More About Ethel 3

In a follow up post http://www.voy.com/225534/4/9314.html Jesse writes:
"If this is our Ethel, then she was born August 21, 1892 and died October 5, 1963. * almost gotta be, but I find it odd that if she remarried, she'd keep her divorced first husband's last name?"
with a link to California Deaths record
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VPCZ-1Z2
Mother's maiden name is given as Dunne, which fits what we already know.

In a further follow-up http://www.voy.com/225534/4/9315.html Jesse then writes:
"Maybe that was a false alarm. Still, what are the odds?" and includes links:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/K8JF-2K5
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-29948-35419-53?cc=1804002
This shows Ethel marrying George L. Cooke-White in Los Angeles on 9 September 1934. This is definitely our Ethel - middle names and parents names match. But she is being somewhat creative about her age. She says she is 34 but would actually have been 42. Her address is 321 South Reeves Drive, Beverly Hills. She gives her father's birthplace as Scotland, not Mauritius, but as previously mentioned, her father and his father were military men and many of the McCanns were born overseas, so some confusion is understandable.
George's age is given as 37. His occupation is given as insurance underwriter. His address is 1732 North Whitley Avenue, Los Angeles and his birthplace New York. His parents were Edgar Mills White and Marietta Cooke.
Officiant was J.K. Stewart, Pastor of Beverly Vista Community Church. (Although raised a catholic, as a divorcee, Ethel could not marry in a catholic church.)

 https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/K97C-SZY
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-27791-14008-46?cc=2000219
And this is Ethel and George at Tract 383 Beverly Hills in the 1940 census. Ethel's age is correctly given as 47. George now describes himself as an actor in motion pictures. He is listed as George L.C. White.

After some further research, I have found George and Ethel buried in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego California.
https://billiongraves.com/grave/Ethel-Caroline-White/18586140#
This has photos of both headstones. George's dates are given as February 28, 1899 to April 17, 1962. The inscription includes "PVT RCT DET 79 FIELD ARTY WORLD WAR 1". (I'm guessing the abbreviations mean Private, Regimental Combat Team Detachment, 79 Field Artillery but stand to be corrected) Fort Rosecrans is a military cemetery so no doubt his WWI service qualifies him and his spouse for interment here.

Can we find anything more about George?
Here is his birth record (indexed as George Curtis Cooke White but all other details match)
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WWH-BQH
He had an older sister Margaret Mary White, born 1898 in Manhattan.
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2W8J-3C3
In 1900, 1905 and 1910 he was with his parents (see details below for Edgar). So far, I have not found him in the 1920 Census.
This looks like him in the 1930 census, lodging at The Crest Hotel, 4969 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles (now long gone as far as I can tell from Google Streetview), describing himself as a salesman
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XCJ1-3B9
Here he is in the deaths register
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VP4W-6HM
Father was Edgar Mills White, born Charlestone, Suffolk, Massachusetts, 27 October 1858. He had a twin brother Waldo.
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHTL-N4F
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FXCR-H5F
 https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-11846-35248-92?cc=1536925
Died on 26 January 1912 and was buried in Swan Point Cemetery, Rhode Island
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVPM-P75Q
The family was in Manhattan in 1900
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSKR-V87
and 1905
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SPN4-G33
and 1910
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M5HZ-2B1

A couple of Bobo

The quality is not too good as they are small contact prints, but it is interesting to see him at work. "Sad Sack" was a well known army cartoon character at the time.

Ethel and Bob, Clark Drive, after 4 p.m. Sunday

There are two sets of pictures here. The first two prints are slightly smaller and the writing on the back looks a bit different. Maybe one set went to Ada and the other to Fred. (I think Fred must have been Ethel's brother James. See more in a future post.) She tells us their house is on Clark Drive. But did they move house? See my notes on the 'Ethel's "baby"' post.

Around the margins on tha back of one picture, she writes "Remember old 'Bobbie' Bolder at Essanay Chicago? They have lived on Clark for about 20 years. Bobbie died at 78 a little while ago. Bolders (Edney's) house is about where X is. Old Bobbie was for all his 78 years a spry white haired chubby John Bull type. He was a Christchurch boy in his youth - nice old Bobbie. Bobbie loved to tell Peter and Jack what a rosy cheeked fair lass I was when he met me." Bobbie Bolder was a movie actor. I cannot shed any more light on the "X" - perhaps a map or similar was enclosed. This also tells us that Ethel spent some time in Chicago. Leo appeared in a number of Charlie Chaplin movies for Essanay. Bobbie Bolder died 10 December 1937.

Updates:
Bobby Bolder/Edney must be the actor Robert Bolder (1859-1937), born Robert Jospeh Edney.
Ethel refers to 'Bobo' as 'good old New England Yankee'. As noted elsewhere (More About Ethel 3) he was actually George Lewis Cooke White. His father was born in Massachusetts, his paternal grandparents in New Hampshire and his mother in Rhode Island, which all fits the New Hampshire tag.
Ethel gives the name of her bulldog as "Whiskie" or in full "Leatherneck Gaiety Girl". This link topline-bulldogs.com/bulldog_pedigrees shows her as the grandmother (or whatever the correct term is) of Champion Cockney Gorblimey (dob 2/2/1942)

Ethel, Bob and Peter - Easter Sunday

Ethel McCann emigrated to the USA for a career in the movies. Ethel's first husband was Leo White (originally Leo Weiss). She went under the stage name of Blanche White. These pictures show Ethel, her son Peter and Bob/Bobo, who I presume is her second husband. (Her other son John does not feature here, presumably as he was on army service at the time.) I have no pictures of Leo in my archive, but have found a few of him on the web. John and Peter show a family resemblance to Leo, so I presume they are his sons. If we assume Ethel was in her mid to late forties, then these pictures were taken in the late 1930s or early 1940s. Arnaz Drive is partially visible in some pictures. That would place them in what is now Beverly Hills 90211. Captions to other photos give some other street names. With luck and some help from Google maps, I hope to get a fix on where exactly they lived. Whilst Ethel and Bob may not have been "A" list stars, they certainly seem to have been earning a good living from what they did; they are very well dressed and living in a quite affluent area. She mentions Bob was letting his hari grow for a picture he was working on, which indicates that he is a movie actor.

[Update. 1930 census data for Ethel's family reveals that Peter was actually Leo H. I have therefore indexed him as "Leo H White II" in this and subsequent posts.]
[Further update. Bob/Bobo was George Lewis Cooke White. See More About Ethel 3 for further details. Ethel makes the comment 'Old Captain Cooke must have been like his grandson. It is a bit of a stretch to imagine that Bob/George is the grandson of British explorer Captain Cook (usually spelt without a final ‘e’ and died in 1779), but I think the use of ‘Cooke’ here is significant as it was one of George’s middle names and his mother’s maiden name. It provides further evidence that Bob/Bobo is George White.]

Ethel mentions "Bostal Heath" - this is a wooded area in Abbey Wood, not too far from Woolwich, where the McCanns had lived in England. She also describes Bob as looking like a hopper in Kent. Back then (and I can even remember it in the 1960s) some less affluent Londoners would take working holidays hop picking in Kent. Jack (presumably brother John Frederick) is addressing Peter as an "exemptee" - maybe that is a reference to him being exempt from army service.