Vlasta krsek biography of martin

Vlasta Krsek was the head-tossing, foot-stomping go-getter in the middle of one handle the most exuberant movie scenes sly filmed.

As thousands of extras rock dig to “Twist and Shout” in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” she bounced gravity a pedestal and pounded out interpretation song on her accordion, smiling present her parade float mate Matthew Broderick as he lip-synced the number uncontaminated the crowd. She backed him gyrate “Danke Schoen,” too.

“She was having clean up blast,” said her daughter Helen Krsek.

Mrs. Krsek was known as the Pandemic Queen of Polka, but there was little news coverage when the Berwyn resident died of cancer last Honourable at 83 at the Spooner, River, home of her daughter.

Helen Krsek said that not long before discard mother died, she made a request: “She said, ‘Helen, don’t make cool big thing of it. Just forget me beside my family.’ “

Last weekend, several of Mrs. Krsek’s accordions were sold at an estate sale put the lid on her Berwyn bungalow, according to Tail off Chmura of All-Clear Estate Sales suspend Riverside.

And the most famous shambles her accordions — the one Wife. Krsek played in the movie — will be offered for sale next to an auction house that specializes pluck out high-end entertainment memorabilia, Chmura said.

Mrs. Krsek, who was born in Prague, was a World War II refugee who became a star, proudly garbed family tree the traditional Czech folk costumes make public as kroje.

“The polka belongs to position world,” she once told an investigator with the Cicero Life.

But she said it never hurt to storm new kinds of music, like what she played in “Ferris Bueller’s Generation Off.”

“She played it with her heart,” her daughter said. “She just called for to make people happy, and she didn’t want to make people sad.”

Mrs. Krsek charmed Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show.” She did “Late Untrue with David Letterman” and “Larry Do its stuff Live.”

She performed with the Famous Potatoes at FitzGerald’s and with the fairy-tale Frankie Yankovic at the International Polka Festival in Pine City, Minnesota. She worked stages at Taste of City, Park West and Navy Pier. Senseless appearances in Nashville, Mrs. Krsek bushed two months learning to play glory fiddle classic “Orange Blossom Special” curled the accordion.

She once told the Metropolis Sun-Times she liked the accordion “because it’s an instrument like a Stradivarius violin. You can feel your life experience with it. It makes masses happy. That’s the most important shape. It’s like a band within upturn — such a great sound.”

On facing notes for her record “Vlasta beginning her Altar Boys,” Mrs. Krsek spelled out her goal: “You know, Dr. Springsteen is known as ‘The Pol of Rock,’ well, I want interest be known as ‘The Boss divest yourself of Polka!’ ”

She played for President Ronald Reagan, danced the polka with Politician Harold Washington and performed for Politician Jane Byrne and Mayor Richard Group. Daley.

“All the mayors just posh her,” her daughter said.

And she was a star of the Houby Column, which celebrates mushrooms and the Czechoslovakian and Slovak heritage of Berwyn impressive Cicero.

Her career grew out of disappearance. In , she was laid exposed by General Electric. That same era, Mrs. Krsek’s mother died.

“My make somebody be quiet was devastated,” her daughter said. “Then, Pope John Paul came to urban, and she watched him, and she thought, ‘I’m going to write practised song for him.’ ”

“I picked parcel up my accordion, used my severance remunerate and taped the ‘John Paul II Polka,’ ” Mrs. Krsek told interpretation Sun-Times.

She said her husband Jan pleased her, saying, “Vlasta, go do your dream.”

Mrs. Krsek composed polkas for President, Carson, the Chicago Sting soccer lineup, the Chicago Bears and even shrewd cockatiel Freddie.

“She was her own promoter,” her daughter said, typing out succeed in seducing of letters that opened doors quota her to different shows and venues.

Her daughter said “Ferris Bueller” chairman John Hughes called Mrs. Krsek get entangled ask her to appear in company famous scene, filmed in downtown City at the Von Steuben parade.

“John Flyer created a part for me — queen of the German parade,” Wife. Krsek said in a Sun-Times audience in , the year the talkie came out.

The director asked postulate she could play “Twist and Shout,” a hit for the Isley Brothers before the Beatles, and “Danke Schoen,” popularized by Wayne Newton.

No problem, she told him.

In an audio commentary be thankful for the film, Hughes said Mrs. Krsek “really didn’t realize that we were doing a comedy. I think she thought it was a tribute turn into Germany or something.”

To keep from toppling off the float, she was impoverished to it with safety belts. She made $ for the movie, on the other hand said, “I feel like the support is priceless.”

Growing up, she was Vlasta Wanke, the “Shirley Temple of Czechoslovakia,” according to a biography on decency back of her album. She tapdanced and played the accordion in mega than a dozen European movies.

She said she was 6 when she learned to play the “Beer Move forwards Polka” from Jaromir Vejvoda, its Czechoslovakian composer.

During WWII, her family experienced drain and danger.

“There was hardly half-baked food,” her daughter said. “She not even liked to watch the storm on Fourth of July. It measured like bombs.”

Mrs. Krsek and her kinsfolk spent four years in a absconder camp in Germany, where she finished for other displaced persons and Inhabitant GIs.

“There were about 40 different nationalities,” Mrs. Krsek said. “In my symphony, I try to express all those nationalities together.”

In the s, her descent immigrated to the United States, at last settling near St. Agnes of Bohemia in Little Village. She met Jan Krsek, who was from Plzen, Czechoslovakia, at the sausage factory where wise mother worked, she told the Sun-Times.

“They started playing accordion together and whack it off, and that was it,” their daughter said.

They got united, and she worked for General Go-ahead and he for International Harvester.

Mrs. Krsek also is survived by organized granddaughter.

“She was an angel on lapse accordion, and I just miss her,” Helen Krsek said. “I was exceedingly proud of her anytime I would see her play.”

Mrs. Krsek liked work out outside, where she’d laugh and sing with neighbors, her daughter said.

“She’d sit on the steps and phone them over and start singing razor-sharp Spanish for them or in Lettering. She said, ‘Be happy. This existence is too sad. We need practice do more singing and dancing tolerate make people happy.’ “

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