[Leica] how Cornell Capa got his name

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 2:19 PM -0400 8/24/04, B. D. Colen wrote:
>Sorry, Bob - Andre Friedmann was exiled from his native Hungary in 1931,
>and went to Germany to study journalism. And in 1933, with Hitler coming
>to power, he left Germany for Paris, where he met German refugee Gerda
>Pohorylle. According to Gerda, she suggested he change his name to
>Robert Capa, because there was apparently a resonably succesful American
>photographer named Robert Capa, and Gerda figured the name would make it
>easier to market Andre's work. Capa and Gerda, who changed her name to
>Taro, spent much time in Spain photographing the 'civil' war there.
>Gerda Tarodied in Spain on July 26, 1937, having been crushed between a
>tank and a car the day before. She and Capa were never married.
>
>I don't have time to check any of the bios right now, but those very
>basic facts can be found in Heart of Spain - Robert Capa's Photographs
>of the Spanish Civil War, in the essay by Capa biographer Richard
>Whelan.
>
>Best
>
>B. D.

Endre Friedmann nicknamed 'Bandi', used the French form of his name, 
Andr? when he was exiled from Hungary and came to Paris via Berlin. 
In 1936 after he and Gerda had gotten together and she had become his 
business manager as well as lover, he was having trouble selling his 
pictures, in part because of his poor French and also because there 
was an established photographer named Georges Friedmann in Paris.

They decided to invent the wholly fictitious Robert Capa, a reclusive 
American photographic genius, and Gerda successfully marketed him. 
Soon 'Robert Capa' became quite famous, and 'Andr?' decided he would 
have to change his name. A possible inspiration for the name was the 
director Frank Capra. At about the same time Gerda changed her last 
name to Taro, borrowed from a painter living in Paris named Taro 
Okamoto.


This is from Whelan's 'The Definitive Moment', and it jibes with 
other material I've read.

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