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Aarne (Alarik) Orjatsalo (1883-1941) | |
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Finnish actor, adventurer and writer, who died after a stormy life in the United States. The tall and handsome, Aarne Orjatsalo attracted the attention of the public, and won success in leading roles in such plays as Othello, Hamlet, and Kullervo. After the Finnish Civil war (1917-18) Orjatsalo fled from the country for 12 years. "Siitä on jo kauan, kun minä luin Per Gyntin, silloin, muistatko, kun me ensi kerran tutustuimme. Sinä Jorma – sinä olet aivan kuin Per Gynt – samanlainen juuri. Sinä lennät taivaita ja maita, kummastut, kun ihmiset eivät voi sinua seurata, uskot heistä hyvää, petyt ja vasta sitten kun elämä ja kokemukset ovat sinua – oikein rusikoineet , vasta sitten sinä opit lauseen – " (from Viettelijä by Aarno Orjatsalo, Helsinki: Oppian, 2019, p. 12; first published in Tampere by Sulo Toivonen, 1907) Aarne Riddelin (later Orjatsalo) was born in Simo, the son of
the forest
officer Karl Alarik Riddelin (later Ritarsalo)
and Anna Aline
Braxén. His birth weight was over 6 kilos. The family soon moved to
Paltamo and then to Kajaani. Before going to school, the young Aarne
was tutored at home by Eino Leino's sister
Hilda. After secondary school studies in Vaasa and Tampere, Orjatsalo
started his career as
an actor in 1901, at the age of 17. He began at the Finnish
Maaseututeatteri, managed by Kasimir Leino, but he embarked on his true
artistic career in Helsinki at the Finnish Theatre; Orjatsalo's name
(he still used the surname Riddelin) appered in reviews. The
manager Kaarlo Bergbom,
one of the founders of the Finnish Theatre in 1872, employed many
young actors, among them Alli Paasikivi, Elli Tompuri and Orjastalo.
During this period Orjatsalo joined the Finnish Labour Party, which
changed in 1903 its name to the Social Democratic Party of
Finland. Following a drunk night out with his friends and some pilfering ‒ he pawned his roommate's fur coat, among others ‒ Orjatsalo was forced to resign from the theater. To escape the scandal, he went to sea for a few months. He then became a staff member of the Theatre of Tampere (1904-06, 1908-10). Orjatsalo's breakthrough role was as the Reverend John Storm in Hal Caine's play The Christian. While in Tampere Orjatsalo had an affair with the writer Ain'Elisabet Pennanen, with whom he had in 1906 a son, Jarno Elisar. As a result of the publicity surrounding the affair and its aftermath in the city court, Orjatsalo gave up his post as the manager of the Theatre of Tampere, where he had first met Ain'Elisabet, and joined the staff of the Tampere Workers' Theatre. This unhappy relationship became part of Finnish literary history when the former lovers defamed each other in their books after separation. It also gained Orjatsalo notoriety as a Don Juan figure. Refusing to marry Orjatsalo, Pennanen brought up their son alone. To uphold the family honour, her brother Väinö tried to shoot Orjatsalo but failed. Orjatsalo was married several times. After breaking up with Ain'Elisabet, he was married to Sigrid (Siiri) Petronella Tyrni (1908-1909), who later moved to the United States and died there in 1916 in a car accident, then to Hellin Virkkula (1916), a dentist, and then to the journalist and playwright Toini Aaltonen (1928-1939); his last wife was the English actress Alice Phillips. Arvid Järnefelt suggested Orjatsalo for the role of Titus Flavius at the national theatre. Based on Järnefelt's Orjan oppi, the play had previously been performed under the title Jerusalemin hävittäjä. Armas Järnefelt composed the music and Robert Kajanus directed the orchestra. The production, which was staged in May 1910, was a great success. Orjatsalo, who fitted perfectly for the role, was appointed a visiting actor. Moreover, Eino Leino had written favourably of his performance as Othello, although he considered the actor still too young for the role. The play had premiered at the Theatre of Tampere in January 1910. Having an entrepreneurial spirit, Orjatsalo arranged his own tours. At Kansan Näyttämö in Helsinki he was a visiting actor (1912, 1914), but tours were financially and emotionally more rewarding than regular contracts. However, whatever was earned was soon spent. Orjatsalo's drinking (and financial losses) strained his marriage. With Eino Leino, who shared similar drinking habits, he toured in 1915. Leino saw in Orjatsalo the future of the Finnish theatre. ('Aarne Orjatsalo itsensä kuvailemana' by Eino Leino, 1916, in Orjatsalo: taiteilija politiikan kurimuksessa by Jootarkka Pennanen, Tampere: Sanasato Oy, 2017, pp. 188-189) Some of the plays with which Orjatsalo toured were not well-rehearsed. When Eino Leino's Carinus fell flat in Mikkeli, Orjatsalo told the audience: "We have just decided to sent Eino Leino a telegram and tell that his play was performed today in Mikkeli with a great success." The audience applauded enthusiastically. According to another anecdote an indignant tailor appeared at rehearsals one day and told: "I don't have time to run after you constantly with this unpaid bill." Orjatsalo asked: "When do you have time?" The astonished tailor said: "Next Wednesday, I guess." Orjatsalo said: "Well, come then next Wednesday." Orjatsalo was made for leading roles: he had charisma, he brought into his roles strong emotions, and his voice was booming. "Voimme olla varmoja, että jos hän nuorukaisena olisi pyrkinyt oppilaaksi mihin eurooppalaiseen teatteriin tahansa, hänet olisi hyväksytty, niin loistava ilmestys hän oli ulkomuotonsa, temperamenttinsa ja myös nopean älynsä puolesta. Suurissa oloissa hänestä olisi kai kehittynyt lähinnä demoninen rakastaja, hurmaava viettelijä, lumoava konna, vaikka hän meillä joutuikin myös muunlaisiin tehtäviin. Lumoava hän oli, eräällä tavalla kai suurin valloittaja, mitä suomalaisella teatterilla koskaan on ollut." (Parivaljakko: Tampere teatterikaupunkina: kuvailuja ja kuvia by Eino Salmelainen, Helsinki: Tammi, 1963, p. 49) Reviewers saw his passionate temperament refreshing: "Suurin kiitos tulee ensi sijassa herra Orjatsalolle, joka nyt vieraili kansallisella näyttämöllämme. Hänen Brutus Cloteau'nsa oli suurin piirtein ajatelty ja esitetty, ja hän loi voimakkaan kuvan tästä kansanmiehestä, joka sekä aatteellisesti että käytännössä on tasavallan puolella, mutta jonka sydän silti riippuu kiinni aatelisessa isäntäväessään." (Helmi Krohn, Valvoja magazine, in Suomen kansallisteatteri. [1], 1902/1917 by Rafael Koskimies, Helsinki: Otava, 1953) Politically active, Orjatsalo wrote articles to workers' papers and edited the magazine Yhdenvertaisuus between the years 1906 and 1907. From then on he used the name Aarne Orjatsalo. In many of his articles he employed an agitative style of rhetoric. Orjatsalo also translated into Finnish plays from such authors as Gerhart Hauptmann (Hanneles Himmelfahrt), Adolf Paul (Die Teufelskirche), Ernst Preczang (Der Teufel in der Wahlurne; Die Polizei als Ehestifterin), Leopold Kampf (Am Vorabend), Max Kegel (Die Tochter des Staatsanwalts), and Frank Wedekind (Erdgeist). In response to Ain'Elisabet Pennanen's novel Voimaihmisiä (1906), in which the central characters are Hellevi Kolarila, a 24-year old virgin, and the hedonist conductor Georg Braun, Orjatsalo published his only book, Viettelijä (1907, Seducer). This roman à clef was about the relationship between a woman named Ein'Kathariina Valli, and Jorma, an actor; he is compared to Ibsen's amoral Peer Gynt, but the woman is the seducer: "Hän läheni Jormaa, tarttui hänen käteensä ja painoi sen hentoja rintojaan vasten, jotka aaltoilivat kuumina. Hän paljasti alastomuutensa ja veti Jormaa ruumiinsa aistillisen kiihoituksen vaikutuspiiriin." (Ibid., p. 126) Upon losing her virginity, Ein'Kathariina leaves Jorma, and then comes back – she is pregnant and needs money to travel abroad for an abortion. Jorma refuses to help her. Orjatsalo portrays Ein'Kathariina as a passionate, unusual woman, although not a beauty. "Hän oli nuori nainen, hento ja lyhyt. Vartalo ei ollut erikoinen; kasvon piirteet epäsäännölliset, melkein rumat ja hipiä huono. Puoleensä vetävää hänessä erikoisesti oli kaunis kullan kellertävä tukka, joka löysään solmuun oli sidottu niskaan ja jota päänympärillä piti koossa punainen nauha. Silmät olivat suuret ja pelokkaat; mutta niissä näkyi paljon sielukasta ilmettä. Suu oli leveä ja omituisesti väreilevä, huulet aina kosteat ja limaiset. Hän näytti aina huulillaan itsekseen muodostavan sanansa, ennenkuin ne ääneen toisten kuultavaksi lausui." (Ibid., p. 28) Ein'Kathariina believes in her talents as an actress and dancer. However, she fails in rehearsal. Jorma advices her not to try to dance fandango. Orjatsalo tried to join to the board of the national theatre in 1913. To his disappointment, the board canceled its earlier acceptance. In the autumn 1917, just before the outbreak of the Finnish Civil War, Orjatsalo was employed as the director of the Tampere Workers' Theatre. There is a story, that the last performance in the theatre, Dumas's Edmund Kean, was interrupted by members of the Red Guards. Orjatsalo shouted that the revolution has begun and recited the Internationale. (Orjatsalo: taiteilija politiikan kurimuksessa, p. 208) During
the Finnish Civil War Orjatsalo expressed in his articles and
speeches his belief in the victory of socialist revolution.
Nevertheless, there is no evidence that he took up arms and fought with
the Red
Guards. It was later claimed that he brought to
Tampere Russian seamen, who had gained legandary fame with their
ideological impetuosity, and that he led a group several hundred
men through the siege of Tampere. Before the Whites launched their
offensive against the city, Orjatsalo
had already escaped to Helsinki. According to a fabricated story, he
took with him several baskets of cognac, and as a
result a number of his men were constantly very drunk. In 1918-19 Orjatsalo participated in the intervention to
Murmansk. "Venäjältä Arkangeliin paenneista ja sinne saartoon jääneistä
suomalaisista muodostettu seitsemäs kompania, jonka päällikkönä oli
luutnantti Alaric Arnee (Aarre Orjatsalo), siirrettiin myös
Muurmannille ja sen miehistö jaettiin kahteen osaan; toinen osa
Saseikan sillan vartijaksi ja toinen osa Koudan sillan vartijaksi." ('Muurmannin suomalaisen legioonan vaalikokous Suomessa v. 1919,' by Oskari Tokoi, Suomen Sosialidemokraatti, 08.03.1958) While vising Moscow, he negotiated with Otto Ville Kuusinen,
who encouraged him to join the Allied forces. When Archangel was
occupied, Orjatsalo released a Finnish prisoner by telling a guard that
he was the new commandant of the town. Orjatsalo
was eventually promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the British
Army. His major duties consisted of training and drilling the
legionnaires. In August 1918, he signed with Oskari Tokio and others a
manifest that denounced the Bolshevist tyranny. This ended
Orjatsalo's friendship with Kuusinen and made it impossible for
him to ever set his foot in Moscow. After settling in England with his
wife, he learned more English as the days passed, worked as a valet to T. E. Lawrence
and
met the famous explorer Ernest Shackleton, who hired him as an office manager. Orjatsalo
also attended a party celebrating Charles Chaplin, who visited London
in 1921 to promote The Kid. Between the years 1921 and 1922, Orjatsalo acted at the Winter Garden Theatre, where he was cast as "Pops" in Jerome Kern, Clifford Grey & Guy Bolton's musical Sally. He toured in 1924 and 1925 in the United States, performing first mostly in amateur scenes. With his wife Alice Arnee he acted in Channing Pollock's play The Fool and had on Broadway a role in Shipwreck by Langdon McCormick. Due to heavy drinking, he was dismissed from his post as the manager of the Socialist Opera House in Virginia, Minnesota. After moving back to New York, he was appointed director of a Finnish workers' theatre (New Yorkin Suomalaisen Sosialisti Osaston Työväentalon näyttämö). During this period he cooperated with an old acquaintance, Annie Mörk; he had toured with her in Finland. Upon returning in 1929 to Finland, Orjatsalo was arrested and released after about a week. He acted in Antonio Moreno's play Oikea rakastaja in Helsinki and Tampere, where it premiered in April 1929. Reviews of his performance were praising. He said in an interview: "Ainoa haluni tällä hetkellä on päästä esiintymään ja näyttää, etten vielä ole teatterilta "kuollut"." ('Aarne Orjatsalo kertoo maanpakolaisaikansa elämyksiä ja huomioita "vierailla veräjillä,' in Kansan Lehti, perjantaina maaliskuun 8 p:nä 1929) Orjatsalo also contributed to magazines – he knew how to write succinct dialogue lines. "Kyllä minusta vielä mies tulee, kunhan saan maitoa juodakseen." "Ei tiedä tuleeko, mutta kyllä kai olisi sairaala paras paikka teille, vai mitä? naureskelee päivystäjä." (Aarne Orjatsalo, in Työväen joululehti, julk. Tampereen työväen sanomalehti, 1929) Orjatsalo's character stirred up many emotions. In Tampere he was greeted both with applauds and cries "Down with Reds!" On the other hand, when he visited Joensuu, a reader of the local newspaper, Karjalainen, called him the "red dragon," the strong man who would bring order to politics. (The Knight, the Beast and the Treasure: A Semiotic Inquity into the Finnish Political Imaginary on Russia, 1918-1930s by Anni Kangas, Tampere: Tampere University Press, 2007, pp. 224-225) Naturally, right-wing theatre directors did not want him, but he was a visiting actor at several workers' stages. Members of the fascist Lappo Movement disturbed the performances. (Legendaarisen näyttelijän paluu: Aarne Orjatsalon Suomen vuodet 1929-1931 by Paula Reuna, Tampere: Tampereen yliopisto, pro gradu -tutkielma, 2010, p. 36) Orjatsalo was cast, among others, in role of Klaus Kurki at the Viipuri Workers' Theatre production of Elinan surma by Gustaf von Numers; Elli Tompuri played Kirsti. From 1930 to 1931 Orjatsalo was
the head of the Workers' Stage of Sörnäinen in Helsinki (renamed
as the Workers' Theatre of Helsinki). The
theatre served as the springboard for the career of Tauno
Palo, who became the most celebrated hero of Finnish films.
Orjatsalo's dismissal from his post marked the end of his career in
Finland. A well-know leftist figure amid a climate of right-wing hate of the 1930s, Orjatsalo was constantly harassed, he received an order to stay away from the National Theatre, and his tours were rejected. After a year of setbacks, he moved to the United States, and settled in New York City's Harlem, living there for some years with a woman named Katri Wilska. Struggling to survive in the Great depression, he took odd jobs, as a taxi driver, butler, and cook. Orjatsalo died in a poor's hospital under the pseudonym Aleksei Wolkow, on January 1, 1941, in New York. His ashes were brought to Finland in 1948. Orjatsalo's colorful life was adapted in 1983 to stage by Jotaarkka Pennanen and Elina Halttunen from Anja Vammelvuo's play Tulee aika toinenkin (1983). - Note: the text was revised in April 2018. For further reading: Tervetultua tervemenoa: Jarnon saaga 1 by Jarno Pennanen (1970); Tulee aika toinenkin: näyttelijä-rosvopäällikkö Aarne Orjatsalon elämä by Anja Vammelvuo (1983); Titaanien teatteri: Tampereen työväen teatteri 1918-1964 by Panu Rajala (2001); 'Orjatsalo, Aarne' by Panu Rajala, in Suomen kansallisbiografia 7, edited by Matti Klinge (2006); Legendaarisen näyttelijän paluu: Aarne Orjatsalon Suomen vuodet 1929-1931 by Paula Reuna (2010); Orjatsalo: taiteilija politiikan kurimuksessa by Jootarkka Pennanen (2017). See also: Jarno Pennanen, writer and journalist, the son Orjatsalo and Ain'Elisabet, born in Helsinki. His son Jotaarkka Pennanen wrote the play Linnunrata, based on Ain'Elisabet's novel Kaksi raukkaa (1968). "Kahden runoilijan suhdetta kuvaava Linnunrata on sikäli rehellinen näytelmä, ettei se kaihda päähenkilöidensä naiiveja piirteitä eikä näiden taiteen osittaista onttoutta." (Meri Lauri in Helsingin Sanomat, 17.9.2005) Jotaarkka Pennanen's biography Orjatsalo: taiteilija politiikan kurimuksessa is a significant contribution to Finnish theatre history. Selected works:
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