I bought the Sky Mage EEP HUD by Specter Skies and after I set up the rotation of the EEPs on my land, I was eager to see if it would work or not, so I had to wait for 10 minutes until the next EEP was phased in. A really neat tool. I did not bother to make sure that the EEPs fit to each other, as in a daylight cycle or so, but I might work on that in the next days. It is a neat tool.

 

Can be bought in their store or on the marketplace marketplace.secondlife.com/p/The-Sky-Mage-EEP-HUD-v14-Win...

So he's not totally done, but as close as he's going to get. For a while. I might play with his hair more. I'm not crazy about the texture.

 

Anyway this guy is Marvel Comics (gasp) Moon Knight. Sort of. He doesn't have an outfit yet because my RD Raven stole the suit I bought for him - before I even totally decided to make him a doll lol omg - so he's got his hospital attire based off the last series by Lemire and Smallwood. Hence the faceup. That's what he looked like XD

Expedition 65 prime crew member NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, signs his name to a wall mural bearing the picture of a Soyuz launch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome Museum, Sunday, April 4, 2021 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Vande Hei, Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft on April 9. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Irina Spector)

Warwick University Arts Centre

Darlene Love

 

Darlene Wright (born July 26, 1941),[a] known by her stage name, Darlene Love, is an American popular music singer and actress. She gained prominence in the 1960s for the song "He's a Rebel," a No. 1 American single in 1962, and was one of the artists who performed on the celebrated Christmas album A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector, produced by Phil Spector in 1963. She is ranked number 84 among Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers.[1]

 

As a minister's daughter, she grew up listening to gospel music and was a dedicated member of her church. She began singing in her church choir at age ten. During choir practice she caught the attention of choir director Cora Martin-Moore. After singing for Martin she was asked to go to the Music Mart where she sang and did some broadcasts; Love's career began there.[2] As it was her first musical experience, it was also the main influence for her to pursue a music career. Those who knew her described her vocals as "a voice of a nightingale." She claimed, "(singing in) the choir was a big influence on my life. I call it my learning ground. Singing in the choir, I learned harmony."[3]

 

As an actress, she is perhaps best remembered for playing Roger Murtaugh's wife in the Lethal Weapon film series.

 

Early career

Love was born Darlene Wright on July 26, 1941 in Los Angeles, California to Ellen Maddox and Reverend Joe Wright.[4][5] Her sister Edna grew up to be the lead singer of the group Honey Cone.[6] She grew up in South Los Angeles, long before the racial tension, crime and violence for which the area later became infamous had taken over the community. Love later remembered the Los Angeles of her childhood as "a city that existed mostly in people's imaginations…. But for us, Los Angeles had nothing to do with movie stars or stubbly, hard-drinking gumshoes trying to piece together broken dreams after hours. For us, Los Angeles was contained in about 20 blocks, bookended on one side by our projects and playgrounds and on the other by church."[7]

 

Love began singing with her local church choir in Hawthorne, California. While still in high school (1957) she also sang with the Echoes,[8] a mixed gender doo-wop group. She was then invited to join a little-known girl group called the Blossoms,[9] who in 1962 began working with producer Phil Spector. With her powerful voice she was soon a highly sought-after vocalist, and managed to work with many of the legends of 1950s and 1960s rock and soul, including Sam Cooke, Dionne Warwick, Bill Medley, the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones and Sonny and Cher; Darlene and the Blossoms sang backup for Sharon Marie (Esparza) (a Brian Wilson act), as well as John Phillips' solo album John, Wolfking of L.A., recorded in 1969. They also appeared on Johnny Rivers' hits, including "Poor Side of Town" "Baby I Need Your Loving" and "The Tracks of My Tears". (The Blossoms recorded singles, usually with little success, on Capitol 1957-58 [pre-Darlene Love], Challenge 1961-62, OKeh 1963, Reprise 1966-67, Ode 1967, MGM 1968, Bell 1969-70, and Lion 1972.)

 

The single "He's a Rebel" was hurriedly released by Spector in November 1962 by having the Blossoms record the track in order to get his version of the Gene Pitney song onto the market before that of Vikki Carr. The single "He's a Rebel" was credited to the Crystals,[10] but actually featured Love singing lead for the first time on a Phil Spector recording. The ghost release of this single came as a total surprise to the Crystals who were an experienced and much traveled girl harmony group in their own right, but they were nevertheless required to perform and promote the new single on television and on tour as if it were their own.

 

With the Blossoms, Love contributed backing vocals behind many of the biggest hits of the 1960s including the Ronettes' "Be My Baby", Shelley Fabares' "Johnny Angel", Bobby "Boris" Pickett's "Monster Mash", Frank Sinatra's version of "That's Life", and the Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron". As a solo artist, Love also contributed backing vocals to the Ronettes' "Baby, I Love You".

 

She was also part of a trio called Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans, who recorded Spector's version of "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", an Oscar-winning song from the 1946 Walt Disney film Song of the South, which got into the Top 10 in 1963. The Blossoms landed a weekly part on Shindig!, one of the top music shows of the era. They were part of the highly acclaimed Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special, which aired on NBC.

 

"Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" is a song recorded by Darlene Love for the 1963 holiday compilation album, A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector. The song was written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, along with Phil Spector, with the intention of being sung by Ronnie Spector of the Ronettes. According to Love, Ronnie Spector was not able to put as much emotion into the song as needed. Instead, Love was brought into the studio to record the song, which became a big success over time and one of Love's signature tunes.

 

Career break

 

Darlene Love engaging audience at Barnes & Noble Tribeca, June 17, 2013.

Into the 1970s Love continued to work as a backup singer, before taking a break in order to raise a family. In 1973, she recorded vocals as a cheerleader along with Michelle Phillips, for the Cheech & Chong single "Basketball Jones", which peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.[citation needed]

 

1980s return

Love returned to music in the early 1980s and to an appreciative audience she thought might have long since forgotten her. She had been performing at venues like the Roxy in Los Angeles, and it was a conversation with Steven Van Zandt that greased the wheels for her to go to New York and begin performing there in 1982, at places like The Bottom Line. She also sang "OOO Wee Baby" in the 1980 movie The Idolmaker. Along with performing in small venues, Love worked as a maid in Beverly Hills. One day while she was cleaning one of these homes, she heard her song "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" on the radio. She took this as a sign that she needed to change her life and go back to singing.[11]

 

In the mid-1980s she portrayed herself in the Tony Award-nominated jukebox musical Leader of the Pack, which featured the iconic rock and roll songs written by Ellie Greenwich, many of them for the young Love. The showstopping number of that show, "River Deep - Mountain High", had been recorded by Phil Spector with Ike & Tina Turner and had been less than the success they had expected. Leader of the Pack commenced as a revue at the Greenwich Village nightclub The Bottom Line, as did the later show about Love's life, Portrait of a Singer, which never made the move uptown. Portrait included covers of "A Change Is Gonna Come" and "Don't Make Me Over", as well as "River Deep, Mountain High" and original music from some of the instrumental writers of early rock and roll, including Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Love contributed a cover of the Hollywood Argyles song "Alley Oop" to the soundtrack of the 1984 film Bachelor Party.

 

In 1986, Love's second chance came when she was asked to sing "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" on David Letterman's Christmas show. This became a yearly tradition.[11]

 

In 1987, Love sang backup for U2's remake of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)". In 1990, Love released the album Paint Another Picture, which included an update of her old hit "He's Sure the Man I Love", by Mann and Weill, as well as a ballad written especially for her, "I've Never Been the Same," by Judy Wieder. The album did not make the US charts. In 1990, Cher invited Love and her sister Edna Wright as her background vocalists for the Heart of Stone tour. Love released a minor single in 1992 with "All Alone on Christmas", written and composed by Steven Van Zandt, which can be found on the Home Alone 2: Lost in New York soundtrack. Love also contributed vocals to the soundtrack of the film Jingle All the Way.

 

She continues to do a Christmas show every year in New York City, which is always capped by "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)".

 

Love recorded a duet with Bette Midler on the latter's 2014 studio release album "It's the Girls!", a collection of songs paying tribute to girl groups. The two singers performed "He's Sure the Boy I Love", a track credited to the Crystals although actually recorded by Love, Fanita James of the Blossoms, and other studio session singers.

 

Love's most recent album Introducing Darlene Love was released September 18, 2015 on Steve Van Zandt's label, Wicked Cool Records.[12] There are 10 songs on this album, including singles and features by Van Zandt, two new songs by Bruce Springsteen, and covers of Joan Jett and Elvis Costello songs, among others. "Forbidden Nights", the first track, is one of the more successful songs on this album. It is a song that Elvis Costello previously produced for an unfinished Broadway musical.[12]

 

Acting roles

In the late 1980s and 1990s, Love also began an acting career, playing Trish Murtaugh, the wife of Danny Glover's character, in the four Lethal Weapon movies.[9] Love has held many star roles in various Broadway productions. She acted and sang in Grease, in the short-lived musical adaptation of Stephen King's Carrie, and starred as Motormouth Maybelle in Broadway's Hairspray from August 2005 till April 2008.[13] She later reprised the role in the Hollywood Bowl production of the show in 2011. In 2019, she appeared in the Netflix original movie Holiday Rush.[14]

 

Television appearances

Love performed the song "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" each year on the last pre-Christmas episode of Late Night with David Letterman (NBC, 1986–92) and the Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 1993–2015). Her final Christmas appearance was on December 19, 2014, nine days after the official announcement of the show's finale in May 2015.[15] Letterman has stated that the annual performance is his favorite part of Christmas. Due to the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike, Love was unable to perform on the Letterman show in 2007;[16] a repeat of her 2006 performance was shown instead. Love was also the musical guest on Late Show with David Letterman on May 7, 2007, performing "River Deep-Mountain High."

 

She was a special guest on the December 17, 2005, broadcast of Saturday Night Live, singing "White Christmas" with the SNL band and providing the vocals for a Robert Smigel cartoon entitled "Christmastime for the Jews." Love performed with Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band in November 2009 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert at Madison Square Garden.

 

With the ending of the Letterman show, Love has performed "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" on the ABC morning show The View each December since 2015. She has usually performed the song as a duet, being joined by Patti LaBelle in 2016, Fantasia in 2017, and Bryan Adams in 2018.

 

20 Feet from Stardom

She appears in the documentary film 20 Feet from Stardom (2013), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to win the Oscar for Best Documentary at the 86th Academy Awards. 20 Feet from Stardom also won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Music Film, with the award being presented to the featured artists as well as the production crew.

 

In the film, Love revealed that she had signed with Spector as a solo artist after the success of "He's a Rebel", and had recorded "He's Sure the Boy I Love" with the impression it would be released as her first single as a solo artist. However, Spector instead used Love's recording and released it as the newest single for the Crystals without informing Love. She only learned of the switch when she heard a DJ on the radio announce that the single was "the newest Crystals record".

 

Subsequently, Love recorded "Today I Met the Boy I'm Gonna Marry" which was released as a single by Spector, and now featured Love's name as the artist. She says that Spector offered $3,000 for her rights to the song. And though he said it was going to be a hit, she took the money. But, in spite of that decision, she said that she has continued to have a career because people have loved hearing her sing her songs.

 

Awards and accomplishments

In 1995 Love won the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Pioneer Award.[2]

 

Darlene Love alongside Rob Hoerburger, editor and writer for the New York Times wrote her autobiography titled My Name Is Love, published in 1998.[17] In the memoir, Love writes about her life in the music industry, her years of struggle, and her present projects.[18]

 

On December 15, 2010, it was announced that Love had been chosen for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[19] On March 14, 2011, Love was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,[20] with a speech by Bette Midler.[21][22] Midler said "she changed my view of the world, listening to those songs, you had to dance, you had to move, you had to keep looking for the rebel boy." Near tears, Love noted that she will turn 70 later this year, and thanked Spector "for recognizing my talent and making me the main voice in his Wall of Sound." Her speech elicited a standing ovation. Later, she sang "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" with Springsteen providing a guitar solo.[23]

 

In August 2014, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) announced that it is producing a biopic for the big screen based on Love's life, starring singing icon Toni Braxton.

 

In 2015, Love was featured in the September issue of Entertainment Weekly. In the music section of the magazine, it introduces Love's five decades of musical accomplishments such as different solos and albums.

 

Love provided the inaugural performance to christen the opening of the Clermont Performing Arts Center in Clermont, Florida on September 26, 2015.[24]

 

2016 Tour

Beginning January 1, 2016, Love began touring her new album across the United States.

 

Discography

U.S. albums

1963 - Various Artists Today's Hits (Philles Records 4004)

1963 - Various Artists A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector (Philles Records 4005)

1977 - Various Artists Phil Spector's Greatest Hits (Warner/Spector Records 9104)

1978 - Various Artists Lakeshore Music presents Rock and Roll Forever (Warner Special Products #2508) (same as above release)

1985 - Leader of the Pack Original Broadway Cast (Elektra Records 60420)

1985 - Darlene Love Live! (Rhino/Atlantic Records RNLP 855)

1988 - Paint Another Picture (Columbia/CBS Records CK 40605)

1990 - Various Artists Dick Tracy: Music from and inspired by the film (Sire/Warner Bros. Records 26236)

1991 - Various Artists Back to Mono (1958–1969) (ABKCO Records 7118) (boxed set)

1992 - Various Artists A Very Special Christmas 2 (A&M/PolyGram Records 450 003)

1992 - The Best of Darlene Love (The Philles Recordings) (ABKCO Records 7213)

1992 - Bringing It Home (with Lani Groves) (Shanachie Records 9003)

1998 - Various Artists Grease Is the Word (Rhino/Atlantic Records)

1998 - Unconditional Love (Harmony Records)

2007 - It's Christmas of Course (Shout! Factory/SME)

2008 - So Much Love: A Darlene Love Anthology 1958–1998 (Ace CDCHD 1169)

2011 - The Sound of Love: The Very Best of Darlene Love Audio CD

2011 - The Sound of Love: The Very Best of Darlene Love Blu-spec CD (Released on November 2, 2011)

2015 - Introducing Darlene Love (Wicked Cool/Columbia/SME)

U.S. singles

Incomplete list of recordings.

 

YearTitleChart positions

U.S. Hot 100

[25]

1961"Son-In-Law" (The Blossoms) Challenge 9109 (lead vocals by unknown session vocalist)79

1961"Hard to Get" (The Blossoms) Challenge 9122-

1962"The Search Is Over" (The Blossoms) Challenge 9138-

1962"He's a Rebel" (released as the Crystals) Philles 1061

1962"Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" (released as Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans) Philles 107 (lead vocals by Bobby Sheen)8

1962"He's Sure the Boy I Love" (released as the Crystals) Philles 10911

1963"Why Do Lovers Break Each Others Hearts" (released as Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans) Philles 11038

1963"Today I Met the Boy I'm Gonna Marry" / "My Heart Beat a Little Bit Faster" Philles 11139

1963"Not Too Young to Get Married" (released as Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans) Philles 113 (joint lead vocals with Bobby Sheen)63

1963"Wait ‘til My Bobby Gets Home" / "Take It From Me" Philles 11426

1963"A Fine, Fine Boy" Philles 11753

1963"Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" Philles 11943

1964"Stumble and Fall" / "He's A Quiet Guy" Philles 123-

1964"Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" Philles 125-

1964"3625 Groovy Street" / "What Are We Gonna Do In '64" (The Wildcats) Reprise 0253 (The Blossoms under a pseudonym; features unison lead vocals)-

1965"Good Good Lovin'" / "That's When the Tears Start" (The Blossoms) Reprise 0436-

1966"Lover Boy" / "My Love Come Home" (The Blossoms) Reprise 0475-

1966"Let Your Love Shine On Me / Deep Into My Heart" (The Blossoms) Reprise 0522-

1966"Too Late To Say You're Sorry / If" Reprise 0534-

1967"Deep Into My Heart / Good Good Lovin'" (The Blossoms) Reprise 0639-

1967"Wonderful" b/w "Stoney End" (The Blossoms) Ode 101 (B-side features joint lead vocals with Jean King)-

1968"Tweedlee Dee" (The Blossoms) MGM 13964-

1968"Cry Like A Baby" (The Blossoms) Ode 106-

1969"A Stoney End" b/w "Wonderful" - reissued (The Blossoms) Ode 125 (A-side features joint lead vocals with Jean King)-

1969"You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' / Something So Wrong" (The Blossoms) Bell 780-

1969"(You're My) Soul And Inspiration / Stand By" (The Blossoms) Bell 797-

1970"I Ain't Got To Love Nobody Else / Don't Take Your Love" (The Blossoms) Bell 857-

1970"One Step Away / Break Your Promise" (The Blossoms) Bell 937-

1972"Touchdown" (The Blossoms) Lion 108-

1972"Grandma's Hands" (The Blossoms) Lion 125-

1974"Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" / "Winter Wonderland" Warner/Spector 0401-

1975"Lord, If You're A Woman / Stumble And Fall" Warner/Spector 0410-

1977"There's No Greater Love" (The Blossoms) Epic 50435-

1988"He's Sure the Man I Love / I've Never Been the Same/ Everybody Needs" Columbia 07984-

1992"All Alone on Christmas" (used in the film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York) Fox 1000383

2005"Christmastime for the Jews" (from Saturday Night Live)

2019"Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"29

Filmography

YearFilmRoleNotes

1969Change of HabitBackup Singeruncredited

1969The Love God?Singer with the Blossomsuncredited

1987Lethal WeaponTrish Murtaugh

1989Lethal Weapon 2Trish Murtaugh

1992Lethal Weapon 3Trish Murtaugh

1998Lethal Weapon 4Trish Murtaugh

201320 Feet from StardomHerselfdocumentary

2016New GirlHerself

2019Holiday RushAunt Jo Robinson

Notes

a. ^ Some sources say 1938

 

References

"100 Greatest Singers of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 10, 2015.

"Darlene Love". History-of-rock.com. July 26, 1938. Retrieved August 11, 2014.

Carroll, Jim (May 17, 2014). "The Love of Music". The State Journal. Frankfort, Kentucky. Archived from the original on June 6, 2014. Retrieved June 5, 2014.

"Darlene Wright in the California birth index". Darlene Wright, 26 July 1941, Mother's Maiden Name: Maddox Missing or empty |url= (help)

Love, Darlene; Hoerburger, Rob (2013). My Name Is Love: The Darlene Love Story. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0062305510.

"Edna Wright - Biography & History". AllMusic.com. Retrieved December 28, 2016.

"Darlene Love". Biography.com. October 8, 2015. Archived from the original on August 14, 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2017.

Doo-Wop Group Biographies: The Echoes/Poets

"Darlene Love spreads Christmas cheer". CBS News. December 25, 2011. Retrieved March 24, 2012.

"Darlene Love: A Prominent Star, Born In The Background". NPR. February 16, 2011. Retrieved August 11, 2014.

Friend, Tad (July 1, 2013). "Unsung". The New Yorker. Retrieved December 14, 2015.

Mansfield, Brian (August 4, 2015). "Darlene Love's 'Introducing' coming Sept. 18". USA Today. Retrieved December 28, 2016.

"Darlene Love | Broadway Buzz". Broadway.com. August 22, 2005. Retrieved August 11, 2014.

"Holiday Rush: Full Cast & Crew". IMDb.com. 2019. Retrieved December 2, 2019.

Itzkoff, Dave (December 20, 2014). "Darlene Love's Last 'Letterman' Christmas". The New York Times.

Wolcott, Mike (December 24, 2007). "People: Love Lost for Letterman". Contra Costa Times. Walnut Creek, California. Archived from the original on December 28, 2007.

Love, Darlene; Hoerburger, Rob (1998). My Name is Love (1st ed.). New York, NY: William Morrow and Co. ISBN 9780688156572. OCLC 39189821.

"Press – Welcome to Darlene Love". The official website of Darlene Love. Retrieved August 11, 2014.

"Darlene Love Biography". The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. July 26, 1938. Retrieved April 14, 2012.

"Darlene Love: A Prominent Star, Born In The Background". NPR. February 16, 2011. Retrieved April 14, 2012.

"Darlene Love: inducted in 2011". The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved August 11, 2014.

Greene, Andy (March 15, 2011). "Alice Cooper, Darlene Love, Neil Diamond Make for Unforgettable Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony". Retrieved March 15, 2011.

LA Times Blog (March 14, 2014). "Live from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony: Tom Waits, Dr. John, Darlene Love, Alice Cooper and Neil Diamond celebrate in New York". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 5, 2014.

Violanti, Tony (September 27, 2015). "Villagers enjoy performance of Darlene Love at new performing arts center". Villages-News.com. Retrieved September 28, 2015.

"Darlene Love Chart History: Hot 100". Billboard. Retrieved December 31, 2019.

External links

Official website

Darlene Love at AllMusic Edit this at Wikidata

Darlene Love discography at Discogs Edit this at Wikidata

Darlene Love on IMDb

Darlene Love at the Internet Broadway Database Edit this at Wikidata

Darlene Love at the Internet Off-Broadway Database

History of Rock and Roll: Darlene Love

Who Is Darlene Love? Official blog and news site.

Darlene Love Interview

Expedition 65 backup crew member NASA astronaut Anne McClain, is seen after arriving in Baikonur, Kazakhstan from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC), Friday, March 26, 2021. The prime crew is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on a Soyuz rocket April 9. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Irina Spector)

Phil Spector's Christmas Album

Various

WB Spector SP 9103

1977

Reissue

with Spector

 

Visit this location at [ Elysion ] est. 2013 in Second Life

The Ronettes and 'Be My Baby' indeed. Photography by & © Denis Hopper 1966. All rights reserved.

Character Creation

 

Moon Knight is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin, the character first appeared in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975).

 

The son of a rabbi, Marc Spector served as a Force Recon Marine and briefly as a CIA operative before becoming a mercenary alongside his friend Jean-Paul "Frenchie" DuChamp.

 

During a job in Sudan, Spector is appalled when ruthless fellow mercenary Raoul Bushman attacks and kills archeologist Dr. Alraune in front of the man's daughter and colleague, Marlene Alraune.

 

After fighting Bushman and being left for dead, a mortally wounded Spector reaches Alraune's recently unearthed tomb and is placed before a statue of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Spector apparently dies, then suddenly revives, fully healed.

 

He claims Khonshu wants him to be the "moon's knight", the left "Fist of Khonshu", redeeming his life of violence by now protecting and avenging the innocent.

 

While early stories imply Spector is merely insane, it is later revealed Khonshu is real, one of several entities from the Othervoid (a dimension outside normal time and space) once worshipped by ancient Earth people.

 

On his return to the United States, Spector invests his mercenary profits into becoming the crimefighter "Moon Knight", aided by Frenchie and Marlene Alraune, who becomes his lover and eventually the mother of his daughter.

 

Along with his costumed alter ego, he primarily uses three other identities to gain information from different social circles: billionaire businessman Steven Grant, taxicab driver Jake Lockley, and suited detective and police consultant Mr. Knight.

 

It is later revealed Moon Knight has dissociative identity disorder (DID) (incorrectly referred to as schizophrenia in some stories), and that the alter egos known as Grant and Lockley originally manifested during his childhood.

 

Other subsequent alter egos who do not assume the Moon Knight identity have emerged at other points during his adulthood, including a werewolf-fighting astronaut; impersonators of Khonshu, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America, Iron Man, and Echo; and a red-haired little girl known as the Inner Child, introduced in the Ultimate Marvel continuity.

 

It is debated in different stories whether Spector has genuine DID due to childhood trauma or if his similar symptoms are the result of "brain damage" caused by his psychic connection to Khonshu, a connection compelling his personality to shift between the god's four major aspects.

 

Khonshu claims he created a psychic connection with Spector, Grant, and Lockley when the latter were young, decades before they became Moon Knight.

 

In most of his stories, Moon Knight has no supernatural abilities beyond occasional visions of mystic insight.

 

He relies on athletic ability, advanced technology, expert combat and detective skills, and a high tolerance for pain based on willpower, training, and experience. Since becoming Moon Knight, there have been multiple occasions when the character has died only to then be resurrected by Khonshu, implying he may now be effectively immortal until the moon god's protection is revoked (whether Khonshu has limitations on how often he can resurrect Spector is unknown).

 

For a time, Moon Knight's strength and resistance to injury could reach superhuman levels depending on the phases of the moon, but this ability later vanished, while the Moon Knight identity is occasionally depicted as an independent alter ego of the others.

 

The character has made appearances in various media outside of comics, including animated series and video games. Oscar Isaac portrays Marc Spector / Moon Knight, Steven Grant / Mr. Knight, and Jake Lockley in the Marvel Cinematic Universe live-action television series Moon Knight (2022).

 

Development

 

In an interview, Doug Moench recalled the character's genesis: "Somebody mentioned in the office and suggested using The Committee, and that I should bring The Committee back, and then I found out who The Committee were and thought, well they're really boring, I don't wanna use them. And then I thought, well wait a minute, how about if The Committee hires a mercenary to kill the Werewolf. And I thought, yeah that's a good idea, then I create this new character and it won't be these boring guys in business suits, it would be a flashy character. So, I said who is best to kill the Werewolf? Well, someone who uses silver weapons because silver hurts the Werewolf. And tied to the night, because the Werewolf only comes out at night, and I'll base this character on the Moon, because the Moon makes the Werewolf change, and this is going to be the opposite of the Werewolf, and as soon as I said the Moon I said, ooh I'll have a costume that's just like the Moon, just black and white, jet and silver, no color on the costume."

 

Don Perlin also commented on the creation of the character, "We were told we needed a costumed character in the book. So Doug and I created Moon Knight. I wanted the costume to be just black and white. Since he'd be on a color page, that would make him a little bit different. He had a silver baton he could use when he battled werewolves. See, he was hired to track down to kill the Werewolf."

 

Publication history

 

The character debuted in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975), written by Doug Moench with art by Don Perlin and Al Milgrom, as a mercenary hired by the Committee to capture the title character. The creative team gave Moon Knight moon-related symbols and silver weapons (a metal poisonous to a werewolf) to mark him as a suitable antagonist for the werewolf hero.

 

The two-part story continues into #33, when Moon Knight realizes Russell is a victim rather than a monster and decides to help him. A demonic vision of Moon Knight then appeared in Werewolf by Night #37 (March 1976).

 

Editors Marv Wolfman and Len Wein liked the character and decided to give him a solo story in Marvel Spotlight #28–29 (June/August 1976), again written by Doug Moench with art by Don Perlin. The story, along with Spectacular Spider-Man #22–23 (September/October 1978) written by Bill Mantlo, recast Moon Knight as a more heroic character.

 

His association with the evil Committee during his first appearance was retconned to be an undercover mission he undertook to learn more about the villains.

 

Moon Knight acted as a hero again in Marvel Two-in-One #52, written by Steven Grant with art by Jim Craig. In The Defenders #47–51, Moon Knight briefly joined the Defenders during their war against the Zodiac Cartel.

 

Moon Knight appeared in recurring backup stories in Hulk! Magazine #11–15, #17–18, and #20, as well as a black and white story in the magazine publication Marvel Preview #21, all written by Doug Moench. Artist Bill Sienkiewicz drew Moon Knight in Hulk! Magazine issues #13–15, 17–18, and #20, creating a new look for the character heavily influenced by the art of Neal Adams, who at that time was most popular for his work on Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow for DC Comics.

 

This, along with Moon Knight's methods and the atmosphere of his stories, cemented a perception among some readers that he was Marvel's version of Batman. The Hulk backups and Marvel Preview issue provided Moon Knight with a partial origin story and introduced his brother, recurring villain Randall Spector (who would later become Shadow Knight).

 

Origin

 

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Marc Spector was the rebellious son of an academic Jewish rabbi whose family had fled Europe in the 1930s to escape the Holocaust.

 

Marc could not understand why his father refused to fight against his people's persecution and grew disgusted with his pacifistic ways, viewing him as a coward.

 

Rejecting his father's faith, Marc started out as a heavyweight boxer before eventually joining the U.S. Marines, where he was trained as a commando. Shortly afterward, his skills led to his recruitment into the Central Intelligence Agency.

 

He worked with William Cross (who later became the villainous Crossfire) and his own brother, Randall Spector. However, Randall betrayed the CIA and was secretly smuggling and selling weapons. When Marc's lover discovered this and tried to turn him in, Randall brutally murdered her with a meat cleaver. In retaliation, Marc hunted Randall down, but during the fight, Randall was seemingly killed by an exploding grenade.

 

Fed up with the CIA, Marc went independent and became a fierce soldier of fortune, renowned for his willingness to do anything providing the job paid well enough. In Africa, he met a French mercenary, Jean-Paul "Frenchie" DuChamp, who would become one of Marc's closest friends and Marc's pilot.

 

While working for the terrorist Raoul Bushman, Marc became increasingly disturbed by Bushman's savagery and ruthlessness. For the first time in his life, his conscience had awakened, and it troubled him deeply. In Selima, Sudan, they stumbled across archaeologist Dr. Peter Alraune's excavation of an Egyptian Pharaoh's tomb. Believing there were gold and riches within, Bushman murdered Alraune to plunder the tomb.

 

Sickened by Bushman, Marc tried to do the decent thing and helped Alraune's daughter, Marlene, escape from Raoul's notice. Annoyed with Marc's betrayal, Bushman brutally beat Spector and abandoned him in the desert so he would suffer before he died.

 

Barely conscious, Spector staggered to the ancient tomb for shelter. Marlene was there with her father's men and brought Marc to rest near a statue of the moon god, Khonshu.

 

Weakened from his fight with Bushman and the elements of the desert, Marc Spector died. As Marlene cried over his cooling body, Spector suddenly returned to life, claiming that he had a vision that Khonshu had brought him back from the dead to be the Moon's Knight of Vengeance.

 

Spector removed the burial shroud from the statue of Khonshu and wrapped it around himself as a makeshift cloak, before confronting Bushman once again, and this time, he was victorious. Thus, Moon Knight was born.

 

Major Story Arcs

 

The Hero of the Night Rises

 

After defeating Bushman, Marc returned to the United States with Marlene and Frenchie along with the statue of Khonshu. He decided to continue his work to fight a war against evil and used his savings that he had collected during his mercenary days and invested it, turning it into a small fortune which he proceeded to finance and support his private war and set up shop in New York City.

 

In an effort to distance himself from his mercenary days, Marc created the persona of Steven Grant, a millionaire entrepreneur and high-roller whose jet setting personality enabled him to walk among the high rollers and elite of New York City. Realizing the value of these contacts as criminal activities are often plotted and planned at cocktail parties and boardrooms, Marc also decided to create a persona for lower level contacts and invented the identity of Jake Lockley, a New York cab driver. Through Lockley, he was able to make several contacts "on the streets" such as Bertrand Crawley and Gena Landers plus her sons Ricky and Ray.

 

Shortly after developing his costume and weapons along with a customized helicopter known the "Mooncopter", Frenchie posing as a French businessman made contact with a group of aristocrats known as "The Committee" who had plans to capture and retrieve Jack Russell, the Werewolf By Night whom they intended to use as a weapon to fulfill their desire to rule the city. Frenchie acting as the go-between, presented the Committee members with Marc Spector as a mercenary and ostentatiously revealed the Moon Knight costume and weapons which Frenchie claimed that he had created to battle Russell.

 

Although Marc was successful in defeating Russell, his suspicions were realized when he discovered the Committee's goals and proceeded to release Jack and defeat "The Committee" which earned him their undying enmity and established Moon Knight as a vigilante to be respected.

 

After thwarting a man calling himself Conquer-Lord, Moon Knight briefly joined the superhero team, The Defenders, to fight the Life Model Decoys of a villain group called Zodiac. He then went on to battle Cyclone alongside Spider-Man, and Crossfire with The Thing, as well as some solo missions against a terrorist group lead by a man named Lupinar, and even his own brother, Randall who had survived their previous encounter and had become a psychotic ax killer targeting women.

 

Afterwards, Moon Knight encountered villains that would become part of his own rogues gallery--such as the Midnight Man, Morpheus, Stained Glass Scarlet, and Black Spectre, just to name a few--and teamed-up with Spider-Man a few more times, as well as other heroes such as Daredevil, Iron Man, Power Man and Iron Fist.

 

Then, Marc received word that his father was dying and decided to try and patch things up with him. Unfortunately, his father passed away before he was able to return to Chicago and instead discovered that his father's body had been stolen by his father's former student, Zohar who used the deceased rabbi's body to focus for his mystical spells to punish Marc for his perceived sins against his dead mentor.

 

Although Moon Knight was able to overcome Zohar; the mental trauma combined with the act of juggling his different personas put a serious strain on Spector's mental health and he suffered a nervous breakdown and was deemed to be suffering from Multiple Personality Disoder (MPD) or as it later became renamed; Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).

 

The Fist of Khonshu

 

After several months of recuperation for his mental health, Spector decided to retire as Moon Knight and with pressure from Marlene who greatly preferred his debonair and sophisticated Steven Grant persona, decided to give up both his Jake Lockley and Marc Spector identities. Marc became convinced that he only had a near-death experience and merely hallucinated the episode with Khonshu and even sold the idol of the Egyptian deity.

 

Marc however was plagued by strange dreams which convinced him that he had to return to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.

 

Marlene however adamantly refused to follow him again in his downward spiral of violence and insanity and demanded that he not go, sure that he would once more take up the mantle of Moon Knight. When he did so anyways, she left their home and broke up with him.

 

On his pilgrimage in Egypt, Marc met three priests who proclaimed that the idol of Khonshu had fallen into hands of the avatar of Anubis, Ahmad Azis who intends to perform a ritual that would destroy the idol to strike back at Khonshu whom he believes is the sole thing stopping him from world domination.

 

Proclaiming Marc as the Fist of Khonshu, they gifted him with an assortment of mystical weaponry and supernatural strength and powers that waxed and waned with the light of the moon.

 

His strength renewed and his faith restored, Marc would once again take up the mantle of the Moon Knight and even more powerful than before would defeat Anubis' plot and rescue the idol of Khonshu.

 

Strangely enough, seconds after saving the idol from being destroyed; a sudden desert sandstorm comes and blinds Azis and causes the temple to collapse on him, killing him.

 

The Silver Avenger

 

When the the West Coast Avengers were trapped in ancient Egypt, Hawkeye made a pact with Khonshu and created an assortment of weapons that Khonshu would mystically enhance and would subsequently be gifted to Marc Spector in the 20th Century.

 

In exchange, Khonshu informed his avatar, Marc Spector of their situation; allowing Moon Knight to help rescue them and return the Avengers to the present. Moon Knight then joined the team as the 24th Avenger.

 

He possessed a rather tumultuous stint of membership even though he proved to play a critical role in defeating Dominus and later, the Examiner of the Silg race; he often had a habit of playing fast and loose with the rules such as his pursuit of Cornelius Van Lunt which may have driven the man to his death and possessed less-than-stellar teamwork due to his longtime career as a loner. Further, his tenure was complicated with a romantic relationship with fellow Avenger Tigra.

 

When it was discovered that Mockingbird had allowed the Phantom Rider to be killed after he had drugged and raped her, her husband Hawkeye denounced her which caused Mockingbird to resign. In response, Tigra and Moon Knight both chose to accompany her and form their own splinter group of Avengers. The trio would fight the High Evolutionary in the Evolutionary War alongside Bill Foster, as well as battle the Night Shift.

 

When the team sought help from Hellstorm for the Phantom Rider's haunting of Mockingbird, it was discovered that Khonshu was possessing Moon Knight and was the true source behind his supernatural lunar-based powers.

 

Hellstorm was able to convince the Egyptian God of the Moon to leave Spector's body and it was revealed that it was Khonshu, not Marc who wanted to join the Avengers West Coast. Unsure of how much of Khonshu's influence had on himself for the past few months led Marc to breaking off his relationship with Tigra and also abandoning his mystical weapons.

 

Marc Spector: Moon Knight

 

After the fallout of Khonshu's possession, Marc returned to New York and sought out Marlene and reforge his ties with Frenchie even though he was no longer certain he wishes to continue as Moon Knight anymore. However, the return of his old enemy Bushman who kidnaps Marlene prompts him to return as the Crescent Crusader.

 

However without Khonshu's supernatural influence, Spector was much more psychologically stable and did not resume his previous identities of Jake Lockley or Steven Grant. Instead, he refocused his financial empire and created his own company SpectorCorp while he dedicated himself towards more urban street crimefighting over the more cosmic, supernatural evil that he previously battled under Khonshu's influence.

 

Afterwards, Marc discovers that an old enemy, Midnight Man may still be alive only to discover that foe is deceased but his grown son now seeks to redeem his father's criminal lifestyle as a hero and has sought out his father's greatest enemy; Moon Knight to train him up to become a crimefighter.

 

Feeling a sense of obligation, Marc reluctantly agrees. Desperate to prove himself worthy, Midnight infiltrates the Secret Empire and is ultimately captured and is presumed deceased while dressed up as Moon Knight.

 

Midnight however survived his horrific wounds and is converted into a cyborg soldier for the Secret Empire. Believing that the Silver Avenger had abandoned him, Midnight came to believe that his condition was all Moon Knight's fault.

 

With Midnight acting as their field agent, he broke Thunderball out of jail which earned him the attention of Spider-Man and Darkhawk. He was able to escape but Spider-Man recognized Midnight from his previous encounter with Moon Knight and called in the Lunar Legionnaire.

 

Midnight was then sent to capture the New Warrior Nova and discovered that he was soon to be rendered obsolete as merely one of cyborg grunts while the Empire would rebuild superhumans to enhance their formidable attributes.

 

With the clandestine assistance of a sympathetic nurse, Lynn Church who disabled the Empire's control devices, Midnight turned on the Empire and sought to establish himself as their new leader. Alongside Spider-Man, Darkhawk, the Punisher, Night Thrasher, the freed Nova; Moon Knight aided in bringing down the Secret Empire as well as Midnight and Lynn Church who was actually a cyborg herself who had been using Midnight as the testbed of the most successful cybernetic implants for her own upgrades.

 

In another encounter with his brother who had taken up the costume of Shadowknight as a sort of twisted version of his Moon Knight identity, there was an explosion at Spector Mansion which crippled Frenchie, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down and forcing him to abandon his role as a Moon Knight's pilot.

 

As a consequence, Marc was forced to create the "Angelwing", a remote controlled aircraft for his activities. An increasingly formidable array of opponents also prompted him to upgrade his crimefighting equipment and accoutrements.

 

Marc also began actively recruiting specialized agents to assist him on his missions from psychological profiles, to expert thieves, and intelligence operatives in a think tank organization he dubbed "The Shadow Cabinet" that he kept in contact via holo-communicator rings.

 

Moon Knight would later become infected by the then-demonically possessed Hobgoblin with a demonic virus which prompted Marc to create a suit of armor which helped contain the virus while he sought a cure to his deteriorating physical condition and was only cured thanks to the mystical aid of Dr. Strange.

 

Infinity War and Crusade

 

When the Magus, the evil incarnation of Adam Warlock plan to gain absolute power, he created evil doppelgangers of both heroes and villains on earth. Moon Knight had to face his own evil self, manifested as Moonshade which he defeated.

 

After the War, the Goddess, the good incarnation of Adam Warlock recruited many heroes who are very spiritual, religious have had near-death experiences.

 

Because of Moon Knight's close affiliation with the moon god and his first resurrection to serve as the avatar of vengeance; the Goddess recruited Moon Knight to defend her as she purges the evil in the universe. Moon Knight was returned to normal when the Goddess was defeated by the combined efforts of Adam Warlock, Thanos and Professor X.

 

Soon afterwards in a battle against Seth the Immortal, Moon Knight sacrificed his life to save Marlene and Frenchie.

 

Resurrection War

 

Khonshu seemingly willed Moon Knight back to life in order to thwart the plans of his three greatest villains: Black Spectre, Raoul Bushman and Morpheus, who were all under the worship of Set, God of Darkness and Chaos.

 

Marc, questioning if his death was real or not, started experiencing dreams of the future in which Marc concludes that it is either Morpheus or Khonshu speaking to him once again. With the knowledge that he is the "white-light" of Khonshu, he sets out to thwart their plans, receiving help from Stained Glass Scarlet as well.

 

The two are able to defeat the trio and stop their plans of attacking a U.N. building that was holding a meeting at the time. Afterwords, Moon Knight went back to his crime-fighting once again.

 

He helped save the Black Panther from the Kingdom of the Dead and subsequently joined the Marvel Knights, a group of street level superheroes and vigilantes. However the team broke apart and went their separate ways including the Crescent Crusader.

 

Moon Fall

 

In an attempt to bring down the Moon Knight, the New Committee hired the The Profile to fully utilize his unusual talents to not simply defeat Moon Knight, but to break him.

 

As per his suggestion, they embarked on a long term strategy. First, they hired Bushman to attack the Lunar Legionnaire again. As part of their campaign, they wanted Bushman to physically cripple him and both of Marc's legs were severely fractured.

 

However, Bushman grew overconfident and was unprepared for Marc's brutal counterattack and then, in a fit of indescribable rage, Marc used one of his crescent darts to carve off Bushman's face, giving him a true death's head.

 

Unable to continue his career as Moon Knight, Marc began taking more and more painkillers and anti-psychotics, burning through his fortune and was no longer able to maintain his crumbling financial empire.

 

His manner had gotten to the point that he completely and irrevocably alienated those around him, especially Frenchie, who came to the conclusion that there was simply no course of action that he could take that could attempt to assist Marc in even the slightest way. After a heated argument with Marlene, Marc struck her and Marlene left.

 

His sanity apparently deteriorating as he is constantly "seeing" and "hearing" Khonshu talk to him and give him foul suggestions while Khonshu decided to use the guise of the deceased Bushman (without his face) to torment Moon Knight.

 

Knowing that he was both physically and psychologically weakened, the Committee overstepped themselves by hiring a thug to physically assault Frenchie and left him hospitalized.

 

Instead of breaking Marc, it reinvigorated him as he tracked down and savagely injured Frechie's assailant. Panicking, the Committee hired the Taskmaster to take out Moon Knight.

 

Taskmaster tortured Marc but he was aided by Marlene and defended by his butler, Samuels. This gave Marc the strength to defeat Taskmaster and destroy the Committee once more.

 

Soon afterwards, Marc learns that one of the struggling companies that he still retains ownership of has just made a significant technological breakthrough and he will once again be wealthy and begins to rebuild himself and life; finally getting himself out of his wheelchair and began physical therapy.

 

It is only afterwards that Marc makes an appalling discovery that Khonshu was responsible behind the entire affair. After Marc's latest resurrection, his reputation had taken a nose dive and so Khonshu decided to ensure that his Knight of Vengeance was firmly back in the saddle; nudging the Committee, bringing back Marlene at a critical moment, even arranging for Marc's wealth to be restored while reminding him who and what he is; Khonshu's Knight of Vengeance and bades him to go forth and do his work in Khonshu's name once more.

 

Although the Committee has gone underground, Marc locates the Profile who discovers that he was no match for Moon Knight, and ironically, became an informant for him instead.

 

Moon Knight takes back to the streets and attempts to be make up for lost time and would discover a string of murders were perpetrated by his former sidekick turned cyborg, Midnight who had survived their last encounter and had gone insane. Realizing that he had no choice, he was forced to kill his former sidekick Midnight.

 

The Waning Moon: Civil War and the Initiative

 

During the Civil War, Moon Knight chose to ally with neither side because, as he had said to Captain America, "The war is just like a game of capture the flag". Captain America retorted that he didn't want Moon Knight to join the fight because of his "methods" of bringing justice and Iron Man, seeing his history of psychotic tendencies and feeling some sense of obligation due to their past history as Avengers, decided that arresting him will just make his condition even worse.

 

When the Super-Human Registration Act became a law, Moon Knight felt that he didn't want the law to disrupt his work, so legally registered. Tony Stark assigned Marc to undergo a psychiatric examination, sure that he would fail. But when the psychiatrist placed Marc under deep hypnosis to talk to Marc's other personalities, Khonshu emerged and possesses Marc who then demoralized the psychiatrist and rebukes him.

 

After this the intimidated psychiatrist approved Marc's registration, but also did something quite peculiar--he bowed down before him and started worshiping him.

 

Afterwards, Marc claimed to the Profile that he had faked the whole possession and had employed the information given to him by the Profile to frighten the psychiatrist as a ruse to get his registration approved and proceeded to stalk the nights, bringing brutal justice to the thugs and gangs running around the city.

 

Unknown to Marc, the Black Spectre was recently released from jail and sought revenge against Moon Knight. The Black Spectre decided to turn to his life of crime again and frame Moon Knight for murder by killing his victims and carving a crescent moon on the victims head, which was Moon Knight's previous calling card. Due to public pressure, Iron Man immediately revoked Moon Knight's ID and told him he is no longer apart of the Initiative.

 

Looking to still bring justice on Black Specter, Marc finds out that he is going to release a stream of nanobots into a big parade in a plan to control the city. Moon Knight thwarts his plan and ends up throwing him off the roof of a building to his death. Outed by the government and with SHIELD searching for him, Spector moves underground.

 

With a warrant out for his arrest the, C.S.A. call in for the Thunderbolts to come and hunt down Moon Knight as a fugitive of the law. Iron Man strongly opposes the idea but is overruled on the matter. Moon Knight continues to lay low only to resurface in a black uniform and a with a few new bones to pick. SHIELD interrogates several of Marc's friends and contacts, although nothing comes out of them. Now is the time for the Thunderbolts to strike.

 

Several weeks later after having a run-in with the Thunderbolts, Moon Knight pleads with Khonshu for forgiveness for losing his faith at him, but the Lunar god will not have it and says that he has worshipers that actually follow him. Marc returned into his costume to help Frenchie, who was attacked by a gang. But little did he knew that the attack was used to set-up Moon Knight to be captured by the Thunderbolts. Moon Knight was then ambushed by Venom.

 

He was captured by the reformed villain team, but he got away when SHIELD came. Frenchie agreed to help Moon Knight while the Thunderbolts release Bullseye to kill him.

 

Moon Knight and Bullseye fight all throughout New York and the battle leads them to a warehouse, which was secretly planted with many explosives. Moon Knight sets it off and the warehouse explodes.

 

Later in a press conference Norman Osborn tells reporters about the Thunderbolts' success in eliminating Moon Knight while Iron Man condemns his team on the death of the vigilante.

 

However, it all was a ruse for Moon Knight to fake his death via a prepared escape tunnel. However, the events effectively killed the "Marc Spector" persona with the Jake Lockley persona now in control.

 

Lockley fled to Mexico to recuperate and is hired by a millionaire to search for his daughter who has been kidnapped by corrupt cops.

 

Little does Moon Knight know that the Punisher is also in the trail of the corrupt cops and is now out to bring them justice through a method he knows best, punishment.

 

Moon Knight then goes to fight off the Zapata Brothers (who were brought in by Alcantara after Jake killed his henchmen and took his condemned daughter) only to make a deal with them to take down Alcantara. Moon Knight then proceeds to launch a full-scale assault on Alcantara when he finds everyone is murdered except Alcantara himself until Toltec finds them and Moon Knight walks away as Toltec kills Alcantara. Moon Knight (having taken Alcantara's money and bought himself a condo) has seen on TV what Norman Osborn has become and vows to go back to the U.S. and bring him down.

 

Return with a Vengeance

 

Moon Knight has returned to New York to exact his revenge on Norman Osborn and did so by stopping a bank heist in progress without killing a single bank robber, much to the surprise of the police.

 

Khonshu is still convincing him to become the ruthless vigilante he was before, but Moon Knight continues to ignore the temptations of the deity and plans to redeem himself as well as reform into a new hero. News of Moon Knight's return circulated throughout the bustling city, with Norman Osborn denouncing him as a renegade and a menace while promising the public that Moon Knight will be dealt with for his acts of vigilance accordingly.

 

The Sentry appeared before Moon Knight and reminded him that he can never run from his past and that he will be tested for to prove himself as a hero, to which he replied that he will also be tested as well.

 

Moon Knight paid a visit to his criminal contact, the Profile and told him about the Slug and some stolen diamonds that he has. Moon Knight confronted the Slug and his henchmen for the diamonds, while Khonshu urges him to kill the villain but he was squashed in the floor.

 

Meanwhile, Norman Osborn has delegated the Hood on stopping Moon Knight. The Hood then had the Profile to track down and profile Moon Knight. The Profile thought of a plan to take down Moon Knight and it involves the grave of his late nemesis, Raoul Bushman.

 

Jake goes home and sees the news coverage about the jailbreak in Ravencroft. Jake suits up as Moon Knight and tells his butler to call his pilot for the Mooncopter, but he cannot reach him and Moon Knight decides to use his other vehicle, Angelwing.

 

When the hanger doors were opening, Moon Knight was surprised to see his old partner, Frenchie, dressed in a aviator suit and walking on a cane. Reunited with his friend, Frenchie flies the Mooncopter and drops Moon Knight inside the melee of the escaped convicts. In the middle of the chaos, Khonshu is still persuading Moon Knight to kill for him, but to no avail.

 

When Moon Knight called Frenchie to come back, he told him he can't because of an enormous flock of birds blanketing the sky, which was summoned by the Scarecrow. Frenchie then shoots a large net from the Mooncopter to catch the flock, neutralizing it.

 

Moon Knight then catches Scarecrow, but he then argues to him that Moon Knight should confront his old nemesis, Bushman. Moon Knight goes to his contact, Crawley for any word from the street,but they were suddenly attacked by Bushman.

 

After taunting him, Bushman fires a RPG to Moon Knight but it hits a corner of building, threatening it to collapse. Moon Knight rushed in to hold the building and Bushman left him to be beaten by his army of convicts from Ravencroft.

 

After beating the convicts with only his underwear and mask on, Moon Knight carves his symbol on all that he defeated on their strait jacket.

 

Spider-Man then swings by and he tried to convince Moon Knight to stop his heroics before he return back to his murderous ways, to which Moon Knight argued that his heroism doesn't fare better because Norman Osborn is still in power.

 

Moon Knight got a tip from Crawley goes in search for Bushman in one of OsCorp's warehouses. Moon Knight then infiltrates the warehouse and begins searching for Bushman to no avail, until he surprises Marc. After a much drawn out, grueling fight between Marc has Raoul pinned down and mounts him with his crescent dart in his hand as if to cut off Bushman's face again.

 

Though Bushman begs Marc not to take his face again, causing much hesitation for the hero before stopping his act. Marc left and let the authorities take care of him. Meanwhile, now that Marc has prevailed, The Profile left to the cavern of Khonshu, for reasons unknown.

 

Moon Knight finds that someone has forcibly enter a hospital. When he got there, he saw Deadpool about to kill a bed-ridden patient. Moon Knight stops him and they go into a brief scuffle until Deadpool gets thrown through a window and escapes. Moon Knight then finds out that the person he just rescued was a Ukrainian crime boss dying from cancer, that made him question himself about being a hero.

 

Deadpool then met up with his employer, a mother whose son was kidnapped by the crime boss' henchmen. Moon Knight goes to see Deadpool and after they talked, Moon Knight goes to a warehouse to rescue the employer's son. Moon Knight saves the boy and left the henchmen for the police, but soon Deadpool picked up where they left off in their previous encounter.

 

They fought in a carnival's hall of mirrors where the duel turned into a sword fight, which left Moon Knight left as the winner. When Jake was having nightmares in his sleep, he suddenly woke up rushed to get into the hospital but he was too late to save the crime boss from Deadpool's employer who killed him with an injection of potassium chloride, stopping the patient's heart.

 

Heroic Age

 

After the events of Dark Reign and Siege, Norman Osborn was deposed as America's "top cop" and his organization H.A.M.M.E.R. was disbanded. Captain Steve Rogers then forms the Secret Avengers as a group of superheroes to operate under a veil of secrecy, in addition to the main Avengers team.Moon Knight was approached by Steve Rogers and he asked him to join the Secret Avengers to find his redemption.

 

Moon Knight agrees to this and his first mission was to go after Captain Barracuda who was capturing Oil Tankers. Moon Knight proved himself to the team by saving them and the Tanker crew when Captain Barracuda used the Horn of Proteus to summon sea monsters and destroying the Oil Tanker.

 

Next, Moon Knight infiltrated Roxxon headquarters with fellow Avenger, Ant-Man. They then had to travel to Mars to rescue another teammate, Nova who was looking for the Serpent Crown. The team split up and Moon Knight was accompanied by Black Widow and Valkyrie to look for Nova.

 

When they found him he is wearing the Serpent Crown and he also detected their presence. He and Black Widow were knocked unconscious when they confronted Nova. After the threat on Mars, the team went back to Earth and continues their objective of finding out who is trying to steal the Serpent Crown and why they want it.

 

Shadowland

 

Moon Knight goes to his mansion and sleeps with Marlene, he wakes up and is taunted by Khonshu on going back to his murderous ways and to kill in his name. The other night, Marlene asks Jake out and reveals that she is pregnant, which he is happy about.

 

After days of being taunted by someone calling himself Shadow Knight, Jake gets a mission from Steve Rogers to infiltrate Shadowland as a prisoner. As the heroes and the Hand ninjas fight each other, Jake takes a white cowl and joins to the brawl.

 

Daredevil then attacks Marc from behind, but when Moon Knight begins to fight him, his mind is subsequently infiltrated by an unknown entity that has been inside Daredevil. Khonshu then appears and tells Moon Knight that in order to kill the creature, he will need the Sapphire Crescent, an artifact that was a part of the original sculpture of Khonshu.

 

Moon Knight asks for it, but Khonshu demands him to kill in his name, which Moon Knight declines to do. When he returns home to his mansion, he finds Marlene in a bloody pulp and is informed that Shadow Knight did this and that the baby she was carrying is now dead. Moon Knight then agrees to kill for Khonshu and he will start with Shadow Knight.

 

When he begins to fight him by crashing his glider, the crazed man reveals himself to be Randall Spector. The brothers fight it out but Randall escapes. Driven by revenge over what Randall had done to Marlene, Jake agrees to kill Randall in Khonshu's name. The deity then tells him the Sapphire Crescent's history and that is found in New Orleans.

 

Jake finds it in the possession of a fortune teller which he buys for a large sum. As Jake walks through a carnival, Randall steals it and the brothers again begin a scuffle in the middle of a Mardi Gras festival.

 

Shadow Knight begins to tell Moon Knight that he is doing this because he was sent by the acolyte of Khonshu, the Profile. Jake persuades him that he is being played for a fool by the Profile (working for Daredevil) but he will not have it all. When collateral damage begins to mount, Moon Knight takes control of the fight and corners Shadow Knight on a dock, but he is prepared to commit suicide and kill them all with dynamite.

 

Moon Knight then throws the Sapphire Crescent into Shadow Knight, slicing his throat and causing him to fall in the water below. Moon Knight then flies off back to Shadowland to face Daredevil and the Hand. Afterwards, the Lunar Legionnaire declares that Jake Lockley is dead and that he is now Marc Spector once again.

 

Move to the West Coast

 

Leaving New York and memories of Marlene behind him, Marc moved to West Coast where he is developing a Moon Knight television series, "The Legend of Khonshu".

 

Unable to cope with his past identities, Marc has instead developed a new batch of personalities in the form of other heroes including Spider-Man, Captain America, and Wolverine. Marc honestly believes that he has been asked specifically by these three heroes to once again take up the mantle of Moon Knight and frequently consults with them, unaware that he is hallucinating.

 

He later recruits an assistant Buck Lime, an ex-SHIELD agent who provides technological support for his activities.

 

Investigates an illegal deal going down in the docks, Moon Knight stumbles into a major case involving high-end technology being run by Mr. Hyde. Moon Knight engages Hyde in hand-to-hand combat but Hyde escapes, leaving behind a shipment of Ultron technology.

 

Marc later continues on to uncover more details about this new gang by subconsciously dressing as Spider-Man while attacking the new gang lead by Snapdragon. Overwhelmed by the Snapdragon's henchmen, Marc was rescued by Echo, who was undercover at the time and had to blow her cover in order to save Moon Knight.

 

Teaming up with Echo to continue their investigation together, Marc begins falling in love with her and tries to pursue a romantic relationship only for it to fail badly. After fighting the Night Shift, Marc and Echo discover that the leader of this gang is none other than Count Nefaria.

 

When Moon Knight and Echo target his bases of operations, Nefaria retaliates and kills Echo before demanding that Marc serve him. Apparently surrendering, Marc instead lures Nefaria into a trap and is later congratulated by Iron Man for a job well done.

 

Age of Ultron

 

Marc was involved with the 'Age of Ultron' crossover series, and is shown to be one of the few heroes left in the city of New York, after the Avengers' villain Ultron took power. He is working with Black Widow from an old hidden base left by Nick Fury, and their plans focus on destroying Ultron, before they are destroyed.

 

Return to New York

 

Using laundered old money, Marc returned to New York with a host of new equipment including an upgraded baton and an automated limousine. He also discovered with the help of a psychologist, Elisa Warsame, that he has never had DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) but instead when Khonshu's consciousness colonized his own, it forced Marc's mind to adapt to it's four aspects which has resulted in brain damage.

 

Calling himself "Mr Knight" and wearing a white suit and mask, Marc now works with Detective Flint's Freak Beat to investigate weird crimes. When a more direct approach is needed Marc discards the Mr. Knight persona and instead will use the Moon Knight one with a new updated light armor.

 

Some of the investigations were into trained killers going after Gen. Lor of Akima, an East African micronation that was recently being recognized by the UN. Elisa had been using therapy sessions to recruit these killers having seen Gen. Lor's violence up close. Spector confronts her and believes she is trying to recruit him, only she was actually recruiting Khonshu. who abandons Spector.

 

Spector would be arrested and sent to an off-the-books special prison. Khonshu continued to visit Spector hoping to convince him to join Elisa's quest, however, Spector was able to convince Khonshu instead that he was being used and get his help escaping.

 

They discovered Gen. Lor actually led revolutionaries against Warsame's father, the former governor of Akima, who was in fact guilty of the crimes Elisa described. Elisa has been trying to restart the unrest in her home country so that she could take her father's seized fortune quietly.

 

Spector was able to save the general before Elisa could execute him.

 

Freak Beat

 

As part of Flint's task force, Moon Knight would go on many weird investigations. For one, he would try to fight off a gang of punk ghosts; but was unable to harm them. Khonshu reminded him of his various acquisitions of ancient Egyptian artifacts, including enchanted weapons and armor. Facing of against the ghosts again in a ornate armor with a bird skull mask he was able to fight and defeat them

 

Other investigations included a pack of dogs trained to attack the city's wealthy elite, a hotel full of benevolent ghosts and violent gang members, and a demon posing as the monster under the bed. Spector believes he is representing Khonshu by protecting those who travel at night, but Khonshu disapproves of Moon Knight's current fight for justice.

 

It appeared as if Khonshu was looking for new guardians to replace Spector and collect sacrifices for him. Spector took the fight to them only to discover a cult leader acting in Khonshu's name but without Khonshu's support.

 

Versus The Moon

 

Marc Spector and his allies (Frenchie, Crawley, Marlene, and Gena) mysteriously find themselves in a mental institution with no memory of how they got there. Their past lives come back to them slowly and in fragments, with Marc the most confused due to his multiple identities.

 

The doctor in charge, Dr. Emmett, was trying to convince Marc that he imagined his adventures as Moon Knight. However, Khonshu informs him that Dr. Emmet is in fact Ammut, the Egyptian god of judgement, and that the Egyptian pantheon is trying to take over New York. This convinces Marc and his allies to stage a successful breakout, at the cost of one of their souls. Crawley volunteers.

 

Unfortunately, Khonshu was lying. It was Khonshu who was setting up a New Egypt, and he has been breaking away at Marc's psyche so Khonshu could take Marc's body for himself. Marc refused and leapt from Khonshu's pyramid. When he awoke, New York was fine and he was his billionaire identity, Steven Grant.

 

As Steven, he is producing a movie about the Moon Knight. Marc Spector is cast as the leading man. Jake Lockley is a local cab driver, who is actually Moon Knight. They all seem like they are separate people now, but they are sharing memories.

 

Just as Steven started questioning it all, he is hit with a new identity. This one shared a name with Marc Spector, but he was a fighter pilot for a futuristic space force that protected the humans of a moon colony against werewolves that had taken over Earth.

 

These disparate identities are joined together by the primary Marc Specter to hash things out with fists and words until the real Marc was finally back in control and ready to face Khonshu. Marc first revisits Anubis, who aided in Marc's escape.

 

Marc made a new deal to save Anubis' wife Anput from the Overvoid in exchange for the return of Crawley's soul and passage back to Khonshu.

 

Khonshu throws everything he can at Marc, but Marc is able to fight through it. to Marc, that means he has proven he can be Moon Knight without Khonshu, but in his final confrontation, Marc doesn't throw a single punch. He acknowledges Khonshu (or at least this version of Khonshu in his mind) as "that thing in [his] mind that is wrong" and not the Egyptian god. By doing so, Marc expels this Khonshu from his mind and receives clarity. He is suspicious of the clarity, but it feels real enough for now.

 

Versus the Sun

 

With his identities at ease and working together, Moon Knight is slowly rebuilding his street cred. In his first big fight, he comes across a tall muscular tattooed man calling himself The Truth.

 

He is able to infect people with hard truths, but when Moon Knight lets Jake take over, The Truth can’t take his dark side. Jake ends up blinding him with two shurikens to the eyes.

 

Afterward, he gets a call from his on-again/off-again girlfriend, Marlene. She invites him over after they had some time apart, but it was a ruse by the Sun King, an avatar of Ra, looking to get back at Khonshu.

 

The Sun King’s plan was to use Marlene as bait but ended up introducing Moon Knight to his daughter. Unbeknownst to Marc, Jake had been meeting with Marlene in secret, fathering the child and helping to raise it. Moon Knight fought his way out with his daughter, Diatrice, but Sun King took Marlene.

 

The Sun King also recruited Bushman, his new gang, and The Truth to aid him in taking out Moon Knight. They collected Moon Knight from his apartment and sailed to Isla Ra, Sun King’s new city for the disenfranchised.

 

Here, Sun King is determined to fight Moon Knight to the death and prove his dominance. However, Moon Knight “out-crazies” Sun King, and Sun King’s insecurity disables his abilities.

 

So, Sun King submits, Bushman and the Truth abandon his quest, and Moon Knight becomes guardian to the disenfranchised Sun King had already given shelter too.

 

Age of Khonshu and The Phoenix Force

 

With the Phoenix Force oncoming due to the machinations of Mephisto, Khonshu instructed Moon Knight to steal the abilities of the present day mantle holders of a stone age team resembling the Avengers.

 

While briefly connected to the Phoenix, Marc was so shocked by his consideration of genocide to stop Mephisto that he returned the Avengers' abilities and allowed them to best him. Black Panther tried to convince him to team up with them, but he declined, thinking the Avengers were severely outmatched.

 

Unfortunately, trying to take over the world for Khonshu had lasting effects on Marc's personal life. Marlene and Diatrice cut him out of their lives, forcing Marc to come to a reluctant agreement with his Steve and Jake personalities.

 

He forced his other two personas into his subconscious and would not allow them to take hold of their body. This way, Marc believe he could have a new beginning.

 

Midnight Mission

 

With Khonshu locked up in Aesir by the Asgardians and his personalities presently pacified, Marc continued to keep up with his duty as the guardian of those who travel at night. He opened the Midnight Mission, an office where locals can come officially request his help, and started seeing a therapist (Andrea Sterman) by special request of the Avengers. He also got himself a new office assistant, Reese, who was also a vampire, and a new friendly rival, Hunter's Moon, who was loyal to Khonshu and chastised Marc's lack of faith.

 

Marc made a name for himself busting heads in his new neighborhood. This got the attention of a helpful Tigra, who was secretly working with Black Panther. It also got the attention of the mysterious and ambitious Zodiac, who saw a number of attempts on Marc's life as a game.

 

Zodiac cut Marc off from his riches and destroyed his office building, forcing Marc to enter a partnership with the sentient residence, The House of Shadows.

 

His feud with Zodiac would reach its peak when he attacked the Midnight Mission. It required all of Moon Knight's allies including Hunter's Moon, Rutherford Winner, and former Hydra agent, Soldier, who had swiped a spare Moon Knight costume for himself.

 

When Soldier died, Reese lashed out and almost killed Zodiac. Steven took control of Marc's body and stopped her from crossing the line.

 

Blood of the Fist

 

Jack Russell knew of a prophecy within the pages of the Darkhold that referred to a weapon that could be used to kill Khonshu, who he considered his oppressor and oppressor to all werewolves. "The Blood of the Fist, anointed by the Blood of the Fist" referring to the child of a Fist of Khonshu that would "forged by the King of All Wolves." The child would be Diatrice, the daughter of Marc Spector, but in order to turn her, he needed to become The King of All Wolves.

 

He challenged the leadership of every werewolf tribe in North America and won. He then defeated Wendigos in Canada to prove himself, but when he kidnapped Diatrice, Marlene went to the Midnight Mission to send Moon Knight after Jack.

 

With Hunter's Moon's help, the two of them tracked Jack and his followers, however, Diatrice's innocent naivety disarmed Jack. He still intended to go through with it, but the window of planetary alignment required was closing.

 

Once Moon Knight was able to interfere, he was capable of distracting him long enough for him to miss his opportunity. With no reason to continue, Jack relented and left with a dire warning from Marc to stay away from his family.

 

The Structure

 

When Zodiac shot through Reese and killed Soldier, enough DNA survived on the bullet to infect Soldier with Reese's vampiric curse.

 

This got the attention of Tutor, the vampire who had sired Reese and was running the vampire cult, The Structure. He believed that Soldier was the first of many, so he treated the Midnight Mission as a rival organization. After Moon Knight had a run-in with two assassins (Nemean and Grand Mal) hired by The Structure to take them out, Moon Knight started looking into vampire activity in the city.

 

With the help from a rival vampire leader, Lady Yulan, Moon Knight got the location of a vampire conclave being held by Tutor, bringing in vampires from all over the globe. Unfortunately, Hunter's Moon was attacked by the assassins, forcing Marc to take care of them first.

 

He had them pulled into the House of Shadows to be tortured. He would then drop them through the skylight of the conclave meeting place, while he and Tigra make a fancy entrance.

 

Soldier put his Hydra terrorist training to good use by rigging the fire suppression system to go off. Marc than proved himself to be a true priest of Khonshu by consecrating the water, transforming it into holy water and taking out nearly all of Tutor's followers.

 

They left one witness, a human familiar, to send a warning back to Dracula what happens when vampires mess with New York

 

City of the Dead

 

After Moon Knight failed to save a young boy named Khalil from the Egyptian-American street gang, Sons of the Jackal, Marc went to Hunter's Moon for help entering The Duat, the City of the Dead.

 

He pledged to find the soul of the boy and bring it back to his comatose body. He tracks members of the Jackals who came to Duat after their death and had the boys heart. They also increased their strength by summoning the power of the Horsemen of Apocalypse.

 

Overpowered, he was eventually joined by the Scarlet Scarab, a fallen mercenary friend made the guardian of Duat. They soon learned that the Sons of the Jackal were stealing the innocent hearts of children to weigh on the scales of justice, thus avoiding punishment for themselves.

 

Their leader, Jackal Knight, reveals himself to be Moon Knight's dead brother, Randall, the new host of Anubis. He has summoned a Legion of the Unliving made up of Moon Knight's dead enemies.

 

They had captured Khalil because he is the host of Osiris, and Randall wanted his power for his own. Once he had it, he was too strong for Marc to take on, even with Layla's help.

 

Thankfully, because the realm is psychoactive and can be shaped by the contents of a person's heart, Moon Knight was able to create four bodies: one for each of his three personalities and Khonshu.

 

This still wasn't enough to overpower Randall and his Legion. So, when Khalil awoke during the fight, he committed suicide, freeing Osiris' physical form to take the power back from Randall. In exchange, Osiris sent both Marc and Khalil back to the land of the living to live out the rest of their days.

 

The Ghost in the Telephone

 

The Midnight Mission was targeted by Sidney Sarnak, employed by a mysterious new player. Whoever they were, they were using Sarnak's ability of brainwashing people with sound.

 

First, they manipulated The Harlequin Hitman couple to go after Moon Knight's old Shadow Cabinet, to throw Moon Knight off his game. They also tested riot-inducing music at a club that Reese and Soldier just happened to be attending.

 

Spector finally got a lead when Dylan Brock needed his protection and mentioned the Venom symbiote had been off due to the sound manipulation around town. Using the symbiote to track Sarnak, Sarnak turned himself into the police rather than be interrogated by the Moon Knight.

 

Sick of playing games with Moon Knight, this new player revealed themself as a new Black Spectre. Using 8-Ball to lure Moon Knight to Hart Island, Black Spectre revealed his use of Cobra Project mind control, which Marc had dealing with during his mercenary days.

 

He also employed every thug and superhuman The Midnight Mission has defeated as a gauntlet for Marc to run, hoping to end Moon Knight once and for all. Fortunately, a guilty 8-Ball decided to betray Black Spectre and save Moon Knight.

 

Back at the mission, Hunter's Moon had caught another of Black Spectre's employees, Vibro. Marc was forced to interrogate him psychically because Badr had beat him into a coma. Inside his mind, the two Fists of Khonshu learned that Vibro had been drilling around Manhattan turning it into a giant tuning fork to use Sarnak's sound hypnosis on. Black Spectre's plan was to force Manhattan to tear itself apart

 

The Last Days of Moon Knight

 

With the knowledge from Vibro's mind, Moon Knight hatches a plan to take out the new Black Spectre once and for all. He tracks the Black Spectre to The Mount, a skyscraper in New York. 8-Ball, now Moon Knight's resident pilot, would fly Marc, Badr, and Tigra to The Mount in his Hover-Rack.

 

Soldier would already be on site doing recon, while Reese watches over the Mission. Unfortunately, Black Spectre was ready for them. The Hover-Rack would be shot out of the sky and crash into the building, and the heroes would be quickly separated by Black Spectre's goons.

 

8-Ball would be injured and stay with his airship. Tigra would be stuck when she steps on a land mine but be saved by Soldier, who had training in ordinance disarming. Badr would track down Sarnak and try to intimidate him into turning off the sound device, and Marc would take on Black Spectre, who eventually revealed himself to be Sigmund, a member of the Shadow Cabinet Marc thought had been killed.

 

Marc was shot many times and close to death, left to watch Sigmund's work. He was visited by Khonshu, who said he didn't have enough power while imprisoned to revive him.

 

Knowing this is the end (and with approval of his identities, Jake and Steve), Moon Knight rigged Sigmund's weapon to explode before it could have any effect on Manhattan, killing him in the process.

 

In his absence, his friends carry on the good work of the Midnight Mission.

 

Revived

 

When Blade was possessed by Varnae, the first vampire, he took over The Structure and filled the sky with darkforce. Under this permanent night, the vampires of Earth would attempt world domination.

 

With help from the Avengers, Hunter's Moon, Tigra, and Wrecker would be teleported to Asgard so they may free Khonshu. Once the god was freed, he raised his past priests from the dead, including Marc, to fight back against the vampire horde.

 

As the sky cleared, the vampires had changed. They no longer were weak against the sun, meaning Moon Knight and the Midnight Mission's job was just getting started. Once they had driven the vampires back into hiding, Marc needed his first break since being revived.

 

Khonshu would not have it. He demanded Marc kill the pretender: the Shroud. Marc decided to fool Khonshu. He fought Shroud, stopping his heart, fulfilling his debt to Khonshu, but he had Hunter's Moon prepared to revive Shroud, giving him the second chance Shroud was looking for.

 

Glitter

 

In Marc's absence, a new drug kingpin, Achilles Fairchild, had moved in on the Midnight Mission territory thanks to his magic drug, Glitter.

 

Powers and Abilities

 

Due to his multiple personalities, Moon Knight possesses formidable psychic resistance and most telepathic or mental attacks are less effective on him. It has also been noted by several people that Moon Knight possesses an extraordinary degree of pain tolerance and has casually ignored debilitating wounds and major injuries to keep fighting.

 

Throughout his varied careers as a boxer, marine, commando, and CIA agent, Moon Knight possesses a wide range of skills and abilities including military strategy and tactics, infiltration and stealth techniques, military interrogation and torture techniques, driver evasion techniques, and is a competent pilot who can fly most types of aircrafts.

 

He is an expert in a wide variety of military firearms including pistols, sniper rifles, and machine guns with a marksman rating. His military training and background makes him not only an unconventional hero, he can and will use drastic means and extreme violence to stop criminals.

 

Moon Knight is a highly skilled combatant who is equally adept in both unarmed and armed fighting techniques; he is a former heavyweight boxing champion who has comprehensive knowledge of the weak points of the human body.

 

Moon Knight's fighting style is brutal and straight to the point and combines techniques from Krav Maga, Dambe, Savate, Silat and FMA (Filipino Martial Arts) to put down his opponents as quickly and as painfully as possible. He also has advanced skills in Judo, Kung Fu and is an Olympic-class athlete, acrobat and gymnast.

 

Taskmaster claims that there is no one's fighting style that he hates copying more than Moon Knight's. This is because unlike most other fighters, Moon Knight prefers not to block or evade an attack or injury if it allows him the opportunity to counterattack his opponent; much like how some boxers will actually court their opponent to attack and trusting in their stamina and ability to take punishment.

 

He is also highly adept in various conventional and unconventional weaponry as well including shurikens and thrown projectiles, combat knives and swords, batons, truncheons, bo staffs, nunchucks, three-sectional staffs, longbows, chains, and bolos.

 

Thanks to his extensive experience in criminal investigations, Moon Knight has also picked up a surprising degree of skill as a detective including how to profile psychopathic behavior and a broad base knowledge of the criminal underworld.

 

When he became the Fist of Khonshu and was possessed by Khonshu, Moon Knight gained superhuman powers derived from the moon itself.

 

During this period, Moon Knight had enhanced strength, stamina, and reflexes based on the lunar phase of the moon. He was at his strongest during a full moon, as he could lift the weight of 2 tons and at normal strength when there is a no moon, where he could lift around 700 lbs.

 

He could also see magical beings that normal humans cannot see and possessed night vision as well. Moon Knight could also become invisible in a shadowed area and had a "healing factor" that allowed his wounds to quickly heal when shined in moonlight.

 

After the exorcism of Khonshu from his body, Moon Knight appears to have lost most of his powers but there is speculation that he may or may not retain some aspect of them. He still appears to receive prophetic visions and a connection to Khonshu but it is unknown just how much is actually Khonshu's influence or Marc Spector's own mental hallucinations.

 

Moon Knight has also shown that he can be revived by Khonshu. This may prove that Moon Knight is near immortal.

 

Weapons and Equipment

 

Thanks to his immense wealth, Marc Spector has financed the development of numerous weapons, armored costumes, devices, specialized vehicles, and equipment as Moon Knight.

 

Crescent Darts

 

Even though Moon Knight has utilized a wide variety of weapons throughout his career, his most widely utilized and best known are his crescent darts.

 

The crescent darts are sharpened metal throwing weapons similar in size to Japanese shurikens and visually appear to be based on the Gibbous moon. Moon Knight has often concealed a crescent dart in his hand and in the past has used them for close quarters combat; as his calling card; and during certain parts of his career--even using them as makeshift gruesome carving tools into his victims.

 

Moon Knight can hurl several of these darts simultaneously with impressive force and accuracy as well as performing deflection shots. In addition, he has utilized crescent dart throwers; mechanical devices mounted on his wrists that enable him to discharge a barrage of crescent darts at high velocities for better penetration and offensive spread patterns.

 

Over the years, he has employed crescent darts forged out of silver for anti-werewolf use; specially modified explosive crescent darts that detonated on impact; as well as ones forged out of unbreakable adamantium alloy that can cut through virtually anything.

 

⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽

_____________________________

 

A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.

 

Secret Identity: Marc Spector

 

Publisher: Marvel

 

First Appearance: Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975)

 

Created by: Doug Moench (Writer)

Don Perlin (Artist)

... with Buzz Spector's homage to Kazimir Malevich's "Eight Red Rectangles. Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art

1/20 Maschinen Krieger Spector

Expedition 65 NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, left, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy talk after donning their Russian Sokol suits as they and Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov prepare for their Soyuz launch to the International Space Station Friday, April 9, 2021 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Launch of the Soyuz rocket sent the trio on a mission to the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Irina Spector)

2013 Spector Euro 5 LX Black Cherry

St David's Hall, Cardiff

When this man comes for you, its best to run as fast and as far away from him as you can. Armed with the latest in weapons, his bullets will rip right through your skull.

Warwick

Warwick Arts Centre

1/20 Maschinen Krieger Spector

The most important men (including his children, who are now grown up, but I decided to post some pictures of them with daddy) in his life. John and Phil Spector. Phil was John's producer in his solo years. He produced, among others, the highly acclaimed 'Imagine' album.

Spector Euro 5 LX

Epiphone Thunderbird Classic IV Pro

B.C Rich NJ Series Mockingbird

B.C Rich Eagle Masterpiece

 

Warwick Arts Centre

The tragic life of the beautiful Estelle Bennett the older sister of Veronica ( Ronnie

 

Spector who along with their cousin performed as the Ronettes in the 1960s.The stories

of their lives need to be told.Much has been written and known of Ronnie's life with

Phil Spector who resides in jail now but her sister Estelle forgotten.Her passing

in 2009 a tragedy to her family and fans.The joy,happiness and love these singers gave to

 

millions of fans live on. God bless Ronnie,Nedra and the the late Estelle.Below a clip from

 

YouTube with the The Ronettes perform "Be My Baby" and "Shout" from the film, The Big T.N.T.

 

Show, (1965) Directed by Larry Peerce. The song "Be My Baby" was composed by Ellie Greenwich

 

and Jeff Barry and the song "Shout" was composed by O'Kelly Isley, Ronald Isley, and Rudolph

 

Isley. Filmed before a live audience at the then Moulin Rouge nightclub, Hollywood,

 

California, U.S.A.

 

During " Be My Baby " Ronnie Spector in the centre ,Sister Estelle to her right and on her

left cousin Nedra Tally

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KH6e_6O_dE

  

Also a clip from the :

 

Ronettes accept award Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductions 2007

  

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n81LW8WXk8

  

A Life of Troubles Followed a Singer’s Burst of Fame

  

She was the quiet Ronette, the one people called the prettiest, the one who was content to

 

remain in the shadow of her younger sister, Ronnie, because even in the shadow there’s still

 

some spotlight.

 

For a few years in the mid-1960s Estelle Bennett lived a girl-group fairy tale, posing for

 

magazine covers with her fellow Ronettes and dating the likes of George Harrison and Mick

 

Jagger. Along with her sister and their cousin Nedra Talley, she helped redefine rock ’n’

 

roll femininity.

 

The Ronettes delivered their songs’ promises of eternal puppy love in the guise of tough

 

vamps from the streets of New York. Their heavy mascara, slit skirts and piles of teased

 

hair suggested both sex and danger, an association revived most recently by Amy Winehouse.

 

But Ms. Bennett’s death last week at 67 revealed a post-fame life of illness and squalor

 

that was little known even to many of the Ronettes’ biggest fans. In her decades away from

 

the public eye she struggled with anorexia and schizophrenia, and at times she had also been

 

homeless, said her daughter, Toyin Hunter.

 

“I want to know who my mother was,” Ms. Hunter, 37, said in an interview. “From the time I

 

was born she suffered with mental illness; I never really got to know Estelle in a good

 

mental state.”

  

Those who knew Ms. Bennett in her healthier days portray her as gentle and intelligent, and

 

as playing a critical part in the development of the Ronettes’ style. The eldest of the

 

group, she worked at Macy’s and attended the Fashion Institute of Technology, and the look

 

she helped devise for the group was all superlatives: bigger, badder and sexier than

 

anybody. Racial ambiguity lent an exotic element: the Bennett sisters had black, American

 

Indian and Irish blood; Ms. Talley was black, Indian and Puerto Rican

  

“We called them the bad girls of the ’60s,” said the singer Darlene Love, who met the

 

Ronettes in 1962, a year before they became famous with “Be My Baby.” “They had the really,

 

really short skirts and they had big, big, big hair. Most of the black entertainers of the

 

’60s didn’t look like that, but they wanted to be separate from everybody else.”

 

By the time they met Phil Spector and began recording with him in 1963, the Ronettes had

 

their look precisely calibrated. That August “Be My Baby” went to No. 2, and the Ronettes

 

were instant stars. When they toured Britain in 1964, the Rolling Stones were an opening

 

act.

 

But even in the early days there were signs that Estelle was fragile. When their grandmother

 

died in 1959, Estelle was shattered, said her cousin, now known as Nedra Talley Ross.

 

“She was going to buy Mama knee warmers,” Ms. Talley Ross said, “and I remember Estelle

 

being so devastated — screaming, like she would never go on. Just screaming for this thing

 

that would never get done.”

 

After the Ronettes broke up, in 1966, and Ronnie married Mr. Spector, in 1968, Estelle was

 

lost, Ms. Talley Ross said. She made several failed attempts at a solo career, and when

 

Ronnie Spector, who divorced Mr. Spector in 1974, formed a new version of the Ronettes in

 

the early ’70s it did not include either of her former band mates. (Ms. Spector did not

 

respond to messages left for her.)

  

Meanwhile, Ms. Bennett was gradually becoming more ill. When she brought her infant daughter

 

to visit, Ms. Talley Ross said, she slept straight through the baby’s crying. Not long

 

after, Ms. Bennett was hospitalized with anorexia, and her grip on reality continued to

 

loosen. In recent years, Ms. Hunter said, she sometimes wandered the streets of New York,

 

telling people that she would be singing with the Ronettes in a jazz club.

 

“Estelle had such an extraordinary life,” Ms. Talley Ross said. “To have the fame, and all

 

that she had at an early age, and for it all to come to an end abruptly. Not everybody can

 

let that go and then go on with life.”

 

In 1988 the Ronettes sued Mr. Spector for back royalties, and the suit dragged on for 14

 

years. Part of the case was dismissed, but the three women won the right to some royalties,

 

and according to Jonathan Greenfield, Ms. Spector’s husband, they received “in excess of $1

 

million.” After lawyers’ fees, Ms. Hunter said, each woman took home about $100,000. Ms.

 

Talley Ross said the figure was a little higher.

  

During the litigation Ms.Darlene Love Love was called as a witness, and one day at court she

 

saw Estelle.

 

“She didn’t remember me,” Ms. Love said. “They cleaned her up and made her look as well as

 

possible. She wore white gloves. She looked the best she could for somebody who lived on the

 

street. It broke my heart.”

 

Her daughter and her cousin said they also helped her to look her best for the Ronettes’

 

induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two years ago. They were worried that the

 

ceremony would overwhelm her, so one of Ms. Spector’s current backup singers performed in

 

Ms. Bennett’s stead. But before the concert Ms. Bennett did give a brief acceptance speech.

 

"I would just like to say thank you very much for giving us this award,” she said. “I’m

 

Estelle of the Ronettes. Thank you.”

Record Producer - Harvey Phillip Spector (December 26, 1939 – January 16, 2021) was an American record producer, musician, and songwriter who is best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by his two trials and conviction for murder in the 2000s. Spector developed the Wall of Sound, a production style that he described as a Wagnerian approach to rock and roll. He is regarded as one of the most influential figures in pop music history and one of the most successful producers of the 1960s.

 

Born in the Bronx, Spector moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and began his career in 1958 as a founding member of the Teddy Bears, for which he penned "To Know Him Is to Love Him", a U.S. number-one hit. In 1960, after working as an apprentice to Leiber and Stoller, Spector co-founded Philles Records, and at the age of 21 became the youngest ever U.S. label owner to that point. Dubbed the "First Tycoon of Teen", Spector became considered the first auteur of the music industry for the unprecedented control he had over every phase of the recording process. He produced acts such as the Ronettes, the Crystals, and Ike & Tina Turner, and typically collaborated with arranger Jack Nitzsche and engineer Larry Levine. The musicians from his de facto house band, later known as "the Wrecking Crew", rose to industry fame through his hit records.

 

In the early 1970s, Spector produced the Beatles' Let It Be (1970) and several solo records by John Lennon and George Harrison. By the mid-1970s, Spector had produced eighteen U.S. Top 10 singles for various artists. His chart-toppers included "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" (co-written and produced for the Righteous Brothers, 1964), "The Long and Winding Road" (produced for the Beatles, 1970), and "My Sweet Lord" (co-produced for Harrison, 1970). Following one-off productions for Leonard Cohen (Death of a Ladies' Man, 1977), Dion DiMucci (Born to Be with You, 1975), and the Ramones (End of the Century, 1980), Spector remained largely inactive amid a lifestyle of seclusion, drug use, and increasingly erratic behavior.

 

Spector helped establish the role of the studio as an instrument, the integration of pop art aesthetics into music (art pop), and the genres of art rockand dream pop. His honors include the 1973 Grammy Award for Album of the Year for co-producing Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh (1971), a 1989 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a 1997 induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2004, Spector was ranked number 63 on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest artists in history. In 2009, after spending three decades in semi-retirement, he was convicted for the 2003 murder of the actress Lana Clarkson and sentenced to 19 years to life in prison. He remained in prison until his death (Covid-19) in 2021.

 

Born: December 26, 1939 - The Bronx, New York, U.S.

OriginLos Angeles, California, U.S. - Died: January 16, 2021 (aged 81) (Jail) French Camp, California, U.S.

 

Orginal picture www.britannica.com/biography/Phil-Spector#ref668447

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Spector

 

Artwork: TudioJepegii

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Leah Spector tending her Victory Garden.

 

Collection of The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford

 

We're happy for you to share this digital image within the spirit of The Commons. Certain restrictions on high quality reproductions of the original physical version of apply though; if you're unsure please visit the Jewish Women's Archive website.

 

For obtaining reproductions of images from The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford, please visit the JHSGH website.

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"Imagine" is a song by the English rock musician John Lennon from his 1971 album of the same name. The best-selling single of his solo career, the lyrics encourage listeners to imagine a world of peace, without materialism, without borders separating nations and without religion. Shortly before his death, Lennon said that much of the song's lyrics and content came from his wife, Yoko Ono, and in 2017 she received cowriting credit.

 

Lennon and Ono co-produced the song with Phil Spector. Recording began at Lennon's home studio at Tittenhurst Park, England, in May 1971, with final overdubs taking place at the Record Plant, in New York City, during July. In October, Lennon released "Imagine" as a single in the United States, where it peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was first issued as a single in Britain in 1975, to promote the compilation Shaved Fish, and reached number six on the UK Singles Chart that year. It later topped the chart following Lennon's murder in 1980.

 

BMI named "Imagine" one of the 100 most performed songs of the 20th century. In 1999, it was ranked number 30 on the RIAA's list of the 365 "Songs of the Century", earned a Grammy Hall of Fame Award, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll". A 2002 UK survey conducted by the Guinness World Records British Hit Singles Book named it the second-best single of all time, while Rolling Stone ranked it number three in the 2004 list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Since 2005, event organisers have played the song just before the New Year's Times Square Ball drops in New York City. In 2023, the song was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

 

"Imagine" has sold more than 1.7 million copies in the UK. More than 200 artists have performed or covered the song, including Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Joan Baez, Lady Gaga, Elton John and Diana Ross. After "Imagine" was featured at the 2012 Summer Olympics, the song re-entered the UK Top 40, reaching number 18, and was presented as a theme song in the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics. The song remains controversial, as it has been since its release, over its request to imagine "no religion too".

 

Strawberry Fields is a 2.5-acre (1.0 ha) landscaped section in New York City's Central Park, designed by the landscape architect Bruce Kelly, that is dedicated to the memory of former Beatles member John Lennon. It is named after the Beatles' song "Strawberry Fields Forever", written by Lennon. The song itself is named for the former Strawberry Field children's home in Liverpool, England, located near Lennon's childhood home.

 

The entrance to the memorial is located on Central Park West at West 72nd Street, near where John Lennon was murdered outside his home, the Dakota. The memorial is a triangular piece of land falling away on the two sides of the park, and its focal point is a circular pathway mosaic of inlaid stones, with a single word, the title of Lennon's most famous song "Imagine". The mosaic, in the style of Portuguese pavement, is based on a Greco-Roman design. It was created by Italian craftsmen and was donated as a gift by the Italian city of Naples.

 

A "floral border" surrounds Strawberry Fields. Along the borders of the area surrounding the mosaic are benches which are endowed in memory of other individuals and maintained by the Central Park Conservancy. Along a path toward the southeast, a plaque on a low glaciated outcropping of schist lists the nations which contributed to building the memorial. Lennon's widow Yoko Ono, who still lives in The Dakota, contributed over a million dollars for the landscaping and the upkeep endowment.

 

The mosaics at the heart of a series of open and secret glades of lawn and glacier-carved rock outcroppings, bounded by shrubs and mature trees and woodland slopes, all designated a "quiet zone". A woodland walk winds through edge plantings between the glade-like upper lawn and the steep wooded slopes; it contains native rhododendrons and hollies, Carolina allspice (Calycanthus floridus), mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), viburnums, and jetbead. Wild shrub roses and a mature pink Magnolia × soulangeana flank the main walk. At the farthest northern tip of the upper series of lawns enclosed by woodland are three dawn redwood trees, which lose their needles but regain them every spring, an emblem of eternal renewal. The trees can be expected to reach a height of 36 metres (118 ft) within 100 years, and eventually they will be visible from great distances in the park.

 

In April 1981, a patch of land in Central Park, near the Dakota Apartments where Lennon lived with Ono, was officially named "Strawberry Fields" in his memory. That August, it was announced that Strawberry Fields would be completely renovated and landscaped, since at the time, Strawberry Fields was located in an isolated median between West Drive and two slip roads of 72nd Street. Yoko Ono requested that the rebuilt memorial be a "living memorial" rather than a statue; according to NYC Parks landscape architect Arne Abramowitz, Ono believed that "there are enough statues in Central Park".

 

The memorial was designed by Bruce Kelly, the chief landscape architect for the Central Park Conservancy. Construction on the project started in April 1984. Strawberry Fields was dedicated on what would have been Lennon's 45th birthday, October 9, 1985, by Ono and mayor Ed Koch. Speaking on behalf of the United Nations at the dedication was Marcela Pérez de Cuéllar, the UN first lady.

 

The "Imagine" mosaic was not placed on sufficient foundation and began to noticeably sink in 2007.

 

The memorial is often covered with flowers, candles in glasses, and other belongings left behind by Lennon's fans. On Lennon's birthday (October 9) and on the anniversary of his death (December 8), people gather to sing songs and pay tribute, staying late into what is often a cold night. The tributes usually run all night, but for a period through the late 1990s and early 2000s, mayor Rudy Giuliani enforced a curfew, which prohibited people from being inside Central Park after it closed each day at 1:00 a.m. Gatherings also take place on the birthdays of other Beatles. Impromptu memorial gatherings for other musicians, including Jerry Garcia and George Harrison, have occurred at the memorial. In the days following the September 11 attacks, candlelight vigils were held at the Imagine Circle to remember those killed.

 

On weekends, musicians often play for the enjoyment of thousands of fans from around the world who visit the site. These musicians formerly conflicted frequently with each other, but since at least 2016, had adhered to an informal code of conduct.

 

Strawberry Fields, an opera by Michael Torke to a libretto by A. R. Gurney, takes place at the memorial. Act II of a trilogy entitled Central Park jointly commissioned by Glimmerglass Opera, New York City Opera, and Great Performances, it was premiered by the Glimmerglass Festival on July 24, 1999, and was later produced by New York City Opera.

 

One of its best-known visitors was Gary dos Santos, a devoted Beatles fan who decorated the memorial in circles of different flowers and objects, often in the shape of a peace symbol. Born Ayrton "Gary" Ferreira dos Santos Jr., he was a performance artist who for 19 years installed flower designs around and within the "Imagine" mosaic here. His work has been documented in The New York Times. Dos Santos' income came from the tips he received from tourists as a result of his work, and the three-minute monologue he delivered to tourists describing his work and the life of John Lennon and his family. Santos was the subject of a documentary film, The Mayor of Strawberry Fields, directed by Torre Catalano and distributed by Nehst Studios.

 

For almost 20 years, he daily attended the memorial with his girlfriend of 15 years, Lisa Page, and their dog, Mary Jane, and was well known by many long-time local residents. In September 2013 Santos was diagnosed with leukemia. After spending about nine weeks in the hospital, he died in November 2013.

 

Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City that was the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the sixth-largest park in the city, containing 843 acres (341 ha), and the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 42 million visitors annually as of 2016.

 

The creation of a large park in Manhattan was first proposed in the 1840s, and a 778-acre (315 ha) park approved in 1853. In 1857, landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition for the park with their "Greensward Plan". Construction began the same year; existing structures, including a majority-Black settlement named Seneca Village, were seized through eminent domain and razed. The park's first areas were opened to the public in late 1858. Additional land at the northern end of Central Park was purchased in 1859, and the park was completed in 1876. After a period of decline in the early 20th century, New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses started a program to clean up Central Park in the 1930s. The Central Park Conservancy, created in 1980 to combat further deterioration in the late 20th century, refurbished many parts of the park starting in the 1980s.

 

Main attractions include landscapes such as the Ramble and Lake, Hallett Nature Sanctuary, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, and Sheep Meadow; amusement attractions such as Wollman Rink, Central Park Carousel, and the Central Park Zoo; formal spaces such as the Central Park Mall and Bethesda Terrace; and the Delacorte Theater. The biologically diverse ecosystem has several hundred species of flora and fauna. Recreational activities include carriage-horse and bicycle tours, bicycling, sports facilities, and concerts and events such as Shakespeare in the Park. Central Park is traversed by a system of roads and walkways and is served by public transportation.

 

Its size and cultural position make it a model for the world's urban parks. Its influence earned Central Park the designations of National Historic Landmark in 1963 and of New York City scenic landmark in 1974. Central Park is owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation but has been managed by the Central Park Conservancy since 1998, under a contract with the municipal government in a public–private partnership. The Conservancy, a non-profit organization, raises Central Park's annual operating budget and is responsible for all basic care of the park.

 

New York, often called New York City or simply NYC, is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each of which is coextensive with a respective county. It is a global city and a cultural, financial, high-tech, entertainment, and media center with a significant influence on commerce, health care, scientific output, life sciences, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, dining, art, fashion, and sports. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy, and is sometimes described as the world's most important city and the capital of the world.

 

With an estimated population in 2022 of 8,335,897 distributed over 300.46 square miles (778.2 km2), the city is the most densely populated major city in the United States. New York has more than double the population of Los Angeles, the nation's second-most populous city. New York is the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. by both population and urban area. With more than 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York City is one of the world's most populous megacities. The city and its metropolitan area are the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. In 2021, the city was home to nearly 3.1 million residents born outside the U.S., the largest foreign-born population of any city in the world.

 

New York City traces its origins to Fort Amsterdam and a trading post founded on the southern tip of Manhattan Island by Dutch colonists in approximately 1624. The settlement was named New Amsterdam (Dutch: Nieuw Amsterdam) in 1626 and was chartered as a city in 1653. The city came under English control in 1664 and was renamed New York after King Charles II granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York. The city was temporarily regained by the Dutch in July 1673 and was renamed New Orange; however, the city has been named New York since November 1674. New York City was the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. The modern city was formed by the 1898 consolidation of its five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island, and has been the largest U.S. city ever since.

 

Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City has been called both the world's premier financial and fintech center and the most economically powerful city in the world. As of 2022, the New York metropolitan area is the largest metropolitan economy in the world with a gross metropolitan product of over US$2.16 trillion. If the New York metropolitan area were its own country, it would have the tenth-largest economy in the world. The city is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by market capitalization of their listed companies: the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. New York City is an established safe haven for global investors. As of 2023, New York City is the most expensive city in the world for expatriates to live. New York City is home to the highest number of billionaires, individuals of ultra-high net worth (greater than US$30 million), and millionaires of any city in the world

 

The written history of New York City began with the first European explorer, the Italian Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524. European settlement began with the Dutch in 1608 and New Amsterdam was founded in 1624.

 

The "Sons of Liberty" campaigned against British authority in New York City, and the Stamp Act Congress of representatives from throughout the Thirteen Colonies met in the city in 1765 to organize resistance to Crown policies. The city's strategic location and status as a major seaport made it the prime target for British seizure in 1776. General George Washington lost a series of battles from which he narrowly escaped (with the notable exception of the Battle of Harlem Heights, his first victory of the war), and the British Army occupied New York and made it their base on the continent until late 1783, attracting Loyalist refugees.

 

The city served as the national capital under the Articles of Confederation from 1785 to 1789, and briefly served as the new nation's capital in 1789–90 under the United States Constitution. Under the new government, the city hosted the inauguration of George Washington as the first President of the United States, the drafting of the United States Bill of Rights, and the first Supreme Court of the United States. The opening of the Erie Canal gave excellent steamboat connections with upstate New York and the Great Lakes, along with coastal traffic to lower New England, making the city the preeminent port on the Atlantic Ocean. The arrival of rail connections to the north and west in the 1840s and 1850s strengthened its central role.

 

Beginning in the mid-19th century, waves of new immigrants arrived from Europe dramatically changing the composition of the city and serving as workers in the expanding industries. Modern New York traces its development to the consolidation of the five boroughs in 1898 and an economic and building boom following the Great Depression and World War II. Throughout its history, New York has served as a main port of entry for many immigrants, and its cultural and economic influence has made it one of the most important urban areas in the United States and the world. The economy in the 1700s was based on farming, local production, fur trading, and Atlantic jobs like shipbuilding. In the 1700s, New York was sometimes referred to as a breadbasket colony, because one of its major crops was wheat. New York colony also exported other goods included iron ore as a raw material and as manufactured goods such as tools, plows, nails and kitchen items such as kettles, pans and pots.

 

The area that eventually encompassed modern day New York was inhabited by the Lenape people. These groups of culturally and linguistically related Native Americans traditionally spoke an Algonquian language now referred to as Unami. Early European settlers called bands of Lenape by the Unami place name for where they lived, such as "Raritan" in Staten Island and New Jersey, "Canarsee" in Brooklyn, and "Hackensack" in New Jersey across the Hudson River from Lower Manhattan. Some modern place names such as Raritan Bay and Canarsie are derived from Lenape names. Eastern Long Island neighbors were culturally and linguistically more closely related to the Mohegan-Pequot peoples of New England who spoke the Mohegan-Montauk-Narragansett language.

 

These peoples made use of the abundant waterways in the New York region for fishing, hunting trips, trade, and occasionally war. Many paths created by the indigenous peoples are now main thoroughfares, such as Broadway in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Westchester. The Lenape developed sophisticated techniques of hunting and managing their resources. By the time of the arrival of Europeans, they were cultivating fields of vegetation through the slash and burn technique, which extended the productive life of planted fields. They also harvested vast quantities of fish and shellfish from the bay. Historians estimate that at the time of European settlement, approximately 5,000 Lenape lived in 80 settlements around the region.

 

The first European visitor to the area was Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian in command of the French ship La Dauphine in 1524. It is believed he sailed into Upper New York Bay, where he encountered native Lenape, returned through the Narrows, where he anchored the night of April 17, and left to continue his voyage. He named the area New Angoulême (La Nouvelle-Angoulême) in honor of Francis I, King of France of the royal house of Valois-Angoulême and who had been Count of Angoulême from 1496 until his coronation in 1515. The name refers to the town of Angoulême, in the Charente département of France. For the next century, the area was occasionally visited by fur traders or explorers, such as by Esteban Gomez in 1525.

 

European exploration continued on September 2, 1609, when the Englishman Henry Hudson, in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, sailed the Half Moon through the Narrows into Upper New York Bay. Like Christopher Columbus, Hudson was looking for a westerly passage to Asia. He never found one, but he did take note of the abundant beaver population. Beaver pelts were in fashion in Europe, fueling a lucrative business. Hudson's report on the regional beaver population served as the impetus for the founding of Dutch trading colonies in the New World. The beaver's importance in New York's history is reflected by its use on the city's official seal.

 

The first Dutch fur trading posts and settlements were in 1614 near present-day Albany, New York, the same year that New Netherland first appeared on maps. Only in May 1624 did the Dutch West India Company land a number of families at Noten Eylant (today's Governors Island) off the southern tip of Manhattan at the mouth of the North River (today's Hudson River). Soon thereafter, most likely in 1626, construction of Fort Amsterdam began. Later, the Dutch West Indies Company imported African slaves to serve as laborers; they were forced to build the wall that defended the town against English and Indian attacks. Early directors included Willem Verhulst and Peter Minuit. Willem Kieft became director in 1638 but five years later was embroiled in Kieft's War against the Native Americans. The Pavonia Massacre, across the Hudson River in present-day Jersey City, resulted in the death of 80 natives in February 1643. Following the massacre, Algonquian tribes joined forces and nearly defeated the Dutch. Holland sent additional forces to the aid of Kieft, leading to the overwhelming defeat of the Native Americans and a peace treaty on August 29, 1645.

 

On May 27, 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was inaugurated as director general upon his arrival and ruled as a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. The colony was granted self-government in 1652, and New Amsterdam was incorporated as a city on February 2, 1653. The first mayors (burgemeesters) of New Amsterdam, Arent van Hattem and Martin Cregier, were appointed in that year. By the early 1660s, the population consisted of approximately 1500 Europeans, only about half of whom were Dutch, and 375 Africans, 300 of whom were slaves.

 

A few of the original Dutch place names have been retained, most notably Flushing (after the Dutch town of Vlissingen), Harlem (after Haarlem), and Brooklyn (after Breukelen). Few buildings, however, remain from the 17th century. The oldest recorded house still in existence in New York, the Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House in Brooklyn, dates from 1652.

 

On August 27, 1664, four English frigates under the command of Col. Richard Nicolls sailed into New Amsterdam's harbor and demanded New Netherland's surrender, as part of an effort by King Charles II's brother James, Duke of York, the Lord High Admiral to provoke the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Two weeks later, Stuyvesant officially capitulated by signing Articles of Surrender and in June 1665, the town was reincorporated under English law and renamed "New York" after the Duke, and Fort Orange was renamed "Fort Albany". The war ended in a Dutch victory in 1667, but the colony remained under English rule as stipulated in the Treaty of Breda. During the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch briefly recaptured the city in 1673, renaming the city "New Orange", before permanently ceding the colony of New Netherland to England for what is now Suriname in November 1674 at the Treaty of Westminster.

 

The colony benefited from increased immigration from Europe and its population grew faster. The Bolting Act of 1678, whereby no mill outside the city was permitted to grind wheat or corn, boosted growth until its repeal in 1694, increasing the number of houses over the period from 384 to 983.

 

In the context of the Glorious Revolution in England, Jacob Leisler led Leisler's Rebellion and effectively controlled the city and surrounding areas from 1689 to 1691, before being arrested and executed.

 

Lawyers

In New York at first, legal practitioners were full-time businessmen and merchants, with no legal training, who had watched a few court proceedings, and mostly used their own common sense together with snippets they had picked up about English law. Court proceedings were quite informal, for the judges had no more training than the attorneys.

 

By the 1760s, the situation had dramatically changed. Lawyers were essential to the rapidly growing international trade, dealing with questions of partnerships, contracts, and insurance. The sums of money involved were large, and hiring an incompetent lawyer was a very expensive proposition. Lawyers were now professionally trained, and conversant in an extremely complex language that combined highly specific legal terms and motions with a dose of Latin. Court proceedings became a baffling mystery to the ordinary layman. Lawyers became more specialized and built their reputation, and their fee schedule, on the basis of their reputation for success. But as their status, wealth and power rose, animosity grew even faster. By the 1750s and 1760s, there was a widespread attack ridiculing and demeaning the lawyers as pettifoggers (lawyers lacking sound legal skills). Their image and influence declined. The lawyers organized a bar association, but it fell apart in 1768 during the bitter political dispute between the factions based in the Delancey and Livingston families. A large fraction of the prominent lawyers were Loyalists; their clientele was often to royal authority or British merchants and financiers. They were not allowed to practice law unless they took a loyalty oath to the new United States of America. Many went to Britain or Canada (primarily to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) after losing the war.

 

For the next century, various attempts were made, and failed, to build an effective organization of lawyers. Finally a Bar Association emerged in 1869 that proved successful and continues to operate.

 

By 1700, the Lenape population of New York had diminished to 200. The Dutch West Indies Company transported African slaves to the post as trading laborers used to build the fort and stockade, and some gained freedom under the Dutch. After the seizure of the colony in 1664, the slave trade continued to be legal. In 1703, 42% of the New York households had slaves; they served as domestic servants and laborers but also became involved in skilled trades, shipping and other fields. Yet following reform in ethics according to American Enlightenment thought, by the 1770s slaves made up less than 25% of the population.

 

By the 1740s, 20% of the residents of New York were slaves, totaling about 2,500 people.

 

After a series of fires in 1741, the city panicked over rumors of its black population conspiring with some poor whites to burn the city. Historians believe their alarm was mostly fabrication and fear, but officials rounded up 31 black and 4 white people, who over a period of months were convicted of arson. Of these, the city executed 13 black people by burning them alive and hanged the remainder of those incriminated.

 

The Stamp Act and other British measures fomented dissent, particularly among Sons of Liberty who maintained a long-running skirmish with locally stationed British troops over Liberty Poles from 1766 to 1776. The Stamp Act Congress met in New York City in 1765 in the first organized resistance to British authority across the colonies. After the major defeat of the Continental Army in the Battle of Long Island in late 1776, General George Washington withdrew to Manhattan Island, but with the subsequent defeat at the Battle of Fort Washington the island was effectively left to the British. The city became a haven for loyalist refugees, becoming a British stronghold for the entire war. Consequently, the area also became the focal point for Washington's espionage and intelligence-gathering throughout the war.

 

New York was greatly damaged twice by fires of suspicious origin, with the Loyalists and Patriots accusing each other of starting the conflagration. The city became the political and military center of operations for the British in North America for the remainder of the war. Continental Army officer Nathan Hale was hanged in Manhattan for espionage. In addition, the British began to hold the majority of captured American prisoners of war aboard prison ships in Wallabout Bay, across the East River in Brooklyn. More Americans lost their lives aboard these ships than died in all the battles of the war. The British occupation lasted until November 25, 1783. George Washington triumphantly returned to the city that day, as the last British forces left the city.

 

Starting in 1785 the Congress met in the city of New York under the Articles of Confederation. In 1789, New York became the first national capital under the new Constitution. The Constitution also created the current Congress of the United States, and its first sitting was at Federal Hall on Wall Street. The first Supreme Court sat there. The United States Bill of Rights was drafted and ratified there. George Washington was inaugurated at Federal Hall. New York remained the national capital until 1790, when the role was transferred to Philadelphia.

 

During the 19th century, the city was transformed by immigration, a visionary development proposal called the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 which expanded the city street grid to encompass all of Manhattan, and the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, which connected the Atlantic port to the vast agricultural markets of the Midwestern United States and Canada. By 1835, New York had surpassed Philadelphia as the largest city in the United States. New York grew as an economic center, first as a result of Alexander Hamilton's policies and practices as the first Secretary of the Treasury.

 

In 1842, water was piped from a reservoir to supply the city for the first time.

 

The Great Irish Famine (1845–1850) brought a large influx of Irish immigrants, and by 1850 the Irish comprised one quarter of the city's population. Government institutions, including the New York City Police Department and the public schools, were established in the 1840s and 1850s to respond to growing demands of residents. In 1831, New York University was founded by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin as a non-denominal institution surrounding Washington Square Park.

 

This period started with the 1855 inauguration of Fernando Wood as the first mayor from Tammany Hall. It was the political machine based among Irish Americans that controlled the local Democratic Party. It usually dominated local politics throughout this period and into the 1930s. Public-minded members of the merchant community pressed for a Central Park, which was opened to a design competition in 1857; it became the first landscape park in an American city.

 

During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the city was affected by its history of strong commercial ties to the South; before the war, half of its exports were related to cotton, including textiles from upstate mills. Together with its growing immigrant population, which was angry about conscription, sympathies among residents were divided for both the Union and Confederacy at the outbreak of war. Tensions related to the war culminated in the Draft Riots of 1863 led by Irish Catholics, who attacked black neighborhood and abolitionist homes. Many blacks left the city and moved to Brooklyn. After the Civil War, the rate of immigration from Europe grew steeply, and New York became the first stop for millions seeking a new and better life in the United States, a role acknowledged by the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in 1886.

 

From 1890 to 1930, the largest cities, led by New York, were the focus of international attention. The skyscrapers and tourist attractions were widely publicized. Suburbs were emerging as bedroom communities for commuters to the central city. San Francisco dominated the West, Atlanta dominated the South, Boston dominated New England; Chicago dominated the Midwest United States. New York City dominated the entire nation in terms of communications, trade, finance, popular culture, and high culture. More than a fourth of the 300 largest corporations in 1920 were headquartered here.

 

In 1898, the modern City of New York was formed with the consolidation of Brooklyn (until then an independent city), Manhattan, and outlying areas. Manhattan and the Bronx were established as two separate boroughs and joined with three other boroughs created from parts of adjacent counties to form the new municipal government originally called "Greater New York". The Borough of Brooklyn incorporated the independent City of Brooklyn, recently joined to Manhattan by the Brooklyn Bridge; the Borough of Queens was created from western Queens County (with the remnant established as Nassau County in 1899); and the Borough of Richmond contained all of Richmond County. Municipal governments contained within the boroughs were abolished, and the county governmental functions were absorbed by the city or each borough. In 1914, the New York State Legislature created Bronx County, making five counties coterminous with the five boroughs.

 

The Bronx had a steady boom period during 1898–1929, with a population growth by a factor of six from 200,000 in 1900 to 1.3 million in 1930. The Great Depression created a surge of unemployment, especially among the working class, and a slow-down of growth.

 

On June 15, 1904, over 1,000 people, mostly German immigrant women and children, were killed when the excursion steamship General Slocum caught fire and sank. It is the city's worst maritime disaster. On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village took the lives of 146 garment workers. In response, the city made great advancements in the fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations.

 

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the city became a world center for industry, commerce, and communication, marking its rising influence with such events as the Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909. Interborough Rapid Transit (the first New York City Subway company) began operating in 1904, and the railroads operating out of Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station thrived.

 

From 1918 to 1920, New York City was affected by the largest rent strike wave in its history. Somewhere between several 10,000's and 100,000's of tenants struck across the city. A WW1 housing and coal shortage sparked the strikes. It became marked both by occasional violent scuffles and the Red Scare.  It would lead to the passage of the first rent laws in the nations history.

 

The city was a destination for internal migrants as well as immigrants. Through 1940, New York was a major destination for African Americans during the Great Migration from the rural American South. The Harlem Renaissance flourished during the 1920s and the era of Prohibition. New York's ever accelerating changes and rising crime and poverty rates were reduced after World War I disrupted trade routes, the Immigration Restriction Acts limited additional immigration after the war, and the Great Depression reduced the need for new labor. The combination ended the rule of the Gilded Age barons. As the city's demographics temporarily stabilized, labor unionization helped the working class gain new protections and middle-class affluence, the city's government and infrastructure underwent a dramatic overhaul under Fiorello La Guardia, and his controversial parks commissioner, Robert Moses, ended the blight of many tenement areas, expanded new parks, remade streets, and restricted and reorganized zoning controls.

 

For a while, New York ranked as the most populous city in the world, overtaking London in 1925, which had reigned for a century.[58] During the difficult years of the Great Depression, the reformer Fiorello La Guardia was elected as mayor, and Tammany Hall fell after eighty years of political dominance.

 

Despite the effects of the Great Depression, some of the world's tallest skyscrapers were built during the 1930s. Art Deco architecture—such as the iconic Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, and 30 Rockefeller Plaza— came to define the city's skyline. The construction of the Rockefeller Center occurred in the 1930s and was the largest-ever private development project at the time. Both before and especially after World War II, vast areas of the city were also reshaped by the construction of bridges, parks and parkways coordinated by Robert Moses, the greatest proponent of automobile-centered modernist urbanism in America.

 

Returning World War II veterans and immigrants from Europe created a postwar economic boom. Demands for new housing were aided by the G.I. Bill for veterans, stimulating the development of huge suburban tracts in eastern Queens and Nassau County. The city was extensively photographed during the post–war years by photographer Todd Webb.

 

New York emerged from the war as the leading city of the world, with Wall Street leading the United States ascendancy. In 1951, the United Nations relocated from its first headquarters in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, to the East Side of Manhattan. During the late 1960s, the views of real estate developer and city leader Robert Moses began to fall out of favor as the anti-urban renewal views of Jane Jacobs gained popularity. Citizen rebellion stopped a plan to construct an expressway through Lower Manhattan.

 

After a short war boom, the Bronx declined from 1950 to 1985, going from predominantly moderate-income to mostly lower-income, with high rates of violent crime and poverty. The Bronx has experienced an economic and developmental resurgence starting in the late 1980s that continues into today.

 

The transition away from the industrial base toward a service economy picked up speed, while the jobs in the large shipbuilding and garment industries declined sharply. The ports converted to container ships, costing many traditional jobs among longshoremen. Many large corporations moved their headquarters to the suburbs or to distant cities. At the same time, there was enormous growth in services, especially finance, education, medicine, tourism, communications and law. New York remained the largest city and largest metropolitan area in the United States, and continued as its largest financial, commercial, information, and cultural center.

 

Like many major U.S. cities, New York suffered race riots, gang wars and some population decline in the late 1960s. Street activists and minority groups such as the Black Panthers and Young Lords organized rent strikes and garbage offensives, demanding improved city services for poor areas. They also set up free health clinics and other programs, as a guide for organizing and gaining "Power to the People." By the 1970s the city had gained a reputation as a crime-ridden relic of history. In 1975, the city government avoided bankruptcy only through a federal loan and debt restructuring by the Municipal Assistance Corporation, headed by Felix Rohatyn. The city was also forced to accept increased financial scrutiny by an agency of New York State. In 1977, the city was struck by the New York City blackout of 1977 and serial slayings by the Son of Sam.

 

The 1980s began a rebirth of Wall Street, and the city reclaimed its role at the center of the worldwide financial industry. Unemployment and crime remained high, the latter reaching peak levels in some categories around the close of the decade and the beginning of the 1990s. Neighborhood restoration projects funded by the city and state had very good effects for New York, especially Bedford-Stuyvesant, Harlem, and The Bronx. The city later resumed its social and economic recovery, bolstered by the influx of Asians, Latin Americans, and U.S. citizens, and by new crime-fighting techniques on the part of the New York Police Department. In 1989, New York City elected its first African American Mayor, David Dinkins. He came out of the Harlem Clubhouse.

 

In the late 1990s, the city benefited from the nationwide fall of violent crime rates, the resurgence of the finance industry, and the growth of the "Silicon Alley", during the dot com boom, one of the factors in a decade of booming real estate values. New York was also able to attract more business and convert abandoned industrialized neighborhoods into arts or attractive residential neighborhoods; examples include the Meatpacking District and Chelsea (in Manhattan) and Williamsburg (in Brooklyn).

 

New York's population reached an all-time high in the 2000 census; according to census estimates since 2000, the city has continued to grow, including rapid growth in the most urbanized borough, Manhattan. During this period, New York City was a site of the September 11 attacks of 2001; 2,606 people who were in the towers and in the surrounding area were killed by a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, an event considered highly traumatic for the city but which did not stop the city's rapid regrowth. On November 3, 2014, One World Trade Center opened on the site of the attack. Hurricane Sandy brought a destructive storm surge to New York in the evening of October 29, 2012, flooding numerous streets, tunnels, and subway lines in Lower Manhattan. It flooded low-lying areas of Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. Electrical power was lost in many parts of the city and its suburbs.

Please visit my other sites, for more photography.

 

My squares at Instagram

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Contact me here.

 

Copenhagen based photographer Thomas Rousing, captures the beauty of everyday life in the city. He seeks to explore the interestingness of making images filled with endless details and beautiful colors.

Warwick Arts Centre

Lady Melodie's and Sir Spector's handfasting continued with a reception/party in Club Drow!

I spotted this man having his shoes shined in a posh arcade in Central London. I really liked the way he'd rolled up his trousers (!) and the fact he bore a striking resemblance to Phil Spector and his amazing hair!

 

"See the characters but create your own plot" - Instruction 45 of Street Photography Now Project

Tommy Hunt

 

Showing Tommy Hunt a message on my Facebook from Ludie Montgomery to him.

The great legendary Tommy Hunt was friends with Tammi Terrell back in

Tammi's early days at Spector records.Tommy a great singer and gentlemen

who still tours. Biography below along with Utube message as mentioned above.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX4RIdXmH3E

  

Great interview from Tommy Hunt on his singing career and life.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgshlkito20

  

Love on the Losing Side by Tommt Hunt

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOJRokcViJ4

  

Tommy Hunt - Don't make me over

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1wj6ss615M

  

TOMMY HUNT - The Work Song - SCEPTER

.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eWE07LA02g

  

Tommy Hunt (born Charles James Hunt; June 18, 1933 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States) is an American soul/northern soul singer, and a 2001 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee as a

 

member of famed R&B group The Flamingos.

 

Early life

 

Born to Georgianna Derico, Hunt started his life in Pittsburgh, where his school friends, nicknamed him Tommy and it has stayed with him throughout his entire life. Music dominated his life

 

and he was sent to reform school after spending his learning hours practicing for and entering talent shows. He was released from reform school when he was 10, and he and his mother moved

 

to Chicago.

 

The Flamingos[edit]

 

After a stint in the United States Air Force, Hunt went AWOL in order to be with his mother who was dying. He served time in prison for deserting, and after his release, returned to Chicago

 

and formed a group called The Five Echoes. While performing in a club, he was approached by Zeke Carey of The Flamingos, and asked to take Carey's place, as he had recently been drafted.

 

Hunt was kept on after Carey returned.[1]

 

In 1959 their biggest hit was "I Only Have Eyes For You" which remains their most popular song, being used in film soundtracks and on compilation albums to this date.

 

Solo career

 

Hunt left the group in 1960 due to musical differences, but within three days he was approached by Luther Dixon and released "Parade Of Broken Hearts" which was slow to be picked up by the

 

radio stations. In New York a disc jockey called Jocko Henderson introduced the song but played the B-side by mistake. The track aired was "Human", Hunt's biggest hit in the U.S. His 1962

 

B-side, "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself", written by Bacharach and David and produced by Leiber and Stoller, was the first recording of the song which later became a major hit for

 

Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick and others.

 

Hunt became a regular performing at The Apollo in New York alongside such artists as Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Diana Ross and The Supremes, The Shirelles, Dionne Warwick,

 

Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Sam and Dave. To the best of his knowledge, Hunt remains the only person to have his photograph framed twice in the Apollo foyer, both with the Flamingos and as

 

a solo artist. Several years and a couple of minor hits later, Hunt sang for the U.S. Army in Germany. By 1969 he left his homeland, traveled back to Germany, through Belgium and across the

 

English Channel to the United Kingdom.

 

Northern soul

  

After several performances in the theater clubs throughout the UK, Hunt sang at the second anniversary of the Wigan Casino, and there followed success on the Northern soul scene. Hunt was

 

approached by Russ Winstanly and Mike Walker of the Casino and released several hits on Spark Records. The first was a cover version of a song formerly sung by Roy Hamilton, entitled

 

"Crackin' Up". It peaked at #39 in the UK Singles Chart in October 1975.[2] This was followed by another chart success "Loving On The Losing Side" (UK #28, 1976). 1982/83 saw Hunt win the

 

Male Vocalist of the Year, presented by Club Mirror. His track, "One Fine Morning", reached #44 in the UK chart in December 1976.[2]

 

Later years[edit]

 

With the decline of the Northern soul, Hunt's shows dwindled and he hit the cabaret circuit further afield, moving to Amsterdam in 1986, and traveling the world. In 1996, the first of his

 

recognitions came in the form of The Rhythm and Blues Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award for the Flamingos contribution to music. In 1997, Hunt relocated to the UK and embarked on a

 

revived Northern soul scene.

 

In later years, having turned his hand to songwriting, Hunt penned his autobiography, Only Human, My Soulful Life, with author, Jan Warburton, which was released in December 2008.

 

At this moment, Hunt is starting a new live show as Tommy Hunt & The New Flamingos, with members of the Spanish vocal group Velvet Candles. This show was presented on June 3, 2011 during

 

the Screamin' Summer Festival (Barcelona, Spain).

 

Awards[edit]

 

The award for the Flamingos from the Vocal Group Hall of Fame came in 2000, followed by the Doo-Wop Hall of Fame in 2001. The Flamingos were inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for

 

their thirty-year contribution to music.

 

Discography[edit]

 

The Five Echoes with the Fats Coles Band

  

Sabre 102 – "Lonely Mood" / "Baby Come Back To Me" – 1953 (Black Vinyl)

 

Sabre 102 – "Lonely Mood" / "Baby Come Back To Me" – 1953 (Red Vinyl)

 

The Five Echoes

  

Sabre 107? - "Why Oh Why" / "That's My Baby" - 1954

 

The Flamingos

  

Decca 30335 - "The Ladder Of Love" / "Let's Make Up" - 1957

Decca 30454 - "Helpless" / "My Faith In You" - 1957

Decca 30687 - "Where Mary Go" / "The Rock And Roll March" - 1958

End 1035 - "Lovers Never Say Goodbye" / "That Love Is You" – 1958

End 1040 - "But Not For Me" / "I Shed A Tear At Your Wedding" - 1959

End 1044 - "At The Prom" / "Love Walked In" – 1959

End 1045 - "I Only Have Eyes For You" / "At The Prom" - 1959

End 1046 - "I Only Have Eyes For You" / "Goodnight Sweetheart" – 1959

Decca 30880 - "Ever Since I Met Lucky" / "Kiss-A-Me" - 1959

End 1055 - "Love Walked In" / "Yours" - 1959

Decca 30948 - "Jerri-Lee" / "Hey Now!" - 1959

End 1062 - "I Was Such A Fool" / "Heavenly Angel" - 1959

End 1065 - "Mi Amore" / "You, Me And The Sea" - 1960

End 1068 - "Nobody Loves Me Like You" / "You, Me And The Sea" – 1960

End 1070 - "Besame Mucha" / "You, Me And The Sea" – 1960

End 1073 - "Mi Amore" / "At Night" – 1960

End 1079 – "When I Fall In Love" / "Beside You" – 1960

End 1085 – "That's Why I Love You" / "Ko Ko Mo" – 1960

End 1092 – "Time Was" / "Dream Girl" – 1960

End 1099 – "My Memories Of You" / "I Want To Love You" - 1960

  

Tommy Hunt - U.S. singles

  

Scepter 1219 - "Human" / "Parade Of Broken Hearts" -1961

Scepter 1226 - "The Door Is Open" / "I'm Wondering" - 1962

Scepter 1231 - "So Lonely" / "The Work Song" – 1962

Scepter 1235 - "Didn’t I Tell You She’ll Hurt You" / "Poor Millionaire You’re So Fine" – 1962

Scepter 1236 - "And I Never Knew" / "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" - 1962

Scepter 1252 - "Do You Really Love Me" / "Son, My Son" - 1963

Scepter 1261 - "I Am A Witness"* / "I'm With You" - 1963 *written by Ed Townsend

Scepter 1275 - "It’s All A Bad Dream" / "You Made A Man Out Of Me" – 1964

Atlantic 2278 - "I Don’t Want To Lose You" / "Hold On" – 1965

Capitol 5621 - "I’ll Make You Happy" / "The Clown" - 1966

Dynamo 101 - "The Biggest Man" / "Never Love A Robin" – 1967

Dynamo 105 - "Words Can Never Tell It" / "How Can I Be Anything" – 1967

Dynamo 110 - "Complete Man" / "Searchin’ For My Love" – 1967

Dynamo 113 - "I Need A Woman Of My Own" / "Searchin’ For My Baby (Lookin’ Everywhere)" - 1967

Dynamo 124 - "Born Free" / "Just A Little Taste (Of Your Sweet Lovin’)" - 1968

Private Stock 45,115 - "Loving On The Losing Side" / "Sunshine Girl" - 1976

Collectables Col 030077 - "Oh No Not My Baby" / "Human*" - 1981 *Flip By Tommy Hunt.

Town 103 - "The Work Song" / "Please Stay*" - 198? *Flip By The Ivory's

  

Tommy Hunt - UK singles

  

Polydor 236 – "Mind Body and Soul / One Mountain to Climb" – 1972

Top Rank Jar-605 - "The Door is Open" / "I'm Wondering" - 1962

Polydor 236 - "Mind Body and Soul" / "One Mountain to Climb - 1972

Spark 1132 - "Crackin' Up" / "Get Out" - 1975

Spark 1146 - "Loving on the Losing Side" / "Sunshine Girl" – 1976

Spark 1148 – "One Fine Morning" / "Sign on the Dotted Line" / "Loving You" - 1976

  

Albums

  

Scepter SRM 506 (mono) / Scepter SPS 506 (stereo) - I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself - 1962

Tracks: I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself / The Work Song / Parade of Broken Hearts / You're So Fine / She'll Hurt You So / And I Never Knew / Human / Didn't I Tell You / The Door

 

Is Open / Poor Millionaire / So Lonely / I'm Wondering

 

Dynamo DM 7001 (mono) / Dynamo DS 8001 (stereo) - Tommy Hunt's Greatest Hits - 1967

Tracks: The Biggest Man / Comin' On Strong / Words Can Never Tell It / Never Love A Robin / How Can I Be Anything (Without You) / All In the Game / I Believe / Human / Born Free /

 

Everybody's Got A Home (But Me)

 

Spark SRLP 117 - Live At Wigan Casino - 1976

Tracks: I Can’t Turn You Loose / Get Ready / My Girl / Knock On Wood / Never Can Say Goodbye /// Help Me Make It Through The Night / Crackin’ Up / Baby I Need Your Loving

 

Spark SRLP 120 – Sign Of The Times – 1976

Tracks: Loving On The Losing Side / Upon My Soul / Get Out / A Miracle Like You / You Got Me Where You Want Me / A Sign Of The Times /// Sign On The Dotted Line / Loving You Is / Crackin’

 

Up / Help Me Make It Thru’ The Night / Sunshine Girl / Never Can Say Goodbye.

 

Kent 059 – Your Man - 1986

Tracks: Love / She’ll Hurt You Too / Didn’t I Tell You / This And Only This / It’s All A Bad Dream / I Am A Witness / Make The Night A Little Longer / Oh Lord What Are You Doing To Me ///

 

Human / Your Man / Don’t Make Me Over / The Parade Of Broken Hearts / I Might Like It / You Made A Man Out Of Me / Just A Little Taste Of Your Sweet Lovin’ / Promised Land

 

Samples[edit]

 

Human - June 1962, Scepter Records I only Have Eyes For You - The Flamingos, 1959

 

References

  

1.^ Tommyhunt.co.uk

2.^ Jump up to: a b Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 263. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.

Hunt, Tommy. Only Human, My Soulful Life, Bank House Books ISBN

 

9781904408420

 

External links[edit]

Official Site

MySpace Site

Acerecords.co.uk

Discography

Pittsburgh Music History Tommy Hunt Profile

  

Lady Melodie's and Sir Spector's handfasting continued with a reception/party in Club Drow!

I had the pleasure of holding Spector, a Specticaled Owl from Central America. He and his sibling are ambassadors at The Raptors.

thefwoosh.com/2012/05/motuc-feature-the-mighty-spector

1983 Spector NS-2

Warwick University Arts Centre

thefwoosh.com/2012/05/motuc-feature-the-mighty-spector

Austen Ezzell Photography