Dual Roles

the backgrounds of his films. Finding him became kind of a game, one that was sometimes so distracting viewers needed to watch a movie more than once because they didn't catch the story the first time around. Random characters or props do a little more than entyson audience to pay closer attention to the background of a scene. In one instance, however, a piece of films set decoration set off a firestorm through the international art world, and it was all thanks

to a mouse. It all started around nineteen six. The Hungarian artist Robert Barny had a big name in the avant garde scene at the time. He had already brought Expressionism and Cubism to the country prior to the start of World War One. Before that, he had studied in Paris, focusing on post Impressionism and studying the works of Van Gogh and go Again. After a few exhibits of his paintings, Barony returned to Budapest and founded his own small art

collective in nineteen eleven. He caused waves that year when the public attended his exhibition. His paintings were so unlike what the Hungarian critics were used to, and while some enjoyed it, many did not. Around nineteen nineteen, Barony left Hungary to live in Berlin, where he stayed for several years. He had painted recruitment posters in support of the Ungarian Democratic Republic, a communist state that had formed in the collapse of Austro Hungary after the end of World War One.

When that republic fell in November of nineteen nine, Barony was forced to flee. He continued to paint, though, pushing the boundaries of Cubism and expressionism. He also became a composer for a short time to make ends meet. Then, in the mid nineteen twenties, Barony returned to his home country by that time, though another style had taken hold

of him. Art Deco combined the Cubism he was familiar with with a bold new color pellette, and incorporated influences from all over the world, including China and Persia, and above all else. Art Deco represented the future, the future of art, of technology, and of architecture. Barony was inspired to paint his second wife in the Art Deco style. The portrait, measuring two feet by almost three feet, was

titled Sleeping Lady with Black Vase. It depicted a woman in a blue dress reclining on a large brown couch yellow table, with a black vase stood in front of her. The painting was put on display in budapest Earned Museum in nine, supposedly the last time anyone saw it before it disappeared. It had been sold to a Jewish buyer who eventually fled Hungary just before World War Two. After that, no one ever laid eyes on it again, that is until Greg Lee Barky sat down to watch a movie

with his daughter in two thousand nine. Barkey had been a historian at the Hungarian National Gallery, an art museum in Budapest. On Christmas Eve of that year, he'd come home after a long day at work to watch a movie on television with his young daughter. She settled into his lap and Barky turned on the children's movie Stuart Little. Part Way into the film, he saw it. It was hanging on the wall behind the three main human characters

and the computer generated mouse. Barkey almost dropped his daughter to the floor and shock the sleeping lady had been found. He immediately began emailing every casting crew member connected with the film, asking them about the whereabouts of the painting. A response came from an assistant set designer who had worked on the picture. Two years later, it turned out that the story of Baronie masterpiece was a mysterious one. The painting had surfaced fifty years after World War Two

at an auction in San Diego, California. The buyer at the time had paid all of forty dollars for it. It then ended up in an antique store, having been sold to the shop for a whopping four hundred dollars. Apparently nobody knew what they really had. It wasn't long before a local woman walked into the store and purchased the painting to hang in her own home. She happened to work as a set designer in Hollywood, creating and

decorating the sets that would be seen in major motion pictures. Then, while decorating the Stewart Little set, the woman realized Baroness painting would look perfect hanging over the little family's fireplace in the movie. She took it off her own wall and brought it to the set. When filming completed, the painting went back home with her. Barquis. The woman eventually arranged a meeting he flew to her house in Washington, where he was able to see the once lost work

in person. Sadly, he didn't get to take it home with him. Sleeping Beauty with Black Vace went up for auctions several years later, selling for over two hundred and eighty five thousand dollars, But the story does have a kind of happy ending. The painting wound up in the possession of a Hungarian buyer, bringing Baronies masterpiece home once and hopefully for all. Sometimes we reach a point in our lives where we feel the need to reinvent ourselves.

Perhaps we grow tired of our careers and decided to make a change, or we chop off the hairstyle we've had for twenty years in favor of something a little boulder. At the dawn of World War Two, one man saw a need to reinvent himself. But he changed more than his hair. He changed everything. Casper brand Hoffer was an actor.

It had been his calling from a young age. Born in Austria, Hungary in eighteen ninety one, he began attending the prestigious University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna when he was just twenty two, the same school that had once counted among its students composers Gustav Mahler and Jean Sibelius. He then enlisted in World War One, joining the Austro Hungarian Army as a private. Brand Hoffer eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant and was awarded a

Medal for valor after being wounded in battle. He also became a family man, settling down and having two children, a boy and a girl, but brand Hoffer never forgot his first love the theater. When the war ended, he started performing in plays all over Germany, playing the Duke of Albany in a Viennese production of King Lear, then joining a theater company in Munich in nineteen one, before eventually moving to Berlin. Sadly, his marriage suffered from all

the travel and work. Brand Hoffer was divorced in nine and started a theater company with his new love, actress Agnes Strob, but brand Hoffer was forced to leave Berlin several years later. He retreated to a mountain cabin in the state of t Roll in western Austria. For one year he honed his craft while the Nazis took over Germany. Brand Hoffer eventually returned, though, sporting a full beard and

whitened hair, intent on making his mark once more. Except something was different about him, something other than his looks. He was suddenly unfamiliar with aspects of the theater that he'd known so well before. In fact, one cast mate had to explain the concept of a monologue to him, which brand Hoffer understood is something he called a dialogue with my Lord God. He also fancied himself a natural actor, issuing the formal education he had received when he was younger.

As far as the other cast members knew, he had taught himself everything he knew. Brand Hoffer's first leaped back into the theater world was a production of a play called fraeulein Elsa. The show opened in December of night teen thirty six. Critics loved his performance, and so did the Nazis. They rallied behind him, lauding his rise to start them as a self taught natural actor and a poster child for their aryan agenda. The director of the

show offered brand Hoffer a three year contract. All that had taken was one role, and he was on top of the world in a way he'd never been before. But then one week later, brand Hoffer came clean. He couldn't deal with his success leading to the growth of a Nazi party, and so he told them the truth. His name was not Casper brand Hoffer, it was Leon Reese. He'd been born to Jewish parents and had first taken

on the stage name of Leo Russ. When the Nazis took over Berlin, the actor fled to the mountains of t Roll, where he concocted a whole new persona for himself. He learned to act and speak like the local farmers. He let his hair get long, and he grew a beard. Reese then soaked all the hair on his body in hydrogen peroxide baths to diet blonde. Finally, he positioned himself as a Christian act or, one who did not study at a prominent German school. He was self taught, and

he took on the name of Casper brand Hoffer. Nobody in Berlin recognized him, not even the actors and directors he'd previously worked with his one year sabbatical had worked. Following his confession, Reese was hauled into court and tried for living under a false name. He made a stand advocating that being an actor came down to one's talent, not their race. A fine was levied against him for his actions, but he knew it was only a matter of time before he had faced harsher punishment, and so

he left Germany altogether. In nineteen thirty seven, Reese came to the United States and changed his name once more. He now went by Lionel Royce. Working his way up with small parts in major motion pictures, he built a nice career for himself in Hollywood, acting alongside legends like Tyrone Power, Rita Hayworth, and Edward G. Robinson. Leon Reese died of a heart attack in nineteen forty six, at

the age of fifty five. He acted in many fine films towards the end of his life, but his finest perform Mints was that of a Jewish actor playing an arian who made the fools of the Nazis. Too bad there wasn't an oscar for that category. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.

I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.