Imre Bekessy

Imre Békessy was born in Budapest, Hungary on 13 October 1887.

It is presumed that he met and married Bianca Marton sometime prior to 1911 and that their marriage most likely occurred in Hungary.

Imre and Bianca were a Jewish couple, who had converted to Christianity in the Protestant faith.

Imre was well-known in Budapest as a very successful newspaperman, primarily for two key reasons. One was that he was very good at his business. He managed his newspaper and contributed stories, including writing and editing duties. However, he was also notorious for the way he used his stories - to blackmail others. Imre had a reputation as a "yellow journalist" - which is one who utilizes exaggeration and stretching the truth, or making assumptions in order to sensationalize a story and imply facts not in evidence. Imre would also utilize extortion and blackmail to convince public figures to pay money to keep their names out of these sensationalized stories, and as such he was considerably disliked.

It does appear that after World War I, it was reported that the family moved from Budapest to Vienna, where his father began publishing a tabloid called Die Stunde, which was published from 1923 to 1926. However, he was brought to court for his disreputable practices and a court in Austria ruled against him, essentially making him persona non grata and expelling him from Vienna, which sent him back to Budapest.

As a result of Imre's less than reputable approach to publishing, his son grew up to resent his father, all the while learning the business from him.