Henry KosterA Movie Director of the first rank, he directed such classics as The Robe, Harvey, and The Bishop's Wife, as well as such beloved musicals as 100 Men and a Girl, Flower Drum Song, Wabash Avenue, and My Blue Heaven.
Trivia: Dad had a bad temper. He was directing a movie
in Berlin in 1933 when a Nazi SS officer said some very silly
things relating to Dad's family and heritage. Dad knocked him
out, and was forced to leave the country during his lunch hour.
Never returned until 1952.
More trivia: Dad's sister, my Aunt Alice, was a brilliant
linguist. In the early 1920's she was secretary to Chaim
Weizmann, the first President of Israel, because she could handle
his international correspondence.
Peggy gave up a promising movie career to marry Dad. But before she retired she made movie history in The Mummy's Hand by being kidnapped by The Mummy in the middle of the Egyptian desert dressed in a silk pegnoir and without a hair out of place during the whole grisley scene.
Trivia: One of Peggy's best scenes is in the movie
"Rhythm of the Saddle". She sits on a large rock and
watches Gene Autry sing a love song to his horse,
"Champion".
More trivia: When Peggy married Dad he promised her that
he would put her "in every movie I make". He did, but
it was a statue of her which appeared. Sculpted by Yucca
Salamunich, the head of Peggy appears in every movie, on a piano,
a desk, a mantle. For "The Robe" Dad had a
Grecian-style bust made.
Nicky played "Jonathan" in The Robe, and John Phillip Sousa, Jr. in Stars and Stripes Forever. Trivia: Nicky earned his college education to become a Doctor by acting in movies as a child. He was my doctor, my brother, and my friend. He died too young, of a heart attack, at 39.
A
famous singer-actress in Budapest, Hungary (Magyar Ország), who
had to leave Europe just before her career flowered is my mother,
Kiraly Kato. But she kept on entertaining, appearing often
to her admiring crowds at the famed Hollywood Canteen during WW2.
I saw her myself in a performance of Out of the Frying Pan
at the Canteen, with Fred Clark et al. She also was flown to
various air bases around Los Angeles with the troup where they
entertained troops who were emplaning for war zones.
Trivia: I still have the photo of the B-25 bomber with
her name painted on the nose.
More trivia: Mom told me years later that as her transport
plane was landing at Muroc (Now Edwards) Air Field, she looked
out her window and saw a little fighter plane landing. It taxied
over to the hangar where mechanics threw a tarp over it and
hustled it out of sight. And it didn't have a propeller!
Her parents:
I knew him as Grampa. Every Hungarian knew him as Kiraly
Ernö, the Maurice Chevalier of Budapest. He monopolized the
Hungarian theatrical scene in his day the way Tom Hanks does now
in Hollywood, but for two decades. In those days fame was not as
fleeting as it is today. Andy Warhol hadn't yet decreed the
famous "15 minutes of fame".
In his heyday, roughly right after the first World War through
the mid 30's, his fans would follow him through the streets of
Budapest begging for autographs. His records still sell. (And I
have some autographs!)
Grandma was the Phyllis Diller of Budapest, but a tad more
off-color. Solti Hermine played the nightclubs and bistros
for many years, entertaining three generations of Hungarians with
her songs and stories.
Trivia: Grandma told me that she started her career near
Mármarosz Sziget at the age of six by singing and dancing for
Pengö around gypsy campfires.
Watch for the extremely talented Chris Koster, with his extraordinary group
A new appears on the near horizon: Kevin
Koster, currently working in TV and movie production as an
Assistant Director member of the Directors
Guild of America. As a DGA Trainee, he worked on Star Trek: Voyager,
"Murder One", and "L.A. Confidential",
directed by Curtis Hanson, for New Regency.
When he starts directing his own works,Watch out world!
Page design: © Robert J. Koster, all rights reserved