[ad_1]
“Being Hungarian is not enough, but it can help”
– According to legend, the above inscription, which guides job seekers, was on the wall of the office of Adolf Zukor, a Hungarian-born Hollywood movie mule. The father of Paramount Pictures and William Fox, also founder of “hungarikum”, who is the founder of 20th Century Fox, wrote biographical novels in English many decades ago, and in November of this year they will finally be available in their homeland, now in Hungarian. volumes.
And if “required literature” wasn’t enough, based on two readable and extremely entertaining books, Fox vs. There is also a documentary in the works on Zukor, a Hollywood story about the Borsodians revolutionizing the American film industry, as what could be more exciting than making a movie about the weapons of cinema?
Teens abroad
Zukor Adolf and Fried Vilmos (English and commonly known as William Fox) left America for Rics and Tolcsva to lay the cornerstones of their fabulous careers. The name of these Hungarian men is the birth of two influential and world-famous film studios, Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox. Both proudly embarked on their origins, and American literature continues to regard their identity as the founding fathers of Hollywood in Hungary. .
It is true that they rowed in other waters, but the American identity was reshaped by their influence. Zukor is the first American feature film (1913 The Prisoner of Zenda) as a producer, while Fox became known as a giant in audio movies.
They were also the winners of the first 1929 Oscar in history.
Adolf Zukor’s life is really worth a mass, especially a novel. At just 15 years old, in 1888, after losing his parents, he isolated himself in the big world and emigrated to the United States. Initially, he only made a living as a fur trader (assistant), but in 1904 he joined a penny stall (3-minute movies were shown here for a penny). His love for the movie flared at this point and he immediately saw a deal in the movies. After its purchase in 1912, it starred Sarah Bernhardt Queen Elizabeth the literary right to distribute the French film literally pocketed contemporary America.
After a few diligent years, Paramount Pictures was born in 1916
The company merged with Jesse L. Lasky’s studio, Feature Play Company. His name can also be attributed to the formation of the “star system” and the exploitation of the potential that was seen in it, which was a new way of directing movie stars. The promising actors (who look) were glorified, elevating them to people of almost unattainable status. They were given names of artists and life stories and new, often false identities, and thus they became full characters, and then became industry monopolists for many, many years (for example, Joan Crawford or Rock Hudson) . The personalities of these actors were far more decisive than their portrayals in the movies themselves, or simply their talent or lack of it.
Zukor’s work also received an Oscar in 1949, and he became one of the few Hungarians to receive a star on the Celebrity Walk.
Autobiographical volume of Sugar, a The public is never wrong It was published in 1953. The Hungarian translation of this work has already been completed., The audience is never wrong memory. The movie mogul speaks honestly about his adventurous life, his childhood in Hungary,
the flourishing of the overseas film industry, as well as the human and workshop secrets of the Hollywood film industry.
Despite leaving his homeland there, the Hungarians played an important role in Zukor’s life forever, and his most important domestic support was his wife, Kaufmann Lottie.
The first Hungarian Oscar winner
Zemplén not only produces grapes and stars, as the other Hungarian movie mogul, Fried Vilmos, better known as William Fox, was born in Tolcsva, in the heart of Hegyalja, just 50 kilometers from Zukor. The founder of the 20th Century Fox studio, the pioneer of talkies, was born in 1879 as the son of a vomiting Jewish immigrant father who fought for the imaginary throne of the American film industry.
Like sugar, he also started working in the garment industry and his business was already thriving. However, his unrivaled business acumen led him into the world of cinema, he oversold his textile business and bought a movie theater in Brooklyn, where he soon began making films.
He turned his world-famous studio, Fox Corporation, into the largest motion picture company in the world.
He was the first Hungarian to receive one of the first Oscars in film history in 1929. Dawn as producer of the film. But 1929 caused not only celebration but also tragedy. Fox, who was considering buying the MGM studio, was in a car accident and, when he recovered, he was hit by the global economic crisis, which affected not only Zukor but also him financially.
There was no going back, a year later he had left his company empire for just $ 18 million, which could have been worth more than ten times that amount, a $ 200 million jackpot. He died forgotten, left alone, but unlike himself, his studio’s name still shines in the skies of the American film industry to this day.
His biographical novel was published in life, in 1933, and is Upton Sinclair Presents: William Fox (Upton Sinclair introduces William Fox) known as. The story is a true hybrid genre that presents the life of the movie mogul in an extremely diverse way. It is a documentary novel, as it is based on written documents of his life and business affairs, as well as a personal memory based on a great interview. Criticisms of professional writer Upton Sinclair from an outside perspective and Fox’s own memories are mixed in the work.
From Hungarians to Hungarians
There is a simple reason why no Hungarian film novels have been published so far: Hungary is a turbulent 20th century. At the time of the original publication of the volumes, Jewish laws were still in effect in Hungary, and after ’45 the system was not carried out by migrant capitalists. The editors of the Hungarian volumes, Tamás Kollarik and Sándor Takó, only got to the point where they were able to start processing the work in 2019 after many years of research. According to the editors, the names of Zukor and Fox are sadly barely audible in Hungary, despite all America blessing them. Hopefully, the new books can also serve as educational and educational material.
Clarifying copyrights and locating fragmented written, photographic and video materials in the works was not an easy task, Kollarik and Takó worked on the case for years. In addition to the editorial work on the two biographical books, they are also writing a third volume on the life of the filmmakers, the relationship between Hollywood and the Hungarians.
Also, it is an open secret that his main objective, who would have thought, was to film the Sugar-Fox adventure.
The groundwork was already done for him last year. The materials sought and collected over the years will be incorporated into the dramaturgical thread through which the film runs. Cinema can become an important image-making documentary for the country, and the editors of the volumes also plan to involve world-famous studios and actors in the project.
(Cover Image: Adolf Zukor (s) on his 80th birthday in 1953. Photo: Bettmann Archive / Getty Images)
[ad_2]
