Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2014 (26. évfolyam, 1-39. szám)
2014-01-10 / 2. szám
Hungarian acrobats tumble into Irvine waffle world The order came from the Hungarian government via telegram sent to a hotel in Indiana. It was addressed to Paul Hortobágyi, whose last name was one of the most famous in Budapest. It was January 1978. It is safe to say that in January 1978 you did not want to receive a telegram from a high-ranking minister in the People’s Republic of Hungary - even if you were part of the republic’s most popular families. Still locked behind the Iron Curtain, still entrenched in the Cold War, the Hungarian government was not often friendly to people who were becoming equally as beloved in the United States. “You are to return to Hungary,” the telegram said. The flying Hortobagyis, a family of Hungarian acrobats, were suddenly faced with a decision. Do we go home? “That telegram meant if you returned home, you would never leave again,” said Marcela Varadi, great-great-granddaughter of the great Karoly Hortobágyi, the Babe Ruth of Hungarian teeterboard acrobats. Today, when you walk into the new Gaüfreé (inspired by the French word for “waffle”) restaurant in Irvine, order the peanut butter pie waffle and ask owner Paul Hortobágyi, 63, about what happened in that Indiana hotel room in 1978. He’ll tell you about the Nazis, the grueling lifestyle of a performer, the accolades, the most beautiful girl in the world, the one-ring circus, the waffles and how he never wanted to become an acrobat. And he’ll tell you about the decision that changed his life. • • • The family was once named Eisenbach, and the family was Jewish. When Matejka Eisenbach died, his brother Karoly became the family’s patriarch. Another brother had been executed by anti-Semites in Hungary and dumped in the Danube River. Seeing the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe before World War II, Karoly quickly changed his new family’s name to protect his brother’s children, a move that allowed them to thrive despite the Nazi dominance during the war years. They became the Hortobagyis. Karoly had a skill that would forever be linked to that new name. He was a teeterboard acrobat. Picture a teeter-totter with a man standing on one side. On the other side, two men leap off a platform and land on the teeter-totter, catapulting the man on the other side into the air. That airborne man flips and lands on the shoulders of another man. Then another man flips, another man flips, and soon you’ve got a human tower that is four men (or women) tall. The men (or women) juggle while they’re up there. They do somersaults, handstands and death-defying leaps while balancing higher and higher on each other’s shoulders. Teeterboard acrobatics were so spectacular, the Hortobagyi’s act became known as a one-ring circus. In other words, the Hortobagyis didn’t need the elephants or the clowns or the bearded ladies (the stars of traditional three-ring circuses) to hold an audience. Karoly Hortobágyi turned teeterboard acrobatics into an art form from the 1920s through the ‘40s. Three of Karoly’s adopted children became part of his act, including Joszef, whose restaurateur son, Paul, owns Gaüfreé in Irvine. The Hortobagyis were so good they were invited to the Royal Albert Hall in London, where they performed for the queen of England on the same bill with Laurel and Hardy and Danny Kaye. In another performance, in Berlin, the Hortobagyis were congratulated by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. “My father was sick to his stomach,” Paul said. • • • There is a bronze statue of Karoly Hortobágyi on the grounds of the Hungarian National Circus in Budapest. They still give the Hortobágyi Award to the best new Hungarian circus performer each year. As Karoly aged, Joszef took over management of the Hortobagyis, and the troupe became known as the Junior Hortobagyis. Joszef was so angry when the Communist Party appointed a director (one who had never done so much as a back flip) to oversee the acrobats, he turned over a desk in the circus office. “He told that man, ‘You are only here because you carry that little red book in your pocket,’ “ Paul said of his father’s meeting with the apparatchik. “My father was the most magnificent human being I ever met. He had unconditional integrity.” Despite the Communist rules that prohibited most travel and personal wealth, the Junior Hortobagyis were allowed to go around the world. They performed in Belgium, Germany, England, the United States and beyond. And when they came home, they lived in the most posh neighborhood - “the Beverly Hills of Budapest,” Paul said. Paul was the first of the Hortobagyis who wasn’t enamored with the family business. He saw how hard the acrobats worked. He saw how they were punished, verbally and physically, when they made a mistake. He saw the injuries from repeated training and mistimed landings. “My father said, ‘If you don’t want to do this - OK, “ Paul said. “You can be anything you want.” He decided at a young age to become a chef. He majored in hospitality with an emphasis in the culinary arts. But when it came time to leave the Hungarian Hospitality Institute and begin a chef’s job making about $25 per month, Paul reconsidered. He chose a path where he could make as much as $2,500 per month. In 1968, Paul Hortobágyi chose the circus. • • • At 150 pounds, Paul was too big to be a flyer, the acrobat who flips into the air and lands on another man’s shoulders. -So he became the catcher. He was the bottom of the human tower. He would catch the feet of the flyer on his shoulders. Then he would move the tower, ever so slightly, to catch the next flyer, and the next. Paul remembers his father constantly yelling, “Eyes up” when Paul was learning how to catch acrobats. In February 1969, Paul and the rest of the Junior Hortobagyis were performing with the Ringling Bros, circus in Venice, FI. Paul’s costume had ripped, and he was stitching the material. A woman sat down next to him and offered to sew it for him. She didn’t really know how to sew. Her name was Marcela, a trapeze artist. “She was a gorgeous woman,” Paul said with a laugh. “She was eye candy.” She soon became part of the Hortobágyi show and part of Paul Hor-Paul Hortobágyi balances a waffle while his wife, Marcela, left, juggles the popular European treat. Marcela and Paul Hortobágyi were third-generation circus performers from Eastern Europe who left the limelight and now live in Fountain Valley. Recently, Paul Hortobágyi partnered with his children, Marcela Varadi and Jean Paul Hortobágyi, at rear, to open Gaüfreé, a waffle-sandwich restaurant in Irvine. tobagyi’s life. Marcela added zest, and a juggling skill that upgraded their act. Paul and Marcela were married in 1970. Their daughter (also named Marcela) was born on 7-7-70. They had another son, Jean Paul. Neither of the kids got into the circus business. • • • In the Indiana hotel room in 1978, Paul Hortobágyi organized a vote among the Junior Hortobagyis. Would they return to Budapest, as the Hungarian government was demanding? They voted to stay in America. “It was unanimous,” Paul said. It wasn’t long before their temporary visas ran out. The Hortobagyi’s last show was Nov. 27, 1979, in Fort Worth, Texas. “Everybody knew it was the end,” Paul said. They settled in Florida. They had very little money, and they were living in trailers. “I had $80 to my name,” Paul said. “But I had a Sears credit card.” That’s when Paul’s background in the culinary arts came in handy. He used the credit card to buy a suit for job interviews. When he got the job, he returned the suit. He worked in Florida as a chef and in hotel management for many years. Then Paul moved his family to Fountain Valley. In 1987, they opened Arnie’s Manhattan Deli in Costa Mesa. Paul also worked for Marriott in the hospitality department. Then, last year, he decided his future was waffles. He got his son and daughter to help run the business. Paul remembers waffles from the streets of Belgium in the 1950s. Gaüfreé opened in September. He used to love the roar of the audience. “You could see the incredible happiness,” he said. “Now, when people like the food, it’s the same thrill.” ocregister.com Krisztián Petroczi REALTOR®Lie. ff01930388 1.800.CALL.ZIP x 3480 Cell: 310.428.4082 krisztian.petroczi@zipreaIty.com Languages spoken: Hungarian, English Neighborhoods: Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Hollywood Hills, Los Feliz Area, Mid Wilshire Area, Mount Olympus, West Hollywood, Westwood and more. 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