Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon#Bacon numbers

{{short description|Parlor game on degrees of separation}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2015}}

File:Kevin Bacon, James Purefoy (7606385516).jpg, who has a Bacon number of 2: Purefoy appeared in Women Talking Dirty with Helena Bonham Carter, and Bonham Carter appeared in Novocaine with Bacon. ]]

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon or Bacon's Law is a parlor game where players challenge each other to choose an actor whom they connect to another actor via a film in which both actors appeared: this is repeated to try to find the shortest path that leads to prolific American actor Kevin Bacon. It rests on the assumption that anyone involved in the Hollywood film industry can be linked through their film roles to Bacon within six steps. The game's name is a reference to "six degrees of separation", a concept that posits that any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance links apart.

In 2007, Bacon started a charitable organization called SixDegrees.org. In 2020, Bacon started a podcast called The Last Degree of Kevin Bacon.{{Cite web|title=Kevin Bacon's best friend definitely wants to murder him in exclusive trailer for his new podcast|url=https://ew.com/podcasts/2020/02/12/the-last-degree-of-kevin-bacon-spotify-podcast-trailer/|website=EW.com|language=EN|access-date=2020-05-01}}

History

In a January 1994 interview with Premiere magazine, Kevin Bacon mentioned while discussing the film The River Wild that "he had worked with everybody in Hollywood or someone who's worked with them."{{Cite web |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2012/09/13/google_adds_six_degrees_of_kevin_bacon_to_search_engine.html|title=Google adds Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon to search engine|last=Teotonio|first=Isabel|date=September 13, 2012|website=Toronto Star|access-date=January 31, 2018}} Following this, a lengthy newsgroup thread which was headed "Kevin Bacon is the Center of the Universe" appeared.{{Cite newsgroup |url=http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.movies/browse_frm/thread/faa36e7ba4704e7f/58cbe670d2acbcd7 |title=Kevin Bacon is the Center of the Universe |last=Ruthven |first=Alexander |date=April 7, 1994 |newsgroup=rec.arts.movies |via=Google groups |access-date=2009-07-19}} In 1994, three Albright College students - Craig Fass, Brian Turtle and Mike Ginelli - invented the game that became known as "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" after seeing two movies on television that featured Bacon back to back, Footloose and The Air Up There. During the latter film they began to speculate on how many movies Bacon had been in and the number of people with whom he had worked.{{cite web |title=6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon: A Social Phenomenon Turns 20 (Full Session) {{!}} Interactive 2014 {{!}} SXSW | date=April 16, 2014 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiHiyF7Tza8 |publisher=YouTube |access-date=28 June 2021 |language=en}}{{cite news |title=The exact history of 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon' |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/the-exact-history-of-six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/NCVVAU73UZ4TNCZAK726ENOBBQ/ |access-date=28 June 2021 |work=The New Zealand Herald |date=31 August 2019 |language=en-NZ}}

They wrote a letter to talk show host Jon Stewart, telling him that "Kevin Bacon was the center of the entertainment universe" and explaining the game. They appeared on The Jon Stewart Show and The Howard Stern Show with Bacon to explain the game. Bacon admitted that he initially disliked the game because he believed it was ridiculing him, but he eventually came to enjoy it. The three inventors released a book, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon ({{ISBN|9780452278448}}), with an introduction written by Bacon.{{cite book |last1=Fass |first1=Craig |first2=Brian |last2=Turtle |first3=Mike |last3=Ginelli |title=Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon |year=1996 |publisher=Plume |location=New York |isbn=978-0-452-27844-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/sixdegreesofkevi00fass }} A board game based on the concept was released by Endless Games.{{cite web |url=https://endlessgames.com/about-us/ |title=About Us |last1=Gasser |first1=Mike |last2=McNulty | first2=Kevin |last3=Turtle |first3=Brian |website=Endless Games |access-date=June 12, 2021 |quote=Founded by industry veterans Mike Gasser, Kevin McNulty and game inventor Brian Turtle, Endless Games specializes in games that offer classic entertainment and hours of fun at affordable prices. The three have an uncanny ability for discovering and developing hit games, having been a part in past successes Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary and Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.}}

Bacon numbers

File:Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.jpg

The Bacon number of an actor is the number of degrees of separation they have from Kevin Bacon, as defined by the game. This is an application of the Erdős number concept to the Hollywood movie industry. The higher the Bacon number, the greater the separation from Kevin Bacon the actor is.{{cite news |date=August 14, 2007 |title=There's not much separating her from Bacon, Erdos |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20070814/bl_cover14_side.art.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104060408/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20070814/bl_cover14_side.art.htm |archive-date=November 4, 2012 |work=USA Today}}

The computation of a Bacon number for actor X is a "shortest path" algorithm, applied to the co-stardom network:

  • Kevin Bacon himself has a Bacon number of 0.
  • Actors who have worked directly with Kevin Bacon have a Bacon number of 1.
  • If the lowest Bacon number of any actor with whom X has appeared in any movie is N, X's Bacon number is N+1.

=Examples=

  • Elvis Presley was in Change of Habit (1969) with Ed Asner. Ed Asner was in JFK (1991) with Kevin Bacon. Therefore, Asner has a Bacon number of 1, and Presley (who never appeared in a film with Bacon) has a Bacon number of 2.{{cite web |access-date=2024-07-17 |date=2019-04-17 |first=Frank |language=en-US |last=Agin |title=Networking Lessons From The "Kevin Bacon" Game - Innovate New Albany {{!}} New Albany, Ohio |url=https://innovatenewalbany.org/networking/networking-lessons-from-the-kevin-bacon-game/ |website=Innovate New Albany}}

Because some people have both a finite Bacon and a finite Erdős number because of acting and publications, there are a rare few who have a finite Erdős–Bacon number, which is defined as the sum of a person's independent Erdős and Bacon numbers.

Photography book

Inspired by the game, the British photographer Andy Gotts tried to reach Kevin Bacon through photographic links instead of film links.

Gotts wrote to 300 actors asking to take their pictures and received permission only from Joss Ackland. Ackland then suggested that Gotts photograph Greta Scacchi, with whom he had appeared in the film White Mischief. Gotts proceeded from there, asking each actor to refer him to one or more friends or colleagues. Eventually, Christian Slater referred him to Bacon. Gotts' photograph of Bacon completed the project, eight years after it began. Gotts published the photos in a book, Degrees ({{ISBN|0-9546843-6-2}}), with text by Alan Bates, Pierce Brosnan, and Bacon.{{cite web | url = http://www.clooneystudio.com/degrees2.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071013051515/http://clooneystudio.com/degrees2.html | archive-date = October 13, 2007 | title = Andy Gotts' Degrees Exhibition | url-status = usurped | work = Clooney Studio}}

See also

References

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