Hospoda na mýtince

In connection with the opening of the famous Vienna "Riesenrad," a competition was held for the best operetta. A Czech composer, Jára Cimrman, submitted his entry, a sweeping seven-hour work titled "Proso." Due to what may have been his only negative trait—his slight stinginess—he did not send the score by registered mail, allowing Franz Lehár, Johann Strauss, Oskar Nedbal, and other members of the jury to literally tear apart the operetta's brilliant fresco. Many decades later, a team of Czech Cimrmanologists has demonstrated that the author of the world-renowned melodies from *Die Fledermaus*, *Polská krev*, and many other operettas is the long-forgotten Pojizeřan Cimrman.