Helena Modjeska of Poland and California

Santa Ana Public Library via Calisphere One of America’s leading Shakespearian actresses in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was born in Poland and spoke English with a pronounced Polish accent. Helena Modjeska (1840-1909) was famous on Polish stages when she immigrated to California with her husband in 1876. After a false start as would-be farmers in Anaheim, they bought a ranch in nearby Santiago Canyon. Since the ranch made no money either, Modjeska took to the American stage to support her family. Eventually she founded her own traveling troupe, introducing cities and towns in the United States to an elevated repertoire of Shakespeare, other classics, and contemporary plays. The Los Angeles Herald called her “the queen of Shakespearean tragedy” in 1905. Fashion is an important subject in a recent biography, Starring Madame Modjeska: On Tour in Poland and America. “Like other stars of her era,” writes the author Beth Holmgren, “she chose costumes to suit her role,…