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Baby, take off your coat…real slow
Baby, take off your shoes…here, I’ll take your shoes
Baby, take off your dress
Yes, yes, yes
You can leave your hat on
You can leave your hat on
You can leave your hat on

image found on RetroDoll

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Images found on Born In The Wrong Era

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Images found on Born In The Wrong Era

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…. or rather, several

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jeanne-crain

Jeanne Elizabeth Crain (May 25, 1925 – December 14, 2003) was an American actress whose career spanned from 1943 to 1975. She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in the 1949 film Pinky, in which she played the leading role. She was also noted for her ability in ice skating.

Career

a12116_craig_05In 1944, Crain starred in Home in Indiana and In the Meantime, Darling. Her acting was critically panned, but she gained nationwide attention. It resulted in landing the leading role in The Shocking Miss Pilgrim in October 1944, a musical film which was eventually made with Betty Grable as the star.

Crain first received critical acclaim when she starred in Winged Victory (1944). She co-starred in 1945 with Dana Andrewsin the musical film State Fair, in which Louanne Hogan dubbed Crain’s singing numbers. After that, Crain often had singing parts in films, and they were invariably dubbed, in most cases by Hogan. Also in 1945, Crain starred in Leave Her to Heaven with Gene Tierney. Her ice skating ability was on display in the 1946 film, Margie, in which she and Conrad Janis danced around the ice rink as her boyfriend, Alan Young, slipped and stumbled his way along the ice.

a12116_craig_02In 1949, Crain appeared in three films — A Letter to Three Wives, The Fan, and Pinky, the latter earning her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Pinky was controversial, since it told the story of a light-skinned African American woman who passes for white in the Northern United States. Although Lena Horne and other black actresses were considered, producer Darryl F. Zanuckchose to cast a white actress for fear of racial backlash.

Crain starred opposite Myrna Loy and Clifton Webb in the 1950 biographical film Cheaper by the Dozen. Next, Crain paired with Cary Grant in the Joseph L. Mankiewicz film of the offbeat drama People Will Talk (1951). Despite Jeanne heavily campaigning for the female lead, Anne Baxter was initially cast in the part, but when she had to forfeit due to pregnancy, Crain was given the role after all. Shortly after, she starred in Charles Brackett‘s production The Model and the Marriage Broker (1951). Cast in May 1951, Crain was Brackett’s first choice for the role. Crain was reunited with Loy for Belles on Their Toes (1952), the sequel to Cheaper by the Dozen.

a12116_craig_03While still at 20th Century Fox, Crain played a young wife quickly losing her mind amidst high-seas intrigue in Dangerous Crossing(1953), co-starring Michael Rennie. Crain then starred in a string of films for Universal Pictures, including a notable pairing with Kirk Douglas in Man Without a Star(1955).

Crain showed her dancing skills in 1955’s Gentlemen Marry Brunettes co-starring Jane Russell, Alan Young, and Rudy Vallee. The production was filmed on location inParis. The film was based on the Anita Loos sequel to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Gentlemen Marry Brunettes was popular throughout Europe at the time and was released in France as A Paris Pour les Quatre (To Paris for the Four), and in Belgium as Cevieren Te Parijs. Later in the 1950s, Crain, Russell, and another actress formed a short-lived singing and dancing lounge act on the Strip in Las Vegas.

a12116_craig_04In 1956, Crain starred opposite Glenn Ford, Russ Tamblyn, and Broderick Crawford in the Western film The Fastest Gun Alive directed by Russell Rouse. In 1957, she played a socialite who helps a floundering singer and comedian (Frank Sinatra) redeem himself in The Joker Is Wild.

In 1959, Crain appeared in a CBS special television production of Meet Me in St. Louis. Also starring in the broadcast were Loy, Walter Pidgeon, Jane Powell, and Ed Wynn, with top billing going to Tab Hunter. Film roles became fewer in the 1960s as Crain went into semiretirement. She appeared as Nefertiti in the Italian production of Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile (1961) with Edmund Purdom and Vincent Price. During this period, Crain appeared – for the second time – as one of the mystery guests on the CBS game show, What’s My Line?, and made guest appearances on the NBC Western series, Riverboat, with Darren McGavin, and the ABC detective a12116_craig_01series,Burke’s Law, starring Gene Barry.

She starred again with Dana Andrews in Hot Rods To Hell (1967). Her last films were Skyjacked (1972) and The Night God Screamed (1975).

Legacy

Crain’s career is fully documented by a collection of memorabilia about her assembled by Charles J. Finlay, a longtime publicist at 20th Century Fox. The Jeanne Crain Collection resides at the Cinema Archives at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. These archives also hold the papers of Ingrid Bergman, Frank Capra,Clint Eastwood, and others.

Filmography

Film

Year Film Role Notes

1943

The Gang’s All Here

Chorus Girl/Pool Party Guest

uncredited

1944

Home in Indiana

‘Char’ Bruce

 

In the Meantime, Darling

Margaret ‘Maggie’ Preston

 

Winged Victory

Helen

 

1945

State Fair

Margy Frake

a.k.a. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s State Fair
also Soundtrack

Leave Her to Heaven

Ruth Berent

 

1946

Centennial Summer

Julia Rogers

also Soundtrack

Margie

Marjorie ‘Margie’ MacDuff

also Soundtrack

1948

You Were Meant for Me

Peggy Mayhew

 

Apartment for Peggy

Peggy Taylor

also Soundtrack

1949

A Letter to Three Wives

Deborah Bishop

 

The Fan

Lady Margaret ‘Meg’ Windermere

a.k.a. Lady Windermere’s Fan

Pinky

Patricia ‘Pinky’ Johnson

Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress

1950

Cheaper by the Dozen

Ann Gilbreth

 

I’ll Get By

Jeanne Crain

uncredited
Cameo appearance

1951

Take Care of My Little Girl

Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Erickson

 

People Will Talk

Deborah Higgins

 

The Model and the Marriage Broker

Kitty Bennett

 

1952

Belles on Their Toes

Ann Gilbreth

a.k.a. Belles on Their Toes: The Further Adventures of the Gilbreth Family

O. Henry’s Full House

Della Young

Segment The Gift of the Magi

1953

Dangerous Crossing

Ruth Stanton Bowman

 

Vicki

Jill Lynn

 

City of Bad Men

Linda Culligan

 

1954

Duel in the Jungle

Marian Taylor

 

1955

Man Without a Star

Reed Bowman

 

Gentlemen Marry Brunettes

Connie Jones/Mitzi Jones

also Soundtrack

The Second Greatest Sex

Liza McClure

also Soundtrack

1956

The Fastest Gun Alive

Dora Temple

 

1957

The Tattered Dress

Diane Blane

 

The Joker Is Wild

Letty Page

a.k.a. All the Way

1960

Guns of the Timberland

Laura Riley

 

1961

Twenty Plus Two

Linda Foster

a.k.a. It Started in Tokyo

Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile

Tenet/Nefertiti

Original title: Nefertiti, regina del Nilo

1962

Madison Avenue

Peggy Shannon

 

Pontius Pilate

Claudia Procula

Original title: Ponzio Pilato

1963

Invasion 1700

Helen

Original title: Col ferro e col fuoco
a.k.a. Daggers of Blood
a.k.a. With Fire and Sword

1967

Hot Rods to Hell

Peg Phillips

a.k.a. 52 Miles to Terror

1971

The Night God Screamed

Fanny Pierce

a.k.a. Scream

1972

Skyjacked

Mrs. Clara Shaw

a.k.a. Sky Terror

Television
Year Title Role Notes

1955

Star Stage

Nancy

1 episode

1956

The Ford Television Theatre

Joyce Randall

1 episode

1958

Playhouse 90

Daisy Buchanan

1 episode

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

Ruth Elliot

1 episode

1959

Meet Me in St. Louis

Rose Smith

TV movie

Goodyear Theatre

Lila Babrek Barnes

1 episode

Riverboat

Laura Sutton

1 episode

1960-62

G.E. True Theater

Hope/Marion Miller

3 episodes

1963

The Dick Powell Theatre

Elsie

1 episode

1964-65

Burke’s Law

Amy Booth / Lorraine Turner / Polly Martin

3 episodes

1968

The Danny Thomas Hour

Frances Merrill

1 episode

The Name of the Game

Mrs. McKendricks

1 episode

1972

Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law

Lily MacMurdy

1 episode

Text and filmography table from Wikipedia

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In 1958, Life Magazine invited Marilyn Monroe and photographer Richard Avedon to recreate images of five celebrated actresses of different eras, one of these was Marlene Dietrich.  Entitled “Fabled Enchantresses,” the piece was part of the magazine’s December 22 “Christmas” issue and included an article by Marilyn’s playwright husband, Arthur Miller, entitled “My Wife, Marilyn.”

Avedon found in Marilyn an easy subject to work with, “She gave more to the still camera than every other actress – every other woman – I had the opportunity to photograph…” He added that she was more patient with him and more demanding of herself than others  and that she was more comfortable in front of the camera than when not posing.


Marlene Dietrich was born on December 27, 1901 in Berlin Germany.  Her real name was Maria Magdalene Dietrich and she took up acting in her late teens.  After failing an audition with Max Reinhardt in 1921, she joined the chorus line of a touring music revue.  In 1922, she re-auditioned for Reinhardt and this time was accepted in his drama school.  She began playing small roles on the stage and in German films, never getting anything more substantial than supporting roles. However, by the late 20’s she had risen to playing leads with moderate success.

Her big break came when she was spotted onstage by American director Josef Von Sternberg, who cast her to play a sexy, seductive vamp in The Blue Angel,1930, filmed in Germany.

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Von Sternberg became a dominant force in her life, moulding her into a glamorous, sensuous star. She got a Hollywood contract and left her husband and daughter behind, going on to star in six films for Von Sternberg.  Their collaboration made her a star equal in magnitude to Garbo.

She became an American citizen in 1939; meanwhile, her films were banned in Germany because she had refused a lucrative offer from the Nazis to return and star in German films.  During World War II she entertained U.S. troops, participated in war bond drives, and made anti-Nazi broadcasts in German; she was awarded the Medal of Freedom for "meeting a gruelling schedule of performances under battle conditions… despite risk to her life". She was also named Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour.

In the 50’s, as her film career slowed, Dietrich began a second career as a recording star and cabaret performer. Singing to packed houses in major cities all over the world she became famous as an on stage performer.  See section devoted to her music.

Late in her life, she was rarely seen in public, but she agreed to provide the voice-over for Maximillian Schell’s screen biography of her Marlene(1984).  She wrote three volumes of memoirs: Marlene Dietrich’s ABC (1961), My Life Story (1979) and Marlene (1987).  She lived a long life and was active until 1990; she died two years later on May 6, 1992

I attended a Dietrich concert with my parents at the Tivoli in Copenhagen back in the mid sixties. I can still remember that concert – Ted

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Figen Say was born on May 4, 1946 in Istanbul, Turkey as Meri Özbiyikliyan. She is an actress, known for Ajan 14 yosmalar arasinda (1967), Zalimin zulmü varsa (1969) andKaraoglan – Camokanin intikami (1966).

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Irene Dunne (December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an Irene Dunne American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron (1931), Theodora Goes Wild (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), Love Affair (1939) and I Remember Mama (1948). She was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1958.

Early life

a12102_irene dunne_02Born Irene Marie Dunn in Louisville, Kentucky, to Joseph Dunn, a steamboat inspector for the United States government, and Adelaide Henry, a concert pianist/music teacher from Newport, Kentucky, Irene Dunn would later write, “No triumph of either my stage or screen career has ever rivalled the excitement of trips down the Mississippi on the river boats with my father.” She was only eleven when her father died in 1909. She saved all of his letters and often remembered and lived by what he told her the night before he died: “Happiness is never an accident. It is the prize we get when we choose wisely from life’s great stores.”

After her father’s death, Irene, her mother, and her younger brother Charles moved to her mother’s hometown of Madison, Indiana. Dunn’s mother taught her to play the piano as a very small girl. According to Dunn, “Music was as natural as breathing in our house.” Dunne was raised as a devout Roman Catholic. Nicknamed “Dunnie,” she took piano and voice lessons, sang in local churches and high school plays before her graduation in 1916.

She earned a diploma to teach art, but took a chance on a contest and won a prestigious scholarship to the Chicago Musical College, where she graduated in 1926. With a soprano voice, she had hopes of becoming an opera singer, but did not pass the audition with the Metropolitan Opera Company.

Career

a12102_irene dunne_03Irene, after adding an “e” to her surname, turned to musical theatre, making her Broadway debut in 1922 in Zelda Sears‘s The Clinging Vine. The following year, Dunne played a season of light opera in Atlanta, Georgia. Though in her own words Dunne created “no great furore”, by 1929 she had a successful Broadway career playing leading roles, grateful to be at centre stage rather than in the chorus line. In July 1928, Dunne married Francis Griffin, a New York dentist, whom she had met in 1924 at a supper dance in New York. Despite differing opinions and battles that raged furiously, Dunne eventually agreed to marry him and leave the theatre.

Dunne’s role as Magnolia Hawks in Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II‘s Show Boat was the result of a chance meeting with showman Florenz Ziegfeld in an elevator the day she returned from her honeymoon. Dunne was discovered by Hollywood while starring with the road company of Show Boat in 1929. Dunne signed a contract with RKO and appeared in her first movie in 1930, Leathernecking, a film version of the musical Present Arms. She moved to Hollywood with her mother and brother and maintained a long-distance marriage with her husband in New York until he joined her in California in 1936. a12102_irene dunne_04That year, she re-created her role as Magnolia in what is considered the classic film version of the famous musical Show Boat, directed by James Whale. (Edna Ferber‘s novel, on which the musical is based, had already been filmed as a part-talkie in 1929, and the musical would be remade in Technicolor in 1951, but the 1936 film is considered by most critics and many film buffs to be the definitive motion picture version.)

During the 1930s and 1940s, Dunne blossomed into a popular screen heroine in movies such as the original Back Street (1932) and the original Magnificent Obsession(1935). The first of three films she made opposite Charles Boyer, Love Affair (1939) is perhaps one of her best known. She starred, and sang “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes“, in the 1935 Fred AstaireGinger Rogers film version of the musical Roberta.

She was apprehensive about attempting her first comedy role, as the title character in Theodora Goes Wild (1936), but discovered that she enjoyed it. She turned out to possess an aptitude for comedy, with a flair for combining the elegant and the madcap, a quality she displayed in such films as The Awful Truth (1937) and My Favourite Wife (1940), both co-starring Cary Grant. Other notable roles include Julie Gardiner Adams in Penny Serenade (1941) (once again opposite Grant), a12102_irene dunne_05Anna Leonowens in Anna and the King of Siam (1946), Lavinia Day in Life with Father (1947), and Marta Hanson in I Remember Mama (1948). In The Mudlark(1950), Dunne was nearly unrecognizable under heavy makeup as Queen Victoria.

She retired from the screen in 1952, after the comedy It Grows on Trees. The following year, she was the opening act on the 1953 March of Dimes showcase in New York City. While in town, she made an appearance as the mystery guest on What’s My Line? She also made television performances on Ford Theatre, General Electric Theatre, and the Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, continuing to act until 1962.

In 1952-53, Dunne played newspaper editor Susan Armstrong in the radio program Bright Star. The syndicated 30-minute comedy-drama also starred Fred MacMurray.

Dunne commented in an interview that she had lacked the “terrifying ambition” of some other actresses and said, “I drifted into acting and drifted out. Acting is not everything. Living is.

Text from Wikipedia 

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….. your knickers elastics snap

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…… flaunting her assets at the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square, London, September 1959

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Marilyn Monroe as Theda Bara (f. 1885, d. 1955) in the role
as Cleopatra in the movie Cleopatra from 1917

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……  quite much actually

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…… needs no explanation

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In 1958, Life Magazine invited Marilyn Monroe and photographer Richard Avedon to recreate images of five celebrated actresses of different eras.  Entitled “Fabled Enchantresses,” the piece was part of the magazine’s December 22 “Christmas” issue and included an article by Marilyn’s playwright husband, Arthur Miller, entitled “My Wife, Marilyn.”

Avedon found in Marilyn an easy subject to work with, “She gave more to the still camera than every other actress – every other woman – I had the opportunity to photograph…” He added that she was more patient with him and more demanding of herself than others  and that she was more comfortable in front of the camera than when not posing.

Other actresses Monroe portrayed on the Avedon session were: Lillian Russell, Theda Bara, Jean Harlow & Marlene Dietrich

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Enrica Bianchi Colombatto
(born July 23, 1942 in Brescia, Lombardy) is an Italian actress, usually known by her stagename of Erika Blanc.

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Movie career

Her most notable role was as the first fictional character Emmanuelle in Io, Emanuelle. Blanc also starred in several horror films, including Kill, Baby, Kill, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, The Devil’s Nightmare, and Mark of the Devil Part II.

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She recently came back with little but very intense roles under the direction of Turkish-born director Ferzan Özpetek, acting as Antonia’s mother in Le fate ignoranti(2001), and as the sensitive, alcohol-addicted Maria Clara in Cuore Sacro (2005). In 2003 she also starred as the grandmother in Poco più di un anno fa-Diario di un pornodivo, directed by Marco Filiberti.

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Carmela Carolina Fernanda "Carmen" Russo
is an Italian dancer, actress, television personality and singer.

a12054_carmen russo_02Russo started her career as a model in the mid-1970s participating in several beauty contests in Italy. She first came to the public’s attention for her roles in the commedia erotica all’italiana, (sex comedy) genre, such as Mia moglie torna a scuola,Giovani, belle… probabilmente ricche and Paulo Roberto Cotechiño, centravanti di sfondamento.

She subsequently established herself as a television star in the 1980s with the variety shows Drive In, Risatissima andGrand Hotel. In 2003 and 2006 she also participated in the Italian and Spanish version of the reality show Celebrity Survivor. She won in the Spanish version Supervivientes. During her career she released also three unsuccessful studio albums, Stars on Donna, Le canzoni di "Drive in…" and Una notte italiana and she was also chosen many times as a model for Playmen magazine during the 1980s.

Career

1974 – 1975: Beauty contests and night shows

a12054_carmen russo_04In 1974, at the age of thirteen years old, Russo won her first important beauty contests "Miss Liguria". The previous year Russo also won the title of "Miss Emilia" held in Pavullo nel Frignano, but it was a qualification that had no value for the national contest. By winning the victory of "Miss Liguria" Russo had the opportunity to participate in the election of "Miss Italia" but she was disqualified because was too young.

1975 – 1979: Rome, film appearances and TV

Russo with Mention decided in 1975 to move in Rome, home of the major Italian film studios. The couple arrived in Rome and placed immediately in a tiny apartment very close to Cinecittà. With the tenacity and ambition that have always characterized Russo, every morning she did long queues to submit auditions for a part in a movie. Russo was immediately hired for a little part in the comedy movie Di che segno sei? with Adriano Celentano and Alberto Sordi. With this film Russo leaves for a while the stage of night clubs of the province.

In 1977 she was hired by Federico Fellini for the film La città delle donne with Marcello Mastroianni. In the movie she shows her breasts but was not credited. She then appeared in the crime movie Genova a mano armata as the cashier at the bar, and also made an appearance in Die linkshändige Frau (The Left-Handed Woman). The movie was a hit, especially in Germany and was entered into the 1978 Cannes Film Festival.

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Although Russo began her career as an actress, she continued to work as a showgirl in nightclubs and in 1978 Russo host with Ettore Andenna in the TV show "La bustarella" aired on Antenna 3 Lombardia. In the same year she also participated in "Portobello" with Enzo Tortora aired in Raiuno. Later Russo appeared in many others film and debuted in the theater supporting Walter Chiari in "Hai mai provato con l’acqua calda?". With this play, Russo won the Premio De Curtis. Due to the expansion of her career, she decided to settle permanently in Rome where there was also the home of the agency "Gymnasium".

1980 – 1983: Major roles, Playmen and music

a12054_carmen russo_05During the summer of 1979 Russo appeared for the first time in the Italian magazine for men Playmen, at the age of nineteen. After she appeared again in the magazine in late 1980, in 1981 and two times in 1982 and 1984. She became also one of the highest paid nude models in Italy.

In 1980 she participated in the making of two films: Patrick vive ancora with Gianni Dei and La settimana bianca. During the making of La settimana bianca in the summer of 1980 she met Gianfranco D’Angelo, who helped Russo to enter the world of television. In this year Russo also shot Le porno killers, her first role as a protagonist. In the film Russo played a bisexual killer. In the movie she was credited as Carmen Bizet. 1981 is the year of the artistic breakthrough for Russo. She left Mention and ended the job as show girl in nightclubs. Russo’s next films were starring roles in the sex comedies La maestra di sci and Mia moglie torna a scuola.

a12054_carmen russo_07At the end of 1981 Russo signed with Fontana Records for the release of a single -only. Her first single, "Notte senza luna" was promoted on the Italian radios. On December 1981 Russo performs the B-side of the song "Stiamo insieme stasera" during the Italian TV show Blitz aired on Raiuno. The performance was shot on the Italian destroyer Ardito (D 550). Russo also performs "Stuntman", an unreleased song.

The biennium 1982-1983 for Russo was very successful. During this year she starred in four films. Russo begins with Quella peste di Pierina with Marina Marfoglia andOreste Lionello. A few months after turning Buona come il pane. Is subsequently was chosen by Pierfrancesco Pingitore for the movie Il tifoso, l’arbitro e il calciatorewith Pippo Franco, Alvaro Vitali, Marisa Merlini and Daniela Poggi and then for Giovani, belle… probabilmente ricche with Gianfranco D’Angelo, Nadia Cassini andEdwige Fenech. In early 1983, Russo also released her first full-length studio album Stars on Donna, released as Carmen. The album contains cover version of songs by Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder.

Text from Wikipedia

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And the lovely ladies are: Carol Hughes, Dorothy Short, Eleanor Holm, Jean Harlow, Joan Blondell, Laurie Lane, Lilian Bond, Lupe Velez, Mary Carlisle, Olivia De Havilland, Patricia Ellis, Paulette Goddard, Raquel Torres and Sally Blane.

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