"If I feel a bit blue, this is the book I take off the shelf. I absorb love of life, indestructible cheeriness, optimism, good mood from it. It does good to everyone!" -István J. Bedö/// My First Two Hundred Years is the autobiography of the Hungarian humorist and writer Pál Királyhegyi (1900-1981). It was first published in Hungary in 1979, and re- published in 2015. /// When asked why he entitled his memoir My First Two Hundred Years, Királyhegyi replied, "If it's true that war years count twice, when I say I that am two hundred, I am actually pretending to be younger than my age, since I had as bosses Franz Joseph I, Horthy, Szálasi, and even Hitler, because I worked in Auschwitz, as a simple deportee, and it is common knowledge that time there passed quite slowly, as long as one was still alive, anyway."/// In the early years of the twentieth century, Királyhegyi, a young Hungarian, stowed away on a ship bound for America. He by turns worked as a busboy, elevator operator, and banker until he boarded a train for Hollywood. There, he realized his American dream and wrote films, hobnobbing with the likes of Charlie Chaplin. But while at the height of his success, the restless Királyhegyi, known in America as Paul King, decided to return to Europe. As a Jew, the writer was "just in time" to be deported to a string of concentration camps in World War II Germany. Ultimately, Királyhegyi was liberated by the US Armed Forces and returned to Hungary to withstand the Soviet occupation and flourish in Budapest as a playwright and novelist.
Certainly no other writer has experienced the golden era of Hollywood, the ghastliness of the Holocaust, and the absurdity of Communism first-hand, and chronicled them with such a breezy wit uncorrupted by cynicism or bitterness. Heart-rending and inspirational, a rare life-story that is also a page-turner, it's the type of book young and old will be able to enjoy and learn from. This volume stands alone in Holocaust literature due to Királyhegyi's voice, which, while unflinching, is that of a natural born humorist./// We read My First Two Hundred Years again and again. His stories reflect a way of thinking most important to us all. Love of life. The ability to deal with life. Self-irony, which often helps in life.
"Without Királyhegyi the world is dry, dark, and cold. Even with him it still is, and yet: what a difference he makes! --Géza Röhrig, writer and poet, lead actor in the Oscar-winning film Son of Saul. /// Pál Királyhegyi (pron. Pahl Keer-rye-hedyee; AKA Paul King, 1900-1981) was a Hungarian writer, journalist, humorist, TV personality, and screenwriter and perhaps the most quotable Hungarian of the twentieth century. He was the author of several novels and books of nonfiction. As he relates in Greenhorn and, later, in My First Two Hundred Years, in 1920 he and a fellow Hungarian stowed away on a ship bound for New York City. There, after years of hardship, hard work, and adventures aplenty, they moved to Hollywood and began working in the film industry. His friend went on to become a major director under the Americanized name Charles Vidor, while Királyhegyi wrote this autobiographical novel, Greenhorn, published under the pen name Paul King. In 1931, homesick, he moved back to Hungary, where he worked as a journalist and theatre critic. In 1938 he moved to England, where he worked for the Daily Telegraph and in the film industry and remained until 1941. He returned again to Hungary, only to eventually be sent to an internal labor camp, and before long, in 1944, to Auschwitz and other concentration camps, where he nearly perished. After he was liberated by the US Armed Forces, in 1945 he returned to Budapest, where he wrote pieces for cabaret theatres. As a writer and an intellectual who had lived abroad, he found it increasingly difficult to find work after Hungary became a one-party, communist state, and in 1951 he was sent to the countryside for a time in internal exile. One of many quotes attributed to Királyhegyi: "He who has a sense of humor knows everything. He who doesn't is capable of anything." Alluding to his diminutive stature, he even proposed his own epitaph: "Here lies Királyhegyi. Well, where is he?"
