Description: Here's Looking at You, Kids by Ilona Ryder chronicles the life, work, and hidden families of legendary film director Michael Curtiz. Written and thoroughly researched by Curtiz's own granddaughter!
Brief description: lona Ryder was born in Vienna, Austria, July 9, 1947 to Michael and Ada Vondrak. She was adopted by Ada's second husband Frank Sobernig. In 1956 she emigrated to Alberta with her parents and lived on a farm near Perryvale until 1965. From then until 2010 she made her home in Edmonton. She married Gary A. Ryder in 1972 and they have two children: Robert and Kelly. Ilona worked as a legal assistant with McCuaig Desrochers for twenty year, and after obtaining her Master's degree from the U of A, she was an English instructor at Grant MacEwan University until her retirement in 2008. Ilona now lives in Beaumont just south of Edmonton. She loves to spend time at the family cabin at Island Lake near Athabasca and to explore Alberta's nature with the St. Albert Trekkers Volkssport and Waskahegan Trail walking clubs. The nearby Edmonton International Airport keeps her connected to Austria and the world.
Review Quotes:
What Others Have Said About Here's Looking at You, Kids by Ilona Ryder
"Ilona Ryder never met her grandfather, the famous film director Michael Curtiz, and her search for him and his legacy is an epic one. Here's Looking at You, Kids is family memoir at its best."
- Caterina Edwards, author of Finding Rosa
"What emerges from Ryder's evidence is the portrait of a humane Curtiz that stands in stark contrast to his legendary irascibility towards players and technicians while actually filming. here's Looking at You, Kids seems likely to prove the final word on Curtiz's personal life."
- Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, reviewed by James Robertson, author of The Casablanca Man
"If famed Hollywood director Michael Curtiz had married her grandmother Ilona Ryder's life would probably have been very different. A grandchild's story straight out of Hollywood."
- Chris Zdeb, Edmonton Prime Times
"Ryder brings the combined sensibilities and skills of detective, memoirist and biographer to this Herculean undertaking. Curtiz is a puzzle wrapped in an enigma and the writer's careful and compassionate investigation of his professional and personal life and legacy offers much reward for the reader."
- Jannie Edwards, Edmonton poet, author of Blood Raven, Falling Blues