Hungarian Heritage Review, 1987 (16. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1987-01-01 / 1. szám
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - The Hungarian community in America can now boast of having two representatives in Congress! The new congressman is the Honorable Ernest Könnyű, who swamped his opponent in the November elections by 59% of the votes cast in the 12th Congressional District of the State of California. The other congressman, of course, is the Honorable Tom Lantos, also of California, who, as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has been participating in the nationally televised, “Iranscam” hearings. With two great Hungarian- Americans like Ernest Könnyű and Tom Lantos representing us all in Congress, and with Mary Mochary of New Jersey now firmly positioned in the U.S. Department of State, the Hungarian community in America really has good reason for feeling proud! Congressman Ernest Könnyű and the “Gloria Victis” statue, which commemorates the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and was erected in the California Building in San Francisco. Congressman Könnyű delivered the keynote address at the statue’s dedication ceremonies. PEKING, CHINA - It seems that not only Washington is holding a “China Card’’. Moscow appears to be holding one, too. First, Premier Jaruzelski of Poland delivered some “bear hugs and fraternal kisses” to Chinese General Secretary Hu Yaobang. Then arrived Erich Honecker of East Germany with a package of the same. Now, Peking is getting ready for some more “bear hugs and fraternal kisses” from Gustav Husak of Czechoslovakia and — Janos Kadar of Hungary. Meanwhile, Hungary’s Raba automotive plant at Gyor is cranking itself up to produce about 12,000 trucks for China with the help of 350 Chinese workers, who are part of the two-way deal. IN MEMÓRIÁM EVANSTON, ILLINOIS - Charles Gundel, Jr., Hungarian-born restaurateur, died recently at his Evanston, Illinois, home. He was 78. Born in Budapest, the oldest of 13 children, he began his restaurant career working for his father, Charles, one of the Hungary's best-known and respected chefs, in the Restaurant Gundel in Városliget and in the Hotel Gellert Gundel restaurants. Today, though state-owned, the restaurants continue to operate in the Gundel spirit of father and son. In 1939, Mr. Gundel left Budapest for New York to establish the Hungarian Restaurant at the World’s Fair. So popular was this dining place in the Hungarian Pavilion, that it continued to operate for a year after the fair closed. Mr. Gundel, who spoke German, French, and English in addition to his native Hungarian, continued his food service career in New York as manager of the House of Habsburg Restaurant, later the Caviar, and of the Great Northern Hotel. In 1952, he moved to the Midwest to become manager of the Indian Hill Country Club in Winnetka, Illinois. Since the late 1950’s, when he retired from the restaurant industry, Mr. Gundel earned a Real Estate license and had been working for the Evanston realty offices of Wallace & Orth and Orrington Real Estate. Mr. Gundel was married to the former Elizabeth Ayres, who died in 1982. They raised two children, Rob and Gay, now Mrs. Meierhoff. Other survivors include a sister and a brother in the United States, and three sisters and two brothers in Budapest. Mr. Gundel was buried in Evanston, next to his wife. BUDAPEST, HUNGARY - Relations between Cuba and Hungary got a little bit stressed and strained recently, when a knockdown, free-for-all brawl exploded between 600 Cuban factory workers in Hungary on four-year contracts and a clubwielding phalanx of Budapest police. Celebrating the end of their labors at the Kistex textile factory with a dance to which Cuban comrades employed at other plants were invited, somebody provoked a fight, which soon spread into a wild battle-royal between Fidel Castro's “gift” to Hungary in exchange for Hungarian aid to Cuba. When security men assigned to the dance hall could not calm things down, the police were called and, when even they could not bring the fracas under control, everybody ended up out in the street going after each other hammer-and-thong. The Cuban donnybrook in Budapest, which the London Times described as “the largest disturbance in the Hungarian capital in recent memory”, was finally clubbed under control by 4:00 A.M. in the morning. Although Hungarian authorities have investigated the pros-and-cons of the freefor-all, no charges were filed against any of the Cubans involved. The spark which ignited the explosion? “Too many Cuban men, too few Hungarian women at the dance”, said one eye-witness! ZURICH, SWITZERLAND - Andor Földes, the 72-year-old, Hungarian-born concert pianist, is looking for someone upon whom he could bestow the kiss he has been carrying around for about 56 years! It seems that, when Földes was about 16 years old, he felt that his dream of a musical career was over. But, when Emil von Sauer, the last surviving pupil of Ferenc Liszt, visited Budapest and asked the despondent teen-ager to play the piano for him, the world renowned pianist was so impressed that he kissed young Földes on the forehead and said “My son, when I was your age, I became a student of Liszt. He kissed me on the forehead after my first lesson, saying: ‘Take good care of this kiss. It comes from Beethoven, who gave it to me, after hearing me play’. I have waited for years to pass on this sacred heritage, but now I feel you deserve it.” This gesture, Földes says, lifted him up out of his depression and helped him to become the great concert pianist that he is today. Now, he is ready to pass on the “sacred heritage” he received from Emil von Sauer to a promising young student of the piano. Lucky will be he or she who inherits Beethoven’s kiss from Andor Földes! —continued next page JANUARY 1987 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW 3
