Sat, Jun 15
|Burbank
German Group: Kathy Holland on Otto Preminger
SCGS's German Special Interest Group hosts genealogist and professor Kathy Holland, who will present "The Life of Otto Preminger" on Saturday, June 15, from 1 to 3:45 p.m. at the SCGS Family Research Library in Burbank.
Time & Details
Jun 15, 2024, 1:00 PM – 3:50 PM PDT
Burbank, 411 Irving Dr, Burbank, CA 91504, USA
About the Event
The Hungarian-born film director and producer Otto Preminger is known for the cinematic masterpieces Laura, Stalag 17, Carmen Jones, The Anatomy of a Murder, and The Man With the Golden Arm, among many others. Genealogist, professor, and SCGS board officer Kathy Holland will take attendees on the fascinating journey of Preminger's life in a hybrid presentation on June 15 from 1 to 3:45 p.m. at the SCGS Library in Burbank and onlilne.
Dubbed "Otto the Terrible" for his monstrous behavior on set, Preminger was also a maverick in Hollywood. He produced films with taboo subjects, defied the Hays Production Code, and joined the bold and brave who shattered the Hollywood Blacklist in the mid-20th century, which denied work to actors, writers, and other industry workers who were believed to have ties to Communism.
Preminger was born into a Jewish family in 1905 in Wiznitz (Vyzhnytsia), a town west of Czernowitz, northern Bukovyna, in today's Ukraine, then part of the Austro–Hungarian Empire. His father, Markus, was an attorney general of Austria-Hungary and had an extraordinary career defending the interests of Emperor Franz Josef.
Preminger was married three times. His son, Erik Preminger, said that, with family, Otto was "like a marshmallow" and capable of great love in a primal way. Erik's mother was burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee, who never married Otto. Besides Erik, Preminger had two other children.
For more information and to register, please contact Allene Aubertin and Melanie Gnad at germaninterest@scgsgenealogy.com
The German Interest Group meets at the SCGS Library on the third Saturday of each month (January through November) from 1 to 3:45 p.m. Meetings include presentations on a wide variety of research topics, highlights of German resources available in the library, online research tips, group help with brick wall problems, highlights of discoveries, and personal research time with the help of other members. Meetings are held in a hybrid format--at the SCGS Library and online. We also have an annual Oktoberfest potluck meeting, appropriately in October, that is very popular with our members and guests. We're proud to host top speakers and experts in German genealogical topics at our meetings.