STORM OVER EUROPE : THE WANDERING TRIBES : MAGYAR AMERICAN FILM SERIES REVIEW

An excellent four-part series, STORM OVER EUROPE focuses on the migration of Germanic tribes from what was as far north as Denmark and Norway south and throughout present-day Europe and into Tunisia (Africa but not far from Sicily). There is a lot of information to learn so you may want to take it slow or rewatch the series over time.

The Goths - Ostrogoths - Visigoths. The Vandals. The Franks. The Anglo - Saxons. For some their wish was to live with the Romans or live like them: Romans lived in relative luxury and their legal system was desirable. And Italy was thought to have excellent resources.

The winters in their Germanic homelands were harsh and resulted in wintery starvation. Their leaders lead them on foot slowly migrating to find a new place to settle. Forty years - three generations - or more - and then they'd start migrating again.

But as has been the history of the world, it's not so easy to find a place vacant of people who got their first. Bloody battles resulting in the death of thousands over centuries occurred, each changing the course of history. The Roman Empire was vast. The Romans were not going to easily give up their power or allow fast assimilation.

This is also a story of Paganism and Christianity and how Catholicism won out.

In some cases the Germanic people were slaves. In others they dominated, mating with local women and reducing the Y DNA of the native male population.

I was surprised to know that France and Spain were so Germanic. Ok. The Franks are France, Brittany Celtic, but I think of French culture and language differently. I think of the culture and language of France and Spain as Latin just as I do Italy.

Of interest especially to my Hungarian and Hungarian - American readers, the Huns and their Attilla are part of the story. From Scandinavia to the Black Sea area, the Visigoths would make it to the South of France but the Huns attacked them there. And sometimes Germanic tribes found themselves on opposite sides and battled each other. But it was the Germanic tribes that finally sent the Huns back to their Asian base, according to this series.

Here are some positives in this series;

Archeologists from all over Europe are studying graves and grave goods and their work is profiled. 

A skull collection at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest is brought forward due to the talents of a forensic artist anthropologist who recreates the faces so we can see what people from the 6th century looked like, including Huns. (They practiced skull elongation.)

Gorgeous finds of jewelry, crowns, helmets, swords, buckles, bows and arrows prove that each culture was sophisticated enough to have high caliber artisans even if they thought of the other culture as "barbarian." 

The quality of the production is high. The costuming, war wounds, hair styles, authentic. 

However, I ran the English text on screen and there were some translations that were so wrong from the spelling of Attila to the spelling of the Tisza River and there was no mention of Magyars or other non-Germanic tribes associated with Hungarians.

So according to other sources the Hunnic empire stretched over Central Europe in the fifth century. The Huns and the Romans were enemies. The Huns were actually a number of tribal groups that did not include the Magyars. ... Direct descendants of Attila, Prince Almos and Prince Arpad became founders of Hungary generations later. King Istvan was a fifth generation descendent of Almos.

Only episode 4, which dwells on the Anglo Saxons mentions DNA. DNA is, to me, the most revealing story of migration and culture.

C 2021 Magyar American - BlogSpot

THE RISE AND FALL OF PENN STATION : MAGYAR AMERICAN FILM REVIEW

The history of Penn Station, which opened in 1910, and which no longer exists, is quite interesting.  Trains were the greatest way to travel distances before airplanes and some would say they are still the best way to travel, though often more expensive.  The history of Penn Station is the history of of the Pennsylvania Rail Road which had extensive rails all over the state, a monopoly, but had to stop at New Jersey.  A plan was made to buy up  four blocks of the Tender Loin, a place where poor immigrants lived in tenements, and replace it with a station twice the size as the most beautiful one in Paris, France, the Gare d' Orsey.  An engineering and architectural feat, though partly a gift to New York,  this "civic deed" was also a successful attempt to corner the travel market, by tunneling under two rivers, to bring trains in underground.

Alexander Cassett, a man of wealthy whose sister was the artist Mary Cassett, went to Paris to visit her, and was inspired.  He also came out of retirement to head up the plan and died before the station opened. It started with a $50 million dollar buy - for cash - of buildings above ground but with exclusive access to the tunnels to be engineered, if only they would hold the water and earth above them.  Blow outs of river water happened. In the end this train terminal was awe inspiring.  And then the day came when it had to be torn down.


****

If your immigrant ancestors came through New York, there's a very good chance they got on a train to their next destination. They buy of real estate to be torn down to make way for the project began in 1901.  Work was going on until 1910.

Thought this would be an interesting THANKSGIVING time post since so many travel to see their loved ones for the holiday.  With Covid-19 travel restrictions, I guess there are going to be a lot of Zoom Turkey Dinners.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS of PORTUGAL? - SECRETS and MYSTERIES - AMAZING TREK WITH THE EXPERTS

I just loved this documentary film and with the traditional Columbus Day holiday coming up in the United States on October 12th, I thought I'd tell you about it so you can watch it before then.  Oh the archives, the travel, the experts, the royalty (or aristocrats) involved in tracking down the truth of Christopher Columbus.  Italy has claimed him as one of their own, he is said to have gone sailing to discover the New World (the Americas) as financed by Spain, but Portugal is where he was born.

Would you believe that alive today is Christopher Columbus the 20th or Vasco De Gama the 19th?  Well,  you get to hear them talk about their ancestor while the hunt for DNA that could help convince those for whom the paper trail of archival documents is not enough.

So, most amazing to me is that Christopher was not a Christopher or a Columbus at all.  He is said to be the illegitimate son of a noble and his Jewish Mistress.  Instead the Christopher Columbus translation is more of a salutation such as Peace Dove.  At the time of his suspicious death his two sons were begging to know the truth of their heritage and dad wasn't talking.  He may have been related to the monarch King John II of Portugal and he may have stopped over to talk to him before he went on to Spain to report in when he returned. 

There is so much more to learn so tune in. 

C 2020 Magyar-American BlogSpot
Film Review
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THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD : MAGYAR AMERICAN FILM REVIEW

This wonderful documentary made by Joker Films, with Richard Dreyfuss as the narrator, is full of photos, art inspired by the devastating Johnstown flood of 1889, film!, and enacted testimonials sourced from books and letters - all in black and white.

This review is here at Magyar American - BlogSpot because the Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania area, especially the Cambria Iron Works, was the destination and workplace of so many immigrants from central and eastern Europe, including Magyars, Slavs, and Ruthenians.

Over 2000 people died. Poor people, who didn't know what hit them as the flood waters took them away, to be struck by logs and trees, floating houses ripped from their foundations, detached roofs, factories, and locomotives, lost their lives in minutes.  Some people floated on debris a while, praying or singing hymns. A memorial cemetery, the Grandview, in Johnstown is the higher burial ground of many who were never identified.

The Conemaugh Valley was the home to 30,000 people and it was a bustling place to live and work. The Fishing Club upriver was the exclusive social club for men like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Phipps, people you may have heard of as Robber Barons or the founders of Pittsburgh institutions such as the Carnegie Library, Carnegie-Mellon the university, or the Phipps Conservatory, owners of steel mills. The Pennsylvania Railroad ran trains all around Pennsylvania, and from Johnstown to Pittsburgh there were trains that ran like commuters - The Daily Express.  One of my ancestors took this train for work in Allegheny Country before moving the family there from Johnstown.

The South Fork dam was built years earlier in 1852 of clay and earth and the lake filled with more water and was more vast than had been expected so maybe it was just a matter of time. Heavy rains pushed it to the limit and when it broke, there was near no escaping the violence of rushing waters.  Cambria Iron Works was wiped out. Then caught fire. The train roundhouse and the trains in it were carried away though each weighted many tons.

The people had been warned.  Men on horseback had ridden through town shouting warnings.  These warning were ignored. Trains blew whistles and still, many people stayed put.  Commuters got off trains that had been waylaid and ran for the hills.  Entire towns were wiped out in Conemaugh Valley.  Eventually Clara Barton who founded the Red Cross made a personal visit to the disaster site and it became the law to shoot and kill looters, who were cutting fingers off the dead to take the rings.

I sat glued to my seat watching this one, and I think you might too, especially if the Johnstown area was the destination of your immigrant ancestors.

C 2020 Magyar American BlogSpot
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BECOMING SANTA : MAGYAR AMERICAN FILM REVIEW

How does Santa get all his work done?  This is a documentary film about the process that some people, mostly men, go through to properly represent Santa.  It includes an ongoing interview of a graduate of a special Santa Claus School, where the students are told that to children of a certain age, the excitement of meeting Santa is like a fan meeting a rock star.  There they learn the best way to fulfill the role. Such as, not making promises they canot keep. And yes there are conventions for full bearded men to compare notes.

Meanwhile, there's a look back to the development of Santa Claus.  Did he always wear a red, white fur trimmed coat?  Was he always fat and jolly?  Was it a Coke-a-Cola ad that introduced us to the man we expect down our chimney with toys?

The history of Santa Claus goes back to Saint Nicholas, born rich, who gave much of his fortune away to people who needed the extra help. In the United States, Santa is a hit by the Civil War era when he makes the Harpers Magazine cover and is suggested to be on the side of the Union. This is a black and white etched look figure, not so fat.  In Austria and other European Countries, his visits coincide with the visit of a darker character, a mean, even evil character who can punish children for bad behavior.

Are you ready to take your holiday decorations out of the attic and start to deck the halls?  Watch this one before you begin, while you have some hot chocolate and grilled cheese, and take your ornaments out of the tissue paper.  Santa's sincerity will grab your heart and maybe even bring a little tear to your eye. 

WHITE GOD : MAGYAR AMERICAN HUNGARIAN FILM REVIEW

Called "Stunning" and "Masterful" by critics quoted on the back of the DVD box, at the end of this film I had to agree! This one will take all dog lovers on a twisting turning emotional rollercoaster, for you will meet some very unkind and unsympathetic Hungarian characters in this film, making you wonder "is that how it is in Hungary?" and it will tweak your animal activism no doubt. 

Is it true that in Hungary a dog is not respected for being a mixed breed street dog and that people only want pure breeds?

After you see the dog star of the film "Luke and Body" evade the unfeeling animal catchers, endure terrible conditions at the Hungarian equivalent of a "shelter," and be sold to a brutalizer who turns him into a killer for sport, you will be cheering when he leads the pack out of the place, then they rampage in revenge.  You'll also be wondering, "Who trained all those dog actors to maraud?  And what about that scene where the one dog delights in ripping up a brief case? (I laughed!)

Lots of violence here and without apology.  You'll be reminded that packs of dogs have been known to attack humans.  But what of the preteen who loved him and searched for him and never wanted to give him up?  I won't spoil the ending for you, but let's say that she has her moment with the dogs and we can only hope that they all get away!

Race out and borrow, rent, or buy this film!

Then, make a donation to an animal shelter.

C 2017 All Rights Reserved  Magyar-American BlogSpot

To read other film reviews on this blog, click on the label FILM REVIEW!

FORCES OF NATURE PBS FILM - A BIT OF THE TISZA RIVER

Yes the photography is amazing, but I was only half watching when my ears caught the words Hungary - Tisza River - May Flies.  Turns out these creatures live under the river water down in the mud for all but the one day of their life when they mate and die, unless a big fish or a bird takes full advantage of the situation and eats them first.  So their name is about how they take flight one day in the month of may. Oh these are no ordinary May Flies, they are Giant Ones.  When they mate, their eggs are instantly fertilized and drop into the river.  Then they fall in dead.

Worth watching!

THE CULT OF MARY : THE FOCUS IS ON ONE PARTICULAR CULT : MAGYAR AMERICAN FILM REVIEW

MEDJUGORJE ORG


NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - THE CULT OF MARY

I was disappointed in this Documentary from National Geographic, but maybe it's because I expected a broader meaning of the world CULT.  This one focused on a particular cult associated with the years long visions of Mary and devotion to her in Medjugorgie.  Now, I'm afraid of cults because I've known people who got into them and never seemed to get out.  It was clear they had gone through some sort of dramatic change in which they turned their backs on everything they used to believe.  However, while the particular group that this film focused on does seem to have cult features, most likely what came first is a person's utter devotion to Blessed Mother of Jesus, Mary.  Some people are concerned that since Mary is not considered divine, that this is displaced loyalty, since the focus should be Jesus.


That said, consider all the people in the world who are not Christians of any sort and how weird they must think Christians are.  It's easy for Non-Catholic Christians to condemn any sort of saint worship.  There are those who think that even Jesus is a small player in the Great scheme of things, that prayer is to go directly to his Father, GOD.


Ah well, this cult is tame compared to what you've read about Scientology.  People give up everything they own and are to spend most of their days in the worship of Mary, along with some every day work, just like so many orders of Nuns, Priests, Sisters, Monks, Monastics.
There is a long tradition of that.  The people are not locked up.  They can drive away.  They don't. So what we're talking about is not wanting to or fearing it. 

So why didn't national Geographic properly title this DVD to be something like "A Blessed Mother Cult in Medjugorgie."  because this is NOT a film about the worship of Mary throughout Catholicism, nor does it discuss other cults, or other Holy Orders who have spent much of their time in prayer, meditation, or Gregorian chants.


As a side, there is also a film bonus called "The Secret Lives of Jesus."  I'm not one to think that if Jesus did spend time in India learning from Hindus or Buddhists there before he began his preaching at age 30, that it's a bad thing.  However, after the Dan Brown fiction novels that so many Catholic haters have referenced, thinking the fiction is fact, I'm sensitive to the issue of Catholic's being understood accurately.

C 2016  All Rights Reserved

GLASS WALL FILM - FILM NOIR : MAGYAR AMERICAN FILM REVIEW

NOIR OF THE WEEK - THE GLASS WALL

  I watched the film on this DVD.

 Here is a promotional poster for the 1953 film.

The film THE GLASS WALL is about a Hungarian-Jew, a Holocaust survivor who makes it to New York but is about to be sent back to Europe by Immigration.  He pleas his case that he had befriended an American, a musician who plays somewhere in Times Square.  His only hope is that he find this musician, who by now has a serious girlfriend who is helping him find a better job so that they can afford to mar, so that the man can testify for him. So Vincent, this man, runs for his life and is homeless on the streets of New York but finds himself befriended by a Blonde who steals a coat to pawn so she won't get evicted, as well as a Hungarian immigrant and her daughter, who help him.

Enter GOULASH on film.  Goulash is a healing meal.  And as mama and daughter cook it and serve it up, no one asks if it's Kosher.

This film is one of those that got the Go at a studio where there was concern for the plight of WWII Jewish immigrants who sometimes found themselves without a country, their families dead, their home towns decimated, who traveled to the United States, as well as how their country men and women in the United States had empathy and tried to help them within their means.  It presents Hungarian ethnic immigrants to the American Viewer sympathetically.

In the end the musician is found and the Holocaust survivor finds himself on the Right side of immigration and accepted by his new country.

Worth a watch, especially if you like Film Noir.

C 2015 All Rights Reserved  Magyar-American BlogSpot

"ED WOOD" FILM BASED ON REAL LIFE HOLLYWOOD PRODUCER WHO LOVED BELA LAGOSI and EMPLOYED HIM AT THE END OF HIS LIFE

Since I'm always interested in how Hungarians and Hungarian- Americans are thought of, stereotyped, and portrayed in the media, including Hollywood films, I decided to watch the film "Ed Wood" a second time.

The film is based on the true life story of a independent producer, the only one in his time who was writing, directing, and producing films other than Orson Wells, named Ed Wood.  Always looking for creative ways to finance films that were B movies - horror - science fiction - he often employed people who were not actors but who had some money to invest.  Many of the early fans of his movies were kids who attended matinees.

A possible exception to that rule of hiring unknowns and the talentless might be Bela Lugosi, known for portraying the menacing Hungarian capable of scaring you to death if not outright murder, a stereotype that stems from the mythologies of Count Dracula, installed in his castle in Transylvania.

In Ed's case he was a Bela Lugosi fan as a kid, met him in Hollywood when he was near 70 and near broke, as well as rumored to have been a drug addict for many years, a "washed up" actor.  Ed was able to give Bela some employment as well as become a friend to the end, and so the actor achieved a brief revival of fame.

Ed himself is portrayed, by Johnny Depp, as endlessly optimistic and inventive, as well as a cross dresser who loves women and befriended and hired many eccentric characters included transsexuals.  He may have never become well regarded or famous, but the wife who married him stayed with Ed 20 years to his death, early, of alcohol.

To give it a Film Noir effect, this film is in black and white, which is extremely effective.

C 2015 All Rights Reserved  Magyar-American BlogSpot

GENGHIS KHAN : "ASIAN" DNA : THE KIDNAPPING OF BRIDES TODAY IN CENTRAL EUROPE IS PLAY!

I've been reading around DNA of the Hungarian people, and the people of the Carpathians, Romania, and Central and Eastern Europe.  The science is getting more and more sophisticated but I think what I read so far is an argument that there was once a lot of mixing - maybe before ethnic identities were tribal. 

I decided to watch GENGHIS KHAN -TERROR and CONQUEST which is an older Biography video, because of that question of "Asiatic" blood in some Hungarians.  This video didn't bring up the fact that he had hundreds of wives or concubines and  maybe 500 children so that Genghis's DNA is in a huge number of people today like I hoped but I still learned a lot.

13th century Asia - what is Mongolia today - was desert forest and grassland and the Chinese considered the place and the people that lived there "The Barbarians." (Seems to me the notion that the other tribe is the barbaric one prevails today!) The tribes there included the Mongols, the Merkits, the Tartars, and the Naimans, and they were all nomadic.  China had already built the famous Wall by then to keep these Barbarians out.

Though there are many accounts of Genghis Khan and his conquests written by Persian, Russian, and Chinese scribes,  there is only one, written soon after his lifetime, that is considered dependable.  The book is called "The Secret History of the Mongols." It begins by saying this bloodthirsty man was born with a clot of blood in his hand. 

No doubt Genghis' power came from his fearlessness to slaughter not just individuals but whole groups of people in the days when this was hand to hand combat and swords, before military battles were fought with guns or the weaponry we have now that distances soldiers from the place they bomb.

The story is also about the abduction of women and the rape of women and the revenge for doing so.

I learned long ago that many Hungarian marriage ceremonies into the 19th century (and perhaps beyond) play acted the abduction of a woman to be a bride, said to be the way it was done when the Hungarians were also nomadic.  The bride who had been sewing, weaving, spinning, and doing needlework, and saving for her life as a married woman since childhood, and who was probably marrying someone from her village that she had known since childhood, would kick, scream, cry out, and make a performance of it.

SOME LINKS : BIOGRAPHY.COM MINI BIO OF GENGHIS  includes video.  (His enemies sometimes surrendered out of fear.)  by 1206 he was his people's Great Ruler.


TIMES OF INDIA - GENGHI GENETIC IMPACT ACROSS ASIA

EXCERPT: "Over 10 years ago, comparisons of Y chromosome lineages across Europe and Asia showed that a large number of Asian men shared a common Y chromosome. The breadth of the distribution of this haplogroup, and the extrapolation that roughly 0.5% of the world's population carried the same Y chromosome together with age estimates led to the idea that Khan himself might have left a lasting genetic impact across Asia.

More recently a study using genome-wide data with different methods and genetic markers but on a similar (but smaller) set of populations found evidence of admixture in the Uighurs dating to the time of Genghis Khan.

"As well as the Uighurs, we found evidence of this Mongolian expansion in a further six populations. These populations approximately span the maximum spread of the Mongol empire. Taken together we believe that there is now strong evidence that this event had a major impact on many Eurasian populations," scientists said."


  THESE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE HAVING FUN WITH HUNGARIAN WEDDING TRADITIONS... 

BUT HERE'S WHAT THEY'RE DOING IN BUCHAREST ROMANIA...   ALL THESE BRIDES WERE KIDNAPPED FROM THEIR OWN WEDDING PARTIES!

IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD TODAY KIDNAPPING WOMEN AND FORCING THEM TO BE MARRIED TO THEIR KIDNAPPER ISN'T JUST PLAYING!  And I can't help but wonder what my own DNA says about the women of my heritage and who kidnapped them!


C 2014 All Rights Reserved  Magyar-American BlogSpot

A MURDER OF CROWS : NATURE FILM

Crows are seen on many a Hungarian surname/family crest or shield.  The image begins with the early people of Hungary who fought against the Turks - the Muslims - and saved Hungary for Christianity. I wanted to know more about the crow.  This is why I decided to watch a film called "A MURDER OF CROWS."  The video could use a better title, though there is a reference to murder somewhere in the film.

Actually, this film is about the latest scientific research about crows, which is so revealing of their nature and aptitudes.  It made me proud to think that early Hungarians were thought of as crows.  The surname Corvin or Corwin is the Latinized version of the word crow, as in Mathias the Crow, the first King of Hungary.

Crows turn out to be one of the most intelligent animals alive3, smarter than dogs, and on par with apes!

They must be to survive because 50% of them don't make it to their second year of life, though they have been known to live up to 20 years.  Crows live in family groups and sometimes parents have help feeding their young by brother and sister crows. These days many of them get hit by cars and are killed.  Scientists believe that when a crow dies, its group holds a silent vigil for the departed!  The crows mate for lie and raise their young for up to five years.  This long period of time is thought to have aided in their mental development.

Crows recognize individual faces and inform their fellow crows if someone is a friend or enemy.

Scientist have proven that this information is transmitted to younger generations.

They are always watching and learning.  They even memorize the garbage truck routes so that they will arrive in prime time to forage from the garbage bags!

Hawks are their natural enemy.  Crows will remember a field where one of their members was attacked and avoid it for a couple years.

Perhaps most fascination was the way scientists have set up experiments to let crows prove themselves.  One of these experiments shows that a crow not only uses tools but makes them and can think ahead to a third move in using tools to get a prize piece of food.

C 2013 Magyar American

STRANGER THAN PARADISE : JIM JARMUSCH FILM ABOUT ROOTLESS HUNGARIAN IMMIGRANTS

STRANGER THAN PARADISE is a film by Jim Jarmusch with John Lurie, Eszter Balint, Richard Edson.  Came out in 1984, is in black and white, and under liscense from Cinesthesia Productions.

Wanting to be more informed about Hungarian made films, I feel lucky to be able to use a library that actually has a few, but I have to admit that the dreariness of this film was such that I could not go through with watching much more than a half hour of it.

If the film maker wished to convey the dismal, almost useless life of a particular Hungarian immigrant to America, one who refuses to use the language, has adopted American football, eats TV dinners, and is unwelcoming to another Hungarian immigrant, his cousin, he did an excellent job.

Any screenplay or book can be about a particular character rather than a whole experience.  While I know that many Hungarian immigrants had a very hard time adjusting to life in the United States and experienced prejudicial attitudes that held them back, this particular character seems to be a lazy layabout who is expecting more to come to him.  I have to think of if that way because I also know that Hungarian immigrants to America have brought with them an excellent work ethic, talent and skills, and so much else to the "Melting Pot."

N is a NUMBER : FILM REVIEW : PAUL ERDOS THE MATHMATICIAN

Math being my worst subject, I wondered if I could follow this DVD/ Film (C 2004) that I found on the shelf of my local library.  "N is a Number" is a documentary by George Paul Csisery about Paul Erdos, one of those geniuses living in their own mind - obsessed with math to the exclusion of much else.  Luckily the film didn't require that I follow along on any formulas that I would get lost in and never find my way out of.  Instead I learned about this unique human being who liked to throw out problems to others and speculate, and was not overly concerned with his theories or ideas being proven.

Paul Erdos (1913-1996) had no home and no job.  He never married or had children.  He was close to his mother and may've had a romance that went nowhere.

He Traveled from place to place sponsored and patronized by various other mathematicians, and before it was all over he had published over 1000 papers and received an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University, Great Britain.  The film held my interest without my having to understand the math.

C 2013 All Rights Reserved  Magyar-American BlogSpot

BUDAPEST : CITY OF CAVES : THE HISTORY CHANNEL FILM: CITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD SERIES : MAGYAR-AMERICAN FILM REVIEW

History Channel's BUDAPEST CITY OF CAVES is about the subterranean beneath the capital city of Hungary and oh was it interesting! 

There are 20 million year old cave systems that 2 million people live above and most do not know it's secrets.  Though the ancients knew of caves, two of these systems were just rediscovered in more recent times, such as the world's oldest limestone cave system below the Castle Hill district, which was rediscovered in 1818 or the caves beneath the Buda side of Buda Pest (the hilly part) that were rediscovered in 1873.  In the early 1900's the Palvolgy Matyashegy cave system was found. Today there are 170 known caves, one up to 12 miles long, another up to 300 feet beneath the city. 

Millions of years ago the entire country of Hungary and then some was under Lake Pannon. As the waters receded the caves were formed.  Budapest and the hilly areas first appeared as islands.

We can go back to the time of the 13th century when the Mongols were riding over the country, and then the occupation by the Turks. Today most of the houses on Castle Hill have four sub cellars from the crude cave-like ones, to ones where they hid things from the Turks, to more recently built, and all these caves and cellars must be supporting the weight above them.

Over time 800 year old Matthias Church had to be retrofitted.  The caves below show pillars built of stone used to reinforce but it wasn't the weight of the Church or buildings in general, it was the 10 ton double decker tour buses that sent vibrations below.  The buses caused so much expensive damage that they are no longer allowed on Castle Hill.

Saint Ivan once healed people in a cave below Budapest.  That cave is believed to be below the famous Gellert Baths! 

Saint Istvan (Stephen's) church is also below ground in a cave. There are over 118 natural hot springs in Budapest.  In 89 AD when the Roman's occupied they called the city "Good Water."  So besides saints healing and Roman's bathing, citizens hiding their possessions from raiders and tax collectors, and so on, what else could be down there?!

Think World War II and then the Russian invasion!  Think about an underground hospital that follows the natural path of a cave system that goes on for a mile!  It was considered bomb proof but when the Russians came the 600 people who were down there were massacred.  In the 1960's fall out shelters with ventilators were installed and the machinery still works!

So I don't want to ruin all the surprises in wait for you when you watch this film!

At the time that I watched this film, I also watched one about Paris and Paris has at least 3 million skeletons beneath it.  I bring this up because oddly, it does not seem that the cave system in Budapest has been used for mass burials.

C 2013 Magyar- American BlogSpot  Film Review

THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE : PBS THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE :MAGYAR AMERICAN FILM REVIEW

I found this Golden Gate Bridge video more interesting than I thought it would be, because of the Trenton - New Jersey connection. You see a lot of Hungarian immigrants were wire workers in Trenton, and worked for the company that made the wire - those long thick cords of them - for suspension bridges like the Golden Gate Bridge, which opened for traffic in May of 1937. THE ROEBLING wire manufacturing company of Trenton - New Jersey, was essential to the building of the bridge. Joseph B. Stauss was the engineer whose life mission it was to build a suspension bridge over the dangerous churning waters of the San Francisco Bay, but he didn't last to project's end.




2004 WGBH Educational Foundation.
PBS VIDEO... THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE : A Wonder of the Modern World"

I also found the Golden Gate Bridge project interesting because the bridge was build during the Great Depression and kept a lot of men working though this was very dangerous work. Typically on every bridge project some workers fell top their death. For the Golden Gate lives were saved due to a safety net that was designed to catch the falls.

The net was an expensive but worthy innovation. It might have given the workers more confidence so they could work faster but then a heavy piece of equipment fell into the net which didn't hold and took workers with it.

C 2014 All Rights Reserved  Magyar-American BlogSpot

THE GLASS WALL : A FILM NOIR FILM FROM 1953

THE GLASS WALL film is one of four on a DVD put out by Columbia Pictures, on a DVD called Bad Girls of Film Noir Volume 1. All four films were original Columbia Pictures films from the early 1950's, and in black and white. The legend goes that it was "B" films in that period that actually gave actresses the "juiciest" roles.

It was unexpected that THE GLASS WALL would have a Holocaust and Hungarian refuge thematic. The basic story is of a man who stows away on a ship from the old world where he was in concentration camps from the age of 14 and, caught, he can't make it through immigration. Desperate to not be send back, his wish is to find the trumpet player whose life he saved, so that the musician can testify for him. Meanwhile, he befriends a woman in trouble - a woman who can't pay her rent. The trumpet player sees his picture on the front page of a local newspaper and wants to help him but the refugee is fleeing - all the way to the United Nations building - a modern building that is symbolic in design of a glass wall. The trumpeters girlfriend turns out to be a Hungarian exotic dancer who lives with her mother who is making goulash... and says "We're all honkies..."

Considering that some of the earliest Hollywood people, directors, studio moguls, photographers, cinematographers, etc. were of Eastern European including Hungarian descent, I thought about the stereotypes of Hungarians and their representation in movies. I believe the writers on this were Maxwell Shane and Ivan Tors.



C 2012 Magyar American BlogSpot

MEN ON THE MOUNTAIN : 1942 VENICE FILM FESTIVAL BIENNALE AWARD : BASED ON THE STORIES BY JOZSEF NYIRO VINTAGE HUNGARIAN CHRISTMAS MOVIE

MEN ON THE MOUNTAIN is the story of a poor lumberjack and his wife and their Transylvanian mountain neighbors, who eek out a poor living off the land. When a big timber company buys that land and offers them work rather than eviction, they take the company up on their offer.

The drama focuses on a man whose wife is raped by the supervisor, and who then becomes ill with, perhaps depression, perhaps typhus. He takes her into the church for a pilgrimage to Blessed Mother Mary, then to doctors, but she dies, and he must take her dead body home on the train.

Though this film is in black and white (circa 1942 - when it was the winner of the Venice film festival Biennale Award) and very dark in color, none of the actors was overacting, and so I felt as though these were real people and overall it was very effecting, bringing tears to my eyes. The values and loyalty of the people on the mountain reminds me of how exceptional such loyalty is today.

I watched in on a DVD (with English subtitles) put out by Bunyik. It was written by Jozsef Nyiro and Istvan Szots and stars Alice Szellat and Janor Gorbe.

C 2011 Magyar American Blogspot