title: Brooklands

text: The world record for the first person to cover 100 miles in 1 hour was set by Percy E. Lambert at Brooklands, on 15 February 1913 when driving his 4.5 litre sidevalve Talbot. He actually covered 103|miles, 1470 yards (167.1 km) in 60 minutes. A contemporary film of his exploits on that day can be viewed at the Brooklands Museum.


title: Brooklands

text: Ivy Cummings is thought to be the youngest person to complete a lap when in 1913, (aged 11/12) she started her father Sydney Cummings' car whilst he was watching aircraft and drove around the course.


title: Brooklands

text: In July and August 1929, Violette Cordery and her younger sister Evelyn drove her 4.5 litre four-seater Invicta for 30,000 miles in less than 30,000 minutes (approximately 20 days, 20 hours), averaging 61.57 mph and earning her second Dewar Trophy from the Royal Automobile Club.


title: Brooklands

text: Brooklands closed to motor racing during World War I, was requisitioned by the War Office and continued its pre-war role as a flying training centre although it was now under military control. Brooklands soon became a major location for the construction, testing and supply of military aeroplanes.


title: Brooklands

text: Motor racing resumed in 1920 after extensive track repairs and Grand Prix motor racing was established at Brooklands in 1926 by Henry Segrave, after his victories in the 1923 French Grand Prix and the San Sebastián Grand Prix (all won on Sunbeam Racing Cars which in various hands had significant success in Brooklands) the following year raised interest in the sport in Britain. This first British Grand Prix was won by Louis Wagner and Robert Sénéchal, sharing the drive in a Delage 155B. The second British Grand Prix was staged there in 1927 and these two events resulted in improved facilities at Brooklands.


title: Brooklands

text: In 1930, the "Daily Herald" offered a trophy for the fastest driver at an event at Brooklands. The first year, Birkin and Kaye Don competed, the former in a Bentley Blower tourer, the latter in the Sunbeam 'Tigress' 4 litre, Don winning with a speed of . In 1932, Birkin won driving his red "Monoposto" Bentley Blower No.1, clocking . The track record stood for two years, before being beaten by John Cobb driving the 24 litre Napier-Railton, which holds the all-time lap record at .


title: Brooklands

text: In 1932 the Junior Car Club organised the British 1000 Miles Race, which was held in two parts on 3 and 4 June. The race was won by Mrs E. Wisdom and Miss Joan Richmond driving a Riley Brooklands 9.


title: Brooklands

text: During the late 1930s, Brooklands also hosted massed start cycle racing events organised by the National Cyclists' Union (as the sport's governing body, the NCU banned such events from public roads). In 1939, it was used as a location for the Will Hay film, "Ask a Policeman".


title: Brooklands

text: Racing stopped when World War II started in 1939. The site was turned over to war-time production of military aircraft. Enemy bombs damaged the track and a new access road to the Hawker factory was cut through from Oyster Lane. Temporary dispersal hangars covered other sections.


title: Brooklands

text: Brooklands was also one of Britain's first airfields. In 1908 Alliott Verdon-Roe was based at Brooklands and carried out the first taxiing and towed flight trials of a British full-size powered aircraft by a British pilot. On Friday, 29 October 1909 the first official powered flight at Brooklands was made by Frenchman Louis Paulhan and his Farman biplane: this special event attracted 20,000 people and was the first public flying display at Brooklands. Operating from specially prepared land inside the Race Track and given his own aeroplane shed, Paulhan made a series of flights on the following days, flying to a height of some on the Saturday and setting a new British endurance record of 2 hr 49 min 20 s on the Monday.


title: Brooklands

text: During 1910 Brooklands rapidly became a major centre of flying in Britain and that summer, Hilda Hewlett and Gustave Blondeau opened Britain's first flying school at Brooklands. Hewlett and Blondeau also started their aircraft manufacturing company, Hewlett & Blondeau Limited there before moving to larger premises in Clapham in London. Later in 1910 the Bristol Aeroplane Company also established a flying school, its first instructor and test pilot was Archie Low; Roe also started a flying school there.


title: Brooklands

text: Vickers opened a flying school on 20 January 1912, and among its first instructors was R. Harold Barnwell; 77 pupils including Hugh Dowding were taught to fly until the school closed in August 1914.


title: Brooklands

text: In February 1912 Thomas Sopwith opened his flying school and in June, with several others, he set up the Sopwith Aviation Company there, although their manufacturing premises were at Kingston upon Thames. Other aviation pioneers came to Brooklands before World War One including Prince Serge de Bolotoff who tried to build a large tandem triplane in a shed there in 1913. Blériot, Martinsyde and Vickers also later produced military aeroplanes at Brooklands which became Britain's largest aircraft manufacturing centre by 1918. Many flying schools operated here before 1914 and the aerodrome became a major flying training centre between the wars.


title: Brooklands

text: During World War I Brooklands closed to motor racing and was requisitioned by the War Office. Vickers Aviation Ltd set up a factory in 1915, and Brooklands soon became a major centre for the construction, testing and supply of military aeroplanes. Civilian flying schools closed down or were merged into one Military Training School and flying training continued until at least the end of 1915. Several Royal Flying Corps squadrons including numbers 1, 8, 9 and 10 (plus No. 2 and 23 Reserve Squadrons) were formed (or reformed) and based briefly at Brooklands during the war years. Continuing significant pioneering air-ground wireless trials pioneered by a Marconi team at Brooklands from 1912, the aerodrome also housed various RFC units testing and training with airborne wireless communications equipment and the World's first voice to ground wireless message was successfully transmitted over Brooklands in 1915.


title: Brooklands

text: Major changes were made to the Flying Village with the construction in late 1917 of three large 'Belfast-truss' General Service Sheds for a new Aircraft Acceptance Park (later No. 10 AAP). This handled the assembly and testing of large numbers of new aeroplanes and finally closed in early 1920.


title: Brooklands

text: Brooklands Aviation Ltd was formed in 1931 - with Percy Bradley, Duncan Davis, Fred Sigrist and Ted Jones as Directors - to operate the aerodrome, and commissioned British airport architect Graham Dawbarn to design the Art Deco Brooklands Aero Clubhouse, which opened in May 1932. The company also operated the resident Brooklands School of Flying which was registered as a limited company in 1931 with Duncan Davis and Ted Jones as Directors, as well as those at Lympne, Shoreham and Sywell Aerodromes in the later 1930s. The original pre-WW1 Brooklands Aero Club was re-formed by the BARC in May 1930 with Percy Bradley as Manager and the Brooklands Flying Club was established by Brooklands Aviation in early 1933. Brooklands Aviation won a War Department contract for pilot training for the Royal Air Force. and opened No. 6 Elementary Flying Training School at Sywell on 10 June 1935, training pilots with a fleet of 20 de Havilland Tiger Moths, and in 1937 the RAF Volunteer Reserve School was set up at Sywell with a further 16 training aircraft. During WW2, Brooklands Aviation became a contractor to the Civilian Repair Organisation, repairing various types of damaged aircraft, particularly Vickers Wellingtons. After ending its RAF flying training in 1946, the company diversified and built plywood and GRP cabin cruiser boats designed by Alan Eckford, until 1974.


title: Brooklands

text: The first flight of the Hawker Hurricane, later a fighter aircraft in the Battle of Britain, occurred at Brooklands on 6 November 1935.


title: Brooklands

text: In World War II, the site was again used for military aircraft production, in particular the Vickers Wellington, Vickers Warwick and Hawker Hurricane and was extensively camouflaged. Trees were also planted in some sections of the concrete track to help conceal the Hawker and Vickers aircraft factories there. Despite these efforts, the Vickers factory was successfully bombed by the Luftwaffe and extensively damaged on 4 September 1940 with nearly 90 aircraft workers killed and at least 419 injured. Five unidentified victims were buried in unmarked graves in Burvale Cemetery, Hersham, on 9 September although one of these was later confirmed to be 36 year old William E Hunt. On 10 March 2016, thanks to the efforts of local residents, sponsors and supporters, permanent memorials to Mr Hunt and the other four civilians were dedicated by the Reverend Martin Fletcher and Elmbridge Borough Councillor Mary Sheldon. Attendees included relatives of Vickers factory worker Eric S Powell who also died on 4 September 1940 aged 26 and is now believed to be one of the remaining four unidentified casualties buried at Burvale.


title: Brooklands

text: The Hawker factory premises were also bombed and damaged two days later but with no loss of life or serious disruption to Hurricane production. On 21 September 1940, Lt John MacMillan Stevenson Patton of the Royal Canadian Engineers risked his life when he and five others manhandled an unexploded German bomb away from the Hawker aircraft factory at Brooklands and rolled it into an existing bomb crater where it later exploded harmlessly - his bravery was subsequently recognised by the award of the George Cross. The crucial role of Brooklands in the Battle of Britain of 1940 is further explained in displays at Brooklands Museum.


title: Brooklands

text: After the bombing of Brooklands in September 1940, the Vickers-Armstrongs Design Department (including Rex Pierson, Barnes Wallis and several hundred others) was dispersed to a secret location at the nearby Burhill Golf Course, just east of St George's Hill in Hersham and the Experimental Department led by George Edwards was relocated to temporary premises at Foxwarren in Redhill Road, Cobham. These two facilities played a crucial part in the successful development of the 'Upkeep' mine - better known today as the 'bouncing bomb' conceived by Barnes Wallis and deployed to such devastating effect by the 'Dambuster' Avro Lancasters of 617 Squadron, RAF, led by Guy Gibson against Germany's Ruhr Valley reservoirs on the night of 16–17 May 1943.


title: Brooklands

text: After the war, the circuit was in poor condition and was sold to Vickers-Armstrongs in 1946 for continued use as an aircraft factory. New aircraft types, including the Viking, Valetta, Varsity, Viscount, Vanguard, 1-11 and VC10, were subsequently, designed, manufactured and delivered from there.


title: Brooklands

text: In 1951, construction of a new hard runway required a section of the motor circuit's Byfleet Banking to be removed to allow Vickers Valiant V bombers to be flown out to nearby Wisley Airfield, which offered a longer runway and less built-up surroundings than Brooklands. That airfield opened as a flight test centre for Vickers in 1944, and was used until 1972, latterly by BAC.


title: Brooklands

text: After considerable expansion, due to increasing commercial success in the 1950s, the Vickers factory achieved its peak size in the early 1960s, in preparation for the VC10 manufacturing programme, and became the headquarters of the new British Aircraft Corporation in 1960. Substantial investment in the site at that time saw many new buildings constructed and existing premises modified. First, in the mid-1950s, came a new assembly hall for the Vickers Viscount, known as 'B.1', presumably because it consisted of a number of re-purposed standard war-time B.1-type hangars (together with some T.2 hangars), and was rebuilt as one long double-bay structure parallel to the runway.


title: Brooklands

text: By 1962, a large new VC10 flight shed hangar was ready to house the prototype VC10 airliner, and a second, even larger, flight shed was added alongside by 1964. The latter was probably the largest aircraft hangar in Europe at the time and became known locally as "The Cathedral", while the smaller shed was called "The Abbey". The huge factory at Brooklands went on to design and build the BAC TSR.2, One-Eleven and major assemblies for Concorde.


title: Brooklands

text: The cancellation of the V-1000 transport in 1955, the Labour government's cancellation of the TSR-2 in 1965, and the disappointing lack of significant orders for VC10s and Concorde, saw the factory contract in the early 1970s. It became part of the newly formed British Aerospace in 1977, and focused on component manufacture for other aircraft. However, closure was announced on 29 July 1986, finally occurring on Christmas Day 1989. BAE's successor, BAE Systems, retains a logistics centre at Brooklands.


title: Brooklands

text: In November 2009, Brooklands was featured in an episode of a BBC TV series James May's Toy Stories. May undertook the task of recreating the original track using Scalextric. The show featured May's attempt to lay the plastic track through and around the variety of obstacles that have replaced the original track, including a pond, a four-lane road, several houses, fences, and Sony and Procter & Gamble corporate campuses.


title: Brooklands

text: In 1987, Brooklands Museum Trust was formed with Sir Peter G Masefield as Chairman, and began to record, research, preserving and interpret all aspects the site's heritage. The Museum project began after a highly successful temporary exhibition about Brooklands was staged in 1977 by Elmbridge Museum in Weybridge and, with support from British Aerospace, Elmbridge Borough Council, Gallaher Ltd and many dedicated individuals, this led to the selection of a 30-acre heritage site in the northeast corner of Brooklands, by the old Paddock and Finishing Straight. As well as organising numerous aviation, motoring and other events since the mid-1980s, the Museum also staged regular fly-ins for visiting light aircraft from 1991 to 2003 using the northern half of the original tarmac runway and staffed these events with an all-volunteer team.


title: Brooklands

text: Brooklands made a notable TV appearance when it featured in the 1990 'The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim' episode of "Agatha Christie's Poirot", when Hercule Poirot investigates a crime committed involving a racing driver. The banking of Brooklands was also used as a 'road location' in an episode of "The Bill" where the CID foiled an armed robbery and resulted in a 'shoot out'. On 1 November 2015, Brooklands was featured in an episode of the British series "Downton Abbey", although the scenes were actually filmed at the Goodwood Circuit. American car enthusiast Barry Meguiar (President and CEO of Meguiar's) has featured the Brooklands on his Speed Channel show "Car Crazy".


title: Brooklands

text: In early 2004 the central area of Brooklands including the hard runway and parts of the remaining circuit were sold to DaimlerChrysler UK Retail and Mercedes-Benz World opened to the public on 29 October 2006. This development incorporates a vehicle test tracks (including part of the original Campbell Circuit) and an off-road circuit. Also included is a conference centre and extensive Mercedes-Benz showrooms.


title: Brooklands

text: Following significant earlier work by The Brooklands Society (not part of Brooklands Museum), certain buildings (including the 1907 BARC Clubhouse, the 1911 Flight Ticket Office and the 1932 Brooklands Aero Clubhouse), structures and remaining sections of the Track first became the subject of preservation orders from 1975 and this legal protection was reviewed by English Heritage and increased by the DCMS in 2002). A draft Brooklands Conservation Plan was instigated by English Heritage and prepared in 2003 for DaimlerChrysler by DCUK consultants Terence O'Rourke. A Brooklands Heritage Partnership (BHP) was formed in 2010 as an informal partnership of Brooklands Museum, Elmbridge Borough Council, English Heritage and Surrey County Council, to address increasing conservation issues and concerns. In April 2013, a £32,540 grant was secured from English Heritage (now Historic England) to enable the BHP to appoint professional consultants to research and compile a comprehensive reference document on all aspects of Brooklands’ heritage. A draft version of this new document was available for public consultation via Elmbridge Borough Council and Brooklands Museum from July to August 2017.


title: Brooklands

text: On 25 September 2013, the last flying VC10 - an RAF K.3 tanker, serial number ZA147 (originally built as a Super VC10 airliner) - made its final flight from RAF Brize Norton to Bruntingthorpe Airfield, this being the end of the type's remarkable 51-year career. Although this aeroplane is due to be scrapped, on the previous day its sister, ZA150, was acquired by Brooklands Museum for preservation at nearby Dunsfold Aerodrome and was delivered there by an RAF 101 Squadron crew. This was the last VC10 built - first flown from Brooklands on 16 February 1970, originally delivered to East African Airways and also one of the last complete aircraft manufactured at Brooklands - the last complete aircraft to be built there, BAC 1-11 D-ANNO, first flew on 19 December 1970. The retirement of these two VC10s also ended a 100-year period of Brooklands-built aeroplanes operated by the British armed forces.


title: Brooklands

text: Brooklands motor course celebrated its centenary on 16/17 June 2007. Throughout 2007, various special events were organised by Brooklands Museum in order to celebrate its 100th birthday. Events included use of the Byfleet Banking for the first time in nearly 70 years, a Formula One car demonstration by McLaren-Mercedes, driven by Gary Paffett in conjunction with Mercedes-Benz World and a 24-hour slot car race to commemorate S.F. Edge's achievement of driving for 24 hours averaging over 60 mph (100 km/h).


title: Brooklands

text: Brooklands Museum houses historic aircraft including a Vickers Wellington bomber recovered from Loch Ness in 1985, a British Airways Concorde, G-BBDG (c/n 202), the UK's first production Concorde, and now also owns the 40% scale Concorde model "G-CONC" displayed for many years as a gate guardian at Heathrow Airport, until movement in 2007. After restoration and repainting, the model was relocated for similar duty at Brooklands Museum's public entrance off Brooklands Drive on 29 September 2012.


title: Brooklands

text: There are civil and military aircraft on display including a Vickers Vanguard, Viscount 800 and Standard VC-10. The majority of exhibits were built at Brooklands or have close associations with the site. The VC-10 was built and first flown at Brooklands in 1964 and after airline service with British United as G-ASIX and later British Caledonian Airways, in 1974 it became the official VIP transport for the Sultan of Oman until retired and flown back to Brooklands on 6 July 1987 and donated to Brooklands Museum by the Sultan of Oman's Royal Flight.


title: Brooklands

text: Although the Circuit is no longer driveable, it can still be simulated in the 1999 released "Spirit of Speed 1937" game for the PC and Sega Dreamcast, in which it was re-created in detail. Several other video games also feature Brooklands and Brooklands Museum's Formula 1 simulator also features a detailed computer simulation of the pre-war race track.


title: Brooklands

text: In 2009, BBC "Top Gear" presenter James May announced plans to recreate the full length Brooklands using Scalextric track and cars. This was undertaken with a team of 350 volunteers building the track from an uncounted number of pieces of Scalextric track, navigating ponds and roads, closely following the route of the old Brooklands track. This event broke the Guinness World Record for the longest ever Scalextric track in the world, intended to measure the original of the original Brooklands circuit but in reality recording in length (due to the need to navigate modern features that block the original course). The episode was shown on BBC2 on 17 November 2009 as part of "James May's Toy Stories".


title: Brooklands

text: BBC TV's "Antiques Roadshow" was filmed at Brooklands Museum in July 2009 and subsequently produced as two programmes for its next series and first broadcast on 10 and 17 January 2010.


title: Brooklands

text: Apart from Brooklands Museum's displays and exhibits, today there are a number of memorials to Brooklands. The first of these is the 'Brooklands Memorial' built by Vickers-Armstrongs to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Motor Course and was unveiled by Lord Brabazon of Tara in July 1957. This impressive concrete faced monument featured a fine bronze letters, plaque and related inscription summarising the site's history from 1907–57 and was originally located at the North end of the aerodrome, was designated as a Scheduled Monument in 2002 then relocated and restored in a new position just east of the River Wey on the museum site to make way for the new Mercedes-Benz World complex, which opened in 2006. The original bronze fittings were stolen in the 1970s but the plaque was later found and is now displayed in the main entrance foyer of the former BARC Clubhouse.


title: Brooklands

text: A memorial dedicated to Brooklands aircraft design and manufacturing heritage was specially designed and manufactured by British Aerospace in the late 1980s to mark the closing of its last factory there. This takes the form of a large engraved acrylic panel displayed at the southern end of the old runway close to the entrance to the Community Park and a children's nursery. Forgotten and overgrown until quite recently, this has now been rediscovered and is still in good condition.


title: Brooklands

text: Another initiative was taken in the early 1990s by the developers Trafalgar Brookmount Ltd who commissioned an artist to design and produce two large brown terracotta 'gate statements'; these are located at the east end of Wellington Way and the south end of Sopwith Drive and feature representative images of Brooklands' pre-1940 history namely the Napier-Railton, Vickers Vimy and the two former Clubhouses.


title: Brooklands

text: In 1993, Prince Michael of Kent officially opened a new Garden of Memories at Brooklands Museum which features a growing number of commemorative plaques in memory of many people who have been associated with Brooklands for more than 100 years.


title: Brooklands

text: In February 2015, it was announced that Brooklands would receive a multimillion-pound facelift. The £4.68 million Heritage Lottery Fund grant funded an £8.5 million "Brooklands Aircraft Factory and Race Track Revival Project". This resulted in the relocation and restoration of the Grade II Listed 1940 Bellman Hangar complete with a comprehensive new "Aircraft Factory" exhibition inside, as well as construction of a new two-storey Flight Shed housing archives and a workshop on the ground floor with another aircraft exhibition hall above. Restoration of the Northern section of the adjacent Finishing Straight was also part of the scheme and included revealing its largely intact 'lost' section under the hangar's post-war floor. The project was successfully completed and officially opened to the public by Prince Michael of Kent on 13 November 2017.


title: Brooklands

text: 2017 also saw the completion of a new Brooklands Conservation Management Plan (funded by English Heritage - now Historic England) for the Brooklands Heritage Partnership and among other things, this document set new standards for maintaining and, where practical or necessary, for repairing the surviving sections of the historic Race Track. Further grant aid from Historic England in 2018 enabled an experienced contractor to clear several extensive undergrowth from the largely and seriously neglected western section of the Byfleet Banking. In February 2020, the Byfleet Banking's central section was also successfully cleared of leaves, moss and weeds for its owners Marks & Spencer and Tesco.


title: Garance Marillier

text: Garance Marillier (born 11 February 1998) is a French actress. She is known for her lead role in "Raw" released in 2016.


title: Garance Marillier

text: Prior to becoming an actress she learned the trombone and classical percussion at the Conservatoire of the 11th arrondissement, Paris. In 2009 she started theater at the Dyonis company, then joined the Cours Florent in 2010 and the Ecole du Jeu in 2012.


title: Garance Marillier

text: Marillier began her acting career in 2011 by playing Justine in the short movie "Junior" by Julia Ducournau. The film was selected for viewing at the Critics Week at the Cannes festival. The next year Garance appeared in the short movie "It’s Not a Cowboy Film" in 2012 which was again selected to be screened at Cannes. She continued to star in short movies every year until she landed the lead role of Justine in "Raw" in 2016 starring alongside Ella Rumpf, her second collaboration with director Julia Ducournau.


title: Elsa Peretti

text: Elsa Peretti, OMRI OMM (1 May 1940 – 18 March 2021), was an Italian jewelry designer and philanthropist as well as a fashion model. Her jewelry and design pieces for Tiffany & Co. are included in the 20th century collection of the British Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In 1974 Peretti, the “Halstonette” fashion model arrived at Tiffany's with her modern jewelry. Her broadly popular work, including pieces like Bean, Bone Cuff and Open Heart, became as much as 10% of Tiffany’s business and John Loring's "Tiffany Style – 170 Years of Design" devotes 18 pages of images to her jewelry and tableware design. "Vogue" described her as “arguably the most successful woman ever to work in the jewelry field.” As a philanthropist, Peretti supported a wide variety of causes, and also privately undertook the restoration of the historic village of Sant Martí Vell in Catalonia, Spain.


title: Elsa Peretti

text: The TV miniseries "Halston" features Elsa's relationship with Halston. In 2019, she was featured in archival footage about her relationship with the legendary designer in the documentary film "Halston".


title: Elsa Peretti

text: Peretti was born in Florence, Italy as the youngest daughter of (1896–1977) and Maria Luisa Pighini. Ferdinando Peretti founded Anonima Petroli Italiana (API), a large Italian oil company, in 1933. She was estranged from her conservative family for much of her life, though reconciled with her father shortly before he died.


title: Elsa Peretti

text: Peretti was educated in Rome and Switzerland. She initially made her living teaching French and working as a ski instructor in the German-speaking Swiss mountain village of Gstaad. Later, she returned to Rome to pursue a degree in interior design, and then worked for the Milan architect Dado Torrigiani.


title: Elsa Peretti

text: In 1964, Peretti became a fashion model, working in Barcelona, Spain. In 1968 she moved to New York City on the advice of Wilhelmina Modeling Agency. In the early 1970s, along with Karen Bjornson, Anjelica Huston, Alva Chinn, Pat Cleveland, and Pat Ast, among others, she became one of designer Halston's favoured troupe of models, nicknamed the Halstonettes.


title: Elsa Peretti

text: During the late 1970s Peretti was a frequent regular of Studio 54, alongside designer Halston, Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli, Bianca Jagger, Cher, and Donald and Ivana Trump.


title: Elsa Peretti

text: According to Halston, "Elsa had style: she made the dress she was modeling her own." Helmut Newtons photograph "Elsa Peretti in Bunny Costume"—she posed for him in a Playboy Bunny costume on Halloween 1975—is considered a lasting image of the 1970s.


title: Elsa Peretti

text: In 2019, she was interviewed in the documentary "Halston" (CNN films), recalling her years of working, partying, and friendship with the designer.


title: Elsa Peretti

text: In 1969, Peretti began creating new jewelry styles for a handful of fashion designers in Manhattan. Her first design, working with a silversmith in Spain, was a two-inch bud vase made of sterling-silver as a pendant on a leather thong necklace, that was inspired by a find at a flea market. Worn in a runway show by one of Giorgio di Sant' Angelo's models, it was a hit. By 1971, she was designing jewelry for Halston. She continued to use silver, helping shift the material’s standing from "common" to a popular choice for Liza Minnelli and others. Minnelli recalled encountering Peretti’s work after Halston advised her to try wearing silver: “ ‘My god,’ I thought...All I could think of was Albuquerque. But then Elsa brought out all these things...Everything was so sensual, so sexy. I just loved it.”


title: Elsa Peretti

text: Peretti quickly rose in the jewelry field, receiving the 1971 Coty Award for jewelry design, and had her first appearance in "Vogue" magazine. In 1972 Bloomingdale's, one of New York's landmark department stores, opened a dedicated Peretti boutique. In 1974, she signed a contract with Tiffany & Co to design silver jewelry; her work for them was the first time Tiffany had sold jewelry in that material in 25 years. By 1979, she was the firm's leading designer. Her silver pieces were seen as "fun" and attracted a younger clientele. The introduction of silver revised the category of fine jewelry and, comparatively more affordable, became something women began increasingly buying for themselves as opposed to traditionally receiving as a gift. Peretti’s reintroduction of silver to the company proved so popular that in 2002, the company began raising prices simply to retain a sense of exclusivity for the brand.


title: Elsa Peretti

text: Peretti designed over thirty collections for Tiffany, with works described as "revolutionary", "timeless, distinct and modern". Her process included travel to Japan, China, and Europe and drew on the work of craftsmen there in the creation of successful collections such as Bean (an abstracted lima bean-shaped pendant), Open Heart, Mesh, Bone, and Zodiac. In addition to the sterling silver, part of her signature was the use of materials such as jade, lacquer, and rattan. Modern art was an influence; she cited Alexander Calder and Henry Moore’s sculptures as inspirations for her Open Heart collection of pendant jewelry featuring an off-center heart outline. Pieces like Bone Cuff (1970) incorporated organic forms with appreciation of the human body, and were seen as bridging a gap between costume and serious jewelry. Peretti drew the shape from the bones of monks she’d seen inside a 17th-century Capuchin church near Rome during her childhood. Enduringly popular, Gal Gadot wore an 18-karat gold version in the 2020 film "Wonder Woman 1984" and Sarah Jessica Parker wore it as Carrie Bradshaw in the first "Sex and the" "City" film (2008).


title: Elsa Peretti

text: The work sold at a large variety of price points, partly dependent on materials; as of 2021, one version of Peretti’s Diamonds by the Yard necklace sold for $400 while another was priced at $75,000. In 2012, Tiffany and Peretti extended their contract for another 20 years, paid up front for $47 million. In 2015, her trademarked Elsa Peretti designs represented eight percent of Tiffany's net sales; in other years the figure has been more than 10%.


title: Elsa Peretti

text: Peretti also designed silverware for Tiffany, but only after she had established a solid following with her jewelry. Her creations were expansive (besides silverware, which included a silver pizza cutter, she also designed pens, ashtrays, a gold mesh bra, and perfume bottles for Halston), but the jewelry line remained the center of her work. "Vogue" calls her “arguably the most successful woman ever to work in the jewelry field.”


title: Elsa Peretti

text: In 1968, Peretti bought a house in the largely decrepit village of Sant Martí Vell in Catalonia, Spain. Over the next ten years she had the house restored, often living in rough conditions during the process. By the 1980s, the mustard-yellow house was her preferred home. Pieces such as her scorpion necklace, now in the British Museum, were inspired by the flora and fauna of Sant Martí Vell.


title: Elsa Peretti

text: Originally Peretti described a hope for building an artist colony, but the town became “her own private village”, wrote "The New York Times". Peretti worked to restore parts of the surrounding village, purchasing additional buildings and having them renovated. As of 2017, about half the village had been rebuilt.


title: Elsa Peretti

text: Her projects included the renovation of the interior of Església de Sant Martí Vell, the parochial church of Sant Martí Vell in 2012–2013. The site has a long history, encompassing a Roman settlement in the second century AD, a medieval enclosure, a Romanic Temple in the 11th–12th century, and the construction of a late-Gothic-style edifice in the late 1500s. The work done included the excavation of archaeological remains of a Roman settlement and the refinishing of a sepulchral tomb, as well as the restoration of existing elements and the provision of new ones. Peretti also supported the management of the sixteenth-century historical documents of the town, the conservation of the photographic archive of Oriol Maspons and the conservation of the Roman city of Empúries.


title: Elsa Peretti

text: Peretti established a working vineyard in Sant Martí, planting Ca l’Elsa in 2004 and Can Nobas in 2007. The winery itself was completed in 2008, marketed under the Eccocivi label.


title: Elsa Peretti

text: Peretti also promoted the visual arts and the historical, artistic, and architectural heritage of Catalonia. She encouraged people such as guitarist Michael Laucke and painter-sculptor to make use of San Marti Vell. In 2013, Peretti was the first non-Catalan person awarded the National Culture Award by the National Council for Culture and the Arts (CoNCA).


title: Elsa Peretti

text: In 2000, Peretti created a charity in honor of her father, called the Nando Peretti Foundation (NPF). The foundation is reported to have given approximately 42 million euros to 852 projects world-wide over 15 years. As of 2015, it was renamed the Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation (NaEPF).


title: Elsa Peretti

text: Initially the foundation had a dual focus on the environment and wildlife conservation, and on humanitarian programs, particular those targeting poverty. Over time, the foundation's scope has expanded to support a broad range of projects for "promotion of human and civil rights, with a special emphasis on the right to education, children's rights, and women's rights and dignity." The NaEPF solicits proposals internationally, especially on behalf of unrepresented minorities, to defend their right to exist and preserve their culture. The NaEPF also supports medical and scientific research projects as well as building hospitals and other facilities.


title: Elsa Peretti

text: Peretti died at her home in Spain on 18 March 2021 at the age of 80. No cause of death was given; she died in her sleep. In November 2018 incorporated family office, "Elsa Peretti Holding AG", is domiciled in Zurich, Switzerland.


title: Off the Deep End

text: Off the Deep End is the seventh studio album by "Weird Al" Yankovic, released in 1992. This album was the first album self-produced by Yankovic, after six albums with Rick Derringer. Recorded between June 1990 and January 1992, the album was a follow-up to the unsuccessful soundtrack to Yankovic's 1989 film "UHF". "Off the Deep End" and its lead single "Smells Like Nirvana" helped to revitalize Yankovic's career after a lull following his last hit single, "Fat", in 1988.


title: Off the Deep End

text: The musical styles on "Off the Deep End" are built around parodies and pastiches of pop and rock music of the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the newly arisen grunge movement. Half of the album is made up of parodies of Nirvana, MC Hammer, New Kids on the Block, Gerardo, and Milli Vanilli. The other half of the album is original material, featuring many "style parodies", or musical imitations of existing artists. These style parodies include imitations of specific artists like the Beach Boys, James Taylor and Jan and Dean.


title: Off the Deep End

text: "Off the Deep End" was met with mostly positive reviews and peaked at number 17 on the "Billboard" 200. The album also produced one of Yankovic's most famous singles, "Smells Like Nirvana", a parody of Nirvana's major rock hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit", which peaked at number 35 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. This song was Yankovic's second-highest charting single, after "Eat It", which was released in 1984. The cover also parodies the cover of Nirvana's album, "Nevermind". The original had a naked baby in the water with a dollar bill cast by a fishing rod; Yankovic's replaced the baby with himself, and the dollar bill with a donut. "Off the Deep End" was Yankovic's fourth Gold record, and went on to be certified Platinum for sales of over one million copies in the United States. In addition, the album was later nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording in 1993.


title: Off the Deep End

text: In 1989, Yankovic starred in a full-length feature film, co-written by himself and manager Jay Levey, and filmed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, called "UHF". A satire of the television and film industries, also starring Michael Richards, Fran Drescher, and Victoria Jackson, it brought floundering studio Orion their highest test scores since the movie "RoboCop". Although the movie made a little over six million domestically – out of a budget of five million – it was considered unsuccessful.


title: Off the Deep End

text: Yankovic also released a quasi-soundtrack for the film in late 1989, entitled "UHF – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff", which featured songs (and commercials) from the movie as well as new unrelated studio material from Yankovic. The album failed to be successful, charting at only 146 on the "Billboard" 200 and quickly falling off. After the release of "UHF", Yankovic returned to the studio to record his follow-up album.


title: Off the Deep End

text: On June 6, 1990, recording for "Off the Deep End" officially began at Santa Monica Sound Records, in Santa Monica, California. The first recording session started with "Airline Amy". These recording sessions marked the first time Yankovic self-produced his songs, after six albums with Rick Derringer. The producer and musician had parted ways because Derringer found that Yankovic would not listen to his input, and Yankovic came to realize that he could do most of the production work himself. Subsequent studio albums would be produced by Yankovic. In regards to this split, Yankovic said: "We [i.e. Yankovic and his band] had a great run with Rick, he's a terrific guybut I had become more and more of a control freak over the years, and I'd finally gotten to the point in my recording career where I felt that I could capably hold the reins all by myself." By late 1990 five originals—"Airline Amy", "Trigger Happy", "When I Was Your Age", "You Don't Love Me Anymore", and "Waffle King"—were recorded.


title: Off the Deep End

text: "You Don't Love Me Anymore" was one of the last original songs recorded during the 1990 sessions. The song is written as a soft acoustic ballad. However, the lyrics are of a—literally—destructive relationship between Yankovic and an unnamed girl. Although they were formerly in love, the "flames died down" and they are no longer passionate—in fact the girl hates Yankovic to such an extent that she repeatedly attempts to kill him. In 1992, when the album was finally released, Yankovic desired to release the song as a single. His record label, Scotti Brothers, allowed it under the stipulation that the music video be a parody of another music video. "You Don't Love Me Anymore" was subsequently released to radio on June 19, 1992. While the song was an original composition, the video was a parody of "More Than Words" by Extreme. Yankovic later explained that when the song was released, many people erroneously believed it was a parody of "More Than Words", and thus, Yankovic crafted the music video to be a parody of the song. The single received moderate radio attention, which surprised Yankovic, because he had always thought that radio stations "usually just go for the parodies".


title: Off the Deep End

text: One of the original songs recorded in the 1990 sessions was "Waffle King". However, when Yankovic resumed recording in 1992, he recorded a new original called "I Was Only Kidding". Originally, "Waffle King" was supposed to appear on "Off the Deep End". However, by the time the recording of the parodies for this album began, Al had written all the original songs that were to appear on his next album, "Alapalooza". Because he was concerned that one of the jokes from the song "I Was Only Kidding" might be dated by the time his next album would finally be released—a line that references the movie "Wayne's World": "I really love you... not!"—Yankovic included "I Was Only Kidding" on "Off the Deep End" in place of "Waffle King". "Waffle King" was instead used as the b-side of the "Smells Like Nirvana" single and would later resurface on "Alapalooza".


title: Off the Deep End

text: The album also contains a hidden track at the end called "Bite Me". The "song", which consists of several seconds of loud music and Yankovic screaming, appears after 10 minutes of silence following "You Don't Love Me Anymore". According to Yankovic, the song was supposed to "come on [...] and scare you to death". Later pressings of "Off the Deep End" by Volcano and pressings outside the USA took away the hidden track and silence. The track is a nod to Nirvana: pressings of "Nevermind" featured the hidden track "Endless, Nameless".


title: Off the Deep End

text: After recording the first batch of originals in 1990, Yankovic focused his attention on parodies. By early 1991, only three parodies had been recorded. Two of them, the cookie-inspired New Kids on the Block parody "The White Stuff" and the television-centric MC Hammer parody "I Can't Watch This", were slated to be released as singles. In fact, several cartons of promo singles were pressed, but they were deleted from the record company's catalogue at the last minute. These CDs were later discovered by Yankovic and his drummer, Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, in a trash heap and have since become collector's items. "The Plumbing Song", a double parody of Milli Vanilli's hit singles "Baby Don't Forget My Number" and "Blame It on the Rain" was also recorded. In a 1992 interview with Dr. Demento, Yankovic said that he believed the parody to be "kind of redundant" at that point in time, given the lip-synching scandal that had effectively destroyed the band almost two years prior. In reference to this scandal, Yankovic also jokingly affirmed that he did indeed sing lead vocals on his parody.


title: Off the Deep End

text: Yankovic waited for almost two years for the next "big thing" to emerge. "I don't have any really good reason why it took so long other than the fact that I was waiting for Michael Jackson's new album to come out," Yankovic explained. Unfortunately for Yankovic, the new album hit several snags. On November 26, 1991, Michael Jackson's new album, "Dangerous" was released. After hearing the hit single "Black or White", Yankovic approached Jackson about a potential parody entitled "Snack All Night". Although Jackson was a big supporter of Yankovic's work, he felt that a parody might damage the song's message. Jackson told Yankovic that he could, if he wanted to, parody another song off his album, but just not "Black or White".


title: Off the Deep End

text: Yankovic soon turned his attention in another direction. Guns N' Roses had just released a version of Wings's 1970s hit "Live and Let Die". Yankovic approached Paul McCartney, leader of Wings, about a parody idea entitled "Chicken Pot Pie". Although McCartney was a supporter of Yankovic's work and he wanted to give Yankovic the chance to parody one of his songs, he begrudgingly turned him down due to the fact that, as a vegetarian, he could not condone the eating of animal flesh. Yankovic, a fellow vegetarian, has stated that he respects McCartney's decision.


title: Off the Deep End

text: It was around this time that Nirvana's "Nevermind" was making waves in the rock and pop scene. As the popularity of 1980s pop gave way to grunge, Yankovic decided it was time to record a parody of the Seattle-based band's huge hit single "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Yankovic later said, "I wanted to make sure that when I came back after that long hiatus, it was with something strong, and it wasn't until Nirvana that I felt I had a real contender." To secure permission for the parody, Yankovic wanted to approve it with Kurt Cobain. After learning that Nirvana was to perform on "Saturday Night Live", Yankovic called up his "UHF" co-star, Victoria Jackson, who was, at the time, a regular cast member on the show. Jackson got Cobain on the phone so that Yankovic could make his request. Cobain agreed, although he asked if the new parody was "going to be a song about food". Yankovic reassured him that it would actually be about how "no one can understand [the] lyrics" to the original, which Cobain thought was funny. After receiving permission, Yankovic wrote and recorded "Smells Like Nirvana" on January 27, 1992.


title: Off the Deep End

text: After "Smells Like Nirvana", Yankovic recorded "Taco Grande", a Mexican food-themed parody of Gerardo's "Rico Suave". The latter features a cameo appearance from comedian Cheech Marin. Originally, Yankovic had wanted Marin to rap in Spanish, but it turned out that Marin knew only some basic Spanish. However, a bilingual secretary translated what Yankovic wanted him to say from English to Spanish and Marin read the resulting rap phonetically. One of the last songs to be recorded was the obligatory polka medley, "Polka Your Eyes Out". Yankovic had already performed the medley at Dr. Demento's 20th Anniversary Special on Comedy Central before the album had been released.


title: Off the Deep End

text: The cover for "Off the Deep End" parodies the famous cover of Nirvana's album "Nevermind", which depicts an infant in the deep end of a pool chasing after a dollar bill on a fishhook. The "Off the Deep End" cover shows Yankovic in the baby's place apparently swimming to catch a doughnut on a string. While the Nirvana cover has a fully nude baby, Yankovic instead wore a bathing suit in a way that his body position hid it; he later jokingly noted, "I never really anticipated going full-frontal on any of my album covers." The CD, liner notes, and artwork continue the parody of Nirvana's album, borrowing the same blue, wave-light graphics from the printed surface of "Nevermind".


title: Off the Deep End

text: Critical response to "Off the Deep End" was generally positive. Many critics praised not only Yankovic's parodies, but also his originals. Barry Weber, of AllMusic, wrote, "In addition to re-establishing his satirical craftsmanship, Deep End showcases some of Yankovic's best originals ever; "Trigger Happy," "When I Was Your Age," and "You Don't Love Me Anymore" prove to be the album's greatest songs." Christopher Thelen, of the Daily Vault, wrote, "In fact, it's strange to admit, but the originals on Off The Deep End actually are, at times, stronger than the parodies." "In The Rolling Stone Album Guide", "Off the Deep End" was awarded 3.5 stars out of 5, denoting that the album averaged between good and excellent. Not all reviews were so positive, however. "Entertainment Weekly" reviewer David Browne noted that the video for "Off the Deep End" lead single "Smells Like Nirvana" was "an old-fashioned laugh riot", but that half of Yankovic's humor was merely visual, meaning that the songs without videos were not as funny.


title: Off the Deep End

text: The music video for "Smells Like Nirvana" achieved similar praise. "Spy Magazine" named it the "Video Of The Year" in 1993, "Rolling Stone" ranked it as #68 on their list of the Top 100 Videos of All Time, and it was nominated for the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Performance in 1992.


title: Off the Deep End

text: At the 35th Annual Grammy Awards in 1993, "Off the Deep End" was nominated for the Best Comedy Album. However, the album lost to Peter Schickele's "Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion".


title: Off the Deep End

text: "Off the Deep End" was released April 1992, and was subsequently named the Best Selling Comedy Recording of the year by National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM). "Off the Deep End" was certified gold. On January 25, 2006, the album was certified platinum. The album's lead-off single, "Smells Like Nirvana" was a hit on the Billboard Hot 100, charting at number 35. It also charted on Hot 100 Singles Sales at number 12 and the US "Billboard" Mainstream Rock Tracks chart at number 35. Both the album and hit single helped propel Yankovic into the 1990s. As of 2014, sales in the United States have exceeded 1,057,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.


title: The Hexer (film)

text: The Hexer or The Witcher (Polish: "Wiedźmin") is a 2001 Polish fantasy film directed by Marek Brodzki and written by Michał Szczerbic. It stars Michał Żebrowski as Geralt of Rivia. The story is based on the books and stories of "The Witcher" written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski.


title: The Hexer (film)

text: The 13-episode television series came out the following year. The film has been described as essentially the then-unreleased television series condensed into a 2-hour film, and received very poor reviews from both fans and critics. The film was the first attempt to depict "The Witcher" universe in the cinema.


title: The Hexer (film)

text: The television series and the film were loosely based on Andrzej Sapkowski's "The Witcher" ("Wiedźmin") book series.


title: The Hexer (film)

text: The film had a budget of 19 million Polish zlotys, which was very high for contemporary Polish movies. Similarly, the film's marketing campaign had several times the budget of other Polish films of that time, in an attempt to imitate Hollywood's super-production. The film was aimed not just at science fiction and fantasy fans, but also at a general audience. To that end, its cast included many stars of Polish cinema, the music was composed by a well-known Polish composer, and the film was tied to a number of other promotional campaigns and related products inspired by the Witcher universe, such as toys and games, as well as the first official English translation of "The Witcher".


title: The Hexer (film)

text: "The Hexer" was the first film directed by Marek Brodzki. The final release was described as the third version of the film, rearranged and shortened. Some fans initially objected to the casting of several major roles. Their protests, reported in the press, led to a meeting between the producers and the cast and fans, which eventually appeased most of the protesters. Citing two major departures from his original script, screenwriter demanded that his name not appear in the closing credits.


title: The Hexer (film)

text: The film received generally negative reviews after its release and since, with reviewers being generally positive in regard to actors and music, but critical of the plot and special effects.


title: The Hexer (film)

text: Marcin Kamiński of Filmweb concluded that "it is not a good movie", noting that the plot was chaotic, mixing various adventures and scenes from the book series in a mostly random manner. Kamiński speculated that the film was intended as a glorified trailer for the subsequent television series. The montage of the scenes was considered so bad that it was said to evoke laughter in the audience, and the special effects were described as low-quality and obsolete. Kamiński did note that the film's saving grace was its actors, praising Michał Żebrowski, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Grażyna Wolszczak, and others.


title: The Hexer (film)

text: Piotr Stasiak of gry-online praised the actors, scenography, costumes, and music, but criticized the fragmentary, incoherent plot, which was apparently due to the producers being unable to agree on the main plot and structure, and trying to summarize all of the key plot elements of the planned TV series episodes into one 2-hour movie.


title: The Hexer (film)

text: Bartosz Kotarba of esensja criticized the plot, which "tries to tell too much and ends up telling too little", and the special effects, noting that the plastic dragon used for special effects was so lackluster that it resulted in salvos of laughter in the film audience. The reviewer was also critical of the unnecessary nudity and poor dialogue, though praised the actors for their efforts, as well as the music.


title: The Hexer (film)

text: Sapkowski himself in several interviews laconically expressed his negative opinion about the film: "I can answer only with a single word, an obscene, albeit a short one". "I am a Polish Catholic, it is Lent now; I cannot utter swear words".


title: The Hexer (film)

text: In a 2016 review, Barnaba Siegel of Gazeta.pl referred to the film as "the film we all want to forget". Siegel noted that while some actors were good, others acted as if in a story directed at children. Siegel also criticized some casting decisions, which portrayed then-popular comedy actors in serious roles, making it more difficult for audiences to treat the production as aimed at adults. Siegel was also critical of the plot, special effects, and costuming. He attributed the failures of the production to an inexperienced production crew, in particular director Marek Brodzki.


title: The Hexer (film)

text: In a 2018 "Gazeta Wyborcza" retrospective, Maciej Grzenkowicz noted that the film has been "crushed by the reviewers and laughed out by fans".


title: The Hexer (film)

text: The film has been subject to several analyses in academic research. In his 2015 article on "The Hexer" film and series, Robert Dudziński noted that both became in Poland "widely recognized examples of the weak level of Polish cinema's entertainment releases and a common butt of jokes of Polish science fiction and fantasy fans".


title: The Hexer (film)

text: Despite its poor critical reception, the film received several award nominations in Poland related to its music score by Grzegorz Ciechowski. Ciechowski's music for "The Hexer" won the 2002 Polish Film Awards for the Best Film Music in 2001, as well as the Fryderyk award for the Best 2001 Original Soundtrack.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Cassandra "Cassie" Sandsmark, also known as Wonder Girl, is a superheroine appearing in DC Comics. She was created by John Byrne and first appeared in "Wonder Woman" (vol. 2) #105 (January 1996). The second Wonder Girl, Cassie is a sidekick of the superheroine Wonder Woman and has been featured as a member of the Teen Titans.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: When Cassie was introduced, she was the daughter of an archaeologist, Dr. Helena Sandsmark, a friend of Wonder Woman's. To help Wonder Woman during an adventure, she borrowed magical artifacts which bestowed upon Cassie superpowers, with which she fought crime as Wonder Girl. Later, Zeus, king of the Greek gods, grants her real powers. Later revelations showed that Cassie was in fact a demigoddess and the daughter of Zeus and Dr. Sandsmark. In 2011, when DC relaunched Wonder Woman and revealed she was Zeus's daughter, the publisher retroactively changed Cassie's backstory to establish she was actually Zeus's "granddaughter" and Ares’ daughter, making her Wonder Woman's niece.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Cassandra Sandsmark initially appears as a supporting cast member in "Wonder Woman." She later appears as part of an ensemble in "Young Justice" and "Teen Titans". She appeared in supporting roles in "52", "Supergirl", and the 2006 relaunch of the "Wonder Woman" series. In September 2007, she appeared in the six-issue limited series "Wonder Girl: Champion" written by J. Torres and illustrated by Sanford Greene and Nathan Massengill.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Cassandra is the third character to be called Wonder Girl, the second being Donna Troy, following the earlier stories of a young Wonder Woman using the name. Cassandra is the daughter of Dr. Helena Sandsmark (an archaeologist with whom Wonder Woman was working) and the Greek god Ares. During a fight with a Doomsday clone and another battle with Decay, she created a costume and used magical accoutrements (the sandals of Hermes and the gauntlet of Atlas) to help Wonder Woman, much to her mother's horror. Cassandra later had the opportunity to ask Zeus for a boon, and requested real superpowers. Zeus granted her request, but gave Dr. Sandsmark the ability to deactivate them with the simple touch of her hand upon Cassie. Dr. Sandsmark, however, reluctantly accepted her daughter's wish to be a superhero and rarely if ever uses this ability.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Cassie heavily idolized Donna Troy, the original Wonder Girl, and to that effect wore a black wig over her natural blonde hair (it also helped to conceal her identity). Donna gave Cassie the second costume she wore as Wonder Girl, but Cassie was afraid to wear it lest it were ruined. She has been trained by Artemis, the former "stand-in" Wonder Woman. As Wonder Girl, Cassie joined Young Justice due to her crush on Superboy. She became close friends with Arrowette, Secret, and Empress. During her time with that group the dark god Oblivion caused Wonder Woman's Wonder Dome palace to destroy Gateway City. Artemis ordered Cassie to help with crowd control instead of wasting time putting on her Wonder Girl disguise. Agreeing with her, Cassie revealed her secret identity before news cameras for the first time in her superhero career. Towards the end of the Young Justice series, Cassie became the leader of the team, after beating Robin during an election for command due to inner team tension following the recent revelation of Batman's , YJ uncomfortable with the idea that Robin had similar plans to use on them. Her secret identity was again publicly revealed when the second Silver Swan attacked her at her high school.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Young Justice was disbanded after the events of "",<ref name="t/yj">"Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day" (1999)</ref> a crossover with "Titans". During these events, Optitron offered to fund both the Titans and Young Justice. Donna Troy was seemingly killed by a rogue Superman android, leaving Cassie shaken and causing both teams to disband.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Cassie later joined some former members of Young Justice in the newest incarnation of the Teen Titans. Early on, she was gifted with a lasso by Ares, the Greek god of war and frequent enemy of Wonder Woman and the Amazons. Despite appearing similar to Wonder Woman's lasso, Cassie's expels Zeus' lightning when used in anger. Over the course of the series, Ares often appeared to Wonder Girl to warn her about "the coming war". During her time with the Titans, Cassie also developed a relationship with Superboy, whom she had harbored feelings before and throughout "Young Justice".


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: In "Titans Tomorrow", the Titans are thrown ten years into their future, where they encountered future versions of themselves. In this future, Cassie inherited the mantle of Wonder Woman after Diana was killed during "the Crisis". She is also referred to as "Ares' champion", and is in a relationship with Conner Kent (Superboy). It is not revealed whether they are married or merely dating.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: It was also during her Titans membership that she was revealed to be Zeus' daughter, a fact both Zeus and her mother kept from her for most of her life. Cassie was originally told by her mother that her biological father had died. Wonder Woman knew about Cassie's link to Zeus but chose to hide this from Cassie as well at the request of Cassie's mother. In "The Insiders", she was beaten by Superboy as a result of his possession by Lex Luthor; though she recovered, Superboy secluded himself at the Kent farm in Smallville, and there had seemed to be a strain on their relationship until the events of "Infinite Crisis".


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: When the Teen Titans and the Outsiders learned that Donna Troy was still alive in "The Return of Donna Troy", Cassie was among the heroes that traveled to the planet Minosyss to reunite with her. Having had false memories implanted by the Titans of Myth, Donna savagely beat Cassie, until Cassie was able to restore her true memories.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: During a battle against Brother Blood and a handful of zombie Titans, she acknowledged that her powers were fluctuating and sometimes disappearing altogether. Despite this, Cassie attempted to help Superboy after he was beaten to near-death by Superboy-Prime After saving him, Wonder Girl and the Titans infiltrated a LexCorp laboratory to find a way to cure Superboy. While the other Titans flew to Blüdhaven following an attack from the Society, Cassie remained at Titans Tower to watch over Superboy. When he awoke, the pair of them reconnected and remembered their past in Young Justice, which seemed so much happier and easier. Conner then took Cassie to Smallville, and, afraid that it would be their last night together, they consummate their love.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Ares again appears to her and informed that the reason behind her weakening power was Zeus taking back the powers he had granted to her as he left the mortal plane. Ares then offered Cassie some of his power in exchange for becoming his champion and acknowledging him as her brother. She joins Superboy and Nightwing up north, with powers returned, to assist in the assault on Lex Luthor's tower. Superboy sacrificed his life to defeat Superboy-Prime and destroy the tower, and died.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Directly after Infinite Crisis, the Teen Titans fall apart. Cassie, feeling abandoned by her best friends, leaves the Titans during the year in which "52" takes place, following Robin's departure. Cassie becomes involved in a cult heavily influenced by Kryptonian culture. She sets up an altar in Titans Tower with Kryptonian crystals and a gold figure with the Superman-insignia, which means "hope" in Kryptonian. Soon, Ralph Dibny approaches her because someone defaced the grave of his wife Sue with an upside down 'S' Shield, which in Kryptonian means "resurrection".


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: About five days later, Cassie and her fellow cult members meet with Ralph. Cassie mentions that it was another member, Dev-Em, who led her to join. Cassie explains that the goal of the cult is to resurrect Superboy. As a test of their process, they intend to resurrect Sue Dibny. Cassie and Ralph attend a ceremony designed to resurrect Sue, but Ralph grows suspicious and with the help of other superheroes, disrupts the ceremony, destroying the Kryptonite which was essential to the process. Cassie leaves with Dev-Em, blaming Ralph for destroying her chances to resurrect Superboy. After stopping Weather Wizard in Metropolis, Cassie meets Supernova and refers to him incorrectly as Kon-El, who actually turns out to be Booster Gold in disguise.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: During "One Year Later", Wonder Girl is seen attempting to stop Gemini of the Brotherhood of Evil from escaping S.T.A.R. Labs with valuable technology, revealing that she had been following the Brotherhood for some time. She also sports a new costume influenced by that of the late Superboy. She now wears a Golden Age Wonder Woman-themed t-shirt and denim jeans.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: She temporarily rejoins the team, under the suggestion of Cyborg so that they may combine forces to defeat the Brotherhood of Evil. After the Teen Titans and Doom Patrol defeat the Brotherhood of Evil, she decides to rejoin the team permanently. When she goes to tell Robin of her decision, she discovers his secretive and unsuccessful attempts to bring back Superboy. Though obsessed with having Conner back, Cassie reacts in horror and in an attempt to quell Robin's anger at Cassie, the two kiss. For a while the two refused to talk about the incident beyond coming to the agreement that it was a mistake, but they both have discussed it with others. With her life in disarray, Cassie has been having difficulty with her personal life, often having major confrontations with her mother. Cassie has gained a new friendship with the recently returned Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, who has shared with her in mourning the loss of Superboy and Paradise Island.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Cassie was also still very furious at Wonder Woman following the events of "Infinite Crisis", due to her belief that Wonder Woman abandoned her after Conner's death to play secret agent in a new civilian identity that Batman created for her after Infinite Crisis. She was also not pleased that Robin was aware of Diana's whereabouts during the year after Infinite Crisis and did not inform her about it. Diana and Cassie have not been able to discuss their past differences, leading to Cassie to turn to Supergirl and the now resurrected Donna Troy instead for emotional support dealing with Conner's death.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Following the resurrection of Jericho at the hands of Raven, Wonder Girl and Robin request that Raven use the same ceremony to resurrect Superboy. Raven calmly explains that is not possible, because Jericho's resurrection was a special case: Jericho's soul was still on Earth, imprisoned inside of a computer disk, while Conner's has moved on to the afterlife. In the middle of this conversation with Robin and Raven, Wonder Girl is captured by Deathstroke's villainous Titans East after an attack by Inertia and Match. Each member of Titans East has been recruited to negate a specific Titan. Deathstroke selected Match, a Bizarro-type clone of Superboy, to counter Wonder Girl due to his strength and his warped visage as being a psychological edge against her.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: The Titans battle furiously against the Titans East, during which they are able to convince Batgirl and Duela Dent to switch sides. Unfortunately the team is defeated by Slade's team a second time. However, Raven, Cyborg, and Duela Dent manage to get aid from Nightwing, Donna Troy, Beast Boy, and Flash (Bart Allen). Together the Titans defeat Slade, who along with Inertia, manages to escape. During the fight Jericho possess Match, and the team is reluctant to release Match due to the danger he poses.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: In the "Countdown" limited series, Cassie attends Bart Allen's funeral and during a heated and controversial eulogy, she vows to get revenge for Bart's death.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Cassie then becomes involved in the Amazon's attack on Washington D.C. Supergirl and Wonder Girl discover that their friends and family have been placed in an internment camp due to their ties to the Amazons. After a failed attempt to aid them, the two heroes agree to bring the U.S. President to Queen Hippolyta in order to stop the war. They are ambushed by a group of Amazons in the process, which causes the President to become mortally wounded. The actions of the Amazons and Wonder Girl's own involvement cause public outcry against all those who have followed in Wonder Woman's footsteps. Ultimately Cassie declares that despite her training and past that she is not an Amazon, preferring her ties to the Teen Titans over that of the Amazons. Accepting her decision, Artemis wishes her well and leaves Cassie to her devices. Wonder Girl celebrates by sharing another kiss with Robin in front of her teammates.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: In the months following the kiss, Cassie and Tim continue to go through 'will-they-won't-they' moments in which they both continue to question the validity of their relationship. Then following a battle against an army of future Titans, the pair decided at last to date. Unfortunately, their relationship is short-lived, as after their first official date Cassie ends the relationship, because she feels she is using Tim. This has resulted in a growing animosity between the pair, which has begun to bleed into their relationships with the other Titans.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Wonder Girl recently appeared in a six-issue self-titled mini-series written by J. Torres and with art and covers by Sanford Greene and Nathan Massengill. In this series, Wonder Girl attempts to make up for the mistakes made by the Amazons on her own. Cassie adopts a secret identity, taking up the name "Drusilla" (the same name used by Wonder Girl in the '70s "Wonder Woman" television series). However, as she attempts to apprehend a group of mystical beasts left over from the Amazons' attack, she finds herself confronted by her half-brother Hercules, who claims to want to help her become a true champion of the gods and to rebuild Olympus. Cassie is reluctant to trust him. Hercules persists and chases after Cassie, taking the form of Superboy in order to get her attention.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Together, Hercules and Cassie try to discover who is attacking the remaining Olympian gods. Soon into their search they are attacked by the Female Furies. Hercules stops the fight by explaining that he has allied with the Furies in hopes of rescuing the gods, or, failing that, starting a new pantheon with them. The Furies have their own plans and are only using Hercules to get to Wonder Girl. The Furies soon betray Hercules, with Bloody Mary using her bite to gain power over Hercules, forcing him to do what the Furies want. The Furies then kidnap Cassie's mother to lure her into a trap. Aided by the Olympian, Wonder Girl goes into battle, being forced to fight her own brother. The Teen Titans, Empress, Arrowette and Wonder Woman show up to help. After Bloody Mary is murdered by the New Gods killer, Hercules is freed from her spell and immediately saves Wonder Girl from being kidnapped by the Furies. Hercules goes free after he reveals he is now a demi-god and that Zeus released him to help stop "the Great Disaster". Hercules then leaves to perform certain "labors".


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: The series ends with Cassie reconciling with Wonder Woman, who tells Cassie that she has become her own woman.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Cassie is later attacked by her nephew Lycus, the son of Ares. He attempts to take her title as Ares' avatar, along with her power. Although he is successful in stealing Cassie's powers derived from Ares, Cassie discovers that she no longer needs to be blessed with powers from the gods as she willed her own innate power to surface. Cassie now possesses a high level of super-strength all her own.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Robin ultimately makes the decision to leave the Teen Titans for an undetermined length of time in the aftermath of Batman R.I.P, leaving Cassie with the task of assembling and leading a new team. After an unsuccessful attempt at having Kid Devil recruit teen metahumans such as Klarion, Shining Knight, and the teen members of the Justice Society of America, Cassie eventually gains three new Titans in Static, Aquagirl, and Kid Eternity. Kid Eternity's ability to summon the spirits of the deceased briefly tempts Cassie, who considers having him summon Conner's spirit. However, she eventually decides against it, telling Eternity never to grant her such a request, even if she were to beg him.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Some months later, between the Final Crisis and the Blackest Night, Cassie becomes aware of Conner's rebirth by . Despite meeting him briefly at his return, Cassie decides to wait, until Martha Kent herself, now sheltering Conner at her place, invites Cassie for dinner, essentially granting Cassie and Conner a date. At first skeptical and fearing to "end as Lana Lang", basically forgotten and replaced as Conner relocated to Smallville and gained a new circle of friends, she's touched by Conner opening his heart to her about her fears and dreams for their future life, and thus decides to tell Conner about herself and Tim Drake. Conner quickly forgives her, arguing that even if Cassie still loves him, she could not have known of his impending resurrection in the immediate aftermath of the Infinite Crisis, so she has nothing to blame. Happily, Cassie accepts to rekindle their relationship.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Due to personal responsibilities, neither Conner nor Bart return to the Teen Titans, though Wonder Girl still continues to lead. However, following the demise of Kid Devil, Cassie begins questioning her leadership and begins to make mistakes. During a massive battle with Cinderblock in downtown San Francisco, Wonder Girl refuses to let her team attack the villain directly, causing massive destruction to the area. The heroes continue in their fruitless stalemate until Beast Boy arrives and takes command of the team, leading to their victory. In the aftermath of the battle, Beast Boy tells Cassie that she has to stop dwelling on Devil's death or else more innocent people are going to get hurt, something she does not take kindly.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: A few days later, Beast Boy makes the decision to move back into Titans Tower and replace Cassie as the head of the team, declaring that they need a more experienced leader to get back on track. Though Cassie initially says nothing about this, she ultimately becomes angry and tells Beast Boy that no one asked for his help, and that she can lead the team just fine. Beast Boy simply replies by saying that the Teen Titans need help, and that everyone, including Cyborg, think so.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: During the events of "Blackest Night", Cassie joins Kid Flash and Beast Boy as part of a small group of past and present Titans who assemble at Titans Tower. Lacking assistance from Static, Miss Martian, Blue Beetle, Bombshell, and Aquagirl (each of whom are presumably defending other cities), the team barely survives the onslaught.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: After Dawn Granger uses her abilities to destroy the Black Lanterns, Cassie and the others travel to Coast City in order to assist Barry Allen and Hal Jordan in their battle with Nekron, the leader of the Black Lantern Corps. To the horror of the gathered heroes, Nekron uses his abilities to transform several once-dead heroes into Black Lanterns, including Superboy, Kid Flash, Donna, and Wonder Woman. In the ensuing battle, Cassie is killed when Donna Troy violently tears her heart out. However, it is then revealed that the entire battle was an imagination of Wonder Woman, and Cassie is shown to still be alive. When Black Lantern Conner attacks Cassie, all the while attempting to break free from the Black Ring's control, Conner manages to break the control in temporary, short lapses, which he uses to alert Cassie about the solution to his Black Ring problem. The battle moves to the fortress, where Cassie realizes what Conner was referring to when he told them to move to the Fortress of Solitude Conner's corpse, placed where he awaits his resurrection in "". The Black Ring, confused, leaves the living Conner and tries to attach itself to his corpse, but Conner awakens his freeze breath ability, which freezes the ring, and Cassie throws it into orbit. After reconciling, the pair heads back to Coast City for the final battle with Nekron's army.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: After this, Cassie travels to New York to confront Cyborg about Beast Boy's statements. He assures her that she is capable of leading the Titans, and she returns to the team and admits to them that she is done moping over Conner and Eddie. She then leads the team to the city of Dakota in order to rescue Static, who had been kidnapped by a superhuman gangster named Holocaust. After hearing about a battle between Static and Holocaust in downtown Dakota, Cassie arrives on the scene with Bombshell and Aquagirl. The three heroines are easily defeated and captured by Holocaust, who then informs them that he plans on killing them and weaponizing their powers in order to sell. Beast Boy and the other Titans arrive at the compound to retrieve their comrades, but end up being overpowered and defeated themselves. At the last second, Cyborg bursts into the compound with Superboy and Kid Flash, preparing to rescue the other Titans. Cassie is soon freed, and assists Superboy in holding off Holocaust while the other Titans make their escape. In the final battle, Cassie uses her lasso to bind the villain, allowing Kid Flash to finish him off by sending him plummeting into the Earth's inner core (though thanks to his superhuman durability, Static remarks that the core would not kill him). On the plane ride back to San Francisco, Conner remarks that Cassie seems to be ignoring him, and she simply responds by telling him that he is correct.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Cassie later travels to Gotham City alongside several of her fellow Titans after Ra's al Ghul begins targeting people close to Tim Drake. She attempts to rescue Barbara Gordon from members of the League of Assassins, but arrives to find that she has already defeated the men that attempted to kill her.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: During the events of "Brightest Day", Cassie confronts a recently resurrected Titan by the name of Osiris when he arrives at Titans Tower, looking for help from his former teammates. Cassie tries to convince Osiris to turn himself over to the police for the murdering the Persuader during "52", but he angrily brushes her off and flees before Cassie can contact the authorities. Blue Beetle asks if the Titans should go after him, but Cassie simply replies by saying that Osiris will return, and then rhetorically asks, ""


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: After a disastrous mission to another dimension in order to rescue Raven, the Titans are torn asunder. Miss Martian is rendered comatose, Static is left temporarily depowered, and Aquagirl and Bombshell are missing and presumed dead at sea. Despite her pleas for Static to stay, Wonder Girl is ultimately left with a roster consisting of only herself, Superboy, Kid Flash, Raven, and Beast Boy. A short time after this, the Titans rescue Bombshell and Aquagirl, who are both removed from the team by Wonder Girl. When asked about this decision (as well as the subsequent choice to invite the unstable Rose Wilson back into the team), Wonder Girl states that Kid Devil's death has forced her to realize that inexperienced teen heroes have no place on the team. At the same time, she admits to Conner that she is having trouble reconciling her knowledge as a leader with her fear of losing him again.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: In January 2011, Wonder Girl was given a one-shot, which was written by JT Krul, drawn by Adriana Melo, and covered by Nicola Scott.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Cassie Sandsmark is reintroduced in the "Teen Titans" series. This version of Cassie, who dislikes being called "Wonder Girl", started out as a teenage thief, who started at the age of sixteen and lost touch with her mother, who stole a pair of enchanted bracelets from a temple before meeting Red Robin. Living in Hollywood surviving on a crime spree and bought a little house with the money she made. She first crossed paths with Red Robin after she was rescued from an organization called N.O.W.H.E.R.E, who were capturing young teenagers who were developing metahuman abilities for their own nefarious purposes. She caught the organization's attention when her exploits were attaching attention her from the media which they dubbed her "Wonder Girl". She stole a car but was later pulled by a police officer in the Pacific Coast Highway, the latter was revealed to be an agent of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and tried to capture her but Red Robin intervened. Red Robin was tracking down N.O.W.H.E.R.E and news coverage of teenagers with abilities and their actions in a lecture by Lex Luther about aliens on earth. She is later revealed to be the daughter of Helen, an archaeologist who reputation was destroyed when Cassie stole the bracelets which resulted in the death of one of Helen's colleagues, who was Cassandra's one time love interest and mentor in stealing, and Lennox Sandsmark, a British super-soldier, who left the family when Cassie was only four years old. As Lennox is a demigod son of Zeus, and also a half-brother of Wonder Woman, Cassie, for the first time, is related to Wonder Woman.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: In the Super Sons of Tomorrow crossover, the version of Cassie Sandmark from the Titans Tomorrow future briefly arrived in the present timeline of Rebirth alongside other members of the Titans of Tomorrow.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: In Young Justice #2, Zeus refers to Cassie as "the future of the pantheon of the gods". As part of her birthright, Zeus offers her a necklace that is said to contain immense powers. However, Cassie decides to hold off on taking this gift until she does something to truly earn it. Zeus calls her a "giant pain, just like her mother".


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Cassandra originally received her powers from a number of mystical artifacts employed by Artemis during her time as Wonder Woman. These included the Gauntlet of Atlas and the Sandals of Hermes, which provided her with the powers of strength and speed/flight, respectively. She was eventually granted similar abilities by Zeus as "her fondest wish". Discouraged by previously shown arrogance in his children (Ares and Heracles), Zeus also blessed Cassandra's mother with the ability to take away her powers for a short time via a simple touch.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Shortly after joining the Teen Titans, Ares approached her and gave Cassandra her own magic lasso. Unlike Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth, Cassandra's is a weapon which channels Zeus' lightning when she becomes angry. When the Greek gods left the mortal plane as a result of the events of "Infinite Crisis", taking Cassandra's powers along with them, Ares offered her some of his power, saying that she would be "more powerful than [she's] ever been". What this entails is not made entirely clear, though she appeared to have retained all of her former abilities. In a storyline taking place "One Year Later", Cassie was shown catching a falling jet, which she was surprised at being able to accomplish. However, while trying to stop the military from detaining her mother, Ares causes her powers to fluctuate when he believes she is wasting them on frivolous matters.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: In the end, Ares was not pleased with Cassandra as his champion. He returned another to take her place. During a battle with Ares' son, King Lycus, who also drew power from him, Cassie was able to cast away her connection to the war god, and tap into her own powers as a demi-god (like her brother Heracles). Her real powers increased to an even greater level of strength than before. Currently, having tapped into her own demi-goddess powers, Cassie is an Olympian powerhouse. Although she is not as powerful as Wonder Woman or Donna Troy, Cassie is still a powerful young woman. Her lasso has apparently also changed, enabling her to turn Lycus to dust with a simple order.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: Cassie was trained by the Amazon Artemis and is extremely well trained in the use of various weapons and in various martial arts. She is also a very capable leader and strategist.


title: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

text: After the New 52 reboot, Cassie's powers have changed yet again. Her powers are now derived from the Silent Armor that she wears, which was forged in the heart of a sun and is apparently related to the demon known as Trigon. The armor is invisible unless she summons it or is in a combat situation, but she is always able to use its powers. The armor usually appears as a glittering red bodysuit, golden gauntlets and, occasionally, a hood. The armor grants her powers similar to those of her pre-reboot counterpart such as superhuman strength (sufficient enough for her to be on par with Superboy and fight him for a while), durability (though she is still vulnerable to piercing weapons), superhuman reflexes, superhuman speed, superhuman senses, and the power to fly at high speeds. The armor also grants her a glowing red lasso that appears similar to barbed wire. The lasso is infinite in length, is virtually indestructible, and can drain the life force out of those wrapped in its confines. Cassie's armor also appears to have a mind of its own and has taken over her mind and body on a few occasions. It was later revealed that Cassie has divine heritage as well, as her father was revealed to be Wonder Woman's elder brother Lennox. Cassie discovered she was the granddaughter of Zeus and that she still had her powers even without the Silent Armor. Because of her divine heritage, she was able to resist the Silent Armor’s influence.


title: Tiffany Cromwell

text: Tiffany Jane Cromwell (born 6 July 1988) is an Australian road and gravel cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam .


title: Tiffany Cromwell

text: Starting in 2002, after being identified by the South Australian sports institute talent identification program, Cromwell began her cycling career. Cycling was not the first sport Cromwell picked up, having done ballet, running, triathlons and basketball beforehand, the last of which she had family ties to. Despite an interest in pursuing basketball as a career before cycling, Cromwell admits her height 'always let [her] down'. Initially, Cromwell disliked cycling, citing that she was 'Tiny and one of the worst in [her] group' on the track, but soon discovered her love for the sport when she placed third in her first road race in the state championships.


title: Tiffany Cromwell

text: After several podiums in junior Oceania games, one of Cromwell's first international wins came in 2008 at the Sea Otter Classic in California, having made a solo attack in the last few laps despite a wind. She then went on to win the race the following year by winning solo again.


title: Tiffany Cromwell

text: Cromwell joined her first European based team in 2010 with the after a contract with another team fell through. Due to communication issues, both team and rider decided to part ways in the middle of 2011. Cromwell then rode for the team until the end of the season.


title: Tiffany Cromwell

text: In 2012 Cromwell joined the Australian team . Here, she picked up some of her major wins. One of which was a win in stage 5 of the Giro d'Italia Femminile. In the stage, Cromwell attacked with over to go and ended the stage with an eight-and-a-half minute advantage over the competition and at one point was virtually in the race leader's jersey. With , Cromwell also picked up her first major one day event win at the 2013 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, with Cromwell winning in a sprint against Megan Guarnier to claim her first spring classics victory.


title: Tiffany Cromwell

text: For 2014, Cromwell joined . She recorded several stage podiums in the 2014 Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l'Ardèche and finished second in the mountains classification. Cromwell represented Australia at the Commonwealth Games, losing out on a bronze medal in the road race in a two-up sprint with South Africa's Ashleigh Moolman. The following year, she finished third in stage 1 of the Giro d'Italia Femminile.


title: Tiffany Cromwell

text: After folded at the end of the 2015 season, Cromwell joined for the 2016 season; Cromwell finished third at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and won stage four of the Giro d'Italia Femminile. The following year, she won stage one of the Thüringen Rundfahrt der Frauen. In 2018, Cromwell was again selected to represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games, where, as road captain, she was part of the team that supported Chloe Hosking to the gold medal.


title: Tiffany Cromwell

text: On 19 May 2021, it was announced that Cromwell was included within the Australian road cycling team for the delayed Tokyo Olympics, marking her Olympic debut. In a tough and humid road course, Cromwell finished as the best placed Australian in 26th place, almost three minutes seconds behind race winner Anna Kiesenhofer of Austria. On 27 October 2021, it was announced Cromwell would remain as part of the Canyon-SRAM team for a further two years, continuing her mixed program of road and gravel racing through until the end of 2023.


title: Tiffany Cromwell

text: Cromwell's first participation in a gravel event was in August 2019 where she, along with teammate Ella Harris, lined up in the Steamboat Springs gravel event (SBT GRVL) in Colorado, four days before the Colorado classic road cycling tour. Cromwell completed the blue course in second behind Harris with a time of five hours and six minutes.


title: Tiffany Cromwell

text: In 2020, when Cromwell renewed her contract with , it was announced she would be competing in a mixed program which would include gravel racing. This program was due to start in June 2021 but due to her selection for the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics this was postponed to August. To commence her four-race-long gravel calendar, Cromwell participated in her second SBT GRVL on 15 August. For her return, Cromwell competed in the longer black course and finished 8th in her group, in a time of 7 hours, 32 minutes and 45 seconds. Six days later, she competed in the North Carolina Belgian Waffle Ride (BWR) hosted in Asheville. Cromwell completed the "waffle" course in 5 hours, 30 minutes and 42 seconds, recording a third-place finish. Cromwell's third gravel race of the year was due to be the three-day event hosted by Gravel Epic in Marrakesh on 7–9 October, but this was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Morocco. Cromwell's final gravel race of 2021 was held on October 31 and was the Belgian waffle ride hosted in Lawrence, Kansas. In the race, Cromwell, along with Flávia Oliveira and Hannah Shell, made an early breakaway within the first 10 miles. With around a fifth of the race completed, Shell was dropped by the leading pair and Oliveira made a solo attack at mile 22, leaving Cromwell solo and second on the road. Despite this, not long after, Cromwell caught up to Oliveira and passed her for the lead of the race and competed solo for the remaining miles to secure her first win in gravel racing by almost ten minutes.


title: Kalenjin people

text: The Kalenjin are a group of tribes designated as Highland Nilotes and are descended from Maliri people "(thus related to Daasanach of Ethiopia.)" The Kalenjin are cousins with Datooga people of Tanzania and Malawi. In contrast, their designation groups them with other Nilotes including Maasai, Luo, Turkana and Nuer, Dinka among others. They are indigenous to East Africa, residing mainly in what was formerly the Rift Valley Province in Kenya and Eastern slopes of Mount Elgon in Uganda. Upon their arrival in the forest region of Mau, the Kalenjin assimilated the aboriginal hunter-gatherer people known as Okiek. They number 6,358,113 individuals as per the Kenyan 2019 census and an estimated 300,000 in Uganda mainly in Kapchorwa, Kween and Bukwo districts. They have been divided into 11 culturally and linguistically related tribes: Kipsigis (1.9 million), Nandi (937,000), Sebei (350, 000) Keiyo (251, 000), Marakwet (119, 000), Sabaot (296,000), Pokots (778, 000), Tugen (197, 556), Terik (23, 000), Sengwer (10, 800), and Ogiek (52, 000). The Kalenjin speak the Nadi-Marakweta languages but can also be inclusive of Akie language in Tanzania and Pokot language spoken in Kenya; all being classified collectively as Kalenjin Language; while in combination with Datooga languages of Tanzania, this cluster is called Southern Nilotic languages.


title: Kalenjin people

text: Linguistic evidence points to the eastern Middle Nile Basin south of the Abbai River, as the nursery of the Nilotic languages. That is to say south-east of present-day Khartoum.


title: Kalenjin people

text: It is thought that beginning in the second millennium B.C., particular Nilotic speaking communities began to move southward into present-day South Sudan where most settled and that the societies today referred to as the Southern Nilotes pushed further on, reaching what is present-day north-eastern Uganda by 1000 B.C.


title: Kalenjin people

text: Linguist Christopher Ehret proposes that between 1000 and 700 BC, the Southern Nilotic speaking communities, who kept domestic stock and possibly cultivated sorghum and finger millet,


title: Kalenjin people

text: lived next to an Eastern Cushitic speaking community with whom they had significant cultural interaction. The general location of this point of cultural exchange being somewhere near the common border between Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia.


title: Kalenjin people

text: Ehret suggests that the cultural exchange perceived in borrowed loan words, adoption of the practice of circumcision and the cyclical system of age-set organisation dates to this period.


title: Kalenjin people

text: The arrival of the Southern Nilotes on the East African archaeological scene is correlated with the appearance of the prehistoric lithic industry and pottery tradition referred to as the Elmenteitan culture. The bearers of the Elmenteitan culture developed a distinct pattern of land use, hunting and pastoralism on the western plains of Kenya during the East African Pastoral Neolithic. Its earliest recorded appearance dates to the ninth century BC.


title: Kalenjin people

text: Certain distinct traits of the Southern Nilotes, notably in pottery styles, lithic industry and burial practices, are evident in the archaeological record.


title: Kalenjin people

text: Ehret suggests that around the fifth and sixth centuries BC, the speakers of the Southern Nilotic languages split into two major divisions – the proto-Kalenjin and the proto-Datooga. The former took shape among those residing to the north of the Mau range while the latter took shape among sections that moved into the Mara and Loita plains south of the western highlands.


title: Kalenjin people

text: The material culture referred to as Sirikwa is seen as a development from the local pastoral neolithic (i.e. Elmenteitan culture), as well as a locally limited transition from the Neolithic to the Iron Age.


title: Kalenjin people

text: Radiocarbon dating of archaeological excavations done in Rongai (Deloraine) have ranged in date from around 985 to 1300 A.D and have been associated with the early development phase of the Sirikwa culture. Lithics from Deloraine Farm site show that people were abandoning previous technological strategies in favor of more expedient tool production as iron was entering common use. The spread of iron technology led to the abandonment of many aspects of Pastoral Neolithic material culture and practices.


title: Kalenjin people

text: From the Central Rift, the culture radiated outwards toward the western highlands, the Mt. Elgon region and possibly into Uganda.


title: Kalenjin people

text: The Sirikwa culture was the predominant Kenyan hinterland archaeological culture of the Pastoral Iron Age, c.2000 BP. The name Sirikwa derives from a community that occupied the Uasin Gishu plateau perhaps as late as the 17th or 18th century. Seen to have developed out of the Elmenteitan culture of the East African Pastoral Neolithic c.3300-1200 BP, the Sirikwa culture was followed in much of its area by the Kalenjin, Maa, western and central Kenyan communities of the 18th and 19th centuries.


title: Kalenjin people

text: Archaeological evidence indicates a highly sedentary way of life and a cultural commitment to a closed defensive system for both community and livestock during the Iron Age. Family homesteads featured small individual family stock pens, elaborate gate-works and sentry points and houses facing into the homestead; defensive methods primarily designed to proof against individual thieves or small groups of rustlers hoping to succeed by stealth. Coins of Indian and English origin, some dating to this period have been found at the Hyrax Hill archaeological site and may indicate contacts with international trade networks.


title: Kalenjin people

text: At their greatest extent, their territories covered the highlands from the Chepalungu and Mau forests northwards as far as the Cherangany Hills and Mount Elgon. There was also a south-eastern projection, at least in the early period, into the elevated Rift grasslands of Nakuru which was taken over permanently by the Maasai, probably no later than the seventeenth century.


title: Kalenjin people

text: A body of oral traditions from various East African communities points to the presence of at least four significant Kalenjin-speaking population groups present prior to the 19th century. The earliest mention appears to be of the Lumbwa. Meru oral history describes the arrival of their ancestors at Mount Kenya where they interacted with this community. The Lumbwa occupied the lower reaches of Mount Kenya though the extent of their territory is presently unclear.


title: Kalenjin people

text: North-east of this community, across the Rift Valley, a community known as the Chok (later Suk) occupied the Elgeyo escarpment. Pokot oral history describes their way of life, as that of the Chemwal whose country may have been known as Chemngal, a community that appears to have lived in association with the Chok. The Chemwal appear to have been referred to as Siger by the Karamojong on account of a distinctive cowrie shell adornment favored by the women of this community. The area occupied by the Chemwal stretched between Mount Elgon and present day Uasin Gishu as well as into a number of surrounding counties.