Why the "king of laughter" Arkady Arkanov was unlucky in love

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Possessor of an incredibly creative sense of humor and charisma Arkady Mikhailovich Arkanov for more than half a century it has been a decoration of any concert, holiday, as well as a feast. He was so contagiously able to improvise and joke, despite his imperturbable appearance, that his phrases, dropped as if by chance, immediately went to the people. But the brilliant career of a satirist, built thanks to a sparkling sense of humor, did not affect his personal life in any way. Broken relationships, experiences and tragic deaths of his beloved remained behind the artist.

Arkady Arkanov is a popular satirist, playwright and screenwriter, songwriter, actor, TV presenter, who fed our life with the "vitamin of humor". For the domestic audience, he was an indicator of political, social, everyday, personal problems in society. He hated sad sentimentalists and did not like those who endlessly joked without any reason. Arkanov said: And therefore, his caustic phrases, which sometimes looked more like bitter medicine, made the audience laugh and sad at the same time.

Recall 10 sparkling phrases of the popular satirist Arkady Arkanov - the last of the great sixties.

Pages from a difficult childhood

Little Arkasha was born in 1933 in Kiev, in the family of Olga Semyonovna Brandman and Mikhail Iosifovich Steinbock. In view of the difficult historical time, his childhood can hardly be called cloudless. When the boy was one year old, his father was arrested. Fortunately, the article incriminated to him was not about high treason, but about embezzlement. After the trial, my mother, leaving Arkady in the care of her grandmother and grandfather, followed her husband to a settlement near Vyazma. Having settled a little bit in a new place, she took Arkasha to her place. And when Mikhail Iosifovich was released in 1938, the family moved to Moscow, where life was also not sugar. Father, mother, Arkady and his younger brother, born in exile, literally huddled in a nine-meter room in the barrack without any conveniences.

When the Patriotic War broke out, Olga Semyonovna and her sons were evacuated beyond the Urals, to Krasnoyarsk. Mother had to work from morning until late at night, and Arkasha looked after his younger brother. The boys were always hungry, their daily diet consisted of a glass of milk and a piece of bread. And sheepskin coats and felt boots were worn, which the compassionate Siberian neighbors gave after their grown children. Nevertheless, Arkanov will remember all his life with great respect and warmth these people, who shared with them shelter, clothing and food.

Jewish surname and father's conviction - an obstacle to the dream

Only in 1943, the family was able to return from evacuation to Moscow, where Arkady Steinbock graduated from high school. Having received a certificate, he went to enter the Geological Prospecting Institute at the prestigious Geophysical Faculty, which had been classified since the second year. He passed the credentials committee twice, but the members of the admissions committee made it clear to the young guy that absolutely nothing will shine for him with a Jewish surname and a criminal record of his father.

Then Arkady took the documents to the IM Sechenov Medical Institute, where they were accepted without any questions. As a student, he began to move in the creative circles of young people, who constantly arranged various performances, skits, showed humoresques. Such a cheerful atmosphere of student life entirely influenced the further fate of Arkady Steinbock.

I left medicine when I realized that Chekhov would not leave me

In 1957, graduating from the institute, Arkady already knew for sure that he would never work as a doctor, the guy was so fascinated by the creation of scripts, satirical monologues and various humorous scenes. By the way, student Steinbock received a silver medal at the World Festival of Youth and Students in the same graduation year for one script for the play, written in co-authorship.

However, according to Soviet law, graduates of universities at that time had to work for three years in their specialty. And our hero had no choice but to fulfill his duty and work out the allotted term as a district therapist and pediatrician in the 22nd metropolitan polyclinic.

In parallel with the work of a medical worker, Arkady Mikhailovich continued to write songs, stories and humoresques, to participate in creative evenings. And when, in 1963, he brought his works to the radio, the editor said that he would not be able to take them under the name Steinbock, and that he needed to come up with a pseudonym. … And besides, in childhood, the satirist was known among friends as Arkan. And in 1964, the pseudonym under which the whole country knew him for several decades, became the official name of the satirist.

Also Arkanov was published in the magazine "Youth", the uncensored almanac "Metropol", and also quite talentedly performed songs at creative evenings, collaborating with Anatoly Poperechny. The comedian has been a television presenter for many years. He hosted the programs "Around Laughter" and "White Parrot", was a member of the KVN jury, wrote a solo performance for Vladimir Vinokur, composed plays and scripts.

Arkanov's image

A suit with a needle, a light smell of a good perfume, charm - these are Arkanov. With a cigarette and a glass of cognac in hand - this is Arkanov. A low voice, uttering something rarely without fuss, but, oh, how aptly. Some kind of detachment, for some reason taken by someone for indifference - this is also him.

Arkanov's image appeared long before this word appeared in the Russian language. The comedian always wore a tie, a jacket and a very special expression on his face, which some called absent, others gloomy, still others focused, and still others harsh. All this was the constituent components of the stage image and this very image of a humorist, who could amuse whole halls of the public, while remaining completely uninvolved. In fact, Arkanov inherited his impenetrable facial expression from his mother, although he learned to pass his face off as a mask, unlike Olga Semyonovna, whose mask imperceptibly turned into her face.

Sharp feather of Arkanov's satire

Arkady Mikhailovich believed:

The ironic humor of Arkady Arkanov killed on the spot. He was the "king of laughter", and many powerful people, who in this case looked like jesters, became his targets. His satire was uncompromising and forward-looking. He was like a cruiser, in full swing at the enemy, and his invincible strength was the word of truth.

Personal and intimate

Of course, in the stormy creative life of the satirist, there was always a place for women. When the satirist was asked what type of women attracted him, he replied: As it turned out, the combination of all these qualities in one person is rather rare.

Apparently, therefore, despite the extreme popularity, public recognition, and fanatical love of the fair sex with a personal life, Arkanov did not go well. Only towards the end of his life, he seemed to have met that last love that he had been waiting for all his life … But it was not so and was not destined for him to become happy in marriage …

Maya Kristalinskaya, who agreed to marry on a second date

And it happened quite unexpectedly. Before graduation from the institute, Arkady Arkanov accidentally got to a rehearsal of Yuri Saulsky's orchestra, where he saw "a very beautiful and great singing girl." Her name was Maya Kristalinskaya. Yes, yes, the one whose name will soon thunder throughout the country. Well, and then a spark between the young people flashed with lightning speed. It was love at first sight.

After the rehearsal, Arkanov immediately invited Maya to a skit, where he was heading. They had fun and agreed on the next date on Victory Day., - said Arkanov about his spontaneous decision to marry the girl they liked.

A week after the painting, it was decided to play a small wedding. The newlyweds had nowhere to live, at first they turned over in a room next to their parents, then rented a separate room. Everything was fine, but the mad love gradually began to cool down. The spouses increasingly drew attention to each other's shortcomings. Glory suddenly fell on Kristalinskaya and, according to her husband, she was a little "proud". Of course, in addition to this, the young had other disagreements.

The "grinding" of the characters was very difficult. Therefore, when Arkanov said with an imperturbable air, she just as impartially asked: Hearing in reply: - not a single muscle trembled on the singer's face. And Arkady took the briefcase and closed the door behind him. After the wedding, not even a year had passed when they became completely strangers to each other.

After that, the couple still crossed paths, but there was no return to the past. True, they officially divorced only three years later. Then Arkady Mikhailovich already had another woman - he was going to marry Evgenia Morozova. However, with Kristalinskaya, the satirist remained on good terms until the end of her life and was very upset when he learned about the singer's sudden death from oncology.

Second try

The satirist recaptured the girl, who became the second wife of Arkanov, from a fellow student at the medical institute, his best friend, Alexander Levenbuk, who also went to entertainers instead of treating the sick. And everything turned out like in a romantic movie with a love triangle. Levenbuk, having appointed his girlfriend a date, but staying late at the concert, asked a satirist friend to entertain Zhenechka before his arrival. And he, from the first minute of their acquaintance, unexpectedly for himself felt that Evgenia was his woman.

Being an honest and straightforward man, Arkady immediately promised his opponent to step aside if he really had serious feelings for his chosen one. To which the offended Levenbuk could not answer anything intelligible. As a result, Evgenia Morozova had to be chosen, and she chose Arkanov.

They got married in 1962, and only five years later, Eugene was able to give Arkady Mikhailovich a son, Vasily. But the appearance of an heir, alas, could not save this marriage either - after five years it broke up. In recent years, the relationship between the spouses has noticeably deteriorated. - admitted Arkanov.

Free love and illegitimate son

Arkanov reluctantly recalled the next lover - theatrical journalist Natalya Smirnova: Despite the fact that Smirnova took her son out of the USSR at the age of two, he constantly communicated with his father, maintaining good relations.

Favorite of women

Arkanov has always been very fond of women. Because of this, he often fell into different stories, sometimes very comical. The satirist Vladimir Vladin once told one of them:

Third wife - Natalia Vysotskaya

The third wife of the famous satirist was Natalya Alekseevna Vysotskaya, the music editor of the television studio in Ostankino, in the past - the wife of the composer Teodor Efimov. This union turned out to be the most lasting and longest. They lived together for two decades. We met by chance - on a trolleybus. Natalya, seeing a famous writer among the passengers, decided to come up and persuade him to participate in the popular "Morning Mail". Arkanov not only starred in the program, but also married her. But in 2011, Natalya died suddenly: when her husband was on tour, the woman who stayed at home suddenly had a heart failure. For Arkanov, her death was a terrible blow.

The last love that warmed my soul

About the last love of Arkady Mikhailovich - 45-year-old Oksana Sokolik - all close ones with great respect. It was this little fragile woman who was able to bring the writer back to life after the hard experiences and suffering after the death of Natalia Vysotskaya. Arkan called his beloved "Khakamada", believing that she is very similar to this woman-politician: both in character and in appearance. They say about people like Oksana:

- said the parodist Yuri Grigoriev. -

81-year-old Arkan died of a serious cancer in 2015, never having time to register a marriage.

Continuing the theme of the fate of the famous "kings of laughter", I would like to offer our reader an amazing a love story by correspondence between the parents of humorist Efim Shifrin, which began with tragic events.