Miklós Vig (11 July 1898 – 19 December 1944) was a Hungarian cabaretHungarian Electronic Library
and jazzMagyar Jazzkutatási Társaság
singer, actor, comedianSzocHáló Társadalomtudomány
and theater secretary in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Born in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

on 11 July 1898, he was murdered there on 19 December 1944 by members of the Arrow Cross.

Background and biography

Early life

Vig was born Miklós VoglhutVoglhut Family History, by Imre Voglhut, ''unpublished'' in 1898 to Vilmos Vogelhut (1867-1942) and Roza Vogelhut (1870-1942) in a

Hungarian Jewish The history of the Jews in Hungary dates back to at least the Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. Written sources prove that Jewish communities lived ...

family in

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 ...

. Although he went to acting school, he had better success as a

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

singer. In 1924 as his career was picking up he changed his surname to Vig, because Voglhut was a Jewish-sounding name and

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

was growing at the time. ''Vig'' means ''cheerful'' or ''merry'' in Hungarian.

Family

Other musicians from the Vig family include Vig's brother, saxophone and clarinet player György Vig, and his nephew, jazz musician

Tommy Vig Tommy may refer to: People * Tommy (given name) * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film * ''Tommy'' (1975 fil ...

. Another nephew,

John Vig John Vig (born 31 May 1942) is a physicist, executive and inventor. His career has been with the U.S. Army Research Lab and he has also been active with the IEEE and is known for his inventions in UV-ozone cleaning, chemical polishing of quart ...

, is a physicist and was president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2009.

Murder

The fact that Vig was married to a Catholic woman, Kató Szőke, and the fact that he changed his name, did not save him from the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. On 19 December 1944 he was among a group of Jews who were bound, lined up along the banks of the Danube and machine-gunned into the river by Hungarian

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

, members of the

Arrow Cross Party The Arrow Cross Party ( hu, Nyilaskeresztes Párt – Hungarista Mozgalom, , abbreviated NYKP) was a far-right Hungarian ultranationalist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which formed a government in Hungary they named the Government of National ...

. The Shoes on the Danube Promenade commemorates those who were murdered in this fashion.

Music and comedy

Vig had his first major successes as a soloist, and later performed frequently in other cabarets including the Budapest Operetta Theatre and Budapest Orfeum. Although he made many recordings, he became most famous as a singer of popular music on the radio. A 1935 article in Színházi Élet described Vig as a singer of popular sentimental songs.Ökotáj
Színházi Élet, 1935. 32. szám According to ''Gramofon'' (the Hungarian Jazz and Classical music magazine), Vig was considered part of the first generation of recorded Hungarian musicians.Gramofon – Klasszikus és Jazz
1997.10.01 by Oldal Gábor When Deutsche Gramophone found themselves falling behind the competition, they signed Vig, who became their first dance-music star. As a comedian, he performed in the early 1920s at various cabarets including the Rakéta Kabaré, occasionally with female partner Annus Nagy.

Discography

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vig, Miklos 1898 births 1944 deaths Hungarian comedians Hungarian jazz singers 20th-century Hungarian male singers Hungarian male musical theatre actors Hungarian male stage actors Jewish cabaret performers Polydor Records artists Musicians from Budapest Jewish male comedians Jewish singers Jewish Hungarian actors Cabaret singers Male actors from Budapest 20th-century comedians Male jazz musicians People executed by Hungary by firing squad People executed by the Government of National Unity (Hungary)