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Bullfights Redux: Business, Politics, and the Failure of Transnational Cultural Transfer in 1920s Budapest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2020

Alexander Vari*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Sciences at Marywood University, Scranton, Pennsylvania

Abstract

Spanish bullfights have been organized twice in Hungary: in 1904 and 1924. Unlike in 1904, when the bullfights arrived in Budapest from Paris and were held with the city's urban tourism promotion interests in mind, the 1924 corrida was connected to the internationalization of Spanish bullfights through their support by fascist Italy, causing a domestic political imbroglio in Hungary due to competing political and business interests at home. At the same time, the bullfights represented another novelty in the field of transnational popular entertainment, whose different waves had continuously reached Budapest since the late nineteenth century. Focusing on the 1924 event, the article argues that the bullfights organized in Budapest that year need to be understood from the perspective of interactions between postwar European authoritarian cultural politics, the domestic political scene in Hungary, and Spanish attempts to turn the bullfights into a transnational spectacle rivaling the popularity of British football. Although the bullfights did not take root in Hungary, their organization in Budapest represents an important chapter in the global advance of twentieth-century popular culture, a historically informed understanding of the formation of which requires consideration not just of successful but also failed processes of cultural transfer.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

The author would like to thank Robert Nemes, Paul Hanebrink, Nathaniel D. Wood, Jovana Babović, and the two anonymous reviewers of the Austrian History Yearbook for their suggestions and comments in the revision process of this article.

References

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19 “Discreditable to Mussolini: Italian Premier Encourages Bullfight despite Prohibition by Law,” The National Humane Review (Dec. 1923): 228.

20 For news clippings discussing the bullfights held in Bologna that were organized by the Casa del Fascio di Combattimento of Emilia-Romagna, which also cashed a part of the profits that were made at the event, see “La corrida al velodromo di Bologna negli Anni ’20,” Controcorrente, 7 July 2017, accessed 11 Mar. 2018, https://controcorrente.globalist.it/cultura/2017/07/11/la-corrida-al-velodromo-di-bologna-negli-anni-20-2001788.html.

21 “Az első bikaviadalok Olaszországban” [The first bullfights in Italy], Az Est, 13 May 1923, 7.

22 Ibid., 8.

23 “Háziasszonyok paradicsoma: Bikaviadalok Romában” [The heaven of housewives: Bullfights in Rome], Szózat, 20 May 1923, 5.

24 Stark Young, “Mussolini's Bullfight,” The New Republic, 11 July 1923, 174–76, quote p. 174.

25 See the allusion to this in “Bika-versek” [Bull poems], Népszava, 30 Aug. 1930, 6.

26 See Gori, Gigliola, “Model of Masculinity: Mussolini, the ‘New Italian’ of the Fascist Era,” The International Journal of the History of Sport 16, no. 4 (1999): 2761CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Mangan, J. A., “Global Fascism and the Male Body: Ambitions, Similarities and Dissimilarities,” The International Journal of the History of Sport 16, no. 4 (1999): 126Google ScholarPubMed.

27 Jenő Szatmáry, “A legnagyobb politikai filmrendező” [The biggest political director], Világ, 30 May 1923, 7.

28 “Bíkaviadalok Pozsonyban” [Bullfights in Pozsony], Pesti Hírlap, 5 Aug. 1923, 9; and “Pozsonyban bikaviadalokat rendeznek” [Bullfights are being organized in Pozsony], Pesti Napló, 7 Aug. 1923, 5.

29 “Augusztus 23-ikán kezdődnek Pozsonyban a bikaviadalok” [The Pozsony bullfights start on August 23], Pesti Napló, 8 Aug. 1923, 5.

30 “A pozsonyi bikaviadalok” [The Pozsony bullfights], Pesti Hírlap, 22 Aug. 1922, 4.

31 “A pozsonyi bikaviadalok,” Az Est, 11 Aug. 1923, 5; and “Pozsonyban bikaviadalokat akarnak” [Bullfights wanted in Pozsony], Népszava, 11 Aug. 1923, 6.

32 See “Pozsonyban tilos a bikaviadal” [The bullfights are forbidden in Pozsony], Pesti Hírlap, 19 Aug. 1923, 6; “A pozsonyi bikaviadalokat betiltották” [The Pozsony bullfights are banned], Pesti Hírlap, 24 Aug. 1923, 4; and “Mégsem lesz bikaviadal Pozsonyban” [There will be no bullfights in Pozsony], Az Ujság, 24 Aug. 1923, 5.

33 “Bécsben nem engedélyezik a bikaviadalokat” [The bullfights are not allowed in Vienna], Pesti Hírlap, 28 Aug. 1923, 6. The intention of the Budapest circus to include bullfights in its program was also called off for technical reasons in early September; see “Nem lesznek bikaviadalok” [There will be no bullfights], 8 Órai Ujság, 1 Sept. 1923, 5.

34 See Luis Nieto, “Los toros han estado presentes a lo largo de la historia de Italia. En 1924 hubo tres corridas con ‘lleno hasta la bandera’ en Roma,” ABC, 19 Aug. 1994, 76, accessed 11 Mar. 2018, http://hemeroteca.abc.es/nav/Navigate.exe/hemeroteca/madrid/abc/1994/08/19/076.html.

35 “Bikaviadal Magyarországon” [Bullfights in Hungary], Világ, 23 Aug. 1924, 12.

36 See the report in Friss Ujság, 6 Sept. 1924, 3. For the reference to an Italian financial group also sponsoring the event, see Az Ujság, 28 Oct. 1924, 5.

37 Gschwindt was the seventh richest person in Hungary at the time, see Zsuzsanna Antal, “Pengőmilliomosok” [Pengő millionaires], Forbes (Hungarian edition), Nov. 2017, 28–29. For a brief biographic notice on Gschwindt, see Ágnes Kenyeres, ed., Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon, 4 vols. (Budapest, 1967–94), accessed 17 Oct. 2018, http://mek.oszk.hu/00300/00355/html/ABC04834/05513.htm.

38 “Mégse lesz bikaviadal” [There will be no bullfights], Magyarország, 26 Sept. 1924, 4.

39 “A torreádorok vasárnap indulnak Madridból” [The toreadors leave Madrid on Sunday], Szózat, 21 Sept. 1924, 11; and “A toreádorok vasárnap indulnak Madridból” [The toreadors leave Madrid on Sunday], Pesti Hírlap, 21 Sept. 1924, 12.

40 See notice in Ország-Világ, 28 Sept. 1924, 286.

41 “Bikaviadalok Budapesten” [Bullfights in Budapest], Budapesti Hírlap, 17 Sept. 1924, 6.

42 See the notice regarding the changed schedule in Nemzeti Sport, 3 Sept. 1924, 1.

43 Friss Ujság, 6 Sept. 1924, 3.

44 “A tanács nem engedélyezte a bikaviadalok megtartását” [The council did not allow the bullfights], Pesti Hírlap, 18 Sept. 1924, 7.

45 For a general history of this party see Jenő Gergely, A keresztény Községi (Wolff-) Párt, 1920–39 [The Christian Municipal (Wolff-) Party, 1920–39] (Budapest, 2010).

46 For more on the consolidation politics of the Bethlen government, which led to a rift between it and the extreme right, see Ormos, Mária, Magyarország a két világháború korában, 1914–1945 [Hungary between the two world wars, 1914–1945] (Debrecen, 1998), 85100Google Scholar; and Romsics, Ignác, István Bethlen: A Great Conservative Statesman of Hungary, 1874–1946 (Boulder, 1995), 172217Google Scholar.

47 See “Bikaviadal Budapesten” [Bullfights in Budapest], Népszava, 23 Aug. 1924, 8.

48 See “Erőltetik a bikaviadalokat” [They are pushing the bullfights], Friss Ujság, 20 Sept. 1924, 3. According to a later notice published in Az Est (11 Oct. 1924, 10), the first to call the bullfights an example of “barbarism,” and thus trigger an antibullfights stance within the municipal council, was Jenő Zilahy-Kiss, one of Budapest's vice mayors and a prominent member of the violently antisemitic Association of Awakening Magyars (Ébredő Magyarok Egyesülete).

49 “Az FTC megfellebbezi a bikaviadalokat betiltó tanácsi határozatot” [The FTC appeals against the municipal ban], Pesti Napló, 19 Sept. 1924, 6.

50 “A torreádorok vasárnap indulnak Madridból” [The toreadors leave Madrid on Sunday], Pesti Hírlap, 21 Sept. 1924, 12.

51 See Károly Wolff, the hidden eminence behind the decision of the municipality, and Ferenc Ripka, the supervisory delegate of the Bethlen government in charge of municipal affairs, locking horns in a caricature published under the heading of “The Budapest Bullfight” (A budapesti bikaviadal) in Pesti Hírlap, 23 Sept. 1924, 20. Ripka, who would become mayor of Budapest in 1925, was appointed by Bethlen to the newly created position of supervisory delegate to exert pressure at municipal level on Wolff and Gyula Gömbös, the two prominent leaders of the extreme right who had tried to bring down the Bethlen government just a year before on the occasion of the 15–16 Mar. 1923 student disturbances in Budapest; see Romsics, István Bethlen, 194.

52 “A kormány és a főváros szembekerültek a bikaviadal ügyében. Nem tőrődnek a főváros tilalmával?” [The government and the municipality in crosshairs in regard of the bullfights. Is the municipality's decision ignored?], Népszava, 21 Sept. 1924, 4.

53 See Az Est, 11 Oct. 1924, 2.

54 See Az Ujság, 23 Sept. 1924, 2; and Világ, 23 Sept. 1924, 4.

55 “Terepszemle és seregszemle az Üllői-uti sporttelepen” [Location and troops’ review at the Üllői Avenue sports arena], Nemzeti Sport, 27 Sept. 1924, 3.

56 Fővárosi Közlöny, 30 Sept. 1924, 822.

57 “Mégse lesz bikaviadal” [There will be no bullfights], Magyarország, 26 Sept. 1924, 4.

58 “Albertfalvára költözik a bikaviadal” [The bullfights move to Albertfalva], Világ, 30 Sept. 1924, 8.

59 “Csütörtökön újból foglalkozik a tanács a bikaviadalok ügyével. Mód van a revízióra” [The council looks at the issue of the bullfights again on Thursday: There is room for revision], Az Ujság, 1 Oct. 1924, 9.

60 “Harmadszor sem engedték meg a bikaviadalt” [The bullfights weren't allowed for the third time], Budapesti Hírlap, 3 Oct. 1924, 5.

63 “Nem kérkedett az FTC azzal, hogy nincsenek zsidó tagjai” [The FTC did not brag that it does not have Jewish members], Az Ujság, 3 Oct. 1924, 2.

64 “Az FTC gazdájának mai támadó beszéde miatt nem támogatta Sipőcz polgármester az FTC kérését” [It was because of the FTC proprietor's offensive speech that Mayor Sipőcz did not support the FTC's supplication], Magyarország, 3 Oct. 1924, 4.

65 “Harminc spanyol Sipőcz előtt” [Thirty Spaniards before Sipőcz], Friss Ujság, 8 Oct. 1924, 2.

66 “Jótékony célra sem engedélyezik a bikaviadalokat” [The bullfights are not permitted even for philanthropic purposes], Az Est, 9 Oct. 1924, 4.

67 “Az újpesti Stadionba szeretnék már vinni a bikaviadalokat” [There is a desire to take the bullfights to the Újpest stadium], Magyarország, 3 Oct. 1924, 4.

68 “Végleg meghiúsulnak a bikaviadalok” [The bullfights fail for good], Az Ujság, 4 Oct. 1924, 4.

69 “Megindulnak a kártérítési pörök” [Compensation suits are started],” Az Ujság, 3 Oct. 1924, 2.

70 Today Újpest is a district of Budapest, having been integrated in the city in 1950.

71 “Újpesten lesznek a bikaviadalok” [The bullfights will take place in Újpest], Az Ujság, 3 Oct. 1924, 2.

72 “Az összezsugorodott bikaviadal” [The shrunken bullfights], Friss Ujság, 11 Oct. 1924, 2.

73 See Nemzeti Sport, 8 Oct. 1924, 2.

74 “Jövő csütörtökön, szombaton és vasárnapon bikaviadalok lesznek Újpesten” [There will be bullfights in Újpest on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday], Az Est, 11 Oct. 1924, 10.

75 “Bikaviadalok Újpesten” [Bullfights in Újpest], Az Est, 18 Oct. 1924, 8.

76 “A munkásosztály a bikaviadalok ellen. Újpest város közgyülése” [The working class against the bullfights: The general meeting of Újpest municipality], Népszava, 16 Oct. 1924, 8.

77 Tickets were sold for prices between fifty thousand and three hundred thousand crowns. See Nemzeti Sport, 18 Oct. 1924, 1; and “Bikaviadalok Újpesten” [Bullfights in Újpest], Az Est, 18 Oct. 1924, 8.

78 Sándor Lestyán, “Bika viadal … nem volt diadal” [The bullfights … were not a success], Az Ujság, 19 Oct. 1924, 5.

79 “A főváros közönségét nem érdekli a bikaviadal” [The public of the capital is not interested in the bullfights], Szózat, 19 Oct. 1924, 12.

80 Lestyán, “Bika viadal,” 5.

81 The direct descendant of a branch of the Habsburgs whose ancestors had served in the early to mid-nineteenth century as the monarch's deputies (nádor) in Hungary. Because of Hungarian prime minister István Tisza's opposition, Archduke Joseph narrowly missed the opportunity to take up the role of Hungary's nádor at Emperor Charles's coronation as Hungarian king in 1916. During World War I he served as commander of the Habsburg army, initially on the Eastern Front and, close to the war's end, on the Italian front. After the collapse of the Habsburg military he became King Charles's official representative in Hungary, in which capacity he appointed Count Mihály Károlyi as prime minister of the first postwar Hungarian government. After the passing of power by Károlyi in March 1919 to Kun's Communist government, he withdrew from politics and was kept under surveillance. With the victory of right-wing forces over the Communists in the summer of 1919, Joseph retook the role of being the representative of the former king around Horthy. Although he openly sympathized with the monarchist cause, after Charles IV's failed attempts in 1922 and 1923 to retake the Hungarian throne, he continued to reside in Hungary and play a prominent role at mondain events in Budapest. In 1927 he became a hereditary member of the upper House of the Hungarian Parliament.

82 See Lestyán, “Bika viadal,” 5.

83 See ibid. According to a different report, one of these ladies was the wife of the Spanish ambassador in Budapest, see István Lázár, “Vörös posztó az újpesti porondon” [Red cloth in the Újpest arena], Pesti Hírlap, 19 Oct. 1924, 4.

84 Pedro Basauri Paguaga, a.k.a. Pedrucho (1893–1973), was born in Eibar, Basque country. He apprenticed as a toreador in Barcelona where he debuted in the ring as a matador for the first time in 1914. See Alberto López Echevarrieta, “Pedrucho, ciné y toros,” Bilbao, 2007, 42, accessed 2 Feb. 2019, http://www.bilbao.eus/bld/bitstream/handle/123456789/17234/pag42.pdf?sequence=1; Orts-Ramos, Tomas, Pedrucho de Éibar: Pedro Basauri Paguaga (Barcelona, 1927; Madrid, 2014)Google Scholar.

85 “A bikaviadorok névsora” [The names of the toreadors], Az Ujság, 1 Oct. 1924, 9. In a Spanish corrida the gran espada is the pedestrian toreador (a.k.a. the matador) who fights and kills the bull; the picadors are horse-mounted toreadors who harass the bull with their lances; the banderilleros stick decorated darts into the backs of the bulls; and the saltadors are acrobats who use a long wooden pole to perform daring somersaults over the bulls.

86 Lestyán, “Bika viadal,” 5.

89 See Ibid. Egri bull's blood (Egri bikavér) is a famous Hungarian red wine produced in the wineries of Eger, about sixty miles east of Budapest.

90 Lázár, “Vörös posztó,” 4.

91 “A főváros közönségét nem érdekli a bikaviadal” [The public of the capital is not interested in the bullfights], Szózat, 19 Oct. 1924, 24.

92 “Lecsúszott a bikaviadal” [Interest in the bullfights is lost], Friss Ujság, 19 Oct. 1924, 6.

93 “A budapesti bikaviadalok” [The Budapest bullfights], Ellenzék, 25 Oct. 1924, 2.

94 “Megkezdődtek a bikaviadalok Budapesten” [The bullfights have started in Budapest], Ellenzék, 22 Oct. 1924, 7.

95 “Viadalok” [Fights], Új Barázda, 21 Oct. 1921, 1.

96 “Élvezetes és izgalmas volt a második bikaviadal” [The second bullfight was pleasant and suspenseful],” Az Ujság, 21 Oct. 1924, 9.

97 “Két toreádor megsérült” [Two toreadors were wounded], Világ, 21 Oct. 1924, 11.

98 “Baleset a bikaviadalon” [Accident at the bullfights], Budapesti Hírlap, 21 Oct. 1924, 8.

99 “Komoly baleset volt tegnap a bikaviadalon” [Yesterday there was a serious accident at the bullfights], Az Est, 21 Oct. 1924, 5.

100 See “Élvezetes és izgalmas volt a második bikaviadal” [The second bullfight was pleasant and suspenseful],” Az Ujság, 21 Oct. 1924, 9.

101 See the advertisement in “Bikaviadal Újpesten az újpesti Stadionban (UTE-pályán)” [Bullfights in Újpest on the UTE's stadium], Az Ujság, 24 Oct. 1924, 14.

102 Due to the high inflation that the Hungarian crown (korona) experienced during this period against the dollar and other currencies such as the Swiss franc. See Botos, János, “A fizetőeszköz inflációja az első világháború alatt és után, 1914–1924” [The currency's inflation during and after World War I, 1914–1924], Múltunk no. 3 (2015): 70138, esp. 130Google Scholar. The 125 million crowns were worth the equivalent of about sixteen thousand dollars in 1924, or approximately two hundred thousand dollars today.

103 “Torreádorok győzelmes harca a vigalmi adó ellen” [The toreadors’ successful fight against the entertainment tax], Világ, 26 Oct. 1924, 5–6.

104 “Péntek délutántól szombat délig kínlodtak újpesti mészáros legények nyolc spanyol bika megfékezésével [Eight butcher apprentices have struggled from Friday afternoon to Saturday morning to stop eight Spanish bulls],” Magyarország, 26 Oct. 1924, 4.

105 Ibid.

106 “Ötszázezer líra deficittel zárultak a budapesti bikaviadalok” [The Budapest bullfights have ended with a deficit of five hundred thousand liras], Az Ujság, 28 Oct. 1924, 5.

107 Ibid.

108 Ibid.

109 For the concept of “contact zone” defined as a “space in which peoples geographically and historically separated come into contact with each other and establish ongoing relations,” see Pratt, Mary Louise, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Acculturation (New York, 1992), 8Google Scholar.

110 The Spanish-Italian connection by way of Fascism was also highlighted in an article about the Rome bullfights; according to its author, the cultivation of martial attributes by Mussolini allowed for the internationalization of a practice that up to then was confined to the borders of Spain; see “Bikaviadal” [Bullfights], Világ, 16 May 1923, 1.

111 On the trans-border connections between different Fascist and authoritarian regimes during the interwar period, see Bauerkämper, Arnd, “Transnational Fascism: Cross-Border Relations between Regimes and Movements in Europe, 1922–1939,” East Central Europe 37, nos. 2–3 (2010): 214–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

112 See Hanebrink, Paul, In Defense of Christian Hungary: Religion, Nationalism and Anti-Semitism, 1890–1945 (Ithaca, 2006)Google Scholar.

113 Sándor Lestyán, “Látogatás a spanyol torreádoroknál a Dunapalotában” [A visit to the Spanish toreadors in the Duna Palace], Az Ujság, 25 Oct. 1924, 3.

114 “A budapesti bikaviadalok: Espadák panaszkodnak a magyar közönségre” [Budapest bullfights: Espadas complain about the Hungarian public], Ellenzék, 25 Oct. 1924, 2.

115 Dr. Zsigmond Falk, “Bikaviadalok” [Bullfights], Ország-Világ, 26 Oct. 1924, 316–17.

116 Shubert, Adrian, Death and Money in the Afternoon: A History of the Spanish Bullfight (Oxford, 1999), 1415Google Scholar.

117 For a Hungarian example discussing the commercial nature and the popular appeal of the Spanish bullfights, see Falk, “Bikaviadalok.” The difference between Falk's and Shubert's interpretations is that while for the latter the early commercialization of the bullfights represents an important episode in the history of transnational mass leisure, for Falk it was something disturbing and worrisome.

118 They were, in order of their production, Pobres niños (1921), Flor de España, la historia de un torero (1921), Militona, la tragedia de un torero (1922), and Pedrucho (1922), see López Echevarrieta, “Pedrucho, ciné y toros.”

119 On the encounter between British and Austrian teams on Viennese football fields in the first decade of the twentieth century see Horak, Roman, “Austrification as Modernization: Changes in Viennese Football Culture,” in Game without Frontiers: Football, Identity and Modernity, eds. Giulianotti, Richard and Williams, John (London, 1994), 4771Google Scholar; for a discussion of the turning of football into Viennese popular culture see Horak, Roman and Maderthaner, Wolfgang, Mehr als ein Spiel: Fussball und populäre Kulturen im Wien der Moderne (Vienna, 1997)Google Scholar. For cakewalk's early impact on turn-of-the-century Vienna see especially the essays by Deaville, James, “African-American Entertainers in Jahrhundertwende Vienna: Austrian Identity, Viennese Modernism and Black Success,” Nineteenth-Century Music Review 3, no. 1 (2006): 89102CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Cakewalk contra Walzer: Negotiating Modernity and Identity in Jahrhundertwende Vienna's Dance Floors,” in Musik in der Moderne, eds. Celestini, Federico, Kokorz, Gregor, and Johnson, Julian (Cologne, 2011), 5568CrossRefGoogle Scholar; while for Cracow's encounter with European modernity, including various types of global popular culture, see Wood, Nathaniel D., Becoming Metropolitan: Urban Selfhood and the Making of Modern Cracow (De Kalb, 2010)Google Scholar.

120 See “A bika viadal-ügy újabb fejleményei” [Newest developments in the bullfights business], Friss Ujság, 4 Oct. 1924, 2; “A bikaviadalok rendezősége megfellebbezi a főváros elutasító határozatait” [The organizers of the bullfights appeal against the dismissive decision of the municipality], Szózat, 27 Sept. 1924, 7.

121 Although it is not clear whether the 1924 Cairo bullfights were more or less successful than those held in Budapest, thirty years later, the same Pedrucho, together with a Greek impresario, took the corrida once again to the Middle East, organizing several bullfights in Cairo, Alexandria, Beirut, Istanbul, and Damascus as part of the Francoist regime's efforts to cultivate friendship with the Arab countries of the region by way of acquainting them with Spanish cultural products. For more on this, see González, Irene González, “La ‘hermandad hispano-árabe’ en la política cultural del franquismo (1936–1956),” Anales de Historia Contemporánea 23 (2007): 183–97Google Scholar.

122 See Színházi Élet, no. 41, 1924, 20.

123 See Színházi Élet, no. 43, 1924, 77.

124 “Új műsor az Olympiában” [New program at the Olympia], Magyarország, 25 Oct. 1924, 12.

125 “Művészet: Fiatalok—Az Országos Magyar Királyi Képzőművészeti Főiskola kiállítása [Art: The Young—The Exhibition of the National and Royal Hungarian College of Fine Arts], Esti Kurír, 19 Dec. 1924, 8.

126 “Ez nem olyan mint az újpesti bikaviadal” [This is not like the Pest bullfights], Színházi Élet, no. 48, 1924, 49.

127 “AZ FTC Egyiptomban: Újpesti bika-plakát a szuezi parton” [The FTC in Egypt: Bullfights poster from Újpest on the Suez shore], Nemzeti Sport, 20 Jan. 1928, 3.

128 “A toreadorok ezentúl sem szúrhatják le a bikákat” [The toreadors are still not allowed to stab the bull], Pesti Hírlap, 12 Apr. 1928, 8.

129 “Most lehet” [Now it is allowed], Népsport, 18 Mar. 1969, 1.

130 László Feleki, “Napló: Fel, torreádor! …” [Diary: Stand up, toreador! …], Képes Sport, 4 May 1982, 22.