Please excuse any repetition here. I am to some degree consolidating information for previous posts.
I had not been able to trace Ethel's marriage to Leo White. I tried various combinations of White/Weiss with no luck. But
http://www.lordheath.com/index.php?p=1_965_Blanche-White tells us this took place on 11 May 1911 (should be 3 May) in New York City, citing
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2438-47S. I'm not surprised I couldn't find it, as there are some mistranscriptions and perhaps intentional bending of the truth. Their names are given as
Reo H. Weiss and Ethel E. Mc Cann. Her parents' names match - give or take the 'e' on the end of Dunn(e). But Ethel gives her age as 23 when in fact she would have been only 18 at the time. This is not the first time Ethel appears to have modified her age to suit circumstances. The most likely fit in immigration records gives her age as 21 when she was actually just 17:
http://mackiegenealogy.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/more-about-ethel.html. There may have been further embellishments when she left England, as I have not so far been able to trace her in emigration records. I am curious about how she became involved in the theatrical world and what took her to the USA. But all witnesses are now dead and surviving documents give no cue.
Ethel and Leo had two sons. Leo Herbert James was born c. 1912 in New York and married May Emanuella Oddo on 23 November 1947. So far, I have not found likely matches for Leo (as White or Weiss) or May in births or deaths registers, or births of children to parents named White/Oddo.
Leo junior is always referred to as Peter or suchlike in correspondence from Ethel. He may have been exempt from military service during WWII. In a note on the back of a photo, Ethel refers to a letter from Jack (her other son John) addressing Peter as "
My Dear Exemptee". But he attended
military school in Santa Monica - possibly Ramsey - and was a lieutenant in line for captaincy around 1938.
The marriage record of 1947 gives his occupation as "singer". Ethel tells of him singing songs such as "Loch Lomond", "Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair" and "A Garden in the Rain" on
radio.
John (aka Jack) was born John Fredrick in Cook, Illinois on 24 September 1914. So far, I have not found any likely matches for marriages or death. He served in the army in WWII - photos
here,
here and
here. Can anybody identify the uniform? That might assist in tracking down any enlistment record. In the 1940 census he is listed as an actor in motion pictures. On the back of a photo sent by Ethel to her brother Fred, she says that Jack is known as Fred
in the studio.
Ethel's second husband was George Lewis Cooke White, born 28 February 1899 in New York, died 17 April 1962 in Los Angeles. I guess this must be the chap identified as Bob or Bobo in Ethel's photos.
Here we have some photos of Ethel, Bob and Peter (Leo Jr) on Easter Sunday, year unknown but very likely during WWII. Ethel says he is letting his hair grow for a picture he was working on and compares him to a hopper in Kent. She says that "Old Captain Cooke must have been like his grandson". George White's mother was Marietta Cooke. Is Ethel implying that "Bob" is descended from Captain James Cook? It is stretching the facts a bit - the captain died in 1779 - but associating Bob with the Cooke name appears to confirm that Bob/Bobo and George Lewis Cooke White are indeed the same person.
Here we have Ethel and Bob walking the dog in Clark Drive. On the back of a photo of Bob, Ethel writes "Bob is Welsh and English descent but I tell him he looks just good old New England Yankee". George was born in New York but his father was from Massachusetts and his mother from Rhode Island, which further strengthens the likelihood that Bob and George are the same.
Here we have a few postcards from Ethel; in one of them she mentions Bobo comparing the picture to New England.
Here we have a couple more of Bobo. He is playing "Sad Sack", based on the comic character introduced in 1942
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sad_Sack. "Ted" is playing the sergeant. So who is Ted? This is a long shot, but a slight possibility.
Here and
here are photos of a little girl called Sally Louise Jarvis. Her parents were Arthur Tedcastle Jarvis Jr. (1914-2004) Shirley Elizabeth Hamilon (1914- ). Ethel mentions her resemblance to "Grandpa Jarvis". Could Ted have been Arthur Tedcastle Jarvis Sr. born c. 1883?
