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| Madelyn FioRito (interactivewtttw.com) |
Anyone ever hear of
Madelyn FioRito?
Me either . . .
until I found an article in The Tribune
that ran on this day, April 21, in 1954.
Anytime you are
walking around the Chicago Loop in the vicinity of La Salle Street, you see Ms.
FioRito or she sees you – at least it seems like she does.
Just 14-years-old,
the young Madelyn, the daughter of bandleader Ted FioRito, was on her way to a
job interview at the Fine Arts building when “a man stared at her
intently.” [Chicago Tribune, April 21, 1954]
The Tribune described the
subject of the stranger’s admiration as “statuesque as she is today and built
like a Greek goddess.”
Wooh.
The bad news is
that Miss FioRito did not get the job.
The good news was that on her way out of the building the elevator
operator (they’re still manually operated at the Fine Arts Building today)
handed her a note. The man who had
admired her on the elevator ride up had written, “Please come up to my
studio. I have spent a year looking for
a model for the statue of Ceres, goddess of grain, which I have been
commissioned to do for the top of the Board of Trade building. You are the model for whom I have searched.”
The man was John
Storrs.
John Storrs was
born in Chicago in 1885, and at the age of 20 travelled to Europe, originally
to study singing but ultimately to make the decision to pursue sculpture. He returned to Chicago where he studied under
Lorado Taft at the Art Institute of Chicago.
He also attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts before returning to Paris in 1911, studying in that city with Auguste Rodin.
An article from the
Grey Art Gallery in New York City states, “In 1923 Storr’s solo exhibition at
Katherine Dreier’s Société Anonyme in
New York established him as a member of the international avant-garde. While in New York he met Marcel Duchamp, Man
Ray, and Joseph Stella, artists he remained friendly with into the early 1930’s
. . . Stors’s ‘Studies in Architectural Forms,’ as he dubbed many of his works,
are exhilarating embodiments of the built environment and machine-age culture .
. . Storrs created an art which melds old and new world concerns, and which
convincingly attests to a society enraptured with the sleek aesthetic embodied
in early skyscrapers.” [https://www.nyu. edu.greyart/ exhibits/storrs/storrshome.html]
Enough of a resume,
I suppose, to be able to select a beautiful 14-year-old model during a brief
elevator ride and to use her form as inspiration for one of the great Art Deco
sculptures of the age.
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| JWB Photo, 2009 |
Back to the article
in The Tribune . . . it took six
months for the studies that would lead to the sculpture that stands at the top
of the Board of Trade. During those
months “Madelyn listened as he poured into her receptive ears stories of the
world of art, music, literature that he loved so well – instilling in her the
reverence that was his for the richness of learning.”
Everybody has read
at some point the great love poem, Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18. I love the last sestet . . . remember it?
But thy eternal summer shall
not fade,
Nor lose possession of that
fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou
wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time
thou grow'st.
So
long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So
long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Forget for a moment
that the poem is as much (or maybe a little bit more) about the poet as the
subject. It’s fundamentally true. Miss FioRito eloped at the age of 18 and spent
much of her life moving from relationship to relationship between Europe and
the United States. But she remains with
us in a 6,500 pound aluminum sculpture, assembled from 40 separate pieces, standing
31 feet high at the very top of the signature building on La Salle Street.
She holds a sheaf
of wheat in her left hand and a bag of corn in her right, prompting the late
Mike Royko to name her as the perfect symbol of Chicago, along with the Latin
phrase Ubi Est Mea – Where Is Mine?
John Storrs got his
model, and we in Chicago have our Ceres.
For that we owe a debt of gratitude to the 14-year-old girl on the
elevator at the Fine Arts Building.
So long lives this
. . . and this gives life to thee.
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| JWB Photo, 2010 |
Posts
6 comments:
Cool! Thanks for sharing!
I had dinner with Madelyn, then Madelyn Jones, in Palm Desert,CA about 2 years before her death. Since I was also from Chicago, she told me the story, but her family name was LaSalle, not Fiorito. She married the bandleader Ted Fiorito. Their son, Ted Jr. Still lives in the desert.
Wow what an amazing story .. It's brings tears to my eyes hearing this story of her.. Thank you soooo much for keeping this story Alive.. She would be Sooo proud to know that this story is still talked about.. ♡
I am Madelyn's niece; my father was her baby brother. Her Maiden name was Lasala (it was changed to LaSalle when her father Carmelo [changed to Charles] came through Ellis Island and "the powers that be" couldn't understand his thick accent, so they wrote him down as LaSalle. Ted FioRito was her HUSBAND, not her Father. Aunt Madelyn's only child is Ted FioRito, Jr. and Cousin Teddy has a son, Ted FioRito III. Aunt Madelyn did NOT "spend most of her life moving from relationship to relationship between Europe and the USA" and I am offended by this untrue comment. Aunt Madelyn MARRIED once before Ted FioRito (cannot remember his name), then married Ted FioRito, Neal/Neil (cannot remember which spelling) Cole and finally Jerry Jones. It is wrong to speak ill of the dead, so I will only say that some of the men were NOT what I would call the best husbands they could have been. Aunt Madelyn was a STRONG, OPINIONATED, HIGHLY MOTIVATED and SAVVY business woman. Add to that she was a Taurus woman, stubborn but also very loving and generous to her many brothers and sisters. We were a close-knit family and holidays at Aunt Madelyn's home were always a good time. We put the FUN back into disfunctioal; proudly and loudly! I remember sliding down the grand staircase banister of her Bel Air mansion (924 Bel Air Road) with my other daredevil cousins while the Uncles made home-made Italian sausages in the kitchen and the Aunts prepared other dishes. Well, those days are gone as is my Aunt Madelyn, her Ceres Statue and all but one of her brothers, Frank LaSalle (Uncle Charles). I miss those days, especially at the holidays when I prepare some of those same dishes. If any of my cousins read this I wish you would add what I have forgotten or stories of your own. Whomever wrote this article should have done some "fact-finding" before he started typing!
I am Madelyn's niece; my father was her baby brother. Her Maiden name was Lasala (it was changed to LaSalle when her father Carmelo [changed to Charles] came through Ellis Island and "the powers that be" couldn't understand his thick accent, so they wrote him down as LaSalle. Ted FioRito was her HUSBAND, not her Father. Aunt Madelyn's only child is Ted FioRito, Jr. and Cousin Teddy has a son, Ted FioRito III. Aunt Madelyn did NOT "spend most of her life moving from relationship to relationship between Europe and the USA" and I am offended by this untrue comment. Aunt Madelyn MARRIED once before Ted FioRito (cannot remember his name), then married Ted FioRito, Neal/Neil (cannot remember which spelling) Cole and finally Jerry Jones. It is wrong to speak ill of the dead, so I will only say that some of the men were NOT what I would call the best husbands they could have been. Aunt Madelyn was a STRONG, OPINIONATED, HIGHLY MOTIVATED and SAVVY business woman. Add to that she was a Taurus woman, stubborn but also very loving and generous to her many brothers and sisters. We were a close-knit family and holidays at Aunt Madelyn's home were always a good time. We put the FUN back into disfunctioal; proudly and loudly! I remember sliding down the grand staircase banister of her Bel Air mansion (924 Bel Air Road) with my other daredevil cousins while the Uncles made home-made Italian sausages in the kitchen and the Aunts prepared other dishes. Well, those days are gone as is my Aunt Madelyn, her Ceres Statue and all but one of her brothers, Frank LaSalle (Uncle Charles). I miss those days, especially at the holidays when I prepare some of those same dishes. If any of my cousins read this I wish you would add what I have forgotten or stories of your own. Whomever wrote this article should have done some "fact-finding" before he started typing!
What a great story thanks for sharing i loved hearing the history about my side of my family i would love to hear more. Madelyn was my great aunt I used to visit her every weekend at her home in rancho mirage .Even though I only new her for a short while before she passed when i was 11 but the time we spent together was something ill never forget .She was a very kind, smart , beautiful , funny , indpendent ,strong, wise woman . one thing that she told me that I would never forget was " cherise darling never let a man define who you are ". R.I.P aunt Madelyn
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