Karl Farkas

Karl Farkas (28 October 1893 – 16 May 1971) was an Austrian actor, cabaret performer, composer, and writer born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, whose career spanned the stages of Central Europe, New York, and eventually Broadway. Though his parents intended him to pursue law, Farkas chose instead to train at the Academy of Music and Acting Arts in Vienna, making his stage debut in Olmütz in the role of Tsarevich in a play by Gabryela Zapolska.

Following appearances on stages across Austria and Moravia, Farkas returned to Vienna in 1921, where director Egon Dorn engaged him at the Kabarett Simpl. There he earned the nickname "the Tick" for his work as a Blitzdichter and became known for performing the Doppelconférence alongside Fritz Grünbaum. The Doppelconférence, a cabaret form originating in Budapest, structured a dialogue between two performers — one playing a clever, educated figure and the other a blunderer. Farkas married Anny Hán in 1924. During this Vienna period he also collaborated with Grünbaum on several libretti, including the 1926 revues Journal der Liebe, set to music by Egon Neumann, and Wien lacht wieder!, set to music by Ralph Benatzky. In 1929 he co-wrote the musical comedy Die Wunder-Bar with Géza Herczeg, set to music by Robert Katscher, and in 1931 contributed the revue Der Traumexpreß, again with Grünbaum and Katscher. The 1936 musical comedy Hofloge, based on a story by J. M. Crawford and set to music by Hans Lang, and the 1938 revue Dixie, co-written with Adolf Schütz, rounded out his pre-exile output as a librettist.

The Nazi regime's rise forced Farkas, because of his Jewish descent, to flee Vienna in 1938. He traveled first to Brno, then to Paris, and ultimately settled in New York, where he performed for fellow exiles and published the book of poems Farkas entdeckt Amerika in 1942, illustrated by Hans Burger and issued by Triton Publishing Company. During his years in New York he also wrote the libretto for the operetta Marinka, composed by Emmerich Kálmán and co-written with George Marion Jr.

Farkas's Broadway career extended from 1943 to 1944 and encompassed three productions: the musical Marinka, Yours Is My Heart, and The Merry Widow Burlesque. His work on Marinka connected his New York stage activity directly to his libretto for the same Kálmán operetta. In 1946 he published a second New York book, Zurück ins Morgen, through Paramount Printing and Publishing Co., illustrated by Matouschek.

Farkas returned to Vienna in 1946. By 1950 he was performing once again at the Kabarett Simpl, this time as its director, a position he held until his death. In that role he contributed to all of the venue's revues alongside Ernst Waldbrunn and Hugo Wiener, the latter of whom also wrote Doppelconférences for Farkas. Beginning in 1957, Farkas appeared regularly in Austrian broadcasting and subsequently on the television channel ORF, where his periodic "Balances" — reviews of the year, the month, and similar retrospectives — became widely popular.

His work as a screenwriter was extensive, with credits including Lumpenkavaliere (1932), Adventures on the Lido (1933), Roxy and the Wonderteam (1938), and numerous Austrian productions through the 1950s and into the 1960s. Several of his stage works were adapted for film, among them Die Wunder-Bar, which became the 1934 Warner Bros. film Wonder Bar directed by Lloyd Bacon, and Hofloge, which was adapted for television on multiple occasions. In 2014, Farkas became the subject of the Austrian revue comic book Der Blöde und der Gscheite, drawn by illustrator Reinhard Trinkler and based on the classic Doppelconférences written by Hugo Wiener. Farkas died on 16 May 1971.