NYC movie, pin-up collection slated for auction

AAA??Jul. 30, 2012?12:08 AM ET
NYC movie, pin-up collection slated for auction
By ULA ILNYTZKYBy ULA ILNYTZKY, Associated Press??

In this Wednesday, July 25, 2012 photo, Ira Kramer, nephew of the original Movie Star News founder Irving Klaw, holds a boot that once belonged to pin-up legend Bettie Page, at the New York shop. Movie Star News, a New York institution since 1939 credited with creating the concept of pin-up art, has been shuttered, and with it nearly 3-million Hollywood-related posters, vintage photographs and original negatives are destined for a different future. Last week, the Manhattan store announced it had sold its entire inventory, including 1,500 original bondage images of the ?Queen of Pin-Ups? Bettie Page, to two partners of a Las Vegas collectibles company for an undisclosed sum. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

In this Wednesday, July 25, 2012 photo, Ira Kramer, nephew of the original Movie Star News founder Irving Klaw, holds a boot that once belonged to pin-up legend Bettie Page, at the New York shop. Movie Star News, a New York institution since 1939 credited with creating the concept of pin-up art, has been shuttered, and with it nearly 3-million Hollywood-related posters, vintage photographs and original negatives are destined for a different future. Last week, the Manhattan store announced it had sold its entire inventory, including 1,500 original bondage images of the ?Queen of Pin-Ups? Bettie Page, to two partners of a Las Vegas collectibles company for an undisclosed sum. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

In this Wednesday, July 25, 2012 photo, Ira Kramer, nephew of the original Movie Star News founder Irving Klaw, looks over movie posters packed for transport, at the shop in New York. Movie Star News, a New York institution since 1939 credited with creating the concept of pin-up art, has been shuttered, and with it nearly 3-million Hollywood-related posters, vintage photographs and original negatives are destined for a different future. Last week, the Manhattan store announced it had sold its entire inventory, including 1,500 original bondage images of the ?Queen of Pin-Ups? Bettie Page, to two partners of a Las Vegas collectibles company for an undisclosed sum. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

In this Wednesday, July 25, 2012 photo, Ira Kramer, nephew of the original Movie Star News founder Irving Klaw, looks over movie posters packed for transport, at the shop in New York. Movie Star News, a New York institution since 1939 credited with creating the concept of pin-up art, has been shuttered, and with it nearly 3-million Hollywood-related posters, vintage photographs and original negatives are destined for a different future. Last week, the Manhattan store announced it had sold its entire inventory, including 1,500 original bondage images of the ?Queen of Pin-Ups? Bettie Page, to two partners of a Las Vegas collectibles company for an undisclosed sum. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

In this Wednesday, July 25, 2012 photo, Ira Kramer, nephew of the original Movie Star News founder Irving Klaw, poses for photos outside the New York shop. Movie Star News, a New York institution since 1939 credited with creating the concept of pin-up art, has been shuttered, and with it nearly 3-million Hollywood-related posters, vintage photographs and original negatives are destined for a different future. Last week, the Manhattan store announced it had sold its entire inventory, including 1,500 original bondage images of the ?Queen of Pin-Ups? Bettie Page, to two partners of a Las Vegas collectibles company for an undisclosed sum. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

This Wednesday, July 25, 2012 photo shows an open file cabinet containing images of actress Marilyn Monroe at Movie Star News in New York. Movie Star News, a New York institution since 1939 credited with creating the concept of pin-up art, has been shuttered, and with it nearly 3-million Hollywood-related posters, vintage photographs and original negatives are destined for a different future. Last week, the Manhattan store announced it had sold its entire inventory, including 1,500 original bondage images of the ?Queen of Pin-Ups? Bettie Page, to two partners of a Las Vegas collectibles company for an undisclosed sum. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Movie Star News amassed a staggering amount of film stills, posters and negatives over the past 73 years ? nearly 3 million, including 1,500 prints of Bettie Page, known as the queen of pin-ups. But last week, the once-lively store in lower Manhattan was lifeless. The classic movie posters that once covered its narrow 2,000-square-foot space were rolled up or covered in cellophane, its bins and racks empty. Everything was packed up in cardboard boxes that lined the floor.

The legendary Manhattan store credited with creating pin-up art had sold its entire inventory to a Las Vegas collectibles company.

The collection, regarded as one of the largest of its kind, is headed for the auction block. It will be sold in a series of sales slated to begin next year. The bulk of the collection covers the years 1939 to 1979; 11,500 movies and 5,000 actors are represented.

"This is the most important photo archive of Hollywood in existence. There are tens of thousands of negatives that have never been reproduced," said Stuart Scheinman, co-owner of Entertainment Collectibles, which bought the collection. "There are images here that have never been seen by the public."

There are 2,000 original prints and negatives of Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando, 1,000 of Gary Cooper, 400 of Bette Davis, hundreds of movie images of "The Godfather" and "Gone With the Wind."

"This could literally take five to 10 years to go through it all," Scheinman said. He would only say the company purchased the collection for "seven figures." Its true value was anyone's guess, but he believed it easily was worth $150 million.

Movie Star News produced 8-by-10 glossy prints from the negatives, selling each for a few dollars in the store and through the mail. But the Internet has significantly cut down on demand.

"I make references to things when customers come in, and they have no idea what I'm talking about," said Ira Kramer, who took over the business that his mother, Paula, and uncle Irving Klaw, started in 1939. "Today, if you want a picture of a star you can go on the computer and download it. So what do you need me for?"

"The maintenance of the collection has been fastidious ... the way a fine library would maintain material," said Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernsey's and in charge of selling the collection.

As far back as the 1940s, Movie Star News had a mailing list of 100,000 names. World War II soldiers were big customers, buying prints for their lockers, Kramer said.

The entrepreneurial Klaw, who died in 1966, hit on the idea of selling pictures of Hollywood stars while operating a movie bookstore.

"He noticed that kids were tearing out the pictures of the movie stars, so he decided to sell their pictures rather than the books," Kramer said. Klaw started dealing directly with movie studios, RKO, Columbia and others, located in those days along Eleventh Avenue.

"He made arrangements to buy from them whatever they didn't want ... original negatives, original prints of 'Citizen Kane,' 'Three Stooges,'" he said. The studios were more than happy to be rid of the stuff for which they had no room.

Kramer's mother was the one who took the pin-up shots. But it was Klaw who launched that side of the business after a man approached him about making him a set of photographs of skimpily-clad girls posing with whips and ropes, said Kramer.

Page was Klaw's favorite model, and a suitcase of the 7-inch heels she wore in the photos, plus other bondage props, will be included in the auction.

The photos were tame by today's standards. In fact, the models were required to wear two pairs of underwear. But the FBI continuously harassed Klaw and he had to appear before the 1955 Senate Subcommittee on Obscene and Pornographic Materials.

"It was a big headache," Kramer said. Klaw finally decided to burn all the pin-up material ? but Paula Klaw saved a lot of it.

___

Online:

Guernsey's: www.guernseys.com

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-07-30-Pin-Up%20Art/id-cf5534c3056543f7b3b654edc8e48715

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Pentagon chief Panetta says Syrian President Assad is hastening his own demise

TUNIS, Tunisia - Syrian President Bashar Assad's use of helicopter gunships to counter a civil uprising will prove to be "a nail in Assad's coffin," U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said Sunday at the outset of a five-day Mideast tour.

While giving no indication that the Obama administration is contemplating military intervention, Panetta said it is increasingly clear that the Syrian crisis is deepening and that Assad is hastening his own demise.

"If they continue this kind of tragic attack on their own people ... I think it ultimately will be a nail in Assad's coffin," Panetta told reporters travelling with him from Washington. "His regime is coming to an end."

Panetta said he would use his meetings in Tunisia, Egypt, Israel and Jordan to reinforce an international consensus that Assad must step down and allow a peaceful transition to a democratic form of government.

He said he also will continue consultations on efforts to ensure that Syria's stockpiles of chemical weapons do not fall into the wrong hands.

Panetta will be in Israel just days after U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who has cast the Obama administration as too soft on Iran and insufficiently supportive of the Jewish state.

In a speech in Jerusalem Sunday, Romney said the United States has "a solemn duty and a moral imperative" to block Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability. He steered clear of overt criticism of President Barack Obama, even though he said the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran "has only become worse" in the past five years.

Panetta declined to respond. "I'm just not going to get into that game of commenting on what candidates do," he said.

Panetta said he believes Israeli leaders still support an international campaign of economic, political and diplomatic pressure on Iran to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

"My view is that they have not made any decisions with regards to" attacking Iran, he said.

While in Israel, Panetta planned to visit an air defence battery that uses technology developed in part with U.S. support to shoot down short-range rockets. Israel has suffered thousands of rocket attacks from Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip in recent years.

The air defence system, called Iron Dome, has been an important success and serves to deter attacks from Iranian proxies, Panetta said.

He called Iron Dome an example of expanded U.S.-Israeli co-operation.

"We have achieved a level of defenceco-operation that is unprecedented in our history," Panetta said. "And my goal is to deepen that relationship even further."

This is Panetta's first visit to Tunis as defence secretary. The country was the launching pad for the wave of revolt that swept through the Arab world in 2011. It had been one of the most repressive governments in the region, while maintaining friendly relations with Washington.

Tunisia's uprising began in December 2010 when a fruit vendor, Mohammed Bouazizi, set himself on fire in the town of Sidi Bouzid to protest his lack of economic opportunity and the disrespect of the police.

Tunisia's new government is led by the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party, which had been banned under the previous government.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pentagon-chief-panetta-says-syrian-president-assad-hastening-232825119.html

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Non-profit sector has a lot to learn from for-profit companies: Great ...

The language and terminology used in for-profit companies and not-for-profits organisations is often quite different. We don?t usually think about the term ?profit?, yet there is a ?gain? in the non-profit sector, but it is measured against different criteria.

Using the concept of the?service-profit chain, this post translates the ideas so that excellent leadership, satisfied employees and great teams create loyal customers, that leads to ?profit?. For you this may mean things like changed lives,?improved?educational outcomes, increased funding and growth.

1. What is profit?
profit: The positive gain from an investment or business operation after subtracting for all expenses. Opposite of loss.

It?s an equation that looks like this:

Business operation - expenses = profit

There is always a cost to doing business ? including paying employees, goods/products and taxes and administrative fees. If the income is less than the these costs, the business runs at a loss. if higher, there is a profit ? that is the purpose of doing business

2. What is ?profit? for non-profit organisations?
In business the concept of profit is straightforward, but in the non-profit sector it?s not so clear. Organisations such as schools, aid agencies and churches provide a service to the community that is evident in improved outcomes for those served.

Schools: Young people receive a great education that provides a foundation for the future

Aid organisations: Funds are raised that are translated into programs that improve life outcomes

Churches: Lives are positively transformed and relationships strengthened which leads to growth and increased participation.

3. How does the service-profit chain work in non-profits?
In business, the service-profit chain establishes the link between profitability and the day-to-day operation of the business.

Great LEADERSHIP results in
Satisfied EMPLOYEES, who
Become LOYAL TEAMS that
Increases PRODUCTIVITY and
Provide a VALUE-ADD so the
Customers are SATISFIED and they
Become LOYAL CUSTOMERS which results in
Increasing PROFITS

There is a link between the way the leaders relate to their teams, and the way teams relate to the ?customers?. When leaders focus on their teams and create a culture that values loyalty, productivity and satisfaction, then this culture becomes translated to their teams.

4. Leaders make the difference at every level
There is an interesting link between loyal team members and loyal customers ? when a leader focuses on the team the team will mirror the same culture, positively or negatively to the customers. There is a direct correlation between how a leader engages with their team and how the team engages with the customer, or the people they serve.

Think about these questions:
1. What is profit in your work?
2. Who are your ?customers? and what makes them ?loyal??
3. What can you practically do to improve their satisfaction?
4. In providing service how do you add value?
5. What will increase the productivity of your team?
6. How do you recognise and reward employee loyalty?
7. As a leader what do you need to focus on to have satisfied employees?

Culture is contagious. Make sure yours is worth catching.

Source: http://anneknock.com/2012/07/29/non-profit-sector-has-a-lot-to-learn-from-for-profit-companies-great-teams-and-great-team-leaders-increase-profit-however-you-might-define-it/

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Vicki Larson: Are Kids Learning How To Be ... - Huffington Post

Anthropology, calculus, sociology, biology -- if you have a child in college, it's likely he or she is learning something about those topics, much of which they may forget once they graduate. But there's one topic many young adults are learning about while they're getting their degree that they may carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Infidelity.

Cheating in relationships -- not just in classes -- is relatively common among college students, notes Glenn Geher, director of evolutionary studies at SUNY New Paltz. Twenty-somethings are at the stage of their life where they may be taking relationships more seriously and are exploring monogamous relationships as well as their sexuality, but given their lack of experience it isn't surprising that many college romances don't last. But it may be surprising that so many of them end because of cheating. According to a 2000 study, between 65 percent and 75 percent of college students have been unfaithful.

"The most common way that dating couples end a relationship is by starting another," says Barry McCarthy, a psychologist and professor at American University in Washington.

Guys aren't the only ones cheating on campus; female co-eds are fooling around just as much, although men tend to have a more permissive attitude toward infidelity and don't always end a relationship because of it. Women overwhelmingly do break up over infidelity, but the ones who don't dump their boyfriends are well aware that if they don't let the cheating slide, they "don't have a boyfriend," according to a student at the University of North Carolina.

"So what?" you may be thinking; after all, college students are still kids. They haven't had enough experience in relationships to fully understand the meaning of commitment. It's truly the time when they should be sowing their wild oats.

That may be so, but the college dating scene has changed dramatically. Hookups, no stings attached (NSA) sex and friends with benefits have taken the place of the old-fashioned dating even their parents -- children of the 1960s sexual revolution -- may have grown up with. With more women on campuses than men, women have had to be a lot more aggressive -- and easier to bed -- to attract a guy's attention. They also have to be much more accepting of porn in their relationships.

And since more young adults are delaying marriage, they often have multiple relationships -- and more casual sex -- before saying their "I dos," if they even get to that point. There's more time to learn to be a serial cheater. As sociologist and "The Monogamy Gap: Men, Love, and the Reality of Cheating" author Eric Anderson has discovered, the more men cheat, the more likely they are to continue cheating. That's why more researchers are looking into what's going on sexually for those men and women in the phase of their life called emerging adulthood, and what it may mean when they're ready to settle down.

McCarthy and others believe that the patterns set in premarital relationships -- like infidelity -- are likely to spill over into marriage. That certainly seems to be occurring -- between 1991 and 2006, the number of adulterous wives under 30 increased by 20 percent; it increased by 45 percent for the hubbies.

"The costs of exiting have changed," says Edward Laumann, a professor of sociology at the University of Chicago.

So, too, have the definitions of infidelity. Most male and female undergrads easily agree on what sexual infidelity is, according to a recent multicollege/Kinsey Institute study. But they differed when it came to defining emotional infidelity -- an area that gets grayer all the time thanks to the rapid technological changes that have brought sexting, Facebook friending, Internet porn and adult chat rooms into so many relationships.

There are a few things fueling college students' beliefs about infidelity. Trust, self esteem, loneliness, a need to belong and fears of rejection play a huge part in deciding whether a student will cheat or not, one study found. Male undergrads say just being sexually attracted to someone could lead to infidelity, while their female counterparts believe being unhappy in a relationship could send someone into the arms of someone new, according to another study. Anderson's study of undergrad men reveals that they find monogamy to be challenging, and cheating is easier than asking for an open relationship.

All of which is causing some researchers to ask, can we teach undergrads not to cheat? After all, it's a lot easier to stop a bad behavior before it begins than try to deal with it after the damage is done, especially since infidelity plays a huge part in many divorces. And college campuses are a hotbed of opportunities for risky behaviors that often lead to cheating, such as heavy drinking.

Perhaps we can. According to a recent study of the effectiveness of relationship education in preventing infidelity, fewer male and female students fooled around after taking a 13-week course that addressed partner selection and making healthy relationship transitions, and detailed the possible negative consequences of cheating.

But is that a college's responsibility? Should colleges be teaching young adults not to cheat romantically -- especially with many struggling to just offer the basics, thanks to budget cuts? What is society willing to do to try to stop people from cheating -- if anything?

Perhaps instead of focusing on our kids' declared major, grades and degrees, we should be paying attention to their extracurricular activities.

A version of this article appeared on Vicki Larson's personal blog, the OMG Chronicles.

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Follow Vicki Larson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/OMGchronicles

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vicki-larson/is-college-teaching-kids-_b_1688876.html

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Getting to grips with Internet Marketing ? What Deserves Your Focus ...

Affiliate marketing is in all likelihood the easiest way to setup an online business yourself. Simultaneously, it is just a very hard approach to make money in case you aren?t devoted to mastering the fundamentals. Once you know how the basics work, you?ll find it less difficult to achieve long lasting success with Affiliate marketing. When you?re a web marketer you have to concentrate on being sure that the foundation you build is strong before you can do anything whatsoever else. This will help you create a strong business over it that may serve you for quite a long time. There is a lot more that you will get from your efforts should they be targeted inside right direction immediately. Here are some IM good ideas , get started, they?re pretty basic however they are still vital.

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You should learn just as much as you?ll be able to about and also work to hone your SEO skills. If you want to be an online marketer, you have to know the way to properly rank your website from the search engines, particularly the big ones. There are several different methods for you targeted visitors aimed at your web but search engines would be the most significant. The thing the following is to master SEO skills as time passes but also in the start it?s essential to own at least a grasp in the basics. You may feel a great deal more confident and successful when you?re conscious of the best methods to raise up inside the ranks on the engines like google. So take the proper steps to understand all the about SEO.

No matter what level you happen to be at at this time because, just as one Web marketer, what matters most is that you may learn. There are plenty of different reasons that you might fail your IM adventure however the most common reason is just not having any real consistency. You lose if you aren?t consistent. In case you have begun focusing on the fundamental play blocks for your IM business?s foundation, it?s actually a lot simpler to remain consistent. This is mostly because you know what direction you should be able to. As well, you?re also sure regarding the business you?re building.

Watch Olympics Online

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Source: http://artyapt.com/blog/getting-to-grips-with-internet-marketing-what-deserves-your-focus-2/

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With royalty and rock, Britain opens its Olympics

The Olympic rings light up the stadium during the Opening Ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 27, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, Pool)

The Olympic rings light up the stadium during the Opening Ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 27, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, Pool)

The Olympic rings light up the stadium during the Opening Ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 27, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, Pool)

The President of the International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge, left, and Britain's Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, back right, applaud as Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, foreground right, arrives during the Opening Ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 27, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

The Olympic rings light up the stadium during the Opening Ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 27, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Performers play drums during the Opening Ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 27, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

LONDON (AP) ? The queen and James Bond gave the London Olympics a royal entrance like no other Friday in an opening ceremony that rolled to the rock of the Beatles, the Stones and The Who.

And the creative genius of Danny Boyle spliced it all together.

Brilliant. Cheeky, too.

The highlight of the Oscar-winning director's $42 million show was pure movie magic, using trickery to make it seem that Britain's beloved 86-year-old Queen Elizabeth II had parachuted into the stadium with the nation's most famous spy.

A short film showed 007 driving up to Buckingham Palace in a black London cab and, pursued by her majesty's royal dogs ? Monty, Willow and Holly, playing themselves ? meeting the queen, who played herself.

"Good evening, Mr. Bond," she said.

They were shown flying in a helicopter over London landmarks and a waving statue of Winston Churchill ? the queen in a salmon-colored gown, Bond dashing as ever in a black tuxedo ? to the stadium and then leaping out into the inky night.

At the same moment, real skydivers appeared in the skies over the stadium throbbing to the James Bond soundtrack. And moments after that, the monarch appeared in person, accompanied by her husband Prince Philip.

Organizers said it was thought to be the first time the monarch has acted on film.

"The queen made herself more accessible than ever before," Boyle said.

In the stadium, Elizabeth stood solemnly while a children's choir serenaded her with "God Save the Queen," and members of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force raised the Union Jack.

Much of the opening ceremony was an encyclopedic review of British music history, from a 1918 Broadway standard adopted by the West Ham soccer team to the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" to "Bohemian Rhapsody," by still another Queen.

The evening started with fighter jets streaming red, white and blue smoke and roaring over the stadium, packed with a buzzing crowd of 60,000 people, at 8:12 p.m. ? or 20:12 in the 24-hour time observed by Britons.

An explosion of fireworks against the London skyline and Paul McCartney leading a singalong were to wrap up the three-hour opening ceremony masterminded by one of Britain's most successful filmmakers.

Boyle, the director of "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Trainspotting," had a ball with his favored medium, mixing filmed passages with live action in the stadium to hypnotic effect, with 15,000 volunteers taking part in the show.

Actor Rowan Atkinson as "Mr. Bean" provided laughs, shown dreaming that he was appearing in "Chariots of Fire," the inspiring story of a Scotsman and an Englishman at the 1924 Paris Games.

There was a high-speed flyover of the Thames, the river that winds like a vein through London and was the gateway for the city's rise over the centuries as a great global hub of trade and industry.

Headlong rushes of movie images took spectators on wondrous, heart-racing voyages through everything British: a cricket match, the London Tube and the roaring, abundant seas that buffet and protect this island nation.

Boyle turned the stadium into a throbbing juke box, with a nonstop rock and pop homage to cool Britannia that ensured the show never caught its breath.

The throbbing soundtrack included the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant" and a snippet of its version of "God Save the Queen" ? an anti-establishment punk anthem once banned by the BBC. There were The Who's "My Generation" and other tracks too numerous to mention, but not to dance to.

Opening the ceremony, children popped balloons with each number from 10 to 1, leading a countdown that climaxed with Bradley Wiggins, the newly crowned Tour de France champion.

Wearing his race-winner's yellow jersey, Wiggins rang a 23-ton Olympic Bell from the same London foundry that made Big Ben and Philadelphia's Liberty Bell. Its thunderous chime was a nod to the British tradition of pealing bells to celebrate the end of war and the crowning of kings and queens, and now for the opening of a 17-day festival of sports.

The show then shifted to a portrayal of idyllic rural Britain ? a place of meadows, farms, sport on village greens, picnics and Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne's bear who has delighted generations of British children tucked warmly in bed.

But the British ideal ? to quote poet William Blake, of "England's green and pleasant land" ? then took a darker, grittier turn.

The set was literally torn asunder, the hedgerows and farm fences carried away, as Boyle shifted to the industrial transformation that revolutionized Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries, the foundation for an empire that reshaped world history. Belching chimneys rose where only moments earlier sheep had trod.

The Industrial Revolution also produced terrifying weapons, and Boyle built a moment of hush into his show to honor those killed in war.

"This is not specific to a country. This is across all countries, and the fallen from all countries are celebrated and remembered," he explained to reporters ahead of the ceremony.

"Because, obviously, one of the penalties of this incredible force of change that happened in a hundred years was the industrialization of war, and the fallen," he said. "You know, millions fell."

Olympic organizers separately rejected calls for a moment of silence for 11 Israeli athletes and coaches slain by Palestinian gunmen at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Two of the Israelis' widows appealed to audience members to stand in silence when International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge rose to speak later at Friday's ceremony. The Israeli culture and sport minister planned to do just that.

The parade of nations featured most of the roughly 10,500 athletes ? some planned to stay away to save their strength for competition ? marching behind the flags of the 204 nations taking part.

Greece had the lead, as the spiritual home of the games, and Team Great Britain was last, as host. Prince William and his wife, Kate, joined in the thunderous applause that greeted the British team, which marched to the David Bowie track "Heroes." A helicopter showered the athletes and stadium with 7 billion tiny pieces of paper ? one for each person on Earth.

Both Bahrain and Brunei featured female flagbearers in what has been called the Olympics' Year of the Woman. For the first time at the games, each national delegation includes women, and a record 45 percent of the athletes are women. Three Saudi women marching behind the men in their delegation flashed victory signs with their fingers.

"This is a major boost for gender equality," said the International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge. These are his last games as head of the IOC. He steps down in 2013 after completing the maximum two terms.

Rogge honored the "great, sports-loving country" of Britain as "the birthplace of modern sport," and he appealed to the thousands of athletes assembled before him for fair play.

"Character counts far more than medals. Reject doping. Respect your opponents. Remember that you are all role models. If you do that, you will inspire a generation," Rogge said.

The queen declared the games open. Last month, the nation put on a festive Diamond Jubilee ? a small test run for the games ? to mark her 60 years on the throne, a reign that began shortly after London's last Olympics, in 1948.

The Olympic cauldron was to be lit with a flame that was kindled May 10, at the birthplace of the ancient Olympics in Greece, from a reflection of the sun's rays off a mirror.

Since then, 8,000 torchbearers, mostly unheralded Britons, have carried the flame on a 70-day, 8,000-mile journey from toe to tip of the British Isles, whipping up enthusiasm for a $14 billion Olympics taking place during a severe recession.

The identity of the last torchbearer, the one to light the cauldron, was kept secret ? remarkable given the intense scrutiny at what have been called the first social media Olympics.

Speculation focused on Roger Bannister, the first man to run a four-minute mile, in 1954, and on rower Steve Redgrave, among others.

The show's lighter moments included puppets drawn from British children's literature ? Captain Hook from "Peter Pan," Cruella de Vil from "101 Dalmations" and Lord Voldemort from J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series, as well as Mary Poppins.

Their appearance had a serious message, too ? the importance of literacy.

"If you can read and write, you're free, or you can fight for your freedom," Boyle said.

Boyle's challenge was daunting: To be as memorable as Beijing's incredible, money-no-object opening ceremony of 2008, the costliest in Olympic history.

"Beijing is something that, in a way, was great to follow," Boyle said. "You can't get bigger than Beijing, you know? So that, in a way, kind of liberated us. We thought, 'Great, OK, good, we'll try and do something different.'"

For the last time as president of the IOC, Rogge was to watch the Olympic flag being raised. He will step down in 2013 after completing the maximum two terms.

Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for president, planned to attend the ceremony with his wife, Ann. Romney caused a stir in Britain by suggesting earlier this week that the country had "disconcerting" problems preparing for the games.

Other political leaders from around the world, U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and her daughters, and a sprinkling of European and celebrity royalty were also attending.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-07-27-OLY-Opening-Ceremony/id-27b86b42050246a087804081f6cd89d6

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