Born to artistic Hungarian-Jewish parents in her native Budapest (her
mother was a painter), diminutive (4'11") entertainer Elisa Gallay
began her musical career as a pianist at age seven. Her talents were
discovered early and by age nine she had been accepted into the Liszt
Ferencz (Franz Liszt) Music Academy, studying there from 1930 to 1943.
She also studied dance and piano at the Royal Opera House Ballet Studio
and the Hungarian Royal Academy of Music.
Growing up in fear amidst the rise of fascism in 1930s Hungary, Elisa
and her mother struggled valiantly in order to survive the horrors of
their imprisonment within Budapest's "Jewish Ghetto." Just as the
Russian Army advanced in the fall of 1944, Elisa and her mother,
already facing arrest and deportation to a concentration camp, were
rescued by her aunt's non-Jewish husband who managed to save them with
papers signed by the Swedish envoy of Budapest at the time, diplomat
and humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg, who saved tens of thousands of
others at the same time. Following the country's "liberation," Elisa
built up her reputation as a radio, nightclub, concert hall and variety
show celebrity under the repressive Communist regime.
In 1956, Elisa and her mother barely managed to escape the regime and
were rescued at Vienna's Austrian border. Contacting family relatives
in New York City, the two were sent visas and flown to America to begin
their lives anew. Finding work by day in New York as an accompanist at
ballet classes, Elisa renewed her celebrity at night by performing
cabaret shows in mostly Hungarian nightclubs and restaurants. She
worked diligently on her English, however, and built up an unusually
large repertoire of American classic standards by
Irving Berlin,
Cole Porter,
George Gershwin,
Duke Ellington,
Hoagy Carmichael, Rodgers and Hart,
Rodgers and Hammerstein, and others all in the hopes of appealing to a
crossover audience. While in NYC she also produced four albums and
eventually opened her own nightclub, Music Expresso, which was
frequented by both American and Hungarian celebs, including the Gabor
family.
In 1966 Elisa and her son (from a brief marriage to a Cuban émigré)
relocated to Los Angeles. Having to reestablish herself all over again
in a new city, it was fellow Hungarian
Zsa Zsa Gabor who lent a hand by securing
her a TV guest appearance on the popular local variety program
The Woody Woodbury Show (1967).
Gabor was gracious enough to introduce Elisa, who made her TV debut on
this segment. Once again singing and playing piano at various
restaurants, niteries and cabaret shows (which included "You Must
Remember This," "Let Us Love Each Other's Children" and "One Kiss for
Nothing"), Elisa would soon enter, broaching the age of 70, a new phase
in her career...as a character actress.
In the early 1990s the feisty, twinkle-eyed foreigner started things
off with atmospheric bits on such TV shows as "Parker Lewis Can't
Lose," "Totally Hidden Video," "Brooklyn Bridge," "Picket Fences,"
"Shasta McNasty" and "Primetime Glick." However, she found her true
calling in scores of ethnic parts in commercials for such companies as
V-8, Pacific Bell, CVS Pharmacy, AM/PM Mini-Markets, General Electric,
etc. In a popular 90s Sprint commercial, Elisa and another elderly lady
mischievously call a hunky young man they can view from a neighboring
apartment complex as he is about to take a shower just so they can get
their kicks of hanging up on him as he scurries to the phone draped
only in his towel. This ad ran quite extensively.
A couple of films also came Elisa's way in her twilight years. She was
featured as James Coburn'
disapproving cook/housekeeper Lottie in the film drama
Ein Mann für geheime Stunden (2001)
also starring Andy Garcia, and as
Kevin Pollak's befuddled Hungarian mother
Anya in the raucous comedy
Keine halben Sachen 2 - Jetzt erst recht! (2004)
starring Bruce Willis and
Matthew Perrys. Elisa continued to
perform well into her 80s before retiring to a Burbank senior citizen's
complex. Even then she spent her time delighting the other residents
singing and playing "golden oldies". She also would make sporadic trips
back to perform in her homeland where she was still cherished as a
celebrity.
Elisa was diagnosed with lung cancer early into the millennium. She
showed true stubbornness and resilience by surviving another ten years.
In fact, she was still going strong when in January of 2013 it was
discovered that the cancer had spread to her brain. She died on April
19th, five days before her 92nd birthday, under hospice care in
Northridge, California. She is survived by her son Danny (named after
her favorite entertainer Danny Kaye) and a
granddaughter.
