Whose Wedding?

A blog post by Director of Collections and Exhibits Joanna Church. To read more posts by Joanna click HERE.

In our Hendler family collection we have two nearly identical photo albums, each containing a series of images taken at a wedding; there is also a set of loose wedding photographs.  As is often the way – even with carefully prepared albums and scrapbooks – the original album creators left no identifications, dates, or notes to help later historians figure out what’s going on.  We presumed that the people pictured were related in some way to the Hendlers, and I could tell by the clothing and styles that these were 1930s events, but the question remained: whose weddings are they, anyway?

Happily, there were enough clues for yours truly to tackle the issue. First, it was necessary to sort out which photos went with which event, and how many weddings were actually shown (after all, the Hendlers had four children, three of whom married in the 1930s).  The initial JMM catalogers had discarded the album covers, noting that they were too deteriorated to preserve, but naturally they kept the original order of the pages and filed each album separately. Fortunately one ceremony took place indoors and one outdoors, making it fairly easy to confirm that the two albums showed two different events. A quick comparison of the loose photos showed that they were a match for the outdoor wedding: the same floral chuppah, the same elderly ladies dressed in their finest, the same waiters carrying the same fish.  So we had only two weddings to worry about, after all.

Now for the actual details of who, where, and when. L. Manuel Hendler was the founder of the Hendler Creamery, a very successful ice cream business in Baltimore. He and his wife Rose had three daughters:

>Flora Bernice (1909-1990), who married Joseph Kolodny on August 27, 1931 at “Harlequin on Severn,” the Hendler country estate.

>Florence (1913-1994), known as “Tootsie,” who married Howard Caplan on January 21, 1932 at the Southern Hotel.

>Naomi (1917-1994), who married Leslie Legum on June 20, 1939, at the Hendler home near Druid Hill Park.

Elsewhere in the JMM collections we have invitations to the weddings of Florence and Naomi, including a pair donated by their cousin Naomi Biron Cohen:

These invitations are so carefully, exactly matched – the Hendler parents were clearly concerned about sisterly parity – that I made the initial mistake of assuming the matching albums were from the same sisters.  However, thanks to the Hendler family’s prominence and the searchable Baltimore Sun database, I soon realized that the outdoor wedding was not Naomi’s but Bernice’s. As newlyweds of local importance, Bernice and Florence were featured in the Sun and the Jewish Times, with – conveniently for me – bridal portraits published in the former. The Sun’s photos of Bernice’s pearl crown (hard to see in the album photos, admittedly) and Florence’s medieval-style gown and sassy little veil matched nicely with the formal portraits in each album, as did the newspaper reporters’ breathless descriptions of each ceremony. Thank goodness for the society page!  (And no, that’s not the first time I’ve had occasion to say that.)

The Jewish Times provided detailed descriptions of both sisters’ weddings (quoted below); in addition, Florence’s wedding was reported in the Sun – which lingered lovingly on the fact that the governor and the mayor were in attendance, and that the reception included “a bridal table with dishes and cups of solid gold” which had to be guarded by a police detail – and in the New York Times. (Evidently Florence chose to announce her engagement at Bernice’s wedding, which every older sister totally appreciates.) Florence, it seems, did not pull her punches.

The Jewish Times, August 28, 1931: Kolodny-Hendler:

Miss Bernice Hendler, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. Manuel Hendler, was married on Thursday, August 27, at the country home of her parents, Harlequin-on-the-Severn, to Mr. Joseph Kolodny of Boston.  The ceremony was performed by Rabbis Adolph Coblentz [sic] and Morris Lazaron. The bride was attired in a gown of ivory satin and a veil of rose point, and carried a prayer book used by her mother at her wedding.  Miss Florence Hendler, sister of the bride, was maid of honor and Mrs. Milton Silberman was matron of honor. They wore gowns of Chartreuse satin.

The Misses Rose Silberstein, Helen Fish, Florine Duke and Mrs. Abram Kenigson were bridesmaids. They were attired in yellow satin and wore Empress Eugenie hats] and carried bouquets of yellow roses. Mr. Albert Hendler was best man, and the ushers were Messrs. Howard Caplan, Milton Silberman, Bernard Hendler, Harry Hendler and Albert Duke.  Mrs. Hendler, mother of the bride, was gowned in black lace trimmed in rose point, and Mrs. Kolodny, mother of the groom, wore a gown of Patou beige satin. After the ceremony a reception was held for more than four hundred guests.  Mr. and Mrs. Kolodny will sail on Saturday on the S.S. “Kungssholm” for Norway and Sweden. During the evening announcement of the engagement of Mr. and Mrs. Hendler’s younger daughter, Florence, to Mr. Howard M. Caplan, son of Mr. and Mrs. H.L. Caplan, was made.

The Jewish Times, January 22, 1932: Caplan-Hendler:

One of the most outstanding weddings of the season was that of Miss Florence Hendler, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. Manuel Hendler and Mr. Howard M. Caplan, son of Mr. and Mrs. H.L. Caplan, who were united in marriage on Thursday at the Southern Hotel.

The ceremony was performed by Rabbi Morris S. Lazaron, Rabbi Adolph Coblentz [sic] and Cantor Adolph J. Weisgal. The bride was attired in a gown of antique velvet, trimmed in pearls, and a rose point veil worn by her mother, and again last summer by her sister at the time of her marriage to Joseph Kolodny. She carried a bouquet of white orchids and her mother’s prayerbook.  She was attended by Miss Elizabeth Ullman, who wore pale gold taffeta, and carried roses and a prayerbook. The matrons of honor were Mrs. Joseph Kolodny, sister of the bride, and Mrs. David Silberman, sister of the groom; their gowns were gold lace over taffeta. The bridesmaids, the Misses Naomi Hendler, Lorraine Katz and Dorothy Kemler, wore dresses of deep gold taffeta, carrying roses. The best man was Mr. Albert Hendler, brother of the bride, and the ushers were Messrs. Joseph Kolodny, David Kaufman, Mendel Silverman, Albert Duke and Irving Blaustein. After dinner and reception Mr. and Mrs. Caplan left for New York, sailing for Europe on the Europa on Friday. They will spend three months in travelling, after which they will return to the city, where they will make their home.

And what about the third sister? Though we have a few lovely wedding souvenirs donated by Naomi herself, the only information I can find about the ceremony comes from the invitation in our collections, and brief engagement notices in the Sun and the Jewish Times.  Unlike her elder sisters, Naomi’s wedding – though fancy and fashionable, as best I can tell from the pieces in our collection – was not featured prominently in the press.  I suspect that this was a least in part due to the fact that in late 1932, brother Albert Hendler was kidnapped and held for ransom. (He was rescued, and went on to celebrate his own marriage to Peggy Siff in 1943.)  The Hendlers faced other extortion threats during the 1930s. This could make any family shy away from publicity, and I completely understand it… but I do wish that I had a description of Naomi’s ceremony.  Did she wear the her mother’s veil, and carry her mother’s prayerbook, as her older sisters did?  We sorted out the mystery of the photo albums, but there are still a few pieces of the sisters’ story missing.