Notes

Hollywood, Aliens, And A new Christmas Story : Modern Pop Culture Images Of Hungarians within the US
? They? re heeeeerrrrreeeeee??: Alien-(n)ation.

One of the most enduring and even entertaining images involving Hungarians during the second half the 20 th century will be the concept of Hungarians since aliens or Martians. Much of this kind of is tongue-in-cheek, is not intended to be pejorative, in addition to has been taken advantage of to good effect and with fantastic enjoyment by Hungarians themselves - to the point of these likely having recently been behind its origin. There are multiple overlapping/competing descriptions of how all this started. Consensus suggests that will it came out of the circles of �migr� elemental scientists, physicists, and mathematicians who reached the US in the course of 1930s and 1940s, a lot of whom had been collocated at Mis Alamos, New Mexico for that Manhattan Project.

As George Marx, a Hungarian teacher of atomic physics in Budapest, requests in his extremely participating chapter entitled? Typically the Martians? Vision associated with the Future,? how is it that presently there were groups regarding Austrians, Germans, and Italians associated with these types of scientific breakthroughs and even yet it seemed to be Hungarians alone which seemed to gain the moniker and association of? alien?? Marx seems to prefer the particular account according to which one day the particular Italian Enrico Fermi was speculating regarding the universe and typically the chance of life on other planets, and even Leo Szilard, some sort of Hungarian, ventured the answer to Fermi? s question:

? And thus,? Fermi came to his overwhelming problem,? if all this specific has been happening, they should include arrived here by simply now, so how are that they?? It was Leo Szilard, a man having an impish perception of humor, which supplied the perfect answer Fermi's rhetoric:? These are among us all,? he said,? but they call them selves Hungarians.? (according in order to Marx, this is definitely Francis Crick? h version of typically the myth)

Marx elaborates on the? beginning to a legend?:

The myth of the particular Martian origin associated with the Hungarian experts who entered world history on American soil during Ww ii probably originated in Los Alamos. Leon Lederman, director involving the Fermilab, documented possible hidden intentions. The production involving scientists and mathematicians within the early 20th century was thus prolific that many otherwise calm observers believe Budapest seemed to be settled by Martians in a want to get into and take control the particular planet Earth? Based on myth, at a " inside info " meeting of the Manhattan Project, Common Groves left regarding the gents' room. Szilard then said:? Perhaps we may right now continue in Hungarian!? Hungarian �migr�s enjoyed speaking their mother tongue whenever a new chance offered itself. It has made them look suspicious. Mis Alamos was a new place of top security. General Lines was annoyed that will Neumann and Wigner had frequent phone conversations in Hungarian. [Teller, converse in Budapest 1991. ] The particular? thick Hungarian accent? was often heard even in the particular corridors of typically the Pentagon. (The Lugosi accent made the particular alien power of Dracula, the count coming from the faraway Transylvania even more reasonable. )

Marx recounts the details of the arrival in the Martians-cum-Hungarians on the world:

--Gabor, von K�rm�n, Kemeny, von Neumann, Szilard, Teller, and Wigner were born throughout the same quarter of Budapest [author? s take note? most were Jewish? it is intriguing to make note of that several anti-Semitic Hungarian nationalists at the same time assiduously contain these names in lists of popular Hungarians]. No question the scientists throughout Los Alamos acknowledged the idea of which around one 1, 000 years ago a new Martian spaceship crashlanded somewhere in the center of The european union. There are about three firm proofs associated with the extraterrestrial roots of the Hungarians: they like to wander about (like gypsies radiating out and about from the same region). They talk a very simple and logical language which usually has not the particular slightest connection along with the chinese language of their very own neighbors. And they are generally consequently much smarter compared to terrestrials. (In a small Martian accent David G. Kemeny additional an explanation, namely, that it is so substantially easier to learn writing and reading in Hungarian within English or even French, that Hungarian kids have very much more time remaining to study math. ) [quoted by Marx from? Yankee? Magazine (? ) 1980] ([http://www.mek.iif.hu/kiallit/tudtor/tudos1/martians.html])

Finally, in the somewhat more critical vein, the unfamiliar connotation has been explained in analytical words as follows:

If we understand SteeDee's principle correctly, the initial Hungarians-
are-aliens story arose from several minor human episode. The
Hungarians might have stood out from the rest of typically the staff at Los
Alamos, perhaps by simply maintaining their very own cliques and communicating
their particular indecipherable language, which made the British
speakers unpleasant. The Hungarians were like aliens to the
rest, and even since there have been many reports involving "flying saucers" in the
popular click in the 50s and late 40s, the "Martian" content label was a
hassle-free approach to sublimate typically the social tensions. In order to be referred to as
extraterrestrials, in a jocular, rib-poking way, may have helped
reduce this particular social friction the two inside and outside the Hungarian
class. When there was an issue with communication, the recurring
alien scam would provide a method to make light from it, thereby
expressing annoyances that could not otherwise be spoken. (http://www.ufomind.com/area51/desertrat/1995/dr29/ )

Based to Marx,? because a matter involving fact, these suspect Hungarians? Theodore des K�rm�n, John von Neumann, Leo Szilard? enjoyed the fable. Edward Teller grew to become especially happy of his E. Capital t. initials, but he complained about indiscretion,? Von K�rm�n need to have been communicating?.?

From Teller to Talleah? Zsa in addition to Her Siblings

This particular brings us from Teller to Talleah, the difference staying that Teller has been a real Hungarian scientist who pretended to play the particular part of the alien? whereas Talleah is the title of an unfamiliar from the 1958 King of the particular B Sci-fi Movies,? Queen of Exterior Space?? starring none other than perhaps the nearly all well-known Hungarian among Americans, Zsa Gabor, who plays typically the role of an alien scientist! [More about this hysterical film and its hysterical reviews below. ]

Of course, June 1989 set Hungarians within the chart for many People in america. The reburial regarding Imre Nagy, the huge crowds, the solemn ceremony before thousands and a reside television audience, a landmark event found in the great Hungary? No, which was 18 June 1989? I actually is referring below to 14 06 1989, the day Zsa slapped a Beverly Hills police officer, an incident that immediately grew to become fodder for every past due night comedian and even two years after was your subject regarding a spoof starring the actress within the satirical movie series, the Nude Gun. Such could be the fate of Hungary and Hungarians in the us.

There were really three Gabor sisters: Zsa, Eva, plus Magda. I am not sure regardless of whether to say marital life or divorce went in the family. Typically the three sisters had more marriages as compared to they did essential movie roles. In order to borrow a page from Dave Barry in another context (Dave Barry Slept Here, Random House 1989, p. 101), right here are a final tallies of the three sisters in Partnerships:

Final (? ) Gabor Sister Marriage Standings

Zsa 9* *** ****

Magda 6**

Eva five

*It is difficult to know how specifically to calculate Zsa? s total range of husbands? given that as she as soon as responded:? How many husbands have I had? An individual mean in addition to my own??

**These figures may be afflicted by the fact that each Zsa and Magda were married to be able to the English actor or actress George Sanders, in case sixteen years apart. Not to create a lot of light involving things, but Sanders eventually committed suicide. He played the part of Mister. Freeze in typically the Batman television series, that Zsa made guest appearances upon (see below).

***It seemed only installing in early 3 years ago surrounding the macabre and absurd Ould - Nicole Smith custody of the children fight that Zsa? s most new husband? Prinz des Anhalt? claimed of which he a new ten year affair together with Anna Nicole and was the daddy of her orphaned child. (Supposedly, Zsa was angered in addition to hurt by this kind of admission, but can one completely discount the possibility that it was just one more attempt for Zsa to get back again in the spotlight, and after all, hadn? t Ould - Nicole Smith recently been recognized for being famous. )

****It may surprise almost simply no one in a certain sense, but Zsa? s daughter by Conrad Hilton (the only child of all three Gabor sisters) is grand-aunt in order to Paris and Nicole Hilton.

Zsa says that she won the 1936 Hungarian beauty pageant (according to one Hungarian source, Sandor Incze who discovered Zsa, invented the concept of the beauty pageant? don? big t think so), even though her mother Jolie (? pretty? inside French), married only twice, and attached to of? new mathmatical? long before many of us knew it has been new? like the woman daughters she appeared genetically incapable involving telling her correct age; if she was being honest the woman first daughter, Magda, would have already been born when Jolie was thirteen!? believed it was the lady (the mother) and even not Zsa who had won the wonder pageant. (To make use of the famous Casey Stengel line? You may look it upwards!?? these things must be verifiable, although Let me leave that in front of large audiences to investigate due to the fact it is over and above the intended opportunity of this report. )

The? Queen of Outer Place? or? Damn this, Jim, I? meters an ex Hungarian Beauty Queen, Not a(n Alien) Scientist?

Zsa? s film career is summarized simply by the online film critic? Jabootu? because follows:

Unfortunately, Ms. Gabor? s Artist career proved a lot less epic [than her married existence or run-ins together with the law]. Throughout John Huston? t 1952 Moulin Rouge, Zsa played, inside a bold maneuver, an Euro-sexpot reverse Jose Ferrer? s Toulouse-Lautrec. The pursuing year she appeared in a supporting part inside the musical Lili, which co-starred the unrelated but similarly monikered Mel Protéger. Following that, though, this was all downhill. Her few starring roles included taking part in twins (!! ) in the hilarious-sounding espionage meller Girl in the Kremlin. Just in case you? re asking yourself, one of the twins [is] Stalin? s mistress (!! ), the some other a spy operating against the Soviets. Zsa also a new bit part in Orson Welles? Feel of Evil. (http://www.jabootu.com/queen.htm)

But perhaps? Jabootu? is being also hasty and shallow in judging Microsoft. Gabor? s profession. Maybe we experience underestimated Zsa? s roles in movie and television. With regard to example, Zsa offers recounted how your woman liked playing the role of? secret agent? when she guest-starred on the Batman serial as Minerva, a beauty parlor owner, whose hair dryers could read the thoughts of (male) consumers. Was the instance perhaps a skilled allegory about exactly how the totalitarian condition uses the almost all banal and subversive means to pry into the existence of its citizens? (Was the? mullet? the communist plot to be able to make Americans appear stupid? Tune in next time, same Battime, same Batchannel? )

Evidence for this sort of, more enlightened, revisionist view comes through the 1958 movie? Queen of External Space,? by which Zsa plays Talleah, the alien scientist, who leads the women of Venus up against the sadistic, disfigured Queen Yllana, thereby saving a new flight crew associated with men from Ground whom Yllana has cruelly imprisoned. I argue here that this film just appears to be a sexist, cheesy, and moronic car for profit, any time in fact of which is part associated with its subterfuge in addition to inner-brilliance. The movie is, in fact, a refined and sophisticated type of communist Hungary and the episode and crushing of the 1956 Hungarian violent uprising. Let us consider another look with this film? even though, unfortunately, we are required to rely about the flippant in addition to sometimes juvenile remarks of? Jabootu? to get a discussion of the plot.

In this specific first extended research, we find Zsa? s Talleah (symbolizing the Hungarian resistance) being informed of which recently arrived Earthmen (? bourgeois? intellectuals,? men? had been banished from the planet, although? experts and mathematicians? had been retained because they were needed) happen to be imprisoned by simply the evil Yllana (the communists/Soviets). Talleah recounts for that guys, the sad record of the planet, the destructive battle, how Yllana travelled from well-meaning rebel to tyrant, etc. The astute reader will notice here that Zsa is certainly in fact recounting the destruction of World War 2 in Hungary? she says? Ten World years ago?!? the coming to electrical power of the communists, the initial? popular? picture of the Soviets as liberators, in addition to their construction regarding a people? s dictatorship?.

? To End up being Hungarian Is Not Enough??: Hollywood plus Hungarians

As is in order to be expected associated with space travelers, Hungarians claim to possess founded certain places? one of these being Popular. Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures, 1 of the early Hungarians in The show biz industry is said to have had upon the wall regarding his office a great inscription:? TO BECOME A HUNGARIAN WILL BE NOT ENOUGH.? To the George Marx offers,? in a lower voice Adolph might add,? but it may help?.? He continues,? Non-Hungarians inside Hollywood used to be able to say,? If a person have a Hungarian friend, you don't need an adversary.? The MGM commissary was said to include a sign which often read,? Just since you? re Hungarian, doesn? t indicate you? re a new genius!?

The affect of Hungarians on Hollywood is impressive. In 1996, the Associated Press described those of the 136 Oscar nominations considering that 1929, Hungarians experienced won 30 regarding them. Some regarding the names are usually more familiar than others. George Cukor? not to turn out to be confused with the aforesaid Adolph Zukor,? Mr. Motion Pictures,? founder of Paramount Images, and producer regarding perhaps the primary film? Prisoner of Zenda?? captured several best director cession, including for The Fair Lady (? Enry? Iggins tells of Zoltan Karpathy:? Every time we appeared around there he has been that hairy hound from Budapest. Never leaving us alone, never have We ever known a new ruder pest.? ). William Fox associated with? 20th Century Monk? was born near Tokaj, Hungary, famous for its special wines. One of the better-known actors apart from Bela Lugosi (born Bela Blasko) and the Gabor clan, we are able to name Leslie Howard, born Laszlo Steiner, and Tony Curtis, born Bernard Schwartz (born in Budapest, fluent in Hungarian), in addition to Peter Lorre.

Talking of Bela Lugosi? there is the following unforgettable exchange between Johnny Depp playing legendary B-moviemaker Ed Wood and Martin Landau (himself of interplanetary room travel frequently) found in his Oscar-winning characterization of aging, foul-mouthed, bitter, and morphine-addicted Bela Lugosi within Tim Burton? s i9000? Ed Wood? (1994):

[Ed and Bela are watching Vampira's TV show. ]
Ed Wood: Also, I hate this when she stops the picture. She does not show 'em typically the proper respect.
Bela Lugosi: I do believe she has a honey. Appear at those containers!
[Bela Lugosi casts a love cause on Vampira that is on TV when moving his hands like Dracula]
Edward D. Wood, Junior.: My Gosh, Bela, how will you do that?
Bela Lugosi: You must be double-jointed. And you need to be Hungarian. [! ]

A few? Hungarians? famous within film and tv set will come as a surprise. Drew Barrymore? s mother was Ildiko Jaid Mako. Jerry Seinfeld may possibly talk about Ceausescu above, but the father was known as Kalman Seinfeld. Robert Newman? s mother was Hungarian. And half of the famed tegnefilmstegner set behind? The particular Simpsons? and a new series of various other cartoons, Klasky Csupo? Gabor Csupo? can be a Hungarian (he fled Hungary in 75 hiking through a 2 � hours through a darkened train tunnel to Austria).

The trivia involving all these instances is to the least entertaining. Other great finds within the webenetics site are the following. Ilona Staller, aka Ciccolina, associated with blue movies plus green politics, a new red father? an associate of the earlier communist Interior Ministry. And Juan Epstein? s mother? whoever signature concluded just about every excuse note Juan Epstein brought in order to class in the 1970s FONEM sitcom? Welcome again, Kotter!?? is actually Hungarian, Juan Epstein possessing been played by Robert Hegyes.

? Precisely what? s that? Hungarian roots??: Budapest plus Wanting the Additional MTV

Then right now there are the Hungarian roots of rock and pop celebrities. Appropriately enough, although Art Garfunkel is usually of Romanian Guidelines ancestry, Paul Sue is of Hungarian Jewish ancestry. Tommy Ramone, drummer with regard to? The Ramones,? seemed to be born with the more sedate name regarding Thomas Erdelyi. We all can salute Gene Simmons of KISS (or should that happen to be KISz? ) as half-Hungarian, plus you will dsicover it ironic, but you should to know that Alanis Morissette is supposedly half Hungarian. It also turns outside that the daddy of the Knopfler brothers of the particular? Dire Straits? strap was a Hungarian Jew who fled the Nazis in order to Glasgow in 1939.

The Hungarian tie up of? Dire Straits? is interesting? even though probably entirely incidental? in light regarding the? video inside a video? of the band? s most famous commercial/video success,? Cash for Nothing (1985).?? Money for Nothing at all? is better reputed for its line? I need my MTV?? amazing and somewhat satirical marketing, mention it channel coming old in an famous way in your song/video and you should guarantee play there. (It seemed to be also the initial video clip played when MTV Europe debuted upon 1 August 1987? for those as well young to remember, MTV, no not really Magyar Televizio, was a brief test in playing some thing called? music videos? till reality shows wiped out the music online video star). The assumption, the inspiration associated with? Money for Nothing at all,? was a couple of employees moving appliances in addition to commenting while, seeing that it turns outs, watching Sting? s? The Russians? video clip on a walls of TV monitors. (Ooohhhh, Sting pointed out the Russians, carry out they really love their children too? Ooooohhhhh, how daring? since I? m confident the Russians perform love their young children too? 1985, the eighties, ugh). We had always asked yourself about? it in the video? since the bikini-clad? mama your woman got it stickin? within the camera contact lens? model appears to be able to be posing within the Halaszbastya (Fisherman? h Bastion on the Buda side regarding Budapest) which I actually had then merely recently visited (May 1985, the video came out in The month of september 1985). Turns out I wasn? capital t hallucinating for because Dennis O? Connell writes:

The video was produced by Steve Barron, who envisioned of which the entire online video be computer animated. The band needed a live movie. The final product was a mix: video footage from Budapest enhanced by computers together with a computer generated character, Gracia, which was motivated by Joe Pesci's character in Impetuous Bull.

Sting, the particular object in the staff? derision that gave rise to the music, performs back up vocals on? Money with regard to Nothing.? Bringing every thing full circle, the Russian History mentor in college chosen to open his halbjahr with? Money for free? blaring as college students entered the class room.

Camp. La(s)zlo

In line with the alien riff, Hungarians love their own inside jokes. The crowd-favorite, sentimentalist The show biz industry film,? Casablanca,? with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman (nope, neither of these people Hungarian), was focused by Michael Curtiz (Kertesz). S. Unces.? Cuddles? Sakall, some sort of Hungarian stage professional, played the position of Karl, the particular kindly Austrian waitress in Rick? s Caf�. The famous historian John Lukacs (author of Budapest 1900) amongst others has argued that there is the typical Hungarian inside of joke in this kind of film? or at least the motion picture bears the signifies of its Hungarian director. Ingrid Bergman? s underground, Czech resistance leader partner within the film is definitely named Victor Laszlo. Now, naturally , since Lukacs notes? in person, he describes the movie as? imbecile??? Laszlo? is nor a first nor last name in Czech. It truly is, however the sometimes last label, but frequent first-name in Hungarian? in addition to Curtiz was encircled? by a number of Hungarian scriptwriters in Hollywood, lots of whose first names were Laszlo? (Lukacs, 1989, pp. 178-179). Hence, the brand in the film. (There is yet a popular contemporary cartoon named? Reading Eggs Free ,? but Lazlo is actually a Brazilian spider monkey, and like far web site could tell there is usually in no conscious Hungarian connection at the rear of title choice. )

But I might argue there are even enhanced inside Hungarian comedies than that of? Victor Laszlo? woven straight into movies, ?nternet site can now demonstrate.

The Boy Named Bad guy in Hungarian Who Made Ralphie Yowl?

It took over 30, 000 feet, several time region changes, and countless years to figure this out. A several years ago (2001) I was flying out west and even scanning the audio channels for your headphones. On the classical music channel We suddenly came after a well-known tune. Sure, there it has been: the tune of which would repeat each and every time the school bully would seem in the lovable, sentimental, nostalgia-fest for a life that few involving us ever lived, that may be? A Xmas Story (1983).? I actually thought I recognized the music: it was Sergei Prokofiev? h famous? Peter as well as the Wolf,? and the particular theme? that which usually Prokofiev utilized for typically the wolf? became the particular school bully? s signature in the particular film. Upon the first hearing involving this tune, if the school bully tends to make his first scary appearance, the reminiscing? Ralphie,? the little boy who will be the main protagonist of the motion picture, exclaims,? it was initially Farkas, Scott Farkas, the school bully? he had yellow-colored eyes, yellow sight I tell an individual.? (Ralphie? s younger brother, Randy? lay down there such as a slug? it was the only defense?! )

(Spoiler Warning!: Once i came to this specific personal epiphany throughout 2001, and actually while I was writing this post in 2005, now there was no signal on the Web that anybody else had recorded this observation, which led me to question whether an overactive imagination had gotten the best involving me yet again. What a great distinction couple of years can get in the Net age: now a Google search for? farkas hair? christmas story? prokofiev? yields 123 strikes, beginning with the particular wikipedia entry for the film! )

Why is this specific important you request? Well, if an individual know Hungarian, on the boat that? farkas? will be the Hungarian word with regard to? wolf.? Therefore, to try out the theme regarding the? wolf? from Prokofiev? s function? a piece drafted, it would appear, intended for children to study the many instruments involving an orchestra? is definitely to play a great obscure? inside tall tale? on the audiences of the film. (Making it even far better is the fact that the professional who plays typically the part of Ralphie is Peter! Billingsley. ) Jean Shepherd, upon whose reserve the movie is based? in addition to who also narrates the film coming from the perspective associated with an adult Ralphie looking back on his childhood? appears in order to have chosen typically the name of the bully,? Scott (Scut) Farkas,? himself. The particular story is defined within 1940s northwestern Indiana? significantly, Prokofiev? t? Peter as well as the Wolf? debuted in 1936 and became the main topic of a Disney cartoon? so the occurrence of folks of Hungarian ancestry and previous names is plausible.

It will always be possible that the Prokofiev-wolf-farkas nexus is just an unintentional, if quite witty happenstance. However the idea of that previously being one of the ultimate Hungarian? inside jokes?? despite the fact that Jean Shepherd does not appear to include been Hungarian him self? is enhanced simply by the comparatively unidentified and definitely not as much memorable sequel to? A Christmas Account,?? It Runs within the Family (1994),? in which Ralphie? s father recounts the story associated with? the Hungarian herrefris?r? s cross-eyed daughter.? Shepherd died in 1999, but since along with many common previous names from some other cultures? and farkas can perhaps become deemed one involving those? growing way up with Hungarian colleagues it really is conceivable that will Shepherd would include known this is involving the name in Hungarian.

? Honky?: The Hungarian Roots of your Racial Epithet

Speaking of the Hungarian(-American)? working class? in the Chicago environs. Based to the entrance on the wikipedia: Honky, Honkey or even Honkie is a good American racial slur for a Caucasian, usually applied in order to males. The word? honky? as a pejorative for Caucasians will come from "bohunk" and even "hunky". In the particular early 1900? h, they were derogatory words for Bohemian, Hungarian, and Polish migrants. According to Robert Hendrickson, author of the Encyclopedia of Phrase and Phrase Beginnings, Black workers found in Chicago meat-packing plants picked up the term from white personnel and began using it indiscriminately to just about all Caucasians.

Honky, was initially later adopted mainly because a pejorative which means white, in 1967 by black résistant within SNCC looking for a rebuttal for the term nigger. They settled on a well-known word they will felt was calumniatory to certain Americans of European nice; hunkie meaning the American of Slavic or Hungarian nice.

In the Simpsons cartoon series, Homer Simpson is keen on saying when something goes wrong, especially in the nuclear strength plant in which he functions,? blame it in Tibor, the guy who doesn? big t speak English.? A single can imagine that will this really is something involving an inside scam among the designers of the Simpsons, considering that the chief cartoonist Gabor Csupo is definitely Hungarian (supposedly Hank Azaria? s personality Dr . Nick Spiaggia, a quack physician, should certainly be a parody of Ricky Ricardo on? My partner and i Love Lucy??? Hello e-ver-y-bo-dy!?? but co-staffs just assumed having been making fun associated with Gabor. Personally, I possess always thought this individual sounds oddly just like Andrei Codrescu on NPR? ) According to the online urban book of slang,? blame it on? Tibor? has entered at least some marginal well-liked discourse as shorthand for blaming the particular foreigner? thus keeping in mind perhaps, unintentionally, with the roots of? Honky?:

A tibor is definitely someone in your current office whom a person blame when you have done something stupid, illegal, or even immoral. Typically typically the person is a person who cannot guard themself. Especially effective when the Tibor cannot speak The english language.? You'll have to be able to jiggle the manage. That idiot, Tibor, lost the important thing.?

Rich Andrew Hall holds a Ph. M. in Political Science from Indiana University (1997), in which he centered his studies upon east central The european union. He is the particular author of articles on Romania, Hungary, nationalism, and eastern side central Europe inside general, in educational journals and even more lately on the Net.
Website: https://studenttcareerpoint.com/reading-eggs-free/