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Visitors since Oct. 17, 1999 |
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Revised on Sept. 9, 2011 |
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Return to Healing (book review) CLICK Opinion: Letters & Blog CLICK here Links to Mike's Pages CLICK here "Fuehrer" by Spike Jones CLICK (mp3) |
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classic animation from 1920s, and stories from Disney's |
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| Leonard Maltin wrote to us: "I had a wonderful correspondence with [Dick] in the late 1970s when I was working on my book, Of Mice and Magic. He couldn't have been more generous with his time, and he even drew me a fabulous Koko the Clown, which I will always treasure." |
Welcome!
The Huemer family in America (our branch of it, anyhow) was founded by Martin Huemer and his wife Jenny Leikis, who immigrated here from from Germany in the late 1800s. They had four children: Elsie, Hilda (who died young), Richard Martin, and Peggy. Richard Martin, a noted cartoonist, had three sons with his wife Polly (daughter of Peter Prevosto and Marie Bonnenfant Prevosto): Richard Peter, David Alexander, and Allen Anthony. After that the family tree got more complicated, so we recommend you hit the genealogy button at left if you want details.
We've Goofed, Big Time
We are indebted to Toni Huemer, an editor and writer at Sportwoche, for pointing this out: "The argument by a Huemer on your homepage that the name Huemer derives from a farm on a hill or a mountain, can be rebutted easily, as [the area shown on the map] is one of the flattest areas in Austria altogether. There are no Huemers in the [Alpine] regions..."
| We are further grateful to him for giving us the map of Upper Austria (which we enhanced a bit), and providing the following explanation: "The word Huemer derives from the word Hube. Hube was the word for a small farm which only [sufficed] to feed one family. About 300 years ago, [when] surnames were introduced... people who were living at Hubes were simply called Hubers... In this very specific region that you marked on your map, a certain dialect is spoken, where a Hube (pronounced in English: "hoob") becomes a "Huam" (in English: "hooam")... It was up to the [local] | 
Click the map to enlarge it |
priest to choose the spelling for this oral pronunciation: Some went for Huber, some for Humer, some for Hummer, some for Huebmer, and most for HUEMER. [Oddly], it could happen that a Hummer could be a relative of a Huemer, but two Huemers [might] not be... I would estimate that about 60 percent of all Huemers live in this small area; all the rest moved to other parts of the countries for professional reasons, marriage,or university." So now we know. Oh, Toni also told us that "HWAYmer" and "HooEMmer" are acceptable pronunciation in Austria, and not "HEWmer" as we say in the US. (See description of Toni's new book in BOOKS section.)
Even More About Huemers
In response to the above, Thomas Huemer from Schwarzach im Pongau writes, in part: "There ARE Huemers in the Alpine regions. I live in...a little village in the Alps. There are also Huemers in Tyrol, Vorarlberg, Salzburg Land, Styria, Lower Austria...Surnames with -huemer at the end: Oberhuemer, Mitterhuemer, Unterhuemer, Moertenhuemer, Pfaffenhuemer, Niederhuemer, Muckenhuemer, Brunhuemer and Huemerlehner." (This has induced us to revise our map a little, stretching the yellow area farther to the south.)
Dick Huemer's Murals Saved from Wrecking Ball
A developer acquired the old Huemer house in Valley
Village and began demolishing it. ASIFA-Hollywood hastily organized a
crew of volunteers who rescued the murals that Dick Huemer had painted
for his children in 1935. Here's the result on 11/21/04:
Source: asifa-hollywood.org |
The volunteers included Sivert Glarum, Ethan Reiff,
Angelo di Nallo, Jon Reeves, Bill Caterbury, Mike Hudson, Becky Hudson,
Garland Fybel, Dan Fybel, Tony Gama-Lobo, Rebecca May, David Jackson,
and Scott Nimerfro. ASIFA blogger Larry Loc wrote, "I want to add my thanks to these heroes of Animation History who came out at the last minute on a Sunday morning and helped save the Dick Huemer murals. My hat is off to you. Thank you so much." We also doff our headgear in gratitude. We'd expected the old house to become home to many families in the coming years. But now, the murals will delight many more folks than they otherwise would have. |
Read Huemer Books (click on one):
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© 1999-2011 by Richard P. Huemer. Original works on this site bear author's copyright. Previously published works may bear other copyrights. Permission is granted for "fair use" copying only of original Huemer works. "Fair-use" copies must not be sold for profit and must in all cases bear authors' names. |