Whatever happened to the 'Miracle Baby'? - Subud Voice
Whatever happened to the 'Miracle Baby'? - Subud Voice
Whatever happened to the 'Miracle Baby'? - Subud Voice
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losses that shadowed her life. Born Eva Ivanova<br />
Szoke in Budapest in 1927, she was <strong>the</strong> daughter of a<br />
prominent Jewish journalist fa<strong>the</strong>r and Roman Catholic<br />
mo<strong>the</strong>r. World War II destroyed <strong>the</strong> family’s comfortable<br />
existence. Her beloved fa<strong>the</strong>r continued <strong>to</strong> write<br />
articles critical of <strong>the</strong> Nazi regime; when Eva was barely<br />
a teenager, he disappeared forever.<br />
Fa<strong>the</strong>r Figure<br />
Eva Bar<strong>to</strong>k lived life on her own terms, eschewing convention.<br />
She dated an Indian prince when relationships<br />
between Asian men (even noble ones) and white<br />
women were frowned upon, and ignored friends who<br />
<strong>to</strong>ld her she was crazy <strong>to</strong> give up her career <strong>to</strong> move <strong>to</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> politically tumultuous Jakarta of <strong>the</strong> mid-1960s.<br />
To avoid her mo<strong>the</strong>r and herself being sent <strong>to</strong> a concentration<br />
camp, <strong>the</strong> 15-year-old Eva entered in<strong>to</strong> a brief,<br />
loveless marriage with a local Nazi official.<br />
After <strong>the</strong> war, she drew on connections with Hungarian<br />
émigrés in London <strong>to</strong> leave her homeland and pursue her<br />
acting ambitions. She married <strong>the</strong> producer Alexander<br />
Paal in 1948, but <strong>the</strong>y<br />
divorced three years later.<br />
The void from losing both<br />
her fa<strong>the</strong>r and her country<br />
remained. Many of her<br />
relationships were with<br />
much older men (including<br />
Paal and her fourth husband,<br />
<strong>the</strong> ac<strong>to</strong>r Curt<br />
Jürgens, who was 12 years<br />
her senior), as though seeking<br />
a replacement for her<br />
missing fa<strong>the</strong>r.<br />
“Men would fall in love<br />
with her beauty, and also her soul, but <strong>the</strong>y could never<br />
really love her completely,” Deana Sinatra says.<br />
She reflects on her mo<strong>the</strong>r’s personality, a mercurial,<br />
sometimes frustrating bundle of contrasts. She was not<br />
a homey person – she chose furnished apartments or<br />
hotels, and her disastrous, thankfully rare forays in <strong>the</strong><br />
kitchen still make Sinatra chuckle.<br />
While drama followed her in everyday life, she could<br />
laugh at herself and she was a loving mo<strong>the</strong>r: She read<br />
her daughter bedtime s<strong>to</strong>ries and <strong>the</strong>y slept in <strong>the</strong> same<br />
bed. “Of course, I didn’t see her <strong>the</strong> way o<strong>the</strong>r people<br />
saw her, as a film star,” Sinatra says. “She was just my<br />
mum <strong>to</strong> me. It was normal <strong>to</strong> me.”<br />
Although Bar<strong>to</strong>k loved her adopted homeland of Britain<br />
and believed in its values, Sinatra says, she also pined<br />
for her birthplace, which suffered more bloodshed during<br />
<strong>the</strong> 1956 Soviet invasion. Yet Bar<strong>to</strong>k never<br />
returned. She died in August 1998, aged 71.<br />
“The things she experienced made her a stronger person,<br />
because she questioned things more, about why<br />
things <strong>happened</strong> in her life,” Sinatra says. “And that’s<br />
how you grow as a person.”<br />
‘<br />
Eva Bar<strong>to</strong>k’s<br />
search for<br />
meaning<br />
stemmed from<br />
<strong>the</strong> losses that<br />
shadowed her<br />
life.<br />
’<br />
Bar<strong>to</strong>k needed that self-belief during her pregnancy<br />
with Deana, as she was already separated from Jürgens.<br />
Gossip columns kept tabs on Hollywood stars, who<br />
were <strong>the</strong>n expected <strong>to</strong> <strong>to</strong>e <strong>the</strong> moral line. Sinatra says<br />
Jürgens urged Bar<strong>to</strong>k <strong>to</strong> identify him on her birth certificate<br />
<strong>to</strong> quiet <strong>the</strong> scandal, although she laughs that it<br />
reads “fa<strong>the</strong>r unknown” next <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> Austrian ac<strong>to</strong>r’s<br />
family name.<br />
The document was just a<br />
formality (she met Jürgens<br />
only once in her life). She<br />
says her real fa<strong>the</strong>r was<br />
Frank Sinatra: At 41, <strong>the</strong> legendary<br />
singer allegedly had<br />
an affair with 29-year-old<br />
Bar<strong>to</strong>k when she was working<br />
with Hollywood “Rat<br />
Pack” member Dean Martin<br />
on <strong>the</strong> movie Ten Thousand<br />
Bedrooms.<br />
Deana claims she knew who<br />
her fa<strong>the</strong>r was instinctively. As a <strong>to</strong>ddler, she rifled<br />
through her mo<strong>the</strong>r’s stacks of LPs and picked out a<br />
Sinatra album. “Daddy,” she says she pronounced <strong>to</strong> a<br />
dumbstruck Bar<strong>to</strong>k.<br />
As a restless teenager, <strong>the</strong>n in Los Angeles, she<br />
pressed her mo<strong>the</strong>r <strong>to</strong> contact <strong>the</strong> singer. At an<br />
appointed time, he called; Deana, listening on <strong>the</strong><br />
extension, heard him say he was busy but <strong>the</strong>y<br />
would meet <strong>the</strong> following week. He never called<br />
again, and her mo<strong>the</strong>r let it rest.<br />
A few years later, a request for contact sent <strong>to</strong> Sinatra’s<br />
lawyer met <strong>the</strong> response that Sinatra was preoccupied<br />
with o<strong>the</strong>r responsibilities. Deana says her mo<strong>the</strong>r never<br />
said a bad word about Sinatra, or sought financial gain.<br />
And so it was just <strong>the</strong> women, Eva and Deana (her<br />
grandmo<strong>the</strong>r died in <strong>the</strong> late 1980s).<br />
Using her legal name, Deana made several Hollywood<br />
B films in 1983 and 1984, including one produced by<br />
Frank Sinatra Jr, <strong>the</strong> singer’s son. Her mo<strong>the</strong>r sometimes<br />
visited her during filming, once advising her<br />
about dealing with an ornery co-star before a love<br />
scene. “She <strong>to</strong>ld me <strong>to</strong> have my morning coffee, and<br />
<strong>the</strong>n <strong>to</strong> eat a clove of garlic,” she says.<br />
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SUBUD VOICE PAGE 16 FEBRUARY 2011