Theatre & dance · 1874–1926Harry Houdiniillusionist, escape artist, stage and film performerBudapest-born escape artist who played Detroit's vaudeville houses for decades, leapt handcuffed off the Belle Isle Bridge in 1906 and died in the city on Halloween 1926.DETROIT / A living lexicon / ¼
Hungarian Detroit
Detroiters born in Hungary or of Hungarian descent, and people with strong ties to Hungarian culture: Harry Houdini, conductor Antal Doráti, Ford Model T engineer József Galamb, and the priests, athletes and politicians of Delray's Hungarian neighborhood.
- 1,940 famous people
- 270 Detroit places
- 11 fields
Field
Connection
Born in
A–Z (family name)
17 people
Clear filtersTheatre & dance · 1874–1926Harry Houdiniillusionist, escape artist, stage and film performerBudapest-born escape artist who played Detroit's vaudeville houses for decades, leapt handcuffed off the Belle Isle Bridge in 1906 and died in the city on Halloween 1926.
Science & invention · 1920–2000John Harsanyieconomist, game theoristBudapest-born Nobel laureate in economics and a founder of modern game theory, who taught at Wayne State University in Detroit from 1961 to 1963.
Music · 1906–1988Antal Doráticonductor, composerBudapest-born conductor and pupil of Bartók and Kodály who led the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from 1977 to 1981 and put it back on the world's record shelves.
Auto industry · 1881–1955József Galambmechanical engineer, chief designer of the Ford Model THungarian engineer from Makó who became Ford's chief designer and drew up much of the Model T at the Piquette Avenue Plant.
Visual art · 1875–1941Géza Marótisculptor, architect, applied artistHungarian sculptor and designer whom Eliel Saarinen brought to Detroit in 1927; he created the Fisher Building's arcade paintings and sculpture and the reliefs of Belle Isle's Livingstone Lighthouse.
Politics · 1890–1963Rudolph G. Tenerowiczphysician, politicianBudapest-born Polish-American physician who served as mayor of Hamtramck and as a US congressman from Detroit, a career marked by a bribery conviction and his role in the 1942 Sojourner Truth Homes conflict.
Music · 1888–1957Victor Kolarconductor, composer, violinistBudapest-born conductor who spent two decades on the podium of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, rising from assistant to principal conductor, and died in Detroit.
Visual art · 1926–2013Balthazar Korabarchitectural photographer, architectHungarian-born architect-photographer who joined Eero Saarinen's Michigan office in 1955 and became one of America's leading architectural photographers from his Detroit-area base.
Religion · 1877–1927Lajos KovácsCatholic priest, editorHungarian Catholic priest who led Delray's Holy Cross Hungarian parish in the 1920s and drove the building of its landmark neo-Gothic church, dedicated in 1925.The lexicon keeps growing. Every entry lists its sources at the bottom. Dates were checked against Wikidata and Wikipedia. The texts are our own. Famous people's places among the sights ↗