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Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Reprint (2006) Bridges, modjeskas, Louisville ANOTHER ANGLE: the occasional musings of a Kentucky pastor. This story originally posted on ColumbiaMagazine.com October, 2006 By the Rev. Joey N. Welsh email: joey_n_welsh@hotmail.com OF SPANS, SWEET REMINDERS AND CONNECTEDNESS Including brief directions to Modjeskas in Louisville and Jeffersonville Several different Hebrew words are translated as "span" in the Old Testament. In a number of passages span refers to a measure of length, about nine inches or so, the average breadth of an adult hand with fingers spread. This is the span referred to in Exodus 28:15-17, describing the details of a priestly garment, "Fashion a breastpiece for making decisions - the work of a skilled craftsman. Make it like the ephod: of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen. It is to be square - a span long and a span wide--and folded double. Then mount four rows of precious stones on it. In the first row there shall be a ruby, a topaz and a beryl;" (NIV). Biblical writers used another word for the "span" which refers to a period of time, usually connected to the length of a person's life or a past era. This is one clear meaning in Psalm 39:5, a verse which refers to both the linear measurement based on the hand as well as the length of a life. "You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath." (NIV) Such a use of the word is common in modern English. In our own time, of course, we often use the term to refer to a bridge over a body of water or a chasm, a meaning not found in scripture. A glance at the calendar for this past week reminds me of how a span of history, the span of one woman's life, the life work of her son (a builder of spans) and a popular candy are all interrelated. Helena Opid was born in Poland on October 12, 1840. Her father was a musician. She grew up with an interest in the performing arts, but was more interested in acting than in music. She married Gustav Modrzejewski and had a son named Rudolph in 1861. Her husband died in 1864, and she was married again in 1868, to Count Karol Chapowski. She kept as her professional stage name a simpler, feminine version of her first husband's surname, and she gained popular recognition for her stage roles in Warsaw. She was known as Helena Modjeska. The family left Europe in 1876 to make a fresh start in a new place; they settled near Anaheim, California, helping to establish a colony of Polish folk there. The family ran a ranch, but the going was tough financially. Helena worked hard on learning English, and she returned to the stage, taking on many challenging roles in her new language. She became famous for her Shakespearean work, gaining acclaim as Ophelia in Hamlet, as Desdemona in Othello and as Juliet, all tragedies, as well as the comic role of Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. (All of these plays are familiar to folks who have attended performances in Horse Cave over the span of the theatre's 30 seasons.) Helena Modjeska made theatrical history in Louisville on December 7, 1883 when she played the role of Nora in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House. This landmark play had been given a minor, butchered production (with a conventional "happy" ending) in Milwaukee in 1882. The Louisville production was its first full and honest presentation in America. This first honest staging of any Ibsen play seen by an American audience caused shockwaves among Victorian playgoers when Nora asserted her independence from her husband. Louisville was (and is) a big theatre town; Helena Modjeska was hailed as queen of the stage by her Kentucky fans. A Louisville candy maker, Anton Busath, was smitten by the actress and named a new confection for her. Ever since then the Modjeska, a marshmallow center surrounded by sticky caramel and wrapped in wax paper, has been a popular candy in many parts of the South and Midwest. Much to my horror, I have discovered that some candy makers produce a version of the treat and call it by the bogus name "majestic." It is true Modjeska lovers believe that this candy is majestic, but anyone with a sense of history will want to retain the true heritage of this sweet reminder of a real trouper who commanded the stage in her adopted homeland with her new language. Helena died in 1909, and the Modjeska home in California, Arden, now is a National Historic Monument. Helena Modjeska certainly did much in the span of her life. The story of interconnected spans does not end there, however. Helena's son, Rudolph, adopted a more Americanized first name, becoming Ralph Modjeski (Modjeski, with a final "i," was the masculine version of the streamlined stage name his mother had chosen.) Ralph studied engineering in France, graduating at the top of his class in 1885. By 1895 he had opened his own engineering firm. His first major work was the railroad bridge over the Mississippi at Rock Island, Illinois. In the ensuing years Ralph became known as the most prominent bridge builder in the United States. Ralph Modjeski served as chief engineer of the following spans, among many others:
Modjeski died in 1940, but his bridges still fulfill their purpose after great spans of time. It has been quite a long span of time and distance since Helena Opid was born in Poland in 1840, but the candy bearing her stage name, the roles she played and the bridges built by her son remind us how interconnected the varied stories of our human endeavor can be. Who would ever think that a Polish-American actress, a candy, roles by William Shakespeare and Henrik Ibsen, as well as several dozen massive bridges (including one in Louisville) could all be so intertwined? Amazing to consider, isn't it? Think on that the next time you bring a Modjeska to your lips. I just hope that when you buy a piece of the candy it isn't called a majestic. In the alternative, people in Louisville who want to do homage to the Modjeska/Modjeski legacy without an overdose of sugar have another option. They can take the bridge to Indiana and back. The Clark Memorial Bridge is easy to recognize; it's the downtown Louisville bridge that isn't in desperate need of a new paint job. One note: several confectioners sell Modjeskas over the internet. Bauer's, in Lawrenceburg, KY, ships them out by the box daily. The Bauer Company, which has been making Modjeskas for four generations, is the supplier for A Taste of Kentucky, the store that specializes in gift and food items related to the Commonwealth, as well as official supplier to Arden, the historic Modjeska home in Orange County, CA. I don't do much candy these days, but in my more reckless years I was fond of the Modjeskas produced by Muth's Candy Shop on East Market Street in downtown Louisville (not far from Ralph Modjeski's Clark Memorial Bridge.) If you've never bitten into a Modjeska, you need to hunt some down; take my word on it. This story was posted on 2009-10-18 04:53:00 Click Here for a printable version of the article. Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know. Bookmark: Facebook | Del.icio.us | Suggest To sponsor news and features on ColumbiaMagazine, or for information about web hosting and design, please use our contact form or call 384-3979. |
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