A Previously Unknown Hungarian-Related Photo Collection Discovered in America – Interview with Michael Dobo

Could you kindly provide insights into your family background, particularly concerning your father's Hungarian heritage?

My father, Francis F. Dobo, was born in 1908 in Nagykanizsa under the name Ferenc Dobó, in a middle-class Jewish family. His father was a regiment military doctor for the Austro-Hungarian Army who happened to be stationed in Nagykanizsa at that time. The family originally hailed from Eger and moved there and several other locations in the Kingdom of Hungary, such as Debrecen, Trencsény, (today Trenčín, Slovakia), eventually settling in Budapest after the First World War. Ferenc had one older brother, István, who later immigrated to the Soviet Union. My grandmother Aranka’s family came from Balassagyarmat; her brother was Gabriel Wells, who became a well-known antiquarian book dealer in New York City.

After the family arrived in Budapest in 1918, my father attended the 5th District Lycée, where he spent four years. Later, he moved on to The Imre Madách Secondary School, where he completed his studies in 1926. It was during this time that his athletic skills peaked, primarily in the various Track & Field events. In fact, he even won several medals in the broad jump alone and also practiced team rowing on the Danube, as well as competitive fencing. Ferenc formed some enduring friendships at Imre Madách, one of which was with Bertalan Göndör, who later became a renowned artist and illustrator but sadly was killed by the Nazis. He also formed a life-long friendship there with George Feyer, who later became the celebrated pianist, who went-on to play for, among others, President Kennedy, during his long residency at The Carlyle Hotel on Manhattan’s chic Upper East Side. At Madách, my father additionally befriended a young Robert Bak. Although the two boys lost track of one another in the ensuing years, their friendship resumed many decades later in New York City, where Bak had become President of the prestigious New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute. Another friend from the Budapest years was Frigyes Littman, the talented sculptor who later became quite close to my father, both in his Paris years and in the United States.

After high school, my father enrolled in the University of Vienna School of Medicine in late 1926. He spent just two semesters in Vienna, and in the summer of 1927, he requested a transfer of his studies to the University of Budapest, where he studied an additional two semesters at the university's medical faculty. As the conclusion of 1928 approached, he had an inspirational moment: he ceased his studies and decided to find a different direction in life. His idea was to move to Berlin with friends and find a job related to writing, but somehow this didn't exactly impress his family. They suggested that he could alternatively go to France to learn the language – and he agreed. He moved to Paris in September of 1928, where he promptly signed up for a course at The Sorbonne, but only completed one semester.

He met Paul Winkler through a friend upon arrival and quickly went to work at an entry-level position at the Paris office of Opera Mundi in the Fall of 1928, where he oversaw German and Hungarian publications. It was during this period that he moved to the notorious Hôtel des Terrasses, where he immediately started socializing with the many artists already in residence there. He became fast friends with Lajos Tihanyi, the Hungarian painter and – most significantly– Gyula Halász, who later became a world-famous photographer under the pseudonym of "Brassaï." He also became close with fellow Hôtel des Terrasses tenants Alfred Perlés, the Austrian writer, as well as the German painter Hans Reichel. Another notable figure in this côterie of friends was a struggling photographer named André Kertész. And, perhaps most notably, sometime in 1931, my father encountered a prematurely bald-headed young fellow from Brooklyn, sitting all alone as an all-night party wound-down. My father strode over, and, using his growing facility with English, quickly made fast friends with him. That man was Henry Miller.

After his introduction to the Parisian Art Scene, my father's circle of Hungarian ex-pat friends expanded once more when he subsequently met and became good friends with Ylla, who went on to become one of the world's foremost photographers of animals. In addition, he regularly attended the Saturday soirées at photographer Ergy Landau's studio. Other close Hungarian friends he rapidly made were the composer Tibor Harsányi, pianist Paul Arma, photo agent Charles Rado and Transylvanian-born Saxon painter-and-composer Henri Nouveau. It was also around this time that my father attempted to employ his literary agent skills on behalf of a physician he met by the name of Louis Destouches Céline. Initially, his efforts at collaborating and editing with Céline were successful, resulting in the publication of the first galley of what later became the wildly popular "Voyage au bout de la nuit." Additionally, he became close to the French surrealist author Raymond Queneau and his wife, Janine Khan, as well as the novelist Roger Klein and the abstract painter Jean Hélion.

In June of 1934, Opera Mundi offered to make him their London representative and sent him to London for a year. He then moved to New York City In 1935 where he got a job at his uncle Gabriel Wells' Rare Book shop. In 1938, an opportunity arose as Chief Correspondent for Opera Mundi. As such, he produced dozens of articles on contemporary life in America, which were picked up by various French magazines. During the Second World War, he joined the U. S. Office of War Information and worked as a propaganda analyst on foreign broadcasts. He soon rose to the position of executive producer of all programming beamed to France and Belgium. He subsequently was asked to add Hungarian and German-language broadcasts to his duties as well.

He met my mother, Bita Sulzberger, in 1941. They married in 1942 at City Hall in New York City. After the war, he worked as a freelance literary agent and later for the Arno Press publishing company. My parents' circle of friends by now had grown to a significant international mix of American and European artists and intellectuals. In addition to their long relationship with writer Yvette Szekely Eastman, my father often made time to check in now-and-then with André Kertész, whom he occasionally visited in his Washington Square apartment. Regular dinner parties at my parents' household often included Charles Rado, his brother Sandor, the noted psychoanalyst, and artist/illustrators Laszló Roth and Andre Dugo. Close friends for many decades also included New York City councilman and mayoral candidate Bob Low and his wife Frances. Ylla and her French art dealer boyfriend, Pierre Durand-Ruel, were frequently present, as well as old childhood friend actress Pepa Bak.

My father told me he regularly kept his fencing skills polished with Géza Róheim, the prominent Hungarian anthropologist. He spent the remainder of his life in New York City eventually passing away in June of 1998.

As the collection is presently undergoing research and archiving, could you please share your plans for its future?

Our utmost priority is to ensure the long-term preservation of the collection. Since 2021, the archiving and research tasks have been carried out by György Németh.This involves employing conservation techniques, climate-controlled storage, and the use of archival materials to protect the items in the collection. Additionally, we will continue to digitize and catalog materials to mitigate physical wear and tear. As our research nowhere near complete, we are actively seeking additional materials related to my father and the photographers associated with his collection. This involves outreach to individuals and organizations with potential contributions, as well as exploring archives and private collections that could shed more light on their existing work in, and contributions to, the collection. As the research and archiving efforts progress, we are keeping the option of organizing an exhibition in mind. Such an exhibition could serve as a valuable way to showcase the collection's significance, highlight the cultural and historical value of the work of the photographers, all while hopefully exposing to a wider audience my father’s own unique cultural heritage.