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URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS (90%); ART & ARTISTS (90%); PAINTING (90%); HIP HOP CULTURE (90%); RELIGION (88%); RAP MUSIC (86%); ARTISTS & PERFORMERS (78%); MUSEUMS & GALLERIES (78%); FASHION ACCESSORIES (77%); EXHIBITIONS (72%); IMMIGRATION (70%); FASHION DESIGNERS (69%)
COMPANY: LVMH MOET HENNESSY LOUIS VUITTON SA (65%)
TICKER: MC (PAR) (65%); LVM (LSE) (65%)
INDUSTRY: NAICS316992 WOMEN'S HANDBAG & PURSE MANUFACTURING (65%); NAICS312140 DISTILLERIES (65%); NAICS312130 WINERIES (65%); SIC3171 WOMEN'S HANDBAGS & PURSES (82%); SIC2085 DISTILLED & BLENDED LIQUORS (82%); SIC2084 WINES, BRANDY, & BRANDY SPIRITS (82%)
PERSON: 50 CENT (54%)
GEOGRAPHIC: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (90%); LONDON, ENGLAND (79%) NEW YORK, USA (79%) UNITED STATES (92%); RUSSIA (90%); ENGLAND (79%); UNITED KINGDOM (79%)
LOAD-DATE: March 9, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Alexander Melamid's portraits of (from left) Kanye West, 50 Cent and Russell Simmons are in ''Holy Hip-Hop!'' at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. (PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART DETROIT)

Mr. Melamid at his studio in Chelsea with his portraits of religious figures. He also wants to paint Russian oligarchs. (PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL NAGLE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)


PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company



1011 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
March 9, 2008 Sunday

Late Edition - Final


Out of the Boardroom For a Bollywood Turn
BYLINE: By JANE L. LEVERE
SECTION: Section BU; Column 0; Money and Business/Financial Desk; SUITS; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 241 words
The British entrepreneur Richard Branson -- known for his hot-air ballooning and powerboating -- has added a new feat to his list of attention-getting accomplishments: he is now a Bollywood movie star.

To promote the start of Virgin Mobile's new cellphone service in India, Mr. Branson acted in a 20-minute Bollywood movie that was broadcast live from Mumbai last Sunday on Channel V in India.

The plot of the film, which was created by Channel V for Virgin, contains some of the staples of Bollywood drama, including two young, star-crossed lovers whose romance is opposed by the girl's father. Mr. Branson, playing himself, comes to the lovers' aid at the request of a character played by Neha Dhupia, a former Indian beauty queen. Before the dance scene at the end of the film, Mr. Branson and Ms. Dhupia are shown kissing, European-style, on both cheeks, after they have succeeded in their mission.

While in India, Mr. Branson also rappelled down the facade of the Hilton Towers in Mumbai, unveiling the Virgin Mobile logo when he was halfway down the building.

The cellphone service is a joint venture between Virgin Group and the India-based Tata Teleservices. A group of industry rivals that includes Vodafone asked Indian regulators to shut down the service, saying it fell under a law against cellphone brands that use other companies' infrastructure. But the government has preliminarily approved the partnership. JANE L. LEVERE
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: WIRELESS INDUSTRY (90%); FILM (90%); CELEBRITIES (77%); APPROVALS (69%); JOINT VENTURES (66%); MOBILE & CELLULAR TELEPHONES (90%); ACTORS & ACTRESSES (77%)
COMPANY: VIRGIN GROUP LTD (58%)
PERSON: RICHARD BRANSON (94%)
GEOGRAPHIC: MUMBAI, INDIA (88%) INDIA (94%)
LOAD-DATE: March 9, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Richard Branson of Virgin and Neha Dhupia made a film to promote his cellphone venture. Rivals tried to block his deal, but he may have a Bollywood happy ending. (PHOTOGRAPH BY VIRGIN MOBILE INDIA)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company



1012 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
March 9, 2008 Sunday

Late Edition - Final


LETTERS
SECTION: Section BU; Column 0; Money and Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 7
LENGTH: 679 words
Who Profits Most From Oil Profits?

To the Editor:

Re ''Exxon Mobil Needs a Hug'' (Everybody's Business, March 3), in which Ben Stein described how the company is owned mostly by ordinary Americans, whether as shareholders or through mutual funds and pension funds:

In the column, Mr. Stein asked which pensions or workers Senator Barack Obama, who took aim at Exxon Mobil in a recent speech, would like to deprive of that money.

But what of the hundreds of millions of people who actually purchase the products being sold by Exxon? Would it not be a greater benefit to these people if the profits were reduced a little bit?

And might I say that as a shareholder myself, the dividend, yielding 1.6 percent, is really not making me rich. As a matter of fact, one would need to own more than two shares to get a dividend big enough to buy a single gallon of gasoline.

Adam Dulberg Massapequa, N.Y., March 3

To the Editor:

Ben Stein is correct when he says that Senator Barack Obama, in criticizing Exxon Mobil in a speech, did not note that many American workers depend on the performance of pension funds invested in blue-chip marketplace giants like the big oil companies.

Mr. Obama also said that we need a leader who will listen to Main Street and not just Wall Street. But the capital markets provide businesses on every Main Street in America with the funds they need to expand their operations and work forces. Wall Street is Main Street. Let a Democratic candidate publicly acknowledge this reality. That change would catch some attention.

Margaret McGirr Greenwich, Conn., March 3

To the Editor:

The column doesn't consider how many Americans contribute to Exxon Mobil's profits, willingly or not. Every time I buy a loaf of bread or a can of tomatoes, part of the price I pay is the cost of the gasoline required to transport those products to the store. I also pay a share of the cost of transporting the tomatoes from the field to the processor, for transporting the material for the cans and labels to the factory, for transporting the waste products to the dump -- and on and on.

Like most Americans, I don't own, either personally or through a mutual fund, any shares in Exxon Mobil, so I don't get any of that money back. We nonowners subsidize Exxon Mobil shareholders.

Don Rice Columbus, Ohio, March 3

To the Editor:

The headline of the column said, ''Exxon Mobil Needs a Hug,'' but I would add that Ben Stein deserves a hug for his column. Like many of my colleagues, I spent my entire business career with Exxon. Today, this kind of loyalty between a company and its employees is viewed as almost old-fashioned -- but I was always proud to work for a company that I felt had high ethical standards, strove to be at the forefront of technology and treated shareholders, customers and employees fairly and with respect.

Today, some politicians would have you believe that being smarter, more efficient and more successful than your competition is a bad thing -- not the ingredient that made our free enterprise system the most powerful engine for progress, entrepreneurship and upward mobility the world has ever seen.

George Hunter Bernardsville, N.J., March 2

For Buyers, No Escape From a Housing Bubble

To the Editor:

Re ''How a Bubble Stayed Under the Radar'' (Economic View, March 2), in which Robert J. Shiller described a herd mentality in the recent path of the housing market:

One point that should be made is that even if a buyer recognizes that housing in a given area is overpriced, most buyers do not have a lot of other options. All houses in desirable areas with good job markets and good schools have been overpriced for a long time, many of these areas have very little housing available for rent, and rentals were also overpriced and seemed like an even worse investment.

Given tax incentives to buy homes, and the phenomenal appreciation that occurred over the last decade, one would have had to have been extremely contrarian to have avoided entering the market.

Susan Adler Walton-on-Thames, England, March 3
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: LETTERS & COMMENTS (92%); OIL & GAS INDUSTRY (90%); PENSION FUNDS (90%); US PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES 2008 (89%); MUTUAL FUNDS (89%); SHAREHOLDERS (89%); US DEMOCRATIC PARTY (77%); LABOR FORCE (76%); POLITICAL CANDIDATES (50%)
COMPANY: EXXON MOBIL CORP (90%)
TICKER: XOM (NYSE) (90%); EXX (LSE) (90%)
INDUSTRY: NAICS325110 PETROCHEMICAL MANUFACTURING (94%); NAICS324110 PETROLEUM REFINERIES (94%); NAICS211111 CRUDE PETROLEUM & NATURAL GAS EXTRACTION (94%); SIC2911 PETROLEUM REFINERIES (94%); SIC2869 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIC CHEMICALS, NEC (94%); SIC2865 CYCLIC ORGANIC CRUDES & INTERMEDIATES & ORGANIC DYES & PIGMENTS (94%); SIC1311 CRUDE PETROLEUM & NATURAL GAS (94%)
PERSON: BARACK OBAMA (92%); MICHAEL MCMAHON (84%)
GEOGRAPHIC: COLUMBUS, OH, USA (79%) OHIO, USA (79%); CONNECTICUT, USA (79%) UNITED STATES (94%)
LOAD-DATE: March 9, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Letter
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company



1013 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
March 8, 2008 Saturday

Late Edition - Final


News Summary
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 726 words
INTERNATIONALA3-8

Latin American Leaders Agree to End Border Crisis

The leaders of four Latin American nations embroiled in a diplomatic crisis over a Colombian military raid into Ecuador ended the dispute with warm embraces at a summit meeting that had earlier been marked by insults and accusations of treachery.A3

Killing Stops Spanish Politics

Spain's two main political parties abruptly curtailed campaigning for Sunday's general election after a gunman suspected of belonging to the Basque militant group ETA killed a former city councilman in northern Spain.A8

Burials for Yeshiva Victims

Funerals were held across Israel for the eight seminary students killed by a Palestinian gunman in Jerusalem. It is still unclear what group, if any, was responsible for the massacre.A8

Discord Before Arab Meeting

Several Arab leaders say they may boycott the annual Arab summit meeting this month in Damascus, the Syrian capital, because of anger at Syria over its role in Lebanon and ongoing links to Iran.A8

Iraqi President Visits Turkey

The president of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, visited Turkey as part of a joint effort to mend relations strained by a Turkish ground offensive against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq. A6

China Critic Reported Missing

A Chinese lawyer who has urged the Communist Party to improve its human rights record in advance of the Summer Olympics has disappeared, according to his wife.A4

NATIONALA9-12

Clinton to Fight Hard In Wyoming Caususes

Approaching the Wyoming caucuses, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is trying to seize on the momentum from her victories in Ohio and Texas to pull off a rare caucus victory. A10

As Mrs. Clinton and Senator Barrack Obama shift their attention to Pennsylvania, they are likely to find a more positive economic landscape than they might expect from a Rust Belt state. A10

Schools to Teach Hunting

Hunting is on the decline, and states are trying to bolster the tradition by attracting younger people to the sport. State lawmakers in West Virginia approved a bill to allow hunting education classes in schools where at least 20 students express interest. The goal is to reverse the 20 percent drop in hunting permits, which caused a loss of more than $1.5 million in state revenue. A1

Settlement in Autism Case

The government says a settlement with an autistic girl's family is not a concession that vaccinations can cause autism. An undisclosed sum for the girl's care has been paid to her family. A9

Couple Guilty of Theft

A young couple in Akron, Ohio, pleaded guilty to stealing $8.4 million last year from an armored car company where the man worked. Except for $1,500, all the money they are accused of taking has been recovered. A11

Ex-Mayor Remains in Jail

The Federal Bureau of Prisons extended the prison term of former Mayor Bill Campbell of Atlanta, who was convicted of tax evasion. A11

NEW YORK/REGIONB1-5

Army Base's Newspaper Publicizes D.W.I. Arrests

The Fort Drum Blizzard in Watertown, N.Y., the newspaper for the Army's 10th Mountain Division, has published 48 photos or silhouettes of soldiers arrested on drunken driving charges since Jan. 1 to try to stem a steady increase in D.W.I. arrests. B1

Traffic Plan in Trouble

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan for Manhattan traffic may be in trouble, not only in Albany, but also in the City Council, which after two years of bowing to much of the mayor's agenda now seems emboldened to resist him. B1

Religion Journal A15

BUSINESS DAYC1-8

Signs of a Recession

In a report the Labor Department estimated that the nation lost 63,000 jobs in February, confirming fears of a likely recession. Before the report was released the Federal Reserve said it would inject about $200 billion into the banking system this month to help promote more loans and investment. A1

Business DigestC2

OBITUARIESB16

Paul Raymond

He began his entrepreneurial life selling black-market nylons and fuel coupons during World War II and went on to become one of Britain's richest men, withan empire of Soho striptease clubs, salacious magazines and real estate holdings, he was 82.B16

EDITORIALA14-15

Editorials: Talk, but no peace; a one-party New York State; safety for consumers; Maura J. Casey on Ben Franklin and daylight saving time.

Columns: Bob Herbert and Gail Collins.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: WAR & CONFLICT (90%); INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (90%); TALKS & MEETINGS (90%); POLITICS (90%); STUDENTS & STUDENT LIFE (89%); CITY GOVERNMENT (89%); LEGISLATIVE BODIES (89%); CAUCUSES (89%); LARCENY & THEFT (83%); LEGISLATORS (78%); CAMPAIGNS & ELECTIONS (78%); POLITICAL PARTIES (76%); BOYCOTTS (76%); ELECTIONS (71%); US STATE GOVERNMENT (69%); HUMAN RIGHTS (66%); LEGISLATION (66%); AUTISM (64%); PRISONS (61%); ARMORED CAR SERVICES (60%); US POLITICAL PARTIES (58%); APPROVALS (50%); OLYMPICS (70%); SPORTS (50%); SUMMER OLYMPICS (50%); JAIL SENTENCING (63%); GUILTY PLEAS (60%)
COMPANY: CNINSURE INC (68%)
TICKER: CISG (NASDAQ) (68%)
PERSON: TZIPORA LIVNI (56%); HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (54%); BARACK OBAMA (53%); JALAL TALABANI (55%)
GEOGRAPHIC: DAMASCUS, SYRIA (79%); ATLANTA, GA, USA (79%); JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (79%) OHIO, USA (92%); WEST VIRGINIA, USA (79%); PENNSYLVANIA, USA (79%); GEORGIA, USA (79%); TEXAS, USA (79%) IRAQ (93%); TURKEY (93%); COLOMBIA (92%); UNITED STATES (92%); ISRAEL (92%); SPAIN (92%); SYRIA (92%); LATIN AMERICA (92%); SOUTH AMERICA (92%); ECUADOR (92%); IRAN (79%); LEBANON (79%); PALESTINIAN TERRITORY (79%)
LOAD-DATE: March 8, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company



1014 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
March 8, 2008 Saturday

Late Edition - Final


Herald Of a Global Imagination Revolution
BYLINE: By SETH SCHIESEL
SECTION: Section B; Column 0; The Arts/Cultural Desk; AN APPRAISAL; Pg. 7
LENGTH: 906 words
Deep in the woods, a lonely boy with thick glasses grew up without siblings, without television and without the Internet. But he had books, and in the tomes of a new sort of game called Dungeons & Dragons he discovered a fantastic world of sorcerers, maidens and trolls. He discovered loyalty and betrayal, cowardice and courage. In those books he realized that his mind had the power to transport him beyond barriers of class and religion, race and income. In those books, he realized he could be anyone.

Over the 34 years since Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson created Dungeons & Dragons, there have been plenty of those boys. I was one of them.

So when Mr. Gygax, the intellectual and spiritual father of all modern role-playing games, died on Tuesday at 69 after multiple extended illnesses, it prompted a reconsideration of the power of the imagination he unleashed, a power that continues to resonate and swell around the globe.

Right now there is a twentysomething man in Shanghai (and Seoul, and Taipei, and Beijing) who has never heard of Mr. Gygax and who is chain-smoking and clicking furiously on an online role-playing game that would have never existed without Dungeons & Dragons. As in other realms, the analog begat the digital. Without Mr. Gygax, there would have been no Ultima, no Wizardry, no Bard's Tale, no Zelda, no Final Fantasy, no Baldur's Gate, no EverQuest, no Lineage and certainly no World of Warcraft.

But most important, without Mr. Gygax (pronounced GUY-gax) millions of people -- mostly young men, but also some women -- would never have discovered the liberating strength of their own imagination. They would never have discovered that everyone has the ability to create an identity. In role-playing games, players realize they have the astounding power to refuse to allow the external world to define them.

In adolescence this is not a vital lesson for the socially privileged: the football quarterback or the prom queen. Back in the old days (not so long ago), before computer geeks became the richest people on earth, back when inherited wealth rather than entrepreneurial thinking was the definition of power, the unattractive smart guy was the object of scorn, rather than adulation or fear. And it hurt. In lieu of drugs, role-playing games taught that we could transcend the lunchroom, the school bus, the pizza parlor.

Chris Hare knows all about it. On Wednesday afternoon Mr. Hare, 34, an information technology administrator from Ossining, N.Y., stood in line at the Compleat Strategist in Midtown Manhattan, one of the world's oldest and most respected game shops. The day after Mr. Gygax's death, Mr. Hare waited to buy a miniature copy of the original pen-and- paper Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set.

''We're basically going to have a game of first-edition Dungeons & Dragons this weekend in Gary's memory,'' he said. ''Seriously, in the early '80s, remember the movie 'Revenge of the Nerds'? That was the popular opinion of intelligent people at the time. The jocks had it all.

''I grew up in Westchester, and it was cool to be rich. Obviously it was cool to be good-looking. But it was not cool to be too smart. Then Dungeons & Dragons came along, and it was a way to get out of there, to be yourself, to be someone else, to attempt the impossible and then gain the confidence in yourself to really do it.''

In front of Mr. Hare in line, Gary Lynch, a 29-year-old rehabilitation facilitator from Brooklyn, pointed to a newspaper obituary of Mr. Gygax and said: ''Without him, I would never have gotten married. Without him, I would still be single.''

Mr. Lynch said he had just been married last Friday at Grand Prospect Hall in Brooklyn. He said he met his wife a decade ago in the science fiction club at Brooklyn College, which overlapped with the regular Dungeons & Dragons and role-playing group at the school.

''Role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons keep people coming back because it's really a social activity,'' he said. ''The games really bring people together, unlike so many other things.''

A few blocks away, at Neutral Ground, a gaming parlor in the shadow of the Empire State Building, Erik V. Smykal, 42, one of the store's managers, came into work on Thursday, his day off, to help a player in his regular Dungeons & Dragons game devise a new character.

Mr. Smykal said he first played Dungeons & Dragons in 1978, just as he also discovered the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and Jack Vance.

''I was always reading, even at a young age,'' he said. ''Mostly I just wanted to be left alone with my books. But then we heard about D&D, and I immediately got into the game in a big way.

''The ability to become a character, to project this collective story with friends, and of course being heroic is always fun; it really conveyed this tremendous feeling of freedom. It allows you to get away from your day-to-day issues, not by ignoring them but by understanding what it's like to be someone else.''

Mr. Smykal looked up from the plastic tabletop on Neutral Ground's upper floor, just a few yards away from rows of young men playing Magic: The Gathering, World of Warcraft and Call of Duty.

''Really, this place wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Gary,'' he said. ''Learning to put yourself in another person's shoes emotionally is something that everyone has to learn eventually. It's part of learning to be a human being. Gamers do it for fun.''


URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: INTERNET & WWW (90%); ONLINE COMPUTER GAMES (89%); COMPUTING & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (78%); ADOLESCENTS (78%); DISEASES & DISORDERS (73%); HOBBY TOY & GAME STORES (72%); SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION (71%); RELIGION (71%); WEALTHY PEOPLE (71%); ATHLETES (61%); SMOKING (52%)
PERSON: MICHAEL MCMAHON (50%)
GEOGRAPHIC: NEW YORK, NY, USA (71%); BEIJING, CHINA (55%); SHANGHAI, CHINA (55%); TAIPEI, TAIWAN (55%) NEW YORK, USA (71%); EAST CHINA (55%) UNITED STATES (71%); CHINA (55%); TAIWAN (55%)
LOAD-DATE: March 8, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Gary Gygax, a creator of the game Dungeons & Dragons. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ASSOCIATED PRESS)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company



1015 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
March 8, 2008 Saturday

Late Edition - Final


Paul Raymond, 82, Dies; Built an Erotic Empire
BYLINE: By JOHN F. BURNS
SECTION: Section B; Column 0; Foreign Desk; Pg. 16
LENGTH: 824 words
DATELINE: LONDON
Paul Raymond, who began his entrepreneurial life selling black-market nylons and fuel coupons from a market stall during World War II and went on to become one of Britain's richest men, overseeing an empire of Soho striptease clubs, salacious magazines and real estate holdings, died on Monday in London. He was 82.

He had been in ill health for years, his company, the Paul Raymond Organization, said in announcing his death.

As much as any individual, Mr. Raymond was credited, or disparaged, for taking sex out of the dark corners of British life in the postwar era and turning it into highly profitable entertainment with his London clubs and glossy nude magazines.

When a police crackdown closed many Soho clubs in the 1980s, Mr. Raymond bought up property in the ensuing real estate slump, becoming one of London's canniest landlords. In its annual ''rich list'' in 2007, The Sunday Times estimated his fortune at $:650 million, about $1.3 billion.

Mr. Raymond became a face of London's ''swinging '60s'' with his flagship club, Raymond's Revue Bar in Soho, founded in 1957, which exploited legal loopholes to feature the first acts in Britain in which naked women danced onstage.

To that entertainment, accurately catching the changing public mood, Mr. Raymond added an air of respectability, or at least of artless candor, with pink neon lighting proclaiming the premise's wares and a nightclublike decor far removed from the tawdry, ill-lighted backstreet clubs that had been the venue for Soho's striptease business before.

His death has drawn wide coverage in British newspapers. Many celebrated him as having helped liberate Britain from stuffy Victorian attitudes about sex and ''ancient pruderies and restrictive laws,'' as an obituary in The Guardian put it.

Jean Seton, official historian of the BBC, said Mr. Raymond had been an important force, along with feminism, for making sex an acceptable feature of British life. ''What feminism did was put sex on the table and say, 'This is part of our lives,' '' she said. ''But he took it and commercialized it. He made porn mainstream by making men feel less of a failure for needing it.''

But there were harsh critics, among them the judge who, in a 1961 criminal trial, levied a fine of $:5,000 (then about $12,500) for Mr. Raymond's part in staging what the judge called ''filthy, disgusting and beastly'' acts at the Revue Bar.

Mr. Raymond was cheerfully unapologetic. ''The show goes on,'' he said, and it did, with the Revue Bar's business booming on the back of his conviction, with acts that bore titles like ''Yes, We Have No Pyjamas.''

''There will always be sex -- always, always, always,'' Mr. Raymond said.

His stable soon expanded to include other Soho clubs and magazines like Men Only, Razzle and Mayfair, which gave a name to a new genre in British publishing, the so-called top shelf magazines that news vendors placed atop their racks to avoid offending customers who considered them pornographic.

Some British admirers compared Mr. Raymond to Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy, but the British entrepreneur lacked the wider cultural interests that helped make Playboy's name.

''I have read parts of a book,'' Mr. Raymond told The Guardian in the 1990s, ''but never a full book. Maybe I attempted the wrong sort of book.''

The remark was typical of his lack of pretension. Describing his teenage black-marketeering, he said, ''I was a total spiv'' -- British jargon for a man, often given to flashy clothes and jewelry, who lives by unscrupulous dealings.

Born in 1925 as Geoffrey Anthony Quinn, a name he changed in 1947, Mr. Raymond grew up in Liverpool, the son of a successful haulage contractor. He left school at 15 and had his first experience of show business as a mind reader and clairvoyant. He developed his interest in the commercial exploitation of sex when the manager of a theater where he performed said he would hire him only if his two female assistants appeared seminaked on the stage.

Shy and stammering as a boy, Mr. Raymond adopted a flamboyant style in his Soho heyday, favoring lustrous fur coats, trendy long hair and a gold-plated Rolls-Royce, as well as a Wimbledon mansion and a longtime companion, Fiona Richmond, who was one of Britain's best known pornographic models.

For all his financial success, Mr. Raymond lived his last years a virtual recluse in a penthouse apartment behind London's Ritz Hotel, his spirit broken, according to friends, by the death of his daughter and hoped-for heir, Debbie, from a drug overdose in 1992.

Mr. Raymond's marriage to Jean Bradley, a dancer, in 1951, ended in divorce; she died in 2002. He is survived by two sons.

''Paul's fortune hasn't brought him any happiness,'' Ms. Bradley said in an interview shortly before she died. ''In his last call he said he wanted to become a recluse because people liked him only because of his money. He sounded so sad and lonely.''



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