Mgr. Bohuslav Matyáš

* 1942

  • "So we broadcasted with the help of that guy Ječminek and with the help of the city of Ostrava we became known nationally. And this guy Jarolím [Koutný] used to bring me some interviews, for example I know he filmed something with Pavel Dostál and other people, and news about what was happening in the district. I had no income other than the legalized one or approved by us, that we trusted. And that was just Jarolím, who was delivering it. So that's how we were broadcasting from the morning hours, since I don’t know when, until ten o'clock in the evening. And by ten o'clock there was a curfew."

  • "There was pressure, of course, from the faculty, from the Union of Czechoslovak Youth and from Marie Záhorová. And the State Security was very interested in us. They were at every performance, without a doubt, but we all quit for a different reason. Our studies were coming to an end, not exactly mine, I was still catching up with some work I had at the studio, but Jana was graduating, Zikmundová, so was Slávka Masná... Actually, the whole ensemble and even Krol’s band - [AB Dixieland (Abstinent Boys Jazz Band)] - was falling apart, because everybody was quitting and going into practice. And we quit specifically because Jirka Flíček alias Z. A. Pálka quit the Olomouc theater of Oldřich Stibor and went to Brno."

  • "But then I was sneaking around Olomouc, my wife was already in the care of my friends at that time. It was Na Trati 35, I still remember it, where Alena Štěrbová and Svaťa Štěrba lived. They convinced us not to go home. Because they would have been looking for us in Řepčín. So we were afraid to go there. So we stayed with these people. And I was sneaking in there at night despite the curfew. And whatever happened: a dog barked somewhere outside or there was a sound of a car passing by, we immediately went to the window and while hiding behind the curtains, we tried to see if they were looking for us or if they had already found us."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Otrokovice, 12.04.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 01:56:50
    media recorded in project Stories of the region - Central Moravia
  • 2

    Otrokovice, 26.04.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 30:03
    media recorded in project Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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I enjoyed doing all the things I did

Bohuslav Matyáš, the 1960s
Bohuslav Matyáš, the 1960s
photo: Contemporary witness's archive

Bohuslav Matyáš was born on November 30, 1942 in Trnava to Irma Furmanová and Bohuslav Matyáš. After the war, his father got a job as a technician at the Třinecké železárny (Třinec Ironworks), so they moved to Czechia. In 1960, Bohuslav graduated from the grammar school in Český Těšín and thanks to his teacher and theater club leader Jan Havlásek, he decided to apply for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where he unfortunately failed the entrance exams. He enrolled at the Faculty of Arts at Palacký University - music and Czech language, but eventually graduated from the Faculty of Arts at Palacký University with a master’s degree in bohemistics and history. During his studies, he began to publish in a student magazine, contributed to Stráž lidu, became a broadcaster and later editor of the Olomouc radio station and the district radio broadcast over the wire. He devoted himself to music - he played the violin with a dulcimer band and was a member of an amateur theater group - he performed in Zápalka-kabaret. From the time of his studies and acting in an amateur theater group, the State Security was interested in him (the documentation of the State Security Archive of the Czech Republic shows that he was later, in the 1970s, listed as a person under investigation and a registered enemy), but only a fraction of the documentation has survived. In 1968, he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, but was expelled after nine months because of his views. During the August occupation of Czechoslovakia, he became a broadcaster for the illegal Olomouc-based programme Dubček-Císař ABX. With the incoming normalization, he lost his job at the radio station and was expelled from the Union of Journalists and the Writers’ Union. He worked briefly as an employee of the Olomouc Dům osvěty, but then worked as a laborer until the fall of the regime. He started out in the panel factory of Pozemní stavby in Bělidla. From being a journalist and radio reporter he became an assistant greaser at a rotary slate furnace, a burner and finally a crane operator. After moving to Otrokovice, he worked as a warehouseman at a machine and tractor station, and later as an inspection technician for lifting and pressure equipment. After 1989 he returned to writing - he published in the magazine ZVUK (cultural review of the Zlín region; abbreviation Zlín-Vsetín-Uherské Hradiště-Kroměříž) and worked in the Zlín and Olomouc radio stations. In 2023 he lived in Otrokovice.