Dr. Franz Julius Polgar (April 18, 1900 - June, 19 1979) was a renowned psychologist, hypnotist, lecturer and

entertainer An entertainer is someone who provides entertainment in various different forms. Types of entertainers * Acrobat * Actor * Archimime * Athlete * Barker * Beatboxer * Benshi * Bouffon * Circus performer * Clown * Club Hostess/Host * Co ...

Family

The son of Julius Polgar, and Risa Kohn (1869-), née Kohn, Franz Polgar was born in city of

Enying Enying is a town in Fejér county, Hungary. The Olympian Géza Mészöly was born here. Twin towns – sister cities Enying is twinned with: * Bad Urach, Germany * Huedin, Romania * Świerklany, Poland * Yukamenskoye Yukamenskoye (russian: � ...

, in

Fejér County Fejér ( hu, Fejér megye, ) is an administrative county ( comitatus or megye) in Central Hungary. It lies on the west bank of the river Danube and nearly touches the eastern shore of Lake Balaton. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

on April 18, 1900. He arrived in the United States in 1931, and was naturalized on 7 September 1944. He married Lillian Sheiman (1911-), in New York, on 24 September 24, 1938. They had two children, Julian (b.1945) and Risa Willa (b.1947).

Education

He earned a Ph.D. in

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

from the

University of Budapest A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

Hypnotist

In his 1951 autobiography Polgar claimed that he had served as

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...

's "medical hypnotist" (Polgar's term) in 1924 and had worked in close association with Freud for six months and had assisted in the treatment of Freud's patients.Polgar, 1951. In 1982, Gravitz and Gerton investigated this claim and determined that it had no foundation. He honed his hypnotism skills by working in

speakeasy A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an illicit establishment that sells alcoholic beverages, or a retro style bar that replicates aspects of historical speakeasies. Speakeasy bars came into prominence in the United States ...

bars in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. His wife, Lillian, became his booking and publications manager. During the early days of

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

, and soon after an early 1949 appearance at the

Newburgh Free Academy Newburgh Free Academy (NFA) is the public high school educating all students in grades 9– 12 in the Newburgh Enlarged City School District, which serves the city of Newburgh, New York, the towns of Newburgh and New Windsor, and portions of ...

Newburgh, New York Newburgh is a city in the U.S. state of New York, within Orange County. With a population of 28,856 as of the 2020 census, it is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown metropolitan area. Located north of New York City, a ...

, in which he claimed to have induced a student, Donald A. Romano, into a trance, Dr. Polgar had a short lived 10-minute show on the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

television network called "The Amazing Polgar." Most of his entertaining was done in colleges, universities, and resorts. His show consisted of three parts: hypnosis demonstration, a

mentalism Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognitio ...

or "mind reading" stunt where he would use Hellstromism to find an object hidden by his audience, and various memory stunts.LM.1.

Notes

References

* Brooks, Tim (2009), ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present'', New York, NY: Random House Publishing Group. * Gravitz, M.A. & Gerton, M.I., "Polgar as Freud’s Hypnotist? Contrary Evidence", ''American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis'', Vol.24, No.4, (April 1982), pp.272-276. * LM.1
He has Hypnotized a Million People, ''Life magazine'', Vol.27, No.4, (July 25, 1949), pp.85-88, 90.
* Polgar, F.J. (with Singer K.), ''The Story of a Hypnotist'', Hermitage House, (New York), 1951. * Schneck, J.M., "Freud's “Medical Hypnotist"", ''American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis'', Vol.19, No.2, (October 1976), pp.80-81.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Polgar, Franz 1900 births 1979 deaths Hungarian hypnotists Hungarian psychologists Hungarian Jews 20th-century psychologists