Ads, articles, and filler from old Toronto newspapers
Today, all I want to do is post this headline from the November 27 1934 edition of the Toronto Daily Star:
It hadn’t occurred to me that there was a time that professional wrestling was not stage-managed! The Wikipedia page for wrestling states that it was considered a serious competitive sport up to the 1920s.
Here’s a photograph from the November 27 1934 edition of the Toronto Daily Star of two sisters from the Greek royal family.
Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (1906-1968) was widowed in 1942 when Prince George died in a plane crash. After his death, she raised their three children and performed assorted English royal family duties. (Prince George was previously mentioned in this blog here when he was contemplating marrying Poppy Baring.)
Princess Elizabeth of Greece and Denmark (1904-1955) had married Karl Theodor zu Toerring-Jettenbach earlier that year. She died of cancer at a comparatively young age.
The two sisters were first cousins of Prince Philip, the recently deceased husband of Queen Elizabeth II.
Here’s an ad from the November 23 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star for a performance by two pianists.
Winnifred Mazzoleni was the first wife of naturalized Canadian conductor Ettore Mazzoleni and the sister of another Canadian conductor, Ernest MacMillan (who was knighted in 1935). I could find nothing else on her and nothing on Kathleen Irwin.
Here’s an ad from the November 23 1935 edition of the Toronto Globe for a group of French performers who were about to appear at Massey Hall.
I did searches for the artists mentioned in this ad:
Here’s a photograph from the November 23 1935 edition of the Toronto Globe of a female musician.
Edith Lorand (1898-1960) does not have a Wikipedia page, but she has a reasonably large Internet footprint. Among other links, I found a brief biography, a blog post, and a British Pathé film clip.
She was a successful recording artist in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, producing a large quantity of recordings for a number of labels. However, she was forced to flee Germany for her native Hungary in 1934, as she had Jewish ancestry. In 1937, she again had to flee, this time to the United States, where she took American citizenship and married. She returned to Berlin shortly before her death.
Here’s an advertisement from the November 22 1933 edition of the Toronto Daily Star for an upcoming show by a Spanish dancer.
Searches turned up very little on Teresina, whoever she was. I found two photographs (here and here) of her from 1932 and 1933, but mostly I found references to a city in Brazil named Teresina and restaurants named La Teresina. Her spectacular Spanish dancing appears to be lost to history.
Here’s an article from the November 20 1933 edition of the Toronto Daily Star about a woman who had successfully obtained an embalmer’s licence.
As is usual in newspaper articles for at least a generation and more, the writer commented on Ms. Egan’s physical appearance, referring to her as a beautiful, young blonde. Men are virtually never described in this way.
I looked Ms. Egan up in the Toronto city directories, and it doesn’t appear that she had a chance to practice her new profession. The 1934 and 1935 directories list A. Viola Egan as a bookkeeper at Stone Funeral Services, the 1936 directory lists her as a bookkeeper but with no listed employer, and the 1937 directory does not list her at all. My best guess is that she bowed to the convention of her time and gave up her career to get married.
Here’s a photograph from the November 20 1933 edition of the Toronto Daily Star of a large balloon in an even larger hangar in Akron, Ohio.
The balloon was named Century of Progress, after the trade show of that name that was held in Chicago in the summer of 1933. And, on the day that this photograph appeared in the newspaper, Thomas G. W. “Tex” Settle (1895-1980) helped set a world altitude record in the balloon, reaching a verified height of 61,237 feet.
Settle, a United States Navy officer who had been piloting airships and balloons, asked to be transferred back to sea duty in 1934. He commanded the USS Portland during the latter part of the Second World War. After the war, he served in various roles, retiring with the rank of Rear Admiral. His ambition was to become the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, which he did not achieve.
Here’s a photograph from the November 20 1933 edition of the Toronto Daily Star of a Canadian artist who had just been elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
Marion Long (1882-1970) was the second Canadian woman ever to be elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy; the first, Charlotte Schreiber, was elected in 1880 (though she was not permitted to attend meetings or influence policies). Ms. Long was often commissioned to paint portraits; she was asked to paint portraits of the Royal Norwegian Air Force during the Second World War and was honoured with the King Haakon VII Medal of Liberation as a result.
A more detailed biography of her can be found here.
Here’s a photo from the November 20 1933 of a British woman who was about to serve as a judge at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto.
Major Sir Philip Hunloke (1868-1947) was a sailor who won a bronze medal in the 8-metre class at the 1908 Olympic Games. He became a Groom in Waiting to King George V and an extra groom-in-waiting to King George VI. He is buried at Northwood Cemetery on the Isle of Wight; his occupation is listed as Gentleman, which I guess is good enough.
The National Portrait Gallery website has some photos of him from the 1930s.
I could find nothing on the major’s wife – it doesn’t help that the caption in the photo above doesn’t give her name.
Toronto Old News 