USA/ FILE: An American Hungarian claims to identify himself on billboards on the 1956 Hungarian Revolution put up in New York City.

Record ID: 166551

  • Title: USA/ FILE: An American Hungarian claims to identify himself on billboards on the 1956 Hungarian Revolution put up in New York City.
  • Date: 19th October 2006
  • Summary: CLOSE IOF BILLBOARD PHOTO
  • Embargoed: 3rd November 2006 12:00
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  • Topics: International Relations,History
  • Reuters ID: LVA1ZOAXGJT41ZJJ3Z48VJINT9U0
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: A visit to Times Square in New York became a trip down memory lane for Charles Legendy as he suddenly starred at himself on a billboard about the 1956 Hungarian uprising.
    The idea was to show friends visiting the bright colours and sights of Times Square, but when Charles Legendy, a Hungarian who has lived in America for most of his life, and his wife Anna looked up at some of the billboards, the sight of Legendy caught them by surprise.
    The young man standing near some tanks in one of the billboards looked extremely familiar. Glancing back at her husband's profile, Anna Legendy realised that the photograph was really of Charles.
    At first Charles did not quite believe it. So, they took pictures of the billboards, had photographer friends study the images while comparing them to old and new photographs of Charles. The conclusion was that the young man featured in the 1956 Hungarian revolution billboard was most likely Charles.
    The Legendy's contacted the Hungarian Cultural Centre in New York, which had sponsored the billboards, who again called in further experts. After a week of study, the Hungarian Cultural Centre decided that the young man in the billboard was indeed Charles Legendy, now a retired scientist who is writing a book and works with brain research.
    Recalling the experience of seeing his larger than life image in Times Square, Charles said he was astounded, not believing his wife, Anna, who first noticed the resemblance between the photograph and her husband.
    "It's not every day that you see yourself on Times Square and a huge size. And in fact, it as part of the reason why I didn't recognize myself. I am used to seeing myself in one or two inch wide pictures, not several feet tall. Yes, it was a fairly jaw-dropping experience," said Legendy.
    For Anna, coming upon the billboard was almost "eerie" at first. She said that one doesn't expect coincidences like this to happen in one's lifetime. But with the passing of a few days after the discovery of the billboard, her realisation was that this was more than just a personal experience, that in America, her husband was now representative of an entire revolution.
    "Originally, this was a tremendously personal experience. It was a shock and everything, now as a couple of, what ten days have passed since we discovered this, it's transcended somewhat and you see him now no longer just this is my husband, this is he but it's more that he is there representing all the people of Hungary who at that time were part of this revolution, and that has made it an even more awesome feeling," said Anna.
    The idea of advertising the 1956 Hungarian revolution through billboards at Times Square, came from László Jakab Orsós, the director of the Hungarian Cultural Centre in New York. The billboards commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which is on October 23rd.
    Orsos sees Times Square as the symbolic advertising spot on Earth and he wanted to use this space to raise a toast to a revolution that he really admired and was proud of. He said he was keen to share that pride with New Yorkers; to spread the idea of "re-imagining" revolution and to remind Hungarians in America of the revolution that changed their country's history.
    Orsos wanted to put across a message that the revolution in Hungary had global significance and that the country is still proud of this historic event. He said the motivation was to use the billboards as a way of history-as-advertisement, presenting provocative images in a commercial format that promote history as relevant while also raising questions about the whole idea of revolution.
    With funding from the Hungarian Ministry of Culture, which Orsos said was very supportive of the idea, the end result were two billboards, one with the inscription, "Our Revolution Was Not A Movie", and another with a website address that gave greater detail on the revolution. The billboards use photographs by professional photographer Erich Lessing and amateur Hungarian photographer Jeno Kiss and will be displayed at Times Square from September to November 2006.
    At the time the billboards were designed, Orsos had no idea that they might later find the man they featured in one of the billboards. Orsos said he was surprised when he first heard from the Legendy's, but he also thought that this coincidence was a way of ending the circle.
    "I was actually stupefied first, I was surprised but in the same time, I actually thought this is how it should happen. This is history, this is our life, I mean that's when this circle ends. I am not exaggerating. I was holding the phone and I thought that that's how it should go," said Orsos.
    As for the Legendy's, since first seeing the billboard, they have been back several times, their friends are very impressed, and even though they are many years and miles away from the days of the revolution, they find a host of memories of those days creeping back slowly.
    Charles says that the memories aren't necessarily negative as he didn't have any particularly bad experiences during the revolution, which he wasn't a very active part of. The memories are more in the neutral vein, though he says he can now feel again the mix of excitement and fear that he had felt in 1956.
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