The Accidental Caregiver

The Accidental Caregiver

Paperback book cover
Author Gregor Collins
Country United States
Language English
Subject Memoir, intergenerational relation, art restituion
Genre Non-fiction
Publisher Bloch-Bauer Books
Publication date
 2012
Pages 362
ISBN 9780985865405
OCLC 820878705

The Accidental Caregiver: How I Met, Loved, and Lost Legendary Holocaust Refugee Maria Altmann is a 2012 memoir by Gregor Collins, recounting his three years as a caregiver for Maria Altmann, and a stageplay, which premiered at the Robert Moss Theater in New York City on January 26, 2015.[1]

Book

In late 2007 a friend of Collins's, Tom Trudeau, answered an ad on Craigslist for a caregiver to a 92-year-old woman from Austria who lived in Cheviot Hills, Los Angeles. Trudeau mentioned to Collins he had taken the job, moved into her bungalow on Danalda Drive, and urged him to visit. But Collins was in pre-production on the film Night Before the Wedding, and focused on his acting career. A few weeks later, in January 2008, another caregiver quit, leaving Trudeau as the lady's sole caregiver. The family asked Trudeau if he knew anyone who could immediately fill the vacant position, and he asked Collins, who after some resistance accepted the job, at first as a temporary fill-in. The lady was Holocaust refugee Maria Altmann.[2]

Aside from their day-to-day relationship chronicled in folksy, journal-entry-style chapters, the book depicts Maria's childhood in pre-Hitler Vienna as a member of the influential Bloch-Bauer family, the family's relationship with the painter Gustav Klimt – who was regularly commissioned by Maria's wealthy Uncle Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer to paint portraits of his wife Adele Bloch-Bauer, a prominent Jewish patron of the arts[3] – Altmann's several anecdotes about her meetings, connections and relationships with eclectic notables such as Joan Sutherland, Walter Slezak, Hedy Lamarr, Placido Domingo, Danny Thomas, Gary Cooper, Ezio Pinza, Paul Henreid and others, and Altmann and her husband Fritz's harrowing escape from Austria during the Anschluss, their subsequent journey through Holland, England and Massachusetts, and their eventual nesting in Los Angeles.[4]

In 2012, a year and a half after Altmann's death, Collins published his book to commemorate the 37 months they spent together, meticulously detailing their chance meeting and unusual bond, culminating in Altmann's death in early 2011. The self-published book received favorable reviews in the states,[5][6] as well as in the German and Austrian press,[7] and has appeared prominently in a number of categories on Amazon[8] including European Art History, Art History, and History and Criticism.[9] A translated version of the book was published in Poland.[10]

Stageplay

The Accidental Caregiver stageplay world premiered at the Robert Moss Theater in New York City on January 26, 2015.[1][11] The play was also presented as a staged reading at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York on June 25, 2015. Actor Christian Scheider and Actor and Museum of the Moving Image (New York City) founder Rochelle Slovin read the parts of Gregor and Maria, respectively.[12][13]

Gregor Collins and Maria Altmann, 2010

See also

Editions

References

  1. 1 2 "THE ACCIDENTAL CAREGIVER". Venus Theater Festival. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  2. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/27/i-was-32-when-i-met-the-love-of-my-life-she-was-92
  3. ↑ "The Accidental Caregiver: Maria Altmann, Austria and Nazi Art Theft with Gregor Collins". YouTube. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Adele Bloch-Bauer". Jwa.org. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  5. ↑ http://publishersweekly.com/ASINB0092GS96K
  6. ↑ Weiss, Holly (September 2, 2012). "Book Review: The Accidental Caregiver by Gregor Collins". seattlepi.com. Retrieved 2013-09-20.
  7. ↑ http://www.focus.de/panorama/welt/es-war-einfach-nur-magisch-32-jaehriger-findet-in-92-jaehriger-die-liebe-seines-lebens_id_4576146.html
  8. ↑ "The Accidental Caregiver Legendary Holocaust". Amazon.com. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  9. ↑ "Interview With Actor & Author Gregor Collins". Entertainment Vine. Retrieved 2013-09-20.
  10. ↑ http://www.replika.eu/index.php?k=ksi&id=572
  11. ↑ http://www.bestofoffbroadway.com/show/the-accidental-caregiver/
  12. ↑ http://www.austria.org/events1/2015/6/25/new-york-staged-reading-the-accidental-caregiver
  13. ↑ http://www.acfny.org/event/the-accidental-caregiver/
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