Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1909-04-16
Helena ModieSka


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Helena Modjeska
With the passing of ModieSka. goes
ane of the most pleasing figures that ever
graced the American stage. Modjeska
was not passionate and powerful, but
finished in her art and charming in her
personality. She was intellectual as
well as sympathetic. She possessed lit
erary taste and some literary capacity.
She knew Il great deal of the world be-
yond the realm of the theater. She was
pure and wholesome in her life and her
art eXerted an uplifting influence upon
the community. In these days of problem
plays and a stage to which young ladies
do not like to take their mothers. it is
interestiD' - recall the time when the
Legitimate Iii ma held nearly undisputed
sway. Cor picuously associated with
that golden era in the minds of the gen
Grafton now growing old will always be
the name and the fame of Nine.
Helena Modjeska.
Her maiden name was Opido. She
was a Pole, born in 1874, in the ancient
city of Cracow, where her father was a
musician and a teacher of music. She
grew up in an atmosphere of culture.
Early she showed an inclination for the
stage, but it was resisted by her mother,
and not until after her marriage, which
occurred when she was very young. was
she enabled to realize her ambition BY
becoming an actress. Her husband
patrOnymic of Modrzejnwski, softened
and feminiZed, was the basis Of the name
which her genius has made familiar to
the world. He was an elderly man and
an actor. So much impressed was he
by the success which she achieved i'm Il
charity performance at Bochnia, in Aus
trian Poland that he organized q trav-
cling theatrical company with which she
made a tour of Galica. During the lat
ter part of 1862 she played a three
months engagement at the government
theater i'll Lemberg. Next she organ
: lied a theater at CzernOwice, in which
| she appeared in prominent roles, with
her younger sister and two half broth
ers as assistants. In 1865, when only
II years of age, she returned to Cracow,
| i'll the chief theater of which she be
came the leading lady. Her reputation
| spread abroad, and she received invi-
| tatiOns to go TO Germany and to France,
| but she preferred to remain in Poland.
Modrejewski died, and in 1865 she be-
| Chapowski, Polish count With him
| in the following year she removed to
! Warsaw, where they remained till 1876.
| Here she assumed the principal female
characters in cOntemporaneous Polish
| plays as we'll as in the standard dramas
of Moliere, Schiller, Goethe and Shakes
peare. Her repertory in her native Ian
guage included two hundred and eighty
| four plays.
| Two main causes led Modjeska TO
| leave her beloved Poland and come to
| the United States. One was failing
health; the other was resentment against
| Russian tyranny, particularly that phase
/! of the latter which found expression in
the censorship of the Polish stage. She
Il not az ,.t,. Il ..
| expectation of her husband and herself
to found Polish colony in America,
and with this object in view they settled
! on ranch near Los Angeles. Calf0r-
MIA. in 1876. In the spring of the fol-
| lowing year she went to San Francisco
to study English, The definition of
genius as a capacity for very hard work
/ is recalled by the fact that after four
months of earnest application to this
/ task she appeared at the California the
| alter in the role of Adrienne LecOuvreur,
and won instant recognition and 3p-
plause. Here began her brilliant career
! as queen of the American stage Not
long afterward an illustrated article in
| Scribner' slater known as the Century
! Observation-Disclosures her to the Amer
! lean people, and then followed her re-
markable tours Of the United States and
/ England. in which she endeared herself
to the playgOing public of her time. She
brought good taste and broad technical
/ knowledge to her work. Her American
trepertOry embraced twenty-five standard
plays Those who remember her pro-
auctions of Twelfth Night" and AS
You Like It. will always be critical
Of other undertakings to present those
! plays. As Katharine Of AragOn and as
/ Marie Stuart she won triumphs. She
/ failed in nothing that she attempted. toi
she was thoroughly trained in all the de-
partments Of her art, and. while greatly
, gifted. never trusted to chance inspIra
ton. but always gave thought and pains
taking rehearsals to any part in whlrl
she was 10 appear.
Half Of her life, comprising more than
half Of her active years was passed il
the nited States. of which she and lm
husband became naturalized citizens. >A'
loved America and its free institutions
bat she loved Poland too. On the pc
caslon Of one Of her early visits 10 this
city she expressed particular Interest il
Milwaukee because it was the home o
50 many of her Polish compatriots.
MOdjeska was an ornament to tu
stage; but she was more than thaf--h
WIS q good woman-and the world j.
better world because she lived and strav
ia il. with constant aspiration for higl
ideals.