Notable Czech-American Women in Arts and Letters

Notable Czech-American Women in Arts and Letters Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr. This is a follow-up on my previous studies Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr., “Czech (Bohemian) Women in US History: Independent Spirit and their Nonconforming Role,” Kosmas 15, No.1 (Fall 2011), pp.102-139. dealing with the pioneer women of Czech extraction in the US history. This particular paper focuses on notable Czech-American women in arts and letters, including writers, visual artists, music performers, actresses, singers, sports figures and women in the media. Although most professional fields were closed to women through the major part of the 19th century, the area of arts and letters was open to them. This was, in part, due to the fact that this area did not require formal attendance of schools. Before the colleges and universities opened their door to them, all women in this category were necessarily self-educated or taught at home or by private tutors. Professional journalists fall into a different category because they normally require schooling. Because of that, women haven’t entered into this profession until after 1920s. Sports competition, interestingly, was not open to women until after the Federal Title IX legislation was passed in 1972.This generalization applies to American women, as a whole, including those of Bohemian or Czech ancestry. A. Letters For women in the western hemisphere, writing might be thought to be the oldest profession. Much before professions like law and medicine came into vogue, women found that they could support themselves by their writing. In fact, in the 1850s, you had reputed writers like Hawthorne and Melville complaining that women writers were selling far better than them. Harsh A. Desai, “America's Women Writers, Word By Word,” News Blaze, August 26, 2009; Elaine Showalter, A Jury of Her Peers - American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx. New York: Knopf, 2009. And they had good reason to feel cheated! Even in those early days, the best known work was a story, Uncle Tom's Cabin, written by a woman - Harriet Beecher Stowe. First published in 1860, it went on to become the first international bestseller with more than 305,000 copies sold in the first year within the United States itself. It was translated into 18 languages Many of these women writers had no formal education. They often acquired their skills with the pen in their fathers' libraries. Popular fiction was their preferred genre and within it emerged what came to be seen as ‘domestic fiction’ with the family and its fortunes being the heart of the story. The earliest know woman writer of Bohemian ancestry was Susan Anne Livingston Ridley Sedgwick (1788–1867), a native of Stockbridge, MA, who descended from Frederick Philipse, an early settler in New Amsterdam in the mid 17th century. She was a 19th century American writer specializing in children's novels. After her father’s death, in 1813, she took the management of a school for young ladies, which she conducted for fifty years. In 1882 she published A New England Tale. Its success led to a second venture, Redwood (1824) which attained even greater popularity. The followed a long series of tales, letters, and biographical sketches. Hope Leslie (1827), Clarence (1830) and Linwoods (1835) are considered her best. She is also painted a watercolor-on-ivory portrait of an ex-slave who came to work for her family. Lucinda L. Damon-Bach and Victoria Clements, Eds., Catharine Maria Sedgwick: Critical Perspectives. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003; Supplement to Encyclopedia Britannica. 9th ed. New York-Philadelphia-London: J. M. Stoddart, 1889, vol. 4, p. 463. Some thirty years later three women of Czech extraction writers appeared, who descended from Augustine Heřman, Frederick Philipse’s contemporary, who immigrated to America from Bohemia in 1640. These writers were actually three sisters, Mary Elizabeth, Ariana Randolph and Katherine Prescott, all literarily active - the daughters of Rear Admiral Ralph Randolph Wormeley of the British Navy and Caroline (Preble) Wormeley. Mary Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer (1822-1904), b. London, England), desc. f. Augustine Heřman, was a writer and translator who lived in Boston and Newport. In 1852 she published her first book, a novel Amabel; her second, Our Cousin Veronica appeared in 1856. After getting married she suspended her writing career for some 20 years to take care of her family. She resumed her literary work in 1876, writing stories for various magazines. In addition she began writing histories of various countries which were widely popular, including France in Nineteenth Century (189l), Making of Austria-Hungary and Germany (1896). Judea from Cyrus to Titus (1899), etc. She also produced several translations, E. Renan's History of the People of Israel, Louis Ulbach's The Steel Hammer, George Sand's Nanon, J. C. L. de Sismondi's The Italian Republics, The Love Letters of Victor Hugo and others. “Wormeley, Mary Elizabeth,” in: Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton &Sons, 1889, vol. 6, p. 615; American Women Historians: 17002-1990s: a Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996, p. 142; “Noted Woman Writer Dead: Mrs. Mary E.W. Latimer, Authoress, Dies at Baltimore,” New York Times, January 5, 1904. Her sister, Ariana Randolph Wormeley Curtis (1833-1922), b. England, desc. f. Augustine Heřman, was the author of The Spirit of Seventy-six, Or The Coming Woman, a parlor play, which had much vogue in its day, and has been performed throughout Europe. Amateur plays rarely reach the professional stage. The Spirit of Seventy Six was a notable exception. Its success as a parlor farce was outstanding and lasted more than three decades. In 1889, the published play had already reached its 23rd edition. The authors’ intention was clearly anti-feminist and there is little sympathy for radical woman’s rights leaders. Mrs. Badger was, in fact, played by a male actor at Selwyne’s Theatre to emphasize the grotesqueness of the character. The Spirit of Seventy Six, together with two other plays, was published anonymously, although bibliographical sources usually list Ariana and her husband Daniel S. Curtis as joint authors of the collection. The earlier editions, however, credit Ariana withy sole authorship of the title play, which is more likely. Together with her sisters, Ariana wrote the recollections of their father, Rear Admiral Ralph Randolph Wormeley, published in 1879. Bettina Friedl, On to Victory: Propaganda Plays of the Woman's Suffrage Movement. Northeastern, 1990, pp. 15-18. Her second sister, Katherine Prescott Wormeley (1830-1908), b. Ipswick, England, desc. f. Augustine Heřman, was a writer, translator and philanthropist. She served as a nurse with the Union Army during the American Civil War and was head nurse at the Army Hospital at Portsmouth Grove near Newport, Rhode Island. She also played a role in the creation of the United States Sanitary Commission, a government agency set up to coordinate the volunteer efforts of women who wanted to contribute to the war effort. She was one of the best known translators of her time, having translated from the French language many works by Honoré de Balzac, the Narrative of Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de France, the Memoirs of Madame de Motteville on Anne of Austria, as well as works by Alphonse Daudet and Alexandre Dumas, among others. “Wormeley, Katharine Prescott,” in: The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. New York: James T. White, 1900, vol. 8, pp. 366-367; “Miss Katherine Prescott Wormeley, Obituary,” New York Times, August 6, 1908. Mary K. Buck (nee Marjánka Knížek) (1849-1901), b. Bohemia, was brought to America by her parents at the end of the Civil War, when she was 5 years old. They first lived in New York City until 1861, when they removed to Traverse City, MI. Her father was the village's first boot/shoemaker. She attended college and became a school teacher. Early in life she developed a talent for composition, especially for an imaginative kind. She became contributor to several nationally circulated magazines. She married Charles Buck, a general store owner/entrepreneur, member of school board and public works board. According to a critic, because of her daily duties, “she has not much time to woo the muses. Had she more leisure and less of the active life, the world would have known more of her. As it is, her literary work makes up in quality what it lacks in quantity. Her graceful verse is very often found among the fugitive poems that have been so often copied as to have lost name and identity and are bound up in many compilations of choice poetry.“ Originally she had written for St. Nicholas and other leading periodicals, but mainly for prominent newspapers, the Congregationist, Advance, Inter-Ocean, Portland Transcript, Detroit Free Press and Good Housekeeping. As a prose writer, she had written many bright short stories for leading periodicals. In 1891, she collaborated with M. E. C. Bates on a volume of northern Michigan stories, Along Traverse Shores. A collection of her poetry was published posthumously, by her b husband, in 1902, under the title Songs of the Northland. The Magazine of poetry and literary review 5 (1893), No. 1, p. 5; Thomas Capek, “A Forgotten Poetess,” Central European Observer, April 17, 1936; Michigan in literature. By Clarence A. Andrews. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1992, p. 254; A woman of the Century: fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches ..., Edited by Frances Elizabeth Willard, Mary Ashton Rice Livermore. Buffalo-Chicago-New York: Charles Wells Mouton, 1893, vol. 3, p. 134. Martha Wolfenstein (1869-1903), b. Insterburg, Germany of Moravian ancestry, was an essayist, short story teller and publicist. She published widely in the secular literary press and also in the local Anglo-Jewish press and Jewish Orphan Asylum Magazine. Most of her short stories were based on her father's reminiscences from a small community in Moravia in middle of 19th century. Her Idylls of the Gass (1901) is a series of stories about the same character; A Renegade and Other Tales contains stories from the same locale. Ellen Handler Spitz, “Martha Wolfenstein: Toward the Severance of Memory from Hope. Psychoanalytic Review, 85 (1998), pp. 105-115; Nellie Thompson, American women psychoanalysts, 1911-1941. Annual of Psychoanalysis, 29 (2001), pp. 161-177; Martha Wolfenstein. Children's humor: A psychological analysis. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1954; Jewish Women in America. An historical encyclopedia. Edited by Paula E. Hyman and Deborah Dash Moore. New York – London: Routrtledge, 1997, pp. 1486-1487. Josephine Weatherly (nee Havernek) (bf 1870-), b. Prague, Bohemia, writer, was educated at Connersville (Ind.) High School, State Normal School, with special training in music and English. She was a grand chief of degree of honor of the State of Kansas for four years, president of Woman's Relief Corps of Emporia and grand junior of Pythian Sisters of Kansas. She favored woman suffrage and was local speaker in county affairs. She was the author of Parliamentary Law; After Strange Gods, and about 60 short stories published in current magazines and Sunday-school papers. Who’s who in America 1914-1915. New York: American Commonwealth Co., 1914, p. 861. Bertha M. Shambaugh (nee Horack) (1871-1953), b. Cedar Rapids, lA, of Czech parents, graduated from Iowa City High School in 1889, and attended the State University of Iowa 1889-96. Bertha taught natural science at Iowa City High School from 1892 to 1897, until her marriage to Benjamin Shambaugh. She was the author of Amana: The Colony of True Inspiration, and Amana That Was and Amana That Is, in 1908 and 1933 respectively, and Amana in Transition. Who Was Who in America 1969-1973. Chicago: Marquis Who’s Who, 1973., vol. 5. Clara Vostrovsky Winlow (1871-1971), b. West Point, NE, of Czech parents, was a psychologist and writer trained at Stanford and the University of California. Her articles about child psychology came to the attention of Boston Publishing firm which commissioned her to prepare a book about Czech child for their series ‘Little Cousins.’ The resulting publication, Barbara: Our Little Bohemian Cousin (1911) was so successful that the publisher gave her a task to prepare comparable texts about other nationalities, i.e. Our Little Bulgarian Cousin (19l3), Our Little Serbian Cousin (1913), Our Little Carthaginian Cousin of Long Ago (19l5), Our Little Cossack (1916), Our Little Roumanian Cousin (19l7), etc. She also wrote short stories and serials and articles pertaining to child study and magazine features and was active as a translator. Who’s Who in California. Los Angeles: Who’s Who Publications Co., 1941, p. 996. Hortense Flexner (1885-1973), b. Louisville, KY, of Bohemian ancestry, was a writer, playwright and poet. She worked as a reporter and then editor of the women's section at the Louisville Herald from 1912 to 1919. While there, Hortense Flexner met and married cartoonist Wyncie King. Hortense Flexner worked as a writer for Curtis Publishing from 1923 to 1929, while she established herself as an active and published poet. She also taught courses in freshman English and contemporary verse at Bryn Mawr and later, modern fiction and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Her plays include The Broken God (1915) and The New Queen (1920). The Wishing Window (1942), about two French children at the time of the Nazi invasion of France during the World War II, is but one of her several popular books for children. Her poetry collections include Clouds and Cobblestones (1920), The Stubborn Root (1930) and North Window (1943). Her poems were frequently published in The New Yorker. Some of her best poetry was gathered in 1963 in Selected Poems with a foreword by Laurie Lee. In 1971 the University of Louisville honored Hortense Flexner with an Honorary Doctor of Letters for her contributions to American poetry. John E. Kleber, The encyclopedia of Louisville. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2000, p. 484; Wade H. Hall, The Kentucky Anthology: Two Hundred Years of Writing in the Bluegrass State. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, p. 794, 826; Hortense Flexner (King) Papers, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, William F. Ekstrom Library, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY. Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897-1973), b. Haverford, PA, of Moravian ancestry, was one of the world's greatest biographers and authors. She was an accomplished violinist, playing with string quartets in Philadelphia and New York. But it was as a writer that she gained her fame. Her first biography was Beloved Friend: The Story of Tchaikovsky and Nadejda Von Meck, followed by Free Artist: The Story of Anton and Nicholas Rubenstein. The discovery of some less than desirable characteristics in the private lives of various musicians caused her decision to write about ‘good’ men. The following books were the result of this decision: Yankee from Olympus: Justice Holmes and His Family (1944); John Adams and the American Revolutions (1950); The Lions and the Thorns: The Life and Times of Sir Edward Coke (1957). She also wrote Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention (1966), and Family Portrait, a history of her own family in 1970. During her lifetime she was awarded numerous literary and civic honors, as well as honorary degrees. She was also the holder of two of the city's top prizes - The Philadelphia Award and the Gimbel Award. At the time of her death she was working on a study of Benjamin Franklin. The book was published posthumously in 1974 as: The Most Dangerous Man in America: Scenes from the Life of Benjamin Franklin. “Bowen, Catherine (Shoeber) Drinker.” Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Directory of Modern Literature, First Supplement. Ed. Stanley Kunitz. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1955; Shaaron Cosner and Jennifer Scanlon, “Bowen, Catherine Shober Drinker,” in: American Women Historians, 1700s-1990s: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., 1996; “Catherine Drinker Bowen, Holmes Biographer, Dies,” New York Times 2 Nov. 1973, p. 44. Lenore Guinzburg Marshall (1897-1971), b. NYC, of Bohemian ancestry, was a novelist, poet, and activist. From 1929 to 1932, Marshall worked as an editor at the publishing firm of Cape and Smith, where she convinced her company to take a chance on William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, which had been rejected by twelve other publishers. She served as the poetry editor of American Mercury in 1938 and during World War II was active in the founding of children’s writing clubs in the New York City public schools. Throughout her career, she contributed articles and reviews to New York literary magazines. A poet in her own right, Marshall published No Boundary (1943), Other Knowledge (1957), and Latest Will (1969). She wrote the novels Only the Fear (1955), Hall of Mirrors (1937), and The Hill Is Level (1959). Unknown Artists was published in 1947; The Confrontation and Other Stories appeared in 1972, shortly after Marshall’s death; and Invented a Person: The Personal Record of a Life was published in 1979. Obituary, New York Times, September 24, 1971, 34:1; Who’s Who in New York (1960); Lenore Marshall Papers 1887-1980., Columbia University Libraries, Archival collections; Barbara L. Tischler, "Lenore Guinzburg Marshall," Jewish Women in America, op.. cit., 894-895. Marshall’s social concern and political activism were perhaps as important to her career as her literary accomplishments. A member of the Post-War World Council from 1940 to 1962, Marshall expressed profound concerns for the fate of humanity in the wake of world war. She was a founder, in 1956, and member to her death of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. In 1971, she helped to found and was codirector, with nuclear physicist Charles E. Goodell, of the Committee for Nuclear Responsibility, an organization committed to enhancing public awareness of the dangers of nuclear power. This group targeted as especially dangerous the use of nuclear power for generating electricity and the reliance on nuclear weapons as a major component in foreign policy and national security. Hertha Ernestine Pauli (1906-1973), b. Vienna, of Bohemian ancestry, the daughter of the medical scientist Wolfgang Pauli, was a journalist, author and actress. Her brother was the Nobel Prize winner Wolfgang Pauli. From 1927 to 1933 she played different small roles at the Max Reinhardt Theatre in Berlin and was allied with Ödön von Horváth. From 1933 to 1938 she lived in Vienna, edited the Österreichische Korrespondenz and published biographical novels, for example about the feminist Bertha von Suttner. After the Anschluss she emigrated to France. In Paris she belonged to the circle of Joseph Roth, knew the American journalist Eric Sevareid, and wrote for Resistance. In 1940, after the Nazis occupied France, she fled with the writer Walter Mehring through Marseilles, the Pyrenees and Lisbon. With the aid of Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee, she made her way to the United States. After her arrival in America she described her flight in the journal Aufbau. In the following years she wrote books about Alfred Nobel and the Statue of Liberty. Her books for children, in particular, had some success. These books included Silent Night. The Story of a Song (1943), in which she explained the origin of the carol. She married Ernst Basch (pen name E.B. Ashton), with whom she had collaborated on I Lift My Lamp. Her last book was autobiographical and described the time after the Nazi's union with France. Helmut F. Pfanner, Exile in New York: German and Austrian Writers after 1933. Wayne State University Press, 1983; Between Sorrow and Strength: Women Refugees of the Nazi Period, edited by Sibylle Quack, David Lazar and Christof Mauch. Cambridge University Press, 2002. Eleanor Flexner (1908-1995), b. Georgetown, KY, of Bohemian ancestry, was a writer and historian. She was the daughter of the famed education reformer Abraham Flexner, who was instrumental in the founding of the Lincoln School at Teachers College of Columbia University in New York and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.. Eleanor Flexner attended Lincoln School, which was one of the outstanding progressive schools of the time. After graduating from Swarthmore College with high honors in English and history in 1930, she attended Somerville College at Oxford University for one year. Back in the United States, she held a series of promotional and editorial positions in the theater and with the Institute of Propaganda Analysis, the Foreign Policy Association, and Hadassah. In 1938 she published a book of dramatic criticism entitled American Playwrights, 1918-1938, and in 1957 moved from New York to Northampton, MA. Her classic account of the ‘first wave’ of American feminism, Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States, was published in 1959. When she showed the completed book to the distinguished historian Arthur Schlesinger, he recognized its value and urged her to offer it to Harvard University Press, which readily accepted it for publication. The book was notable in demonstrating that the topic was worthy of serious scholarly and analytical study. Flexner was particularly prescient in her use of race, gender, and class in interpreting the struggle for women's equality. Her analysis was a source of inspiration for ‘second wave’ feminists and laid the groundwork for subsequent generations of women's history scholars. Her other publications included Woman's Rights: Unfinished Business (1971) and Mary Wollstonecraft: A Biography (1972). Eleanor Flexner was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Swarthmore College in 1974. Susan Ware and Stacy Lorraine Braukman, Eds., Notable American Women: a Biographical Dictionary completing the twentieth ... Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2004, pp. 213-214; Ellen Carol DuBois, “Eleanor Flexner and the History of American Feminism,” in: Woman Suffrage and Women’s Rights. New York: New York University Press, 1998; Thomas Neville Bonner, Iconoclast: Abraham Flexner and a Life in Learning. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. Maxine Kumin (née Winokur) (1925-2014), b. Philadelphia, MA, of Bohemian ancestry on her mother's side, was a notable poet, novelist , essayist and children’s author. A graduate of Radcliffe College (A.B., 1946; M.A., 1948), she was praised for her novels in literary circles, but she was best known for her poetry, written primarily in traditional forms, on the subjects of loss, fragility, family, and the cycles of life and nature. Critics compared Kumin to Robert Frost and Henry David Thoreau for her precise, unsentimental evocations of rural New England and the rhythms of daily life. She was the recipient of prestigious awards such as the Pulitzer Prize, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award. She was the poetry consultant for the Library of Congress in 1981-1982, and taught at many of the country’s most prestigious universities, including Princeton, Columbia, Brandeis, MIT, Washington at St. Louis and the University of Miami, served on the staff of the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Bread Loaf and Sewanee writer's conferences, and given readings or conducted writers' workshops in every state in the Union, save Hawaii and North Dakota. In 2005, Kumin was the recipient of the Harvard's Arts Medal. When Kumin was 73 she suffered an accident while preparing a horse for competition and broke her neck, receiving serious internal injuries. She was able to make a successful recovery, however, and her book Inside the Halo and Beyond: The Anatomy of a Recovery (1999) describes her convalescence. "Kumin, Maxine," in American Poets. Ed. Rosemary M. Canfield Reisman. 4th ed. Vol. 2. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2011, pp. 1073-1083; Philip Schultz: “Postscript: Maxine Kumin (1925-2014),” The New Yorker, February 14, 2014; Maxine Kumin, Inside the Halo and Beyond. The Anatomy of a Recovery. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2000; Meg Schoerke, “On Maxine Kumin’s Life and Career.” Modern American Poetry. 2002. 24 February 2005. Erika Ostrovsky (nee Spielberg) (1926-), b. Vienna, of Bohemian ancestry, grew up in Vienna’s 7th district. Her earliest childhood memories reach back to Austria’s civil war in 1934. After the Anschluss her father was forced to scrub the street. In early 1939 the family escaped to Mýto, Czech., then to Paris and finally, in August 1939 to the United States. Erika Ostrovsky eventually settled in San Francisco, CA. She was prof. of French at New York Univ. She was the author of: Celine and His Vision, Eye of Dawn: The Rise and Fall of Mata Hari, Under the Sign of Ambiguity: Saint John Perse - Alexis Leger. AHC Interview with Erika Ostrovsky. Anne Bernays (1930-), b. New York, NY, of Moravian ancestry, is the grandniece of Sigmund Freud. She studied at Wellesley College and Barnard College before becoming a successful novelist. Her first novel, Short Pleasures, was published in 1962. She published four more novels in quick succession. Her fifth book, Growing up Rich, tells the story of an orphaned adolescent girl growing up between the German Jewish elegance of New York society and the Russian Jewish intellectual world of Brookline, MA. In 1976, Growing up Rich received the Edward Lewis Wallant Book Award for its contribution to American Jewish life. Since Growing up Rich, Bernays has published four more novels. Professor Romeo (1989) which examines the issue of sexual harassment from the perspective of a harasser was featured on the front page of the New York Times Book Review and chosen as a New York Times notable book of the year. Her most recent novel is Trophy House (2005). In addition, Bernays has also published three non-fiction works. What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers (1990), written with Pamela Painter appeared in 1990. She has also coauthored with her husband, Justin Kaplan, The Language of Names (1997) and Back Then: Two Literary Lives in 1950s New York (2002), a double memoir. “Anne Bernays,” in: Jewish Women's Archive. Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Janet Malcolm (1934-), b. Prague, Czech., is a prosaist and essayist and art critic. Janet Malcolm has been writing for The New Yorker since 1963, when the magazine published her poem ‘Thoughts on Living in a Shaker House.’ For nearly ten years, Malcolm wrote ‘About the House,’ a column on interiors and design. From 1975 until 1981, she wrote a photography column. Throughout her career, Malcolm has contributed a variety of pieces, including Profiles, Reporter at Large articles, and book reviews. She is also a prolific writer of books. Along with In the Freud Archives (1984), her books include Diana and Nikon: Essays on Photography (1980), Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession (1981), The Journalist and the Murderer (1990) The Purloined Clinic: Selected Writings (1992), The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes (1994), The Crime of Sheila McGough (1999), and Reading Chekhov: A Critical Journey(2001), Two Lives: Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in War and Peace (2007). Craig Saligman, “Janet Malcolm,” Salon.com, Tuesday, February 29, 2000. Marlene Fanta Shyer (ca 1935-), b. Prague, Czech., a writer, was brought to the United States by her parents during the Second World War. The family settled in Forest Hills, New York, and Marlene attended schools there, becoming happily Americanized. Marlene is best known for her fiction, including short stories (over a hundred in women's magazines) and novels, picture books, and a play, First Wife, which was produced in Westchester County in 1997. Her first play was written and produced in fifth grade and starred all her classmates. The play was a rave, and it hooked her as a writer. A departure from fiction is her memoir, Not like Other Boys, which she wrote with her son, Christopher. This is the work she considers transcendent, and of which she is most proud. Biography - Marlene Fanta Shyer's Website. Marie Winn (1936- ), b. Prague, Czech., is a prosaist, essayist and translator. She is a writer of children's books and parents' guidebooks. She is the author of Wrote The Plug in Drug: Television, Children and the Family (1978)), Children without Childhood (1984), Unplugging the Plug-In Drug (1987); Family Life (2002), Red-Tails in Love (1998, 10th ed. 2005), Central Park in the Dark (2006). Children=s books: Fireside Book of Children's Songs, Fireside o Book of Fun and Games Songs, The Man who Made Fine Tops, The Fisherman Who Made a Knife, etc. Her translations from Czech to English includes Vaclav Havel=s Temptation (1986), Largo Desolato (1986) and Slum Clearance (1989). Bio and Publishing History, Marie Winn’s Website. Susan Cheever (1943-), b. New York, NY, of Bohemian ancestry on her mother’s side, is a writer. Susan Cheever has published five novels and seven works of nonfiction ranging from memoir to literary history to psychological investigation. Cheever's writing is at once engrossing and unsettling, funny and heartbreaking. Home before Dark, her memoir of her father, the legendary fiction writer John Cheever, is bravely honest yet shows a narrative restraint that would elude a less skilled writer. Her most recent book, Desire: Where Sex Meets Addiction, explores the boundaries between passion and addiction in a provocative yet tempered, lucid manner. Cheever's work has been nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award and was awarded the Boston Globe Winship Medal. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a member of the Authors Guild Council, the winner of an Associated Press Award and a director of the Yaddo Corporation. Cheever has taught at Yale, Hunter College, and the New School. She writes a weekly column for Newsday and teaches in the Bennington College M.F.A. program. Known for emotional intensity and compassion in her work, Cheever has earned a reputation as one of America's most respected nonfiction writers. Susan Cheever, Treetops: A Memoir about Raising Wonderful Children in an Imperfect World. New York: Washington Square Press, 1999. Patricia Hampl (1946-), b. St. Paul, MN, of Czech ancestry, is a prosaist and poet, educated at Univ. of Iowa. She first won recognition for A Romantic Education, her memoir about her Czech heritage, awarded a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship. This book and subsequent works have established her as an influential figure in the rise of autobiographical writing in the past 25 years. She is the author as well of two collections of poetry, Woman before an Aquarium, and Resort and Other Poems. And she has published Spillville, a meditation on Antonin Dvorak's 1893 summer in Iowa, with engravings by Steven Sorman. Virgin Time, about her Catholic upbringing and an inquiry into contemplative life, is available in a recent paperback. Patricia Hampl’s most recent book is The Florist’s Daughter, winner of numerous ‘best’ and ‘year end’ awards, including the New York Times ‘100 Notable Books of the Year’ and the 2008 Minnesota Book Award for Memoir and Creative Nonfiction. Blue Arabesque: A Search for the Sublime, published in 2006, was also one of the Times’ Notable Books; a portion was chosen for ‘The Best Spiritual Writing 2005.’ Patricia Hampl’s Website. Helen Epstein (1947-), b. Prague, Czech., has taught journalism at New York Univ. (s. 1979). She is the author of Children of the Holocaust: Conversation with Sons and Daughters of Survivors (1979), The Companies She Keeps: Tina Packer Builds a Theater (1985), Music Talks (1987), Joe Papp: An American Life (1996, Where She Came From: Daughter=s Search for her Mother=s History (1997). She has also contributed to periodicals, including New York Times, Village Voice, London Times, McCalls, etc. Helen Epstein’s Website. Susan Firer (1948-), b. Milwaukee, WI, of Czech ancestry, teaches courses in creative writing at the Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has been awarded an Academy of American Poets prize and a Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship. Her collections are entitled Her Hands Were Old and Other Poems (1972) and My Life with the Tsar & Other Poems (1979), The Underground Communion Rail (1992), The Lives of the Saints and Everything (1993, winner of the Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize), The Laugh We Make When We Fall (2002). Her poetry has been published in literary magazines, such as Chicago Review, Cream city Review, Iowa Review, Ms. and in anthologies, such as Best American Poetry in 1992. Susan Firer’s Website. Pamela Uschuk (ca 1950-), b. Lansing, MI, of Russian and Czech ancestry. She received B.A. degree from Central Michigan University in 1970 and M.F.A. from University of Montana in 1986. She has written three books of poems, Finding Peaches in the Desert, One-legged Dancer, and Scattered Risks (2005). She has a spoken word CD, Finding Peaches in the Desert, with music by Chameleon and Joy Harjo. New and selected poems are due out of Sampark Press in New Delhi. Her most recent chapbooks are Blood Flower, featured at The Drunken Boat, and Heartbeats in Stones (2005). She is recipient of the Struga International Poetry Prize, the Dorothy Daniels Writing Award (National League of American Pen Women), and the Tucson/Pima Writing Award. Her work has been translated into several languages, and she is editor of Cutthroat, A Journal of the Arts. She makes her home with the writer William Pitt Root, and their two dogs, Happy and Lulu. She was an Honored Guest (2004 and 2006) as well as a featured poet at the 2010 Prague Summer Programs. She taught creative writing at Marist College, Pacific Lutheran University, Fort Lewis College, the University of Arizona’s Poetry Center, Salem College and Greenhaven Maximum Security Prison for men in New York. Pam Uschuk interviewed by Derek Alger, Pif Magazine, March 13, 2009. Kathryn Grant (née Ptacek) (1952-), b. Omaha, NE, of Czech ancestry, is an American writer and editor. Since 1981, she has published science fiction, fantasy, horror, suspense, and romance short stories and novels under her maiden and married name, and under the of pseudonyms: Les Simons, Kathryn Atwood, Anne Mayfield, and Kathryn Ptacek. She is the editor and publisher of the writers-market magazine, The Gila Queen's Guide to Markets. She has also edited several anthologies of short stories. Her short story "Each Night, Each Year" was nominated for the 1989 Bram Stoker Award for Best Short Fiction. Sharona Muir (1957-), b. MA, of Czech ancestry, is assoc. prof. of creative writing and literature at Bowling Green State University. She holds Ph.D. in modern thought and literature from Boston Univ. She is the author of The Book of Telling: Tracing the Secrets of My Father=s Lives (2005), The Artificial Paradise: Science Fiction and American Reality (1995) and During Ceasefire. A Collection of Poetry (1985). Her poetry and prose has been published in numerous journals. BGSU Website: BGSU Creative Writing Program: Sharona Muir. B. Music Although there were several good musicians among the Czech American women, such as the pianist Lily Kraus (1903-1986) or the composer Valley Weigl (1894-1982), they seemed to fair best as opera singers, as shown below. Anna Drasdil (orig. Dráždil) (1841-1929), b. Pustý mlyn, nr. Blatná, Bohemia, was a pioneer songbird (Contralto) to appear in US. She lived abroad for 22 years (1864-86). She performed with world celebrities, such as Adelina Patti. She sang in London Crystal Palace and Buckingham Palace for the British Royal Family and for Russian czarina and Danish queens. During her stay in New York she sang at Grace Church for $2000 annually. Thomas Capek, The Čechs (Bohemians) in America: a study of their national, cultural ... Clementine Kalas (1851-1889), b. Horní Bořkovice, Bohemia, was a famous Czech mezzo-soprano. She sang in Covent Garden, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, as well as in the US and South America. She was particularly known for her role as Carmen, Azucena and Amneris. She died in Brazil while on concert there. Thomas Capek, op. cit. Ernestine Schumann-Heink (nee Tini Rössler) (1861-1936), b. Liben, nr. Prague, Bohemia, was a famous contralto and mezzo-soprano. She made her début at the Dresden opera as Azucena in 1878 which was not very successful because of her lacking stage experience. But there were hopeful signs in her singing. In the next season she made consistent progress in vocal technique and soon she began to reveal a unique individuality in her vocal category. After marriage to Ernst Heink, the impresario Pollini engaged her in Hamburg where she stayed until 1897. She was a much acclaimed Erda, Fricka, Waltraute and Brangäne and performed the roles with Gustav Mahler at Covent Garden. In 1893, after divorce from first husband, she married the actor Paul Schumann. She became a regular member of the Metropolitan from 1898 to 1903. Ernestine Schumann-Heink gave birth to seven children! By then she had begun series of popular cross-country American concert tours that made her into a national legend. Her huge repertory included about 150 roles! Her English and American stage career was mainly centered on Wagner. Her farewell performance was at the Met in 1932 as Erda, one of her greatest achievements on stage. Mary Lawton, Schumann-Heink: The Last of the Titans. New York: Macmillan, Co., 1928; Richard W. Amero, Madame Schumann-Heink: A Legend in her Time, Southern California Quarterly, Summer 1991, pp. 157-182. Anna Růžena Sprotte (1872-), b. Bohemia, was an opera singer (a contralto) and teacher. She had large voice and wide range. She made her debut at Mainz, Germany and had sung on operatic stages of leading musical centers of Germany. She was made Royal Court singer of Saxony and sang with Berlin Philharmonic. She also sang with Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Los Angeles symphony orchestras. In Seattle she organized an opera company and presented fourteen operas. As a pianist she played the Liszt concerts with the Prague Symphony Orchestra when but thirteen years old. She had repertoire of 70 operas and wide stage experience .She resided at Los Angeles, CA. Willey Francis Gates, Who’s Who in Music in California. Los Angeles: The Pacific Coast Musician, 1920,., Emmy Destinn (nee Kitlová) (18781930), b. Prague, Bohemia, was a famous Czech dramatic soprano of notable power and intensity. She made her American debut in 1908 in ‘Aida’ with the Metropolitan Opera in NY, Toscanini conducting, and remained with the company until 1916. She returned again in 1919 and stayed until 1921. Here she sang 247 performances of 22 roles, most often as Aida, Santuzza and Gioconda, also as Butterfly, Nedda, Eva, Mařenka, Alice Ford, Elisabeth, Lisa, .Tosca, Parmina and Valentina. A. Rektorys and J. Dennis, “Emmy Destinn,” Record Collector 20 (1971-1972), pp. 45–47, 93–94 [with discography] ; Marie Bajerová, O Emě Destinnové Praha: Vyšehrad, 1979. Maria Jeritza (orig. Jedličková) (18871982), b. Brno, Moravia, was a famous soprano. She made her debut at Metropolitan Opera, NY in 1921 and quickly secured her place as the prima donna absoluta there. Her exuberant style led to her nickname ‘The Moravian Thunderbolt.’ Her official debut came in 1910 as Elsa in Wagner's ‘Lohengrin.’ Heard by Emperor Franz Joseph, she was immediately signed by the Imperial Opera in Vienna, where she was to be a mainstay until 1935. Over her career, she performed around 70 principal roles at the leading opera houses of Europe and North America, in German, Italian, French, English and Czech. Able to sing works ranging from light operetta to the heaviest Wagner, she was called upon for several world premieres: Ariadne in Strauss' ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’ (1912), the Empress in ‘Die Frau ohne Schatten’ (1919), Marie/Marietta in Korngold's ‘Die tote Stadt’ (1920), Janáček's ‘Jenufa’ (1924), Korngold's ‘Violanta’ (1927), and Strauss' ‘The Egyptian Helen,’ and ‘Salome.’ Madame Jeritza was particularly noted for Massenet's ‘Thais,’ Puccini's ‘Turandot,’ and Bizet's ‘Carmen,’ but her signature piece was the title heroine in Puccini's ‘Tosca.’ After leaving the Metropolitan in 1932, she appeared in a number of movies. Following WWII, she helped raise money to repair the war-damaged Vienna State Opera House. Wilhelm Wymetal, Maria Jeritza. Wien-Leipzig, 1922. 51p. ; Maria Jeritza, Sunlight and Song: A Singer’s Life. New York: Appleton, 1924, “Maria Jeritza, Star of Opera’s ‘Golden Age’ Dies at 94,” New York Times, July 14, 1992. Julia NessyBacker (18891981), b. Prague, Bohemia, a soprano, was a concert and opera singer, she originally studied violin and harp at Prague Cons. Later switched to singing. Růžena Herlinger (nee Schwartz) (1890-1978), b. Tabor, Bohemia, was a soprano. In 1922 she was a member of the newly formed ISCM in Salzburg. She gained a hearing for Webern's Lieder, particularly in London. When she commissioned a work from Alban Berg in 1929, he interrupted the composing of Lulu to write Der Wein, a concert air which he dedicated to her. She gave the premiere 4 Jun 1930 in Koenigsberg under Hermann Scherchen and the Vienna premiere 21 Jun 1932 under Webern. After living in England during World War II she returned to Czechoslovakia in 1946 to conduct the Prague Radio Choir. She arrived in Montreal in August 1949, and taught there, at first privately and then 1957-62 at the CMM and 1963-1970 at McGill Univ. Among her pupils were Josephe Colle, Claude Corbeil, Claire Gagnier, Joseph Roulrau, Huguette Tourangeau, and Andre Turp. Claude. Gingras, “Ruzena Herlinger, Montréalaise d'adoption, vient de mourir à l'âge de 88 ans,” Variations, vol 1, May 1978 Hulda Lashanska Rosenbaum (18941974), b. New York City, of Czech ancestry, was a lyric soprano, known professionally as Hulda Lashanska. Initially studied for a career as concert pianist, she later studied voice. She made her singing debut in 1910. Throughout her career she appeared with some of the world's leading musicians, including Micha Elman, Lawrence Tibbett, Emanuel Feurerman, Rudolf Serkin, as well as with singers of pop music, such as Morton Downey, Frank Cruinit, Jack Smith and Gene Austin. She also appeared in concert in 1928 with George Gershwin. Hulda Lashanska Papers, 1908-1971, New York Public Library. Jarmila Novotná (19032004), b. Prague, Bohemia, was a famous soprano. She made her debut at San Francisco as Madame Butterfly (1939) and first sang at Metropolitan Opera, NY as Mimi in "La Boheme" (1940). She also appeared in twelve other roles at the Met: Euridice, Violetta, Cherubino, Massenet's Manon, Marenka, Donna Elvira, Pamina, Octavian, Antonia, Freia, Mélisande, and Count Orlofsky, the role of her farewell performance on January 15, 1956. Of her 208 appearances at the Met, 103 were in the breeches roles of Count Orlofsky, Cherubino, and Octavian. Lanfranco Rasponi, The Last Prima Donnas. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982; Current Biography Yearbook. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1994, p. 655; Elliott Robert Barkan, Making it in America: a sourcebook on eminent ethnic Americans. Santa Barbara, CA:ABC-CLIO, 2001, p. 261 Thelma Votipka (1906–1972), Cleveland, OH, of Czech ancestry, was a mezzo-soprano, made her début as the Countess in ‘Le nozze di Figaro’ with the American Opera Company in 1927, and later appeared in Chicago (1929–30) and San Francisco (1938–49 and 1952). Her first role at the Metropolitan was as Flora in ‘La traviata’ in December 1935. During her 29-year career at this house she sang in over one thousand performances, primarily in the comprimario repertoire: for example, the Witch in ‘Hansel and Gretel,’ Frasquita in ‘Carmen’ and Marianne in ‘Der Rosenkavalier.’ "Grand Opera Ends With Presentation of Figaro Marriage," The Washington Post, pg. 11, December 15, 1927. Eva Líková (1920-2004), b. Dvůr Králové n/Labem, Czech., was an international opera star, who performed with opera companies and orchestras in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and around Europe and appeared in numerous televised opera productions on NBC and CBC in the early 1950's. She also taught voice at University of Michigan. “International Opera Star and Beloved Teacher Eva Likova Dies at 84,“ PR Newswire, March 22, 2004; Opera News, June 2004, vol. 68, No. 12. Leonie Rysanek (1926), b. Vienna, of Czech ancestry, was a famed soprano in Metropolitan who now appears in world's foremost opera houses. Her Metropolitan Opera debut was in Lady Macbeth in 1959 and culminated with her final performance as the Countess in ‘The Queen of Spades’ on January 2, 1996. She returned nearly every season, performing 239 performances, of 20 roles, including Senta Chrysothemis, Elisabeth, Merschallin, Tosca, Fidelio, Salome, Sieglinde, Amelia, Aida, Elisabeth de Valois, Elsa and Ortrud, Kundey, Desjemona and Leonora. Jane Boutwell, “The Talk of the Town, ‘Leonie Rysanek,’ “ New Yorker, April 4, 1988, p. 24ff; Elizabeth Forbes, “Obituary: Leonie Rysanek,” The Independent, Monday, March 9, 1998; “Leonie Rysanek, Operatic Soprano, Dies at 71” The New York Times, March 9, 1998. Dolora Zajick (1952-), b. Salem, OR, of Czech ancestry, is an American mezzo-soprano who specializes in the Verdian repertoire. After winning the Bronze Medal at the 7th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and being accepted in the San Francisco Opera's Merola Program, she debuted with the San Francisco Opera as Azucena in Il Trovatore which launched her to international stardom. In addition to the role of Azucena, Zajick is well-known for her interpretations of Amneris and Eboli (in Verdi=s ‘Aida’ and ‘Don Carlo’ respectively). Zajick has also performed in other Verdi roles, including Ulrica in ‘Un ballo in maschera’ and Lady Macbeth in ‘Macbeth’ (opera). She has also appeared as the Princess in Cilea's ‘Adriana Lecouvreur,’ Marfa in Moussorgsky's ‘Khovanshchina,’ Ježibaba in Dvorak's ‘Rusalka,’ Santuzza in Mascagni's ‘Cavalleria Rusticana,’ Adalgisa in Bellini's ‘Norma’. Since her debut in San Francisco, she has sung with such companies as the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, La Scala, and Covent Garden. She has appeared with some of the foremost conductors of her era including James Conlon, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, and Michael Tilson Thomas. “Dolora Zajick,” San Francisco Sentinel, Sunday, September 19, 2010. René Fleming (1959-), b. Indiana, PA, of Czech ancestry, is a soprano opera and jazz singer. She has won international acclaim for her operatic concerts and recitals. Fleming has appeared in the world premier of three major operas and was a Grammy recipient in 1998 at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards for her performance of ‘The Beautiful Voice.’ She is one of the most sought after sopranos of today, appearing at such renowned opera houses as the La Scala, Metropolitan Opera House, Vienna State Opera, Royal Opera House at Covent Gardens, and Carnegie Hall. Her repertoire extends to all musical forms. She recently appeared in the role of Blanche Du Bois in Andre Previn's ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ at the San Francisco Opera. She also appeared at the Dvorak Hall of the Rudolfinum in Prague. Renée Fleming, The Inner Voice: the Making of a Singer. New York: Penguin Group, 2004. Phyllis Pancella (1963-), b. St. Louis, MO, of Czech ancestry, is a mezzo-soprano. She was a prizewinner in the 1988 McAllister opera competition and the 1990 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and she won the 1993 Award of Excellence from the Lotos Foundation. Her career has taken her to opera houses in the United States and abroad. At Glimmerglass Opera in 1996 she sang the title role in Jack Beeson=s Lizzie Borden, which she repeated at New York City Opera in 1999, telecast live on PBS. Her European debut was at the Theatre du Capitole in Toulouse, and in the concert hall she has appeared with the National Symphony, the Minnesota, Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and New World symphony orchestras, as well as the Orchestra della Toscana and the Opérade Lyon. “Phyllis Pancella,” Barrett Vantage Artists, 10/2012. Stephanie Novacek (1970-), b. Iowa City, IA, of Czech ancestry, is a Mezzo-soprano and soloist with the Houston Grand Opera. She was a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio from 1996-1999. Her roles at Houston included: Hänsel in Humperdink's Hänsel und Gretel, Messaggiera in Gluck's Orfeo and the title role in Bizet's Carm. Stephanie also created two important roles in new operas: Jo in Mark Adamo's Little Women and Maria Callas in Michael Daugherty's Jackie O. She was a finalist in Placido Domingo's Operalia Competition in 1998. “USA: Stephanie Novacek,” BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, 2001 Competitors. Sondra Radvanovsky (1969-), b. Berwyn, IL, of Czech ancestry, is an American soprano. Specializing in 19th century Italian opera, she is considered not only one of the great Verdi singers of the new generation but also a rising star in the dramatic bel canto repertoire. Her signature roles include Elvira in Ernani, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Elena in I vespri Siciliani and Élisabeth in Don Carlos. “Along with a vocal flexibility that allows her to play with softness and edginess at will, she can float notes of shimmering radiance, yet pour out a powerful, luscious sound that thrills both at the top and bottom.” Paula Citron, "Sondra Radvanovsky," Opera Canada,, September 22, 2003. C. Drama The Czech American women have done extremely well as dramatic artists, both on the stage and on the screen. STAGE Fanny Janauschek (1830-1904), b. Prague, Bohemia, established an international reputation as a performer of the great tragic roles. Among her best were Lady Macbeth, Media and Mary Queen of Scotts. She made her American debut in 1867 in ‘Medea.’ Thereafter she spent most of her career in US playing opposite Edwin Booth and other leading actors. Wiiliam C. Young, Famous Actors and Actresses on the American Stage. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1976, p. 56. Bohumila Ludvíková (1856-), b. Dobrovice, Bohemia, stage actress, came together with her husband, František Ludvík to America in 1893. She was a member of the Ludvík Theater in Chicago and its director. Album representatntů všech oborů veřejného života československého. Praha: Umělecké nakladatelství Josef Zeibrdlich, 1923, p. 1202a. Otilie Splavcová-Stropnická (1866-), b. Prague, Bohemia, was a member of the Ludvík Theater in Chicago. She studied drama in Prague and in Paris. She had her first performance in the National Theater in Prague at the age of 18. She was then engaged for 7 years in the theater in Plzeň. Two years later, she left with her husband for America and joined the Ludvík Theater in Chicago. They toured with the company all over the US. In 1891, they came with the Ludvík Theater to Bohemia for a 3-months tour and performed in Prague - in the Pištěk and the Švanda Theatres, in Plzeň and Roudnice. She remained in America doe 35 years. Afterwards she returned to Bohemia where she continued in her acting career. Album representatntů všech oborů veřejného života československého, op. cit., p. 1204a. Maxine Elliott (1871-1940), b. Rockland, Maine, of Moravian ancestry, an actress, is said to have been one of the most photographed and beautiful actors at the beginning of the twentieth century. She was the star of the stage and motion pictures. In 1908 she built the Maxine Elliott Theatre on 39th Street, in the Times Square area off Broadway in New York – the first woman to finance and build a theatre there. Her first professional stage appearance was in the role of Felicia Umfraville in ‘The Middleman’ at Palmers Theatre in New York on 10th November, 1890. That was with the company of the great English actor/producer Edward S. Willard, in his first US production. She remained with Willard for the next three years, touring the USA and Canada in various productions, most notably ‘The Professor’s Love Story,’ one of Willard’s greatest successes. She began to use the stage name Maxine Elliott at the suggestion of the great actor and dramatist Dion Boucicault. Her sister Gertrude would adopt the same surname for her own stage career. As a young actress, her many boyfriends included baseball’s Hall of Famer John Montgomery Ward and heavyweight champion and actor ‘Gentleman’ Jim Corbett. She quit her acting career during World War I to finance and staff a floating hospital to nurse wounded soldiers in France. She met husband Nat C. Goodwin, the leading comic actor of his era, en route to Australia in 1896. Goodwin was a dedicated baseball fan/gambler, and the stage idol of George M. Cohan. Edward T. James, et al. Eds., Notable American Women, 1607-1950: a biographical dictionary. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1971, vol. 2, pp. 576-578.; Don B. Wilmeth and Tice L. Miller, Cambridge Guide to American Theatre, p. 140.; Diana Forbes-Robertson, My Aunt Maxine: The Story of Maxine Elliott. New York, Viking Press. 1964. Gertrude Elliott (1874-1950), b. Rockland, ME, of Moravian ancestry, actress, was Maxine Elliot’s younger sister. After making her New York debut in 1894, she acted with Marie Wainwright (1895) and Net Goodwin (1897-99), playing Emily in In Mizzoura, Lucy in The Rivals, and Angelica Knowlton in Nathany Hale. She made her London debut in 1899 as Midge in The Cowboy and the Lady and remained in England to play Ophelia to Forbes-Robertson’s Hamlet. After the two were married in 1900, she returned to America several times, playing Maissie in the Light that Failed (1903), a character in the mold of Hedda Gabbler, and creating the role of Cleopatra in G. B. Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra (1906). Critics praised her girlish spirit, playful humor, eloquent speech and dusky beauty. After her husband retired, she managed London’s St. James Theatre (1918). Edward T. James et al., Eds., Notable American Women, 1607-1950: a biographical dictionary, op. cit., pp. 570572; Don B. Wilmeth and Tice L. Miller, Cambridge Guide to American Theatre, op. cit., p. 140. Leopoldine Konstantin (1886-1965), b. Brno, Moravia, was an actress who achieved the attention in 1910, for the first time, when she played Maria in the play Gawan in Berlin. Since 1912 she acted on the Berliner Reinhardt stage but after a lawsuit with Reinhardt she changed to Vienna in 1916. Starting in 1912 she also played in silent movies, initially in title roles. She turned away from this medium when, after the First World War, she was offered increasingly minor parts. From 1933 she returned to film work, and in 1935 she went back to Austria. During Second World War, she was forced to exile, first to London, where she lost her son during a bombardment and later exiled to Hollywood. She is fondly remembered as Claude Rains dominant mother in Hitchcock's film ‘Notorious’’(1946). Her works also include ‘Sumurun’ (1910), ‘Die Insel der Seligen’ (1913), ‘Lola Montez’ (1918), ‘Saison in Kairo’ (1933), ‘Prinzessin Turandot’ (1934), ‘Andere Welt’ (1937) and ‘The Swan’ for television in 1950. Sometime she was credited as Madame Konstantin. International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Émigrés 1933-1945. New York: R. G Sauer, 1983. Blanche Yurka (1887-1974), b. St. Paul, MN, of Czech ancestry. A Broadway leading lady and film character actress. From a comedy role in ‘Is Matrimony a Failure’ she had later shifted to tragic roles, including playing Gertrude to John Barrymore's Hamlet, roles in ‘Gloriana,’ ‘Oedipus Rex,’ ‘The Merchant of Venice,’ ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ ‘Electra,’ etc. She also had film roles, e.g., ‘Tale of Two Cities.’ ‘Lady of the Night,’ ‘The Bridge of Sen Luis Rey,’ ‘At Swords Point’ and others.’ Who Was Who in America, vol. 6. Libuše Prokop (nee Zdeněk) (1894-1986), b. Chicago, IL, of Bohemian ancestry. A graduate of Chicago Musical Coll., where she majored in voice, piano and dramatics. Already in 1915 she was engaged by the Ludvik Co. and played not only in Chicago n but in many cities with a Czech community, for the Ludviks traveled extensively, in many states, as the leading Czech company in the US. Libuse teamed up with George Prokop, whom she married, and together they enjoyed considerable popularity. “Prokop, Libuše,” in: Panorama. A Historical Review of Czechs and Slovaks in the United States of America. Cicero, IL: Czechoslovak National Council of America, 1970, pp. 266-267. Nita Krebs (1905-1991), b. Czech. Actress, Folk Figure. She played the part of a Lullabye League Munchkin in the beloved 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz." One year before her appearance in the Wizard of Oz, she played a part in the all midget movie "Terror of Tiny Town." She was a member of the famous Leo Singer Midgets. Nita's favorite love was ballet. She was featured in many of the Munchkin reunions. Nita Krebs retired to Sarasota Florida, where she died of a heart attack at the age of 85. Michael Neil and Bonnie Bell, “Now a Half Century Down the Yellow Brick Road, Six Munchkins Remember Oz,” People 31, No. 25, June 26, 1989. By Michael Neill, Bonnie Bell Betsy Palmer (orig, Patricia Betsy Hronek) (1926-), b. East Chicago, IN, of Czech ancestry. Palmer is an American actress. She graduated from DePaul Univ. in Chicago, IL. Probably best known for playing the part of Jason Coorhees's mother Pamela in the horror film "Friday the 13th" (1980), she has appeared in numerous movies, TV programs and game shows. She was a long-time panelist on the panel show "I've Got a Secret" (from 1957 to 1967). She played Lt. Ann Girard (the most prominent female character) in the movie "Mister Roberts" (1955) and the character of Carol Lee Phillips in the film "Queen Bee" (1956) starring actress legend Joan Crawford. She starred alongside Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins in the low budget Western "The Tim Star" (1957), which was nominated for an Academy award for Best Writing, Story or Screenplay. Apart from numerous film appearances, she also played "Aunt Ginny" on the TV series "Knots Landing" from 1989 to 1990. She got her first acting job in 1951 when she joined the cast of the 15 minute long, daily soap opera Miss Susan which was produced in Philadelphia. She was "discovered" for this role while enjoying a party in the apartment of Frank Sutton (Sgt. Carter of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.). She had been in New York City less than one week. She also provided the disembodied voice for the title character (the ghost of a dead witch) in the film ‘Bell Witch,’ which premiered in theaters on September 24, 2005. J. P. Shanley, “Realistic Actress. Betsy Palmer Discusses Her Work on TV,” New York Times, July 8, 1956, p. 77. Marj Dusay (nee Marjorie Ellen Pivonka Mahoney) (1936-), b. Russell, Kansas, of Bohemian ancestry on her mother’s side (nee Pivonka). Marj's upbringing included playing every sport imaginable. A gifted equestrian, she trained her own horses to ride in saddle club shows and riding contests, even garnering the title of country rodeo queen. Marj excelled in every area of high school, and was an honor student, debater, and prom queen. While at the University of Kansas she appeared in several stage productions and was crowned Kansas University Homecoming Queen. While living in Kansas City, Marj began her modeling career, and when the family moved to New York for her husband's medical internship, Marj began modeling and studying acting. For his residency, they relocated to San Francisco, where Marj quickly became a top fashion model and nationally-recognized commercial personality. It was there Marj began studying improvisational comedy and radio speech. Ultimately, Marj moved to Los Angeles and began working in theatre and film. Her first break came when Rob Reiner formed an improvisational comedy troupe called The Session, whose members included Marj, Reiner, Richard Dreyfuss, Larry Bishop, David Arkin, Phil Mishkin, Richard Mishkin and Bobbi Shaw. Marj Dusay Official Website. Marj's career to date has encompassed a huge range of roles in feature films and television. Some examples of her work include appearing opposite James Garner on Bret Maverick, four years on the CBS soap Capitol, and NBC's Santa Barbara. She also had a recurring role for seven seasons on NBC's Facts of Life, earning two Emmy nominations for her performance as Blair's mother, Monica Warner. Marj has guest-starred hundreds of times on TV series such as Murder She Wrote; In the Heat of the Night; Perfect Strangers, Friday the 13th; Quincy; Wild, Wild West; Star Trek and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. She has received critical acclaim for her dramatic roles, specifically for her performance in the film Mac Arthur as Gregory Peck's wife, and in Mancuso, playing opposite Robert Loggia. Lenka Pichlíková–Burke (1954-), b. Prague, Czech., American actress, the seventh generation of her family to appear on stage since the eighteenth century. Her great-uncle was the noted national actor, Ladislav Pešek. While in Czechoslovakia, she performed on stage in many theatres, played in twelve films, and created over 40 television roles, rising to the rank of Advanced Master Artist. In addition to performing as a speaking actress, she was also involved professionally in classic pantomime. Since the 1980s she has resided in the United States. In the United States, she has performed onstage in speaking roles as well as in pantomime productions for more than 25 years. Since 1988, she has been a member of the Actors' Equity Association, the union which represents professional actors. In 2006 she was named the “Best Mime” of Fairfield County, Connecticut. She teaches performing arts, dramatic literature, and cultural history, and translates plays. “Time for Mime – Lenka Pichlikova,” The New York Times, February 11, 2001. Donna Murphy (1958-), b. Corona, NY, of Czech ancestry. She is an American stage, film, and television actress. She is perhaps best known to film viewers for her role as Anij, Captain Jean-Luc Picard's love interest, in Star Trek: Insurrection (1998). Murphy, one of seven children, was born in Corona, New York, the daughter of Jean (née Fink) and Robert Murphy (an aerospace engineer). She moved to Hauppauge, Long Island, New York and then to Topsfield, Massachusetts. Murphy asked for voice lessons at age three, and put on shows in Hauppauge. She graduated from Masconomet Regional High School (1977), and studied drama at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She either earned a B.F.A. in 1980. She also studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. Her success on Broadway has been considerably greater. In 1994, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as Fosca in Stephen Sondheim's and James Lapine's Passion. In 1996, she played Anna Leonowens in the Broadway revival of The King and I alongside Lou Diamond Philips. The role earned her another Tony for Best Actress in a Musical. She also appeared in a revival of Wonderful Town (from 2003 to 2005) and in Lovemusik (2007) as Lotte Lenya, opposite fellow Tony winner Michael Cerveris as Kurt Weill. Murphy's recent film roles include The Nanny Diaries as Scarlett Johansson's mother and Spider-Man 2 as Rosalie Octavius, wife of Dr. Otto Octavius, the movie's villain. She has appeared in a number of television series. She played a recurring character in Trust Me (2009), Hack (2002–2003), Liberty! The American Revolution (as Abigail Adams) (1997), Murder One (1995–1996). The Official Dona Murphy Website. Lisa Pelikan (1954-), b. Paris, France, is an actress of Czech ancestry. Her immigrant great grandfather from Bohemia was a tailor who settled in Nebraska with his family. She graduated from the Juilliard School with a full scholarship to its drama division. Pelikan is primarily a stage actor and director, but is also known to film audiences for her film debut as the younger version of Vanerssa Redgrave's title character in Julia (1977) (for which Redgrave won an Oscar), and her role as the widowed mother Sarah Hargrave in the film sequel ‘Return to the Blue Lagoon’ (1991). Lisa's first regular TV work was as maid Kate Mahaffey on the CBS soap opera ‘Beacon Hill.’ Other high points in her career include her performances as the lusty Lucy Scanlon in the TV miniseries ‘Studs Lonigan’ (1979), and the title character of the horror film ‘Jennifer’ (1978). She also won a Drama-Logue Award for her one-woman play about Zelda Fitzgerald entitled ‘Only a Broken String of Pearls/’ She has been married to fellow actor Bruce Davison since 1986, with whom she has one son. She and Davison are currently separated. The Official Website of Lisa Pelikan. Lucy DeCoutere (1970-), b. Canada, of Czech mother, is a Canadian actress best known for her role as the character Lucy in the hit television series ‘Trailer Park Boys.’ She grew up as the youngest sibling of four from British and Czech parents. She attended grad school in Montreal and has held various jobs, including as a kindergarten teacher in Korea. She has also appeared in ‘The Vagina Monologues.’ DeCoutere, grew up and went to school in Montréal, Québec. Introduced to the stage through dance, she was in a number of productions through high school and minored in theatre in university. Immediately after graduation, Lucy traveled across Canada with a theatre company for five months and started dabbling in the film industry shortly thereafter. Lucy DeCoutere’s My Space. Screen Jane Novak (1896-1980), b. St. Louis, MO, of Bohemian ancestry, was a silent screen leading lady in the early l900s. She was the celebrated blond beauty and a leading lady to such stars as W. S. Hart, Tom Mix, Harold Lloyd, Hobart Bosworth, W. D. Taylor, Charles Ray, etc. She made her first film appearance in 1913 and was prominent until coming of sound. The last of her few talking picks was released in 1957, ending a career encompassing 110 films. “Silent Films Star Jane Novak Talks At Length About Her Past,” Nevada State Journal, Friday, November 22, 1974, p. 37. Eva Novak (1898-1988), b. St. Louis, MO, of Bohemian ancestry, was silent screen lady, sister of Jane. She starred as Tom Mix's love interest in ten of his westerns, including ‘Sky High’ and ‘Trailin.’ She was also the leading lady in three films for William S. Hart and appeared in John Ford's classics such as ‘She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,’ ‘Stage Coach’ and ‘Fort Apache. Biography for Eva Novak, IMDb Website. Alice Calhoun (19011966), b. Cleveland, OH, of Czech ancestry, was a silent screen western star. She became an actress with Vitagraph in NY and moved with that company to Hollywood. Until 1932 she appeared in 52 Vitagraph and Warner Bros. pictures. Among her credits were ‘The Man Next Door,’ ‘The Man from Brodney,’ ‘Angel of Crooked Street,’ ‘Our Stolen Night’ and ‘The Little Minister.’ “Alice Calhoun,” in: Stars of the Photoplay. Chicago: Photoplay, 1924; “Alice Calhoun,” in: Blue Book of the Screen, 1923; Ruth Wing, The Blue Book of the Screen, Hollywood, CA: Blue book of the Screen, 1924. Geraldine Dvorak (1904-1985), b. Texas, an actress, was Betty Garbo’s double. When Garbo first saw Dvorak (also known as Jeraldine Dvorak) in 1926 while filming’Love,’ she exclaimed: “Gott! She looks like me!” Dvorak also doubled for Marlene Dietrich. ‘A Woman of Affairs’ was the first Garbo film to have Geraldine Dvorak, her costume double, on the set every day. Garbo did not want to waste her time doing long shots or over-the-shoulder shots. It is easy to see why Dvorak could stand in for Garbo at costume fittings and impersonate her in public. Rilla Page Palmborg wrote: “Geraldine had everything that Garbo had–except the mysterious ingredient that made Greta Garbo.” Dvorak also played one of Dracula’s wives, in Universal classic ‘Dracula,’ starring Bela Lugosi. “Geraldine Dvorak,” IMDb Website. Věra Hrubá Ralston (1923-2003), b. Prague, Czech, at age 13, was the ice skating champion of Czechoslovakia. She competed in 1936 Olympics and was runner up to Sonia Henie in figure skating contests. She studied ballet and dramatics in Prague and London. In 1938 came to US; met Jimmy Johnston who became her manager and who introduced her in the ice revue at Hotel New Yorker and subsequently presented her in the spectacular "Ice Vanities" on tour. After a short stay in Prague she decided to stay in US permanently. When the Ice Capades organized in 1940 she became one a featured stars. She appeared in such pictures as "Ice Capades", "Ice Capades Revue", "Storm over Lisbon", "Lake Placid Serenade", "Dakota"," The Murder in the Music Hall", "Angel of the Amazon", etc. “Vera Hruba Ralston, 79, Dies. Skated in Olympics and Films,” New York Times, February 18, 2003. Miroslava Stern (1926-1955), b. Prague, Czech., future actress, in the late 1930s, moved with her parents to Mexico, seeking to escape war in their native country. After winning a national beauty contest, Miroslava began to study acting. She participated in various Mexican films. During a time, she worked in Hollywood, appearing in ‘Adventures of Casanova’ (1945), ‘The Brave Bulls’ (1951) and ‘Strangers on Horseback.’ She is fondly remembered for her last film, ‘Ensayo de Un Crimen’ (1955), directed by Luis Buñuel. She also appeared in ‘Bodas Trágicas’ (1946), ‘Juan Charrasqueado’ (1947), ‘La Muerte Enamorada’ (1950), ‘Dos Caras Tiene el Destino’ (1951), ‘La Visita que no Tocó el Timbre’(1954) and ‘Escuela de Vagabundos (1954). Alejandra Espasande Bouza, “Remembering Miroslava Stern Becka (1926-1955),” LatinoLA, February 22, 2006. Elamrie Louise Wendel (1932-), b. IA, of Czech ancestry, is an American actress, perhaps best known for her role as Mrs. Dubcek in the NBC sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun. Born on a farm in Iowa, Wendel spent her childhood traveling with her musical parents and dancing with her sisters in and around the Midwest in club and concert hall venues, including the Grand Ole Opry. She eventually made her way to New York where she enjoyed success in both Off Broadway and Broadway productions. A national touring company of Annie took her to Los Angeles, where she made a successful transition into film and television. Her television credits include guest roles on many hit shows, such as Murphy Brown, Seinfeld, Love & War, Murder, She Wrote, and Empty Nest. She appeared in the acclaimed original cable films And the Band Played On for HBO and in Far from Home for Showtime. Most recently, she played a recurring role as Gina, one of the assembly line workers at the aviation factory on George Lopez. See WIKIPEDIA “Elmarie Wendel,” IMDb Website. Kim Novak (1933-), b. Chicago, IL, of Czech ancestry. After winning a beauty contest she was placed under a contract with the intention of creating a new star to succeed Rita Hayworth. She appeared in such films as "The Man with a Golden Arm", "Vertigo", "Of Human Bondage", "Moll Flanders" ,"The Great Bank Robbery", "Legend of Lylah Clare", etc. Named one of 10 most popular movie stars by Box office magazine (1956), All American favorite (1961), Brussel's World Fair poll as favorite all time actress in world (1958). Charles Fritch, Goddess of love. Derby, CT: Monarch Books, 1962. 129p. ; Peter H. Brown, Kim Novak. Reluctant Goddess. New York: St. Martin Press, 1986. 276p. Maruška Staňková (1934-2000), b. Prague, Czech., an actress, was a former head of the Directing, Acting and Writing for Camera (DAWC) workshop. She emigrated from Czechoslovakia to Canada in 1967. She performed both on the stage and in films, garnering a Genie nomination for her performance in ‘Dreams Beyond Memory.’ Her DAWC workshop, created in 1982, was attended by nearly 800 students, including Atom Egoyan and Paul Gross. One hundred and twenty-four short films were produced through the program. Mark Dillon, “Industry to Honor Stankova,” November 13, 2000. Susan Kohner (1936 -), b. Los Angeles, CA, of Czech ancestry. Leading lady in Hollywood films of the late 50s and early 60s, as well as the stage and TV. She is most notable for portraying Sarah Jane, the biracial (African American and white) teenage daughter who passes for white in the 1959 color remake of ‘Imitation of Life.’According to the character, Ms. Annie Johnson; when Ms. Johnson first meets the Lora Meredith character - Sarah Jane's father was not White but a light-skinned Black man. The role garnered her nomination for Academy Award as best supporting actress in ‘Imitation of Life’ (1959) and in 1960 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture. Other films in which she appeared included ‘The Big Fisherman,’ ‘The Gene Krupa Story,’ ‘All the Young Cannibals,’ ‘By Love Possessed’ and ‘Freud.’ She retired from acting after her 1964 marriage to fashion designer John Weitz. “About Two Boys,” JewishJournal.com, March 13, 2003. Barbara Bouchet (orig. Barbara Gutscher) (1943-), b. Liberec, Czech. Blonde leading lady Barbara Bouchet lived in the U.S. from early childhood. An uncommonly beautiful woman, Bouchet rose to fame as a magazine-cover and TV-commercial model. Few actresses displayed their bare abdomens with such frequency as Bouchet in the 1960s: she was fetchingly garbed in harem attire in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (1964), was killed while gamboling in the nude on the beaches of Pearl Harbor in In Harm's Way (1964), and spent virtually the entire running time of Agent for H.A.R.M. (1966) in the briefest of bikinis. In the 1967 James Bond pastiche Casino Royale, Bouchet was seen as Miss Moneypenny, bringing a whole new smoldering aspect to this otherwise demure character. In the early 70s, she switched her base of operations to Europe, starring in a steady stream of forgettable Italian pictures. Barbara Bouchet made a welcome return to American television screens in the 1983 TV-movie The Scarlet and the Black. Biography for Barbara Bouchet, IMDb Website. Olga Schoberová (later known as Olinka Bérová) (1943-), b. Prague, Czech., actress, is often compared with Brigitte Bardot and Ursula Andrews. She acted in 22 Czech, German, Italian and American movies. She was married to Brad Harris (1967-1969) now divorced, have one daughter, Babrinka. Now married to John Calley, living in the US. She became the Czech sex-symbol, years before Paulina Porizkova and many current fashion models, because she was the first beauty from Czech Republic to appear in Playboy, and made it on the front cover, too. “Olga Schoberová,” IMDb Wesbite. Erika Alena Slezak (1946-), b. Hollywood, CA, daughter of Leo Slezak. Stage actress in Milwaukee, Houston and Buffalo and Chicago. With ABC TV show "One Life to Live", NYC (197 ). Recipient Emmy Award for Best Actress (1984, 1986). She has won six Daytime Emmys in the category of "Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series" in 1984, 1986, 1992, 1995, 1996, and 2005, tying the record for most wins by an actor (shared with Justin Deas), as well as the record for most wins for playing one character and by an actress. Additionally, she won a Soap Opera Digest Awards for Favorite Couple with Mark Derwin in 2000. “Biography for Erika Slezak,” IMDb Website. Mary Elizabeth ‘Sissy’ Spacek (1949-), b. Quitman, TX, of Moravian ancestry, is an Academy-Award-winning American actress and singer. Spacek was given the nickname Sissy by her older brothers. Spacek started out as a country singer, recording one single (‘John, You Went Too Far This Time,’ about John Lennon) under the name Rainbo. With the help of her cousin, actor Rip Torn, she was able to enroll in Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio and then the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City. Her first credited role was in the 1972 movie ‘Prime Cut,’ in which she played a young woman sold into white slavery. The first role that brought her notice was the 1973 film ‘Badlands,’ where she met art director Jack Fisk, whom she would later marry. Her breakout role was in ‘Carrie,’ in 1976, in which she played the title character, an emotionally troubled teenager with telekinetic powers. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in the film. She eventually won the Oscar in 1980 for ‘Coal Miner's Daughter,’ in which she played country music star Loretta Lynn. She was also nominated for a Grammy Award for her singing on that film's soundtrack album. She made a comeback of sorts in 2001 when she starred as Ruth Fowler in ‘In the Bedroom,’ winning extraordinary praise and garnering the New York and Los Angeles Film Critics Awards for Best actress. She lost the Oscar to Halle Berry that year. “Spacek, Sissy,” Current Biography 1978 (1979), p. 397-400. Tanya Wexler (1970-), b. Chicago, IL, of Bohemian ancestry on her mother’s side, has been a professional actress from the age of five. She has numerous commercial and local theater credits as an all too precocious child actor. Five years ago she realized that she'd much rather be behind the camera and enrolled in Columbia University's Film School where she earned an MFA. She has written and directed several video and short film projects including behind the scenes of Fallen Angel at Circle in the Square. ‘The Dance,’ her first short film, was shown at The Telluride International Film Festival, The Seattle International Film Festival and the First Look Series at the Tribeca Film Center. Her thesis film ‘Cool Shoes’ was awarded the bronze medal at The Houston Worldfest. ‘Finding North’ is her first feature. She is best known for her 2011 comedy Hysteria. Vancouver International Film Festival – Film and TV Forum. Mary Lynn Rajskub (1971-), b. Trenton, MI, of Czech ancestry, is an American comedic actress . She was one of the original cast members of Mr. Show, and also had roles on The Larry Sanders Show and Veronica’s Closet. Recently she has ventured into more dramatic roles, most notably her role as CTU tech analyst Chloe O’Brien on 24, which she joined in 2003 at the start of the show's third season. Her character was a hit with viewers and critics and was one of the few cast members to return in the show's fourth season. After being a regular guest star for one season, Rajskub became a main cast member in the show's fourth and fifth seasons. She also appeared in Kelset Grammeer’s The Sketch Show on Fox Television and numerous films including Serial Slayer (aka Claustrophobia), Mysterious Skin, Legally Blonde 2m Sweet Home Alabama, Dude, Where’s My Car?, Man on the Moon, Punch-Drunk Love, The Anniversary Party, Firewall, Weezer’s, music video for their song Athe Good Life@, as well portraying a blind girl in Road Trip. She is also a skilled guitar player, and was part of a comic duo (with Karen Kilgariff) called Girls Guitar Club. She also played guitar and sang for a few minutes of a Gilmore Girls episode which originally aired on May 9, 2005. Rajskub has volunteered as an actor with the Young Storytellers Program. Biography for Mary Lynn Rajskub, IMDb Website. Lavinia Gutmann Vlasak (1976- ), b. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, of Czech ancestry, is a Brazilian actress. Former top model, she worked in USA, Portugal, Spain and Germany, among others. She's been always compared to Audrey Hepburn and, then, has already taken many pictures imitating her. “Lavínia Vlasak,” IMDb Website. Heidi Lucas (1977-), b. of Czechoslovak and Chinese ancestry, was an actress during the 90s. She is best known for her role as Dina Alexander on the Nickelodeon show ‘Salute your Shorts’ which ran from 1991-1992. She is also known as Noriko ‘Max’ Matsuda in the 1996 sci-fi series ‘Hypernauts.’ She has been in many movies, TV shows and commercials which include: ‘Saved by the Bell: The New Class,’ ‘Boy Meets World,’ ‘The Wayans Bros.’ and the 1992 action/adventure film ‘Ghost Ship.’ She has also been in TV Commercials for ‘Coca Cola’ (1998) ‘Clearasil’ (1997) ‘Sunny Delight’ (1996) ‘Noxyma’ (1995, 1996) and ‘Secret Ultra Dry Deodorant,’ ‘Johnson & Johnson Persa Gel,’ and ‘Skittles.’ She won Young Artist Award for best young actress in 1993 for ‘Salute Your Shorts.’ It is said that she attended the Indiana School of Law to begin a career as a lawyer. “Heidi Lucas,” tv.com Biography. Kate Kelton (1978-), b. Bamberg, Germany, of Czech parents, is a Canadian artist, model and actress most notable for appearing as the ‘tic tac girl’ in recent television advertisements for Tic Tac candies. Her Czech parents had escaped to Germany where she was born at a refugee camp. Her parents were described as hippies. Kate and her mother settled in Toronto when she was seven. In Toronto, she attended the Etobicoke School of the Arts and received a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Film at Ryerson Polytechnic University in 1998. Kelton began her career as an artist before moving into the genre of acting. She is also a former model. Some of her movie credits have included ‘Harold and Jumar Go to White Castle’ and ‘American Psycho II : All American Girl.’ She has also appeared in Shaggy's music video ‘It Wasn't Me.’ Kate Kelton Website; Debra Smouse, “Meet Actress Kate Kelton,” ATG Interview, all things girl , August 11, 2012. Jodi Lyn O'Keefe (1978-), b. Cliffwood Beach, NJ, of Czech ancestry, is an American award-winning actress and model, who rose to fame at age 17 as Don Johnson's daughter, Cassidy Bridges on Nash Bridges. Also known for her role on Prison Break as Gretchen Morgan a.k.a. "Susan B. Anthony". When she was a child, the youngest of three sisters, she had a bowl haircut and was self-described as a "dork". Her older sister was a model and she decided that she wanted to do the same. She did, and says the modelling job brought her more confidence and more friends. She attended a Catholic school and grew from being the shortest in the class to one of the tallest (at 5 feet 8 inches/1.73 metres). Since leaving she has grown more and now stands at 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m). Midway through her junior year high school she left school to star on the soap opera Another World, playing Marguerite “Maggie” Cory. She then got a role on Nash Bridges, playing Cassidy, the daughter of Don Johnson’s title character. She and her mother moved to Hollywood, so Jodi completed her schooling by mail. She made her big screen debut in 1998 in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and later starred in such films as The Crow: Salvation, Whatever It Takes and Devil In The Flesh 2. She hit the spotlight when she portrayed a conceited and popular high school girl Taylor Vaughan in the teen flick, She's All That (1999) alongside Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook. O'Keefe kept on filming both movies and Nash Bridges until the series ended in 2001. Later films have been Out for Blood where she played a vampire named Layla Simmons and Venice Underground. In 2005, she appeared for three episodes in the first season of Boston Legal. O'Keefe was also in 3 Doors Down's video "Let Me Go", 2005, alongside Jesse Metcalfe of Desperate Housewives. She joined the cast of Prison Break in 2007. She also appeared in episodes of the television series Charmed as the Spider Demon, The Evidence and Two and a Half Men. She also portrayed Tru Davies' high school friend in the episode "Reunion" in the short-lived, 2003 television series "Tru Calling". “Jodi Lyn O'Keefe,” IMDb Website. Winter Ave Zoli (1980-), b. New Hope, PA, of Czech ancestry, at the age of 11, she moved with her family to Prague, Czech Republic, where she was able to fully plant her Czech roots from her father’s side of the family. She transitioned her way from ballet to musical theater, developing a love for the stage, and for the craft of acting. She began working professionally at the age of 13, and developed her resume through acting opportunities on European and American productions that came through Prague. At 17, she attended the Carnegie-Mellon summer school theater program, and at 19 enrolled in the Atlantic Theater Company acting school in New York City, founded by playwright David Mamet, and actor William H. Macy. After graduating from the professional program, Winter moved to Los Angeles, where she resides. She appeared in the 2007 film ‘Sex and Death 101’ as Alexis the fast food beauty. She held the main role of legendary Libuše in the 2009 Czech film ‘The Pagan Queen.’ Winter gained further international recognition with her main role as Lyla Winston on the hit American TV series ‘Sons of Anarchy.’ “Biography for HYPERLINK "http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0880181/" Winter Ave Zoli,” IMDb Website. D. Visual Art The visual art is another area where the Czech American women excelled, starting with Catherine Drinker Janvier in the latter part of the 19th century. Catherine Drinker Janvier (1841-1922), b. Philadelphia, PA, of Moravian ancestry, was prominent artist and art teacher in Philadelphia. She won the prestigious Mary Smith Prize in 1880 at the 51st Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy. The prize-winning painting was titled Old Fashioned Music, and "represented the culmination of twenty years of artistic production." In the 1870s and 1880s, she had strong accomplishment, both as a painter and teacher. She gave private lessons including to Cecilia Beaux, her most gifted student and one who remains one of America's most prominent women artists. Janvier also taught at Miss Sanford's School and secured a teaching position there for Miss Beaux. Janvier and Beaux had a life-long friendship and also a family connection when Beaux's brother married Janvier's sister. In 1878, Janvier became the first woman hired by the Pennsylvania Academy to give a series of lectures on perspective. She had finished about 22 major paintings including historical genre, portraits, and religious subjects and exhibited widely including the National Academy of Design, the Brooklyn Art Association, the Pennsylvania Academy, and the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1928-1936, vol. 5; Who Was Who in America, vol. 1. Ella Klauber Wormser (1863-1932), b. Carson City, NV, of Bohemian ancestry. She had many talents, including painting portraits and still lives, photography, literature and music. She was best known in the art world for her painting and photography skills. “Ella Klauber Wormser (1863 - 1932),” AskART Website. Alice Ellen Klauber (1871-1951), b. San Diego, CA, of Bohemian ancestry. Painter. While living with her grandparents in San Francisco, Alice Klauber attended public schools and later studied art locally at the School of Design and the Art Students League. She further studied with Wm M. Chase, Robert Henri in Spain (1907), and Hans Hofmann at UC Berkeley (1930). As a close friend of Henri, she had correspondence with him that led to his visit to San Diego in 1914. For the 1915 Panama California Exposition, Klauber, who had been named chairman of the art department, Henri, and Dr. Edgar Hewett, director of exhibitions, pulled together an exhibition of work by some of America's foremost contemporary artists. Klauber was affiliated with a number of art organizations and had memberships in the San Diego Art Association, San Diego Art Guild; La Jolla Art Association, and Los Angeles Watercolor Club. With her brother-in-law Julius Wangenheim, she was one of the main forces behind the founding of the Fine Arts Society of San Diego in 1926. She also helped support the Fine Arts Society financially and with donations of art including works on paper by Edward Burne-Jones, Henri Matisse, Kathe Kollwitz and Pablo Picasso. Her greatest interest, however, was in oriental art, and she was one of the founders of the Asiatic Arts Committee. She was named honorary curator of oriental art at the Fine Arts Gallery in 1940, and donated to it important Japanese block prints by Utamaro, Hokusai and Hiroshige, among others. In spite of her many and various cultural activities, Klauber still had time to paint. She exhibited frequently in Southern California, particularly during the 1920s and 1930s, occasionally winning awards. Her work was exhibited at the Panama California International Exposition in 1916, and also at the California Pacific International Exposition in 1935. In 1928, a book of her poems was published by the Denrich Press in Chula Vista. Alice Klauber probably did more for the cultural advancement of San Diego than any other individual. She gave assistance and encouragement to many artists and art organizations, and always strove for aesthetic excellence. Her own paintings show unmistakable talent that perhaps was never allowed to fully develop due to her many other interests and commitments. “Alice Ellen Klauber (1871 - 1951),” AskART Website. Leda Josephine Klauber (1881-1981), b. San Diego, CA, of Bohemian ancestry, a painter, was the sister of artists Alice Klauber and Ella Wormser. After 1951 she was on the Asian Arts Committee at the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery. Her work includes landscapes and still lives in watercolor and gouache. Exhibited in San Diego FA Gallery, 1927; Calif.-Pacific Int'l Expo in San Diego, 1935. Helen A. Salz (nee Arnstein) (1883-1957), b. San Francisco, CA, of Bohemian ancestry, began her art studies locally with Gottardo Piazzoni, and continued with Rockwell Kent and Robert Henri at the ASL in NYC. Early in her career she worked in oil and watercolor, but later switched to pastels. Inspired by the Fauves, her subjects include landscapes, floral still lives, portraits, and genre subjects. Salz was also a poet, civil libertarian, and founder of the Presidio Hill School in San Francisco. She died in San Francisco. “Helen Salz (1883 - 1978),: AskART Website. Wanda Hazel Gag (1893-1946), b. New Ulm, MN, of Czech ancestry. Artist, illustrator and writer. Works held at Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Newark Museum, New York Public Library, Art Institute of Chicago. Wanda Gág, Growing Pains. Saint Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1984; Karen Nelson Hoyle, Wanda Gag: A Life of Art and Stories. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010. Anita Lily Pollitzer (1894-1975), b. Charleston, South Carolina, of Czech ancestry, was an American photographer. Her mother, Clara Guinzburg Pollitzer (born Clara Guinzburg), was the daughter of an immigrant rabbi from Prague. Pollitzer may be best known for her friendship with Georgia O'Keeffe whom she met at Columbia University. Pollitzer introduced O'Keeffe to Alfred Stieglitz helping to forge one of the most significant artist relationships in the 20th century. American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999; Who Was Who u in America, vol. 6. Melanie Kent Steinhardt (1899-1952), b. Bohemia, was an aspiring Czech Jewish artist who left Europe in 1939 and finally settled in California in 1941. This diverse and compelling collection of compositions, portraits and landscapes blends European Expressionism with an émigré’s troubled impressions of two World Wars, a woman’s place in a male dominated world, and her new life in America. The artist’s residency in Inglewood, amid the burgeoning military industrial complex of 1940s Southern California, informed some of her most compelling work, and provided her an opportunity to reconnect with her estranged family. Melanie Kent Steinhardt died suspiciously at the age of 52 in her Los Angeles studio--whether by accident or suicide remains a mystery. Richard T., Hill, Mela - The Life and Art of Melanie Kent Steinhardt. Rabbit Hill Press, 2002. Hana Geber (nee Kraus) (1900-1990) b. Prague, Bohemia, a sculptor, studied in Prague and at Art Students League and Sculpture Center, New York. She was known for her modern sculpture of Biblical subjects in bronze, silver and terra cotta; designer of ceremonial objects for use in home an synagogues. Recipient of gold medal from National Assn. for Women Artists and first prize from American Society of Contemporary Artists. International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Émigrés 1933-1945, op. cit. Amy Josephine Klauber Wormser (1903-1988), b. San Diego, CA, of Bohemian ancestry, was a painter who studied at Mills College, Oakland under Roi Partridge, and in Vienna at the Kunstgewerbeschule (1929-31). She later returned to the CSFA for further study with emphasis on applied design. Her paintings were done between 1920-1940s. She then specialized in fabric and wallpaper design. “Amy Josephine Klauber Wormser (1903 - 1988),” AskART Website. Sonja Bullaty (1924-2000), b. Prague, Bohemia, was a photographer married to Angelo Lomeo. Sonja Bullaty was assistant to renowned Czech photographer Josef Sudek in Prague. She had done assignment photography for magazines, books, and advertising in this country and abroad. Personal projects involve themes such as Kafka's Prague, The Seasons, Ways of Seeing the World's Landscapes and Cityscapes, Nature, Light and Color. Bullaty and Lomeo have exhibited their work together and separately, in this country and abroad. Their work has been shown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; International Center of Photography, NYC; George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; Museum of Modern Art, San Paolo, Brazil; UMPRUM Museum, Prague, Czechoslovakia; Witkin, Neikrug, Cityana, Space, and Nikon House Galleries, NYC; the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA; and others. Books by Sonja Bullaty and Angelo Lomeo include: Provence, Tuscany, and Venice and the Veneto (Abbeville Press), Circle of Seasons: Central Park Celebrated (Amaryllis), and Vermont in all Weathers (Viking). Their photographs have appeared in Life, Time, Orion, Audubon, Geo, Horizon, Horticulture, and numerous other prestigious publications. Their next book, America, will be published by Abbeville Press in 1999. Bullaty and Lomeo were the first recipients of The Orion Society's Olivia Ladd Gilliam Award. “Sonja Bullaty, 76, a Photographer of Lyricism,” Obituary, New York Times, October 13, 2000. Eva Fuka (1927-), b. Prague, Czech., photographer, attended the State School of Graphic Arts in Prague under Professor Rudolf Skopec, and later studied at the Academy of Visual Arts (from 1945 to 1950). A member of a group of dissident intellectuals, she was known for her melancholic and surreal effects. In 1967 she defected with her family to the US. She is now retired, and shares her time between New York City, Prague, Paris and the French Alps where she spends her summers. Eva Fuka has had numerous one-woman shows here and abroad. Her last exhibition took place in 2001 in the Prague House of Photography. Important recent group exhibitions in which she has participated include A History of Women Photographers (1850-1975), a traveling exhibition that originated in the Akron Art Museum in 1996, and One Hundred years of Photography, in the Discovery Museum in Connecticut in 2000. Her work is included in the collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; the Akron Museum; in the International Center of Photography and the Museum of Modern Art, in New York, among others. Her photographs appear in numerous books and encyclopedias. Willoughby, Ian (Interviewer), "Eva Fuka - Part 1,” Radio Prague, May 21, 2007; “Part2,:, Ibid. May 22, 2007. Juliet Hartford (1968-), b. New York, NY, of Bohemian ancestry, is the daughter of A&P heir Huntington Hartford. Her father was the original owner and developer of Paradise Island in the Bahamas. Juliet is an artist (painter) spending time in London, Paris and New York. She has worked with Elite Model and has done shoots for both the German and American Vogue. Juliet appeared in the film ‘Plain Clothes’ (1988), and she also played herself in ‘Born Rich,’ a documentary on HBO. “Biography for Juliet Hartford,” IMDb Website. Jana Štěrbák (1955-), b. Prague, Czech. Sculptor. Štěrbák left Czechoslovakia with her parents in 1968 after the Prague Spring, settling first in Vancouver before moving to Montréal to complete her studies at Concordia University. She has had a peripatetic career, living in both Toronto and New York before returning to Montréal. At present she divides her time between Montréal and Paris. Since her inclusion in the Aperto exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 1990 and a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in 1991, she has exhibited extensively in solo and group shows in Europe. The National Gallery, the Musee d'Art Contemporain de Montreal and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris hold key examples of her work. The Canadian Encyclopedia. E. Sports Prior to 1870, activities for American women were recreational rather than sport-specific in nature. They were noncompetitive, informal, rule-less, emphasizing physical activity rather than competition. Women's opportunities for competitive physical activity were limited in America until Federal Legislation, commonly referred to as Title IX, became law. It required American society to recognize a woman's right to participate in sports on a plane equal to that of men. As noted below, Czech American women became competitive, as soon as the occasions presented themselves, many of them becoming outstanding in just about every sports category. Athletics Olga Fikotová Connolly (1932-), b. Prague, Czech., took the Czech discus title in 1955 and 1956 and then went on to win the Olympic gold medal with a new record of 176'1''. There she met Hal Connolly, the US hammer thrower champion whom she subsequently married. As an American citizen, she represented the US at the next four Olympiads. She won five AAU titles between 1957 and 1968 and, at the Olympics, she finished seventh in 1960, 12th in 1964, and then sixth in 1966. In May 1972 she beat Earlene Brown’s 12-year-old record with a throw of 179' 2" and later that month she improved the record to 185' 3". At the 1972 Olympics she was selected to carry the US flag at the opening ceremonies. Brian Pinelli, “The Golden Girl. Olga Fikotová — Olympic gold medalist returns to Prague after half a century,” The Prague Post, December 20, 2006. Gymnastics Mildred Prchal (1895-1983), b. Early pioneer in the field of women’s gymnastics. She was the first director of women in any Sokol organization, who introduced the concept of rhythmic gymnastics into women’s straining. After studying this new technique in Prague and Paris in the 1920s, she went on to become the president of modern rhythmics, and she also served on the US Olympic Committee. She was inducted into the National Hall of Fame for Gymnastics in 1973. Gymnastics Who’s Who, 2005. Laddie Bakanic (nee Hniz) (1924-), b. New York City, of Czech ancestry, gymnast, began her training in the NY Sokol at the age of five and soon had mastered the intricate routines, winning most of the Sokol gymnastic meets. At the age of thirteen she won first place in the Sokol Junior Girls Championship and in 1946 she won the Sokol Senior Women’s championship. She also successfully competed in amateur AAU gymnastic meets, winning first place in the junior championship in 1941 and second in the Senior Championship in 1944. She was a member of the US gymnastic team that won the bronze medal at the 1948 Olympics. “Bakanic, Laddie,” in: Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000, pp.41-42. Kim Zmeskal (1976-) , b. of Houston, TX who was the first US gymnast to win the all-around in the world championship. She emerged as one of the country=s top women gymnasts in 1989, when she won the all-around balance beam, and floor exercise in the American classic. She also scored her first perfect 10.00 in the floor exercise, while winning the all-around in the Arthur Gardner Memorial meet in Switzerland. In 1990, Zmeskal won the first of three consecutive US all-around championships, and had two perfect scores in the vault and floor exercise, in winning the all-around championship and the US Challenge meet. She was the 1991 world all-around champion and during the 1992 world championship she was the only athlete to win two gold medals. Michael Janofsky, “Zmeskal Driven to Overall Success,” New York Times, September 15, 1991. Norma Zabka (1928-), b. New York, NY, of Czech ancestry. Norma Zabka is 1996 U.S. Hall of Fame Inductee for her pioneer works in the development and progress of "Rhythmic Gymnastics" in the U.S. and for her services as a national and international judge. She has been a Sokol member since age four and currently serves as President of Sokol NewYork. Sokol New York is the legacy left to Yorkville by the 19th and 20th century Czech and Slovak immigrants, their children, and grand children, and maintained today by them working as volunteers. Sokol started in Prague in 1862. In 1865 the first USA Sokol was established in St. Louis and with New York following in 1867. Gymnastics Who’s Who, 2005. Acrobatics Lillian Leitzel (1892-1931), b. Breslau, Germany, of Bohemian mother, was a circus performer for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus. She was known as the Queen of the circus. Renowned for her beauty, her grace, and her amazing one-arm swings, which made her resemble a human pinwheel in the air, she was the first person named to the Circus Hall of Fame. She commanded a pre-eminence never attained by another star in any circus on Earth. Leitzel performed on the Roman Rings and on a swivel rope in the tent top. Although seldom can a man chin himself even once with one hand, Lillian could chin herself 19 times with her left hand and 27 times with her right hand. The tiny performer, only 4 feet 9 inches tall, herself created her spell-bounding two-part solo act that climaxed in a breathtaking feat of skill and endurance. For six minutes the elfin Leitzel performed, to stirring music, on two 8-inch Roman Rings, with a grace unique in aerialist history. Near the tent top on a single rope, Lillian hung by one wrist, her hand slipped into a noose of a metal swivel. Swinging her body over her shoulders, she would complete the full circle to the awed counting - aloud of the tense audience. She did this 150 times each show -- two a day -- and, once she reached 239 such turns, her face alight with laughter, her heavy blond hair breaking away from its pins to ripple about her like bright pennant. On Friday, the 13th of February, 1931, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Lillian fell to the arena floor when her rope swivel crystallized and snapped. Her death was one of history's greatest losses to the entire circus world. Lillian Leitzel was the first and sole inductee elected into the Circus Hall of Fame in 1958. Lillian Leitze’s biography, Ringling Bros. website; “Alfredo Codona and Lillian Leitzel,” Hollywood Remain To Be Seen: Inglewood Park Cemetery, CemeteryGuide.com Olinka Bertini (1954-), b. Czech., is an accomplished circus performer and aerialist. Descended from an honorable and well-respected circus family, the Valla-Bertinis, she has excelled in a variety of circus arts including trapeze, unicycling, and balancing on her head on a trapeze as it spins and descends to the earth. She holds a record in the Guinness Book of Records for a unique walk she did upside down suspended only by her toes! Several years ago she was honored by a popular magazine as being one of the 100 Best Wives of All Time! Sandra Sparks, “Balancing Act: the Wallendas,” Antique Trader, February 25, 2008. Eleanore Pelikán (ca 1872-1954), b. Bohemia. Circus trapeze performer. She had invented so called gigantic half flange, using a leather handgrip and shoulder pivot for body spinning. She was a mother of the late Ringling aerialist, Lillian Leitzel. She retired at age of 54 and then resided in Czechoslovakia until returning to the US, following the World War II. She spent 40 years touring with circus in US, such as Poland, Ireland, England and Germany. Alida Wallenda-Cortes ( ), b. , of Czech ancestry; great granddaughter of the famous Karl Wallenda. She is the 7th generation of one of the most well known circus families of all time, The Flying Wallendas. She represents not only them, but also the Czech Republics unicycling champions The Bertinis and one of Italy's best known bareback riders, Alberto Zoppe.’ Alida began performing in the circus ring at the age of three clowning around with her father, Tino Wallenda-Zoppe’. When she was eight, she was allowed to try out the high wire, and by ten was made a regular member of the act with her dad and mom, Olinka Bertini. When she was 13, she added Spanish web to her repertoire, and at the age of 18, decided to put together her own act on the cloudswing. Along the way in her career, she has performed on the double trapeze, on horseback, and in the family's unicycle act. In 1999, Alida also started performing on the cradle and flying trapeze, when she married Robinson Cortes. While performing in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Germany, and France some of her most memorable moments are... Helping to recreate The Flying Wallendas 7 person pyramid in 1998. (She was the first female in her family to hold the front, center level position.) Being part of her family's Guiness Book of World Records 8 person pyramid in 2001. (Also a 10 person pyramid was performed, but not officially recorded.) Winning a silver statue for performing the 7 person pyramid with her family at the 28th International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo in 2004. 4) Doing her first skywalk in downtown Houston in 1997. “Alida Wallenda-Cortes,” The Flying Cortes Website. Tennis Martina Navrátilová (1956-), b. Prague, Czech., at the age of 16 was the highest ranking female tennis player in her homeland and remained so until 1975, when she defected. After several years of adjustment, she won her first major American tournament, the 1978 Virginia Slims championship in Oakland, and then went on to win the British Open, title at Wimbledon with back-to-back victories in 1978 and 1979. She then teamed with Chris Everet and Billy Jean King, winning the Wimbledon doubles title in 1978 and 1979, and added 1979 Avon and Colgate Series championships to her victories. In 1979 she was considered first in the world. She continued her winning streak in the British Open, at Wimbledon nine times between 1978 and 1990. In 1982 and 1984 she added the French Open and won the US Open on four different occasions and finished second between 1981 and 1987. She also won the Australian open in 1981 and 1983 and the Canadian National championship in 1983 and 1984. She was named the Female athlete of the Year in 1983 by the associated press. That year, she played in 17 tournaments, wining 16 of them, had 86 victories, losing only one against Kathleen Horvath. Many tennis experts consider her the finest women’s tennis player of the 20th century. Adrianne Blue, The Lives and Times with Martina Navratilova. New York: Carol Publishing Corp., 1995; Richard FitzPatrick, “Navratilova, Martina,” in: Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000, pp. 335-336; Johnette Howard, The Rivals: Christ Everet vs. Martina Navratilova. Their Epic Duels and Extraordinary Friendship. New York: Crown Archtype, 2005. Figure Skating Maria Jelínek (1942-), b. Prague, Czech., is a Canadian pair skater. She competed with her brother Otto Jelínek. They were the 1962 World Champions, the 1961 North American national champions, and 1961-1962 Canadian national champions. They represented Canada at the 1960 Winter Olympics, where they placed 4th. The pair was the first to perform lifts with several rotations, and also performed side-by-side double jumps. The Jelínek family fled to Canada from Czechoslovakia in 1948 at the beginning of the Cold War. While competing, the pair was warned not to return to Czechoslovakia for events, but chose to do so despite political and personal concerns. They won their World title in the original home city of Prague. The Jelíneks retired from competition later in 1962, and toured professionally with ‘Ice Capades.’ The Jelíneks were inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1962 and into the Skate Canada Hall of Fame in 1994. “Maria Jelinek,” Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. Nicole Bobek (1977-) of Chicago, is the daughter of Czech refugee Jana Bobková. She relocated with her mother, first to the West Coast, then to Colorado Springs, then to Cape Cod, and eventually to Detroit, MI. She won her first title in 1991- a gold medal at the Olympic Festival and another at the 1991 Vienna Cup in Austria. Under the guidance of Coach Caallaghan in 1995, she won US Women’s Figure championship, by beating the favored Michelle Kwan. She then went on to win a bronze medal at the world championship. During her appearance with ‘The Nutcracker on Ice’, she aggravated an ankle injury which curtailed her practice time and severely affected her future performance, including her disappointing showing at the 1998 Winter Olympiad. Mike Pritchard, “Nicole Bobek Takes Back the Ice At 'Caesars II Tribute,'” Atlantic City Weekly, December 7, 2011; Philip Hersh, “Bobek not skating on thin ice anymore,” Chicago Tribune, January 21, 2012. Swimming Linda Louise Jezek (1960-), b. Palo Alto, CA, probably of Czech ancestry, is an American swimmer. After winning the AAU 100m backstroke in 1975 and 1976, she won the same event in the 1976 Final Trials. Jezek was a member of the second-place U.S. team in the 4x100-meter medley relay at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec. She set the 200-meter backstroke world record (long course) in 1978. Jezek was inducted into the ‘George F. Haines International Swim Center Hall of Fame’ in 2002. “Linda Jezek,” SR/Olympic Sports: Athletes. Shooters Kateřina Emmons (née Kůrková) (1983-), b. Pilsen, Czech., is a female Czech sport shooter who competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics, where she won a bronze medal, and the 2008 Summer Olympics, where she won her first gold medal in the women's 10 meter air rifle competition, and the very first gold medal of that particular games. On her way to the gold medal, Emmons equaled the qualifying round world record and set a new Olympic record by achieving a maximum score of 400. She then proceeded to set a new Olympic record in the final by totaling 503.5. Emmons is married to American Olympic rifle shooter Matthew Emmons. They both live and train at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center. The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, August 8-24 2008. F. Media As journalism became a profession, American women were restricted by custom and law from access to journalism occupations, and faced significant discrimination within the profession. This began to change with the onset of the World War I, of which Martha Gellhorn is an outstanding example. Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998), b. St. Louis, MO, of Bohemian ancestry, was an American novelist, travel writer and journalist, considered to be one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century. Martha Gellhorn first started working foreign correspondent, for the United Press bureau in Paris, and later, in 1937, she reported on the Spanish Civil war. It was there she began a relationship with her future husband, Ernest Hemingway. Before the Second World War, Gellhorn reported on the growing popularity of Adolf Hitler, and later covered the conflict from Finland, Hong Kong, Burma, and Britain. She went as far as to go undercover as a stretcher-bearer to witness the D-Day landings. After the war Gellhorn dispatched from other conflicts including the Vietnam War, the Six-Day War and the wars in Central America. She published numerous books including The Face of War (1959), a collection of her war reports, and Travels With Myself and Another (1978, recounting her relationship with Hemmingway). Angelia Hardy Dorman, Martha Gellhorn: Myth, Motif and Remembrance. Seattle, WA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012; Kate McLoughlin, Martha Gellhorn: The War Writer in the Field and in the Text. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2007; Peter Moreirar, Hemingway on the China Front: His WWII Spy Mission With Martha Gellhorn. Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2007; Carl Rollyson, Nothing Ever Happens to the Brave: The Story of Martha Gellhorn. New York: St Martin’s Pr., 1990; Carl E. Rollyson, Beautiful Exile: The Life of Martha Gellhorn. London: Aurum Press, 2007. Anna C. Hridel (1913-1996), b. Cleveland, OH, of Czech ancestry, was a radio music journalist and manager. She had a long career in broadcasting ethnic music on Cleveland Radio. She began her Cleveland radio career in 1933, and over the years she sang on WGAR-FM, performed with the Louis Rich radio orchestra and recorded songs in both English and the Czech language for RCA Victor records. She had a daily radio program on WDOK-FM, and was later production manager for WHK-AM. Hridel also helped to establish ethnic programming for WEWS Channel 5. “Hridel, Anna C.,” The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Hana Gartner (1948-), b. Prague, Czech., is a Canadian television journalist, who has hosted a variety of programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. She began her career as a radio host at Montreal's CJAD in 1970, and joined the CBC in 1974. In 1976, she was host of CBC Radio's ‘This Country in the Morning, ‘replacing Judy LaMarsh. The following year, she moved to television, as a co-host of both the CBC's local newscast in Toronto and the network's afternoon public affairs program Take 30. In 1982 Gartner became co-host of the CBC's prime time newsmagazine, the fifth estate. In 2994, she was given an interview series, ‘Contact with Hana Gartner,’ to showcase a different side of her journalistic skills than the investigative reporting of the fifth estate. In 1995, she was named co-host of ‘Prime Time News’ after Pamella Wallin's departure from that newscast. In 2000, Gartner returned to the fifth estate. Gartner won the Gordon Sinclair Award for excellence in broadcast journalism in 1985. She has also won three Gemini Awards. "CBC's Hana Gartner retires after 35 years with 'The Fifth Estate' and CBC News," Winnipeg Free Press, May 11, 2011. Mika Emilie Leonia Brzezinski (1967-), b. New York City, of Czech ancestry on her mother’s side, is a TV journalist at MSNBC. Brzezinski is co-host of MSNBC's weekday morning program, Morning Joe. In addition to providing regular commentary, she also reads the news headlines for the program. Brzezinski also anchors the 9am ET hour of MSNBC Live. Additionally she reports for NBC Nightly News, and serves as alternating news anchor on Weekend Today. Previously, she was a CBS News anchor and correspondent. Her memoir All Things At Once became a ‘New York Times’ best seller in January 2010 and her second book, Knowing Your Value, which examines the role of women in the workplace, reached #1 on the ‘New York Times’ best sellers list for business books in spring 2011. She also writes ‘Getting What You Want’ for Cosmopolitan, a monthly column about career confidence and empowerment. “Morning Mika,” Mika Brzezinski’s Personal Website. Monica Novotny (1972-), b., of Czech ancestry, is a former news anchor for MSNBC. She joined MSNBC after four years working at the Channel One network as a reporter and anchor, where her work was seen daily by some 8 million teenagers and their teachers. Novotny joined MSNBC as an Internet reporter for HomePage. She has covered major stories both in the US and internationally, including the 1999 earthquake in Turkey, the conflict in Kosovo, the funeral of King Hussein of Jordan and the explosion of a deadly volcano on the island of Montserrat. In the U.S., she reported on President Clinton’s impeachment, the risks of a chemical weapons incinerator in Utah, Election Night 1996 in Little Rock and the Clinton-Dole debate. Novotny won a Gracie Award in 2000 for a series of reports chronicling the Women's suffrage movement through six generations of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's family. She won a Golden Apple in 1998 for ‘The Long Road to Freedom,’ and a Telly Award in 1996 for a report on ‘Life on Mars.’ In 2003 she became a correspondent for MSNBC's ‘Countdown with Keith Olbermann.’ More recently, she also served as a substitute host for ‘The Most with Alison Stewart,’ ‘First Look,’ and ‘Early Today.’ Weddings/ Celebrations: Monica Novotny, Michael Foley, New York Times, May 16, 2004; “Monica Novotny returns to MSNBC…”, Inside Cable News, April 23, 2007. Eva Jinek (1978-), b. Tulsa, OK, of Czech parents, is a journalist and television presenter, living in Holland. She grew up in Washington, DC but, when she was eleven, she moved with her parents to Netherlands. After studying American history at the University of Leiden in 2004, she became foreign editor of the Dutch public network news NOS Journaal, where she covered the United States. In addition, since the end of 2007 she anchored the news show NOS Journaal 3. Since the autumn of 2008, Jinek presented the morning and afternoon news bulletins of the NOS. She is well known as a co-host of the show 'Amerika Kiest' (America Votes) of the NOS on the US presidential elections, seen from the Netherlands on November 4 and 5th, 2008. Together with Philip Freriks she reported directly from the Occidental Restaurant near the White House. On January 20, 2009, she was the host of the live broadcast on Nederland 1 of the inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th President of the United States. She debuted as radio show host on June 4, 2010, for the program Met het Oog op Morgen (A Glance at Tomorrow). She now hosts the show every Monday night. Stephen Vanfleteren, ”Interview with Eva Jinek,” de Volkskrant, December 24, 2010. Epilogue Comparatively speaking, in the area of arts, the Czech American women did best as writers and as opera singers and in the dramatic arts, generally. Quality-wise, as well as quantity-wise, their work in these fields equaled that of men, if not exceeding them. They have also excelled in just about every type of sport. Most recently they have also begun to be recognized as outstanding TV reporters and anchors. Endnotes PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 1