POST 37: PETER & ILONA MULLER-MUNK’S GREEK SPONSOR CHILD

Note:  This post details how the family of a Greek girl who my Aunt Susanne’s stepson and his wife, Peter & Ilona Muller-Munk, sponsored through the “Save the Children Federation” in the 1950’s and 1960’s contacted me through my Blog.

When I launched my family history Blog in April 2017, I expressed hope that in addition to acquiring and passing on information about historical events my family lived through, I might also learn about other people to whom I’m related or people who met or were influenced by family members.  This post is the story of such an encounter.

For readers who are new or infrequent visitors to my Blog, let me review and provide some brief context that was included or alluded to in Post 22.  My Aunt Susanne Müller née Bruck was the second wife of Dr. Franz Müller, who was 33 years her elder.  By his first marriage to Gertrud Munk, my Uncle Franz had two children, Peter Muller-Munk, born on June 25, 1904, and Margit Mombert née Müller-Munk, born on September 23, 1908; my aunt was born on April 20, 1904, so was close in age to her two step-children.

Peter Muller-Munk (Figure 1) has been described as a “brilliant silversmith and a pioneering industrial designer and educator.”  He studied as a silversmith at the University of Berlin and came to America in 1926.  He worked briefly from 1926 to 1928 as a silversmith for Tiffany & Co. in New York City, before opening his own metalworking studio in Greenwich Village with the financial help of his father.  He moved to Pittsburgh in 1935, to accept a teaching job at the Carnegie Institute of Technology as assistant professor in the first American university B.A. program in industrial design.  In 1938, he opened his first consulting office in Pittsburgh, and by 1944 resigned from Carnegie Tech to form Peter Muller-Munk Associates (PMMA).

PMMA’s work touched on virtually all aspects of industrial design and was especially influential in the realm of consumer goods.  Peter Muller-Munk designed compacts, hand mirrors, hedge shears, steam irons, thermostats, valves, hearing aids, gas pumps (Figure 2), refrigerators, cooking utensils, heavy machinery, ballpoint pens, lathes, soup vending machines, airplane interiors, and much more.  In 1959 he won one of the first ALCOA industrial design awards.  Notably, U.S. Steel hired PMMA to work on the general aesthetic design of the Unisphere, the centerpiece of the 1964 New York World’s Fair. (Figures 3a-b) Peter Muller-Munk’s most famous piece was his 1935 Art Deco Normandie pitcher, named after the French ocean liner SS Normandie that launched that year and designed after the liner’s prow.  This iconic work was even featured on an American postage stamp released in 2010. (Figure 4)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a curious aside, Peter Muller-Munk paid to have the umlaut in his surname removed.  For this reason, in this post, his father and sister’s names have an umlaut but Peter’s does not.

Peter got married to Ilona Marion Loewenthal Tallmer in October 1934. (Figure 5)  Their relationship was deemed scandalous because when Ilona got involved with Peter, she was still married to Albert F. Tallmer and was the mother of two young sons, Jerry and Jonathan.  Albert and Ilona’s divorce was exceedingly bitter and resulted in Albert being awarded sole custody of the children over their “adulterous” mother.  As an interesting aside, Albert Tallmer’s paternal grandfather, William Thalhimer, founded the Thalhimer’s department store in Richmond, Virginia in 1842, an esteemed chain that at its peak operated dozens of stores in the southern United States.

For a comprehensive biography of Peter and Ilona’s professional and personal life, readers are directed to the very readable book entitled “Silver to Steel: The Modern Designs of Peter Muller-Munk” by Rachel Delphia and Jewel Stern.  Sadly, Ilona Muller-Munk committed suicide on February 12, 1967 for reasons that are unclear.  Devastated by his wife’s death, Peter also committed suicide about a month later, on March 13, 1967. (Figure 6)

In June of this year, I received an interesting email from Mr. Anthony Karabetsos, a gentleman living in Sydney, Australia.  Anthony had found mention of Peter Muller-Munk in my Blog.  Unbeknownst to me, Peter and Ilona had been sponsor parents through the “Save the Children Federation,” and had sponsored and regularly visited Anthony’s mother, Polytimi “Poly” Ratta (also spelled “Rattas”), in Greece during the 1950’s and 1960’s.  Poly had never known Peter and Ilona’s surname, and only recently rediscovered a letter Peter had written to her on February 21, 1967 (Figure 7); having found Peter and Ilona’s surname on this letter, Poly and her family began looking for any of their descendants to thank them personally for their influence on her choice of career in the fashion industry, which has spanned 50 years. 

As readers can see, the letter Peter wrote to Poly, which the family graciously copied for me, was written only nine days after Ilona’s suicide and several weeks before Peter took his own life; the letter, perhaps because it is only two sentences long, poignantly captures the pain he is feeling.

In addition to sending me a copy of the letter, Anthony also sent me copies of pictures showing Peter and Ilona vacationing in Greece and with Poly.  With the family’s permission, I attach a few of these images below.

It was clear from Anthony’s initial email, that his mother had lost touch with Peter following Ilona’s death, so I sadly informed them Peter had himself committed suicide only weeks later.  Since Peter and Ilona had no children together, I referred Anthony and Poly to Ms. Jewel Stern, the researcher from Coral Gables, Florida, who has studied and written extensively about Peter Muller-Munk.  Ms. Stern eventually referred the family to Ms. Rachel Delphia, Jewel’s co-author on the book about Peter.  I also told Anthony about Ilona’s children by her first marriage, though I already knew both her sons, Jerry and Jonathan Tallmer, were deceased.  Jerry Tallmer (Figure 8), as it turns out, was a renowned critic of “The Village Voice” in its early days, and, later, the New York Post drama critic; interestingly, Jerry was the creator of the award for Off Broadway theater, the Obie.  Jerry greatly respected Peter Muller-Munk, considered him his stepfather, and wrote glowingly about him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In time I learned more about Poly’s relationship with Peter and Ilona Muller-Munk and their influence on her choice of career.  Poly’s father’s best friend knew about the “Save the Children Federation,” and suggested she apply.  She first met Peter at about age 8, when he came on his own to Greece during Easter.  For the occasion, Peter wanted to buy Poly a present and she choose a small chocolate Easter egg.  Wanting to get her something more, he bought her a red dress and new shoes (Figures 9a-b), and took her to lunch at the hotel he was staying at.  It was perhaps around this time that Peter and Ilona offered to adopt Poly, thinking that her widowed mother was struggling raising four young children, but Poly’s mother demurred.  Peter and Ilona visited together in 1963 (Figures 10, 11 & 12) with one of Ilona’s grandchildren, Mary Ellen (the family has asked me to refrain from posting any pictures of Mary Ellen), when Poly was 16 or 17 and the two immediately bonded.

 

 

 

 

 

Peter had wanted Poly to finish her education, but after watching her own sister obtain a nursing degree and then not be permitted to work as a nurse because of her short height, Poly instead decided to work in the garment industry which was flourishing in Greece at the time.  When Poly mentioned to Peter and Ilona (Figure 13) wanting to get into the fashion industry, they were so excited they paid for her to learn to become a pattern maker.  Eventually she became a qualified patternmaker, and after marrying her husband in 1967 and moving to Australia for a better life, they created a huge clothing manufacturing business in Australia that at one time employed 200 machinists.  They had their own label, called Backstage Clothing, and, at one point, even manufactured denim for the Australian branches of Levis and Wrangler.

During our email exchanges, I suggested to Anthony he might want to purchase the book that Rachel Delphia and Jewel Stern wrote about Peter Muller-Munk.  This book was published in 2015 to coincide with the opening of a special exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh in 2015 commemorating Peter Muller-Munk’s career and showcasing some of his innovative works.  And, in fact Anthony gave his mother this book on her birthday this year! (Figure 14)

 

But the story does not end here.  Anthony asked for help in tracking down any of Ilona’s descendants by her first marriage to Albert Tallmer.  Anthony did an Internet query and found siblings Matthew and Abby Tallmer, who I would later learn were the twin children of Jerry Tallmer, Ilona Muller-Munk’s son.  Aware of Jerry’s connection to New York City, I started looking there for phone numbers.  I was unable to find a listing for either Matthew or Abby in New York City, although Directory Assistance gave me the names of the only two Tallmers listed in Manhattan.  Clearly not a common surname, I obtained numbers for both.  The second person I spoke with, Jill Tallmer, turns out to be the granddaughter of Ilona Muller-Munk, or “Noni,” as she was known to the family, and the younger sister of the Mary Ellen who met Poly in 1963.  Success!

Curious as to who I am and why I was calling, Jill even mistook me at one point for a lawyer.  Still, after a series of back-and-forths, I eventually established my bona fides.  Jill, it turns out, knew the name Poly Ratta(s), and told me about when her recently-deceased sister, Mary Ellen, was taken in 1963 on vacation by Peter and Ilona Muller-Munk to Greece and met Poly; later, they apparently became pen pals.  Some of the photos Anthony Karabestsos had sent after first contacting me, taken in 1963, show Poly and Mary together.  Jill went through her own family’s photos and discovered additional images of Poly and her family, taken in Agia Varvara (Figures 15-16), a western suburb of Athens. (Poly’s family originally hails from  Valtesinikon, Arkadhia, Peloponnisos, Greece.) Anthony and Poly were naturally thrilled when I passed along what I’d discovered, and immediately established phone contact with Jill Tallmer; they even have tentative plans to meet in person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beyond the satisfaction of having brought together families through my Blog who’d long ago lost touch, I also got access to photos of a few objects that Jill and her family own designed by my Aunt Susanne’s stepson, Peter Muller-Munk.  These include a goblet with family names and dates (Figure 17), as well as a spectacular ring with a wolf’s head. (Figure 18) The names on the goblet were all familiar ones, and include those of my Uncle Dr. Franz Müller, his daughter Margit Mombert née Müller-Munk and her husband, Franz Mombert, who will be the subject of a future Blog post.

 

REFERENCE

Delphia, Rachel and Jewel Stern

2015    Silver to Steel: The Modern Designs of Peter Muller-Munk.  Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.