Nearly hit two cars

The Toronto Daily Star editions of the 1930s regularly included summaries of the previous day’s proceedings in men’s police court, women’s police court, and the county police court. The county police court summary for April 16 1935 seemed to consist entirely of drunk and reckless drivers:

The going rate for driving while drunk appears to have been either $25 or 30 days in jail or $50 or 60 days in jail, depending on the severity of the offense.

Out of curiosity, I traced Albert Third, the first defendant mentioned in the article, since he had an unusual name. He did not appear in the 1935 Toronto city directory, but he was listed in the 1936 directory as a labourer and living at 527 Eastern Avenue (which still stands). He was not listed in the 1937 and 1938 directories, so I guess he moved on down the road, possibly in his car.

Boy oh boy!

Here’s a cute cartoon ad from the April 16 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star.

Harry “Red” Foster (1905-1985) started his adult life as an Eaton’s employee. On the side, he played football for the Balmy Beach Beachers, an amateur team that won the Grey Cup in 1930. He also won an outboard race in 1928.

Foster turned to broadcasting in 1931 and also founded the Foster Advertising Agency. His brother was developmentally disabled, which inspired Foster to create a charitable foundation devoted to their research and care.

Biographies of Foster can be found in many places, including here, here, and here.

8-hour day vetoed

Here’s an article from the April 16 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star that stated that firemen were not to have their shifts reduced to eight hours:

Given that the call was to go from a two-platoon system to a three-platoon system, it appears as though firemen worked 12-hour shifts in 1935.

Sam McBride, who was quoted in the article as saying that firefighting was an easier job than being a controller, was elected Mayor of Toronto in 1936 after having been mayor in 1928-29. He didn’t survive his term of office, passing away in November 1936; he was the first mayor to die on the job. One of the Toronto Island ferries is named after him.

A Senate is gagged

The mid-1930s were the Dust Bowl years in western North America; dust storms often ravaged the prairies. As an example, the April 16 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star reported that the dust got so bad in the Texas state legislature that its members had to wear masks indoors:

Nowadays, ironically, wearing masks indoors doesn’t seem all that unusual.

Walter Frank Woodul (1892-1984) was the Lieutenant-Governor of Texas from 1935 to 1939. The Texas Politics Project website contains a biography of him.

A politician now

Here’s another photograph of a politician that appeared in the Toronto Daily Star – this time in the April 16 1935 edition.

Hugh Plaxton (1904-1982) was a member of the Canadian team that won gold at the 1928 Winter Olympics. He then played 17 games for the Montreal Maroons of the NHL in 1932-33.

He did indeed get the Liberal nomination for the Trinity riding (located in southwest Toronto), and he was elected to the House of Commons in the 1935 general election. In 1940, he lost the Liberal nomination for his seat, which ended his political career. He doesn’t seem to have done anything noteworthy after that.

Heintzman piano used

Here is an ad for Heintzman pianos from the March 3 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star that mentioned that a prominent visiting pianist was to perform with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Charles Naegele hasn’t left a particularly large footprint on the Internet. A search turned up references to him performing in various places from about 1916 to about 1940. I found a press photo of him from 1931 that appears to be the same as the one in this ad, and I also found this notice from the March 1940 edition of The Etude magazine:

This suggests that he had settled down to a life of teaching. I could find out nothing about him after that.

Cooking and home-makers’ school

Here’s an ad from the March 4 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star for a free presentation offered by the paper on cooking and homemaking.

Jessie Marie DeBoth wrote a number of books on cooking, with publication dates ranging from the 1920s to the 1950s. One of her books, Modern Guide To Better Meals (1939), included a “calendar of dinners” and “abstinence schedules”.

Ms. DeBoth eventually married a man named Carl Ebbe Dreutzer. She passed away in Chicago in 1959 at the age of 68.

Probe death of heiress

Here’s a photograph from the March 4 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star of a young woman who had died in mysterious circumstances.

Elva Statler Davidson was an adopted daughter of Ellsworth Milton Statler, the founder of the Statler Hotels chain. The cause of her death was never conclusively proven. Some believed that her husband had killed her for her money – she had left her inherited fortune to him in her will – while others believed that it was a suicide or an accident.

In 2010, author Steve Bouser published a book on Ms. Davidson’s untimely passing, Death of a Pinehurst Princess. He believed that she had committed suicide but was not able to determine this with certainty. One thing that is for sure is that Ms. Davidson had already experienced more than her share of loss by the time she passed away at the age of 22 – her adoptive parents and two of her three siblings had predeceased her.

Two-piano recital

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.

Continental Varieties of 1936

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:

• “Pils and Tabet” were actually Jacques Pills (1906-1970) and Georges Tabet (1905-1984). Of the two, Pills had the longer career; he sang the Monaco entry in the 1959 Eurovision song contest, and finished last.
• Lucienne Boyer (1901-1983) started her working life in a munitions factory, forced to work there when her father died in the First World War. An office job in a theatre led to singing in Paris music halls and then to Broadway and tours. Her signature song was Parlez-moi d’Amour. In 1939, she married Jacques Pills; they divorced in 1951. Their daughter, Jacqueline Boyer, won the Eurovision song contest in 1960, the year after her father finished last.
• The Jazz Age Club blog has a long article on the Rocky Twins.
• Georges André Martin (1910-1957) specialized in making his fingers look like dancers. I found a British Pathé film clip of M. Martin’s fingers; I found it both strange and compelling.
• I could find nothing on Helen Gray, and the only references to Iza Volpin’s quartet were to this show.