A new spin on cycle history

TOVA G. KORNFELD

Who would have thought that the first woman to cycle around the world in 1894 would be a 23-year-old Jewish immigrant in Boston named Annie Cohen Kopchovsky? Even more unbelievable is the fact that she was prepared to leave behind her husband and three children to pursue this global adventure, a journey motivated by a $10,000 wager – a challenge she undertook even though she did not know how to ride a bicycle at the outset.

Victoria-born spoken-word artist and social activist Evalyn Parry discovered all of this when searching for inspiration for a new show. “I wanted to write a show about cycling, as I am an avid cyclist. So, I started reading and I found this book called Around the World on Two Wheels written by Kopchovsky’s great-grandnephew,” Parry explained by phone from Toronto. “I could not believe the tale of this young woman who did this amazing thing: over a period of 15 months, she traveled by herself on a bicycle – remember only one speed at the time – through the States, and to such exotic places as Egypt, Jerusalem and Singapore, raising money along the way with lectures, photo shoots and press releases.”

All this was in response to a bet that a woman could not reproduce the feat of Thomas Stephens, the only man to cycle around the world in 1884, Parry said. Kopchovsky taught herself how to ride just a few days before embarking on her odyssey. “I felt that I had struck gold because her story exemplified exactly what I was trying to do,” Parry told the Independent of her discovery. “She came across as this woman who just did not fit into the then expected role of women to be stay-at-home wives and mothers. She wanted adventure and she was not prepared to live within the constraints of femininity as then known, so she went out and did something about it. She was quite a show-woman and had no compunction about advertising herself, or taking the bet or the trip. Something in her character fascinated me as an artist.”

An unlikely celebrity, Kopchovsky (née Cohen) was born in 1870 to a Jewish family in Riga, Latvia, and emigrated to the United States as a child. In 1888, she married Max Kopchovsky and had three children in four years.

Kopchovsky ended up working as an advertising salesperson for Boston newspapers and knew her way around marketing. When she decided to take on the challenge of cycling the world, it was a condition of the bet that she was not allowed to solicit donations. “She came up with this ingenuous way around the condition to raise money for her trip by selling ads and slogans to be placed both on her bicycle and her body,” Parry noted. Kopchovsky’s main sponsor was the Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Co., who paid her $100 to carry its name on her bike. Part of the contract was that she adopt Londonderry as her last name during the trip. Thus “Annie Londonderry” was born – the symbol of the New Woman on wheels come to life. Of this relationship of convenience, Parry quipped, “[Kopchovsky] effectively married a company for financial gain.”

In the late 1800s, the public was fascinated by bicycles, which were being mass-produced for a fad-hungry population. Annie’s journey captured the imagination of a two-wheeled nation.

“She left Boston, dressed in her long skirt and petticoats, where 500 people showed up to see her off,” said Parry. “She rode off like a kite in the wind, equipped only with a pearl-handled revolver and a change of clothes, which soon evolved into practical ankle-length bloomers.” She traveled to New York, then sailed across the Atlantic to cycle Europe. She returned in triumph to Boston in 1895 where she was hailed as a “ bloomer-clad, PR-savvy, international celebrity.” Annie ultimately moved to New York with her family and became a journalist writing under the byline “The New Woman.” She eventually faded into obscurity and died in 1947.

Parry took Kopchovsky’s story and produced a compact disc, The Ballad of Annie Londonderry, which forms the hub of her show Spin, which opened at the Heritage Theatre at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre on April 9. The staging of the show is unique. The set revolves around a vintage bicycle suspended on a mechanic’s stand on stage that is played like an instrument. Percussionist Brad Hart uses brushes, drum sticks and other assorted items to generate a variety of sounds from his avant-garde drum kit, while across the stage Annabelle Chvostek plays more traditional instruments. Both provide the background for Parry’s songs and monologues.

“It is very much a fusion of my three strands of artistic expression: music, spoken word and song,” said Parry. “Also, it is all ‘in the spin,’ which has double meaning: it encapsulates the actual cycling part but also highlights how things get sold to the consumer. There has been skepticism as to whether or not there actually was a wager or whether or not Annie made it to all the places she said she did, but, to me, that does not matter. That doubt connected with me even more on a personal level, as I thought, if she made all of that up just to go out on this crazy adventure, then that really showed how motivated she was to get away.”

Recently, Parry made changes to the second act to include a new song based on a letter she received from Annie’s granddaughter, who had heard Ballad and wanted Parry to know how grateful she was for this new look at her grandmother’s story.

Audience response has been positive, including the critics who attended the recent staging in Toronto, who wrote, “Part theatre, part musical gig, part spoken-word poetry and part documentary, whatever it is, it is brilliant.”

According to Parry, the show has something for everyone. “The show combines some amazing social and little-known women’s history,” she said. “It is really fun, entertaining and educational, all wrapped into one. It is not only about the past and women’s emancipation but it is also about the future and the possibilities of the bicycle as an agent of social change.”

Spin is on stage at the Cultch until April 20. For tickets, call 604-251-1363 or visit thecultch.com.

Tova G. Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer and lawyer.

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