Born Today July 2: Albert Szirmai

1880-1967

Hungarian born composer and Broadway music editor Albert Szirmai was born on this day in Budapest in the Austria-Hungary Empire. Sometimes credited as "Albert Sirmay," he was primarily a composer of operas/operettas and scored just as many musical plays. Though born in Budapest, he was completely devoted to early American musical stage composition and greatly admired 20th century songsters like George Gershwin and Cole Porter (in fact, Szirmai made headlines and history, when, in 1965, he discovered some 100 songs here-for-to-unknown written by Porter shortly after his death). He was also a big admirer of Gilbert and Sullivan; and took inspiration from German classical romantics composers and his native Hungarian folk songs. Szirmai arrived in the United States via the New York port in 1923; after working from the early part of the 20th century as a conductor in Hungary. When he arrived, he already had two film compositions to his name--strange I know for the silent era, but his work was used specifically to accompany two films in Hungary--the first of which was Kruppka Endre's Gazdag ember kabátja in 1912.   The same can be said for the 1916 Korda Sándor (Alexander Korda) film Mágnás Miska.  These are the only two films that he had anything to do with in the silent era. His work next turns up in the 1935 Vitaphone comedic short Vitaphone Casino starring Buster West.  Though his work in American cinema mostly dates from the 1930's (and confined to musical shorts), his work was rediscovered at various points in time in his home country of Hungary. In fact, the most recent use of one of his operatic pieces dates from the 1996 Hungarian comedy Szamba, which sports a soundtrack exclusively comprised of Hungarian composers.  In the 1940's, he also collaborated at least once with Kurt Weill.  Szimai died in his adopted home town of New York City on the 15th of January at the age of 86.  I can find no burial information on him under any name that he used in life.  Toward the end of his life, he made one final trip back to Hungary; while there he successfully premiered two new works.  

A still from Gazdag Ember Kabátja (1912)

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Born Today January 22: Gyula Zilahy

1859-1938

Hungarian silent film actor Gyula Zilahy (sometimes spelled Zilahi) was born Balogh Gyula on the date in Zilah, Hungary/Astro-Hungarian Empire (now Zalau, Romania). He is known to have entered films in 1914, starting out both directing and acting in the Hungarian language silent Örház a Kárpátokban, the bulk of which was directed by fellow Hungarian Alexander Korda under his birth name of Korda Sándor.   He has only two director credits to his name, the second of which came just one year after his first with A becsapott újságíró, which was likewise also co-directed with Korda, and in which he also acted. In between the releases, Zilahy garnered his only career production credit with Korda's Tutyu és Totyó; again he also acted in the film. In all, Zilahy appeared in 20 films in his lifetime (he seems to have been primarily a stage actor), only two of them in the sound era, and all of them in Hungary.  The last silent film that acted in was István György's Tavasz a viharban in 1929. He made just two films in the 1930's (1932 and 1933).  Zilahy died in Budapest at the age of 79 on the 16th of May. He is buried there in the Kerepesi Cemetery.

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Born Today February 19 (Not So Silent Edition): Merle Oberon

1911-1979

Merle Oberon was a woman with secrets. She went to great lengths to obscure her origins, the history of which was so convoluted that she herself may not have known all of the details until later in her life.  She is listed in most sources as an "Anglo-Indian actress," but her background was more complicated than that description belays.  Her birth name was Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson. She was born Mumbai, India (then Bombay).  She spent most of her life and career trying to flee even these basic facts, claiming that she was, in fact, born in Tasmania and spent her formative years there.  When reporters, sensing a story, dug they found the basic facts of her true origins; but when it came to who her parents were, things got considerably more complicated.  The woman that for years was thought to be her mother, Charlotte Shelby (who was mixed race: Sri Lankan/Maori/Anglo), was, in fact, her grandmother.  Her eldest "sister" Constance, was actually her birth mother, who gave birth to her at the shockingly young age of 12.  For this reason, her grandmother decided to raise her as her daughter.  Who her birth father was does not seem to be known. Oberon went to great lengths throughout her life to keep all of this secret; so much so that she tried and failed to keep away from being honored in Tasmania--she, in fact, seems to have only visited Australia twice in her life.  She also frequently told people that her "mother" who lived with her was actually her housekeeper, to keep people from realizing that she was not 100% Anglo.  She claimed that at the age of 17 she left India for Great Britain; the year was 1928.  She got work as a hostess at a club under the name Queenie O'Brien ("Queenie" being her childhood nickname); it here that she got into acting by accepting bit-parts in dinner theater there.  This was later proven to be part of a concocted story--at least in part.  She was reportedly given a bit part in an early talkie directed by Rex Ingram:  The Three Passions (1928).  Her career took off in the 1930's when she was noticed by director Alexander Korda, who gave her the name "Merle Oberon."  By the mid-1930's she was in Hollywood under partial contract to Samuel Goldwyn.  This made  her a huge star; by 1935 she was nominated for an Academy Award.  In 1937, she was in a very bad car accident, that could have ended her career as she was left with some facial scarring; but fortunately it only resulted in one film project being shelved. Oberon acted steadily right through the 1950's, even getting into television work.  But by the 1960's she was, for all intense and purposes, in retirement.  She accepted only two roles in the 1960's and only 1 in 1970's.  Oberon died on the 23rd of November 1979, following a massive stroke.  She is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park.  

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