The Kiralfy Brothers

Imre Kiralfy, Imre Konigsbaum, ( born January 1, 1845 in Pest, † April 27, 1919 in Brighton ) was a Hungary -born impresario and event manager. He and his brother Bolossy became famous under the name Kiralfy brothers, with other family members also contributed to the common dance troupe and festival production.

Early years

Imre Kiralfy was the oldest of seven children of Jacob Konigsbaum textile manufacturer and his wife Anna Rosa Weisberger. The family was wealthy and Jewish origin. The father Jacob Konigsbaum was a prominent supporter of the Hungarian Revolution 1848/1849 and narrowly escaped being arrested by the Austrian authorities. As a result, the family business went bankrupt, and the family impoverished.

Kiralfy showed an early talent for music, art and dance in particular. At the age of four years he had made ​​his stage debut as a Hungarian folk dancers in Carl Maria von Weber's Preciosa under the name Kiralfy. The entire family took this name, also, to conceal the relationship with the revolutionary father. A few years later Imre Kiralfy IV came to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm. Imre Kiralfy younger brother Bolossy (1848-1932) soon joined on together with his brother; the mother managed the careers of their sons who went through the major cities in Germany and Austria on tour and were regarded as prodigies. Later, the other siblings appeared together with the brothers; the sisters Haniola, Emile and Katie as the youngest brother Arnold joined the dance troupe of Imre and Bolossy. Only one brother, Ronald, was left aside. As Imre Kiralfy was eight years old, he first wanted to be magician, but he chose the music, studied piano and violin and composed. He was 14 when an orchestra in Milan played a composition by him.

1867 visited Imre Kiralfy in Paris World Exhibition at the Champ de Mars, which inspired him to make his choice of profession as an organizer. The following year, he jumped in Brussels shortly as the organizer of a week-long city festival with a variety of events from opera, theater and sport; in the implementation he was supported by 4000 soldiers.

In the U.S.

Although the event in Brussels was a success in Europe Kiralfy saw no future for his plans and went in 1869 in the United States, where he remained for the next 25 years. In 1872 he married an Englishwoman Marie Graham ( 1851-1942 ) in New York, they had nine children. 1876, the brothers built the Alhambra Palace Kiralfy (later South Broad Street Theatre) in Philadelphia, where they produced their performances for several years. In the U.S. Kiralfy staged more scenic Great performances such as The Black Crook, Round the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, The Life of Columbus for the World's Columbian Exposition, which was about two years to see beyond the end of the exhibition has closed. In the Chicago Auditorium, he showed the show 400 years of American History, which for four hundred year anniversary of the landing of Columbus in about seven and a half months grossed over a million dollars in connection with the Columbian Exposition in 1893. Other shows of Kiralfy were The Fall of Babylon and Nero and the Burning of Rome and Our Naval Victories, 1889 in New York, in 1898 and Women of all Nations ( 1900) and China, or the relief of the Legation in 1901. For Nero Kiralfy left a build open-air theater on Staten Iceland. In the U.S., he met PT Barnum and produced with him, among other common Nero and the Burning of Rome in London.

In England

Then moved to Imre Kiralfy to England, where he was director of the London Exhibitions Limited and other major spectacle presented to his feet. So he organized a permanent exhibition in Shepherd 's Bush and built a mini- Venice in Olympia to demonstrate what can be accomplished engine power, water and electricity. The event Earls Court Exhibition Ground was modernized and it was followed by annual exhibitions such as the Empire of India, India and Ceylon, The Victorian Era, The Universal Exhibition, Greater Britain, Woman's, International, The Military Exhibition, Paris, London and the Imperial Austrian Exhibition.

Around 1905 no longer met the Earls Court performances of Kiralfy, and he planned with his son the vast Great White City in Shepherd's Bush. It palatial white building were built in the oriental style, which were opened in 1908 during the Franco - British Exhibition; the exhibition should the entente cordiale document between the two countries. The terrain consisted of 20 palaces and 120 other exhibition buildings on approximately 570,000 square meters, which were built by 120,000 workers. The exhibition attracted more than eight million visitors. The English king Edward VII and the French President Armand Fallières visited the exhibition together, and Imre Kiralfy wrote in his autobiography later:

The Olympic Games 1908 were held in the "White City " takes place, for which a corresponding stadium was built. Kiralfy son Edgar took part in these Olympic Games in part as a runner over 100 meters. In 1910 a five-month Japanese - British Exhibition was held in the White City and in 1914 the British-American Exhibition.

The outbreak of the First World War meant the end for Kiralfy companies. In 1919 he died of a heart attack and was buried in a mausoleum on the Kensal Green Cemetery. In 1921, his widow 's body cremated and embed it in another mausoleum in Green-Wood Cemetery in New York to rest in 1924.