal smoking age was raised to twenty-one by changing the minimum purchase age in the 1992 Synar Amendment. The United States Department of Defense followed, raising the age to purchase tobacco to twenty-one on military bases in the U.S. and abroad.


title: Ministry of Commerce and Industry (India)

text: The Ministry of Commerce and Industry administers two departments, the Department of Commerce and the Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade. The head of the Ministry is a Minister of Cabinet rank.


text: The Minister of Commerce and Industry is the head of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and one of the cabinet ministers of the Government of India. The first Minister of Commerce and Industry of independent India was Syama Prasad Mukherjee. The current Minister is Piyush Goyal of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Goyal took over from Suresh Prabhu on 31 May 2019.


text: The department is entrusted with formulating and implementing the foreign trade policy and responsibilities relating to multilateral and bilateral commercial relations, state trading, export promotion measures, and development and regulation of certain export oriented industries and commodities.


text: This department was established in the year 1995, and in the year 2000 Department of Industrial Development was merged with it. This department is responsible for formulation and implementation of promotional and developmental measures for growth of the industrial sector, keeping in view the national priorities and socio-economic objectives. While individual administrative ministries look after the production, distribution, development and planning aspects of specific industries allocated to them, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade is responsible for the overall Industrial Policy. It is also responsible for facilitating and increasing the FDI flows to the country. It is also responsible to calculate WPI (I.e. Wholesale Price Index).


text: The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade is also responsible for intellectual property rights relating to patents, designs, trademarks, copyrights and geographical indication of goods and oversees the initiative relating to their promotion and protection.


text: Recently instituted National Startup Award by ministry of commerce and industry recognised 46 startups on the eve of First National Startup Day announced by Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi. udChalo, Ratan Tata backed Repos and others remarkable startups are among the winners.


title: Eiffel (film)

text: Eiffel is a 2021 French romantic drama film directed by Martin Bourboulon, from a script written by Caroline Bongrand. The film stars Romain Duris as Gustave Eiffel and follows a fictionalized romance between Eiffel and Adrienne Bourgès, his childhood sweetheart, played by Emma Mackey. It also stars Pierre Deladonchamps in a supporting role.


title: Eiffel (film)

text: "Eiffel" premiered on 2 March 2021 at the Alliance Française French Film Festival in Australia, and was released in France on 13 October 2021, by Pathé Distribution. The film received mostly positive reviews, and grossed over $13 million worldwide.


title: Eiffel (film)

text: Gustave Eiffel looks over Paris from the tower that he has conceived, designed, and delivered. He casts his mind back to when he was supervising the building of an iron bridge over the River Garonne at the town of Bordeaux. One of his workmen fell into the dangerously turbulent waters of the river. Unhesitatingly, he dived in and rescued the man. By chance driving by, Adrienne Bourgès, then unknown to Eiffel, saw the rescue. To prevent further such accidents, Eiffel asked a wealthy local bourgeois, who by chance happened to be Adrienne's father, for wood for safety scaffolding. Bourgès invited him to lunch, where he sat with many others including Adrienne, who pretended that she hadn't seen the rescue, but still indicated that she admired him. She spoke up to her father to support Eiffel's request for wood for scaffolding. He was struck to the heart by her beauty, dash, and grace. As he left, she invited him to her coming birthday party. At the last moment, she confessed that she had seen the rescue.


title: Eiffel (film)

text: Threaded through the film are more memories. As Eiffel designs the Tour, he recalls the birthday party, at which they played musical chairs, and Eiffel and Adrienne smiled at each other. When she saw him alone, as a birthday present, he gave her a copy of an old book on the art of building metal bridges. She told him that she recognised his individuality, and suddenly kissed him on the cheek. Surprised, he withdrew as she rejoined the many at the party.


title: Eiffel (film)

text: Another time during the building of the bridge over the Garonne, one evening, she went walking around the works and they encountered each other. He invited her into his office or quarters. He told her that she was charming, but still a spoiled child, just toying with him. She walked out in dudgeon. He soon called after her, but she kept walking and deliberately fell backwards into the river. He ran and jumped in to rescue her. They were wet and cold. He lit the stove in his office, put a blanket on her, and they held each other to get warm. Then they kissed closely, and again. And more closely.


title: Eiffel (film)

text: Soon their passion grew. They thought of marriage. These memories perhaps sustain Eiffel through the vicissitudes of his delivery of the Tour. Suddenly, Adrienne went away from home. Her father told Eiffel that she had been stringing him along, and no longer wanted to marry him. Eiffel didn't believe him, and seized him by his coat lapels. Bourgès threw Eiffel to the ground and drove off. Eiffel picked himself up and resolved to wait for Adrienne. Her mother and father told her she couldn't marry Eiffel because he wasn't good enough for her. She replied that she was expecting his baby. She ran out of the house, chased by her father. Finding the gates closed, she climbed up to go over them, but fell on one of their points, and sustained a penetrating abdominal wound.


title: Eiffel (film)

text: These memories also come up when Adrienne and Eiffel meet during the construction of the Tour, and Eiffel sees the scar from the old injury; they recall their youthful passion. The embryo was lost, and Adrienne was still wounded, when she married Antoine de Restac. For this reason, and for the sake of Eiffel's reputation and the Tour, Adrienne stays with her husband and renounces Eiffel, who thereupon orders the construction to be completed with rivets instead of bolts, so that the Tour can never be torn down.


title: Eiffel (film)

text: Peter Debruge of Variety wrote that "Not a biopic so much as a sketchy piece of historical fiction, "Eiffel" identifies itself as 'librement inspiré de faits réels,' which roughly translates to 'a made-up crock of hooey'." David Stratton of The Australian wrote that "I am a man with an idea greater than himself, "Eiffel" tells the various interested parties when he makes his formal bid to build the tower. I think the director of this film took that line to heart, and I am glad he did". Nesselson of Screen International wrote that "Ambitious, handsomely appointed and unapologetically old-fashioned".


title: The Seinfeld Chronicles

text: "The Seinfeld Chronicles" (also known as "Good News, Bad News", "Pilot", "The Premiere", or simply "Seinfeld") is the pilot episode of the American sitcom "Seinfeld", which first aired on NBC on July 5, 1989.


title: The Seinfeld Chronicles

text: The first of the 180 "Seinfeld" episodes, it was written by show creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld and directed by Art Wolff. It revolves around a fictionalized version of Seinfeld, who is unsure about the romantic intentions of a woman he met, and frets about the meaning of her signals with his best friend George (Jason Alexander) and neighbor Kessler (Michael Richards, whose character was later renamed "Kramer").


title: The Seinfeld Chronicles

text: The storyline and main characters were inspired by real-life events and people. Though NBC executives were unsure about the show, they, as Warren Littlefield later stated, "They all said, 'Ah, what the hell, let's try a pilot on this thing and see what happens'." However, test audiences reacted extremely negatively. Although NBC would still broadcast the pilot to see how audiences and critics reacted, they decided not to order a first season of the show. Castle Rock Entertainment, which produced the pilot (and the subsequent series), had another pilot produced for NBC featuring actress Ann Jillian in her own eponymous series. After "The Seinfeld Chronicles"' poor reception, the production company turned to Jillian's series, which tested better and had earned a full-season order (it ran a single 13-episode season and was cancelled by the end of 1990).


title: The Seinfeld Chronicles

text: When "The Seinfeld Chronicles" aired, it was watched by nearly 11% of American households and received generally favorable reviews from critics, most of whom were disappointed that NBC did not order a first season. Convinced that the show had potential, and supported by the positive reviews, NBC executive Rick Ludwin convinced his superiors to order a four-episode first season (the smallest order in US TV history), offering a part of his personal budget in return. The show, renamed "Seinfeld", went on to become among the most successful sitcoms in television history.


title: The Seinfeld Chronicles

text: The series opens with Jerry Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld) and his best friend, George Costanza (Jason Alexander) seated at Pete's Luncheonette where their good friend Claire (Lee Garlington) is a waitress. After debating the placement of one of George's shirt buttons, Jerry tells George about a woman he met in Lansing, Michigan, Laura (Pamela Brull), who is coming to New York, and the two discuss whether she has romantic intentions. The next evening, Jerry tells his neighbor Kessler (Michael Richards) that he thinks he misunderstood the situation with Laura. However, he then receives a telephone call from Laura, who asks if she can stay overnight at his apartment. Though Jerry agrees, he is still unsure whether her visit is intended to be romantic. George and Jerry continue to debate the issue, with Jerry determined to find the true nature of her visit.


title: The Seinfeld Chronicles

text: While waiting at the airport for Laura to arrive, Jerry and George try to identify the possible signals Laura might give upon her arrival, with George explaining the meaning of various greetings. However, when Laura arrives, her greeting is ambiguous. Upon arriving at Jerry's apartment Laura removes her shoes and some excess clothing to get comfortable, asks for wine, and turns down the light and asks if she can stay over a second night. As Jerry removes his own shoes and begins to grow confident, the phone rings for Laura. When Laura gets off the phone she tells Jerry: "Never get engaged." Jerry then realizes that he has no chance with Laura, but has already committed himself – and his one-bedroom apartment – to an entire weekend with her, including a five-hour sightseeing boat ride around Manhattan.


title: The Seinfeld Chronicles

text: "The Seinfeld Chronicles" was written as the pilot for the show that would eventually be called "Seinfeld", though earlier versions of the script would refer to the program as "Stand Up" and "The Jerry Seinfeld Show". The idea for the show started on November 2, 1988, after NBC executives had approached comedian Jerry Seinfeld to do a project with the network, upon a suggestion by George Shapiro, Seinfeld's manager at the time. Seinfeld enlisted fellow comedian Larry David to help him develop it, and they wrote a concept for a 90-minute-special (that was to air one weekend in place of "Saturday Night Live") about how comedians get their material. However, upon further discussion, Seinfeld felt that the concept could not be sustained for 90 minutes, and the two decided that the project was to become a pilot for a series rather than a special. Developed by NBC executive Rick Ludwin, and produced by Castle Rock Entertainment, it was a mix of Seinfeld's stand-up comedy routines and idiosyncratic, conversational scenes focusing on mundane aspects of everyday life.


title: The Seinfeld Chronicles

text: Conceived as a "show about nothing," in which the main characters would "just make fun of stuff", Seinfeld said that the idea of the pilot episode was to explore the "gaps in society where there are no rules." The storyline, as well as most of the main characters, were inspired by the personal lives of its creators. Jerry was a fictionalized version of Seinfeld, George a fictionalized version of Larry David and Kessler was based on David's neighbor Kenny Kramer. Though Seinfeld was initially concerned the "wacky neighbor" would be too much of a cliché, David convinced him to put the character in the script. However, anticipating that the actual Kramer would exploit the benefits of having a TV character based on him, David hesitated to call the character Kramer. Thus, in the pilot, the character's name is "Kessler". However, intrigued by the name, Seinfeld was convinced that the character's name should be Kramer, prompting Kenny Kramer to call NBC's legal department with various financial and legal demands, most of which he received. The name inconsistency would eventually be addressed in the season 9 episode "The Betrayal" in which Kramer explains that Kessler is the name on his apartment buzzer.


title: The Seinfeld Chronicles

text: David and Seinfeld re-wrote the script several times before submitting it to the network, dropping and adding various elements. Originally George, who was called Bennett in early drafts, was a comedian as well, and the first scene of the episode focused on Jerry and George discussing their stand-up material. The character of Kramer was not included in the first draft of the script; in another draft he is called "Hoffman". Another element that was added was Kessler's dog, since it was originally planned that Jerry's stand-up routines would match the events of each episode. Though the stand-up routine about dogs was eventually dropped, a scene in which Kessler enters with his dog remained in the episode. When David and Seinfeld eventually submitted the script, the network executives were unsure whether or not to produce the pilot, but as NBC executive Warren Littlefield would later state "we all said, ah what the hell, let's try a pilot on this thing and see what happens".


title: The Seinfeld Chronicles

text: Directed by Art Wolff, the pilot was filmed in front of a live studio audience on April 27, 1989, at Stage 9 of Ren-Mar Studios, the same studio where "The Dick Van Dyke Show" was filmed, which was seen by the crew as a good omen. The exterior of Pete's Luncheonette, the restaurant in which the episode opens, was a leftover set piece from "The Muppets Take Manhattan" (1984). Seinfeld's stand-up routine was recorded at Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood, in front of an audience of paid extras, though not all of the recorded material was included in the broadcast version. Additionally, a scene was recorded featuring Jerry and George driving to the airport talking about changing lanes on the road and giving "Thank you waves", but was cut before broadcasting. The music used in the episode was composed by Jep Epstein; however, when the show was picked up, Epstein's tune was replaced by the trademark slap bass music by Jonathan Wolff.


title: The Seinfeld Chronicles

text: "The Seinfeld Chronicles" featured four characters that were intended to be series regulars if the show was to be picked up for a first season: Jerry, George, Kramer and Claire the waitress. Though it was already settled that Seinfeld would play a fictionalized version of himself, auditions were held for the other three characters. Though George was based on Larry David, David was keen on writing, and did not have the desire to portray the character himself. Prior to the casting process, Seinfeld pleaded with his friend Jake Johannsen to play the part, but he rejected it. When the casting process started, as casting director Marc Hirschfeld stated, the casting crew "saw every actor [they] could possibly see in Los Angeles". Among these actors were Larry Miller (Seinfeld's real-life best friend), Brad Hall, David Alan Grier, and Nathan Lane yet none of them seemed fit for the part. Jason Alexander auditioned for the part via a video tape, though he had very little hope for being cast, as he felt he was doing a Woody Allen impression. However, upon watching the tape, David and Seinfeld were immediately convinced Alexander would be the right actor to cast. However, casting sessions traditionally work with rounds, so Alexander and a few other actors considered for the role were flown to Los Angeles for a second audition. One of the other actors who made it to this round was Larry Miller. As Alexander knew Miller was a close friend of Seinfeld, he was convinced he would not get the part, but eventually did.


title: The Seinfeld Chronicles

text: Kenny Kramer initially demanded that he would play the part of Kessler, as he served as the inspiration for the character. However, David did not want this and it was decided that casting sessions would be held. Among those who auditioned for the part of Kramer were Steve Vinovich, Tony Shalhoub and Larry Hankin. Although he was not cast for the part Hankin would later portray an in-show fictional version of Kramer in the season four episode "The Pilot". Seinfeld and David were both familiar with Michael Richards, and David had worked with him on "Fridays". Richards did his final audition at the Century Plaza Hotel on April 18, 1989, reputedly finishing with a handstand. David was not sure about casting Richards, as he was trying to cast an actor who resembled the original Kramer. However, impressed by Richards' audition, Seinfeld convinced David that Richards would be the right actor for the part.