document_title: Succession to the British throne

question_text: british monarchy who is in line for the throne

text: Succession to the British throne

text: Current line of succession

text:
First six in line[n 1] from 23 April 2018

1. The Prince of Wales

2. The Duke of Cambridge

3. Prince George of Cambridge

4. Princess Charlotte of Cambridge

5. Prince Louis of Cambridge

6. The Duke of Sussex

text: No official, complete version of the line of succession is currently maintained. The exact number, in remoter collateral lines, of the people who would be eligible is uncertain. In 2001, American genealogist William Addams Reitwiesner compiled a list of 4,973 living descendants of the Electress Sophia in order of succession, but did so disregarding Roman Catholic status.[3] When updated in January 2011, the number was 5,753.[4]

text: The annotated list below covers the first part of this line of succession, being limited to descendants of the sons of George V (the present Queen's grandfather). The order of the first seventeen numbered in the list is given on the official website of the British Monarchy;[1] other list numbers and exclusions are explained by annotations (Notes and sources below) and footnotes.  People named in italics are unnumbered either because they are deceased or because sources report them to be excluded from the succession.

text:
King George V (1865–1936)
 King Edward VIII (1894–1972)
 King George VI (1895–1952)
 Queen Elizabeth II (born 1926)
(1) Charles, Prince of Wales (b. 1948) B D W
(2) Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (b. 1982) B D W
(3) Prince George of Cambridge (b. 2013) B D W
(4) Princess Charlotte of Cambridge (b. 2015) B D W
(5) Prince Louis of Cambridge (b. 2018) B D
(6) Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (b. 1984) B D W
(7) Prince Andrew, Duke of York (b. 1960) B D W
(8) Princess Beatrice of York (b. 1988) B D W
(9) Princess Eugenie of York (b. 1990) B D W
(10) Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex (b. 1964) B D W
(11) James, Viscount Severn (b. 2007) B D W
(12) Lady Louise Windsor (b. 2003) B D W
(13) Anne, Princess Royal (b. 1950) B D W
(14) Peter Phillips (b. 1977) B D W
(15) Savannah Phillips (b. 2010) B D W
(16) Isla Phillips (b. 2012) B D W
(17) Zara Tindall (née Phillips; b. 1981) B D W
(18) Mia Tindall (b. 2014) D W
(19) Lena Tindall (b. 2018)[5]
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (1930–2002) 1952
(20) David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon (b. 1961) D W
(21) Charles Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley (b. 1999) D W
(22) Lady Margarita Armstrong-Jones (b. 2002) D W
(23) Lady Sarah Chatto (née Armstrong-Jones; b. 1964) D W
(24) Samuel Chatto (b. 1996) D W
(25) Arthur Chatto (b. 1999) D W
Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1900–1974) 1952
(26) Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester (b. 1944) D W
(27) Alexander Windsor, Earl of Ulster (b. 1974) D W
(28) Xan Windsor, Lord Culloden (b. 2007) D W
(29) Lady Cosima Windsor (b. 2010) D W
(30) Lady Davina Lewis (née Windsor; b. 1977) D W
(31) Senna Lewis (b. 2010) D W
(32) Tāne Lewis (b. 2012) W
(33) Lady Rose Gilman (née Windsor; b. 1980) D W
(34) Lyla Gilman (b. 2010) D W
(35) Rufus Gilman (b. 2012) W
Prince George, Duke of Kent (1902–1942)
(36) Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (b. 1935) D W
(37) George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews (b. 1962) M D W
Edward Windsor, Lord Downpatrick (b. 1988) X D W
Lady Marina Charlotte Windsor (b. 1992) X W [n 2]
(38) Lady Amelia Windsor (b. 1995) D W
Lord Nicholas Windsor (b. 1970) X D W
(39) Albert Windsor (b. 2007) D W [n 3]
(40) Leopold Windsor (b. 2009) D W
(41) Louis Windsor (b. 2014) D W
(42) Lady Helen Taylor (née Windsor; b. 1964) D W
(43) Columbus Taylor (b. 1994) D W
(44) Cassius Taylor (b. 1996) D W
(45) Eloise Taylor (b. 2003) D W
(46) Estella Taylor (b. 2004) D W
(47) Prince Michael of Kent (b. 1942) M W
(48) Lord Frederick Windsor (b. 1979) W
(49) Maud Windsor (b. 2013) W
(50) Isabella Windsor (b. 2016)
(51) Lady Gabriella Windsor (b. 1981) W
(52) Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy (b. 1936) W
(53) James Ogilvy (b. 1964) W
(54) Alexander Ogilvy (b. 1996) W
(55) Flora Ogilvy (b. 1994) W
(56) Marina Ogilvy (b. 1966) W
(57) Christian Mowatt (b. 1993) W
(58) Zenouska Mowatt (b. 1990) W

tag: ul

text:
Notes and sources

Mark
Source for listing or note on exclusion from succession

1952
Succession published on the accession of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 [6]

B
Listed by the official website of the British Monarchy, "Succession", retrieved 27 April 2018.

D
Listed on Debrett's website (as of 27 April 2018): "The Line of Succession"

W
Listed by Whitaker's Almanack 2015, London: Bloomsbury, ISBN 978-1-4729-0929-9, p. 22

M
These people had been excluded through marriage to a Roman Catholic. This exclusion was repealed on 26 March 2015, restoring them to the line of succession, when the Perth Agreement came into effect.

X
Excluded as Roman Catholics. This exclusion is not affected by changes subsequent to the Perth Agreement.

text: History

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: The current succession law in the United Kingdom evolved from succession law in both England and Scotland. Originally in both countries, there were no fixed rules governing succession to the throne. The individual could have relied on inheritance, statute, election (by Parliament or by another body), nomination (by a reigning sovereign in his or her will), conquest or prescription (de facto possession of the Crown). It was often unclear which of these bases should take precedence; often, the outcome depended not on the legal strength of the claims, but on the political or military power of the claimants.

text: However, over time, the default rule became male primogeniture: later monarchs coming to the throne by exception to this rule went to great lengths to explain and justify going against these rules, and to prove their rivals illegitimate.  Eventually, Parliament asserted control of succession.

text: England

text: In 1485, Henry Tudor, a female-line descendant of a legitimated branch of the royal house of Lancaster, the House of Beaufort, assumed the English crown as Henry VII, after defeating Richard III, who was killed at the battle of Bosworth when leading a charge against Henry's standard. Richard was the last king of the House of York, and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. Henry declared himself king retroactively from 21 August 1485, the day before his victory over Richard at Bosworth Field,[7] and caused Richard's Titulus Regius to be repealed and expunged from the Rolls of Parliament.[8] After Henry's coronation in London in October that year, his first parliament, summoned to meet at Westminster in November, enacted that "the inheritance of the crown should be, rest, remain and abide in the most royal person of the then sovereign lord, King Henry VII, and the heirs of his body lawfully coming."[9]

text: Henry VII was followed by his son, Henry VIII. Though his father descended from the Lancastrians, Henry VIII could also claim the throne through the Yorkist line, as his mother Elizabeth was the sister and heiress of Edward V. In 1542 Henry also assumed the title King of Ireland; this would pass down with the monarchs of England, and later Great Britain, until the Acts of Union 1800 merged the separate crowns into that of the United Kingdom.

text: Henry VIII's numerous marriages led to several complications over succession. Henry VIII was first married to Catherine of Aragon, by whom he had a daughter named Mary. His second marriage, to Anne Boleyn, resulted in a daughter named Elizabeth. Henry VIII had a son, Edward, by his third wife, Jane Seymour. An Act of Parliament passed in 1533 declared Mary illegitimate; another passed in 1536 did the same for Elizabeth. Though the two remained illegitimate, an Act of Parliament passed in 1544 allowed reinserting them, providing further "that the King should and might give, will, limit, assign, appoint or dispose the said imperial Crown and the other premises … by letters patent or last will in writing." Mary and Elizabeth, under Henry VIII's will, were to be followed by descendants of the King's deceased sister Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk (he, however, excluded his niece Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk). This will also excluded from the succession the descendants of Henry's eldest sister Margaret Tudor, who were the rulers of Scotland.

text: When Henry VIII died in 1547, the young Edward succeeded him, becoming Edward VI. Edward VI was the first Protestant Sovereign to succeed to the rule of England. He attempted to divert the course of succession in his will to prevent his Catholic half-sister, Mary, from inheriting the throne. He excluded Mary and Elizabeth, settling on the Duchess of Suffolk's daughter, Lady Jane Grey. Jane was also originally excluded on the premise that no woman could reign over England. Nonetheless, the will, which originally referred to Jane's heirs-male, was amended to refer to Jane and her heirs-male. Upon Edward VI's death in 1553, Jane was proclaimed Queen of England and Ireland. She was not universally recognised and after nine days she was overthrown by the popular Mary. As Henry VIII's will had been approved by an Act of Parliament in 1544, Edward's contravening will was unlawful and ignored.

text: Mary was succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth, who broke with the precedents of many of her predecessors, and refused to name an heir. Whilst previous monarchs (including Henry VIII) had specifically been granted authority to settle uncertain successions in their wills, the Treasons Act 1571 asserted that Parliament had the right to settle disputes, and made it treason to deny Parliamentary authority. Wary of threats from other possible heirs, Parliament further passed the Act of Association 1584, which provided that any individual involved in attempts to murder the Sovereign would be disqualified from succeeding. (The Act was repealed in 1863.)

text: Scotland

text: The House of Stewart (later Stuart) had ruled in Scotland since 1371. It had followed strict rules of primogeniture until the deposition and exile of Mary I in 1567; even then she was succeeded by her son, James VI.

text: After the union of the crowns

text: Stuarts

text: Elizabeth I of England and Ireland was succeeded by King James VI of Scotland, her first cousin twice removed, even though his succession violated Henry VIII's will, under which Lady Anne Stanley, heiress of Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk, was supposed to succeed. James asserted that hereditary right was superior to statutory provision, and as King of Scotland was powerful enough to deter any rival. He reigned as James I of England and Ireland, thus effecting the Union of the Crowns, although England and Scotland remained separate sovereign states until 1707. His succession was rapidly ratified by Parliament.[10]

text: James's eldest surviving son and successor, Charles I, was overthrown and beheaded in 1649. The monarchy itself was abolished. A few years later, it was replaced by the Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell, effectively a monarch with the title of Lord Protector rather than King. Cromwell had the right to name his own successor, which he exercised on his deathbed by choosing his son, Richard Cromwell. Richard was ineffective, and was quickly forced from office. Shortly afterwards, the monarchy was restored, with Charles I's son Charles II as King.

text: James II and VII, a Roman Catholic, followed his brother Charles II, despite efforts in the late 1670s to exclude him in favour of Charles's illegitimate Protestant son, the Duke of Monmouth. James was deposed when his Protestant opponents forced him to flee from England in 1688. Parliament then deemed that James had, by fleeing the realms, abdicated the thrones and offered the Crowns not to the King's infant son James but to his Protestant daughter Mary and to her husband William, who as James's nephew was the first person in the succession not descended from him. The two became joint Sovereigns (a unique circumstance in British history) as William III of England and Ireland (and II of Scotland) and Mary II of England, Scotland and Ireland. William had insisted on this unique provision as a condition of his military leadership against James.

text: The English Bill of Rights passed in 1689 determined succession to the English, Scottish and Irish Thrones. First in the line were the descendants of Mary II. Next came Mary's sister Princess Anne and her descendants. Finally, the descendants of William by any future marriage were added to the line of succession. Only Protestants were allowed to succeed to the Thrones, and those who married Roman Catholics were excluded.

text: After Mary II died in 1694, her husband continued to reign alone until his own death in 1702. The line of succession provided for by the Bill of Rights was almost at an end; William and Mary never had any children, and Princess Anne's children had all died. Therefore, Parliament passed the Act of Settlement. The Act maintained the provision of the Bill of Rights whereby William would be succeeded by Princess Anne and her descendants, and thereafter by his own descendants from future marriages. The Act, however, declared that they would be followed by James I & VI's granddaughter Sophia, Electress Dowager of Hanover (the daughter of James's daughter Elizabeth Stuart), and her heirs. As under the Bill of Rights, non-Protestants and those who married Roman Catholics were excluded.

text: Upon William's death, Anne became Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland. Because the Parliament of England settled on Sophia as Anne's heir-presumptive without consulting Scottish leaders, the Estates of Scotland retaliated by passing the Scottish Act of Security. The Act provided that, upon the death of Anne, the Estates would meet to select an heir to the throne of Scotland, who could not be the same person as the English Sovereign unless numerous political and economic conditions were met. Anne originally withheld the Royal Assent, but was forced to grant it when the Estates refused to raise taxes and sought to withdraw troops from the Queen's army. England's Parliament responded by passing the Alien Act 1705, which threatened to cripple Scotland's economy by cutting off trade with them. Thus, Scotland had little choice but to unite with England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707; the Crown of the new nation (along with the Crown of Ireland) was subject to the rules laid down by the English Act of Settlement.

text: Hanoverians and Windsors

text: Anne was predeceased by Sophia, Electress Dowager of Hanover, and was therefore succeeded by the latter's son, who became George I in 1714.

text: Attempts were made in the risings of 1715 and 1745 to restore Stuart claimants to the Throne, supported by those who recognised the Jacobite succession. The House of Hanover nonetheless remained undeposed, and the Crown descended in accordance with the appointed rules. In 1801, following the Acts of Union 1800, the separate crowns of Great Britain and Ireland were merged and became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Between 1811 and 1820, when George III was deemed unfit to rule, the Prince of Wales (later George IV) acted as his regent. Some years later the Regency Act 1830 made provision for a change in the line of succession had a child been born to William IV after his death, but this event did not come about.

text: In 1936 Edward VIII abdicated 11 months after he succeeded to the throne immediately on his father's death. Edward was proclaimed King in January 1936,[11] and opened (for the only time) Parliament in November 1936. Edward VIII had desired to marry Wallis Simpson, a divorcee, but the Church of England, of which the British Sovereign is Supreme Governor, would not authorize the marriage of divorcees. Consequently, Parliament passed His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936, by which Edward VIII ceased to be Sovereign "immediately upon" his royal assent as King being signified in Parliament on 11 December. The Act provided that he and his descendants, if any, were not to have any "right, title or interest in or to the succession to the Throne". Edward died childless in 1972.

text: Edward's abdication was "a demise of the Crown" (in the words of the Act), and the Duke of York, his brother who was then next in the line, immediately succeeded to the throne and to its "rights, privileges, and dignities", taking the regnal name George VI. He in turn was succeeded in 1952 by his own elder daughter, Elizabeth II. By that time the monarch of the United Kingdom no longer reigned in the greater part of Ireland (which had become a republic in 1949), but was the monarch of a number of independent sovereign states (Commonwealth realms).

text: Commonwealth realms

text: Each of the Commonwealth realms has the same person as monarch and, to maintain that arrangement, they have agreed to continue the same line of succession; some realms do so through domestic succession laws, while others stipulate whoever is monarch of the United Kingdom will also be monarch of that realm. In February 1952, on her accession, Elizabeth II was proclaimed as sovereign separately throughout her realms. In October 2011, the heads of government of all 16 realms agreed unanimously at a meeting held in Perth, Australia, to proposed changes to the royal succession laws that would see the order of succession for people born after 28 October 2011 governed by absolute primogeniture—wherein succession passes to an individual's children according to birth order, regardless of sex—instead of male-preference primogeniture. They also agreed to lift a ban on those who marry Roman Catholics. The ban on Catholics themselves was retained to ensure that the monarch would be in communion with the Church of England.[12] The changes came into effect across the Commonwealth realms on 26 March 2015, after legislation was made according to each realm's constitution.[13][14]

text: Following the changes coming into effect, the positions of the first 27 in line remained unchanged, including Princess Anne and her children and grandchildren, until the birth of Princess Charlotte of Cambridge on 2 May 2015. The first to be affected by the changes, on the day they came into effect in March, were the children of Lady Davina Lewis—her son Tāne (born 2012) and her daughter Senna (born 2010)—who were reversed in the order of succession, becoming 29th and 28th in line respectively.[15]

text: Current rules

text: The Bill of Rights and the Act of Settlement (restated by the Acts of Union) still govern succession to the throne. They were amended in the United Kingdom by the Succession to the Crown Act 2013, which was passed mainly "to make succession to the Crown not depend on gender" and "to make provision about Royal Marriages" (according to its long title), thereby implementing the Perth Agreement in the UK and in those realms that, by their laws, have as their monarch automatically whoever is monarch of the UK. Other realms passed their own legislation.

text: Anyone ineligible to succeed is treated as if they were "dead". That person's descendants are not also disqualified, unless they are personally ineligible.

text: Marriages

text: The Act of Settlement 1701 provides that Protestant "heirs of the body" (that is, legitimate descendants) of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, are eligible to succeed to the throne, unless otherwise disqualified. The meaning of heir of the body is determined by the common law rules of male preference primogeniture (the "male-preference" criterion is no longer applicable, in respect of succession to the throne, to persons born after 28 October 2011), whereby older children and their descendants inherit before younger children, and a male child takes precedence over a female sibling.[16] Children born out of wedlock and adopted children are not eligible to succeed. Illegitimate children whose parents subsequently marry are legitimated, but remain ineligible to inherit the Crown.[n 4]

text: The Royal Marriages Act 1772 (repealed by the Succession to the Crown Act 2013) further required descendants of George II to obtain the consent of the reigning monarch to marry. (The requirement did not apply to descendants of princesses who married into foreign families, as well as, from 1936, any descendants of Edward VIII,[n 5] of which there are none.) The Act provided, however, that if a dynast older than twenty-five years notified the Privy Council of his or her intention to marry without the consent of the Sovereign, then he or she may have lawfully done so after one year, unless both houses of Parliament expressly disapproved of the marriage. A marriage that contravened the Royal Marriages Act was void, and the resulting offspring illegitimate and thus ineligible to succeed, though the succession of the dynast who failed to obtain consent was not itself affected. This also had the consequence that marriage to a Roman Catholic without permission was void, so that the dynast was not disqualified from succeeding on account of being married to a Roman Catholic. Thus when the future George IV attempted to marry the Roman Catholic Maria Fitzherbert in 1785 without obtaining permission from George III he did not disqualify himself from inheriting the throne in due course.[2] A marriage voided by the 1772 act prior to its repeal remains void "for all purposes relating to the succession to the Crown" under the 2013 act.[17]

text: The constitutional crisis arising from Edward VIII's decision to marry a divorcee in 1936 led to His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936, which provided that Edward VIII and his descendants would have no claim to the throne.[18] The Act is no longer applicable, because Edward died in 1972 without issue.

text: Under the 2013 Succession to the Crown Act, the first six persons in line to the throne must obtain the sovereign's approval before marrying.[17] Marriage without the Sovereign's consent disqualifies the person and the person's descendants from the marriage from succeeding to the Crown,[17] but the marriage is still legally valid.

text: Religion

text: Rules relating to eligibility established by the Bill of Rights are retained under the Act of Settlement. The preamble to the Act of Settlement notes that the Bill of Rights provides "that all and every person and persons that then [at the time of the Bill of Right's passage] were, or afterwards should be reconciled to, or shall hold communion with the See or Church of Rome, or should profess the popish religion, or marry a papist, should be excluded."[19] The Act of Settlement continues, providing "that all and every Person and Persons who shall … is, are or shall be reconciled to or shall hold Communion with the See or Church of Rome or shall profess the Popish religion or shall marry a papist shall be subject to such Incapacities"[20] as the Bill of Rights established.

text: The clause precludes a Roman Catholic from succeeding to the throne. The monarch is required to be in communion with the Church of England.[1]

text: The Act of Settlement further provided that anyone who married a Roman Catholic was ineligible to succeed. The Act did not require that the spouse be Anglican; it only barred those who marry Roman Catholics. Since the passage of the Act it has been determined (in the case of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent) that an individual is not barred because his or her spouse later converts to Roman Catholicism after their marriage. The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 removed the bar on individuals married to Roman Catholics, though not on Roman Catholics themselves.

text: Treason

text: Under the Treason Act 1702 and the Treason (Ireland) Act 1703, it is treason to "endeavour to deprive or hinder any person who shall be the next in succession to the crown ... from succeeding ... to the imperial crown of this realm". Since the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the maximum penalty has been life imprisonment.

text: Accession

text: In the Commonwealth realms, upon the death of a sovereign, the heir apparent or heir presumptive succeeds to the throne immediately, with no need for confirmation or further ceremony.[21][n 6] Nevertheless, the Accession Council meets and decides upon the making of the accession proclamation, which by custom has for centuries been ceremonially proclaimed in public places, in London, York, Edinburgh and other cities. The anniversary is observed throughout the sovereign's reign as Accession Day, including royal gun salutes in the United Kingdom.[23]

text: Formerly, a new sovereign proclaimed his or her own accession. But on the death of Elizabeth I an Accession Council met to proclaim the accession of James I to the throne of England. James was then in Scotland and reigning as King James VI of Scotland. This precedent has been followed since. Now, the Accession Council normally meets in St James's Palace. Proclamations since James I's have usually been made in the name of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, the Privy Council, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and citizens of the City of London and "other principal Gentlemen of quality", though there have been variations in some proclamations. The proclamation of accession of Elizabeth II was the first to make mention of representatives of members of the Commonwealth.

text: Upon his or her accession, a new sovereign is required by law to make and subscribe several oaths. The Bill of Rights of 1689 first required the sovereign to make a public declaration of non-belief in Roman Catholicism.[n 7] This declaration, known as the Accession Declaration, is required to be taken at either the first meeting of parliament of his or her reign (i.e. during the State Opening of Parliament) or at his or her coronation, whichever occurs first. The current wording of this declaration was adopted in 1910 as the previous wording was deemed to be controversial and overtly anti-Catholic. Rather than denouncing Roman Catholicism, the sovereign now declares him or herself to be a Protestant and that he or she will "uphold and maintain" the Protestant succession.[24] In addition to the Accession Declaration, the new sovereign is required by the Acts of Union 1707 to make an oath to "maintain and preserve" the Church of Scotland.[25] This oath is normally made at the sovereign's first meeting of the Privy Council following his or her accession. According to the Regency Act 1937, should the sovereign be under the age of 18, such oaths and declarations required to be taken by the sovereign shall be made upon his attainment of that age.[26]

text: After a period of mourning,[27] the new sovereign is usually consecrated and crowned in Westminster Abbey. Normally, the Archbishop of Canterbury officiates, though the sovereign may designate any other bishop of the Church of England. A coronation is not necessary for a sovereign to reign; for example, Edward VIII was never crowned, yet during his short reign was the undoubted king.


document_title: Centurion Card

question_text: how much is the annual fee for amex black card

root

text: Centurion Card

text: History[edit]

text: In 1991 American Express introduced the Centurion Card to cater to the very wealthy. The card was initially available only to selected users of the company's Platinum Card. To become a Centurion cardholder, one must meet American Express eligibility criteria. Cardholders are required to pay an annual fee, and in some countries also an initiation fee. (In the United States, the initiation fee is $7,500 in addition to the $2,500 annual fee from each cardholder).[3] In addition to a variety of benefits, the card itself is made of anodized titanium[3] with the information and numbers laser etched into the metal. (It should be noted that in some markets the plastic version of the card is still issued, with or without the titanium card.) The plastic card and 2014 and earlier Centurion cards include embossed information on the card. The Centurion 2015 Card introduced laser etching. In some locations, such as Israel, EMV "chip" plastic cards which also include the ExpressPay contactless payment technology are issued. American Express created the card line amid rumors and urban legends in the 1980s that it produced an ultra-exclusive black card for elite users who could purchase anything with it.[4]

tag: p

text: Features[edit]

text: Availability and fees[edit]

text: The Centurion Card is invitation-only after appropriate net worth With American Express, credit, and spending criteria are met.[3] American Express does not publicly disclose the requirements necessary for getting or keeping a card, except that the cardholder needs to have a substantial net worth, as well as having been a Platinum card holder.[3]

text: While the eligibility criteria are subject to speculation, most reliable sources agree that Centurion Card holders have historically spent US$250,000 or more per year on lower-level American Express cards, and have annual household incomes of around US$1.3 million and net worths of at least US$16 million.[5]

text:
Centurion Card annual fees

Country
Annual fee/limit

United States
US$2,500 (US$2,500 for each additional card member) plus one-time joining fee of US$7,500[6]

United Kingdom
£2,200 (US$2,970) (unlimited) plus one-time joining fee of £2,500

Canada
C$2,500 (US$1,886) plus one-time fee of C$5,000 (US$3,772)

India
₹200,000 (US$2,976) plus one time fees of ₹250,000 (US$3,720)

France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands
€3,000 (US$3,390) plus one time fee €3,000 (Italy)

Germany, Austria
€5,000 (US$5,650) plus one-time fee of €4,000 (US$4,520)

Switzerland
CHF 4,200 (US$4,263) (unlimited)

Australia
A$5,000 (US$3,717) (increased from A$4,300 (US$3,197), effective 11 July 2012) plus one-time fee of A$5,000 (US$3,717), effective 11 July 2012

Japan
¥365,000 (US$3,355) (increased from ¥197,000 (US$1,811), effective 1 January 2008)

Hong Kong
HK$38,800 (US$4,999) plus one time fee of 4999 (increase from HK$19,800 (US$2,551), effective 30 May 2013)

China (People's Republic of China)
CN¥ 18,000 (US$2,709) issued by China Merchants Bank (CMB) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) pursuant to a license from American Express

Singapore
S$7,490 (US$5,421) (unlimited) plus one-time joining fee of S$7,490 (US$5,421)

Kuwait
US$4,000 for Titanium-based Centurion. Issued by American Express Middle East (Bahrain) (Same applies for Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar)

Mexico
Mex$56,000 (US$3,000)

Brazil
R$4,250 (US$1,218)

Argentina
AR$20,000 (US$1,355)

Saudi Arabia
ر.س 11,250 (US$3,000) (unlimited)

International Dollar Currency Card (IDC)
US$4,000 plus one-time fee of US$4,000

International Euro Currency Card (IEC)
€4,000 (US$4,520) plus one-time fee of €4,000 (US$4,520)

Israel
US$2,043 (~₪8,000), where payments can be made either in ILS or in US$.

Russia
₽150,000 (US$2,237)

Taiwan
NT$160,000 (US$4,839) plus one-time fee of NT$160,000 (US$4,839) Note: minimum annual income (NT$3,500,000)[7]

Lebanon
ل.ل 3,000 (US$3,000)

United Arab Emirates
DH 11,000 (US$3,000)

Sweden
kr 30,000 (US$3,504) plus one-time fee of (US$3,504)[8]

tag: table

text: Benefits[edit]

text: The card, available for personal and business use, offers services such as a dedicated concierge and travel agent; complimentary companion airline tickets on international flights on selected airlines with the purchase of a full-fare ticket; personal shoppers at retailers such as Dot & Vic's Rathon Station, Big Billy's Beef house Livingston, Gucci, Escada, and Saks Fifth Avenue; access to airport clubs; first-class flight upgrades; membership in Sony's Cierge personal shopping program and dozens of other elite club memberships.[3]

text: Hotel benefits include one free night, when at least one paid night is booked during the same stay, in every Mandarin Oriental hotel worldwide once a year[3] (except for the New York City property),[9] and privileges at hotel chains like Ritz-Carlton, Leading Hotels of the World, and Amanresorts. All of the benefits mentioned above are for United States-issued cards. American Express Centurion Cards issued in other countries may include different benefits. The card has amenities, including Delta SkyMiles Platinum Medallion status.

text: The card also features complimentary enrollment in Easirent Car Hire Platinum Service and the Avis Rent a Car President's Club.[10]

text: Initially it came with an extensive travel insurance all year round no matter how the trip was paid for but since 2012 this insurance is limited to trips which are paid with the card only. (In Australia, the insurance covers all trips, even if paid with another method or frequent flyer miles).

text: The titanium-crafted "Centurion" card was first issued as an upgrade for all plastic U.S. "Centurion" cards in the first half of 2006, with the titanium version being rolled out to certain other countries as well.

text: Some Centurion customers have purchased automobiles using the card or made purchases exceeding €1 million (US$1.36 million).[citation needed] The card has no preset limit in theory. In practice the authorization is decided upon past payment and spending patterns; the largest purchase ever made on one was US$170 million for Amedeo Modigliani's "Nu couché" painting purchased at a Christie's auction house by Liu Yiqian.[11] It was suggested that the reason for funding the purchase through the credit card was to circumvent Chinese money laws that restrict the transfer of money by citizens out of the country to just $50,000.[12]

text: The benefits offered to Centurion cardmembers are vast, but they appear to be based on the benefits offered to American Express Platinum cardholders, but with many enhancements.[13]

text: Centurion Card members, like Platinum Card members, get complimentary access to the American Express Centurion Lounges at several US airports. They also get unlimited access to Priority Pass lounges around the world.[14] However, at busy times, Centurion members have access to areas reserved for them. There are also drink options at the bar that are exclusive to Centurion members. As of 2015, they have a Champagne option of Veuve Clicquot and a single malt scotch by Balvenie.[15]

text: Former benefits[edit]

text: Several original Centurion program benefits have been discontinued, including:

text:
Continental Airlines benefits, which ceased in October 2011
Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum elite benefits, downgraded to Gold (from January 2006, same as Platinum card)
Hyatt Diamond Elite benefits
American Airlines Admirals Club benefits, which ceased on March 21, 2014[16]

text: Publications[edit]

text:
Black Ink

Categories
Luxury magazine

Frequency
Seasonal

Publisher
American Express

Year founded
2004

text: Since the inception of the card, members have received a copy of Departures, which is also sent to all Platinum Card cardholders. In 2004, American Express Centurion members in the US began receiving an exclusive "no name" magazine, which was not available by any other means. Starting with the Spring 2007 edition, this magazine was officially titled Black Ink. The magazine is available only to individual Centurion cardholders, not to the business-edition customers.

text: European, Asian, and Australian Centurion members receive quarterly the Centurion magazine published by Journal International GmbH (Munich, Germany).[17] In June 2011, the Centurion magazine website was launched, offering daily updates for Centurion Card members. According to Journal International, the average age of a Centurion reader from Europe or the Middle East is 49 years. Centurion has been published since 2001 and has a circulation in Europe and the Middle East of 44,100, in Asia of 13,900, and in Australia of 6,000.[2]

text: Elite cards[edit]

text: The Centurion Card is part of an elite credit card segment created for a very small and exclusive range of clients around the world.[3] Other such cards include:

text: Palladium Card

text: AmEx Black Card vs. Black Card[edit]

text: Black Card LLC successfully registered "Black Card" as a U.S. trademark in 2009. However, American Express contended its Centurion Card was widely known as "the Black Card" before the launch of the Black Card (then Visa card), despite never seeking to trademark that name itself. American Express filed suit against Black Card LLC in February 2010, claiming that the trademark was obtained improperly and sought injunctive relief.[18] This suit was concluded in November 2011, with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruling that Black Card, LLC's trademark of the name "Black Card" should be canceled on grounds that it was merely descriptive.[19] (See also American Express Marketing and Development Corp, et al. v. Black Card, LLC, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 133151 (S.D.N.Y. November 17, 2011.)

text: Today, Black Card LLC uses the registered trademark under license as a MasterCard issued by Barclays Bank Delaware.[20] It has similar features, such as the members-only Luxury Magazine in print and digital form.[20][21]


document_title: History of the steel industry (1850–1970)

question_text: where did the steel industry first emerge in the united states

text: Technology[edit]

text: Steel is an alloy composed of between 0.2% and 2.0% carbon, and the balance of iron. From prehistory through the creation of the blast furnace, iron was produced from iron ore as wrought iron, 100% Fe, and the process of making steel involved adding carbon to the iron, usually via serendipity in the forge or via the cementation process. The introduction of the blast furnace reversed the problem. A blast furnace produces pig iron, which is an alloy of approximately 90% iron and 10% carbon. If the process of steelmaking begins with pig iron instead of wrought iron, the challenge is to remove a sufficient amount of carbon to get it to the 0.2 to 2 percent for steel.

text: Before about 1860 steel was an expensive product, made in small quantities and used mostly for swords, tools and cutlery; all large metal structures were made of wrought or cast iron. Steelmaking was centered in Sheffield, Britain, which supplied the European and the American markets. The introduction of cheap steel was due to the Bessemer and the open hearth processes, two technological advances made in England. In the Bessemer process, molten pig iron is converted to steel by blowing air through it after it was removed from the furnace. The air blast burned the carbon and silicon out of the pig iron, releasing heat and causing the temperature of the molten metal to rise. Henry Bessemer demonstrated the process in 1856 and had a successful operation going by 1864. By 1870 Bessemer steel was widely used for ship plate. By the 1850s, the speed, weight, and quantity of railway traffic was limited by the strength of the wrought iron rails in use. The solution was to turn to steel rails, which the Bessemer process made competitive in price. Experience quickly proved steel had much greater strength and durability and could handle the increasingly heavy and faster engines and cars.[1]

text: After 1890 the Bessemer process was gradually supplanted by open-hearth steelmaking and by the middle of the 20th century was no longer in use.[2] The open-hearth process originated in the 1860s in Germany and France. The usual open-hearth process used pig iron, ore, and scrap, and became known as the Siemens-Martin process. Its process allowed closer control over the composition of the steel; also, a substantial quantity of scrap could be included in the charge. The crucible process remained important for making high-quality alloy steel into the 20th century.[3] By 1900 the electric arc furnace was adapted to steelmaking and by the 1920s, the falling cost of electricity allowed it to largely supplant the crucible process for specialty steels.[4]

text: Britain[edit]

text: 19th century[edit]

text: Britain led the world's Industrial Revolution with its early commitment to coal mining, steam power, textile mills, machinery, railways, and shipbuilding. Britain's demand for iron and steel, combined with ample capital and energetic entrepreneurs, made it the world leader in the first half of the 19th century.

text: In 1875, Britain accounted for 47% of world production of pig iron and almost 40% of steel. 40% of British output was exported to the U.S., which was rapidly building its rail and industrial infrastructure. Two decades later in 1896, however, the British share of world production had plunged to 29% for pig iron and 22.5% for steel, and little was sent to the U.S. The U.S. was now the world leader and Germany was catching up to Britain. Britain had lost its American market, and was losing its role elsewhere; indeed American products were now underselling British steel in Britain.[5]

text: The growth of pig iron output was dramatic. Britain went from 1.3 million tons in 1840 to 6.7 million in 1870 and 10.4 in 1913. The US started from a lower base, but grew faster; from 0.3 million tons in 1840, to 1.7 million in 1870, and 31.5 million in 1913. Germany went from 0.2 million tons in 1859 to 1.6 in 1871 and 19.3 in 1913. France, Belgium, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, combined, went from 2.2 million tons in 1870 to 14.1 million tons in 1913, on the eve of the World War. During the war the demand for artillery shells and other supplies caused a spurt in output and a diversion to military uses.

text: 20th century[edit]

text: Abé (1996) explores the record of iron and steel firms in Victorian England by analyzing Bolckow Vaughan & Company. It was wedded for too long to obsolescent technology and was a very late adopter of the open hearth furnace method. Abé concludes that the firm—and the British steel industry—suffered from a failure of entrepreneurship and planning.[6]

text: Blair (1997) explores the history of the British Steel industry since the Second World War to evaluate the impact of government intervention in a market economy. Entrepreneurship was lacking in the 1940s; the government could not persuade the industry to upgrade its plants. For generations the industry had followed a patchwork growth pattern which proved inefficient in the face of world competition. In 1946 the first steel development plan was put into practice with the aim of increasing capacity; the "Iron and Steel Act of 1949" meant nationalization of the industry. However, the reforms were dismantled by the Conservative governments in the 1950s. In 1967, under Labour Party control again, the industry was again nationalized. But by then twenty years of political manipulation had left companies such as British Steel with serious problems: a complacency with existing equipment, plants operating under capacity (low efficiency), poor quality assets, outdated technology, government price controls, higher coal and oil costs, lack of funds for capital improvement, and increasing world market competition. By the 1970s the Labour government had its main goal to keep employment high in the declining industry. Since British Steel was a main employer in depressed regions, it had kept many mills and facilities that were operating at a loss. In the 1980s, Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher re-privatized BSC as British Steel.

text: Australia[edit]

text: In Australia, Broken Hill Proprietary Company ventured into steel manufacturing in 1915, with its operations based primarily in Newcastle, New South Wales. The decision to move from mining ore to open a steelworks at Newcastle was due to the technical limitations in recovering value from mining the 'lower-lying sulphide ores'.[7] The discovery of Iron Knob and Iron Monarch near the western shore of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia combined with the development by the BHP metallurgist, A. D. Carmichael, of a technique for 'separating zinc sulphides from the accompanying earth and rock' led BHP 'to implement the startlingly simple and cheap process for liberating vast amounts of valuable metals out of sulphide ores, including huge heaps of tailings and slimes up to' 40 ft (12 m) high.[8] The inefficiencies of what was, by global standards, a small steel operation in Newcastle finally caught up with the company and the Newcastle operations were closed in 1999.[9] The 'long products' side of the steel business was spun off to form OneSteel in 2000.[10]

text: Germany[edit]

text: The Ruhr Valley provided an excellent location for the German iron and steel industry because of the availability of raw materials, coal, transport, a skilled labor force, nearby markets, and an entrepreneurial spirit that led to the creation of many firms, often in close conjunction with coal mines. By 1850 the Ruhr had 50 iron works with 2,813 full-time employees. The first modern furnace was built in 1849. The creation of the German Empire in 1870 gave further impetus to rapid growth, as Germany started to catch up with Britain. From 1880 to World War I, the industry of the Ruhr area consisted of numerous enterprises, each working on a separate level of production. Mixed enterprises could unite all levels of production through vertical integration, thus lowering production costs. Technological progress brought new advantages as well. These developments set the stage for the creation of combined business concerns.[11]

text: The leading firm was Friedrich Krupp AG run by the Krupp family.[12][13] Many diverse, large-scale family firms such as Krupp's reorganized in order to adapt to the changing conditions and meet the economic depression of the 1870s, which reduced the earnings in the German iron and steel industry. Krupp reformed his accounting system to better manage his growing empire, adding a specialized bureau of calculation as well as a bureau for the control of times and wages. The rival firm GHH quickly followed,[14] as did Thyssen AG, which had been founded by August Thyssen in 1867. Germany became Europe's leading steel-producing nation in the late 19th century, thanks in large part to the protection from American and British competition afforded by tariffs and cartels.[15]

text: By 1913 American and German exports dominated the world steel market, and Britain slipped to third place.[16] German steel production grew explosively from 1 million metric tons in 1885 to 10 million in 1905 and peaked at 19 million in 1918. In the 1920s Germany produced about 15 million tons, but output plunged to 6 million in 1933. Under the Nazis, steel output peaked at 22 million tons in 1940, then dipped to 18 million in 1944 under Allied bombing.[17] The merger of four major firms into the German Steel Trust (Vereinigte Stahlwerke) in 1926 was modeled on the U.S. Steel corporation in the U.S. The goal was to move beyond the limitations of the old cartel system by incorporating advances simultaneously inside a single corporation. The new company emphasized rationalization of management structures and modernization of the technology; it employed a multi-divisional structure and used return on investment as its measure of success.[18] It represented the "Americanization" of the German steel industry because its internal structure, management methods, use of technology, and emphasis on mass production. The chief difference was that consumer capitalism as an industrial strategy did not seem plausible to German steel industrialists.[19]

text: In iron and steel and other industries, German firms avoided cut-throat competition and instead relied on trade associations. Germany was a world leader because of its prevailing "corporatist mentality", its strong bureaucratic tradition, and the encouragement of the government. These associations regulated competition and allowed small firms to function in the shadow of much larger companies.[20]

text: With the need to rebuild the bombed-out infrastructure after the Second World War, Marshall Plan (1948–51) enabled West Germany to rebuild and modernize its mills. It produced 3 million of steel in 1947, 12 million in 1950, 34 million in 1960 and 46 million in 1970. East Germany produced about a 10th as much.[21]

text: France[edit]

text: The French iron industry lagged behind the United Kingdom and Belgium in the early 19th century, and after 1850 also lagged behind Germany and Luxembourg. Its industry comprised too many small, inefficient firms.[22] 20th century growth was not robust, due more to traditional social and economic attitudes than to inherent geographic, population, or resource factors. Despite a high national income level, the French steel industry remained laggard.[23] The industry was based on large supplies of coal and iron ore, and was dispersed across the country. The greatest output came in 1929, at 10.4 million metric tons.[24] The industry suffered sharply during the Great Depression and the World War II. Prosperity returned by mid-1950s, but profits came largely from strong domestic demand rather than competitive capacity. Late modernization delayed the development of powerful unions and collective bargaining.[25]

text: Italy[edit]

text: In Italy a shortage of coal led the steel industry to specialize in the use of hydro-electrical energy, exploiting ideas pioneered by Ernesto Stassano from 1898 (Stassano furnace). Despite periods of innovation (1907–14), growth (1915–18), and consolidation (1918–22), early expectations were only partly realized. Steel output in the 1920s and 1930s averaged about 2.1 million metric tons. Per capita consumption was much lower than the average of Western Europe.[26] Electrical processes were an important substitute, yet did not improve competitiveness or reduce prices. Instead, they reinforced the dualism of the sector and initiated a vicious circle that prevented market expansion.[27] Italy modernized its industry in the 1950s and 1960s and it grew rapidly, becoming second only to West Germany in the 1970s. Strong labour unions kept employment levels high. Troubles multiplied after 1980, however, as foreign competition became stiffer. In 1980 the largest producer Nuova Italsider lost 746 billion lira in its inefficient operations.[28]

text: United States[edit]

text: From 1875 to 1920 American steel production grew from 380,000 tons to 60 million tons annually, making the U.S. the world leader. The annual growth rates in steel 1870–1913 were 7.0% for the US; 1.0% for Britain; 6.0% for Germany; and 4.3% for France, Belgium and Russia, the other major producers.[29] This explosive American growth rested on solid technological foundations, assisted by other factors, including African-American forced convict labor, the protective tariff and the continuous rapid expansion of urban infrastructures, office buildings, factories, railroads, bridges and other sectors that increasingly demanded steel. The use of steel in automobiles and household appliances came in the 20th century.

text: Some key elements in the growth of steel production included the easy availability of iron ore, coal, and underpaid labor. Iron ore of fair quality was abundant in the eastern states, but the Lake Superior region contained huge deposits of exceedingly rich ore; the Marquette Iron Range was discovered in 1844; operations began in 1846. Other ranges were opened by 1910, including the Menominee, Gogebic, Vermilion, Cuyuna, and, greatest of all, (in 1892) the Mesabi range in Minnesota. This iron ore was shipped through the Lakes to ports such as Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Erie and Buffalo for shipment by rail to the steel mills.[30] Abundant coal was available in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Manpower was short. Few Native Americans wanted to work in the mills, but immigrants from Britain and Germany (and later from Eastern Europe) arrived in great numbers.[31] A range of industries came to be dependent on convict leasing for cheap, dependable labor.[32]

text: "[I]n Alabama, industrialization was generating a ravenous appetite for the state’s coal and iron ore. Production was booming, and unions were attempting to organize free miners. Convicts provided an ideal captive work force: cheap, usually docile, unable to organize and available when free laborers went on strike."[33]

text: The Southern agrarian economy did not accommodate convict leasing as well as the industrial economy did, whose jobs were often unappealing or dangerous, offering hard-labor and low pay. The competition, expansion, and growth of mining and steel companies also created a high demand for labor, but union labor posed a threat to expanding companies. As unions bargained for higher wages and better conditions, often organizing strikes in order to achieve their goals, the growing companies would be forced to agree to union demands or face abrupt halts in production. The rate companies paid for convict leases, which paid the laborer nothing, was regulated by government and state officials who entered the labor contracts with companies. "The companies built their own prisons, fed and clothed the convicts, and supplied guards as they saw fit." (Blackmon 2001)[33] Alabama's use of convict leasing was commanding; 51 of its 67 counties regularly leased convicts serving for misdemeanors at a rate of about $5-20 per month, equal to about $160-500 in 2015. [34] Although the influence of labor unions forced some states to move away from the profitable convict lease agreements and run traditional prisons, plenty of companies began substituting convict labor in their operations in the twentieth century.  "The biggest user of forced labor in Alabama at the turn of the century was Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co., [of] U.S. Steel" [33]

text: In 1869 iron was already a major industry, accounting for 6.6% of manufacturing employment and 7.8% of manufacturing output. By then the central figure was Andrew Carnegie,[35] who made Pittsburgh the center of the industry.[36] He sold his operations to US Steel in 1901, which became the world's largest steel corporation for decades.

text: In the 1880s, the transition from wrought iron puddling to mass-produced Bessemer steel greatly increased worker productivity. Highly skilled workers remained essential, but the average level of skill declined. Nevertheless, steelworkers earned much more than ironworkers despite their fewer skills. Workers in an integrated, synchronized mass production environment wielded greater strategic power, for the greater cost of mistakes bolstered workers' status. The experience demonstrated that the new technology did not decrease worker bargaining leverage by creating an interchangeable, unskilled workforce.[37]

text: Carnegie[edit]

text: Carnegie's great innovation was in the cheap and efficient mass production of steel rails for railroad lines. This could not have happened without the prior invention of Bessemer Steel. Thus Carnegie's "innovation" was scale, not anything technical.

text: In the late 1880s, The Carnegie Steel was the largest manufacturer of pig iron, steel rails, and coke in the world, with a capacity to produce approximately 2,000 tons of pig iron per day. In 1888, he bought the rival Homestead Steel Works, which included an extensive plant served by tributary coal and iron fields, a 425-mile (685 km) long railway, and a line of lake steamships. A consolidation of Carnegie's assets and those of his associates occurred in 1892 with the launching of the Carnegie Steel Company.

text: By 1889, the U.S. output of steel exceeded that of Britain, and Andrew Carnegie owned a large part of it. By 1900, the profits of Carnegie Bros. & Company alone stood at $480,000,000 with $225,000,000 being Carnegie's share. Carnegie's empire grew to include the J. Edgar Thomson Steel Works (named for John Edgar Thomson, Carnegie's former boss and president of the Pennsylvania Railroad), Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Works, the Lucy Furnaces, the Union Iron Mills, the Union Mill (Wilson, Walker & County), the Keystone Bridge Works, the Hartman Steel Works, the Frick Coke Company, and the Scotia ore mines. Carnegie, through Keystone, supplied the steel for and owned shares in the landmark Eads Bridge project across the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri (completed 1874). This project was an important proof-of-concept for steel technology which marked the opening of a new steel market.

text: The Homestead Strike was a violent labor dispute in 1892 that ended in a battle between strikers and private security guards. The dispute took place at Carnegie's Homestead Steel Works between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and the Carnegie Steel Company. The final result was a major defeat for the union and a setback for efforts to unionize steelworkers.[38]

text: Carnegie sold all his steel holdings in 1901; they were merged into U.S. Steel and it was non-union until the late 1930s.

text: US Steel[edit]

text: By 1900 the US was the largest producer and also the lowest cost producer, and demand for steel seemed inexhaustible. Output had tripled since 1890, but customers, not producers, mostly benefitted. Productivity-enhancing technology encouraged faster and faster rates of investment in new plants. However, during recessions, demand fell sharply taking down output, prices, and profits. Charles M. Schwab of Carnegie Steel proposed a solution: consolidation. Financier J. P. Morgan arranged the buyout of Carnegie and most other major forms, and put Elbert Gary in charge.

text: US Steel combined finishing firms (American Tin Plate (controlled by William Henry "Judge" Moore), American Steel and Wire, and National Tube) with two major integrated companies, Carnegie Steel and Federal Steel. It was capitalized at $1.466 billion, and included 213 manufacturing mills, one thousand miles of railroad, and 41 mines. In 1901, it accounted for 66% of America's steel output, and almost 30% of the world's. During World War I, its annual production exceeded the combined output of all German and Austrian firms.

text: In 1907, US Steel bought Tennessee Coal. Four years after its consolidation, US Steel was heavily dependent on convict laborers. When US Steel Chairman Elbert H. Gary discovered the use of forced labor within the company he ordered the practice cease immediately. In 1911, Tennessee Coal President George G. Crawford claimed that the company did intend to abandon the use of forced labor at some point, but could not abandon it now "without detriment to our operations." Crawford explained that US Steel's "chief inducement for the hiring of convicts was the certainty of a supply of coal for our manufacturing operations in the contingency of labor troubles."

text: Less than 100 years later, US Steel considers their use of forced labor a dead issue. Assistant general counsel Richard Lerach states, "Is it fair in fact to punish people who are living today, who have certain assets they might have inherited from others, or corporate assets that have been passed on?...You can get to a situation where there is such a passage of time that it simply doesn’t make sense and is not fair."[33]

text: US Steel is a supporter of President Donald Trump, most notably for his promise to 'bring back' the steel industry by using only American steel for infrastructure projects during his term; Trump's proposals to lower the corporate tax and implement Chinese import tariffs are also indicators for US Steel's support. US Steel (X) has a composite rating of 38 with a market cap of $4.49 billion according to Investor's Business Daily on 10/1/2017. [39] Earnings were recorded at $2.650 billion for 2016[40] with expectations for big growth in 2017. [41]

text: Bethlehem Steel[edit]

text: Charles M. Schwab (1862–1939) and Eugene Grace (1876–1960) made Bethlehem Steel the second-largest American steel company by the 1920s. Schwab had been the operating head of Carnegie Steel and US Steel. In 1903 he purchased the small firm Bethlehem Steel, and in 1916 made Grace president. Innovation was the keynote at a time when U.S. Steel under Judge Gary moved slowly. Bethlehem concentrated on government contracts, such as ships and naval armor, and on construction beams, especially for skyscrapers and bridges.[42] Its subsidiary Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation operated 15 shipyards in World War II. It produced 1,121 ships, more than any other builder during the war and nearly one-fifth of the U.S. Navy's fleet. Its peak employment was 180,000 workers, out of a company-wide wartime peak of 300,000. After 1945 Bethlehem doubled its steel capacity, a measure of the widespread optimism in the industry. However the company ignored the new technologies then being developed in Europe and Japan. Seeking labor peace in order to avoid strikes, Bethlehem like the other majors agreed to large wage and benefits increases that kept its costs high. After Grace retired the inbred executives concentrated on short term profits and postponed innovations that led to long-term inefficiency. It went bankrupt in 2001.[43]

text: Republic Steel[edit]

text: Cyrus Eaton (1883–1979) in 1925 purchased the small Trumbull Steel Company of Warren, Ohio, for $18 million. In the late 1920s he purchased undervalued steel and rubber companies. In 1930, Eaton consolidated his steel holdings into the Republic Steel, based in Cleveland; it became the third-largest steel producer in the U.S., after US Steel and Bethlehem Steel.[44]

text: Unions[edit]

text: The American Federation of Labor (AFL) tried and failed to organize the steelworkers in 1919. Although the strike gained widespread middle-class support because of its demand and the 12-hour day, the strike failed and unionization was postponed until the late 1930s. The Mills ended the 12-hour day in the early 1920s.[45]

text: The second surge of unionization came under the auspices of the militant CIO in the late 1930s, when it set up the Steel Workers Organizing Committee. The SWOC focused almost exclusively on the achievement of a signed contract, with "Little Steel" (the major producers except for US Steel). At the grassroots however, women of the steel auxiliaries, workers on the picket line, and middle-class liberals from across Chicago sought to transform the strike into something larger than a showdown over union recognition.In Chicago, the Little Steel Strike raised the possibility that steelworkers might embrace the ‘civic unionism’ that animated the left-led unions of the era. The effort failed, and while the strike was won, the resulting powerful United Steelworkers of America union suppressed grassroots opinions.[46]

text: Apogee and decline[edit]

text: Integration was the watchword as the various processes were brought together by large corporations, from mining the iron ore to shipping the finished product to wholesalers. The typical steelworks was a giant operation, including blast furnaces, Bessemer converters, open-hearth furnaces, rolling mills, coke ovens and foundries, as well as supported transportation facilities. The largest ones were operated in the region from Chicago to St. Louis to Baltimore, Philadelphia and Buffalo. Smaller operations appeared in Birmingham, Alabama, and in California.[47]

text: The industry grew slowly but other industries grew even faster, so that by 1967, as the downward spiral began, steel accounted for 4.4% of manufacturing employment and 4.9% of manufacturing output. After 1970 American steel producers could no longer compete effectively with low-wage producers elsewhere. Imports and local mini-mills undercut sales.

text: Per-capita steel consumption in the U.S. peaked in 1977, then fell by half before staging a modest recovery to levels well below the peak.[48]

text: Most mills were closed. Bethlehem went bankrupt in 2001. In 1984, Republic merged with Jones and Laughlin Steel Company; the new firm went bankrupt in 2001. US Steel diversified into oil (Marathon Oil was spun off in 2001). Finally US Steel reemerged in 2002 with plants in three American locations (plus one in Europe) that employed fewer than one-tenth the 168,000 workers of 1902. By 2001 steel accounted for only 0.8% of manufacturing employment and 0.8% of manufacturing output.[49]

text: The world steel industry peaked in 2007. That year, ThyssenKrupp spent $12 billion to build the two most modern mills in the world, in Alabama and Brazil. The worldwide great recession starting in 2008, however, with its heavy cutbacks in construction, sharply lowered demand and prices fell 40%. ThyssenKrupp lost $11 billion on its two new plants, which sold steel below the cost of production. Finally in 2013, ThyssenKrupp offered the plants for sale at under $4 billion.[50]

text: Legacy[edit]

text: The President of the United States is authorized to declare each May "Steelmark Month" to recognize the contribution made by the steel industry to the United States.[51]

text: Asia[edit]

text: Japan[edit]

text: Yonekura shows the steel industry was central to the economic development of Japan. The nation's sudden transformation from feudal to modern society in the late nineteenth century, its heavy industrialization and imperialist war ventures in 1900–1945, and the post-World War II high-economic growth, all depended on iron and steel. The other great Japanese industries, such as shipbuilding, automobiles, and industrial machinery are closely linked to steel. From 1850 to 1970, the industry increased its crude steel production from virtually nothing to 93.3 million tons (the third largest in the world).[52]

text: The government's activist Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) played a major role in coordination. The transfer of technology from the West and the establishment of competitive firms involved far more than buying foreign hardware. MITI located steel mills and organized a domestic market; it sponsored Yawata Steel Company. Japanese engineers and entrepreneurs internally developed the necessary technological and organizational capabilities, planned the transfer and adoption of technology, and gauged demand and sources of raw materials and finances.[53]

text: India[edit]

text: Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) was established by Dorabji Tata in 1907, as part of his father's conglomerate. By 1939 it operated the largest steel plant in the British Empire. The company launched a major modernization and expansion program in 1951.[54]

text: Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a believer in socialism, decided that the technological revolution in India needed maximization of steel production. He, therefore, formed a government owned company, Hindustan Steel Limited (HSL) and set up three steel plants in the 1950s.[55]

text: The Indian steel industry began expanding into Europe in the 21st century. In January 2007 India's Tata Steel made a successful $11.3 billion offer to buy European steel maker Corus Group. In 2006 Mittal Steel (based in London but with Indian management) merged with Arcelor after a takeover bid for $34.3 billion to become the world's biggest steel maker, ArcelorMittal (based in Luxembourg City), with 10% of the world's output.[56]

text: China[edit]

text: Communist party dictator Mao Zedong disdained the cities and put his faith in the Chinese peasantry for a Great Leap Forward. Mao saw steel production as the key to overnight economic modernization, promising that within 15 years China's steel production would surpass that of Britain. In 1958 he decided that steel production would double within the year, using backyard steel furnaces run by inexperienced peasants. The plan was a fiasco, as the small amounts of steel produced were of very poor quality, and the diversion of resources out of agriculture produced a massive famine in 1959–61 that killed millions.[57]

text: With economic reforms brought in by Deng Xiaoping, who led China from 1978 to 1992, China began to develop a modern steel industry by building new steel plants and recycling scrap metal from the United States and Europe. As of 2013 China produced 779 million metric tons of steel each year, making it by far the largest steel producing country in the world. This is compared to 165 for the European Union, 110 for Japan, 87 for the United States and 81 for India.[58] China's 2013 steel production was equivalent to an average of 3.14 cubic meters of steel per second.[59]


document_title: Party leaders of the United States Senate

question_text: who is the official head of the us senate

text: Current floor leaders[edit]

text: The Senate is currently composed of 51 Republicans, 47 Democrats, and 2 independents, both of whom caucus with the Democrats.

text: The current leaders are long-time Senators Mitch McConnell (R) from Kentucky and Chuck Schumer (D) from New York. The current Assistant Leaders/Whips are long-time Senators John Cornyn (R) from Texas and Dick Durbin (D) from Illinois.

text: History[edit]

text: The Democrats began the practice of electing floor leaders in 1920 while they were in the minority. John W. Kern was a Democratic Senator from Indiana. While the title was not official, he is considered[by whom?] to be the first Senate party leader from 1913 through 1917 (and in turn, the first Senate Democratic Leader), while serving concurrently as Chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus. In 1925 the majority (at the time) Republicans also adopted this language when Charles Curtis became the first (official) Majority Leader[citation needed], although his immediate predecessor Henry Cabot Lodge is considered the first (unofficial) Senate Majority Leader.

text: The Constitution designates the Vice President of the United States as President of the United States Senate. The Constitution also calls for a President pro tempore to serve as the leader of the body when the President of the Senate (the Vice President) is absent. In practice, neither the Vice President nor the President pro tempore—customarily the most senior (longest-serving) Senator in the majority party—actually presides over the Senate on a daily basis; that task is given to junior Senators of the majority party. Since the Vice President may be of a different party than the majority and is not a member subject to discipline, the rules of procedure of the Senate give the presiding officer very little power and none beyond the presiding role. For these reasons, it is the Majority Leader who, in practice, manages the Senate. This is in contrast to the House of Representatives where the elected Speaker of the House has a great deal of discretionary power and generally presides over votes on bills.[citation needed]

text: List of party leaders[edit]

text: The Democratic Party first selected a leader in 1920. The Republican Party first formally designated a leader in 1925.

text:
Cong-
ress
Dates
Democratic Whip
Democratic Leader
Majority
Republican Leader
Republican Whip

63rd
May 28, 1913 –
March 4, 1915
J. Hamilton Lewis
None
Democratic
← Majority
None
None

64th
March 4, 1915 –
December 6, 1915

December 6, 1915 –
December 13, 1915
James Wadsworth

December 13, 1915 –
March 4, 1917
Charles Curtis

65th
March 4, 1917 –
March 4, 1919

66th
March 4, 1919 –
April 27, 1920
Peter Gerry
Republican
Majority →
Henry Cabot Lodge
Unofficial

April 27, 1920 –
March 4, 1921
Oscar Underwood

67th
March 4, 1921 –
March 4, 1923

68th
March 4, 1923 –
December 3, 1923

December 3, 1923 –
November 9, 1924
Joseph Taylor Robinson

November 9, 1924 –
March 4, 1925
Charles Curtis
Acting
Wesley Jones
Acting

69th
March 4, 1925 –
March 4, 1927
Charles Curtis
Wesley Jones

70th
March 4, 1927 –
March 4, 1929

71st
March 4, 1929 –
March 4, 1931
Morris Sheppard
James E. Watson
Simeon Fess

72nd
March 4, 1931 –
March 4, 1933

73rd
March 4, 1933 –
January 3, 1935
J. Hamilton Lewis
Democratic
← Majority
Charles L. McNary
Felix Hebert

74th
January 3, 1935 –
January 3, 1937
None[Note 1]

75th
January 3, 1937 –
July 14, 1937

July 22, 1937 –
January 3, 1939
Alben W. Barkley

76th
January 3, 1939 –
April 9, 1939

April 9, 1939 –
January 3, 1940
Sherman Minton

January 3, 1940 –
January 3, 1941
Warren Austin
Acting

77th
January 3, 1941 –
January 3, 1943
J. Lister Hill
Charles L. McNary

78th
January 3, 1943 –
February 25, 1944
Kenneth Wherry

February 25, 1944 –
January 3, 1945
Wallace H. White Jr.
Acting

79th
January 3, 1945 –
January 3, 1947
Wallace H. White Jr.

80th
January 3, 1947 –
January 3, 1949
Scott W. Lucas
Republican
Majority →

81st
January 3, 1949 –
January 3, 1951
Francis Myers
Scott W. Lucas
Democratic
← Majority
Kenneth S. Wherry
Leverett Saltonstall

82nd
January 3, 1951 –
January 3, 1952
Lyndon B. Johnson
Ernest McFarland

January 3, 1952 –
January 3, 1953
Styles Bridges

83rd
January 3, 1953 –
July 31, 1953
Earle Clements
Lyndon B. Johnson
Republican
Majority →
Robert A. Taft

August 3, 1953 –
January 3, 1955
William F. Knowland

84th
January 3, 1955 –
January 3, 1957
Democratic
← Majority

85th
January 3, 1957 –
January 3, 1959
Mike Mansfield
Everett Dirksen

86th
January 3, 1959 –
January 3, 1961
Everett Dirksen
Thomas Kuchel

87th
January 3, 1961 –
January 3, 1963
Hubert Humphrey
Mike Mansfield

88th
January 3, 1963 –
January 3, 1965

89th
January 3, 1965 –
January 3, 1967
Russell B. Long

90th
January 3, 1967 –
January 3, 1969

91st
January 3, 1969 –
September 7, 1969
Ted Kennedy
Hugh Scott

September 24, 1969 –
January 3, 1971
Hugh Scott
Robert Griffin

92nd
January 3, 1971 –
January 3, 1973
Robert Byrd

93rd
January 3, 1973 –
January 3, 1975

94th
January 3, 1975 –
January 3, 1977

95th
January 3, 1977 –
January 3, 1979
Alan Cranston
Robert Byrd
Howard Baker
Ted Stevens

96th
January 3, 1979 –
November 1, 1979

November 1, 1979 –
March 5, 1980
Ted Stevens
Acting

March 5, 1980 –
January 3, 1981
Howard Baker

97th
January 3, 1981 –
January 3, 1983
Republican
Majority →

98th
January 3, 1983 –
January 3, 1985

99th
January 3, 1985 –
January 3, 1987
Bob Dole
Alan Simpson

100th
January 3, 1987 –
January 3, 1989
Democratic
← Majority

101st
January 3, 1989 –
January 3, 1991
George Mitchell

102nd
January 3, 1991 –
January 3, 1993
Wendell H. Ford

103rd
January 3, 1993 –
January 3, 1995

104th
January 3, 1995 –
June 12, 1996
Tom Daschle
Republican
Majority →
Trent Lott

June 12, 1996 –
January 3, 1997
Trent Lott
Don Nickles

105th
January 3, 1997 –
January 3, 1999

106th
January 3, 1999 –
January 3, 2001
Harry Reid

107th
January 3, 2001 –
January 20, 2001
Democratic
← Majority

January 20, 2001 –
June 6, 2001
Republican
Majority →

June 6, 2001 –
January 3, 2003[Note 2]
Democratic
← Majority

108th
January 3, 2003 –
January 3, 2005
Republican
Majority →
Bill Frist
Mitch McConnell

109th
January 3, 2005 –
January 3, 2007
Dick Durbin
Harry Reid

110th
January 3, 2007 –
December 18, 2007
Democratic
← Majority
Mitch McConnell
Trent Lott

December 19, 2007 –
January 3, 2009
Jon Kyl

111th
January 3, 2009 –
January 3, 2011

112th
January 3, 2011 –
January 3, 2013

113th
January 3, 2013 –
January 3, 2015
John Cornyn

114th
January 3, 2015 –
January 3, 2017
Republican
Majority →

115th
January 3, 2017 –
January 3, 2019
Chuck Schumer

Cong-
ress
Dates
Democratic Whip
Democratic Leader
Majority
Republican Leader
Republican Whip


document_title: The Phantom of the Opera (2004 film)

question_text: where did they film the phantom of the opera

text: The Phantom of the Opera (2004 film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: In 1919, the Opéra Populaire holds a public auction to clear the theatre's vaults. Raoul, Viscount de Chagny purchases a papier-mâché music box in the shape of a monkey and eyes it sadly as Madame Giry, an aged woman dressed in black, inspects him. The auctioneer then presents a shattered chandelier as the next item up for bid, claiming that it once played a key role in "the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera". As it flickers to life and slowly ascends to its original place in the rafters, the auction is transported back in time to the year 1870.

text: Back to this time, while the company rehearses for a performance of the grand opera Hannibal, manager Monsieur Lefèvre announces that he has decided to retire and that the opera has been purchased by Richard Firmin and Gilles André, two men who have no experience with the arts whatsoever. When resident soprano Carlotta Giudicelli begins to sing for the managers, a backdrop collapses and causes everyone to blame the "Opera Ghost", a mysterious figure who is rumored to live in the catacombs beneath the theater. Carlotta refuses to sing and storms offstage, leaving Firmin and André no choice but to cancel the performance. At the last minute, ballet mistress Madame Giry suggests that dancer Christine Daaé take Carlotta's place as she has been "well taught." The managers reluctantly agree and, to their surprise, Christine wins them over.

text: Later that night, after Christine's triumphant stage debut, she explains to Madame Giry's daughter, Meg, that she is being coached by a mysterious tutor who she refers to as the "Angel of Music"; a tutor who her late father said would teach her to sing. Christine returns to her dressing room to find Raoul, the opera's new patron and her former childhood sweetheart, waiting for her. The two reminisce about their youth as Christine tells Raoul her secret, only for him to laugh at her "fantasy" and invite her to dinner despite her protests. Unbeknownst to everyone, except Madame Giry, the Phantom of the Opera locks Christine in her dressing room and reveals himself in her mirror to her before hypnotizing her and taking her to his subterranean lair.

text: The Phantom reveals to her that he loves her and wants her to love him back. He shows Christine a bust of herself, wearing a wedding dress and veil, causing her to faint, and the Phantom places her in a bed. The next morning she awakes to find the Phantom writing music. She approaches him and removes his mask out of curiosity. He bursts into a fit of rage, covering his face with his hand. He at first says she must stay forever because she saw his deformities, revealing that he "dreams of beauty". Pitying him Christine hands him back his mask and the two have a moment of understanding. He then decides to return her to the opera house.

text: That morning, the two managers lament Christine's disappearance, as well as series of notes they received from the Opera Ghost trying to blackmail them for his payment and ordering them on how to run the opera house. When Carlotta returns, she is furious to find a note sent to her saying if she sang as the countess in Il Muto that night instead of Christine, then disaster "beyond [their] imagination" would occur. Firmin and André ignore the ghost's warnings and give Carlotta the lead role. That night, the Phantom interrupts the performance and criticizes their failure to follow his orders.

text: Carlotta continues to sing, but her voice croaks (as a result of the Phantom tampering with her throat spray) and the lead role is given to Christine. While the ballet is being performed, the Phantom, not realizing the performance change, encounters the chief stagehand Joseph Buquet and strangles him before hanging him from above, creating chaos. Christine flees to the roof with Raoul. She reveals to him that she has seen the Phantom's face and fears him, but also pities him because of his sadness. Raoul tells Christine he loves her and will protect her forevermore. Christine returns his love, kissing him passionately and they both leave the roof. The Phantom, who witnessed the scene, becomes heartbroken. He then hears them both singing together. Growing furious at Raoul, he vows revenge on them both.

text: Three months later, a masquerade party ensues in the opera house. At the party, Christine wears her new engagement ring from Raoul. The event is interrupted once again by the Phantom, who is dressed as Red Death. The Phantom brings his own composition, Don Juan Triumphant, and orders the managers to stage the opera. Raoul exits the room and Christine approaches the Phantom. At the sight of the engagement ring, the Phantom rips it from Christine and disappears into a trap on the floor. Raoul tries to follow him but is stopped by Madame Giry, who privately tells him the story of the Phantom's past. When she was a little girl, she went to a freak circus where they featured a deformed child in a cage. The child was beaten while everyone watched and laughed. The ringmaster then removed a burlap sack covering the child's face, revealing his deformity. Only the young Madame Giry pitied him. She was the last to leave and saw the child strangle the ringmaster with a rope. Chased by the police, Madame Giry helped him escape and found shelter for him beneath the opera house, where she has hidden him from the world ever since.

text: Christine takes a carriage to visit her father's grave, but the Phantom secretly takes over the reins. Raoul follows when he realizes she's gone. Christine arrives and laments over her father's death. The Phantom tries to win her back by pretending to be her father's angel, but Raoul arrives and stops him. A sword fight ensues in the cemetery, where Raoul eventually disarms the Phantom and is about to kill him, but Christine pleads for him not to. His rage seemingly augmented, the Phantom watches angrily as Christine and Raoul ride away.

text: Christine admits she is afraid of the Phantom and tells Raoul he will never stop trying to recapture her. Raoul realizes that they can use the Phantom's opera to capture him, as he will surely attend. Don Juan Triumphant is performed, and the Phantom makes his entrance (having secretly replaced the lead) with Christine. Raoul can do nothing but watch from his box as Christine falls for the Phantom yet again. However, she once again removes his mask, revealing his deformities to the entire audience, who scream in fear. He escapes with her by dropping the chandelier and setting the opera house on fire. An angry mob gathers in the opera house to hunt him.

text: The Phantom brings Christine back down to his lair. Madame Giry shows Raoul where the Phantom lives hopeful he can beat the mob and rescue Christine safely. The Phantom forces her to don the wedding dress and once again professes his love, and orders Christine to marry him. Christine tries to convince the Phantom that she does not fear his ugliness, but rather his anger and willingness to kill to get what he wants. Just then, Raoul enters the lair, and the Phantom ties him to a gate and threatens to kill him if Christine refuses to marry him. Christine reflects over the impossible choice before passionately kissing the Phantom to show him he is not alone in the world. The Phantom is shocked from experiencing real human love for the first time in his life. Ashamed of his murderous actions, and hearing the echo of the angry mob approaching his lair, he tells Christine and Raoul to immediately leave and orders them to never return. He finds comfort in a little monkey music box. Christine approaches the Phantom, who tells her that he loves her, and she silently gives him the diamond ring from her finger to remember her by. After Christine and Raoul leave, the Phantom smashes every mirror in his underground lair and disappears through a secret passage behind a velvet curtain just before the mob arrives. Upon entering, Meg finds only the Phantom's white mask.

text: Moving back to 1919, the elderly Raoul visits Christine's gravesite and places the music box near her tombstone. He stands in silence for a moment and then turns to leave, but stops upon noticing a fresh red rose with a black ribbon tied around the stem with Christine's engagement ring attached to it; implying that the Phantom is alive, and still loves Christine.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Gerard Butler as The Phantom
Emmy Rossum as Christine Daaé
Patrick Wilson as Viscount Raoul de Chagny
Miranda Richardson as Madame Giry
Minnie Driver as Carlotta Giudicelli

Margaret Preece as Carlotta's singing voice except for "Learn to Be Lonely"

Simon Callow as Gilles André
Ciarán Hinds as Richard Firmin
Victor McGuire as Ubaldo Piangi
Jennifer Ellison as Meg Giry
Murray Melvin as Monsieur Reyer
Kevin McNally as Joseph Buquet
James Fleet as Monsieur Lefèvre
Ramin Karimloo as Gustave Daaé

text: Production[edit]

text: Development[edit]

text: Warner Bros. purchased the film rights to The Phantom of the Opera in early 1989, granting Andrew Lloyd Webber total artistic control.[3] Despite interest from A-list directors, Lloyd Webber and Warner Bros. instantly hired Joel Schumacher to direct; Lloyd Webber had been impressed with Schumacher's use of music in The Lost Boys.[4] The duo wrote the screenplay that same year,[5] while Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman were cast to reprise their roles from the original stage production. Filming was set to begin at Pinewood Studios in England in July 1990, under a $25 million budget.[6]

text: However, the start date was pushed to November 1990 at both Babelsberg Studios in Munich, Germany and Barrandov Studios in Prague, Czech Republic.[7] Production for The Phantom of the Opera was stalled with Lloyd Webber and Brightman's divorce.[8] "Everything got tied up in settlements", Schumacher reflected. "Then my career took off and I was really busy."[9] As a result, The Phantom of the Opera languished in development limbo for Warner Bros. throughout the 1990s.[10] In February 1997, Schumacher considered returning, but eventually dropped out in favour of Batman Unchained, Runaway Jury and Dreamgirls.[11] The studio was keen to cast John Travolta for the lead role,[12] but also held discussions with Antonio Banderas, who undertook vocal preparation and sang the role of the Phantom in the TV special Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Royal Albert Hall Celebration.[13]

text: Schumacher and Lloyd Webber restarted development for The Phantom of the Opera in December 2002.[5] It was then announced in January 2003 that Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group had purchased the film rights from Warner Bros. in an attempt to produce The Phantom of the Opera independently.[13] As a result, Lloyd Webber invested $6 million of his own money.[14] The Phantom of the Opera was produced on a $55 million budget. A further $15 million was used for marketing, bringing the final budget to $70 million.[2] Warner Bros. was given a first look deal for distribution; the studio did not sign on until June 2003, when the principal cast was chosen.[15]

text: Casting[edit]

text: Hugh Jackman was offered the chance to audition for the Phantom, but he faced scheduling conflicts with Van Helsing. "They rang to ask about my availability", Jackman explained in an April 2003 interview, "probably about 20 other actors as well. I wasn't available, unfortunately. So, that was a bummer."[16] "We needed somebody who has a bit of rock and roll sensibility in him", Andrew Lloyd Webber explained. "He's got to be a bit rough, a bit dangerous; not a conventional singer. Christine is attracted to the Phantom because he's the right side of danger."[5] Director Joel Schumacher had been impressed with Gerard Butler's performance in Dracula 2000.[17] Prior to his audition, Butler had no professional singing experience and had only taken four voice lessons before singing "The Music of the Night" for Lloyd Webber.[3]

text: Katie Holmes, who began working with a vocal coach, was the front-runner for Christine Daaé in March 2003.[18] She was later replaced by Anne Hathaway, a classically trained soprano, in 2004. However, Hathaway dropped out of the role because the production schedule of the film overlapped with The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which she was contractually obligated to make.[19] Hathaway was then replaced with Emmy Rossum. The actress modeled the relationship between the Phantom and Christine after Suzanne Farrell and George Balanchine.[14] Patrick Wilson was cast as Raoul based on his previous Broadway theatre career. For the role of Carlotta, Minnie Driver devised an over-the-top, camp performance as the egotistical prima donna. Despite also lacking singing experience, Ciarán Hinds was cast by Schumacher as Richard Firmin; the two had previously worked together on Veronica Guerin.[4] Ramin Karimloo also briefly appears as the portrait of Gustave Daaé, Christine's father. Karimloo later played the Phantom as well as the role of Raoul on London's West End.

text: Filming[edit]

text: Principal photography lasted from 15 September 2003 to 15 January 2004. The film was shot entirely using eight sound stages at Pinewood Studios,[20] where, on the Pinewood backlot, the bottom half exterior of the Palais Garnier was constructed. The top half was implemented using a combination of computer-generated imagery (CGI) and a scale model created by Cinesite. The surrounding Paris skyline for "All I Ask of You" was entirely composed of matte paintings.[4] Cinesite also created a miniature falling chandelier, since a life-size model was too big for the actual set.[21]

text: Production designer Anthony D. G. Pratt was influenced by French architect Charles Garnier, designer of the original Paris opera house, as well as Edgar Degas, John Singer Sargent, Gustave Caillebotte, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Schumacher was inspired by Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast (1946), where a hallway is lined with arms holding candelabra. The cemetery was based on the Père Lachaise and Montparnasse.[22] Costume designer Alexandra Byrne utilised a limited black, white, gold and silver colour palette for the Masquerade ball.[4]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Release and awards[edit]

text: The Phantom of the Opera was released in the United States on 22 December 2004. With a limited release of 622 theaters, it opened at tenth place at the weekend box office, grossing $6.5 million across five days.[23] After expanding to 907 screens on 14 January 2005[24] the film obtained the 9th spot at the box office,[25] which it retained during its 1,511 screens wide release on 21 January 2005.[26][27] The total domestic gross was $51,225,796. With a further $107 million earned internationally, The Phantom of the Opera reached a worldwide total of $158,225,796.[2] A few foreign markets were particularly successful,[28] such as Japan, where the film's ¥4.20 billion ($35 million) gross stood as the 6th most successful foreign film and 9th overall of the year.[29][30] The United Kingdom and South Korea both had over $10 million in receipts, with $17.5 million and $11.9 million, respectively.[2][31]

text: Anthony Pratt and Celia Bobak were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction, as was John Mathieson for Cinematography. However, both categories were awarded to The Aviator. Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Charles Hart were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song ("Learn to Be Lonely") but lost to "Al otro lado del río" from The Motorcycle Diaries.[32] The song was also nominated for the Golden Globe but it lost to Alfie's "Old Habits Die Hard". In the same ceremony, Emmy Rossum was nominated for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, losing to Annette Bening in Being Julia.[33] At the Saturn Awards, Rossum won for Best Performance by a Younger Actor,[34] while The Phantom of the Opera was nominated for Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film and Alexandra Byrne was nominated for Costume Design.[35]

text: The soundtrack of the film was released in two separate CD formats on 23 November 2004 as a two-disc deluxe edition which includes dialogue from the film and a single-disc highlights edition.

text: The film had its initial North America video release on DVD and VHS on 3 May 2005, following its first digital release on HD-DVD on 18 April 2006 and a Blu-ray edition on 31 October 2006.

text: Critical reception[edit]

text: The film received mixed to negative reviews from film critics but received highly positive reviews from audiences. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 32% rotten with an average score of 5/10. "The music of the night has hit something of a sour note: Critics are calling the screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's popular musical histrionic, boring and lacking in both romance and danger", the consensus read. "Still, some have praised the film for its sheer spectacle".[36] By comparison, Metacritic calculated an average score of 40/100 from its 39 reviews collected.[37] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while it currently holds a 7.3/10 rating on IMDB.

text:
"The film looks and sounds fabulous and I think it's an extraordinarily fine document of the stage show. While it doesn't deviate much from the stage material, the film has given it an even deeper emotional centre. It's not based on the theatre visually or direction-wise, but it's still got exactly the same essence. And that's all I could have ever hoped for."

— Andrew Lloyd Webber[5]

text: Despite having been impressed with the cast, Jonathan Rosenbaum of Chicago Reader wrote that "Teen romance and operetta-style singing replace the horror elements familiar to film-goers, and director Joel Schumacher obscures any remnants of classy stage spectacle with the same disco overkill he brought to Batman Forever."[38] Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com believed that Phantom of the Opera "takes everything that's wrong with Broadway and puts it on the big screen in a gaudy splat."[39]

text: In a mixed review for Newsweek, David Ansen praised Rossum's performance, but criticized the filmmakers for their focus on visual design rather than presenting a cohesive storyline. "Its kitschy romanticism bored me on Broadway and it bores me here—I may not be the most reliable witness. Still, I can easily imagine a more dashing, charismatic Phantom than Butler's. Rest assured, however, Lloyd Webber's neo-Puccinian songs are reprised and reprised and reprised until you're guaranteed to go out humming."[40] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly believed Schumacher did not add enough dimension in adapting The Phantom of the Opera. "Schumacher, the man who added nipples to Batman's suit, has staged Phantom chastely, as if his job were to adhere the audience to every note".[41]

text: Roger Ebert reasoned that "part of the pleasure of movie-going is pure spectacle—of just sitting there and looking at great stuff and knowing it looks terrific. There wasn't much Schumacher could have done with the story or the music he was handed, but in the areas over which he held sway, he has triumphed."[42] In contrasting between the popularity of the Broadway musical, Michael Dequina of Film Threat magazine explained that "it conjures up this unexplainable spell that leaves audiences sad, sentimental, swooning, smiling—in some way transported and moved. Now, in Schumacher's film, that spell lives on."[43]