HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME LINKS TO CURTIS, BARRYMORE, HARGITAY ADDED TO MAGYAR AMERICAN SIDE-BAR

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is, if you haven't heard of it, a way of honoring famous actors and others in the city of Hollywood, with stars that are embedded in the side walk.  It is a tourist attraction but please understand that it is fan clubs that raise the money for the actual star in honor of their favorites.  I've been there and you can walk the streets for miles looking for stars.  When someone dies, if their fan club is still around, then there is usually a floral tribute placed upon it.  Some of the sidewalk and actual stars are in need of maintenance, others are bright and shiny.

Looking through MAGYAR- AMERICAN blog, I noticed a couple posts that needed to be taken down due to expired videos.  I decided to add the HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME links for

Tony and Jamie Lee Curtis, Drew Barrymore, and Mariska Hargitay to my side bar.  These links have very informative bios on them.

There are and were more Hungarian-American actors and very many Hungarian immigrants who were involved in the making of films from their early years in Hollywood, behind the camera as well as in front of it, and in all aspects of production.  In case you are wondering, many of these people were Hungarian Jews.

Besides the Gabor Sisters, there is Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson, her daughter, Jessica Szhor, Adrien Brody, and Tara Reid who have some Hungarian ancestry.  There are also many Hungarian-American stage actors. 

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

VILMA BANKY : HUNGARIAN SILENT SCREEN STAR IN HOLLYWOOD

VILMA BANKY a web site dedicated to her.



 VILMA BANKY was born January 9, 1901 in Nagydorog, Austria-Hungary
 and died  March 18, 1991 in Los Angeles, California.  She became a silent screen star and made films for about five years.  I thought these tribute YouTube videos were well done!  Here she is with Rudolph Valentino.



IMBD FILMOGRAPHY for VILMA BANKY

VILMA BANKY

ZSA ZSA GABOR CELEBRATES HER 95th BIRTHDAY IN LOS ANGELES : SHE NOW ADMITS HER AGE!

The Gabor sisters were not just known for being beautiful and sexy. They were known for being WITTY!

I've posted on Zsa Zsa a few times because she is probably the most known Hungarian American in show business, and she has outlasted and outlived her sisters. Could it be because she is the only Gabor who has a child, a daughter?

A few days ago she celebrated her 95th birthday and some of the articles I read suggested that she was now telling the truth about her age. As we know the Gabor sisters didn't believe a woman should tell her age or be asked it, but they had jokes to work around such questions too.

Articles I read suggested that for this party, her husband brought the cake into her bedroom to show her, and she enjoyed the vibe that a party was going on outside, but she did not actually make any appearance or attend her party. You know, I love the spirit he had to carry on with a party for her just the same. The couple are both eccentric but no doubt he loves her. And here is where Zsa Zsa has won in the end! A true romance of lasting years!

MARISKA HARGITAY and HUSBAND ADOPT ANOTHER CHILD : NOW FAMILY OF FIVE

Hungarian-American actress MARISKA HARGITAY and her husband, Peter Hermann, announced a second adoption today, making their family five - their natural son, a daughter adopted six months ago, and now this baby. ANDREW NICOLAS comes six months from the adoption of AMAYA JOSEPHINE. Linking to one of many articles on the net about this today, Mariska, Peter, and five year old August are THRILLED!

It is so wonderful that people with the means to do so - the money and the love - are adopting!

94 YEAR OLD ZSA ZSA GABOR BACK IN THE HOSPITAL

A gorgeous picture of Zsa Zsa on this LA TIMES mini article (so many on the net!) about her latest health crisis. She has been eating solid food but also has an infected feeding tube.

ZSA ZSA GABOR IN COMA AND FAILING - BREAKING NEWS

Zsa Zsa Gabor, after two weeks in the hospital, may just be dying this time.  Just recently it was reported that after Elizabeth Taylor died she said she would be next.  Gabor is said to be 92, and as we know the Gabor sisters were known for hiding their true ages, and she has been in very poor heath for some time.  I'm linking to the LA Times blog here, the local newspaper for Hollywood.

Zsa Zsa and her sisters brought wit and feminine glamour to Hollywood.

WILLY POGANY ART DIRECTOR IN 1930'S HOLLYWOOD

WILLY POGANY is a famous art director and artist of Hungarian origin.  I'm linking to the IMDB  movie/film database that has some information on him.


(Link at title!)

FIND A GRAVE - BELA LUGOSI

FIND A GRAVE has been useful in my personal genealogy research.  It started out as a site used to find the burial places for celebrities (I'm linking to BELA LUGOSI's grave!) but you can use it to find regular deceased folks too!


Click on the title of this post to get to the link!

The official BELA LUGOSI web site!

BELA LUGOSI is probably the best known male Hungarian actor who made it to Hollywood. He starred as Dracula.... Count Dracula of legend...  who actually may have been based on a real person VLAD THE IMPALER.


Free Screen Saver at this site.... hmmm... would you like it to be Halloween all year long?

It sounds like Zsa Zsa isn't going to make it. THE RAG SHEET PHOTOS MAKE ME MAD

Right now, as I read reports that Zsa Zsa has had another relapse, and it sounds like her time may be near, I feel angry that someone - maybe a member of the hospital staff - has provided one of the newspapery gossip magazines with a picture of her laying back - the camera aimed at her nose - showing what she looks like without cosmetics or hair done.  THIS IS INCONSIDERATE! Leave a person alone in the PRIVACY OF THEIR DEATH BED!

ZSA ZSA HAS LAST RITES AND IS IN CRITICAL CONDITION - HER HUSBAND COLLAPSES

I'm paraphrasing here, all the news articles that have come out over the last couple days in Los Angeles.  She's reported to be 93 and has had two blood clots removed after hip replacement surgery and is said to barely able to speak.  We all have to go sometime, but of course we wish only for a peaceful time of it for Zsa Zsa.

THE GABOR SISTERS - a fan site that links to articles and photos

This fan site is cool!  THE GABOR FAMILY GOES TO HOLLYWOOD...


Now I'm wondering, as you probably are, how we know for sure what year they were born, since the sisters claimed to be younger than they were, and to blur birth dates so that they would keep getting younger...


One thing for sure, Zsa Zsa's 9th marriage is to a much younger man - the Prince!