The Principle Of Chance M Howson

Frank was born in Hungary to a poor landowner and his frail wife who lived in a small village. Frank’s parents had six children. In 1937 Frank turned seventeen and rumour of a new war was everywhere. Frank wasn’t going to stick around. The stories that circulated amongst the village people about the last war were horrendous. Frank wanted to stay alive and make something of his life. He had lost his parents, brothers and sisters in an outbreak of tuberculosis some years ago. His only surviving sister Eva, was making it hard for him to leave.

Eva was sixteen and she was expecting a baby. There was no chance that she could marry the father of the baby, Daniel Darvas, who was the son of the richest man in the village. She was in trouble; bringing the baby up by herself would be hard. To live in the village in shame was unheard of. Frank’s efforts to find out how she became pregnant were wasted. Eva refused to say what had happened. Frank hoped it was Eva’s choice and not Daniel’s ruthless character. He tried to convince Eva to travel to America with him, but she didn’t want to leave. It came as a surprise when Jani, Frank’s best friend, offered to marry Eva to save her reputation and provide her with a future. Frank didn’t want Eva to be unhappy so he dismissed the offer but shocking everyone, his sister agreed to the marriage. Jani had land and a house. She will be looked after... Everything had quickly been arranged and Frank left his homeland behind for the unknown.

Eva missed him greatly but Jani was a good husband who provided everything she needed. Some months later she gave birth to a baby boy called Louie.

They only heard from Frank once when a postcard arrived from New York. He said he was fine living in New York and will write. However the war made it difficult to get any correspondence and Jani and Eva had to move around the country to stay safe.

His sister taken care of; Frank began his journey. He had been travelling for weeks when he finally reached England and boarded a ship heading for New York. When Frank had arrived in New York and received the all clear from customs, he wasted no time in looking around. There were thousands of men like him – looking for a job and a home. He needed to be quicker if he wanted to get some work.

Frank found New York filled with people, grey and cold. He took any job that came his way but it wasn’t enough. He slept in passageways as many other men did. One cold night, shivering under a thin blanket, he overheard a couple of his countrymen talking about Hollywood. There were jobs in the movies, they said, and blue sky, sunshine and the ocean.

The next day Frank was on his way to Hollywood, but when he arrived on a sunny day, he discovered there weren’t many jobs around but he couldn’t give up. Advertising posters of movies were everywhere. When he asked why there were so many, he was told the movie business was doing well. There must be jobs then, he thought.

He regularly stood in line for work to get a job in the big studios and eventually he managed to get on one of the movie sets. Frank was learning the language very quickly. The studio he worked for provided English classes as there were many Europeans arriving in America every day; the lovely chorus and dancing girls were the best teachers. Not many resisted Frank’s piercing black eyes. He wasn’t interested much in women - first, he wanted to make money. He worked as much as he could late into the night. There wasn’t anything Frank wouldn’t do, he helped wherever he could. He worked with the lighting people, carpenters, sound and catering. After a year, he got a job in the production team where Frank met a talented director, Jim Wellsenry, a kind, easy-going man. Jim was much liked on set. He was directing a light-hearted comedy when he observed Frank’s eagerness to learn. The two men formed a two-year friendship until Jim died suddenly of a heart attack.

Jim taught Frank everything about movies. The two of them worked well together producing and directing movies. When Jim died, Frank was surprised to discover that Jim had left him some money with instructions to spend it on buying his own studio. Frank never questioned his will, he set up Orban Studios in just a few months, he was only young but he had plans!