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Born in Ujpest, Hungary, in 1919, George Jellinek began his musical
career playing violin with gypsies in the family's garden
restaurant. He spent his adolescence doing much the same, honing
his talent and enriching his own musical education with frequent
trips to the Hungarian Royal Opera House. But when Hitler and
Chamberlain signed the Munich Pact in 1938, Jellinek's quiet life
was shattered. How the exiled teenager survived World War II,
worked his way up from a poor Hungarian immigrant in Cuba and
became one of the most important and influential musical
administrators in New York is an unconventional but truly American
success story. This memoir documents the inspiring life of George
Jellinek, beginning with his childhood in his beloved Hungary. The
crisis of World War II soon invaded his life and, leaving behind
his family and homeland, he fled west. Having been finally allowed
to enter the United States, he was drafted into the U.S. Army in
1942, obligated to bear arms against the country of his birth. This
ironic turn of events culminated in his firsthand role in the
capture of Ferenc Szalasi, the leader of Hungary's Hitlerite
faction. The latter half of the book reveals how music helped
Jellinek piece back together his broken life in America. After
rising to the post of musical director for radio station WQXR, he
went on to become the producer and host of The Vocal Scene. His 36
years with that program established it as a revered fixture of New
York's opera life. The epilogue documents the day on which
Hungary's president bestowed upon Jellinek the Knight's Cross of
the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary.
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