Part 62
From time to time with these blogs, I’ve mentioned my wife Hero but have not really written anything about her. It’s about time I did; so, here we go!
Hero Falas was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, of Greek Cypriot parents. Her father Dr. Zacharias Falas was born in the village of Rizokarpaso, Cyprus. He was academically gifted and eventually went to a university in Vienna where he obtained a Doctorate in Industrial Chemistry. He then emigrated to South Africa where he was involved in the production of yeast. He met his wife Athena, who was born in Johannesburg of Cypriot parents. Her father, affectionately known as Bapou (grandfather) is worth an entire book on his own. In brief, after some incredible adventures as a young boy, at 16 he took a ship to San Francisco in the US where he set up a business on a trolley that sold coffee and doughnuts that he called “Cafe de Move-on.”
Later, one of San Francisco’s disastrous earthquakes and fires destroyed his first assets. He set off to Africa, worked in Ethiopia and in the Congo, finally ending up in Johannesburg, South Africa. He started his Cafe de Move-on again in the streets of the bustling mining town. He later set up a chain of corner cafes, which were actually grocery stores that also sold coffees. He made a lot of money and, for some unknown reason, his hatred of the British led him to join the Boers in the fight against the British Imperialists. He also made generous contributions to Paul Kruger, President of the Transvaal Republic, who was the leader of the Afrikaner’s efforts to prevent the Brits from taking all the diamond and gold wealth out of the country.
Bapou was captured by the British troops. He was interrogated by another Greek Cypriot who sided with the British. Cypriots at the time carried British passports and were considered to be British. Therefore, Bapou was in very real danger of being executed as a traitor. Fortunately, the other Cypriot, who became friendly with Bapou, persuaded the authorities to pardon him.
Bapou and his new friend bought a gold mine which was only mining alluvial gold, unaware that the real wealth lay far underground. A smart engineer employed by them realized this and secretly approached an even wealthier businessman who would be capable of financing the huge cost of digging deep below the surface. His name was Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, who bought the mine from Bapou and his partner for a pittance. The mine went on to become the first mine of what was to become one of the largest mining conglomerates in the world, called Anglo-American.
Despite this, Bapou went on to become very wealthy, owning massive properties in Johannesburg as well as a holiday resort on the coast called Plettenberg Bay. He was well respected by the Greek community, having made a major contribution to the building of the Greek Orthodox Church, where incidentally Hero and I were married. Sadly, Bapou, who never learned how to read and write, had his mark on documents copied and lost virtually everything. However, at the time that his daughter Athena married Zacharias, the family were still living in great comfort and she was considered to be a wonderful “catch” for Zach, as he was known. Hero’s father went on to make his own fortune with a brewery in the Congo and two factories in the Portuguese territory of Mozambique, producing all the yeast, processed cheese, condensed milk and other related products for the whole of Mozambique on the East coast and the other Portuguese territory of Angola on the West Coast.
Hero grew up in Johannesburg but frequently travelled to Lourenco Marques, the then capital of Mozambique. She also visited the Congo with her parents. She went to Parktown Girls junior and later high school. She was one of those people who hardly opened a book but still got top grades in most subjects. She was also a talented artist, excelling in ballet and piano as well as becoming one of the leading Greek dancers in Johannesburg. She also did Spanish dancing. She had a natural flair for languages, eventually speaking eight different tongues.
Her father sent her overseas to study at the University of Perugia in Italy, one of the most prestigious art schools in Europe. She studied Italian for the first six months before joining the art school. Although she was considered to be a very talented artist at home, she was totally devastated by the incredibly high standard of work produced by the students in Perugia and she fled the area.
I should point out that Hero constantly underestimated herself in all her fields of artistic endeavour. She then spent six months in Vienna where her brother Hector had been enrolled by their father at the university to study chemistry, as Zach had done before him. Hector had no interest in chemistry and no desire to join his father in the business. Arriving in Vienna, Hector secretly enrolled in the art school and studied art, as well as dress designing, until his father found out and forced him back into the chemistry faculty.
Meanwhile, Hero enjoyed the excitement, beauty and culture of Vienna of that era. She and Hector mixed with a few South African opera singers making names for themselves at the time. Hero and her brother were both natural ballroom dancers and frequently caused a stir when attending the Fasching Balls that were held every year in the city. Hero was even invited to partner with a top ballroom dancer in the European championships but did not have the confidence to do so.
For a while after Vienna, she travelled in Europe and was even cast in two Italian movies as a Spanish dancer. The first was the “The Naked Maja” starring the Americans Ava Gardner and Anthony Franciosa in leading roles in the story of the Spanish artist Goya. In the second movie, Hero was chased by the producer around the set and she promptly took off again, deciding that the movie industry was not for her. Her father grew tired of funding Hero wandering around Europe and demanded that she study something useful. He wanted her to study radiography at University College Hospital in London. She decided “Why not?” and enrolled.
At the time, she shared an apartment with another Greek Cypriot girl, whose name, unbelievably, was also Hero. People would call up their apartment and ask to speak to Hero, to which either of the girls would ask “Which one?” The response was usually, “You’re kidding; there can’t be more than one person called Hero.” Coincidently, both girls married Englishmen. The other Hero went on to become Lady Hunt, wife of the British Ambassador to Ghana. My Hero chose a less illustrious fellow learning his trade as a film writer/director in Johannesburg!
After qualifying as a radiographer, Hero returned to Johannesburg and quickly decided that it was not for her. She then worked for a while for a group of eye specialists, often assisting with their operations. We met at this point and, despite our completely disparate backgrounds, we fell in love and decided to get married. I was very anxious that Hero’s parents might not regard me as simply being after her eventual inheritance, which at that point would have been very substantial. Nevertheless, when Athena learned of our plans, because she was a compulsive Anglophile and also because she and I got along very well, she was delighted.
Now it was a matter of asking her father Zach’s permission. Although she was nearly 27 years old at the time, we both still wanted her parents’ approval. He was in Mozambique attending to his businesses there. I waited nervously for his arrival, having heard the story of Hero’s previous suitor, a successful surgeon, born in Johannesburg of Cypriot parents who had arrived almost penniless in South Africa and now owned a small corner cafe in the suburbs. The unfortunate young man asked for Hero’s hand in marriage and, as was customary in the Cypriot community, also asked for a substantial dowry. Zach replied, “If I wanted to buy a bull for my daughter, I would at least buy a thoroughbred.” Exit the surgeon!
I wondered how on earth I would survive the ordeal. At least I wasn’t going to ask for a dowry. At best, I had an uncertain future and was earning a pittance at the time with Killarney Film studios. Anyway, I just hoped that dear Athena had prepared the ground for me. I could do no wrong in her eyes and she was delighted with the idea of her daughter marrying an English “gentleman.” Zach could be incredibly charming when he wished, but he could also be frighteningly autocratic and blunt to the point of rudeness. Which one would I have to confront?
As it turned out, he gruffly gave me permission. To be frank, he and I never really got along that well in future years but, after all, I was marrying his daughter and not him. His wealth was intimidating to me but, ironically, when the communists took over both Mozambique and Angola, Zach lost virtually all of his money.
Hero and I have enjoyed nearly 56 years of marriage, producing four wonderful children and seven grandchildren. I have been blessed and actually spoiled by having the most wonderful companion, friend and the love of my life!
We are both equally excited by the potential future with ExoBrain as a reality and the huge opportunities it affords, not only for the ExoBrain team and its investors, but also for humankind’s ability to use computing as it was originally conceived to be, a simple-to-operate, inexpensive and perfect communication tool for people of all levels of achievement.
An ExoTech Ltd shareholder, Chris is currently authoring two of the four books to be published the day ExoBrain launches and has helped to create ExoBrain’s introductory video to the Confidential Technical Briefing. Chris has spent his working life in the film and television industry, starting with BBC Television in London, then ATV in Birmingham becoming, at the time, the youngest Studio Manager in Britain.
Later, in South Africa, he wrote and directed film and TV commercials, having four South African entries at the Cannes Advertising Festival. After a number of years of writing and directing or producing documentaries (eight international awards) and corporate videos, he concentrated on writing feature film screenplays (five screened) and television series (seven screened). He has a novel, ”Pursuit of Treachery,” with a literary agent and is currently obtaining finance for an action adventure feature film he has written and is co-producing. He is a published poet and has given many readings.