(Nov 01, 1869 – Closing date unknown) She played Mrs. Sternhold. She then went on to be in P.T. Barnums Musuem Shows. This is available on my eBay Site.
She was a Polish-born actress and fervent Polish patriot who gained fame as a major interpreter of Shakespearean plays for 19th century American audiences.
She was born in 1840 and died April 8, 1909, in Newport Beach, California.
The actress was sent to study at a boarding school for girls and then later to a school run by the Presentation Sister.
She began her acting career on provincial stages with strong support of her life partner, Gustaw Zimajer.
It was thanks to him that she first appeared on stage in Bochnia in 1861.
She made her theatrical debut in 1861 in one-act comedy The White Camellia, with reviewers praising her “unquestionable talent”.
While she became successful in Poland’s major cities, she felt the full range of her talent was limited by the scale of how small the country’s venues were.
In July 1876, she claimed she had poor health to quit the Warsaw Imperial Theater to take a year’s leave of absence in the US.
By August, she had learnt two new roles in English.
In 1877, she debuted in America under the name Helena Modjeska, embarking on a road to US stardom, which lasted three decades.
Her 46-year career saw her act in nearly 300 roles and more than 6,000 plays, both in Polish and English.
She also performed in more than 300 cities globally and played Lady Macbeth 520 times.
24). Wallack made his first professional appearance in Tortesa the Usurer; he used the alias “Allan Field,” so as not to rely on the draw of his father’s name. He next appeared as “John Lester” and soon played at theaters in Dublin, Southampton, and Manchester before earning the chance to appear at the Haymarket in London.
In 1847 he traveled to America where he made his debut at the Broadway Theatre as Sir Charles Coldstream in a farce titled Used Up
. He used the name “John Wallack Lester,” appearing in Shakespearean dramas, before gaining his big break as Don Cesar de Bazan in July 1848; he followed up with a successful run as Edmond Dantes in Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo
. Perhaps inspired by this success, Wallack presented his own well-received plays based on Dumas’ material: The Three Guardsmen
and The Four Musketeers, or Ten Years After
; Wallack is also credited with the authorship of the short-lived comedy First Impressions
which only ran for four nights, co-starring Pfaff’s frequenter E.A. Sothern (Odell 6:530). In addition, Wallack claimed authorship of The House with Two Doors
, played in Central Park, and laid disputed claim to Lady Lee’s Widowhood (Odell 7:542).
Wallack’s level of involvement in the Pfaffian circle is uncertain. Francis Wolle claimed that in the pre-war days Wallack frequented Pfaff’s with O’Brien (Wolle 50). William Winter does substantiate the idea that Wallack and O’Brien are friends; however, Wolle remains the only source directing connecting Wallack to frequenting Pfaff’s (Winter 76). Neverthless, Wallack was known to the major theater personalities, actors, dramatists, and critics of the day, many of whom had connections to Pfaff’s including: Laura Keene, John Brougham, Joseph Jefferson, E.A. Sothern (who served as an usher at his funeral), and Rose Eytinge (New York Times, Sept. 9, 1888, pg. 5). For example, Wallack was added to Burton’s company in the 1850-51 season where he acted under Brougham’s direction (Odell 6:52). Wallack also shared a close professional relationship with Rose Eytinge, whom he offered the position of the leading lady for a season at his theater and also encouraged to return to acting after her return in 1873 to New York from traveling and living abroad (Eytinge 88, 215).
