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Hungarian musician From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Miklós Vig (11 July 1898 – 19 December 1944) was a Hungarian cabaret[1] and jazz[2][3] singer, actor, comedian[4] and theater secretary[1] in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Born in Budapest on 11 July 1898, he was murdered there on 19 December 1944 by members of the Arrow Cross.[5]
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Vig was born Miklós Voglhut[6] in 1898 to Vilmos Vogelhut (1867-1942) and Roza Vogelhut (1870-1942) in a Hungarian Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary.[7][1] Although he went to acting school, he had better success as a cabaret singer. In 1924 as his career was picking up he changed his surname to Vig,[6] because Voglhut was a Jewish-sounding name and antisemitism was growing at the time. Vig means cheerful or merry in Hungarian.[6]
Other musicians from the Vig family include Vig's brother, saxophone and clarinet player György Vig,[3] and his nephew, jazz musician Tommy Vig.[8] Another nephew, John Vig, is a physicist and was president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2009.
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. 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, members of the Arrow Cross Party.[citation needed] The Shoes on the Danube Promenade commemorates those who were murdered in this fashion.
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.[1] A 1935 article in Színházi Élet described Vig as a singer of popular sentimental songs.[9]
According to Gramofon (the Hungarian Jazz and Classical music magazine), Vig was considered part of the first generation of recorded Hungarian musicians.[10] When Deutsche Gramophone found themselves falling behind the competition, they signed Vig, who became their first dance-music star.[10]
As a comedian, he performed in the early 1920s at various cabarets including the Rakéta Kabaré, occasionally with female partner Annus Nagy.[4]
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