Hello NY and everywhere else, welcome back to the Birdcage. Over the past few years I've had a great time interviewing people like John Buccigross, Larry Brooks, Matt Barnaby, a pro scout - Jan Evens, Scott Ferrell, Huge Jessiman and even Artimus Pyle of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Today we continue in our series of interviews but with an added twist.
A few weeks ago I was asked to accept a book for possible review. Now here at Hockeybird we haven't done much in the way of book reviews but since the main character was a hockey goalie I thought, what the hell. Since most of you come here to read (some of you are here just for the pictures, admit it) I thought you might be interested as you do need something to occupy your time what with no NHL games in sight for the foreseeable future.
I will have no problem recommending The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber as it's full of interesting issues to think about. It features some hockey, sex, gambling, a modern day "Robin Hood" story, good cops and bad along with a healthy dose of history. Buy this book and add it to your collection.
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Bird: Julian, Welcome to Hockeybird. I usually ask how my guests first became exposed to the game of hockey. I'm not sure.....are you a fan? If so, what drew you to the sport?
Julian: I have to admit I’m not a super fan or anything but I do enjoy the sport. I grew up in Denver back when we had the old Colorado Rockies. They weren’t that big; it was a Broncos town for sure. But Gary Croteau, a defenseman for the team, lived in my neighborhood, which we all thought was pretty cool. I went to a few games then they disappeared. I can’t really call myself an Avalanche fan now because I was long gone when they arrived but it’s been nice to see them bring hockey back to Denver in such a big way. Also, I did cover hockey just a little bit. My first job in journalism was at The Washington Post and I very occasionally filled in and did a Caps story. (Okay it might’ve been once, I really don’t remember.)
Bird: I'm not blowing smoke here, I ripped through your book in just a day and a half. I couldn't put it down. Is this really a true story and how did you first become aware of it?
Julian: Actually the first I heard of it was in an item in the Scorecard section of Sports Illustrated. This was the summer of 1999. It was about two paragraphs and all it basically said was that a professional hockey goalie for Hungary’s biggest team had just escaped from the main jail in downtown Budapest on a bedsheet. He’d been in the clink for robbing banks over the past seven years in outrageous fashion and in the process becoming a folk hero known as the Whiskey Robber for his habit of downing a double-shot before each heist. There was a massive international manhunt on for him. I was stunned. It was clearly an amazing story and I first set off to do a magazine feature on it that ran in Details magazine.
Bird: What made you think (correctly so) that this would lend itself to book form.
Julian: When I got to Budapest and started interviewing people related to the story, the characters were just so wacky and great. That was the first thing that stood out. From the bumbling police to the small-time crooks to the Transylvanian hockey players, I couldn’t have dreamed up such a cast. Then it was also the fact that the story so vividly told the tale of this entire colorful era of the 1990s in Eastern Europe. It was the greatest story I’d ever heard in my life and with each new day it just seemed to get more unbelievable.
Bird: The story itself is very well told, how much if any creative license did you take?
Julian: None. I mean, I did recreate scenes. I wanted the book to really read like a novel. That’s the kind of journalism I love. But it was journalism. Everything was reported. I interviewed all of the main characters over and over until I could reliably paint the scenes I needed.
Bird: Are you aware that goalies in general are just plain nuts. (It's OK, I can say that as I am a retired keeper myself) There are parts of Attila's behavior that seemed a bit too familiar to me. Did any of those you interviewed express the thought that Attila being a keeper had anything to do with his personality or his behavior?
Julian: It’s funny you mention that because yes, a few of the older hockey guys who were around when Attila first tried out for the team did mention that. Because, as you know having read the book, one of the really funny things about the story is that he was a terrible hockey goalie. In fact, when he first showed up for a tryout he had virtually no experience. And this was the Hungarian reigning national championship team. But because the players recognized that he had to be so madly devoted to be so bad a player and yet want to be a goalie for them, they gave him a position on the team. Of course, that position was Zamboni driver. Literally. That was his first job with the team.
Bird: When you interviewed Attila did you ask or did he offer much in the way of his take on playing goalie? Did he have a favorite NHL keeper? Who did he pattern his play after?
Julian: I did talk to him about the technical aspects of playing and who he watched. There was one season while he was there in his early days, around 1991, when the former Soviet Olympic gold-medal winning goalie Sergei Milnikov was imported to play for the Budapest team (which was known as UTE) in order to help them win the championship. Attila studied him. I’d have to check my notebooks (which are now buried somewhere) for the others but I do remember him mentioning Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy.
Bird: In doing your research did you attend any games in Hungary or Romania and what were they like as compared to what we see here in North America?
Julian: For some reason I was always there at off-times so I only got to see some scrimmages and practices live, though I also watched some videotapes of games. The first thing you notice though is that the stadium you’re sitting in isn’t a stadium. It’s a rink with bleachers. No roof. There is actually one stadium in Budapest that is a little more like what we’re accustomed to. But the UTE rink was just a rink with some bleachers around it. The players were decent but it clearly was a lower level than the NHL, less precision. But especially during the 1990s there was TONS of fighting. In Romania too, particularly during the 1980s when Attila was growing up, the games in his town in Transylvania were intensely political because his town, Csikszereda (or Miercurea Ciuc, in Romanian) fielded the only all-Hungarian team in all of Romania. And they hated the Romanian teams and vice versa. So it was a wild free for all in which on occasion the referees (who were instructed not to let the Hungarians win) would be locked into the arena (and there it was a smallish but regular-type arena) and beaten silly.
Bird: You referenced "Anti-fatigue pills" used by the Soviet Union players more than once in the book. What exactly are you referring too? I can recall that coach Herb Brooks thought the Soviets were the best conditioned hockey players in the world and worked his team in 1980 so that they could compete with them in the now famous 'Miracle on Ice' game in Lake Placid. Are you suggesting that perhaps the great Red Army team used performance enhancing drugs ?
Julian: Given the rampant use of steroids in the Eastern Bloc countries throughout the 70s and 80s in general, I think suggesting that would hardly surprise anyone. But in my book, the pills I mention are those that the Hungarian team took and which their coaches called “anti-fatigue” pills. Attila (the Whiskey Robber) and his teammates were told they were the same as the Soviets took which was meant to inspire them since they revered the Soviets for their hockey prowess (and just about nothing else.) The players I spoke to never knew exactly what the pills really were but in retrospect they believe they were some kind of steroid.
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Julian: Definitely the political and cultural circumstances were what made him become such a figure. He wasn’t even giving his money to the poor but he achieved this image as a man of the people. He became a symbol of the frustration the people had with the post-communist government. They thought capitalism was going to bring them something better and different than it did. Instead there was tons of corruption; suddenly they had unemployment and homelessness, which they’d never seen under communism; and crime was soaring. Meanwhile here was a “gentlemanly robber” who was handing flowers to tellers and mailing wine to investigators and robbing only state-owned banks, which were of course symbols of the government. So he was almost like a court jester, his robberies played out like a serialized satire of the times. And they were pretty hilarious. Plus people in Eastern Europe had a very low opinion of the police because of what they did under communism, so it was great fun to see them so befuddled by this Whiskey Robber character.
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Bird: I'm sure you've heard this before but if I took this story to Hollywood as a script I would have been laughed at as it's too unbelievable to be real. I read in the NY Post that Johnny Depp is offering to buy the movie rights. Is this true? Also, what about this story is most likely to transfer to the screen most easily? What would be the hardest? Jeeze, now I sound like James Lipton.
Julian: Well, Warner Bros bought the rights and I'll just say I have heard the rumors as well that Depp will play the Whiskey Robber. I think the toughest thing to make translate is the fact that it these are not English-speaking characters. I don't know if they'll make them have those cheesy accents or what. Hopefully the easiest thing to transfer will be the humor and the suspense. Humor is never easy to do but there are so many obviously funny/crazy things about this story, I think if it's done right it could be really great.
Bird: Off Topic, what CDs get the most play by you these days?
Julian: Hmm, I’m afraid these bands will seem old to the younger readers who probably keep up much more but some newer additions to my rotations for me have been White Stripes, Modest Mouse, Jack Johnson and then there’s my all-time favorite, U2.
Bird: U2? They happen to be one of my faves since I first heard them back in '79. Quick, what are your three favorite U2 songs? Also, how do you like the new LP?
Julian: Three faves, that’s a tough one, but I’ll go with Stay (Faraway, So Close), So Cruel, and maybe Walk On but there could probably be about 10 songs tied for third. The new LP I like a lot, though not as much as All That You Can’t Leave Behind.
Bird: In the book I noticed some killer music references like, "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" (From The Who for those of you who didn't know). How much does music influence your work and your life?
Julian: I don’t know. I used to play music a lot. For years growing up I played the violin actually and always regretted that I didn’t start with the guitar but I did take up the guitar later. But I rarely play these days. I do love music and I guess it sort of seeps into some of the things I do and write but I’ve never consciously thought about it that way. With writing though I do think that rhythm is important which is a sort of musical thing, though even with that I don’t usually think consciously about it. Sometimes though, particularly if I’m rewriting and editing I’m aware that I want a sentence or phrase to have the right rhythm.
Bird: I actually met a young couple from Hungary a few days ago and couldn't help but ask about Attila. They of course knew the whole story and were happy to discuss it with big smiles. They were surprised to hear of the book, how well received is the book in Europe?
Julian: The book has done incredibly well in Hungary. It was a #1 bestseller there though I’ve been told they hacked up some of the translation pretty bad. It’s also going to come out in the Czech Republic soon. Actually it’s also done very nicely in Canada, probably partly because of the hockey angle. At one point in December it had sold out of Canada, which was kind of a nightmare in the pre-holiday shopping time. So far the rights haven’t been sold in other countries but with the new movie deal and a few award notices its been getting here, I’m optimistic that it will soon.
Bird: What's next for you after the success of the Whiskey Robber?
Julian: Everyone’s been asking me that, I should come up with some catchy answer but the truth is I’m not sure. I have a few book ideas I’m looking into, I may do some magazine stuff, we’ll see.
Bird: This is an open section....you may say anything you wish to the Hockeybird readers.
Julian: Ask your local bartender to mix you a “whiskey robber” drink. It’s actually being served in several bars around the country now and is really good. The recipe is on my website under the “news” section. And it looks like on Attila’s (the Whiskey Robber’s) birthday, which is October 6, there may be a worldwide toast to him. So tune in for that or get in touch with me through my website if you want to participate. Egesegedre! (Cheers, in Hungarian.)
I want to thank Julian for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions about the Ballad of the Whiskey Robber. Go ahead, click on the link and order it, I promise you won't be disappointed.
Here are a few related links:
A song in mp3 format can be found here. It's in German.
Here's a look at Hungarian hockey.
----}- Bird
Posted by Bird at February 03, 2005 10:19 PMeMail this entry!
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