Talk:Joe Eszterhas

Deleted talk comments
Unsigned from 24.251.61.145 on 17:39, 5 August 2006: "Rich man.  Poor writer." Unsigned from 24.201.77.20 on 09:29, 3 October 2006: Changed above to "Rich man.  Great writer."

Trying hard to WP:AGF... &mdash; VoxLuna   ☾  Land / Orbit  18:03, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Alternate spelling of his surname
Maybe 'Ezsterhaus'? Anybody heard about it? -- Pichote 12:26, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

No such Hungarian (or any) spelling exists of his name.
 * The character on Hill Street Blues spelt his "Esterhaus", for what that's worth. Smartiger (talk) 00:15, 4 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Surely this is an alternate of House_of_Esterházy? --El Ingles (talk) 16:52, 4 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Unless Eszterhas or his father actually used another spelling, this is speculation that may be interesting, but is without any relevance to the article. Plazak (talk) 17:38, 4 April 2010 (UTC)
 * háza in Hungarian means "house" in English, or "Haus" in German, so there is a point in this spelling. The family's name derives from the small village Eszterháza (=House of Esther), which is now part of the town Fertőd in Hungary, where also their impressive barock style castle is located. Of course, those who fled to the West couldn't go there during the time of the Iron Curtain and the castle was confiscated by the Communists. --El bes (talk) 08:54, 20 November 2014 (UTC)

Eszterhas vs. Esterhazy
Joe Eszterhas is a great writer and the question of the origin of his father's name bears absolutely no relevance to his greatness.

I do not know how or if at all the aristocratic Esterhazy family acknowledges his father Istvan Eszterhas as one of the members of that family. However, in the Hungarian literature I cannot find any mention of Joe Eszterhas' father as being a member of the aristocratic Esterhazy family. Neither the Hungarian Wikipedia article about Joe Eszterhas or the Wikipedia article about the Esterhazy family mention any connection of these two names. Nor can I find any other source for such a connection, although such a connection may be entirely true.

The name Eszterhas in the Hungarian language is actually a fairly common one.It is a variation of the name Esztergas which is yet again a variant of the name Esztergalyos. Esztergalyos is a very common occupational surname with the English meaning of Turner. The Hungarian word eszterga means lathe and the word in turn is of Slavic origin.

Such occupational names are very common in all languages. For example German Dreher is also the equivalent of English Turner a craftsman who turns out things on a lathe. Today these people would be called lathe operators.

For the development of the linguistically unrelated Esterhazy name one can read the Wikipedia page "House of Esterhazy".

It may be entirely possible that having fled Hungary and the possible questions about his political activities before World War II or for some other reason Joe's father Istvan changed his name from Esterhazy or the alternate spelling of Eszterhazy to Eszterhas. At the same time because of those very same reasons the aristocratic family does not wish to have too much to do with that branch of the family leaving this interesting but not really important question open to such musings as mine.

If anybody has any more references or information on this question it would be interesting to see. Eravian (talk) 22:27, 15 November 2015 (UTC)

Conversion?
The Toledo Blade talks of him undergoing a religious epiphany. I don't know for certain if this will last, but is it even mentioned in the article? Should it be? (He apparently is coming out with a book called Crossbearer: A Memoir of Faith)--T. Anthony (talk) 10:53, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Reference section
In the Reference section there's a piece of text that I don't think belongs there. I'm not sure where to move it. Fwend (talk) 20:31, 10 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I've restored a previous version. --El Ingles (talk) 22:09, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

I just read on IMDB that he had 4/5 of his larynx removed in 2003. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.142.13.143 (talk) 17:49, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Requested additions
--Javaweb (talk) 10:14, 9 September 2011 (UTC)Javaweb
 * Mention of his public campaign to discourage the promotion of smoking in the movies:
 * The 1989 movie "Music Box" and its Hungarian backdrop.
 * Mel Gibson and Eszterhas are working on a movie about Jewish biblical hero Judah Maccabee

Rolling Stone citation
I wonder if any of these references would mention his role at Rolling Stone? The book contains "Kent State: Ohio honors it dead / by Joe Eszterhas". Perhaps it describes his role at the magazine. He is mentioned on p 9, 13, 130, 462 of the e-book edition.
 * The Jann Wenner website mentions Eszterhas as being part of Rolling Stone starting around 1971 and he is one of about 10 people Wenner refers to in a in recounting of the first 20 years.

--Javaweb (talk) 09:16, 30 April 2012 (UTC)Javaweb

What's the point of this anecdote?
''At the end of Eszterhas' career at The Plain Dealer, a fellow editor singlehandedly sailed a small sail boat from the United States to England and The Plain Dealer did not sponsor the editor's trip. However, as the gentleman neared the culmination of his trip, the Plain Dealer chartered an airplane to fly low and drop "Cleveland Plain Dealer" sweat shirts to the editor. According to the account Eszterhas wrote, the editor retrieved the sweat shirts and when he saw what they were, tossed them overboard. Eszterhas was subsequently relieved of his duties at the newspaper.''

Unsubstantiated, and a bit pointless? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.78.170.148 (talk) 12:32, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

Cancer
Why doesn't the article mention he had cancer? (92.11.203.78 (talk) 19:45, 24 November 2013 (UTC))
 * It is mentioned. Maybe there is more to say: his defense of smoking in movies and then his renunciation of that after his cancer?
 * See
 * --Javaweb (talk) 20:54, 24 November 2013 (UTC)Javaweb

Request edit Info box updates
I am working alongside Mr. Eszterhas and would like to have his page updated with the most accurate information.

Part Hollywood rebel and Hollywood insider; part romantic, cynic and moralist, Eszterhas’s life reads like a movie itself. Shortly after his birth, Eszterhas and his parents were interned in refugee camps in Austria, first British and then American. After spending the first six years of his life in refugee camps, Eszterhas and his parents emigrated to America where he rose from being a refugee street kid in the back alleys of Cleveland, Ohio, to being arguably the most famous screenwriter in Hollywood history.

Maryjanekathryn (talk) 22:11, 10 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Hi Maryjanekathryn. Could you provide a reliable source, such as a newspaper article, web profile, or book to support the information given in the infobox? As for the paragraph, I don't think it can be added to the article as written. Wikipedia articles should be written in a neutral tone, but phrases like "Eszterhas's life reads like a movie itself" are a bit overdone, and wouldn't fit in. Thanks, Altamel (talk) 02:50, 17 July 2016 (UTC)


 * I'm a little late to chime in, but yeah-- articles in wikipedia should read like entries in, well, an encyclopedia. To that end, commentary comparing his life to a movie isn't sourceable or dispassionate or with a sufficiently neutral POV.  The claim that he's the most famous screenwriter in Hollywood history, which seems a bit debatable, doesn't seem appropriate to me either, and certainly would need to be backed up w/references.  The essential facts of his birth and upbringing though, if they are notable and supported with appropriate citation, are reasonable to include --Replysixty (talk) 07:34, 4 January 2017 (UTC)

Request to have maintenance template message removed
Request to have the box at top of page stating that a "close connection contributing to page" be removed. I understand more about the process now and apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you!

99.119.9.23 (talk) 23:37, 27 September 2016 (UTC)


 * Pinging, since he placed the tag.  Mlpearc  ( open channel ) 00:10, 28 September 2016 (UTC)

Request to have website added to page
Requesting to have Joe's official website    added to his Wikipedia page https://joeunchained.com

As an example, here is a link to Joe Eszterhas's life story, written by him: https://joeunchained.com/full_disclosure

Maryjanekathryn (talk) 23:44, 27 September 2016 (UTC)
 * ✅  Mlpearc  ( open channel ) 00:07, 28 September 2016 (UTC)

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External links modified
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Noble family?
,

According to this or many other sources, describe his father as being the descendant of the noble family (as well there are other members, even if they name is spellt as Eszterhás). Especially the Hungarian WP even list him as Esterházy József Antal in the Esterházy family article and puts his page into this category as well. So it may be common mistake and urban legend because of the similarity of the name, or in fact he is a descendant of the family...could you investigate further sources on this or his father, to make this clear, or initiate this in the Hunagrian WP as well? Thx.(KIENGIR (talk) 12:22, 16 April 2019 (UTC))
 * I think it's hoax, or at least urban legend. Joe Eszterhas' father was István Eszterhás (born 1907), a writer and journalist. See sources, e.g., . --Norden1990 (talk) 12:39, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

Article is clean now
This article is clean now. Most of it was cleaned up en masse back in 2016 when the COI editor was identified and their edits and copyright violations removed. I have just now further cleaned it up a bit. Therefore I have removed the COI tag. Stophorus (talk) 10:23, 23 August 2022 (UTC)

Hello how
Do i contact you? Ohio U days Please let me know. Tks John 2605:B100:134:6836:690E:E414:13B4:EC1D (talk) 00:48, 15 January 2023 (UTC)