The secret of charm

The July 25 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star contained two columns on the secret of charm, one from a woman’s point of view and one from a man’s:

Helen Morgan (1900-1941) has appeared in this blog before. She was a popular torch singer during the 1920s, appearing on stage and in New York nightclubs, one of which was called Chez Morgan. She battled alcoholism all of her life and died of cirrhosis of the liver.

Lowell Thomas (1892-1981) was a writer and broadcaster who was an early proponent of the travelogue, filming his travels to various places. His presentation on the war in Palestine was hugely successful in both the United States and England in 1919. He later moved to the radio, delivering talks about his travels and then branching out to stories about other people and news. He remained on radio until he retired in 1976.

Ironically, at the time of the column, Ms. Morgan was in the process of suing her second husband, Maurice “Buddy” Maschke III, for divorce. She married again shortly before her death. Mr. Thomas was more successful in love, as he was married to Frances Ryan from 1917 until she passed away in 1975.

Abductors of girl?

Here’s a brief article from the July 25 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star that appears to be sad news.

I agree with the writer of this anonymous article: a car with a fictitious registration is a very bad sign. The odd part: poor Miss Duffy appears to have been a resident of Buffalo who was abducted from Columbus and then transported back to Buffalo. Sadly, this means that she might have been targeted.

Knew man who fought at Trafalgar

Here’s the first part of an article from the July 26 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star about a man who was 95 years old:

The article listed his address as 17 Roxborough Street West, so I was able to trace Mr. Hector in the Toronto city directories. It looks like he made it to his 100th birthday or possibly even his 101st, as he is listed in the 1941 directory at this address. He is not listed in 1942.

Our name

Here’s an ad from the June 8 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star that caught my attention:

I noticed this because of Mr. Pennock’s somewhat dour expression and because his firm used lead in their paint. Lead paint is now known to be toxic; Canada and the United States have banned or strictly limited the use of lead in paint since the late 1970s.

The firm of B. A. Pennock & Son had not been in existence since 1900, but this is only a slight stretch of the truth: Bernard Pennock is listed as a painter in the 1901 Toronto city directory. He set up shop at 932 Dovercourt in about 1920.

He and his son had just decided to go into business together at about the time of this ad, however, as the 1935 directory lists Bernard A. Pennock as the president of the Irish Canadian Athletic Association Club. The 1936 directory lists B. A. Pennock & Son, with the son being Lorne B. Pennock.

The Pennocks, father and son, continued in business together until about 1948. At this point, B. A. Pennock passed on, and Lorne moved into 932 Dovercourt and continued the business, first under the B. A. Pennock & Son name, then on his own. He is at 932 Dovercourt in 1955, but by 1960 had moved to Etobicoke.

The Google Street View photo of 932 Dovercourt shows that it is now a house. But it’s a detached house in a neighbourhood of mostly semi-detached houses, and it has a driveway to the left. You can easily see how this building could have housed a painting business.

Mysterious disease victim

The June 8 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star contained this article about an actress who had become sick while filming in Africa.

Edwina Booth (1904-1991) sued MGM for over a million dollars, claiming that she had been provided with inadequate protection and clothing during the filming of Trader Horn. (During filming, she caught malaria, suffered from sunstroke, fell out of a tree, was cut by elephant grass, and may have caught schistosomiasis.) She reportedly settled for $35,000, which was a large sum of money in those days (and isn’t that small of a sum these days).

Unfortunately for her, no major studio would employ her after this. She appeared in some low-budget movies in 1931 and 1932 (the last of which was Trapped in Tia Juana). It took her six years after that to completely recover from her time in Africa.

Following her recovery, she stopped appearing in public. She became involved in the Mormon church, devoted herself to good works, was married and widowed twice, and tried never to mention that she was once a movie star. Rumours of her death appeared several times before she actually passed away in 1991. A Utah history site has a more detailed biography of her.

As for Trader Horn: it was a success when it was finally released in 1931, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. YouTube has a trailer for the movie; I couldn’t watch all of it, as there was too much footage of animals being killed or injured, not to mention all of the crude cultural stereotypes.

Toronto boy in quake zone

Here’s a photograph from the June 8 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star of a young man who was serving in the Royal Air Force overseas.

I am fascinated by the idea of F. Judd Kennedy having a son named A. Judd Kennedy. Why did they both choose to go by their identical middle name?

Since the caption listed F. Judd’s address, I looked him up in the Toronto city directories: in the 1935 directory, he was listed as a travelling salesman for the Woods Manufacturing Company. He stayed there until his death – he is listed in the 1944 directory, but the 1945 directory lists his widow.

A. Judd Kennedy eventually returned to Toronto: the 1947 city directory doesn’t list him, but the 1950 directory shows him as a secretary for Bear Equipment and Services. By 1955, he had worked his way up to assistant general manager there. I didn’t trace him after that.

Girl stymies state

The June 8 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star contained this brief report of a California trial in which a wife was accused of killing the woman with whom her husband was having an affair.

A Santa Clarita Valley history site provides more details on the trial and its eventual outcome. The husband, deputy sheriff Archie Carter, testified in support of his wife, saying that it was all his fault, and their daughter remained adamant that the revised version of her testimony was correct. This seems to have convinced the jury – they returned a verdict of manslaughter instead of murder against Gladys Carter, and then ruled in a subsequent phase of the trial that she had been temporarily insane but was sane now.

The state of California then tried Mr. Carter for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, since Frances Walker was under the age of majority at the time of her death. He was sentenced to a year in prison; he appealed and went free on a $2500 bond. Reconciled with his wife, he went to live with her and their daughter in Los Angeles. I don’t know what happened to them after that.

Wins law fellowship

Here’s a photograph that appeared on the front page of the June 8 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star of a woman who had just won a law fellowship:

I’m not sure why the editors of a Toronto paper chose to put a photo of a woman from North Dakota on the front page. They had to fill it with something, she seems to be pleasant-looking, and she was the first woman to obtain the fellowship; I suppose that these are reasons enough.

Ms. Thorpe had an unusual first name, but I wasn’t able to find much on her when I did a search. I did find her obituary, though: she moved to California, got married in 1942, and passed away in 2000 at the age of 86.

New golf champion

Here’s a photograph from the June 8 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star of the winner of the Ontario women’s golf championship and the runner-up.

I wasn’t able to find out much about either woman in this photograph, partly because the caption didn’t refer to either of them by their own first name.

I did find a list of winners of the Ontario amateur women’s golf championships going back to 1904. E. W. Whittington is listed as the 1935 winner; she also won in 1926. The runner-up won two years later; her name is listed as Mrs. Cliff Shuttleworth, so she didn’t get to have her own first name shown there either.

When looking at this list, I discovered that a woman named Ada MacKenzie appears to have won the Ontario women’s amateur competition in 1922, 1923, 1927, 1931, 1933, 1939, 1946, 1947, and 1950. She has a Wikipedia page (which lists a different set of amateur titles, so I’m not sure which is right).

Mrs. Whittington also appears to have been an accomplished badminton player, as she was co-winner of a championship in 1931. Given that badminton players take turns hitting a shuttlecock, it would have been more appropriate if Mrs. Shuttleworth was the badminton champion, but life is seldom that straightforward.

I look years younger

Here’s an ad from the May 14 1935 edition of the Toronto Daily Star for Palmolive Soap:

Gladys Swarthout (1900-1969) auditioned for the Chicago Civic Opera Company while still a music student; she landed a place there despite knowing no operatic roles at the time. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York in 1929, and appeared in a number of movies in the 1930s. She is the only woman ever to have sung in front of the entire Congress of the United States.

YouTube has a wide selection of samples of her performances, including “Last Night a Nightingale Woke Me” (1946).