Elfriede "Elfi" von Dassanowsky (February 2, 1924October 2, 2007) was an Austrian-born singer, pianist and film producer.
Early life
Elfi von Dassanowsky (also known as Elfi Dassanowsky or Elfriede Dassanowsky) was born Elfriede Maria Elisabeth Charlotte Dassanowsky in
Vienna
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, the daughter of Franz Leopold von Dassanowsky, a civil servant in the Austrian Trade Ministry, and Anna (née Grünwald). Her father knew writer
Hermann Broch
Hermann Broch (; 1 November 1886 – 30 May 1951) was an Austrian writer, best known for two major works of modernist fiction: '' The Sleepwalkers'' (''Die Schlafwandler,'' 1930–32) and ''The Death of Virgil'' (''Der Tod des Vergil,'' 1945).
...
from Vienna's
café society
Café society was the description of the "Beautiful People" and "Bright Young Things" who gathered in fashionable cafés and restaurants in New York, Paris and London beginning in the late 19th century. Maury Henry Biddle Paul is credited with ...
in the 1920s and was one of the inspirations for the character of Herr von Pasenow in Broch's novel '' The Sleepwalkers''. A piano
prodigy
Prodigy, Prodigies or The Prodigy may refer to:
* Child prodigy, a child who produces meaningful output to the level of an adult expert performer
** Chess prodigy, a child who can beat experienced adult players at chess
Arts, entertainment, and ...
at the age of 5, Elfi attended the
Vienna
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Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose members are commonly known as the Loreto Sisters, is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women dedicated to education founded in Saint-Omer by an Englishwoman, Mary Ward, in 1609. The cong ...
(known as the "Englische Fräuleins") and became at age 15, the youngest woman admitted to Vienna's Academy of Music and Performing Arts to that date as the protégé of concert pianist,
Emil von Sauer
Emil Georg Conrad von Sauer (8 October 186227 April 1942) was a German composer, pianist, score editor, and music (piano) teacher. He was a pupil of Franz Liszt and one of the most distinguished pianists of his generation. Josef Hofmann called vo ...
. While a student, film director
Karl Hartl
Karl Hartl (10 May 1899 – 29 August 1978) was an Austrian film director.
Life
Born in Vienna, Hartl began his film career at the Austrian Sascha-Film company of Alexander Kolowrat and from 1919 was assistant to the Hungarian director Alexande ...
chose her to instruct
Curd Jürgens
Curd Gustav Andreas Gottlieb Franz Jürgens (13 December 191518 June 1982) was a German-Austrian stage and film actor. He was usually billed in English-speaking films as Curt Jurgens. He was well known for playing Ernst Udet in ''Des Teufels Gener ...
in piano, so that he could play the instrument on screen in Hartl's
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
biopic and a
Willi Forst
Willi Forst, born Wilhelm Anton Frohs (7 April 1903 – 11 August 1980) was an Austrian actor, screenwriter, film director, film producer and singer. As a debonair actor he was a darling of the German-speaking film audiences, as a director, one o ...
musical (it served him well beyond the era, to the 1971 Hollywood film ''
The Mephisto Waltz
''The Mephisto Waltz'' is a 1971 American horror film about an occult-murder mystery. It was directed by Paul Wendkos and starred Alan Alda, Jacqueline Bisset, Barbara Parkins, Bradford Dillman and Curd Jürgens. The name of the film is taken fr ...
''). But Dassanowsky's studies and early career were halted for extended labor service when she rejected membership in Nazi organizations. The powerful
UFA
Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya and Ufa rivers, in the centre-north of Bashkortostan, on hills forming the ...
Studio in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
offered her a film contract in late 1944, which she also declined.
Career
In 1946, von Dassanowsky made her opera debut as Susanna in
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
's ''
The Marriage of Figaro
''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...
'' at the Stadttheater St. Pölten and created in concerts for the Allied High Command.
Dassanowsky remains one of the few women in film history, and at age 22 one of the youngest, to co-found a film studio—Belvedere Film—the first new studio facility in postwar
Vienna
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Emmerich Hanus
Emmerich Hanus (24 August 1884 – 20 November 1956) was an Austrian actor and film director. He appeared in 22 films between 1913 and 1949. His older brother was actor and film director Heinz Hanus.
Selected filmography
* ''The Other'' ( ...
, the studio created such German-language classics as ''Die Glücksmühle'' (The Mill of Happiness, 1946), ''Dr. Rosin'' (1949), and ''Märchen vom Glück'' (''Kiss Me, Casanova'', 1949), and gave
Gunther Philipp
Gunther Philipp (8 June 1918 – 2 October 2003) was an Austrian film actor, physician and swimmer.
From 1949 to 2002 he appeared as an actor in 147 movies for cinema and television, mainly in comic roles. As an author, Philipp wrote 21 film scr ...
and
Nadja Tiller
Nadja Tiller (born 16 March 1929 in Vienna, Austria) is an Austrian actress. She was one of the most popular German-speaking actresses of international films of the 1950s and 1960s.
Biography
Nadja Tiller, daughter of actor Anton Tiller of Vie ...
their first screen roles.
Dassanowsky starred in operas,
operetta
Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...
s, theatrical dramas and comedies, helped initiate several theater groups, was announcer for Allied Forces Broadcasting and the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
, toured West Germany in a one-woman-show and gave master classes in voice and piano.
During this period, Dassanowsky also modeled exclusively for famous Austrian painter
Franz Xaver Wolf Franz may refer to:
People
* Franz (given name)
* Franz (surname)
Places
* Franz (crater), a lunar crater
* Franz, Ontario, a railway junction and unorganized town in Canada
* Franz Lake, in the state of Washington, United States – see Fran ...
(1896 – 1990), whose work featuring her image is now in museum and private collections.
Through art director
Federico Pallavicini Federico (; ) is a given name and surname. It is a form of Frederick, most commonly found in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.
People with the given name Federico
Artists
* Federico Ágreda, Venezuelan composer and DJ.
* Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, r ...
Dassanowsky encouraged an issue of the short-lived American magazine, ''Flair'' (edited by
Fleur Cowles
Fleur Fenton Cowles (January 20, 1908 – June 5, 2009 by
Ignace Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer who became a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the new nation's Prime Minister and foreign minister during which he signed the Treaty of Versaill ...
piano technique, her musical pedagogy continued in the 1950s in Canada and New York, where she also married and had a son and daughter.
At this time Dassanowsky turned to design and created a prototype for woman's leather day coat, which is now in the collection of The Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna (
Museum für angewandte Kunst Wien
The MAK – Museum of Applied Arts (German: ''Museum für angewandte Kunst'') is an arts and crafts museum located at Stubenring 5 in Vienna's 1st district Innere Stadt. Besides its traditional orientation towards arts and crafts and design, the mu ...
). She divorced in the late 1970s and although she never remarried, she was briefly linked with author and actor, Prince Heinrich
Starhemberg
The House of Starhemberg is the name of an old and distinguished Austrian nobility, Austrian noble family originating from Upper Austria, specifically Steyr and :de:Burgstall Steinbach, Steinbach. Members of the family played important polit ...
(aka Henry Gregor, 1934–1997) in the mid 1990s until his death.
In Hollywood in the 1960s, she resisted becoming a trendy Euro-starlet and preferred to remain behind the camera as a vocal coach for director/producer
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor.
He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...
. In 1962, she became a
naturalized
Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...
citizen of the United States. A successful Los Angeles businesswoman, in 1999, she re-established Belvedere Film as a Los Angeles/Vienna-based production company with her son,
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
. She was executive producer of the award-winning dramatic short film, ''Semmelweis'' (2001), the spy-comedy, ''Wilson Chance'' (2005), and several works in progress at the time of her death, including the documentary ''Felix Austria!'' aka ''The Archduke and Herbert Hinkel'' (2013), and a screen adaptation (with her son) of the antiwar Austrian novel, ''Mars im Widder'' by
Alexander Lernet-Holenia
Alexander Lernet-Holenia (21 October 1897, in Vienna — 3 July 1976) was an Austrian poet, novelist, dramaturgist and writer of screenplays and historical studies who produced a heterogeneous literary opus that included poetry, psychological ...
.
Recognized internationally for her unique work as a pioneering woman in film production and as a multi-talent in postwar Austrian arts and culture, von Dassanowsky is the only Austrian woman to receive the Women's International Center's prestigious Living Legacy Award, and has been honored with the
UNESCO Mozart Medal The UNESCO Mozart Medal is an award named after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and administered by UNESCO.
Recipients
* Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, 1991
* Alicia Terzian, 1995
* Elfi von Dassanowsky, 1996
* Igor Moiseyev, 2001, for "outstanding contribution ...
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...
, the Austrian Film Archive's Lifetime Achievement Medal, by the State of California and the cities of
Vienna
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and Los Angeles, where von Dassanowsky lived since 1962. Additionally, she is reported to have been nominated for the honorary
Right Livelihood Award
The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob v ...
in the late 1990s.
Death
While in
Kona, Hawaii
Kailua-Kona is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States. It is also known as Kailua (a name it shares with a community located on the windward side of Oahu), as Kona (a name it shares ...
in July 2007, Dassanowsky suffered a life-threatening
embolism
An embolism is the lodging of an embolus, a blockage-causing piece of material, inside a blood vessel. The embolus may be a blood clot (thrombus), a fat globule ( fat embolism), a bubble of air or other gas (gas embolism), amniotic fluid (amniot ...
. She was flown to Queens Hospital in
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
and part of her left leg had to be amputated. She was reported to be recovering well in rehabilitation in Los Angeles and was expected to continue her efforts in film production as well as arts and
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
promotion. According to news reports, amputee celebrity
Heather Mills
Heather Anne Mills (born 12 January 1968) is an English former model, businesswoman and activist.
Mills first came to public attention in 1993 when she was a model and was involved in a traffic collision with a police motorcycle in London. T ...
(Lady McCartney) took a personal interest in her rehabilitation. However, Dassanowsky died October 2, 2007 in Los Angeles of heart failure. She was interred in a ''grave of honor'' (german:
Ehrengrab
An ''Ehrengrab'' (English: 'grave of honor') is a distinction granted by certain German, Swiss and Austrian cities to some of their citizens for extraordinary services or achievements in their lifetimes. If there are no descendants or instituti ...
) at the
Zentralfriedhof
The Vienna Central Cemetery (german: Wiener Zentralfriedhof) is one of the largest cemeteries in the world by number of interred, and is the most well-known cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries. The cemetery's name is descriptive of its ...
in Vienna on July 25, 2008.
Foundation and posthumous recognition
In November 2007, the planned establishment of the ''Elfi von Dassanowsky Foundation'' was announced in Vienna. It would continue the pioneering and creative spirit of the late artist by developing awards and grants for emerging women filmmakers.
The first phase of this project was complete in late January 2009, when the ''Elfi von Dassanowsky Fund'' initiated its program of charitable contributions to non-profit organizations in the U.S. and Europe.
The Elfi von Dassanowsky Rose (a tea-rose – floribunda hybrid) also known as the "Elfi" was created by Brad Jalbert of Canada in 2009. It was included in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the
New York Botanical Garden
The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...
in Spring 2013.
The first ''Elfi von Dassanowsky Prize'' for work by female filmmakers was presented to Norwegian artist Inger Lise Hansen for ''Parallax'' (2009) at the
Vienna Independent Shorts
Vienna Shorts (formerly known as VIS Vienna Independent Shorts) is an international short subject, short film festival held annually in May in Vienna. It is the largest short film festival in Austria.
History
Vienna Independent Shorts was hel ...
Film Festival in June 2010.
A minor planet/asteroid, 4495 Dassanowsky, discovered in 1988 by Japanese astronomers
Masaru Arai
is a Japanese amateur astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets and comets.
He is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 45 minor planet
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an ...
and Hiroshi Mori, was named in her honor in 2014.
She was named an Honorary Member of the Association of Austrian Film Producers (AAFP) posthumously in September 2018.Association of Austrian Film Producers /ref>