Celebrating Newport’s first celebrity resident

Young Chang

Before Dennis Rodman, John Wayne and decades of more modern

celebrities called Newport Beach their home, there was a woman from

Poland.

Her name was Helena Modjeska and she was the first celebrity to

live in the city. Modjeska moved to Bay Island in Newport Beach in

1908. Her home was replaced in the early 1940s, but James Felton’s

book “Newport Beach, The First Century, 1888-1988” says her arrival

meant “culture really came to town.”

She was retired when she moved here, but in Europe she was widely

admired as a Shakespearean actress and also for her musical,

artistic, literary and designing skills, according to Felton’s book.

“She was someone that everyone respected in the theater,” said Gay

Wassall-Kelly, a longtime resident of the city. “And she was the

first celebrity to become a year-round resident of Newport Beach.”

Back then, the city was well known for being an ideal vacation

spot for the summer.

But Modjeska, who knew musicians including Antonin Dvorak and Hans

von Bulow in Europe, stayed here for more than just a summer and got

involved in Orange County charities.

“Of course, everyone tried to go by on Bay Island, which is a foot

island, to try and see her house,” Wassall-Kelly said.

In Los Angeles, she supported what is now the Los Angeles

Philharmonic, and in the Hollywood scene, she encouraged artists of

all types to keep doing what they did.

According to a recent story by Daily Pilot columnist Judge Robert

Gardner, Modjeska’s son Felix worked for the city’s street

department. He is reportedly responsible for alerting city officials

who were naming Corona del Mar streets at the time that “Pansy” would

be an unwise choice in their effort to go for flower names.

“In that time, pansy was slang for homosexual,” Gardner wrote in

his June 4th column.

The city settled on “Poppy” instead.

Unfortunately, Modjeska didn’t live in Newport Beach very long.

The actress died in 1909, just one year after moving here.

Felton’s book says her death stirred such national and

international attention that it was Newport Beach’s first time in

such a global spotlight.

* Do you know of a person, place or event that deserves a

historical LOOK BACK? Let us know. Contact Young Chang by fax at

(949) 646-4170; e-mail at [email protected]; or mail her at c/o

Daily Pilot, 330 W. Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627