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JARVIS---Chicago (Delighted)
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Date Posted: Fri, December 28 2018, 1:48:56
In reply to:
JARVIS---Chicago
's message, "DON FERRANDO height 5' 9 1/2"; ANM Exclusive" on Thu, December 20 2018, 9:36:07
The WACKY Mrs.DON FERRANDO
In the 1900 NYC Census, KATHERINE GOTTHOLD is age 16 (b.1884/85 Jacksonville, FL) and living with her Mother and older brother, JAMES. Her older sister, MAMIE, is married (1895) to a doctor and living elsewhere. The Father, ELLIS MILTON GOTTHOLD, is elsewhere. He is a theater manager and has been a theatrical agent. The Mom is running a boardinghouse which has “theater people” living there. The entire neighborhood is full of actors and other entertainment professionals.
This is strange: The 1900 Census gives Month and Year of each person, therefore (lacking a birth record) one should be able to confirm KATE's birth month and year, stated fairly close to when it occurred with almost no reason for someone to “lie” about it to the Census Taker. For the overwhelming majority of people he interviewed, he wrote “U N” in the birth month column, including KATE and Mom, JENNIE!
In the 1905 NYC Census, she is an “actress” aged 21 and living with her Mom and “theatre manager” Dad. Life wasn't all fun and games for KATE. In 1903 she was hospitalized for a serious case of typhoid fever and in 1905, operated on for peritonitis. That same year, she was in Chicago in a play and saw an old lady crossing a busy street being trampled by a team of horses and rescued her and probably saved her life. KATE suffered minor injuries and torn clothing. For her act of bravery, she was given a $1,000 award!
In Aug. 1908, KATERINE EUGENIE GOTTHOLD (age 24) applies for a marriage license in NYC. The lucky (probably wacky, too) man is WILLIAM AUGUSTINE VARTY (1877-1915). Both come from wealthy families. WILLIAM is a prominent newspaperman who rose to prominence as the first journalist to set foot on Cuban soil during the Spanish American War and remain as a war correspondent reporting on the front lines. After Spain's surrender, he stayed behind to help with the American occupation and the writing of the Cuban Constitution when they were granted independence. He owned his own island in the West Indies but became prominent in mainland U.S. Newspaper circles.
The following “WACKY STORY” about the marriage licenses played out in newspapers all over the USA. It goes something like this with variations:
A couple, WILLIAM A. VARTY and KATHERINE GOTTHOLD, went to the NYC Marriage License Bureau and made application with the clerk. They answered the required questions about age, birth place, parents' names and birth places, etc.. The next day, “another” couple comes in to apply for a license. The clerk notices the “similarity” of personal information and inquires. The man laughingly says that the first VARTY is his “cousin” with the same name. The clerk noted that the first VARTY was shorter and a little more stout. The “girl” told the clerk that the first KATHERINE was her twin sister. After the Certificates were filed, the head clerk remembered the first couple and “dug out” the first application and sure enough, the personal information was basically the same but with different handwriting and the man slightly shorter and stouter.
The head clerk closed the office and took public transportation to the address of the “girls'” home. He (later) reported to the press that the sisters looked more alike than two peas in a pod, wondered how their husbands would tell them apart and wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen them together. (KATE's only sister was 12 years older than she.)
Their Mom, Mrs. GOTTHOLD, (supposedly) told the clerk that the men were indeed cousins with the same name. The twin sisters had an Aunt KATE and an Uncle EUGENE who were family favorites and so as not to displease either, they were both “christened KATHERINE EUGENIA” and one answered to “KATE” and the other to “GENIE”.
According to the newspaper, KATE was married in a private ceremony and a day or two later. GENIE was married in the Church of the Transfiguration.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1908-08-27/ed-1/seq-9.pdf WACKY Marriage License farce.
While the first (preposterous) story was still spreading across the country, the truth came out. KATE was Episcopalian and WILLIAM was Catholic. They had two wedding ceremonies with a marriage license for each church.
Sadly, at some point, WILLIAM contracted TB and went to a TB Sanitarium in Upstate New York to recover, but he died in 1915. Due to his prominence, the announcement of his death was in newspapers all over the country. His obituary mentions only his Mother and 3 sisters as survivors---no wife or ex-wife. KATE's older brother had died of TB in 1903. He had been a successful theater manager like his Dad and volunteered for the Spanish American War and fought in Cuba and probably contracted the disease there.
In Nov. of 1911 she married an Englishman from Manchester. They “did it” in Des Moines, Iowa in the middle of the USA. He was in vaudeville as an eccentric dancer/comedian of the team of HANDERS & MILLISS. This is where the name “MILLIS” comes from in the “Variety” blurb that has DON FERRANDOU of the Lubin Studio in Jacksonville marrying a “Miss KATHERINE MILLIS” in 1914 despite other blurbs and a Marriage Certificate that names her as “Mrs. KATHERINE GRAYSON” or “Miss KATHERINE GOTTHOLD”.
http://www.archive.org/stream/variety36-1914-09#page/n183/mode/1up/search/millis “Variety” announcement.
http://www.archive.org/stream/variety36-1914-09#page/n108/mode/1up/search/%22handers+and+milliss%22 another “Variety” announcement.
1914 Sep.18 p.9 “Variety”: “KATE GOTTHALD (sic) obtained a divorce last week in Jacksonville from her husband, ARTHUR G. MILLIS, and immediately married DON W. FERRANDON (sic). The couple are both members of the Lubin Co. Her first husband is of HANDERS and MILLISS”.
ARTHUR GRAYSON (MILLISS) (1890-1943) was a few years younger than KATE; he age 22 and she 26. About 1908, HANDERS & MILLISS started touring their native England and became very popular and expanded their tours to include Europe and America. They successfully performed together for 25 years until GRAYSON's death. His marriage to KATE wasn't quite as lasting. GRAYSON remarried in 1918. He filed an Application of Intent to become a US citizen but died in Boston before he finalized it. Included is a link to a silent snip from British Pathe' 1927 but their comedic patter was a big part of their popularity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kab9arGUF1s HANDERS & MILLIS silent clip 1927.
DON FERRANDOU evidently settled KATE down. There doesn't seem to be any scandalous gossip in the newspapers about them after their marriage. In fact, a 1922 article says that DON enjoys boating and gardening at his home in Jacksonville.
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The WACKY Mrs.DON FERNANDO