1
10
1
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/27c192145f0d3b94b311d93f45d1e67f.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=Z-5sQbDmEUgiPjqGWo8sNuCg80iBD-G2ggVgsV3BLN9g5dGrDb4wYiHXKdzfhnDVRPqmBSzrEA4dNmRz7aXcoeBZ5CC84Bn4qoVnJYHqK9CtbNFZXThKDfVmhd9dmbO8V%7ERKPoKBeArS50qPVPslr3-UIhc6c5clGWVjX7iHmu4l614hCaY81sjdOz7jpkvP2mdyouNj8bNBYA5JopSjTC-han44cLxmU6y6iIlAVviTreA78qOV69borhYMunVkbPxeUwbBXv6o9uQfjMRl-2yqnRyowRGtVxtP2Ic5qkvxrmBK2A5qouasUD97O3-vUOKkg4MhtYigChY-yPUHRw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
739b6184dafd46d401fa30ad34ee12e4
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/16212a2ebb697caf653d6a93a140332d.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=kLv31iba4kNT7A-wWVbvRfAeGn8C%7EAvyCrMzFs7dSZyexIOBB%7EbPrEyYgciZa93xcg43gITqPV6lAFvYG2KGtoRFYGjP%7EBiPJDaPezC8VdX6T02zKOS8jziuWgalJKDgbLK7XkGWEd7nC1w133LVOdG6XQ-dUHeU11PwUaG-vPTePt2ilCNG%7Ea1BAM%7E8GkC1yG%7EhWbqPDoVpU0gPmNXMa4Gbxk7dqcXZZaDEmYKHBHLe6vqWqlncY9E1f3ViqqJrbsHIh9e7cCpG5qwzucZdpHSMd%7EsS7uLdPUhwHwJzTsLUA2iVkwhZZ%7ERAG9iiQXOOULLASZQlvfGZHYCxnLBd9A__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
113e2ae05cf35544cf01e616658d344f
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/6bca4d7252dcf26bc2d39c8cb3a73218.jpg?Expires=1712793600&Signature=FaeMA89zhHDOM-gSZJqUwUPqhOD4ix1Q--aByx-kBr2sdCLoLukKyUf4dx8EcOS0o67l8JKegXEVsMfRU8A5q0QJjtH4RtAX04WiQy-4zG0PDapS%7E30lGx%7EQoxZcouEl6JKuv-mYnn-KfAJKeex8UEhmgMgGpcH3eg6LzX0x3K0WqlurBsC0f%7EKcLqYq5c7RSUqamQpO8Z81wneJSDXJAbigZhkMfEmWD17g7Tie8ydXC5brb1NPbwmkMqOkEbvPRJ-Z2T6nFZli1Q-ypRKdIUkO94fZ8l9lfGu1DmYLqhEBiLy-ssAPwWiU7FsMjODVkUrEP3pj%7EBx07nOYyXKEpQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
9726c9d4de4f4df7f5d420b84650e8ac
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans
Subject
The topic of the resource
Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans was an oral history project launched by the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in 2009. The project captured and preserved the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War and settled in New York City, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the second phase of the project, the NCSML recorded the stories of immigrants who came to the United States after the fall of communism in 1989 as well. By the conclusion of the project in August 2013, the NCSML had collected more than 300 oral histories. <br /><br />Both phases of the project were made possible by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /><br />On the project’s website, you can read biographies of Czechs and Slovaks who began a new life in the United States, watch video clips from their interviews, and view photos and other archival materials they shared with us. <br /><br />Full length interviews are available for further research at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library. For more information, contact Dave Muhlena, Library Director, at dmuhlena@ncsml.org.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound
<h4>Theatre in Prague</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZMwqb6ZSymE?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“All this time, 40 years, theatre was a hiding place for people like Havel. Matter of fact, I worked with Havel. We worked together in a little theatre called Na zábradlí.”</p><p><em>What kind of work did you do together?<strong><br /></strong></em><br />
“We did everything, because this was a little theatre and it was funny, this theatre was founded as a co-op. They didn’t get any money from the state or the government. We did all the manual [labor]. Actors did it. Everybody worked at what had to be done.”</p><h4>Josef Svoboda</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f0evfHXEKWY?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I started working in the D 34 theatre [today’s Divadlo Archa] which was a Communist theatre, highly Communist – the repertoire, but not people. I met architect [Josef] Svoboda. He was the main designer for the National Theatre and he created Laterna Magika. So he asked me if I wanted to go work with him; this was ’59. I was probably the first technical employee practically in Laterna. I worked with the directors [Alfred] Radok, Miloš Forman. After a few years, theatre was popular, so State Film took over, new management, new Communist management. So Radok got fired, Miloš Forman got fired…”</p><h4>Adapting to America</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EPAsGuLo9c8?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“For me it wasn’t too bad because I was traveling. I spent with theatre, from ’58 to ’68 – I was most of the time out of the country. I was in Poland twice, in Russia twice. In Russia, I was there a year and a half. To Bulgaria; I was in Hungary twice. Paris, one month in ’67. Paris was a jump to Miami.”</p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Karel Kaiser
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Karel Kaiser was born in Domažlice in 1932 and grew up in nearby Kdyně. In 1938, he moved to Prague with his father and two older sisters – Karel’s mother had died shortly prior to the move. Upon graduation from high school, he studied architecture at Charles University for one year, but was then expelled because of his father’s position as a self-employed tailor. During a <em>brigáda</em> [work brigade] in Ostrava, where he was employed as a builder, Karel met his future wife, Vlasta, who was working as a secretary. The couple moved back to Prague, married and had two daughters, Miroslava and Iveta (who later Americanized her name to <a href="/web/20170609131421/http://www.ncsml.org/exhibits/yvette-kaiser-smith/">Yvette</a>). Karel began his career in theatre as a writer, but soon transitioned into the technical arts, working on sound, lighting, and set design. At Divadlo Na zábradlí he worked with Václav Havel and, while at D 34 (now known as Divadlo Archa), Karel met Josef Svoboda, a renowned architect and scenographer. In 1959, Svoboda invited Karel to join his Laterna Magika project, a non-verbal theatre which had enjoyed great international success the previous year at Expo ’58 in Brussels. Working as a theatre technician for Laterna Magika’s eastern touring company, Karel traveled extensively throughout the Eastern Bloc, visiting Hungary, Poland, and the Soviet Union.</p><p> </p><p>Karel says that the idea to leave Czechoslovakia had been germinating for a while, due to his treatment at university and his hope for his daughters to have a better life. But, he says, he was waiting for a ‘safe chance’ to move his family. In January 1968, he traveled to San Antonio, Texas, with the western touring company of Laterna Magika for HemisFair ’68. Following the Warsaw Pact invasion in August 1968, Karel traveled back to Prague for a short visit, during which time he and his wife made a ‘quick decision’ that the family would leave the country. After he returned to the United States, Karel sent his wife an affidavit and she began securing visas and passports. In late December 1968, his wife and daughters traveled to England to stay with his sister for one month. They arrived in Dallas, Texas, on January 25, 1969. The family found a small apartment in the Highland Park neighborhood of Dallas and Karel found a job in construction. In 1971, he found employment at the Venetian Room in the Fairmont Hotel as a light and sound designer, while also working nights as a janitor. After 12 years, he became head electrician at the Hotel Anatole, also in Dallas. In 1999, Karel and his wife retired and moved back to Prague. Vlasta died in 2005 and Karel returned to the United States. He currently lives in Chicago with his daughter Yvette and her husband, Tim.</p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
NCSML Archive
1968 emigrant/refugee
Arts
Divadlo Na zabradli
Domazlice
Kdyne
marriage