Imre Kálmán, the composer of The Csárdáskirálynő, the dreamer of the most famous melodies, the "king of operettas," never actually wanted to write operettas, yet world fame overtook him. He did not accept the honorary Aryan status from Hitler, who was a fan of The Csárdáskirálynő, with which he could have saved his and his family's lives by staying in Vienna. Kálmán chose the more difficult path: he emigrated to America. Kálmán never wanted to marry. Despite this, he married Vera, a young woman born in Siberia and decades younger than him, twice. Even today, not an hour goes by without a Kálmán melody being played somewhere in the world, on TV, in the theater or on the radio, while the majority of the public knows little about the composer himself.