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Meeting Celebs in Eastern Europe
by András Kolozs First of all, I think it is useful to tell you about myself and the collecting possibilities as well as conditions in Hungary. I am András Kolozs, 30 years old, and I have been collecting autographs since 1994. In the first two years I got mostly Hungarian famous persons, after two years of hunting I have tried to get celebrities from all over the world. How can you collect in Hungary, what kind of differences are between the basic possibilities in collecting between Germany and Hungary. As I see, in Germany you can meet with the celebrities and high ranked politicians 2-3 times in a year, write to them and buy autographs from professional dealers. Many prominent persons visit Hungary often just once in their lifetime. If you miss someone in Germany, maybe you can get him or her in the next part of the same year, if you miss someone in Hungary mayby you have missed her or him forever. So, until today I have collected almost 2000 original signatures, among them around 900 are Hungarian famous persons, the others are world famous persons from foreign countries in all categories. Mostly all persons are from the second part of the 20th century. Meeting JR Ewing The world famous JR Ewing from Dallas series, Larry Hagman visited Hungary once early in the 90ies (before I began collecting). The next time his visit happened so spontaneously and shortly, that almost all collectors missed him. One could mention his illness, so it seemed that someone who missed him, missed hi m forever. But we were lucky. A year later (in 2002) Larry Hagman came to Hungary again, to become the main guest of the World Transplant Games (In August 1995, Hagman underwent a life-saving liver transplant after admitting he had been a heavy drinker.) The games were organized in Hungary at Lake Balaton. We collect mainly in Budapest, and it is unusual for someone to travel hundreds of kilometers. Maybe this time me and my friends would like to meet Mr Hagman, therefore without any concrete information we went to the little city of Aliga, hoping to meet the Nr1 superstar from the Dallas series. And we did it! After 2 hours of waiting, Mr. Hagman came back from another event from another city to his bungalow, where 3-4 collectors (including me) were waiting for him. He had to make some interviews, but he and his wife told us that Mr Hagman would sign for us everything later, and we could get photographs with him too. We were very happy and waited patienly. In a pause between two interviews Mr Hagman beckoned us, ”Come on, let’s do the signing and the photo jobs”. It was a surprise for us, because we didn’t dream about to get more than one signature. He was so kind as we never could imagine (cf. His part as JR Ewing). He signed all photographs for everyone with personal dedications, but after that I had an idea, I would have to get something unique, something special from him. I asked him to sign a photograph as ’JR Ewing’. He stopped for a moment, he smiled, and made the authentic signature from this phantom character: ’JR Ewing’, with his nice handwriting. I am sure that his signature in this form is rare, therefore it is more valuable than other simple Hagman signatures. We made some photos and travelled back to Budapest with these wonderful memorabilia. Steven Spielberg in Budapest I think we can all agree, that one of greatest film director among living persons is Steven Spielberg. His lifetime work changed the film-making, his Jaws, Close Encounters and E.T. are milestones in the movie history. As I know, he had never visited Hungary before, when it was announced, that he would stay in Budapest for two months in the summer of 2005, filming some parts of ’Munich’ here. All we knew was that these two months were the only chance to get his signature ever. Then a disaster. Some days before his arrival we heard from the news, that there was an explosion in Malta during the film making, and the staff, and of course Mr Spielberg would have extraordinary protection in Budapest.  They arrived with so many cars as never seen before, he did not use just his official bodyguards, but the Hungarian police and secret service worked in their defense too. As all of you can see, it is not an easy situation to get someone’s autograph, if you are not able to be closer than 50 meters to the person. We stood hours and days in front of the hotel – without any success. Mr Spielberg mainly used the garage to leave the hotel with cars, gave no chance to make any contact. They left mainly early in the morning (at 6:00 AM or earlier), and arrived back late at night. No collectors and any persons were at the hotel so early, but Mr Spielberg left the hotel through the garage. The only chance was wait, wait and wait, maybe some day he would come out at the main entrance. Then after two weeks of waiting we were lucky. On a sunny day Mr Spielberg come out and called, ”Come”. Just two collectors were there, me and my friend. (The others had given up saying, „There’s no chance, we will never meet him”.) We went to the director, everywhere bodyguards around us, 15 or more, Hungarians and Americans mixed. And suddenly we were standing in front of our great director. He signed ET photos and other pictures. I had made a composition from his work. I thought that this man is so versatile, that there is not just one or two pictures, which is a symbol of his lifetime work. I had made a composition from his Columbo movie, continuing Duel, Encounters, ET, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Schindler, the Academy Awards and finally Private Ryan. One picture for one milestone, mixed in a flat photograph. I told him, ”Mr Spielberg, I have made a compositon from your lifetime work”. He watched and wondered: ”Wow, you did a very good job! - May I personalize the dedication for you?” I said: ”Oh, Mr. Spielberg, it is a great pleasure to me!” And he signed: ”To András, ’As time goes by’, Steven Spielberg”. He smiled again, went into his car and left the area. I don’t know, whether he did it again during his stay, with other persons, but I am sure, this meeting was a unique ’close encounter’ with a living icon of the movie history. 
Meeting Dmitry Medvedev – 6 days before the presidental election How you can get an authentic signature from a Russian President? This is a dilemma, which some day comes to every collector’s mind. To get them in person is not so easy, because the Russian President is high-protected, like the President of the USA (but the USA is a more open country, and in the political culture is common and a usual habit to sign autographs. In the Far-Eastern countries and Russia it is not.) If you send a letter to the head of state, maybe your letter will never be delivered, and you cannot get any answer. The third way is to try figure out, who could be a future president, and try to get his signature, before he is elected. 
Who will be Mr Putin’s successor? – this was the question for two years, and the answers were so wide, as the colors of the rainbow. Sergei or Igor Ivanov? Sergei Lavrov? Dmitry Medvedev? Or Stepashin, Kiriyenko, Viktor Zubkov? Or another, yet unknown person? Then Putin told the name Medvedev two months before the election. The years before, I had collected Igor Ivanov, Stepashin, Kiriyenko, Viktor Zubkov and Sergei Lavrov, but the others not. I was so sad, the ”Russian Presidential Poker” was not successful for me. Medvedev gone forever, as President there is no chance to get his signature. Bye-bye. Then on 25th February 2008 morning I read in the news: Dmitry Medvedev will visit Hungary for a few hours, he comes from Belgrade because of the South Stream gas pipeline negotiations. ”Now or never!”, I thought, and called all my friends at State Protocol and government offices to get the exact arrival time, the scenario of Mr Medvedev’s short visit. They know about my hobby, so they were helpful to me. I knew that Mr Medvedev would arrive at the Parliament Building at 4 PM. I had got all information and access to enter the building. I was waiting, and Medvedev arrived 20 minutes late. He was followed by 2 bodyguards and other members of the delegation, all in all maximum 20 persons (For comparsion: A ruling Russian President travels with 3 aeroplanes, at least 150 persons in a delegation, and 20-30 bodyguards). Medvedev was so dynamic, that he left behind himself the honorary guards, who have the task to show the right way for the guests in the building. That was my piece of good luck this day. In two seconds Mr. Medvedev stood in front of me (I was standing beside his planned walking route), and as a modern politician, he knew what he had to do seeing me with the pen and photograph. He said (in English), ”Oh yes, autographs, of course!” he signed my photograph and added the date: 25-02-2008. Six day before his election day – a unique moment, from a future great politician!!! Still today it is unbelievable for me, as I see him on the TV screen, that we have ever met in person.
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Autograph Article 
