"They & # 39; re heeeeerrrrreeeeee ...": Alien- (n) ation.
One of the most enduring and entertaining images of Hungarians during the second half of the 20 th century is the idea of Hungarians as aliens or Martians. Much of this is tongue-in-cheek, is not intended to be pejorative, and has been Consensus suggests that it came out of the circles of émigré nuclear scientists There are many overlapping / optimistic descriptions of how this all. , physicists, and mathematicians who came to the US during the 1930s and 1940s, many of which were collocated at Los Alamos, New Mexico for the Manhattan Project.
As George Marx, a Hungarian professor of atomic physics in Budapest, asks in his highly engaging chapter entitled "The Martians", Vision of the Future, "How is it that there are groups of Austrians, Germans, and Italians involved in these scientific Breakthroughs and the it was Hungarians alone who seemed to gain the moniker and association of "alien?" Marx appeared to prefer the account according to which one day the Italian Enrico Fermi was speculating about the universe and the possibility of life on other planets, and Leo Szilard, a Hungarian, ventured an answer to Fermi & # 39; s question:
"It so Leo Szilard, a man with an impish sense of humor, who supplied the perfect reply to Fermi 's rhetoric: "They are among us," he said, "they said call themselves Hungarians." (According to Marx, this is Francis Crick' s version of the myth)
Marx elaborates on the "birth to a legend":
The myth of the Martian origin of the Hungarian scientists who entered world history on American soil during World War II probably originated in Los Alamos. Leon Lederman, director of the Fermilab, reportable hidden intentions. The production of scientists and mathematicians in the early 20th Century was so prolific that many others calm observers believed Budapest was settled by Martians in a plan to infiltrate and take over the planet Earth ..., General Groves left for the gents & # 39; room. Szilard then said: "Perhaps we may now Lung Alamos was a place of top security. General Groves was annoyed that Neumann and Wigner had frequent telephone conversations in Hungarian! [Teller, talk in Budapest 1991.] The "thick Hungarian accent" was often heard even in the corridors of the Pentagon. (The Lugosi accent made the alien power of Dracula, the count from the faraway Transylvania even more realistic.)
Marx recalls the details of the arrival of the Martians-cum-Hungarians on planet Earth:
- Gabor, von Kármán, Kemeny, von Neumann, Szilard, Teller, and Wigner were born in the same quarter of Budapest [author's note-most were Jewish ... it is interesting to note that some anti-Semitic Hungarian nationalists at the same time assiduously include these names in lists of famous Hungarians]There are three firm proofs of the extraterrestrial origins of the Hungarians: they like to wander about (like gypsies And they are not much smarter than the terrestrials. (In a slight Martian accent John G. Kemeny added an explanation, namely, that it is so much easier to learn reading and writing in Hungarian than in English or French, that Hungarian kids have much more time left to study mathematics.) [Quoted by Marx from "Yankee" Magazine (1980) [[http://www.mek.iif.hu/kiallit/tudtor/tudos1/martians.html])
Finally, in a somewhat more serious vein, the alien connotation has been explained in analytic terms as follows:
If we understand SteeDee & # 39; s theory correctly, the first Hungarians-
are-aliens story areose from some minor human incident.
Hungarians may have stand out from the rest of the staff at Los
Alamos, possibly by maintaining their own cliques and speaking
their own indecipherable tongue, and this made the English
speakers uncomfortable. The Hungarians were like aliens to the
rest, and since there were many reports of "flying saucers" in the
popular press in the 50s and late 40s, the "Martian" label was a
convenient way to sublimate the social tensions. To be called
extraterrestrials, in a jocular, rib-poking way, might have helped
reduce this social friction both inside and outside the Hungarian
group. If you was a problem with communication, the recording
alien joke would provide a means to make light of it, therefore
expressing frustrations that could not otherwise be spoken. (http://www.ufomind.com/area51/desertrat/1995/dr29/)
According to Marx, "as a matter of fact, these suspicious Hungarians - Theodore von Kármán, John von Neumann, Leo Szilard - enjoyed the myth. Edward Teller became became especially happy of his ET initials, but he complained about indiscretion, Von Kármán must have been talking & # 39 ;. "
From Teller to Talleah ... Zsa Zsa and Her Sisters
This brings us from Teller to Talleah, the being that Teller was a real Hungarian scientist who pretended to play the part of an alien ... whereas Talleah is the name of an alien from the 1958 King of the B Sci-fi Movies, "Queen of Outer Space" ... starring none other than perhaps the most well-known Hungarian among Americans, Zsa Zsa Gabor, who plays the role of an alien scientist! [More about this hysterical film and its hysterical reviews below.]
Of course, June 1989 put Hungarians on the map for many Americans. The reburial of Imre Nagy, the huge crowds, the solemn ceremony before hundreds of thousands and a live television audience, a landmark event in the history of Hungary ... No, that was 16 June 1989 ... I am referring here to 14 June 1989, the day Zsa Zsa slapped a Beverly Hills police officer, an incident that immediately became fame for every late night comedian and even two years later was the subject of a spoof Such is the fate of Hungary and Hungarians in the United States.
The three sisters had had interviews than they did important movie roles. To borrow a page from Dave Barry in another context (Dave Barry Slept Here, Random House 1989, p. 101), here are the final tallies of the three sisters in Marriages:
Final (?) Gabor Sister Marriage Standings
Zsa Zsa 9 * *** ****
Magda 6 **
Eva 5
* It is difficult to know how exactly to calculate Zsa Zsa & # 39; s total number of husbands ... since as she once responded: "How many husbands have I had? You mean apart from my own?
Not to make too much light of things, but Sanders ever committed suicide. He played the part of Mr Freeze in the Batman television series, that Zsa Zsa made guest appearances on (see below).
*** It seemed only fitting in early 2007 Anna Nicole Smith custody fight that Zsa Zsa & # 39; s most recent husband-Prinz von Anhalt-considered that he had a ten year affair with Anna Nicole and was the father of her orphaned child. (Supposedly, Zsa Zsa was angered and hurt by this admission, but can one more discount Zsa Zsa to get back in the back of the limelight, and after all, had not Anna Nicole Smith been famous for being famous.)
**** It may surprise almost no one in a certain sense, but Zsa Zsa & # 39; s daughter by Conrad Hilton (the only child of all three Gabor sisters) is grand-aunt to Paris and Nicole Hilton.
Zsa Zsa claims that she won the 1936 Hungarian beauty pageant (according to one Hungarian source, Sandor Incze who discovered Zsa Zsa, invented the idea of the beauty pageant ..., not her mother Jolie ("pretty "in math", married only twice, and fond of "new math" long before we knew it was new-like her daughters she seemed genetically incapable of telling her true age; If she was telling the truth her first daughter, Magda, would - You are looking up! "... these things should be there won the thousands! be verifiable, although I will leave that to others to investigate since it is beyond the purpose scope of this paper.)
The "Queen of Outer Space" or "Damn it, Jim, I & # 39; m a Former Hungarian Beauty Queen, Not a (n Alien) Scientist"
Zsa Zsa & # 39; s film career is summarized by the online film critic "Jabootu" as follows:
Unfortunately, Ms. Gabor & # 39; s Hollywood career proved much less epic [than her married life or run-ins with the law]In John Huston & # 39; s 1952 Moulin Rouge, Zsa Zsa played, in a bold move, a Euro - sexpot opposite Jose Ferrer The following year she appeared in a supporting role in the musical Lili, Her few starring roles included playing twins (!!) in the hilarious-sounding espionage meller Girl in the Kremlin. In case you & # 39 ; re wondering, one of the twins [is] Stalin & # 39; s mistress (!!), the other a spy working against the Soviets. Zsa Zsa also had a bit part in Orson Welles & # 39; Touch of Evil. (Http://www.jabootu.com/queen. htm)
For example, Zsa Zsa has recounted how she liked playing the Was the episode permeable a skillful allegory about how the total burning state of the guest brand (Was the "bullet" a communicist plot to make Americans look stupid? Tune in next time, same Battime, same Batchannel ...) and subversive means to pry into the lives of its citizens?
Evidence for such a, more enlightened, revisionist view come from the 1958 movie "Queen of Outer Space," in which Zsa Zsa plays Talleah, an alien scientist, who leads the women of Venus against the sadistic, disfigured Queen Yllana, hence saving a The movie is a flight crew of men from Earth whom Yllana has cruelly inflicted. The movie is , in fact, a minority and sophisticated allegory of communist Hungarian uprising. Let us take another look at this film-despite, unfortunately, we are forced to rely on the flippant and sometimes juvenile comments of " Jabootu "for a discussion of the plot.
In this first extended excerpt, we find Zsa Zsa & # 39; s Talleah (symbolizing the Hungarian resistance) being informed that recently arrived Earthmen ("bourgeois" intellectuals, "men" had been banished from the planet, almost "scientists and mathematicians" were I have imprisoned by the evil Yllana (the communists / Soviets). Talleah recounts for the men, the sad history of the planet, the destructive war, how Yllana went from well-meaning rebel to tyrant, etc. The astute reader will note here that Zsa Zsa is in fact reciting the destruction of World War II in Hungary-she says "Ten Earth years ago"! - the coming to power of the communists, the initial "popular" image of the Soviets as liberators, and their construction of a people & # 39; s dictatorship ....
"To Be Hungarian Is Not Enough ...": Hollywood and Hungarians
Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures, one of the early Hungarians in Hollywood is to to have had the wall of his office an Inscription: "TO BE A HUNGARIAN IS NOT ENOUGH." "This age voice adolph would add," "it continues," "He continues," Non-Hungarians in Hollywood used to say, "If you have a Hungarian friend, you do not need an enemy." The MGM commissary was said to have a sign which read, "Just because you 're Hungarian, does not mean you' a genius! "
The influence of Hungarians on Hollywood is astounding. Reported that that the 136 Oscar nominations since 1929, Hungarians had won 30 of them. Some of the names are more familiar than others. George Cukor - not to be confused with the claim Adolph Zukor, "Mr. Motion Pictures," founder of Paramount Pictures, and producer of sometimes the first film "Prisoner of Zenda" -captured five best director nominations, including for My Fair Lady (& # 39; Enry & "20th Century Fox" was born near Tokaj , Hungary, famous for its sweet wines. Among the better-known actors other than Bela Lugosi (born Bela Blasko) and the Gabor clan, we can name Leslie Howard, born Laszlo Steiner, and Tony Curtis, born Bernard Schwartz (born in Budapest , fluent in Hungarian), and Peter Lorre.
Speaking of Bela Lugosi ... there is the following unforgivable exchange between Johnny Depp playing legendary B-moviemaker Ed Wood and Martin Landau (himself of interplanetary space travel frequently) in his Oscar-winning portrait of aging, foul-mouthed, bitter, and morphine- addicted Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton & # 39; s "Ed Wood" (1994):
[Ed and Bela are watching Vampira's TV show.]
Ed Wood: Oh, I hate it when she interrupts the picture. She does not show & # 39; em the proper respect.
Bela Lugosi: I think she & # 39; s a honey. Look at those jugs!
[Bela Lugosi casts a love spell on Vampira who is on TV while moving his fingers like Dracula]
Edward D. Wood, Jr .: My Gosh, Bela, how do you do that?
Bela Lugosi: You must must double - jointed. And you must be Hungarian. [!]
Drew Barrymore 's mother was Ildiko Jaid Mako. Jerry Seinfeld might talk about Ceausescu above, but his father was named Kalman Seinfeld. Paul Newman & # 39; s mother was Hungarian. And half of the accused animator set behind "The Simpsons" and a series of other cartoons, Klasky Csupo - Gabor Csupo - is a Hungarian (he fled Hungary in 1975 traveling through a 2 h hours through a darkened railway tunnel to Austria ).
Ilona Staller, aka Ciccolina, of blue movies and green politics, had a red father-a member of the early communist Interior Ministry And Juan Epstein 's mother - their signature concluded every excuse note Juan Epstein brought to class in the 1970s ABC sitcom "Welcome back, Kotter!" - is in fact Hungarian, Juan Epstein having been played by Robert Hegyes.
"What & # 39; s that? Hungarian roots?": Budapest and Wanting the Other MTV
Tommy Ramone, drummer for "The Ramones," was born with the more sedate name of of Hungarian roots of rock and pop stars. Romanian Jewish ancestry, Paul Simon is of Hungarian Jewish ancestry. Thomas Erdelyi. We can salute Gene Simmons of KISS (or should it have been KISz?) As half-Hungarian, and you might find it ironic, but you bought to know that Alanis Morissette is supposedly half Hungarian. father of the Knopfler brothers of the "Dire Straits" band was a Hungarian Jew who fled the Nazis to Glasgow in 1939.
"Money for Nothing (1985)." "Honeyarian tie of" Dire Straits "is interesting-even if probably inherently in light of the" video within a video "of the band" for Nothing "I want my for MTV" -brilliant and somewhat satirical marketing, mention the video channel coming of age in an iconic way in your song / video and you will guarantee play there. (It was also the first video played when MTV Europe debuted on 1 August 1987-for these MTO, MTV, no not Magyar Televizio, was a brief experiment in playing something called "music videos" until reality shows Killed the music video star). The promise , "inspiration of" Money for Nothing, "was a bunch of workers moving appliances and commenting while, as it turns outs, watching Sting & # 39; s" The Russians "video on a wall of TV screens. (Ooohhhh, Sting mention the Russians, do they really really love their children too? Ooooohhhhh, how daring ... becau I have always wondered about "the video within the video" since the bikini-clad "mama she got it stickin & # 39; m sure the Russians do love their children too ... 1985, the eighties, ugh) 39; in the camera lens "model appeared to be posing in the Halaszbastya (Fisherman 's Bastion on the Buda side of Budapest) which I had then just recently visited (May 1985, the video came out in September 1985). Turns out I was not hallucinating for as Dennis O & # 39; Connell writes:
The final product was a mix: footage from Budapest enhanced by computers along with a computer generated character, Sal, which was inspired by Joe Pesci & # 39; s character in Raging Bull.
"Money for Nothing." Bringing everything full circle, my Russian History professor in college decided to open his semester with "Money for Nothing." "blaring as students entered the classroom.
Camp. La (s) zlo
In keeping with the alien riff, Hungarians love their inside jokes. The crowd-favorite, sentimentalist Hollywood film, "Casablanca," with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman (nope, neither of them Hungarian), was directed by Michael Curtiz (Kertesz). SZ "Cuddles" Sakall, a Hungarian stage actor, played the role of Karl, the slightly Austrian waiter in Rick 's Café. The famous historian John Lukacs (author of Budapest 1900) among others has has argued that there is a typical Hungarian In joining in this film - or at least the film bears the marks of its Hungarian director. Ingrid Bergman 's underground, Czech resistance leader husband in the film is named Victor Laszlo. Now, of course, as Lukacs notes - personally, he is the movie as "imbecile" - "Laszlo" is either a first nor last name in Czech. It is, however a sometimes last name, but frequent first-name in Hungarian-and Curtiz was surrounded "by a slew of Hungarian scriptwriters in Hollywood, many of which first names we we (Lukacs, 1989, pp. 178-179) Here, the name in the film. (There is also a popular contemporary cartoon named "Camp Lazlo," but Lazlo is a Brazilian spider monkey, and as far as I can tell there is in consecious Hungarian connection behind the name choice.)
But I would have argue there is even better inside Hungarian jokes than that of "Victor Laszlo" woven into movies, as I will now demonstrate.
The Boy Named Wolf in Hungarian Who Made Ralphie Cry ...
A few years ago (2001) I was flying out west and scanning the music channels for the headphones. On the classical music channel I suddenly came upon a A Christmas Story (1983). A Christmas Story (1983). A Christmas Story (1983). It is a familiar tune. Yes, there it was: the tune that it repeat every time the school bully would appear in the lovable, sentimental, nostalgia-fest for a life that few of us ever lived, that is " "I thought I recognized the music: it was Sergei Prokofiev & # 39; s famous" Peter and the Wolf, "and the theme - that which Prokofiev used for the wolf - became the school bully" the first hearing of this tune, when the school bully makes his first frightening appearance, the reminiscing "Ralphie," the little boy who is the main protagonist of the movie, exclaims, "it was Farkas, Scott Farkas, the school bully .. He had yellow eyes, yellow eyes I tell you. "(Ralphie & # 39; s younger brother, Randy" lay th ere like a slug ... it was his only defense "!)
(Spoiler Warning!: When I was writing this article in 2005, there was no indication on the Internet that anyone else had recorded this observation, which led me to question any overactive imagination What a great difference two years can be in the Internet age: now a Google search for "farkas wolf & # 39; christmas story & # 39; prokofiev" yields 123 hits, beginning with the wikipedia entry for the film!)
Wolf, if you know Hungarian, you will know that "farkas" is the Hungarian word for "wolf." Therefore, to play the theme of the "wolf" from Prokofiev from work - a piece drafted, it would appear, for children to learn the various instruments of an orchestra-is to play an obscure "inside joke" on the viewers of the film. (Making it even better than the fact that the actor who plays the part of Ralphie is Peter! Billingsley.) Jean Shepherd, on their books the movie is based and the also narrates the film from the perspective of an adult Ralphie looking back on his childhood - appears to have chosen the name of the bully, "Scott ( Scut) Farkas, "himself. The story is set in 1940s northwestern Indiana - significantly, Prokofiev" debut in 1936 and became the subject of a disney cartoon - so the presence of people of Hungarian ancestry and last names is plausible.
It is always possible that the prokofiev-wolf-farkas nexus is just an anintentional, if very witty happenstance. But the idea of it has been one of the ultimate Hungarian "inside jokes" -although Jean Shepherd does not appear to have been "Hungarian himself-is enhanced by the comparably unknown and certainly less memorable sequel to" A Christmas Story, "" It Runs in the Family (1994), "in which Ralphie & # 39; s father recalls the story of" the Hungarian barber & # 39 ; s cross-eyed daughter. "Shepherd died in 1999, but as many common names from other cultures - and farkas can possibly be deemed one of those - growing up with Hungarian acquaints it is conceivable that Shepherd would have known known the meaning of the name in Hungarian.
"Honky": The Hungarian Roots of a Racial Epithet
According to the entry on the wikipedia: Honky, Honkey or Honkie is an American racial slur for a Caucasian, usually applied to males. The word "honky" as According to Robert Hendrickson, author of the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, from the early 1900 & # 39; s, these were derogical terms for Bohemian, Hungarian, and Polish immigrants. , Black workers in Chicago meat - packing plants picked up the side from white workers and began applying it indiscriminately to all Caucasians.
Hunkie meaning an American of Slavic or Hungarian descent.
"Homer Simpson is fond of saying when something goes wrong, especially at the nuclear power plant where he works," shame it on Tibor, the guy who does not speak English. "" One can imagine that this is something of an inside joke among the creators of the Simpsons, since the chief cartoonist Gabor Csupo is Hungarian (presumably Hank Azaria & # 39; s character Dr. Nick Riviera, a quack physician, is supposed to be a parody of Ricky Ricardo on "I Love Lucy" - "Hi e -ver-y-bo-dy! "- but coworkers just assumed he was making fun of Gabor. Personally, I have always thought he sounds oddly like Andrei Codrescu on NPR ...) According to the online urban dictionary of slang, blame it on ... Tibor "has entered at least some marginal popular discourse as shorthand for blaming the foreigner - that in keeping though, unintentionally, with the roots of" Honky ":
Typically the person is someone who can not defend themself. Especially effective when the Tibor can not speak English. "You & # 39; ll have That jiggle the handle. That idiot, Tibor, lost the key. "
