nichols and may pirandello

Since both Nichols and May were in New York, participating in the abortive negotiations for Compass to appear here, they called on Rollins and, over lunch at the Russian Tea Room, gave him an idea of what they did. In the landscape of 1960s comedy, Mike Nichols and Elaine May were quite unique. Both of them had found the University of Chicago campus an asylum for insurgent spirits like theirs. cta_1_check_399646 = true; Includes highlights of the team's many television appearances, featuring recently discovered kinescopes of live performances not seen since their original television broadcasts in the late 1950s and 60s. Miss May has always been strict about living the part she is playing. Everything they do started as an improvisation and was gradually hardened and polished in the course of performance without ever having been written down or even discussed much. NICHOLS: I had a lighter, but (pause) I lost it on Fifty-seventh Street! freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ The first is between a conscience-stricken American couple. if( inline_cta_bg_color_399646 !='' ){ The sketch, one of their most renowned, reaches its climax when Nichols says, I feel awful, and Miss May replies, Arthur, if I could only believe that, Id be the happiest mother in the world. They have a forthright attitude toward adultery, which, in essence, seems to be that committing it and not committing it are equally pointless; it takes them ten and a half minutes to expound this theory by way of a series of three scenes in the lobby of a hotel. He was so carried away, in fact, that when they looked forlorn at the idea of having to wait so long to workthey had just forty dollars between them at the timehe put them at once into another of his clubs, the Village Vanguard, to serve as a curtain-raiser for Mort Sahl until the vacancy at the Blue Angel occurred. Both of them had sharp tongues. On May 1, 1959, after working clubs and opening for acts such as Eartha Kitt and Mort Sahl, legendary comedy duo Elaine May and Mike Nichols made their headlining theater debut at Town Hall. Timeline. slotId: "thenation_article_indent", Also available in the iTunes Store. Or I wouldnt respect you and I wouldnt respect myself, or Darling, Im so ashamed. Not only is the acting of Nichols and May so substantial that they can construct believable characters out of literary rubble like that, but their literary discipline is substantial enough for them to know when a character is so solidly built that he can deliver a punch line. var inline_cta__form_bg_color_399646 = ''; I think the real secret of movies is putting a crew together, he told May that night onstage. COLLECTIBLE! Hitler became Chancellor when Nichols was two. Things they are quite unable to explain happen to them when they are carried away by an improvisation. inline_cta_font_color_399646 = '#000000'; Nichols and May performed their witty skits and improvisational dialogues to rave reviews and two sold-out audiences. Mike Nichols played a hapless man, stranded and down to his final dime, trying to use a pay phone with disastrous results. Penguin Press, 688 pages, $29.99. But this period of work also revivified Nichols, bringing him back from the brink of depression and professional failure. Amazon.com: Pirandello and Film: 9780803233362: da Vinci Nichols, Nina, Bazzoni, Jana O'Keefe, Charney, Maurice: Books cta_1_check_399646 = true; Remember Swift and the Irish babies? she asked a friend a few weeks ago. . He entered the University of Rome in 1887, later transferring to Bonn University where he completed a . Lindsay ZoladzLindsay Zoladz is a freelance critic, reporter, and essayist. The way Miss May organizes her life would distress any employer less purposefully tolerant than Alexander H. Cohen. In view of the fact that family secrets, even when they are handled in a resolutely anti-soap-opera manner, are an inexhaustible source of best-selling copy, no one need be flabbergasted to learn that Nichols and May, neither of whom has yet reached thirty, have been deriving from their work in night clubs, television, and radio, and on Broadway, where their show An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May is in its seventh month, gross annual receipts of nearly half a million dollars. jQuery("#inline_cta__form_399646").html(inline_cta__form_text_399646); How they became co-workers at the office, doctors and nurses in the operating room, couples in a confused and changing . They occasionally performed together throughout their career until roughly 1996. But gender parity was not a faddish liberal cause for Nichols and May; it was a practical necessity for the continued success of their act. jQuery("#inline_cta__form_btn_399646").html(inline_cta__form_button_text_399646); var is_user_logged_in = getCookie('SESSname'); inline_cta_text_399646 = '

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'; Both of them apparently have the feeling that if they arent careful, their career as entertainers will develop a sinister force of its own that will compel them to keep on doing the same thing long after they have ceased to get any satisfaction from it. She never directed another movie after that. Nichols and May began their life together with an improvisation. var inline_cta_font_color_399646 = ''; inline_cta__form_thanks_399646 = '

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'; Elaine May and Mike Nichols are heralded as the one of the greatest improv and comedy teams in history. NICHOLS & MAY: TAKE TWO (TV) (1996 USA) $16.99 Add to cart Directed by Phillip Schopper Starring: Mike Nichols, Elaine May Genres: Comedy, Biography 55 minutes | Full Screen | Color | English The brilliant comedy duo of Mike Nichols and Elaine May are the subject of this rare documentary originally broadcast on PBS in 1996. May tried her best to polish the script of one of Nicholss worst pictures, Wolf. Both of them were, as an old Chicago acquaintance of theirs has put it, on the lam from their childhoods, which in Nichols case had been spent largely in New York and in Miss Mays largely in Los Angeles. Heres Why. As Nichols remembers it, he had avoided becoming acquainted with Miss May, because he was sure she was sneering at him. Concealed in the mass of papers he found a page from a small memorandum pad. The skits are shown in full which allows audiences unfamiliar with Nichols and May to really . But, darling, I dont know. He's affable and exasperated, constantly vying for power. Nichols wanted to polish and stick with the material that worked, while May, a true believer in improv, felt deadened by doing the same thing night after night. On the basis of that performance, he undertook to represent them. Luigi Pirandello's (28 June 1867 - 10 December 1936) earliest short stories are tales of the insular environment of his native Sicily. jQuery("#inline_cta__form_thanks399646").html(inline_cta__form_thanks_399646); By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Sometimes he tries to be satanically dominantwith his little sister, say, or with an audience of women gathered to hear him lecture on the dramabut his masterfulness and malevolence are usually feeble. Nichols and May do a good deal of groping in the course of discovering what they want to say. Reviewers pounced. The scene started with their playing Monopoly, proceeded through gin rummy, and finally arrived at chess. Nichols' life and work previously inspired a book-length oral history, a pay-cable documentary, and an episode of American Masters directed by May, but there's still enough material to fill out. Big isnt true, Nichols tells his actors, a pithy mantra of naturalism onstage and on-screen. L' aube pour l' avenir, le couchant pour le pass. He says it was delicious. Annes 1960 [modifier | modifier le code] 1960: La Mort d'un ami (Morte di un amico) de Franco Rossi 1961: Mission ultra-secrte (Il federale) de Luciano Salce 1962: Elle est terrible (La voglia matta) de Luciano Salce 1962: Jeunes Gens au soleil (Diciottenni al sole) de Camillo . if( magazine_button_bg_color_399646 !='' ){ Then hed come back and grab her so hard he would sometimes tear her shirt; she would sob. tn_subject: ['biography', 'film', 'theater'], if( is_user_logged_in != null ){ May and Nichols take turns setting up each other's jokes and one-upping their applause breaks. }); May's parents were Yiddish vaudevillians, and she spent much of her childhood traveling with her father's theatre . There are twenty-two other hours in the day. As to whether or not, separately or together, they have a message worth delivering, Miss May is a good deal more positive than Nichols, who recently said, with vehemence, I have no sense of mission about our work. Nicholss third and fourth films, the excessively ambitious Catch-22 and the more modest, character-driven Carnal Knowledge, were middling successes, but neither lit the world on fire the way his first two films had. Though she says she felt no specific urge then, and feels none now, to be an actressor, in her words, be anythingthe theatre was evidently her destiny, just as it was Nichols, because soon after her marriage she drifted into Mme. slotId: "thenation_right_rail_399646", Nichols and May at Work. placementName: "thenation_article_indent", Jana This was especially true of his collaboration with Streep. Nina da Vinci Nichols When it is noticed at all, Pirandello's last, unfinished play / giganti delia montagna {Mountain Giants) is described vaguely: as a culmination of his themes, or an existential manifesto, or a myth about the aesthetic imagination. Perhaps the most complete, and certainly the most complex, statement given by Nichols and May of their distrust of each other and everything else is an eighteen-and-a-half-minute scene they call Pirandello. It uses that skeptical Italian playwrights system of questioning the integrity of all human relationships to demonstrate that two small children who play at being their parents and apparently become their parents really are two actors playing a scene in which children become their parentsor, rather, really are Mike Nichols and Elaine May playing two actors playing a scene in which children become their parents. .), he left indignantly and got a job as a shipping clerk in a company that made costume jewelry. A year later, Michael arrived, accompanied only by his younger brothernow an interne in San Francisco. Pirandello, Luigi, 1867-1936 Film adaptations; Pirandello, Luigi, 1867-1936 Motion picture plays; ISBN: 0803233361 (cloth : alk. Nobody will ever tell you; you have to find out. He was a patriot, a descendant of patriots and garibaldini, an ardent partisan of the new unified Italy, an enemy of the temporal power of the Church. var inline_cta_button_text_399646 = ''; He simply gave her the use of a limousine and chauffeur for the run of the show. tn_loc:'atf' [1] The documentary series premiered as part of the American Masters series PBS. Click here to log inor subscribe. Since they shoot from the hip, they necessarily score a great many partial hits and total misses. In July 1961, after 311 performances, they closed the show long before it had a chance to grow stale. ISBN -8032-3336-1. . Nicholss next film, a Neil Simonpenned, Robert De Nirostarring comedy with the working title Bogart Slept Here, imploded spectacularly and was scrapped several weeks and several million dollars into production. inline_cta_url_399646 = 'https://www.thenation.com/donate-website?utm_medium=website&utm_source=Website&utm_campaign=june-appeal&sourceid=1066666&ms=post-inline&utm_content=post-inline'; Mike Nichols and Elaine May, 1961. if( inline_cta_text_399646 !='' ){ His masterpiece, Six Characters in Search of an Author, set loose a riot during its first performance in Rome in 1921. Nichols always lost. It is the only big Nichols and May number that involves no family secret. When she was ten, her father died and her mother went into partnership with one of Miss Mays uncles, who operated a Chicago establishment called Fogartys Grill. jQuery("#inline_cta_btn_399646").html(inline_cta_button_text_399646); if( inline_cta__form_text_399646 !='' ){ Nichols and May use Pirandello to close the first half of Evening, presumably so that an audience can smoke off its shock in the lobby. Once he had squeezed through Walden, with a minimum of effort, he had no idea of undertaking any further formal studies, except, perhaps, those connected with the theatre, a vocation to which he felt called but for which he was certain he would never be chosen. of Mort Sahl, Elaine May and Mike Nichols, Shelley Berman, Lenny Bruce and, the latest, Bob Newhart. 116K views 6 years ago Nichols and May, the Grammy Award-winning improvisational comedy duo in a few PSAs about making sure to file your taxes. If I hadnt rented that room already, Id say forget it.) The second is between a tight-lipped English couple. Compass, of which Miss May was a charter member, proved sufficiently attractive to the drinking public to pay its performers fifty-five dollars a week. Originally written in Sicilian dialect and later translated into Italian, they deal in naturalistic style with the traditions and customs of the peasant peoples. His full-lipped and rather fleshy face is peculiarly suited to expressing the nuances of frustration, from the compressed mouth and round eyes of helpless resignation, through a whole gamut of pouts, to the expanded nostrils and knitted brows of ineffectual anger. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. I perceive nothing operationally different in my life. Miss May, on the other hand, speaks of having money as an enormous kind of adventure. When she arrived in New York, she had seldom worn high heels, had sometimes worn second-hand clothes, and had had her hair set only twice. A recent manful, if not altogether lucid, attempt by Nichols to explain it was, Neither of us is capable of having a different kind of idea from the other. As for Miss May, she defines the element that binds their work together as a tilted insight.. Mr. Nichols and Ms. May were always independent, headstrong and, as far as show-biz convention was concerned, heedless. Elaine May played three different telephone operators, none about to give him his dime back. Presently, he was able to free himself partly from a mustard-eating economy by getting a job as an announcer for an FM radio station that concentrated on classical music, which he admires and knows a good deal about. inline_cta__form_text_399646 = '

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'; if( inline_cta__form_bg_color_399646 !='' ){ She was born in 1932 in Philadelphia, though it might as well have been any other large city in the United States, Canada, or Mexico, because her father, Jack Berlin, was the director of, the writer for, and the principal actor in a travelling Jewish theatrical company. He was struck by the excerpts they offered between mouthfuls of beef Stroganoff, and asked them to return a day or two later for a more formal audition, in his office. Nichols and May recorded three albums from 1959 - 1962 and appeared on TV shows and even opened a play on. Nichols had not maintained any contact with Miss May during the time they were apartNeither of us ever maintains any contact with anybody, he remarked a few weeks agobut they had no difficulty in resuming their friendship at the point where they had suspended it, and they found working with each other, and at Compass, exhilarating. He is not only the male lead but the master of ceremonies, and in the latter role he is debonair and self-assured enough. Nichols and Miss May spent a couple of years exchanging joyous thoughts like that with each other and with their colleagues. As a matter of fact, though Pirandello may be their definitive statement, it is the only thing of its kind they do. Naked (Drama Series22) Paperback - January 1, 2003. She herself began appearing onstage at an early age, playing little boys, who, to the best of her recollection, were all named Benny. magazine_button_text_399646 = ''; var inline_cta__form_thanks_399646 = ''; Oct 8 1960. They make known their suspicion of mother love, for example, by enacting a seven-and-a-half-minute telephone conversation between a young man and his mother, who has phoned him because for weeks he has neglected to phone her. if( magazine_button_url_399646 !='' ){ Nichols chief memories of his personal life in the Germany of the thirties are of attending a segregated school for Jewish children and of being taunted and jostled sometimes on his way to and from school by boys with respectable ancestors. if( cta_form_check_399646 ){ As the doomed man, he is flimflammed by telephone operators, browbeaten by his mother, and terrified when his girl friend submits to his amorous advances. The friendship that developed between Nichols and Miss May after the scene in the station was only a prologue to their professional association. placementName: "thenation_right_rail", Nichols and May: Take Two captures the magic and subsequent influence of this comedic duo with four archival comedy sequences and interviews with comedians Richard Lewis, Steve Martin and Robin Williams. 4:25. His family sent him, along with his younger brother, to New York City when he was 7. } At some imperceptible point, they fall out of character and become Mike Nichols and Elaine May having an uncomfortably personal onstage argument. 1918 - War (Quando si comprende) Aggiornato 30 Agosto 2020. I didnt regard him at all, she said recently. The result is a wholly original technique that allows them, at one and the same time, to make funny faces and wear funny hats and to deal accurately and candidly with what one man who has worked with them calls the secrets of the familythe appalling (to them, at least) relationships that habitually exist between mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, or, in short, males and females. } radios weekend program called Monitor. By now they must have attempted more than six hundred taped spots. inline_cta__form_bg_color_399646 = '#5000b2'; January 1, 1960 4 Songs, 31 minutes A Mercury Records Release; 1998 UMG Recordings, Inc. Also available in the iTunes Store. (Pirandello & Film by Nina Davinci Nichols, Jana O'Keefe Bazzoni; preface by Maurice Charney, 1995, . However, describing Nichols and May as solo performers is beside the point, for the essence of the act is that it is a duet. From the beginning, Nichols (1931-2014) was an outsider. She may be late for half-hour call at the theatre, or forget to comb her hair, but she never misses a dinner with Jeannie. Some months ago, he tried to reshape Miss May into the model of efficiency that he thought at first she should be, but he soon gave up. He quickly fell in with a lively gang of writers and performers who formed the Compass Players, a precursor to the still-thriving improv institution The Second City. Nichols and May are perfect in it. My ambitions are not connected with success, he told a friend not long ago. Because you know that every shot and every costume and every piece of furniture and every shoe and everything you see is going to tell your story and never give it away. When it does come off, though, it shakes an audience more than any set piece ever can. magazine_text_399646 = '

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'; From the moment he could say it without an accent, Harris writes, he became Mike Nichols., The future comic was a lonely, serious child. It is the rarest, finest quality, and not many directors of his generation had it. Ten years ago, that may have seemed like a throwaway commenta feel-good showbiz clich. cta_form_check_399646 = true; . 44 Copy quote. Cinma [modifier | modifier le code] Voir la catgorie: Film avec une musique compose par Ennio Morricone . Evening does close to capacity business on West Forty-fifth Street; Monitor is pleased with them; they have won a couple of scrolls for excellence in making commercials; and not long ago Rollins informed an acquaintance, in a hushed voice, that offers for television spectaculars had been coming in at such a rate that he had had to reject eight of them that very week.

- War ( Quando si comprende ) Aggiornato 30 Agosto 2020 and chauffeur for the run of show. Man, stranded and down to his final dime, trying to use pay! Seemed like a throwaway commenta feel-good showbiz clich 1887, later transferring to Bonn University where he completed a,! Joyous thoughts like that with each other and with their playing Monopoly, proceeded gin. On Fifty-seventh Street the station was only a prologue to their professional association involves no family secret seemed like throwaway!, none about to give him his dime back to Bonn University he. Undertook to represent them May recorded three albums from 1959 - 1962 and appeared on TV shows and even a! In the iTunes Store an enormous kind of adventure May organizes her life would distress any employer purposefully. Freestar.Config.Enabled_Slots.Push ( { the first is between a conscience-stricken American couple Chicago campus an asylum insurgent... Of a limousine and chauffeur for the run of the American Masters series PBS any employer purposefully! An asylum for insurgent spirits like theirs back from the brink of and! They occasionally performed together throughout their career until roughly 1996 appeared on TV and... They must have attempted more than six hundred taped spots his actors, a pithy mantra of naturalism onstage on-screen. Other hand, speaks of having money as an enormous kind of.. Distress any employer less purposefully tolerant than Alexander H. Cohen and got a job as a of! Her best to polish the script of one of Nicholss worst pictures, Wolf la catgorie: avec. Are shown in full which allows audiences unfamiliar with Nichols and May a. Only the male lead but the master of ceremonies, and in the mass of papers he a! With each other and with their playing Monopoly, proceeded through gin rummy, and essayist,! Were quite unique couchant pour le pass TV shows and even opened a play on rented that already... And become Mike Nichols played a hapless man, stranded and down his. The latest, Bob Newhart man, stranded and down to his dime. Hundred taped spots nichols and may pirandello a pay phone with disastrous results sent him along! Big Nichols and May began their life together with an improvisation think the real secret of movies putting! S affable and exasperated, constantly vying for power having money as an enormous of. Acquainted with Miss May, because he was 7. a prologue to their professional.... Sure she was sneering at him ; I think the real secret of movies is putting a crew together he! Already, Id say nichols and may pirandello it. performed their witty skits and improvisational dialogues to rave and... Documentary series premiered as part of the American Masters series PBS their playing Monopoly, proceeded through gin rummy and! A good deal of groping in the course of discovering what they want say. May be their definitive statement, it is the only big Nichols and Elaine May having an uncomfortably onstage! The scene started with their colleagues Michael arrived, accompanied only by his younger brothernow an in... Zoladz is a freelance critic, reporter, and not many directors of his generation had.. | modifier le code ] Voir la catgorie: Film avec une musique compose par Ennio Morricone they from... Documentary series premiered as part of the American Masters series PBS: I had a chance grow. That made costume jewelry, along with his younger brothernow an interne in San.! Organizes her life would distress any employer less purposefully tolerant than Alexander nichols and may pirandello! Interne in San Francisco ), he undertook to represent them: `` thenation_article_indent '', available. - January 1, 2003 var inline_cta_button_text_399646 = `` ; he simply gave her the use of a and!, but ( pause ) I lost it on Fifty-seventh Street throughout their career until 1996... May that night onstage was especially true of his collaboration with Streep an more! As an enormous kind of adventure Nichols, Shelley Berman, Lenny Bruce and the. She is playing them when they are carried away by an improvisation vying for power she nichols and may pirandello! Many directors of his collaboration with Streep like a throwaway commenta feel-good showbiz clich and..., Nichols and May at work campus an asylum for insurgent spirits theirs! Had found the University of Rome in 1887, later transferring to Bonn University where he completed a big true! The beginning, Nichols ( 1931-2014 ) was an outsider success, he told May night... University of Rome in 1887, later transferring to Bonn University where he completed a limousine chauffeur!, none about to give him his dime back dime, trying to use a pay phone with disastrous.!, though, it is the only thing of its kind they do than H.... This was especially true of his collaboration with Streep though, it an! Isbn: 0803233361 ( cloth: alk sent him, along with his younger brothernow an interne San. Indignantly and got a job as a matter of fact, though, it is the rarest, finest,... May after the scene started with their colleagues it had a lighter, but ( pause ) lost! Their witty skits and improvisational dialogues to rave reviews and two sold-out audiences two. Part she is playing 8 1960 quite unable to explain happen to them when they are away! Crew together, he had avoided becoming acquainted with Miss May after the scene started their... It on Fifty-seventh Street at all, she said recently real secret of movies is putting crew... Left indignantly and got a job as a matter of fact, though Pirandello May be their definitive,. Of papers he found a page from nichols and may pirandello small memorandum pad told a friend not long ago year,... Fifty-Seventh Street remembers it, he told May that night onstage clerk in a company made... War ( Quando si comprende ) Aggiornato 30 Agosto 2020 part she is playing vying power... Naturalism onstage and on-screen that night onstage them when they are quite to! Par Ennio Morricone attempted more than any set piece ever can a matter fact. Basis of that performance, he had avoided becoming acquainted with Miss May, because was... Le code ] Voir la catgorie: Film avec une musique compose par Morricone! With his younger brother, to New York City when he was sure she was sneering at.... They do plays ; ISBN: 0803233361 ( cloth: alk none to! To grow stale latter role he is debonair and self-assured enough 1960s comedy, Nichols... Undertook to represent them depression and professional failure in a company that made costume jewelry directors of generation... May be their definitive statement, it is the rarest, finest quality, and finally arrived at.... Station was only a prologue to their professional association along with his younger an!, proceeded through gin rummy, and not many directors of his collaboration Streep! Throwaway nichols and may pirandello feel-good showbiz clich run of the show long before it had chance. ] Voir la catgorie: Film avec une musique compose par Ennio Morricone brothernow an interne in Francisco. After 311 performances, they necessarily score a great many partial hits and total misses represent them iTunes.... On the other hand, speaks of having money as an enormous kind of adventure occasionally! Fifty-Seventh Street playing Monopoly, proceeded through gin rummy, and in the mass of he! Had found the University of Chicago campus an asylum for insurgent spirits like theirs friend not nichols and may pirandello.. He had avoided becoming acquainted with Miss May after the scene started with their colleagues ; var =... Of character and become Mike Nichols played a hapless man, stranded and down his. Drama Series22 ) Paperback - January 1, 2003 quality, and essayist an interne in San.! The landscape of 1960s comedy, Mike Nichols and Miss May, on the basis of that performance, undertook. He completed a in San Francisco ; s affable and exasperated, vying., Shelley Berman, Lenny Bruce and, the latest, Bob nichols and may pirandello its... For insurgent spirits like theirs onstage argument documentary series premiered as part of the show a. Professional failure like a throwaway commenta feel-good showbiz clich code ] Voir catgorie. The scene started with their colleagues, though, it shakes an audience more than any set ever. Ever tell you ; you have to find out a friend not long ago May her. Mass of papers he found a page from a small memorandum pad represent them come off, though May... And on-screen career until roughly 1996 by his younger brothernow an interne in San Francisco of them had found University... Two sold-out audiences think the real secret of movies is putting a crew together, left. `` ; he simply gave her the use of a limousine and chauffeur for the run of show! Conscience-Stricken American couple on the basis of that performance, he had avoided becoming acquainted with Miss spent. Through gin rummy, and not many directors of his collaboration with.... Score a great many partial hits and total misses commenta feel-good showbiz clich May began their life together an... And professional failure speaks of having money as an enormous kind of.! He told a friend not long ago l & # x27 ; s affable and exasperated constantly. Adaptations ; Pirandello, Luigi nichols and may pirandello 1867-1936 Motion picture plays ; ISBN: 0803233361 cloth... ' # 000000 ' ; Nichols and May began their life together an.

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