Paula Pogány

{{Infobox person

| name = Paula Pogány

| image = Paula Pogány.jpg

| alt = Woman in 3/4 profile wearing a flapper-style dress and headband

| caption = Pogány, 1923

| birth_name = Paulina Júlia Feichtmann

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1884|09|30|df=y}}

| birth_place = Szeged, Austria-Hungary

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1982|08|03|1884|09|30|df=y}}

| death_place = Connecticut, USA

| nationality = {{ubl|Hungarian (1884–1929)|American (1929–1982)}}

| other_names = Paula Pogany Bennett

| occupation = Activist, fitness instructor, cookbook author

| years_active = 1904-1950s

| known_for =

| notable_works =

}}

Paula Pogány (also known as Paula Pogany Bennett, 30 September 1884 – 3 August 1982) was a Hungarian women's rights activist and pacifist. Her father died when she was young and she left school at the age of sixteen. She worked as the secretary of the Feministák Egyesülete (Feminist Association) and helped organize the 1913 Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, hosted by the group in Budapest. Along with Rosika Schwimmer and Adél Spády, she founded two journals, the {{lang|hu|Modern Ifjúsági Könyvtár}} (Modern Youth Library) and {{lang|hu|A Nő és a Társadalom}} (Women and Society). She was a delegate for both the 1915 Women at the Hague conference and the 1919 Congress of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, held in Vienna. She also accompanied Schwimmer on the ill-fated Peace Ship mission in 1916.

In 1919, Pogány moved to Hamburg, Germany, and studied the Mensendieck system of physical education. On receiving her diploma, two years later she joined her brother Willy Pogany in the United States. She worked as a fitness instructor in New York City and naturalized in 1929. Her networks included many feminists and theater people. In 1954, she wrote an influential cookbook about Hungarian cooking, which was republished posthumously in 1997. She is primarily remembered for her activism as an international feminist and pacifist.

Early life and education

Paulina Júlia Feichtmann, known as "Paula", was born on 30 September 1884 in Szeged,{{sfn|Vasváry Collection Newsletter|2016}}{{sfn|US Naturalization Records|1922|p=427}} Austria-Hungary, to Heléne (née Kolisch) and Joseph Feichtmann.{{sfn|Vasváry Collection Newsletter|2016}}{{sfn|UK Naturalization Records|1910|p=713}}{{#tag:ref|The Vasváry Collection Newsletter gives their father's name as Vilmos Feuchtmann.{{sfn|Vasváry Collection Newsletter|2016}}|group="Notes"}} The family was Jewish.{{sfn|Vasváry Collection Newsletter|2016}}{{sfn|Palosuo|2005}} She was the youngest of four children, which included two brothers, Nandor and Vilmos, and a half-sister, Ilka.{{sfn|Vasváry Collection Newsletter|2016}} When she was three years old, the family moved into a former convent in Budapest. The building served as a warehouse for her father's mercantile business. He lost the business in a flood of the Danube,{{sfn|MacMaster|1929|p=12}} and died while the children were young. Their mother supported the family as a seamstress and needleworker.{{sfn|Vasváry Collection Newsletter|2016}} Paula described her mother as the Bohemian of the family and said their childhood home was filled with artists and intellectuals who exposed them to art, books, and music. Although she attended school, Paula quit at the age of sixteen.{{sfn|MacMaster|1929|p=12}} In October 1903, both Vilmos and Paula legally changed their surname to Pogány.{{sfn|Vasváry Collection Newsletter|2016}}{{#tag:ref|There is no indication as to why the surname was changed, but it was approved by the Szeged City Council, which requested that the rabbinate correct the registry entry.{{sfn|Vasváry Collection Newsletter|2016}}|group="Notes"}}

Career

After working briefly in an oil company, Pogány took a position as the secretary of the Feministák Egyesülete (Feminist Association), which was founded in 1904.{{sfn|Hungarian National Archives|1959}} During the Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) of 1913, she served as the general secretary of the executive board which organized the Budapest congress.{{sfn|Press Committee|1913|p=14}} That year, along with Rosika Schwimmer and Adél Spády, she created {{lang|hu|Modern Ifjúsági Könyvtár}} (Modern Youth Library), a pioneering journal focused on publishing quality youth literature.{{sfn|Kereszty|2013|p=109-110}} The trio also founded {{lang|hu|A Nő és a Társadalom}} (Women and Society), as the organ for the {{lang|hu|Feministák Egyesülete|italics=no}} (Women and Society) that year.{{sfn|Kereszty|2013|p=111}} Becoming the editor of {{lang|hu|A Nő és a Társadalom}}, she also worked as a journalist on the Political Commission of the National Suffrage Association.{{sfn|Press Committee|1913|p=14}}{{sfn|WILPF Report|1919|p=454}}{{sfn|The Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer|1913|p=12}} She and Vilma Glücklich represented {{lang|hu|Feministák Egyesülete|italics=no}} at the Women at the Hague conference of 1915.{{sfn|Chamberlain|2021|p=125}}{{sfn|Sklar|Schüler|Strasser|1998|p=207}}

In 1916, Schwimmer, who by this time was living in the United States, requested that Pogány meet her in Stockholm to assist her with the Peace Ship mission sponsored by Henry Ford.{{sfn|Kraft|1978|pp=187–188}} She arrived in January, in time to attend the Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation.{{sfn|Bean|2005|p=232}} When Ford left Europe before the conference started, Schwimmer attempted to carry on with the project, but withdrew as its coordinator in March 1916.{{sfn|Wiltsher|1985|pp=160–161}} The two women then traveled to the Netherlands to attend a rally celebrating the first anniversary of the Hague congress. {{sfn|Szapor|2019|pp=30–31}} Pogány joined the Hungarian Communist Party in 1918.{{sfn|Szapor|2019|p=29}} She was selected, along with Glücklich, as a delegate for the {{lang|hu|Feministák Egyesülete|italics=no}} to the 1919 Congress of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, held in Vienna.{{sfn|WILPF Report|1919|p=454}}

Soon after the conference, Pogány left Hungary and moved to Hamburg, Germany, to study the Mensendieck system of physical education.{{sfn|MacMaster|1929|p=12}} The program advocated training in proper breathing, posture, exercise, and the use of non-restrictive clothing, as well as diet to maintain optimal health.{{sfn|MacMaster|1929|p=12}}{{sfn|Hale|1923|p=18}} After two years of study, she received a diploma and taught while waiting for a visa to the United States to be approved.{{sfn|MacMaster|1929|p=12}} By that time, her brother Vilmos who had moved to New York City, began using the name Willy Pogany and was working as a set and costume designer. He naturalized as a US citizen in 1921,{{sfn|Vasváry Collection Newsletter|2016}} and that year, Pogány followed him to New York.{{sfn|US Naturalization Records|1922|p=427}} She began working as a physical education instructor and spent three years also working directly with Bess Mensendieck, who created the exercise techniques she taught.{{sfn|MacMaster|1929|p=12}} Mensendieck founded the League for Better Bodies in 1924, with Pogány appointed as the organization's secretary.{{sfn|The Boston Globe|1924|p=68}} Her business grew quickly through her brother's theatrical contacts and her own feminist networks.{{sfn|MacMaster|1929|p=12}} Among her clients were the artist Arthur Bowen Davies and his model Wreath McIntyre.{{sfn|Veder|2015|pp=54–55}}

On 26 April 1927, in Stamford, Connecticut, she married Martin Toscan Bennett.{{sfn|Yale Obituaries|1942|p=80}} Toscan was a corporate lawyer for many years and then worked as a psychologist.{{sfn|MacMaster|1929|p=12}}{{sfn|Yale Obituaries|1942|p=80}} He and his first wife Josephine, who had divorced in 1926, had both participated in the campaign for women's suffrage and established Brookwood Labor College in Katonah, New York in 1921.{{sfn|The Boston Globe|1926|p=12}} The couple made their home in Manhattan on Central Park West and Pogany Bennett's studio was located at 15 East 59 Street in the Dance School of Adolph Bolm.{{sfn|US Naturalization Records|1929|p=1177}}{{sfn|Vogue|1922|p=12}} She was naturalized by the United States in 1929.{{sfn|US Naturalization Records|1929|p=1178}} After Toscan's death in 1940,{{sfn|Yale Obituaries|1942|p=80}} she summered at the artists' colony in the International Valley at South Kortright, New York. In 1948, Pogany Bennett brought a collection of 300 Hungarian embroideries, which had been assembled by her mother, for display at the McLean Manor House in the village.{{sfn|The Delaware Republican-Express|1948|p=8}}

In 1954, Pogany Bennett wrote The Art of Hungarian Cooking with Velma R. Clark, a domestic scientist, who tested all of the recipes.{{sfn|Bennett|Clark|1954}}{{sfn|Oberst|1954|p=26}} The book was illustrated by Willy and received a favorable review by The New York Times, noting that all of the recipes could be made by beginners. The reviewer, Charlotte Turgeon, stated that even the well-known dishes were presented in ways to give them "a special quality" and that the pastry section alone would ensure sales of the book.{{sfn|Turgeon|1954|p=BR19}} The chef who wrote reviews for The Evening Star noted that it covered several goose liver appetizers; cold fruit soups and hot vegetable soups; goulashes and other exotic meat dishes; an elaborate vegetable section; and varied desserts. The book was dubbed "fascinating to read" as well as useful, because it gave thorough instructions and a history of the influences of neighboring Balkan, Central European, French, Italian, and Turkish cuisines made with paprika, dill, caraway and both sweet and sour cream.{{sfn|The Evening Star|1954|p=25}}

Death and legacy

Pogany Bennett died on 3 August 1982 and was buried alongside family members of her husband in the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut.{{sfn|Jane Addams Project|2020}}{{sfn|People Legacy|2023}} Although she is primarily remembered for her activism as an international feminist and pacifist,{{sfn|Chamberlain|2021|p=125}} her cookbook was revised and reissued in 1997.{{sfn|Nelson|2001|p=232}}

Notes

References

=Citations=

=Bibliography=

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{{cite book |last1=Bennett |first1=Paula Pogany |last2=Clark |first2=Velma R. |title=The Art of Hungarian Cooking |url=https://archive.org/details/artofhungarianco00benn/mode/1up |date=1954 |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City, New York |oclc=1334624769}}
{{cite book |last1=Chamberlain |first1=Mary |editor1-last=Dubbs |editor1-first=Chris |title=American Women Report World War I: An Anthology of their Journalism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pX8pEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA125 |date=2021 |publisher=University of North Texas Press |location=Denton, Texas |chapter='The Women at the Hague': The Survey |pages=120–129 |isbn=978-1-57441-833-0}}
{{cite news |last1=Hale |first1=Marian |title=There Is Beauty in Your Body |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120982980/hale-marian-nea-service-there-is/ |access-date=17 March 2023 |agency=Newspaper Enterprise Association |work=The Lancaster New Era |date=30 November 1923 |location=Lancaster, Pennsylvania |page=18 |via=Newspapers.com}}
{{cite journal |last1=Kereszty |first1=Orsolya |title=Egy úttörő vállalkozás a századfordulón: A "Modern Ifjúsági Könyvtár" születése |journal=Magyar Könyvszemle |date=2013 |volume=129 |issue=1 |pages=108–112 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/45272319.pdf |access-date=17 March 2023 |trans-title=A Pioneering Enterprise at the Turn of the Century: The Birth of the "Modern Youth Library" |publisher=Argumentum Kiadó |location=Budapest, Hungary |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230317154659/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/45272319.pdf |archive-date=17 March 2023 |language=Hungarian |issn=0025-0171 |url-status=live}}
{{cite book |last1=Kraft |first1=Barbara S. |title=The Peace Ship: Henry Ford's Pacifist Adventure in the First World War |url=https://archive.org/details/peaceshiphenryfo0000kraf/page/187/mode/1up |date=1978 |publisher=Macmillan Publishing |location=New York |isbn=978-0-02-566570-5 |edition=1st}}
{{cite news |last1=MacMaster |first1=Amy |title=No Need for Drastic Reducing |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120982782/macmaster-amy-no-need-for-drastic/ |access-date=16 March 2023 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=17 November 1929 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=12 |via=Newspapers.com}}
{{cite book |last1=Nelson |first1=Kay Shaw |title=All along the Rhine: Recipes, Wines, and Lore from Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, and Holland |url=https://archive.org/details/allalongrhinerec0000nels/page/232/mode/1up |date=2001 |publisher=Hippocrene Books |location=New York, New York |isbn=978-0-7818-0830-9}}
{{cite news |last1=Oberst |first1=Alma |title=Recipe Book Is Strictly from Hungary |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120983035/oberst-alma-recipe-book-is-strictly/ |access-date=17 March 2023 |work=The Evansville Press |date=12 August 1954 |location=Evansville, Indiana |page=26 |via=Newspapers.com}}
{{cite web |last1=Palosuo |first1=Laura |title=The Holocaust in Hungary: The Importance of Gender, Age and Geography for the Jewish Experience |url=https://theverylongview.com/WATH/essays/palosuo.htm |website=Women and the Holocaust: The Very Long View |publisher=B. Webb & Associates |access-date=17 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316181816/https://theverylongview.com/WATH/essays/palosuo.htm |archive-date=16 March 2023 |location=Washington, D.C. |date=2005 |url-status=live}}
{{cite book |author=Press Committee |title=VII International Woman Suffrage Congress, Budapest, June 15–20, 1913: Program |url=https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C3831171?account_id=196403&usage_group_id=1338161 |date=1913 |publisher=Feministák Egyesülete for the International Woman Suffrage Congress Committee |location=Budapest, Hungary}}{{subscription required| via=ASP: Women and Social Movements}}
{{cite book |editor1-last=Sklar |editor1-first=Kathryn Kish |editor1-link=Kathryn Kish Sklar |editor2-last=Schüler |editor2-first=Anja |editor3-last=Strasser |editor3-first=Susan |title=Social Justice Feminists in the United States and Germany: A Dialogue in Documents, 1885–1933 |url=https://archive.org/details/socialjusticefem0000unse/page/207/mode/1up |date=1998 |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca, New York |isbn=978-0-8014-8469-8}}
{{cite book |last1=Szapor |first1=Judith |title=Hungarian Women's Activism in the Wake of the First World War: From Rights to Revanche |date=2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |location=London, UK |isbn=978-1-3501-1892-8 |edition=Paperback}}
{{cite news |last=Turgeon |first=Charlotte |author-link=Charlotte Turgeon |title=Goulash And Strudel; The Art of Hungarian Cooking. By Paula Pogany Bennett and Velma R. Clark. Drawings by Willy Pogany. 223 pp. New York: Doubleday & Co. $3.50. |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/112892512 |access-date=17 March 2023 |work=The New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=2 May 1954 |page=BR19|id={{ProQuest|112892512}} }}{{subscription required|via=ProQuest}}
{{cite book |last1=Veder |first1=Robin |title=The Living Line: Modern Art and the Economy of Energy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fj3pBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA54 |date=2015 |publisher=Dartmouth College Press |location=Hanover, New Hampshire |isbn=978-1-61168-725-5}}
{{cite book |last=Wiltsher |first=Anne |title=Most Dangerous Women: Feminist Peace Campaigners of the Great War |url=https://archive.org/stream/mostdangerouswom00anne_0#page/111/mode/1up |date=1985 |edition=1st |publisher=Pandora Press |location=London, UK |isbn=978-0-86358-010-9}}
{{cite magazine |ref={{harvid|Vogue|1922}}|last= |title=Adolf Bolm |magazine=Vogue |date=15 August 1922 |volume=60 |issue=4 |page=12 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_vogue_1922-08-15_60_4/page/n15/mode/1up |access-date=17 March 2023 |publisher=Condé Nast |location=New York, New York |issn=0042-8000}}
{{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Boston Globe|1924}}|last= |title=Beauty Is in Muscle Control |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120983476/beauty-is-in-muscle-control/ |access-date=17 March 2023 |work=The Boston Globe |date=18 May 1924 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=68 |via=Newspapers.com}}
{{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer|1913}}|last= |title=Budapest May Soon Hold Aloft Torch of Equal Suffrage |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120710268/budapest-may-soon-hold-aloft-torch-of/ |access-date=17 March 2023 |work=The Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer |date=28 May 1913 |location=Bridgeport, Connecticut |page=12 |via=Newspapers.com}}
{{cite web |ref={{harvid|People Legacy|2023}}|author=|title=Cedar Hill Cemetery: 453 Fairfield Ave, Hartford, CT |url=https://peoplelegacy.com/cemetery/cedar_hill_cemetery-581E/benn |website=People Legacy |access-date=17 March 2023 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230317170258/https://peoplelegacy.com/cemetery/cedar_hill_cemetery-581E/benn |archive-date=17 March 2023 |location=Franklin, Kentucky |date=2023 |url-status=live}}
{{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Delaware Republican-Express|1948}}|last= |title=Friday Concert Series Comes to a Close |url=https://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%205/Delhi%20NY%20Delaware%20Republican%20Express/Delhi%20NY%20Delaware%20Republican%20Express%201948-1949/Delhi%20NY%20Delaware%20Republican%20Express%201948-1949%2000299.pdf |access-date=17 March 2023 |work=The Delaware Republican-Express |date=9 September 1948 |location=Delhi, New York |page=8 |via=Old Fulton NY Postcards}}
{{cite journal |ref={{harvid|Yale Obituaries|1942}}|author= |title=Martin Toscan Bennett, B.A. 1898 |journal=Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased During the Year: 1940–1941 |date=1 January 1942 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=80 |url=http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1925_1952/1940-41.pdf |access-date=16 March 2023 |publisher=Yale University |location=New Haven, Connecticut |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221113085418/http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1925_1952/1940-41.pdf |archive-date=13 November 2022 |url-status=live}}
{{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Evening Star|1954}}|author= |title=New Book on Hungarian Cooking |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/121069872/new-book-on-hungarian-cooking/ |access-date=17 March 2023 |work=The Evening Star |date=5 April 1954 |location=Washington, D.C. |page=25 |via=Newspapers.com}}
{{cite web |ref={{harvid|US Naturalization Records|1922}}|author= |title=New York Naturalization Records 1882–1944: Declaration of Intention, Paula Julia Pogány |url=https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2499/images/31301_168023-00426 |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=Ancestry.com |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |location=Washington, D.C. |date=4 October 1922 |page=427 |id=NARA microfilm publication M1972, Roll #623, permit issue #568445}}{{subscription required}}
{{cite web|ref={{harvid|Hungarian National Archives|1959}}|author=|title=P 999 Feministák Egyesülete, 1904–1959|url=https://lnyr.eleveltar.hu/mnlquery/detail.aspx?ID=3737|website=lnyr.eleveltar.hu|publisher=Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár (Hungarian National Archives)|access-date=3 May 2017|location=Budapest, Hungary|language=Hungarian|date=1959|trans-title=P 999 Feminist Association, 1904–1959|archive-date=26 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180526045814/https://lnyr.eleveltar.hu/mnlquery/detail.aspx?ID=3737|url-status=dead}}
{{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Boston Globe|1926}}|author= |title=Paris Divorces for Three Americans |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120990862/paris-divorces-for-three-americans/ |access-date=16 March 2023 |work=The Boston Globe |date=4 December 1926 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |page=12 |via=Newspapers.com}}
{{cite web |ref={{harvid|Jane Addams Project|2020}}|author= |title=Pogány, Paula Julia (1884–1982) |url=http://digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/12990 |website=Jane Addams Project |publisher=Ramapo College |access-date=17 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316181805/http://digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/12990 |archive-date=16 March 2023 |location=Mahwah, New Jersey |date=2020 |url-status=live}}
{{cite report |ref={{harvid|WILPF Report|1919}}|author= |title=Report of the International Congress of Women, Zurich, May 12 to 17, 1919 |url=https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C1526332?account_id=196403&usage_group_id=1338161 |publisher=Women's International League for Peace and Freedom |access-date=7 March 2023 |location=Geneva, Switzerland |date=1920 |oclc=21112500}}{{subscription required|via=ASP: Women and Social Movements}}
{{cite journal|ref={{harvid|Vasváry Collection Newsletter|2016}}|author= |title=Szegedtől Hollywoodig Pogány Willy, az "ébren álmodó" művész |journal=Vasváry Collection Newsletter |date=2016 |volume=2 |issue=56 |url=http://vasvary.sk-szeged.hu/newsletter/16dec/pogany.html |access-date=16 March 2023 |trans-title=From Szeged to Hollywood Willy Pogány, the "Daydreaming" Artist |publisher=Somogyi-könyvtár |location=Szeged, Hungary |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316161432/http://vasvary.sk-szeged.hu/newsletter/16dec/pogany.html |archive-date=16 March 2023 |language=Hungarian |oclc=29402831 |url-status=live}}
{{cite web |ref={{harvid|UK Naturalization Records|1910}}|author= |title=UK Naturalisation Certificates and Declarations, 1870–1916: Willy Pogany Formerly Willy Feichtmann |url=https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/9156/images/42475_635001_11665-00714 |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=Ancestry.com |publisher=Home Office: Immigration and Nationality Department |location=Kew, England |date=7 November 1910 |pages=713–714 |id=Home Office #197776, certificate #19692}}{{subscription required}}
{{cite web |ref={{harvid|US Naturalization Records|1929}}|author= |title=United States Petition for Naturalization 5–8 November 1928: Paula Julia Bennett |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9HF-C94F-F?i=1176&cc=2060123 |access-date=17 March 2023 |website=FamilySearch |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |location=Washington, D.C. |date=15 August 1929 |pages=1177–1178 |id=NARA microfilm publication M1972, volume 453, certificate #145083}}{{subscription required}}