Don’t worry, I’m only here for a minute. I’m sure that since I’ve been gone, you’ve all settled your disagreements on whether C&C presentations are best and whether downloads are a good substitute for CDs. And you did it all without me!
Why this cameo appearance? Recently, I happened upon something that tickled me, and I figured I’d share it with my old friends here at FSM.
Back in December, my dad found two reels of 16mm film in a box, and he didn’t know anything about it. What intrigued me was that the film had been sent to a processor in March of 1945 (the mailer box had “Win the War” stamps on it) and the return address was for one Irving Szathmary.
My grandmother’s maiden name was Pearl Szathmary. Irving was her cousin. I’d heard mention of him many, many years ago, before I knew anything about Irving and his brother Bill (who ultimately changed his surname to Dana), but for whatever reason I assumed they were very distant cousins.
But this film proves otherwise. This was taken in the backyard of my grandparents’ home in Larchmont, New York, in early 1945. The baby girl is my aunt, as far as I know the only person in the film who is still alive. The girl playing with the stuffed duck is my mom. The balding man smoking a pipe while holding his baby daughter (ahh, the carefree days of 1945!) is my grandfather. And the dark-haired man with glasses in the double-breasted suit (who eventually opens his own fancy cigarette case) is Irving Szathmary.
If you don’t know the name, Irving Szathmary is the man who composed the music for “Get Smart.” Jon Burlingame wrote about him here:
How incredibly cool, Schiffy! I love glimpsing the past through home movies, and if you're anything like me in that respect then this find must have been doubly fascinating. Not only your own family but the "Get Smart" composer hogging most of the limelight!
The way you worded it, I thought that Irving Szathmay would be just hanging around in the background for a second or two, but he's in the bulk of the footage.
By the way, why not hang around and participate now that you're (probably) logging in frequently to see our comments on your story?
That's amazing! I always enjoy seeing this kind of footage from that period. Reminds me of when I found out I'm related to Ernie Kovacs. Maybe there is something to having it being in the genes!
While it is cool to discover the relation to composer Irving Szathmary, I'm surprised no one has noticed the other little tidbit of family relations that Schiffy dropped. Namely, he is also related (1st cousin one removed?) to José Jiméniz (aka Bill Dana aka William Szathmary).
SchiffyM, I think you had exited these boards before I ever signed up here; yet I enjoyed many of your posts during the years I occasionally lurked. When I saw that you opened a new thread I happily clicked on it, hoping you were ending your exile -- and thanks for what you shared. However, Bill Dana was not the last family revelation disclosed above. As another son whose mother now has moved on, I offer my condolence on yours.
Your family connection to Irving Szathmary was the real headline here; I knew him by name because the name "Szathmary" was exotic enough that I remembered it from Get Smart! in my childhood. I'm also old enough to remember Bill Dana as both stand-up comic and sitcom star (as well as how funny I and even my mother thought he was). Yet the unexpected bombshell for me was Jon Burlingame's disclosure that your relative also created the I'm Dickens, He's Fenster theme. At age eight I wasn't yet noting composer credits on stuff I watched -- but I gave that show a try for being a comedy about carpenters, as my father and grandfather were. The series wasn't great, but it did introduce me to the wonderful John Astin a couple of years before The Addams Family ... and to this day, I recall the "Dickens and Fenster March" note for note almost 60 years later! It's also fun to learn that its composer was urged to use LeRoy Shield's "Cuckoos" theme for Laurel and Hardy for inspiration. (Never made that conscious connection before, but it's right there.)
I appreciate your latest injection of cultural value around here, SchiffyM! Hope you won't mind stopping around more often.
Yeah, this footage has really fascinated me. (Decades later, as a kid, I used to play in that same backyard.) I wish my mom was still around to watch this film with me.
Yes, somehow I'm related to Bill "Jose Jimenez" Dana, too, but I have yet to discover any photographs of him with my identifiable relatives. They were both my grandmother's cousins, which makes them… I don't know what it makes them to me.
My grandmother's father Oscar Szathmary (who died when she was a teenager) owned the storied Café Royal in lower Manhattan, which is mentioned in Steven Smith's Bernard Herrmann biography. "Abraham [Bernard's father] deliberately initiated fights with Ida [Bernard's mother] as an excuse to escape to the Lower East Side and the Café Royal, where Jewish intellectuals could play cards and talk politics."
So a lot of brushes with film music fame in there, though as far as I know, I never met any of these Szathmarys (certainly not Oscar, who died in 1930!).
Nice to hear you’re doing well! We miss you! Szathmary? How do you pronounce that exactly?
Well, I've always pronounced it "Zath-muh-ree," but to be honest, I can't remember hearing my grandmother say it, so maybe that's all in my head! (Since her mother's first name was Mary, I hope it's not pronounced "Zath-Mairy," because that would sound pretty silly.)
Lattanzi, Ernie Kovacs was a genius! But then, you know that.
Seriously, the "Come back!" sentiments are very flattering. Thank you. Of course, now I feel pressure to make my posts live up to that! But if I have something to say that I feel is actually worth contributing, maybe my self-imposed exile has lasted long enough.
