Talk:Dezo Hoffmann

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[edit] sources

the external link given in the article doesn't lead to anything.

in case it's useful to someone as a source to cite, i have a book called The Rolling Stones: The Early Years, copyright 1984 by Dezo Hoffmann; McGraw-Hill Paperback edition 1985; first published in Great Britain by Vermilion & Company, an imprint of the Hutchinson Publishing Company, in 1984. ISBN 0-07-029305-8. the introduction states that Dezo Hoffmann worked (in Prague) as the clapper-boy for the Hedy Lamarr film Eroticon; in the mid-1930s he was a newsreel cameraman for 20th-Century-Fox, covering the invasion of Abyssinia and the Olympiad Popular in Barcelona, where he remained to cover the Spanish Civil War; he later joined the Czech army; and in 1940 arrived in England, where "the War Office quickly utilized his experience, sending him as a newsreel cameraman to all major theatres of war. After the war he joined the Crown film unit, but soon found more excitement and creative potential in press photography."

hope that helps some. Sssoul (talk) 12:00, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] pseudonyms

i have a scan of a may 1963 Record Mirror article where one of Hoffmann's photos is captioned "by Bill Williams"; what other pseudonyms did he employ? Sssoul (talk) 12:00, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Dezider Hoffmann, Dezo Hoffmann or Dežo Hoffmann

Simple google search shows that he used the Dezo Hoffmann form, he's called Dezider only in some Slovakian sources. That in itself decides in the question of his ethnicity as Dezső is the Hungarian name, but to avoid further discussions I will attempt to find a source when he talked about that. Anyway, I see no sense in why all the references were removed that he was Hungarian. (In fact, he was a Hungarian brought up in Slovakia as the borders changed in his childhood). Regards --Korovioff 19:23, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Dežo is a familiar name or diminutive of Dezider. The article about Robert de Niro is not titled Bob de Niro although many people call him this way. The fact that he himself used the spelling Dezo can be well explained as follows. Before the computer and unicode era the most of the people from Eastern Europe living abroad, with a diacritic in their names, had simply given up and switched to the plain "English" spelling of their name for an obvious practical reason: It was too hard to struggle with clerks in varyous offices with English typewriters. I can say that since I am one of them. For the respect of the person in question it is proper to keep his original name as the article's title, of course keeping Dezo as a redirect page. Regarding him being Hungarian: for many Hungarians the most of Slovakia is still a part of the Kingdom of Hungary. It may be a pitty, but Kingdom of Hungary ceased to exist in 1918. Hungary and the Kingdom of Hungary are not the same thing. While Hungary is the home of Hungarians (mostly), the Kingdom of Hungary was a big multiethnical state. Unfortunately there are some Hungarians who like to think of all ex KoH heritage as being simply Hungarian. There are many tiring discussions on this topic. However I invite anybody feeling &| wanting to be helpfull, to concentrate their creative energy to something more usefull than changing a person's name. Maybe writting an article that does not exist? Jurohi 00:51, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

Dear Jurohi, I am able to make a difference between an ethnic Slovakian living in the Hungarian Kingdom and a Hungarian living in the Hungarian Kingdom. The simplest and only fair way of making the differentiation is by applying facts, rather than emotions. And the facts are the following: "Dezo had a very strong Slovak-Hungarian English accent, but despite this he was accepted into the showbusiness world wherever he went."' The writer of this sentence is Marian Pauer, "the author of the recent and only book" about Hoffmann. The source is Slovakian [1]. You might be aware of in what way you could get to a "Slovakian-Hungarian accent" after 1918, and I hope that based on this you will not deny that Hoffmann had at least "something" to do with Hungarians. Anyway, I'm getting bored with having to play this same game again and again, the last time with Miksa Hell, who also became Slovakian in the Wikipedia article about him before I brought a source in which he confessed being Hungarian. And these are two people born in the one same city. How many other non-Slovakian Slovakians exist? I don't care if you call a Hungarian who came from Slovakia a Slovakian, but please do not eradicate references to his or her Hungarianness. That's not fair. Regards --Korovioff 22:12, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Dear Korovioff (and others). While I appreciate your polite style, it is obvious, that you did not read, what I have written above, or you just completely ignore it. There is no evidence about Hoffmann being Hungarian, except funky article on internet listing (among others) Tony Curtis, Rachel Weiss and Paul Newman as 'famous Hungarians'. BTW Paul Newman is considered 'famous Hungarian', probably because of his mother, who was born in Humene, Slovakia. Plus a little note: there is no such thing like ethnic Slovakian, you probably ment ethnic Slovak. Jurohi 02:12, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Jurohi, hi again. I recommend that you should focus on the Marian Pauer comment quoted above. Do you have an idea, why Hoffman had a strong Slovakian-Hungarian accent? It would lead a little too far to discuss Tony Curtis, who is the face of adverts broadcast in the U.S. about Hungary, the family visits of former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in Hungary or the strongly different case of France's Nicolas Sarkozy. Can we concentrate on Hoffmann, please? Best regards, --Korovioff 09:23, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

sorry to butt in, but Dezo Hoffmann is the name he used during most of his professional life, so the Ringo Starr article is a much more appropriate parallel than the Robert de Niro one is: use the name the man is best known by, and mention his real name (if it's different) in the body of the article. meanwhile, there are other issues being neglected - for example, the external link provided leads to a blank page. Sssoul (talk) 11:36, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Sssoul, many thanks and sorry, I have found nothing to replace the blank page with. Sadly the original page on Marian Pauer has been removed from the internet. --Korovioff 19:33, 22 January 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Korovioff (talk • contribs)