WEBVTT - 4. Gidget Goes to Hollywood, Pt2 0:00:15.036 --> 0:00:22.036 Pushkin Hey, Lost Tails listeners, it's Dana. I wanted to 0:00:22.076 --> 0:00:24.196 let you know that you can hear the entire new 0:00:24.236 --> 0:00:27.596 season of Lost Hill's ad free, along with other great 0:00:27.596 --> 0:00:31.836 binge listens by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber. Find Pushkin 0:00:31.916 --> 0:00:35.156 Plus on the Lost Hills show page in Apple Podcasts, 0:00:35.356 --> 0:00:46.036 or at pushkin dot Fm slash Plus. The Gidget movie 0:00:46.076 --> 0:00:48.356 came out in the spring of nineteen fifty nine. 0:00:48.996 --> 0:00:51.716 Gidget is the story of a young, blonde teenage Gallow 0:00:51.716 --> 0:00:55.716 spends a fabulous summer at Malibu Beach with the surfboarders. 0:00:56.156 --> 0:00:58.756 Of course, you know, Gidget was a very big best seller, 0:00:59.036 --> 0:01:01.796 and they made it into a tremendous motion picture in 0:01:01.916 --> 0:01:03.916 color and in Cinema Scope. 0:01:04.316 --> 0:01:07.556 It starred a sixteen year old Sondra d as Gidget 0:01:08.036 --> 0:01:12.876 him it's such fun living in California and being able 0:01:12.916 --> 0:01:16.276 to pick fresh flowers for my hair. Sondra D was 0:01:16.396 --> 0:01:19.916 tiny and blonde, the Hollywood version of the all American 0:01:19.956 --> 0:01:24.636 girl in the movie. Gidget's real name was Francis Lawrence, 0:01:24.996 --> 0:01:28.236 not Kathy Khner, and she had a bland American mom 0:01:28.276 --> 0:01:32.116 and dad right out of a fifty sitcom. But the 0:01:32.196 --> 0:01:34.956 real Gidget had a family that was much more layered. 0:01:35.556 --> 0:01:39.276 They were European and Jewish, and for what it's worth, 0:01:39.476 --> 0:01:43.796 Kathy had dark hair. In the early thirties, Kathy's father, 0:01:44.036 --> 0:01:47.796 Frederick Kohner, had been a screenwriter in Berlin. His first 0:01:47.836 --> 0:01:51.836 film premier, Justice Hitler was declaring a boycott on Jewish businesses. 0:01:53.076 --> 0:01:53.756 Here's Kathy. 0:01:54.636 --> 0:01:58.116 They took his name off the screen credit for a 0:01:58.156 --> 0:02:03.356 movie that did not show very long by Stefan Sweike, 0:02:04.716 --> 0:02:08.076 The Burning Secret. And he had a pen name because 0:02:08.156 --> 0:02:11.956 when he died we looked, you know, they came across 0:02:11.956 --> 0:02:15.356 the name called Alex Bang. So he had a pseudonym. 0:02:16.196 --> 0:02:18.236 Was that to disguise his Jewish? 0:02:18.356 --> 0:02:20.476 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, that was. 0:02:22.076 --> 0:02:23.916 Difficult period in the time. 0:02:25.076 --> 0:02:28.236 Gidget's dad, Frederick, made its way to Los Angeles and 0:02:28.276 --> 0:02:32.036 continued writing movies. In nineteen thirty nine, he was nominated 0:02:32.036 --> 0:02:35.836 for an Academy Award. Two years later, Kathy was born. 0:02:36.436 --> 0:02:39.156 The family lived in La till the mid fifties, when 0:02:39.196 --> 0:02:41.916 Frederick took a job in Berlin. When they got back, 0:02:42.356 --> 0:02:43.836 Kathy didn't know where she fit in. 0:02:44.636 --> 0:02:46.516 We'd lived in Berlin for a year and a half 0:02:47.276 --> 0:02:48.676 when I was thirteen and fourteen. 0:02:48.756 --> 0:02:49.516 I came home and. 0:02:49.476 --> 0:02:53.796 I really you know, I'd missed out on the junior 0:02:53.876 --> 0:02:59.156 high school graduation and sticking with the girls, and so 0:02:59.196 --> 0:03:03.036 when I came back, I was a little bit where's 0:03:03.076 --> 0:03:07.116 my place? And then the folks, you know, you got 0:03:07.116 --> 0:03:08.836 to come to Malibu with us. You know you're not 0:03:08.836 --> 0:03:10.956 going to go to a movie theater on a Saturday afternoon, 0:03:11.156 --> 0:03:13.556 the Bruin Theater in Westwood Village. Yeah, you're gonna come. 0:03:14.436 --> 0:03:17.476 So it was sort of like, okay, but I'm going 0:03:17.516 --> 0:03:18.876 to learn how to I'm gonna do this. 0:03:20.156 --> 0:03:23.436 Frederick saw potential in Kathy's stories of a Malibu surf 0:03:23.476 --> 0:03:24.476 scene right away. 0:03:25.756 --> 0:03:27.596 I don't really know what he was working on, but 0:03:28.116 --> 0:03:31.396 he hit on when he decided, I'm going to take 0:03:31.516 --> 0:03:32.756 what Kathy's telling me. 0:03:33.116 --> 0:03:35.276 I'm going to write a book. And so he wrote 0:03:35.316 --> 0:03:39.436 that book in three weeks. He wrote Gidget in three weeks. 0:03:40.316 --> 0:03:44.076 Kathy's uncle, Frederick's older brother, Paul Kohner, was a famous 0:03:44.116 --> 0:03:47.196 Hollywood agent, so Frederick took the manuscript to him to 0:03:47.196 --> 0:03:48.076 see what he thought of it. 0:03:48.956 --> 0:03:53.476 And I remember Uncle Paul like, well, I what is this? 0:03:53.756 --> 0:03:55.876 You know, maybe this would be a good story for 0:03:56.036 --> 0:03:56.956 reader's ditches. 0:03:57.156 --> 0:03:57.516 See. 0:03:57.676 --> 0:04:01.596 You know it was so different that even though Malibu 0:04:01.676 --> 0:04:03.636 was twenty minutes from the house, it was. 0:04:03.596 --> 0:04:04.396 A world away. 0:04:04.436 --> 0:04:06.156 It was a world apart. 0:04:07.076 --> 0:04:10.196 A teenage love story set among the surfing beatnicks of 0:04:10.236 --> 0:04:14.356 Malibu didn't appeal to Uncle Paul. He encouraged Frederick to 0:04:14.396 --> 0:04:15.116 shop it around. 0:04:16.236 --> 0:04:18.676 I remember when a phone call came to my dad. 0:04:19.036 --> 0:04:21.276 It was around dinnertime, and my dad got off the 0:04:21.276 --> 0:04:23.956 phone and he said, this agent in at William Morris 0:04:24.036 --> 0:04:28.276 just thinks he said, mister Corner, you have hit the jackpot. 0:04:30.316 --> 0:04:33.716 Soon, Hollywood scouts would show up in Malibu looking for 0:04:33.796 --> 0:04:37.836 locations to film beach movies and actual bonafide surfers to 0:04:37.836 --> 0:04:41.916 do the stunts. Mickey Dora would be right there, auditioning 0:04:41.916 --> 0:04:46.076 for roles and getting paid handsomely. Friends of his told 0:04:46.156 --> 0:04:48.876 me it was actually the only honest money he made 0:04:48.916 --> 0:04:51.876 in his whole life, and he was still getting residual 0:04:51.956 --> 0:04:55.716 checks into his old age. But he also claimed to 0:04:55.836 --> 0:04:59.236 hate Hollywood and everyone who worked in the business or 0:04:59.276 --> 0:05:02.636 had a connection to it. About his work on the 0:05:02.676 --> 0:05:06.796 Gidget movie, he said, quote, my only regret is that 0:05:06.836 --> 0:05:11.236 I did not torch Gidget's palm Loveshack with that phony 0:05:11.276 --> 0:05:14.636 Fuffuni and all the rest of the cast and crew inside. 0:05:15.076 --> 0:05:17.916 What a glorious emu oven it would have made. We 0:05:17.956 --> 0:05:20.956 could have had a kama Aina luau with Hollywood Long 0:05:21.036 --> 0:05:27.436 Pig as the main course. It's pretty gross, especially when 0:05:27.436 --> 0:05:31.236 you consider Kathy was from a family of Eastern European 0:05:31.276 --> 0:05:35.236 immigrants who helped create the film industry in Hollywood, and 0:05:35.316 --> 0:05:38.476 Mickey Dora while he was the son of an Eastern 0:05:38.556 --> 0:05:42.636 European immigrant who came to Hollywood to make it. The 0:05:42.636 --> 0:05:46.596 two families, the Kohners and the Doros, had both escaped 0:05:46.636 --> 0:05:49.556 the rise of fascism in Europe for a better life 0:05:49.596 --> 0:05:55.196 in California. They shared roots, and as I discovered, they 0:05:55.236 --> 0:05:59.156 shared a specific history in Los Angeles at the Dawn 0:05:59.356 --> 0:06:07.716 of Hollywood. I'm Dana Goodyear and this is Lost Hills, 0:06:34.596 --> 0:06:43.996 Episode four, Gidget Goes to Hollywood, Part two. You can't 0:06:43.996 --> 0:06:46.476 tell the story of Hollywood about the story of the 0:06:46.516 --> 0:06:51.996 Khner family, especially Gidget's uncle Paul Koner, her father Frederick's 0:06:52.036 --> 0:06:55.756 older brother. He was a producer turned agent who helped 0:06:55.756 --> 0:06:59.756 define the Golden Age of Hollywood. This is Gidget's cousin, 0:07:00.076 --> 0:07:03.076 Paul's son He's a writer, director and producer. 0:07:04.956 --> 0:07:08.676 I'm Pancho Conor. I was born here in Los Angeles 0:07:09.276 --> 0:07:10.036 four years ago. 0:07:12.156 --> 0:07:16.076 Paul Koner, Poncho's father, had first come to Los Angeles 0:07:16.116 --> 0:07:19.116 in the nineteen twenties to work for Carl Lemley, the 0:07:19.196 --> 0:07:21.516 founder of Universal Studios. 0:07:22.716 --> 0:07:27.356 My dad was the eldest of three brothers from Czechoslovakia, 0:07:27.476 --> 0:07:32.276 small town in Bohemia, which was German speaking Czechoslovakia. 0:07:33.436 --> 0:07:37.556 After Paul, there was Frederick Gidget's father. Their youngest brother 0:07:37.916 --> 0:07:38.356 was Walter. 0:07:39.596 --> 0:07:45.356 My grandfather Julius Khoner and templets. He had a cinema 0:07:45.476 --> 0:07:51.236 theater and he also published monthly Film Journal magazine. 0:07:51.956 --> 0:07:54.756 When Paul was eighteen, Julius asked him to do an 0:07:54.796 --> 0:07:57.636 interview with Carl Lemley, who was visiting. 0:07:57.276 --> 0:08:01.196 The area, and Lemley took a liking to him and 0:08:01.636 --> 0:08:03.276 hired him to come to America. 0:08:03.556 --> 0:08:08.036 Your Coner grandfather had a nickname. That is it Kainokoner. 0:08:08.556 --> 0:08:13.076 Corner Quino is a movie theater. People were nicknamed by 0:08:13.116 --> 0:08:18.436 what their profession was. My father here was nicknamed Phoner 0:08:18.676 --> 0:08:22.876 Coner because he was always on the phone. 0:08:23.036 --> 0:08:26.676 In Los Angeles, Paul met the Mexican actress Lupeita Tavar. 0:08:27.956 --> 0:08:33.036 My mother was Mexican. She was born in Wahaca, in 0:08:33.076 --> 0:08:36.996 the southern part of the state, outdoor plumbing dirt floores. 0:08:37.916 --> 0:08:39.796 The eldest of nine children. 0:08:40.756 --> 0:08:44.876 Lupita was discovered in Mexico by an American director, Robert Flaherty, 0:08:45.076 --> 0:08:49.076 the inventor of the feature length documentary film. Lupita was 0:08:49.116 --> 0:08:52.156 given a contract at Fox Studios in Hollywood and became 0:08:52.196 --> 0:08:56.476 a silent movie star. But soon the silent era was over, 0:08:57.396 --> 0:09:01.796 and that was problematic for a Spanish speaking actress, and. 0:09:01.756 --> 0:09:05.956 They weren't going to renew her contract. But the people 0:09:05.996 --> 0:09:08.836 at Fox sent her over to Universal where they were 0:09:09.356 --> 0:09:12.996 pictures into Spanish, and that's where she met my father, 0:09:14.276 --> 0:09:17.236 and it was sort of love at first sight. She 0:09:17.356 --> 0:09:19.916 did three nights dubbing and didn't know what to do 0:09:19.996 --> 0:09:24.156 and was going to go back to Mexico, but first 0:09:24.196 --> 0:09:27.596 she wisely went back to say goodbye to that nice man, 0:09:27.676 --> 0:09:31.436 Paul Corner, who said, give me twenty four hours. And 0:09:31.476 --> 0:09:34.876 he went to Lemley and said, we're wasting half the 0:09:34.916 --> 0:09:37.636 studio here. At six o'clock he turned off the lights 0:09:37.676 --> 0:09:40.676 till six in the morning. We should bring in another crew. 0:09:41.236 --> 0:09:45.036 Spanish speaking actors and shoot the same film in Spanish. 0:09:45.676 --> 0:09:48.396 It'll cost peanuts because we use all the same everything, 0:09:49.196 --> 0:09:52.876 And Lemley said, fantastic, do it. And my father said, 0:09:53.156 --> 0:09:56.196 there's an actress here thinking of going back to Mexico, 0:09:56.276 --> 0:09:58.916 and Lemley said, well, sign her two a year's contract 0:09:58.996 --> 0:09:59.436 right away. 0:10:00.836 --> 0:10:03.516 One of the first big talkies at Universal was a 0:10:03.556 --> 0:10:11.476 horror film that became iconic, I Am Not Cumor. During 0:10:11.516 --> 0:10:15.276 the day they shot Bela Lugosi. At night they filmed 0:10:15.276 --> 0:10:19.076 the Spanish version of Dracula, with Ponto's mother, Lupita, playing 0:10:19.116 --> 0:10:24.356 the female lead. Paul supervised the film, and two. 0:10:24.316 --> 0:10:27.156 Years later they got married in Czechoslovakia. 0:10:28.716 --> 0:10:31.156 Paul and his new bride decided to stay in Europe 0:10:31.196 --> 0:10:34.316 and make films. They moved to Berlin, where the political 0:10:34.356 --> 0:10:39.036 situation was taking a dark turn in the early thirties. 0:10:39.156 --> 0:10:43.276 When Paul and Lupita were living there, Hitler was consolidating power, 0:10:43.956 --> 0:10:48.316 ultimately declaring himself Furor of the German Reich in nineteen 0:10:48.356 --> 0:10:48.836 thirty four. 0:10:49.996 --> 0:10:53.156 My mother was Catholic and my father was Jewish, but 0:10:53.236 --> 0:10:56.116 he had an American passports, so he was fairly safe. 0:10:56.836 --> 0:11:02.356 But they were not allowed to live together a gentile 0:11:02.396 --> 0:11:07.076 and a Jew, so they had to move constantly. I 0:11:07.116 --> 0:11:13.636 have a letter from authorizing the accounting department to pay 0:11:13.716 --> 0:11:17.916 my father a bonus for living in Berlin in hazardous times. 0:11:17.996 --> 0:11:24.236 As they said, danger pay yes. They used to travel 0:11:24.276 --> 0:11:26.236 to Paris and to London for the opening of the 0:11:26.236 --> 0:11:27.156 films they were making. 0:11:28.516 --> 0:11:32.116 Because of their work and Paul's American passport, Paul and 0:11:32.196 --> 0:11:37.596 Lupita could travel freely, so they became smugglers, helping friends 0:11:37.596 --> 0:11:39.316 and family move money to the West. 0:11:40.756 --> 0:11:44.916 My mother describes how she used to carry jewelry in 0:11:45.356 --> 0:11:48.876 jars of cold cream or in her knitting in a 0:11:48.996 --> 0:11:53.676 role of knitting. She would hide cash and valuables to 0:11:53.836 --> 0:11:55.596 smuggle this stuff out for friends. 0:11:56.796 --> 0:12:01.036 It seemed to work until one day Paul and Lupita 0:12:01.116 --> 0:12:04.396 were stopped at the German Czech border. They were taken 0:12:04.396 --> 0:12:06.836 off the train and were about to be strip searched. 0:12:07.756 --> 0:12:09.796 Paul ran back on the train and saying he had 0:12:09.836 --> 0:12:12.316 forgotten his suitcase and got rid of a wad of 0:12:12.356 --> 0:12:15.316 cash he was carrying, so he threw. 0:12:15.156 --> 0:12:18.276 That bot of cash under an empty seat somewhere. Looked 0:12:18.316 --> 0:12:19.676 like he was going to be a problem, except my 0:12:19.716 --> 0:12:24.236 father loved to be photographed with personalities, with important people, 0:12:24.716 --> 0:12:27.876 and in his briefcase he had a photograph of himself 0:12:28.196 --> 0:12:33.276 with the Heish Marshal, the air Minister, shaking hands. And 0:12:33.436 --> 0:12:36.716 when they saw that, he said, ah, why didn't you 0:12:36.756 --> 0:12:39.556 tell us? And he said, we can call him at 0:12:39.556 --> 0:12:41.596 his home if you'd like il vouch for me. They 0:12:41.596 --> 0:12:45.516 said no, it's all right. So they let them go, but. 0:12:45.636 --> 0:12:49.956 Clearly someone had reported them for smuggling. It wasn't safe 0:12:49.956 --> 0:12:54.396 to go back to Berlin. They had to escape, so. 0:12:54.436 --> 0:12:57.556 Through Switzerland they went to Paris for six months. The 0:12:57.636 --> 0:12:59.876 news was worse and worse from what they heard from 0:12:59.916 --> 0:13:04.076 refugees in Paris, and so they finally took a book 0:13:04.116 --> 0:13:05.316 and came back to America. 0:13:06.876 --> 0:13:09.796 After Paul and Lupita returned to Los Angeles in nineteen 0:13:09.796 --> 0:13:12.876 thirty five, Paul changed course and became a talent agent. 0:13:14.196 --> 0:13:18.756 It was a very successful agent of what they called 0:13:18.756 --> 0:13:22.876 a boutique agency. Didn't have a lot of clients. It 0:13:22.996 --> 0:13:26.636 was one big family. All of these clients were over 0:13:26.676 --> 0:13:30.236 at the house all the time, Sunday's dinner parties. These 0:13:30.236 --> 0:13:32.156 are it was a family affair. 0:13:33.316 --> 0:13:35.716 His clients were some of the biggest movie stars of 0:13:35.716 --> 0:13:41.156 the time, John Houston, Henry Fonda, Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner. 0:13:42.156 --> 0:13:44.356 My sister and I used to put on puppet shows 0:13:44.876 --> 0:13:46.836 for Lana's daughter's birthday. 0:13:47.876 --> 0:13:52.916 But Paul specialized in the European emigres. Billy Wilder, Marlena 0:13:52.956 --> 0:13:54.956 dietrich ingmar Bergmann. 0:13:55.236 --> 0:13:58.276 Any with an accent was a client of the Koner Agency. 0:13:58.996 --> 0:14:02.236 They understood each other. They were a tight knit group. 0:14:03.316 --> 0:14:06.636 The late thirties brought a flood of Europeans into Hollywood, 0:14:06.916 --> 0:14:10.516 many of them refugees from Nazi oppression. They flocked to 0:14:10.556 --> 0:14:11.956 the Coner Agency. 0:14:12.676 --> 0:14:15.676 When anyone who came to Hollywood would go straight to 0:14:16.116 --> 0:14:18.636 nine point sixty nine Sunset Boulevard because that was a 0:14:18.676 --> 0:14:24.516 European refuge My father spoke their languages and got them jobs. 0:14:25.596 --> 0:14:30.436 The Coner Agency became a salon for the Emigray film community. 0:14:30.476 --> 0:14:34.276 His office on Sunset Boulevard is an Art Deco small 0:14:34.276 --> 0:14:38.836 building with large offices, and there's an Oval office in 0:14:38.916 --> 0:14:42.996 the Oval entry room with couches, and that's where these 0:14:43.036 --> 0:14:47.196 Europeans actors out of work would hang out would be 0:14:47.316 --> 0:14:52.036 And then the afternoon, my father's right hand as secretary 0:14:53.036 --> 0:14:57.236 also grown up in Berlin, there would be a coffee clutch. 0:14:57.436 --> 0:15:02.636 She would have pastries from poopies and coffee, and that 0:15:02.796 --> 0:15:09.076 was the meeting place for many of these European actors, writers. 0:15:08.756 --> 0:15:13.996 Direct They discussed the news from Europe endlessly and it 0:15:14.076 --> 0:15:15.476 was always horrible. 0:15:16.596 --> 0:15:20.476 Through the snow, the legions of occupation march into Czechoslovakia. 0:15:20.756 --> 0:15:23.836 This rapid stroke, which has outraged all freedom loving nations 0:15:23.836 --> 0:15:26.516 of the world, is carried out with military executitue. 0:15:28.276 --> 0:15:30.956 In nineteen thirty eight, the Nazis took over the part 0:15:30.956 --> 0:15:34.636 of Czechoslovakia that included Tapletz, the Koner's hometown. 0:15:36.036 --> 0:15:41.556 My grandmother Helena didn't want to leave because they were 0:15:41.596 --> 0:15:48.116 still uncles Nansen, until finally the situation became untenable and 0:15:48.236 --> 0:15:53.116 the Nazis were in tablets and she made a phone 0:15:53.156 --> 0:15:55.956 call saying get me out. 0:15:56.996 --> 0:16:00.796 Paul Koner was exceptionally well connected. One of his friends 0:16:00.876 --> 0:16:04.916 was the eldest son of President Franklin D. And Eleanor Roosevelt. 0:16:05.676 --> 0:16:08.356 With his help, they were able to get Helena out 0:16:08.436 --> 0:16:09.556 of Europe. 0:16:09.876 --> 0:16:13.076 The rest of the family parish were sent to Terrasine 0:16:13.356 --> 0:16:15.756 Camp and other camps. 0:16:18.516 --> 0:16:21.796 Back in Los Angeles. The emigreve film community realized that 0:16:21.876 --> 0:16:25.556 the situation was dire and the US government was making 0:16:25.596 --> 0:16:29.836 it harder for refugees to immigrate. Paul and Frederick Kohner, 0:16:30.036 --> 0:16:33.596 along with Billy Wilder and Marlena Dietrich, decided they needed 0:16:33.636 --> 0:16:35.996 to do something to help their friends who were trapped 0:16:35.996 --> 0:16:36.676 in Europe. 0:16:37.396 --> 0:16:40.036 In order to get here, they had to have the visas, 0:16:40.076 --> 0:16:43.916 they had to have proof of financial support that they 0:16:43.956 --> 0:16:46.836 wouldn't be a burden on the United States. So my 0:16:46.956 --> 0:16:49.596 father had to get to Affi. David's offers of work 0:16:49.876 --> 0:16:53.556 are from the various studios of various employers round town 0:16:53.916 --> 0:16:57.076 and so financially my father was part of the group 0:16:57.116 --> 0:16:59.396 that started the European Film Fund. 0:17:00.236 --> 0:17:04.916 The Khoner saved some sixty people Jews from Germany, Poland, 0:17:04.956 --> 0:17:09.676 Czechoslovakia and Hungary in La The new refugees joined the 0:17:09.676 --> 0:17:13.276 tight knit Emigree community, and when they weren't hanging out 0:17:13.276 --> 0:17:16.156 at the Koner Agency eating pastries, they were at the 0:17:16.196 --> 0:17:19.716 restaurant down the street. That's where some of the best 0:17:19.756 --> 0:17:23.276 and most authentic European food in Los Angeles was served 0:17:23.756 --> 0:17:26.396 and where the European movie stars and directors hung out. 0:17:27.156 --> 0:17:41.116 At Little Hungary, the restaurant owned by Mickey Dora's dad. 0:17:47.876 --> 0:17:51.596 Mickey Dora and Kathy Kohner Gidget met on the beach 0:17:51.596 --> 0:17:55.196 in Malibu in nineteen fifty six, but their families have 0:17:55.276 --> 0:18:02.236 been deeply intertwined for decades through Mickey's dad's restaurant, Little Hungary. Miklos, 0:18:03.076 --> 0:18:06.116 with his young American wife and Little Mickey, had emigrated 0:18:06.156 --> 0:18:11.676 to America in nineteen thirty five. Little Hungary was a 0:18:11.716 --> 0:18:16.156 swanky place on Sunset Boulevard. The waiters wore bow ties 0:18:16.316 --> 0:18:21.396 and traditional Hungarian outfits, and a sign outside advertised Gypsy music, 0:18:22.196 --> 0:18:26.116 but it was also cozy. You could get Transylvanian gulash 0:18:26.396 --> 0:18:30.356 with an apple strudel for dessert. For the many many 0:18:30.396 --> 0:18:33.716 European emigrets living and working in Hollywood at that time, 0:18:34.236 --> 0:18:39.156 Little Hungary was a reminder of home. That was absolutely 0:18:39.236 --> 0:18:43.956 true for Gidget's family. The Kohners, Paul and Frederick, Gidget's 0:18:43.996 --> 0:18:48.556 uncle and her dad, were regulars, and when their youngest brother, 0:18:48.636 --> 0:18:52.556 Walter arrived in Los Angeles, he started working there. He 0:18:52.596 --> 0:18:56.316 was a pianist, playing Viennese waltzes for the after theater crowd. 0:18:56.996 --> 0:19:00.156 He'd later write that he played for quote ten dollars 0:19:00.196 --> 0:19:03.956 a week and all the gulash I could eat. Here's 0:19:03.956 --> 0:19:04.956 cousin Ponto again. 0:19:06.436 --> 0:19:08.196 It was marvelous when I was growing up. 0:19:08.196 --> 0:19:09.116 What do you remember that? 0:19:09.716 --> 0:19:12.916 Remember my uncle playing the piano there, my uncle Walter. 0:19:14.956 --> 0:19:17.636 Late one night in the spring of nineteen forty, Walter 0:19:17.796 --> 0:19:21.996 was at Little Hungary. Miklosch, Dora, mister Dora to Walter, 0:19:22.436 --> 0:19:26.316 was there too. Mieklosch came and sat next to Walter 0:19:26.356 --> 0:19:32.236 at the piano and delivered terrible news. The Nazis, Miklosch said, 0:19:32.596 --> 0:19:37.396 had invaded Holland. It was a solemn moment between boss 0:19:37.436 --> 0:19:43.236 and employee, two Europeans in grim solidarity. But to Walter 0:19:43.316 --> 0:19:49.396 the news was excruciatingly personal. His childhood sweetheart, Hannah, who 0:19:49.836 --> 0:19:59.236 like him was Jewish, was stuck in Amsterdam. Later, their 0:19:59.276 --> 0:20:02.396 dramatic reunion would be the subject of an episode of 0:20:02.436 --> 0:20:04.236 This Is Your Life. 0:20:04.516 --> 0:20:08.436 This Is Your Life television was most talked about program 0:20:08.596 --> 0:20:14.836 and our host, Ralph Edward Hey. 0:20:14.876 --> 0:20:17.876 On the show, which was wildly popular and ran for 0:20:17.916 --> 0:20:21.156 more than a decade, the host would surprise an unsuspecting 0:20:21.196 --> 0:20:23.956 member of the audience, filling the stage with the most 0:20:23.956 --> 0:20:25.716 important people in the subject's life. 0:20:26.716 --> 0:20:33.476 This is Your Life Hannah Blackconer, Oh No, Yes. 0:20:36.076 --> 0:20:40.556 The program told an extraordinary story how Hannah had defied 0:20:40.596 --> 0:20:44.596 the odds, enduring a series of concentration camps and escaping 0:20:44.636 --> 0:20:47.396 with her life. It was the first time the show 0:20:47.476 --> 0:20:51.236 was devoted to a survivor of the Holocaust. People from 0:20:51.316 --> 0:20:54.516 different parts of Hannah's wartime odyssey, people she had not 0:20:54.636 --> 0:20:57.356 seen in years and she thought she'd never see again, 0:20:57.876 --> 0:21:05.196 appeared on stage for Tearful Reunions. Hannah and Walter had 0:21:05.236 --> 0:21:07.956 met in Teplets when they were young, but when the 0:21:07.996 --> 0:21:10.836 war broke out in your they were separated. 0:21:11.836 --> 0:21:15.996 They were sweethearts in high school, and then Walter came 0:21:16.036 --> 0:21:21.276 to America and Hannah is sweet artist girlfriend. He was 0:21:21.356 --> 0:21:23.716 going to arrange try to arrange a visa for herticum, 0:21:24.676 --> 0:21:26.796 but that was delayed. 0:21:28.316 --> 0:21:31.836 Hannah fled home for the relative safety of Prague. When 0:21:31.876 --> 0:21:35.156 Prague became too dangerous, she went to Amsterdam. 0:21:36.236 --> 0:21:43.396 And she first as a housekeeper. Then the war started 0:21:44.156 --> 0:21:51.156 and she worked as a typist in the German Nazi offices, 0:21:51.836 --> 0:21:54.116 and she had access to all the lists of who 0:21:54.156 --> 0:21:55.956 they were going to round up. 0:21:57.476 --> 0:22:01.676 Once the Nazis invaded Holland, it became basically impossible for 0:22:01.716 --> 0:22:04.276 Hannah to get a visa to come to the United States. 0:22:05.956 --> 0:22:10.156 Then Hannah sent a letter that broke Walter's heart. She 0:22:10.156 --> 0:22:12.116 had fallen in love with someone else. 0:22:13.916 --> 0:22:19.716 She had a suitor, Carl was his name, and she 0:22:19.796 --> 0:22:22.356 hadn't heard from Walter in a long time, and her 0:22:22.836 --> 0:22:25.796 chances of getting a visa were slimmed to none. It 0:22:25.916 --> 0:22:28.836 was a five year waiting list. And then I think 0:22:28.876 --> 0:22:34.636 the American embassy there in Amsterdam was bombed or blew 0:22:34.756 --> 0:22:38.156 up and all the paper was gone. So she and 0:22:38.236 --> 0:22:41.156 Carl got married. They were rounded up and taken to 0:22:41.196 --> 0:22:43.636 a camp and released several times. 0:22:44.516 --> 0:22:49.556 Eventually they were sent to Auschwitz. Carl died there, Hannah 0:22:49.876 --> 0:22:51.396 miraculously did not. 0:22:53.316 --> 0:22:56.596 Her brother, who was a medical student, also was in 0:22:56.636 --> 0:22:59.116 the camps, and they actually saw each other through a 0:22:59.196 --> 0:22:59.876 fence once. 0:23:01.116 --> 0:23:04.676 Meanwhile, Walter had left his job playing piano for mister Dora. 0:23:05.196 --> 0:23:10.716 He'd been drafted into the US Army. Walter was in Europe, 0:23:10.876 --> 0:23:13.636 but he had no idea where Hannah was or if 0:23:13.676 --> 0:23:17.956 she was alive. Then one day, not long after the 0:23:17.956 --> 0:23:21.316 war was over, Walter got a letter. It was addressed 0:23:21.316 --> 0:23:26.036 simply to Walter Kohner. Sunset Boulevard. The letter had made 0:23:26.076 --> 0:23:28.436 it to his brother's talent agency and they had sent 0:23:28.516 --> 0:23:32.236 it to Walter, who was then in Luxembourg. The letter 0:23:32.316 --> 0:23:36.476 was from two American soldiers. They'd liberated a concentration camp 0:23:36.636 --> 0:23:38.356 and had found Hannah alive. 0:23:40.236 --> 0:23:45.636 So he borrowed a jeep and was racing from camp 0:23:45.676 --> 0:23:48.916 to camp trying to find her. At one point he 0:23:49.516 --> 0:23:53.876 i demolished the jeep common neared another vehicle. He got 0:23:53.916 --> 0:23:58.556 to Prague and by chance, in the streets of Prague 0:23:58.596 --> 0:24:02.956 he found freedol Hannah's brother and told him that his 0:24:02.996 --> 0:24:06.476 sister was alive, but they didn't know where, and so 0:24:06.596 --> 0:24:09.396 they thought, well, maybe she went back to Amsterdam. Yeah, 0:24:10.116 --> 0:24:14.076 so Walter went to Amstam. He knew the house how 0:24:14.156 --> 0:24:17.636 she had worked as a maid, and rang the doorbell 0:24:17.836 --> 0:24:18.956 and there she was. 0:24:21.196 --> 0:24:24.436 Hannah and Walter married in the fall of nineteen forty five. 0:24:25.116 --> 0:24:28.276 They decided to return to Los Angeles, where Walter went 0:24:28.316 --> 0:24:31.876 back to playing piano at Mister Dora's restaurant, which he 0:24:31.916 --> 0:24:36.636 had renamed Little Gypsy. Hungary had joined the Axis during 0:24:36.636 --> 0:24:39.636 the war, and Mi Klose didn't want to be associated 0:24:39.756 --> 0:24:46.196 with the Nazis. Gidget's family knew first hand the evils 0:24:46.276 --> 0:24:51.436 of anti Semitism. They knew what a swastika meant. A 0:24:51.476 --> 0:24:57.476 swastikament you don't belong here. It meant you're not safe, 0:24:57.796 --> 0:25:04.396 it meant leave. All this made what happened at Malibu, 0:25:04.916 --> 0:25:10.036 what Kathy's so called friends did, even uglier and more personal, 0:25:11.356 --> 0:25:28.476 really unforgivable. When Kathy Koher returned to Malibu after college, 0:25:28.596 --> 0:25:33.156 the scene on the beach was unrecognizable and something else 0:25:33.156 --> 0:25:37.916 have changed. Kathy wasn't surfing anymore. She'd quit. 0:25:38.836 --> 0:25:40.996 So when I came home in nineteen sixty, I don't 0:25:41.036 --> 0:25:45.756 even remember having my own surfboard anymore, but I do 0:25:45.836 --> 0:25:49.796 remember it being pretty crowded. So the movie came out 0:25:49.796 --> 0:25:54.676 in nineteen fifty nine, and that Gidget, the movie I 0:25:54.676 --> 0:25:56.876 think is the start of the billion dollar surf industry. 0:25:56.956 --> 0:25:59.756 I mean, you know, like, oh my gosh, I want 0:25:59.796 --> 0:26:02.436 to go to Malibu, I want to surf. 0:26:02.596 --> 0:26:04.716 I want to meet Moondoggie. 0:26:05.796 --> 0:26:12.076 Pretty dramatic change, actually, And the fellas that I had 0:26:12.116 --> 0:26:16.516 surfed with they were older than me always, so that 0:26:16.596 --> 0:26:19.356 when I came home they had sort of dispersed. They 0:26:19.356 --> 0:26:22.516 were in the military. Uh, maybe they went away to college. 0:26:22.556 --> 0:26:25.236 So it wasn't kind of the same crew, the same 0:26:25.276 --> 0:26:28.196 grouping of surfers that I had known in fifty six 0:26:28.276 --> 0:26:30.196 fifty seven and fifty eight fifty nine. 0:26:34.356 --> 0:26:38.036 But that's not really the whole story. The vibe at 0:26:38.076 --> 0:26:42.436 Malibu had turned toxic long before all those teeny boppers 0:26:42.476 --> 0:26:46.436 came looking for their Moondoggie. When Kathy was still surfing 0:26:46.436 --> 0:26:50.316 at Malibu. It would be whitewashed out of the movie 0:26:50.476 --> 0:26:53.956 and the TV show. The Gidget character played by Sandra 0:26:54.036 --> 0:26:59.196 d never had to deal with it. Here's what happened 0:27:00.076 --> 0:27:03.636 the second summer. Kathy Kohner, the real Gidget, surfed at 0:27:03.636 --> 0:27:07.596 Malibu the summer of nineteen fifty seven, when her father's 0:27:07.596 --> 0:27:10.596 novel was published and knew was already out that it 0:27:10.636 --> 0:27:14.396 would soon be a feature film. A symbol appeared on 0:27:14.476 --> 0:27:18.716