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So
much is lost with each passing generation.
Today, most families retain memories
through photographs and videos, letters
and tape recordings. Our father,
GEORGE
RONY was a tour de force, a man
with a brilliant mind, Russian intensity,
historical curiousity, artistic
sensibility and a charming social rapport.
He was born on Black Sunday of Czarist
Russia, a pivotal event that set in motion
a political drama that reshaped and
changed the destiny of the country. Due to
the chaos of that day, his birth was not
recorded until five months later according
to the Julian calendar of his homeland.
However, in his adopted country, America,
where the Gregorian calendar prevails, the
date of his birth differed by 13 days. He
turned this unusual situation to his
advantage by explaining that it took three
birthdays to make a man like him. No, we
did not celebrate all three
dates. This
was not immodest praise. From his
childhood days, he had a great hunger to
move to America and enthusiastically
devoured the popular literature of the
Western nation. He also had an early,
innate sense of history and recognized
that the tumultous times in which he lived
also afforded the opportunity for him to
film ambitious, often strident, political
leaders and dictators, statesmen and
madmen. The
large Spanish-style Hollywood home in
which we were raised was a testament to
our father's intellectual and artistic
curiosity. It housed his extensive
collection of African, Asian and
Pre-Columbian art, stamp albums of every
country, and copies of many great
Impressionist artists--Van Gogh, Cezanne,
Picasso, Latrec, Gaughin--which he painted
as he took on a new hobby in his 50's. At
the rear of the property he built a studio
to store and edit his documentary footage.
His days and nights were filled editing
film in his backyard darkroom, delicately
mounting stamps, and painting oil copies
of the Masters. GEORGE
RONY passed away on December 9, 1971. His
paintings and artwork now adorn the homes
of his children. His film library, the
bulk of it on perishable nitrate stock,
was donated to the Library of Congress;
his books went to researchers and his
extensive stamp collection was sold over
the course of the past 35 years. His
written legacy--autobiography, film
scripts, teleprompter rolls, lecture
promotional materials, coin research and
correspondence--has been safely preserved.
GEORGE
RONY left this legacy to his two children.
He
never met his grandchildren and great
grandchildren. It is only through the
artistic and professional remnants of his
life that they can take the measure of
this imposing and indominable man.
We
have developed this website so that his
lifetime work will become a robust source
of inspiration and admiration for the
generations of Rony children that follow
him and for people everywhere who draw
wisdom and inspiration from his
intellectual examination of history
through film, art and stamps. Ellen
Rony and Peter Rony |
Copyright © 2008 Ellen Rony and Peter Rony. All Rights Reserved.
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