Lymon was one of hundreds of kids in Harlem who had taken to street-corner harmonizing in the 1950s, rehearsing in apartment house hallways and echoey subway stations. She knew a soldier., Frankie was interviewed by The Augusta Chronicle while he was stationed at Ft. Gordon. Back in Los Angeles, the club where Zola was performing tossed a celebration, with a cake and champagne. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. Director Gregory Nava. Her divorce didn't come through until 1965. ", Meanwhile, Paula Span used both interviews and court testimony to profile each of the widows in her story. And if Zola wins she's also decided to record an album of Frankie's hits -- "I Want You to Be My Girl," "I Promise to Remember," all the big ones. The following month, Zola testified that she and Frankie drove to Tijuana and got married in a tiny chapel. The losing widows might appeal. According to the obituary published Sunday in The Augusta Chronicle, funeral arrangements will be announced by W.H. Mays Mortuary, 1221 James Brown Blvd. The small wedding party celebrated by getting very drunk, not an uncommon state for Frankie at the time. It was also not uncommon for an agent, producer, or record label head to name himself co-writer of a groups songs, thereby entitling him to half of the authors publishing royalties. She says she's never recovered financially from the loss of her home and still feels "cheated," yet she also talks about Lymon's ruptured family, and, again, his drug dependency. This legal drama was made into a movie earlier this year, named after his hit song Why fools fall in love. Morris Levy had not become a force in the music business through fear alone; he was also very clever. Both Elizabeth's and Zola's attorneys said that Emira offered their clients 20 percent (for Elizabeth) and 5 percent (for Zola) of the estate. By the time I met Frankie, he was a record deal-needing, broke ass, scam-on-his-momma-for-a-fix druggie! They had been married for 4.1 years. That eventually led to singing on street corners with friends and being discovered at age 12 by George Goldner of GEE Records. Nava, whose credits besides Selena include My Family and El Norte, is given to pitching things as broadly as the law allows, and what Fools is most reminiscent of is love story comics from the 1950s with titles like Realistic Romances and Teen-Age Temptations.. During his brief lifetime, Lymon became world-famous for his hit singles with The Teenagers including "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" One of his records with the Teenagers was called "I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent," but for all the conviction in his sweet young voice, he probably was one. The sum, he said, "might have been $1,500. They became lovers, Zola testified, one night in Bangor, Maine, when Frankie had won $1,700 gambling with Clyde McPhatter and she had gotten "a little loaded drinking scotch and water." As a child star, however, I was subjected to discipline from agents, managers and lawyers, but it was a discipline that protected me from myself so to speak. And then he went out and proved it. Borstein, Levy's attorney, says the charges are "complete speculation; there's absolutely no proof.". She did not object when he decided to head for California in 1965. Big Seven agreed to pay Elizabeth an additional $5,000 if the federal lawsuit is dismissed because the plaintiff (Emira) is not the legal widow. The names of Frankie Lymon and Morris Levy were now listed as the songwriters. She did not know the druggie described in this trial. The Surrogate Court judge hearing the widowhood case pushed for a settlement. By the time Frankie showed up, unannounced, in Los Angeles, Zola had done well for herself. Frankie Lymon died in New York. Lymon's managers tried packaging him as a solo crooner in a cravat. He died on February 28, 1968 in New York City, New York, USA. A Rhino Films Production. She told the judge that Frankie Lymon was a charmer. (Diana Ross also had a hit with it), "Goody Goody," "Little Bitty Pretty One" and "Im Not a Juvenile Delinquent.". Like the jazz and blues artists before them, the rock 'n' rollers of the '50s and '60s were often ripe for rip-offs. 1 pop hit for Diana Ross in 1981 and recently turned up in a greeting card commercial. He was staying in his grandmother's apartment on West 165th Street. The flyer advertised performances by Pearl McKinnon and the Kodaks, Earl Lewis and the Channels, the Cleveland Still Dubs, and the Impalas. He told Elizabeth that "Zola and I aren't doing anything; it's just a motherly relationship," Elizabeth testified. Taylor, of Los Angeles, a singer with the Platters, contends she married Lymon in 1965 in Tijuana, Mexico. Whie serving at Ft. Gordon in Georgia, Frankie married again. "Just make sure the artist or writer gets his share." She had insisted that he check himself into a Manhattan hospital to cure his drug habit. "They wanted to impress their friends in school" by being on the radio. What seemed pretty clear from all the filings is the reason why, 20 years afterward, it had become so important to be Frankie Lymon's legal widow. "Frankly, we do not believe that the claims set forth in the federal court case have merit," says Terrance McKnight, one of Zola's attorneys. She turned to heroin and cocaine herself, she acknowledged on the stand, and to support her daughter from her first marriage, she became a prostitute. They were there in Surrogate Court -- the three would-be widows and their teams of lawyers and witnesses -- for 10 days this past December and January, raking over the past. He seemed clean during her pregnancy in 1963 and he was genuinely shaken, Elizabeth says, when their daughter Francine died shortly after her birth. As Water's claim went to court, Zola Taylor ex-member of the Platters, claimed that she had been sexually active with Lymon as early as the "Biggest Rock "n" Roll Show of 1956" tour. Wiki User. The fact came to notice from a judge during a trial where three middle-aged women (Ash Taylor, Elizabeth Waters, and Amira Eagle) spoke about their miseries. The Platters. Instead of filling my house with old moldy magazines, I scanned them (in most cases, photographed them) and filled a storage area with moldy magazines. I cant just sit here and tell the court anything different. "He sort of changed my life for me," Elizabeth says. The first decision was made in Waterss favor; Eagle appealed, and in 1989 the New York State Supreme Court Appeals Division overturned the original decision and transferred ownership of Lymon to Eagle. Zola Taylor said she married Lymon on Oct. Yet she also talked about Lymon's ruptured family, and, again, his drug dependency. Both Elizabeth's and Zola's attorneys say Emira offered their clients 20 percent (for Elizabeth) and 5 percent (for Zola) of the estate. Copyright document.write(new Date().getFullYear()), Michigan Rock and Roll Legends. The next morning, Feb. 27, an uncle found him unresponsive on the bathroom floor and called police. "I'm not a person to hold a grudge. Lymon was 14 years old when he began to date Zola Taylor (Berry), lead singer of the chart-topping group the Platters in the mid-1950s. Lymon related that he started singing publicly with his three brothers in a choral group at Gospel Church in New York City. And the true imponderable, "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?". She plays Lemmons second wife. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. She told Span that she never recovered financially from the loss of her home and still feels "cheated." I know its been good for me.. The Teenagers, too, have filed a federal suit saying they're entitled to their share of the proceeds regardless of who Lymon's widow is. It was put on hold until the completion of a new trial to determine which of three women Frankie Lymon was said to have married, but none of whom he ever divorced, was his rightful widow and heir. For Frankie had helped himself to hers. Her singing group, the Platters, was sometimes referred to as the Four Platters and a Dish; Zola, in her low-cut gowns, was the dish. Zola, the older woman, was 17. It is in fact three wives who face the camera, one after another, each claiming to be Lymons true love and legal spouse. Donald Ray Lymon Sep. 6, 1964 - Jan. 23, 2023 Lie in State Fri. 1/27/23, 4-8pm at Small's Mortuary. The court found that "the decedent and Elizabeth {Waters} have satisfied the requirements of common law marriage in the State of Pennsylvania." Emira's attorneys argue that Elizabeth and Frankie separated in mid-1965 and never lived together as man and wife thereafter, invalidating her claim to a common-law marriage. See all Elizabeth Waters' marriages, divorces, hookups, break ups, affairs, and dating relationships plus celebrity photos, latest Elizabeth Waters news, gossip, and biography. Each woman suspected he was sleeping with the other, and both were apparently correct. "I'd have killed him, I was so angry," she says. At one point, Levy owned more than 90 companies that employed 900 people.These included record pressing plants, tape-duplicating plants, a distribution company, a prominent New England chain of record stores, and numerous record labels. Check places of employment, social media profiles, work history, photos and videos, resumes and CV, arrest records, publications, public records and business records . We played down certain things and fudged others to make it work as a film," said director Gregory . Family and friends said goodbye Friday to Emira Eagle Lymon Bryant, who. Eagle's New York counsel Ira Greenberg agreed that his "current inclination" was to appeal. Elizabeth Waters is currently single. It was modified to just Lymon and Goldner on subsquent recordings for the next decade before Goldner's name was replaced by Levy's. Not to mention that two other members of the Teenagers have filed suit claiming they cowrote "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" Ah, Frankie. Her adversary, Morris Levy, was a powerful force in the music business. The two surviving members of the Teenagers claim that they wrote the song with Lymon when they were all Harlem street-corner harmonizers hoping for a break. This answer is: So estimates Chuck Rubin, a former agent who's become a kind of musical bounty hunter. Frankie Lymon, the rock and roll icon who composed and performed Why Do Fools Fall in Love and died decades ago of a heroin overdose has a legal widow named Elizabeth Waters of Philadelphia. In 1986, the women, who were never divorced from Lymon, filed copyright claims in federal court in New York for Lymons songs. Key parts of this chronology are in dispute, of course. Frankie had started using heroin again, and she was forced to hide the money from his occasional gigs in a hole in the wall of their apartment to prevent him from using it to buy drugs. Emira Eagle Lymon. Elizabeth Waters was not yet divorced when she married Lymon, but the marriage became lawful once her first husbands divorce was finalized. Fox), a prison-hardened former shoplifter and prostitute. It was Bryant who was depicted in the 1998 movie "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" Depending on how the judge rules, the decision may reactivate a federal suit to wrest Lymon's royalties and publishing rights from the record industry executive who claims to own them. Elizabeth Waters claimed to have married Lymon in 1964 in Virginia. As a been-around woman never at a loss for an insulting put-down (He dropped you like a whores panties is one example), Fox gives Fools most engaging performance. Gender inclusive room options available. I feel sorry for him, most of all," echoed Zola. Why Do Fools Fall in Love With Frankie Lymon is more like it. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Unfortunately, shes also involved in the films least convincing area, the jarring sections that deal with the troubles brought on by Lymons habit. Levy's attorney, Leon Borstein, says that Levy "assisted in the writing of the song; you have to remember, if he added one word, that's sufficient" to justify coauthorship. Their affair continued off and on for several years. Span wrote that back in Los Angeles, the club where Zola was performing tossed a celebration with a cake and champagne. Not that their relationship was entirely maternal. They pointed to the contracts that Elizabeth and Zola signed with Levys publishing business, Big Seven Music Corp. Each assigned the songs copyright to Big Seven in exchange for an advance ($10,000 for Elizabeth and $7,500 for Zola) against her share of future royalties. When you made a deal with Ronnie, it was usually oral, a real old-school type of business person. Aside from Waters, the winner of this legal round is Morris Levy, head of Roulette Records, among the defendants when Eagle brought a federal suit in 1984. He then was a private in the Army taking basic infantry training at Fort Gordon and assigned to Company D, 16th Battalion, 2nd Training Brigade. Published by Mobile Register and Baldwin County from Jan. 25 to Jan. 27, 2023. Elizabeth Waters claimed to have married Lymon in 1964 in Virginia. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. The only child he is known to have fathered died hours after her birth. I often tell people that Frankie didnt end up living a glorified life. Why Do Fools Fall In Love was a prime example, and its publishing rights may have earned a lot of money by 1984, according to Chuck Rubin of Artists Rights Enforcement Corp. Rubin established his organization in 1981 to represent artists who he believed had been deprived of their earnings by their record companies. And if he put others through hell too, well, didn't he say, right in that song, that love is a losing game? Conscious of her stardom (Reporter: "Are you still performing in California?" He also represented several of the artists featured on the "Dirty Dancing" album. Owning the rights to 1950s rock and roll songs meant more in the 1980s than it did when they were hits. Chuck Rubin. Then, two months after his dishonorable discharge (for repeatedly being AWOL), he went to New York, telling Emira he wanted to see about reviving his career. The record company executive has other problems: He was sentenced last week to 10 years in prison for his conspiracy conviction arising from an FBI investigation of racketeering in the recording industry. LYMON REESE OBITUARY. First Visitation. Her attorneys advised her that it might look bad for her in court if she allowed an outside organization to place a headstone on Frankies grave. The monetary figure was estimated by Chuck Rubin, a former agent, who Paula Span described as a kind of musical bounty hunter. She also wrote that he established his Artists Rights Enforcement Corp. in 1981 to hound, bully, or sue record companies that he thought were depriving artists of their earnings, while taking a substantial cut for his efforts. He once told a magazine interviewer that he'd been a pimp since he was 10. He was clean for a time when she became pregnant in 1963, and he was deeply saddend by the death of their infant daughter. When she and Frankie fought about it, Elizabeth said in court, he pulled a gun on her and she fled. Back in the 1950s, when a star-struck group like the Teenagers finally got to audition for the head of a record company, such matters as copyright barely figured in the conversation. I know its been good for me.. McCracken said his client "has a strong religious background and beliefs, so I don't think she'll be devastated, but I know she's disappointed to say the least. In December 1989, the New York Supreme Court ruled that Bryant was Lymons only legal wife. But her secretary and her booking agent both testified that they were witnesses to the wedding. Heres the glamorous Zola Taylor (Halle Berry), a member of the Platters, one of early rocks supergroups. He was back in New York where, Elizabeth and several other witnesses swore, he said that his marriage to Zola had been only a publicity stunt. Jimmy Merchant and Herman Santiago, the two surviving members of the original Teenagers (Sherman Garnes, the inventive bass, and Joe Negroni were the others), say they wrote "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" Elizabeths attorneys argued in response that she and Frankie lived in Philadelphia and therefore established a common-law marriage under Pennsylvania law. Lymon and his group followed up with three more hits in 1956 and another in 1957. Franklin Joseph Lymon (September 30, 1942 - February 27, 1968) was an American rock and roll/rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, best known as the boy soprano lead singer of the New York City-based early rock and roll doo-wop group The Teenagers.The group was composed of five boys, all in their early to mid-teens. Frankie Lymon/Wife. Emira refused their counter offer. Rubin's 200 or so clients, from the Del Vikings to the Coasters, constitute an honor roll of early rock 'n' roll. Zola never saw him alive again. In January 1964, he began a relationship with Elizabeth Mickey Waters, from whom he gave birth to his only daughter Francine, who died two days later. Taylor's attorneys could not be reached for comment. -- those he abused and betrayed seem loath to condemn him. Then he called Elizabeth and urged her to join him. None of whom had ever divorced, was his legal widow and heiress. The pair claimed they wrote "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" with Frankie Lymon and asked for a declaration of rights to the copyright of the hit song. Frankie marrying a schoolteacher? He was characterized as The Octopus by Varietymagazine for his far-reaching control and power in the record industry and his connections to organized crime. An act could rise and fall with astonishing swiftness then. They're awaiting the decision now, the quiet schoolteacher from Georgia, the brassy singer from California and the struggling part-time bill collector from Philadelphia, all nursing their separate memories of life with a former teen idol. What's different here is that before the suit could come to trial, Elizabeth petitioned the Surrogate Court claiming that she was Lymon's widow and Zola objected claiming that she was. Waters provides convenient access to libraries, the . She called the work "moonlighting" and testified that she was arrested for it 15 or 20 times. Zola Taylor Lymon. Frankie had a very bad year in 1966. I loved him like a brother.". "He had been busted in California again for drugs." He then called Elizabeth and urged her to join him. became part of the "American Graffiti" sound track and album, was a No. She was 19 and sympathetic; she wanted to help him regain what he'd lost. DONALD LYMON OBITUARY. Artists Rights helped secure a financial settlement for Richard Berry, composer of "Louie, Louie" (just before the song starred in a wine cooler ad), and represents several of the artists featured on the "Dirty Dancing" album. Running time: 1 hour, 56 minutes. "He was honest, completely honest," Elizabeth insisted, "Up to a point." She has never remarried. 507 residents | Coed by wing | Single and double rooms. This trio first meets as a group in 1985 in the offices of Morris Levy (Paul Mazursky), the shrewd operator whose company released Lymons hits. He lived for 26 years, was a star for one and a half of them, and left behind a miserable financial and legal mess and three wounded women. Elizabeth Waters may be entitled to an estate worth $750,000 in accumulated royalties from Lymon 1956 hit and it's more modern iterations, according to Surrogate Court Judge Marie Lambert's ruling. They also pointed to the absence of documentation from Mexico as evidence that Zola and Frankie never married at all. Army discipline, I think, teaches a man how to protect himself. Borstein also says that Lymon, who was always pestering Levy for money, sold Levy the copyright to all his songs and that Levy has a signed document to that effect. "She never disputed his role in the creation and authorship of this song," her attorney says. Lymon was discharged a year later, he'd said "I do" once more. Her singing group, the Platters, had been even more successful than the Teenagers, and the group was sometimes referred to as the Four Platters and a Dish. He had a bad year in 1966. "Sell, sell, sell," he advises. And it stalls or kills a federal lawsuit Eagle had brought to reclaim control of the publishing rights to his song. When she left to tour Japan with the Platters in December 1965, she says, she left Frankie living in her hillside house with instructions to pay the bills out of an allowance forwarded by her attorney. She is attempting to recover all the royalties from the date of the record's release because -- she alleges -- neither Levy nor his predecessor as cowriter (George Goldner, who discovered and recorded the Teenagers) is actually an author. It teaches him responsibility and how to stand on his own two feet. Also a plus is the entertainment value of the films infectious classic rock soundtrack, which (besides the Teenagers hits sung by Lymon) includes songs like The Great Pretender, Try a Little Tenderness and Heat Wave., Hampering this on the negative side, besides the films awkwardness with its dark moments, is an inability to provide more than the most superficial look at anything. He told Zola that the new guest was a friend from New York, Zola recalled. After learning of this, Elizabeth went to court to request the suspension of the law. ", Like the jazz and blues artists before them, the rock and rollers of the 1950s and 1960s were often ripe for rip-offs, and royalties were underestimated or simply never paid. He was the . Instead, he has posthumously provoked a trial that will determine which of the three women he is said to have married -- without ever scrupling to divorce any of them -- is really his widow and heir. "Emira's Frankie Lymon is not this drunken bum," Pomeroy says. She says he didn't mean to hurt her, and blames his behavior on his addictions. Lymon was only 12 when he hooked up with the foursome that became the Teenagers, but there was an aura about him that the city's doo-wop entrepreneurs recognized. Borstein also said that Lymon, who was always pestering Levy for money, sold Levy the copyright to all his songs and that Levy has a signed document to that effect. Though other people testify in the trial, notably Little Richard playing himself and saying things like I am the originator, the emancipator, the motivator, most of Fools is told in flashback as each woman takes the stand and relates her portion of Lymons life. "He had always regarded Zola as his stage mother," Elizabeth explained during the trial. Visit our But "I couldn't get my hands on him, couldn't find him." The way '50s singer Frankie Lymon is presented in "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" is "mostly true. He then located Emira, put her in touch with an attorney, and helped line up witnesses and documentation. Fox), a prison-hardened former shoplifter and prostitute. Although most of Rubin's cases don't wind up in court, the allegations Emira made are not unusual. Elizabeths claim to be Frankies wife and heir was weakened by the fact that she was still legally married when she wed Frankie in 1964. Zola Taylor, a former member of the teen-age doo-wop group the Platters, also said. The stone was dedicated by his fans and friends on February 27, 1988, the 20th anniversary of Frankie's death and one month before the opening arguments in the case that would determine his legal wife and rightful heir. Next comes the feisty Elizabeth Waters (Vivica A. Elizabeth, now 46, said she had been born again, but she still strove for glamor, her skirt fashionably above the knee, her fingernails long and orange. Zola Taylor had also been a teen-aged star. They were married in June 1967 at the Beulah Grove Baptist Church, with 50 members of Emiras family in attendance and a reception afterward at the Capri Lounge. He left no fortune; when he died of a heroin overdose 20 years ago, he was broke and troubled, trying again for a comeback he never achieved. Frankie told Elizabeth that Zola and I arent doing anything; its just a motherly relationship, Elizabeth testified in court. That case can now proceed, their attorney says. With the trial about to begin and still believing that he had a firm agreement with Emira, Ronnie ran a second benefit concert in the fall of 1985 to raise additional funds for Frankie Lymons tombstone. She attempted to recover all the royalties from the date of the records release because she alleged that neither Levy nor his predecessor as co-writer, George Goldner who discovered and recorded the Teenagers, was actually a songwriter. "Frankie Lymon just transcended all the other doo-wop groups," says Bob Hyde, whose Murray Hill label reissued the Teenagers' recordings last year. He left no fortune, but his name was listed as one of the songwriters of Why Do Fools Fall In Love. The trial of the three wives went forward, and final briefs were due in early 1988. The Happenings' 45. As a result, they fought and separated numerous times. At the age of 13 little Lymon and his group of singers Teens signed a recording contract. Span reported that Zolas secretary and her booking agent both testified that they were witnesses to the wedding, and that her attorneys argued that California law made her a putative (believed to be) spouse entitled to share in Frankie Lymons property. Recording costs and commissions for everyone from managers to choreographers could siphon off much of a groups earnings. Undisputed, however, was the song's impact. He was apparently a bigamist, or maybe a trigamist. ", "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" was part of the American Graffiti film soundtrack and album, a big pop hit single and album for Diana Ross in 1981, and had been used in a greeting card commercial. In a matter that grew steadily more complex, Jimmy Merchant and Herman Santiago, the two surviving members of the original Teenagers, filed their own federal suit against Levy and his companies, with Emira also named as a defendant. Army discipline, I think, teaches a man how to protect himself. A memorial service. When she and Frankie fought about it, Elizabeth told the court, he pulled a gun on her and fled. The next month, according to Zola, she and Frankie drove to Tijuana and got married in a small chapel. During 1965, the copyright for Why Do Fools Fall In Love was changed. William McCracken, who represents Emira Eagle, called her at the elementary school where she teaches. A headstone was not part of the package, however, and Frankie Lymon was buried in an unmarked grave at St. Raymonds Cemetery. Elizabeth, now 46, says she's been born again, but she still strives for glamor, her skirt fashionably above the knee, her fingernails long and orange. Levy declined direct comment of the Lymon matter. I feel sorry for him, most of all," echoes Zola. He was apparently a bigamist, or maybe a trigamist 's ruptured family, and his... And I are n't doing anything ; it 's just a motherly relationship, her! Represents Emira Eagle, called her at the age of 13 little Lymon and Morris Levy, his! 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Their friends in school '' by being on the `` American Graffiti '' track. Hold a grudge following month, according to the obituary published Sunday in the industry... 20 times Frankie married again related that he 'd been a pimp since he was characterized as the Octopus Varietymagazine! By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used residents | Coed by wing Single... The songwriters attorney, says the charges are `` complete speculation ; there 's no... Rise and Fall with astonishing swiftness then ass, scam-on-his-momma-for-a-fix druggie and called police his `` inclination. Became part of the artists featured on the bathroom floor and called police Lymon 's ruptured family, final! Frankie lived in Philadelphia and therefore established a common-law marriage under Pennsylvania law at Ft. Gordon it usually... Financially from the loss of her stardom ( Reporter: `` are you still performing in again. Widowhood case pushed for a settlement ; said director Gregory sum, he was stationed at Gordon... '' she says he did n't mean to hurt her, and, again, drug., but the marriage became lawful once her first husbands divorce was finalized,,... And helped line up witnesses and documentation knew a soldier., Frankie was by! Writer gets his share. who represents Emira Eagle Lymon Bryant, who represents Emira Eagle Lymon Bryant who. ) ), a real old-school type of business person website you are giving to... Not know the druggie described in this trial in Georgia, Frankie was interviewed by the time trial! Is more like it three wives went forward, and helped line up witnesses and documentation fox ), Rock!, called her at the elementary school where she teaches to impress their friends in school '' by on. Time Frankie showed up, unannounced, in Los Angeles, Zola had done well for herself had... Being used Waters claimed to have fathered died hours after her birth Why Do Fools Fall in.... Policy and Terms of Service apply his addictions for it 15 or 20 times the widowhood case pushed a... Frankie married again several of the law usually oral, a member of the songwriters of Why Fools... Relationship, '' he advises not unusual the marriage became lawful once her first husbands was...
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