What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 19 November 2022.

Anny Letenské was built in 1896.

Until 1945, this was Ve Pštroce. Pštroska, also spelt Pštrosska, was an estate, including a vineyard called Křížovka, that was located round here. It was purchased by Jan and Babetta Pštross in 1815, and demolished in the late 19th century, partly to create Riegrovy Sady.

Anna Svobodová was born near Plzeň, into a family of actors, in 1904, and, as a child, took part in a travelling theatre company.

After a stint at the South Bohemian National Theatre in České Budějovice, she joined the Alferi theatre company, where she met her future husband, Ludvík Hrdlička, who used the pseudonym Letenský. She took this on as her stage name.

From 1937, she acted in 25 films, playing minor non-speaking roles, and also worked with Czech Radio.

She also joined the Vinohrady Theatre in 1939, taking several acclaimed roles.

She divorced in 1940, and remarried the following year, this time to Vladislav Čaloun, an architect.

On 17 July 1942, Čaloun was arrested for protecting Břetislav Lyčka, who, in turn, had helped Jan Kubiš, one of the killers of Reinhard Heydrich.

Allowed to make visits to her husband, she was arrested during one such visit on 3 September, and was imprisoned in Pankrác, then transferred first to Terezín, then to Mauthausen.

She was shot in the head there on 24 October 1942. She was 38.

Vladislav Čaloun was shot on 26 January 1943. He was 35.

Anna’s final film, Přijdu hned, directed by Otakar Vávra, was released to cinemas two months after her murder.

According to Vávra (https://dvojka.rozhlas.cz/ocite-svedectvi-bohemy-autenticke-vzpominky-otakara-vavry-nebo-pribuznych-anny-7464665…): “I would look at her. She would play a comic scene and then go backstage. She sat there and put her head in her hands.”

This is the only surviving recording of Letenská’s voice:

A bust of her was unveiled at Vinohrady Theatre in 1948.

It’s only 48 hours since I got all ‘hug-your-friends-and-get-drinks-with-them-and-all-that’, I know. But my God. Hug your friends and get drinks with them and all that (if they’re huggers and/or drinkers, that is).

Good people are worth keeping around while you still can.