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Love Survives 3 Continents
Early Life and Musical Beginnings
I was borne in Europe, Budapest, Hungary in June 23, 1924. I had two older sisters. My Father died when I was 6 years old. When I was 10, I started to learn classical piano, until I heard on radio from America the Brigands. Without my Mother knowing I started to learn jazz piano. My oldest sister paid for my weekly lessons. At 16 in High school I formed a small orchestra.
Love and War
When I was 18, on Lake Balaton in Hungary I met a lively girl named Erika, building castles in the sand. We both fell in love. After three years of dating and telephoning, Hungary was overtaken by the Germans and being Jewish, I was taken to a forced labor camp. After six months, I found a way to escape from the 300 Jews being taken to German concentration camps. When I tore off the yellow arm band identifying me as a Jew, and got home to our apartment, I was told that our whole family, including me, was allowed to move into a building protected by the Swedish flag. Raul Wallenberg from the Swedish Consulate arranged all this for a few hundred people.
Escape and Emigration
When the war was over, I promised Erika after I found her hiding on the hills of Buda, in a non-Jewish building. I told her that I would try to escape from the now occupied Russian Hungary, go to America, and send for her. After finding a clever way to cross the border to Germany, the American Consulate sent me to Munich and fortunately found a piano-bar at the American Red Cross where they hired me to play piano. An American officer decided to help me and arranged that I would not have to wait 3 years for my quota to emigrate to the USA. When I arrived by ship in New York City in January 1946, I was only given a studio apartment on Broadway but needed to find a job fast to earn money to eat.
Life in America
I got a job at Bickfords Restaurant near 42nd Street washing dishes from midnight to eight am, but I was in seventh heaven because I could go to the movies on Broadway and see all the big bands playing before the movies were shown. I usually stayed 2 or 3 times and learned English that way. Later I got a job as a fur salesman, and after 3 years in New York when I was 30 years old, I got a job in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as a piano vocalist. From then on, I entertained all over the US major cities in piano-bars. I had my own TV show in KGUL Houston, Texas, later 3 years in Las Vegas at the Dunes hotel.
Later Life and Personal Reflections
In 1971, I married a lady who died of a heart attack in 1975. When I was 52 years old, I wanted to write to my little Erika. When I found out, I wrote her a letter to Melbourne, Australia, gave her my phone number and address in Hollywood. She did call me a week later. The rest of my happy life really started from then on.
