Another daughter to Hollywood

The August 6 1930 edition of the Toronto Daily Star contained this photo of Canadian-born actress Marjorie White and her younger sister, Belva:

I could find no trace of Belva White either under this name or her given name of Belva Guthrie.

Marjorie White (1904-1935), sadly, had a little over five years to live after this photo was taken. She died in a car crash in California; the driver of the car that she was in was blamed for reckless driving.

I tried tracing the Guthries at 336 George Street. Morley and Nettie Guthrie are listed there starting in 1927; Ms. White’s Wikipedia page suggests that they were her brother and mother. The two Guthries lived together until 1944, eventually moving to an apartment on Huntley Street; I couldn’t find them after that.

Noted French actress

The August 1 1928 edition of the Toronto Daily Star included this photograph of a “noted French actress”:

Noted she might have been, but I could find no trace of her when searching. Either her name is badly misspelled, or she is lost to history.

“What a man” Hudson

The July 29 1931 edition of the Toronto Daily Star contained a photograph and an article about evangelist Minnie “Ma” Kennedy and her former husband, Guy Edward “What-a-Man” Hudson:

Kennedy, the mother of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, had been a widow for ten years when she met (and was seemingly impressed by) Hudson. When his bigamy was discovered, their marriage was annulled; undeterred, he got a divorce and married her again. Despite their signing a vaudeville contract for $1500 a week for forty weeks (or perhaps because of it), the marriage did not last – they separated in July 1932 and were divorced that November. (The source for this is here.)

I couldn’t find out anything about Ethel Lee Parker Harbert or whether she got the quarter-million she was asking for.

Ms. Kennedy passed away in 1947.

Mussolini’s children

The July 29 1931 edition of the Toronto Daily Star contained this photograph of the two youngest children of Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini:

Romano Mussolini (1927-2006) became a jazz pianist and film producer. His daughter, Alessandra Mussolini, is an Italian conservative politician.

Anna Maria Mussolini (1929-1968) does not have a Wikipedia page in English, but does have one in Italian. She became a radio host under a pseudonym, but lost her job when her real name was discovered. She passed away very young from complications due to cancer and chicken pox.

 

Wife of the famous author

The July 29 1931 edition of the Toronto Daily Star contained this photo of George Bernard Shaw‘s wife:

Charlotte Payne-Townshend (1857-1943) was an Irish activist, member of the Fabian Society, and advocate for women’s rights. She and Bernard Shaw were married from 1898 until her death in 1943. When Shaw died in 1950, her ashes and his were mixed together and scattered in their garden.

Photo without address

The July 26 1930 edition of the Toronto Daily Star contained this photo of a man who had just moved to Toronto to take over the Christie-Brown Company:

Mr. Bordley’s address was not included, unlike those of the two women whose photos also appeared in this page (see the two previous posts in this blog for details). However, the Toronto city directories soon ferreted that out: Mr. Bordley does not appear in the 1930 directory, but he does appear in the 1931 through 1933 directories, and is listed as living in an apartment at 1 Clarendon Avenue. He didn’t stay in Toronto all that long, though – he’s not in the 1934 directory. Perhaps he had done what he had come to do.

Photo and address #2

Here’s the second photo in the July 26 1930 edition of the Toronto Daily Star that contained the name and address of the sitter.

I found both Georgina Hayes and her father, Joseph Hayes, in the 1930 city directory: Georgina worked as a stenographer, and Joseph was “with” J G Millar Co. Moving forward:

• In 1932, she was still at the same place, but her father had struck out on his own: he was now the president and manager of the Hayes Garment Co.
• Unfortunately, this enterprise might not have been successful: Joseph Hayes is still at 738 Shaw in 1935, but with no listed occupation. Georgina is still there.
• 1937 is unchanged from 1935, as is 1938.
• In 1939, Joseph is still at 738 Shaw, but Georgina is not. As with yesterday’s entry, my best guess is that she got married and left her parents’ home, but that’s just a guess.

738 Shaw Street still stands – it seems like a nice enough place.

Photo and address #1

The July 26 1930 edition of the Toronto Daily Star continued the odd habit of including a person’s photo with their name and address, which would be a serious breach of privacy nowadays!

This particular edition had two of them. The first one was of Miss Ethel F. D. Hutchinson:

This gave me an opportunity for what could be called retro-stalking: I looked her and her family up in the Toronto city directories. Here’s what I found:

• The Hutchinsons had just moved to 47 Glendonwynne Road, as the 1930 directory (presumably published before July) listed them at 56 Woodycrest Avenue. Ethel was working as a stenographer, and her father, Orville J., was a superintendent at “McLean Pub Co”.
• The 1931 directory had them at 47 Glendonwynne. Orville was now listed as a printer.
• Sadly, tragedy struck the family by 1933 – that year’s directory listed Florence J. (wid Orville) at 47 Glendonwynne. Ethel was still living there too.
• The two women lived together until 1938; Ethel continued to work as a stenographer.
• Ethel does not appear in the 1939 directory. Florence is still at 47 Glendonwynne, so my best guess is that Ethel got married. This makes it impossible to trace her further, as both her name and her address would have changed.

47 Glendonwynne Road is in Bloor West Village; it looks quite nice.

1930 Canadian election

The July 26 1930 edition of the Toronto Daily Star appeared on newsstands two days before an upcoming federal election in Canada. So, naturally, there were a number of articles and advertisements about it.

Then, as now, the Star was staunchly pro-Liberal. The front page of the paper included a short article in which a speaker claimed that prosperity would result from the Liberal budget. This budget was called the King-Dunning budget, named after Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and cabinet minister Charles Dunning.

The front page also listed a number of Toronto-area Liberal candidates that Daily Star readers were encouraged to vote for:

A handy map on a later page showed where these candidates were located in Toronto:

And there was an ad from the Ontario Liberal Campaign Committee:

And an ad from the Toronto Men’s Liberal Association:

There was also a prediction from the National Liberal Bureau, which claimed that the Liberals would increase their seat total to 152:

The Daily Star did run an advertisement for a radio speech from the Leader of the Opposition, R. B. Bennett:

I’m a little confused by the “Liberal-Conservative Party” designation – I didn’t see the Conservative Party referred to as Liberal-Conservative elsewhere, and it must have been perplexing to some voters.

And, last but not least, here was a table showing the seat distribution of various parties at the time of the election:

This table shows that the Toronto Liberals were working from a disadvantage – the Toronto area was a solid Conservative wall in the previous election.

As it turned out, the Liberals’ projection for the 1930 election was wildly optimistic. Instead of moving up to 152 seats, the Liberals dropped to 89 seats; the Conservatives under Bennett won a majority government with 135 seats. Of the Liberal candidates listed above, only two managed to win: Samuel Factor in Toronto West Centre, and W. H. Moore in the Ontario riding. W. P. Mulock, who lost in York North, won a byelection in September 1934 when the victorious Conservative candidate, Thomas Herbert Lennox, passed away.

But it’s quite possible that the Liberals’ election loss provided long-term benefit for them. Bennett wound up being Prime Minister during the worst of the Great Depression, and voters blamed him for it. King and the Liberals were returned to office in the next election in 1935, and remained in office until John Diefenbaker took over in 1957.

Butler awaits noble bride

The July 26 1930 edition of the Toronto Daily Star proved to be a rich source of blog posts! Here’s the first one: a photograph of a young woman from a noble family who was about to marry an Italian butler. This was so controversial that it appeared on the front page!

When I searched, I discovered that apparently the marriage did not go through: Ms. Stourton, who passed away in 1992, married Frédérik Ramon de Bertodano, the 8th Marquis de Moral (who, presumably, was not a butler). He apparently was recruited to spy for the Allies in World War II, but wasn’t very good at it.

I could find out nothing about Fiovanti del’Agnese, possibly because his name might have been misspelled. Maybe he went back to butlering.