Was the life of the writer of the Hungarian suicide song sad?

370,00 dollars awaited Rezső Seress in the United States, but he chose instead to remain in Hungary and finally, he choked himself to death with a wire.

Rezső Seress was born on November 3, 1889, in a poor family of Jewish origins. He finished his studies early and wanted to become an acrobat, but he suffered an accident. Therefore, he became an actor, but after WWI nobody had money to watch plays in the theatres. However, since for Hungary it was forbidden to produce vinyl records and only a few had radio receivers those days

many went to listen to live music in small pubs.

It did not take long until almost everybody crooned his songs in Budapest. You can listen to one of his hits below:

He married the daughter of a wealthy military officer who was regarded to be the most beautiful woman in Budapest, and who was much taller than him. At the same time, his songs were full of melancholy and disappointment, and this made him very popular.

Songs came one after the other even though

he could not even read music

so he asked a graduate from the Music Academy to help him write down what he was whistling. Interestingly, the song that brought him world-wide fame was not completely his own work. Originally, its title was The world is ending, and it was about the despair caused by the ending of the war in prayer, about the sins of people. However, poet László Jávor rewrote its lyric and changed its title to “Gloomy Sunday” in which the main protagonist commits suicide because his lover died.

At first,

it seemed that it would be forgotten in no time.

However, a maidservant committed suicide and police found the lyrics of the Gloomy Sunday in her hands. Later, a ministerial advisor shot himself dead in a car, and the police found the lyrics of the song in his hands, too. Budapest gossip tells even today that László Jávor, who had very good connections to the police, arranged that the two suicide committers