Looking for a possible marriage, California, 1920-1930

[Erato]

Oops, sorry, double post.

[Erato]

"So, I don't know if Myrto is yours, but she sounds interesting!"

She does indeed and it looks like she's mine!   5'11"  -  well, that's believable.  I only ever knew her brother, Gladwyn, and he was maybe 6'4" or so and built like Abraham Lincoln.  She's not the only radical in the family, certainly, though she seems a bit more colorful than the others.  My grandparents were also quite strongly left-wing, although not, as far as I know, actually declared communists.

I did discover that Myrto was the common law wife or consort or mistress or something of Socrates but she doesn't seem to have had any special qualities as a writer or philosopher in her own right.

[shellyesq]

Miss Myrto Childe in Monterey newspapers:

Entertained out of town friends in 1929 - https://dr651d.bmiimaging.com/Roll/Roll?datasetName=Monterey%20Public%20Library&rollID=360&frameNumber=116&findText=myrto%20childe

Traveling to LA in 1929 - https://dr651c.bmiimaging.com/Roll/Roll?datasetName=Monterey%20Public%20Library&rollID=360&frameNumber=383&findText=myrto%20childe

Her friend was part of a love triangle that resulted in a stabbing in 1930, and Myrto was noted to be a former proprietor of a notorious tavern.  https://dr651d.bmiimaging.com/Roll/Roll?datasetName=Monterey%20Public%20Library&rollID=360&frameNumber=743&findText=myrto%20childe

Author of a newspaper article in 1931 - https://dr651d.bmiimaging.com/Roll/Roll?datasetName=Monterey%20Public%20Library&rollID=282&frameNumber=86&findText=myrto%20childe

Involved in 1932 show for the jobless - https://dr651d.bmiimaging.com/Roll/Roll?datasetName=Monterey%20Public%20Library&rollID=322&frameNumber=209&findText=myrto%20childe

In relief council in 1932 - https://dr651d.bmiimaging.com/Roll/Roll?datasetName=Monterey%20Public%20Library&rollID=365&frameNumber=1283&findText=myrto%20childe

Involved in a debate about Communism in 1932 - https://dr651d.bmiimaging.com/Roll/Roll?datasetName=Monterey%20Public%20Library&rollID=365&frameNumber=441&findText=myrto%20childe

Demanding more aid for a local family in 1933 - https://dr651d.bmiimaging.com/Roll/Roll?datasetName=Monterey%20Public%20Library&rollID=323&frameNumber=899&findText=myrto%20childe

1933 - she was denied the privilege of addressing a group meeting about social welfare and relief activities   https://dr651d.bmiimaging.com/Roll/Roll?datasetName=Monterey%20Public%20Library&rollID=323&frameNumber=257&findText=myrto%20childe

1957 - Myrto O'Connell noted to have famous gourmet dinners served at a playhouse - https://dr651d.bmiimaging.com/Roll/Roll?datasetName=Monterey%20Public%20Library&rollID=355&frameNumber=642&findText=myrto%20childe

A posthumous poetry award - https://dr651c.bmiimaging.com/Roll/Roll?datasetName=Monterey%20Public%20Library&rollID=397&frameNumber=796&findText=myrto%20childe

[shellyesq]

And her obit - https://dr651d.bmiimaging.com/Roll/Roll?datasetName=Monterey%20Public%20Library&rollID=397&frameNumber=354&findText=dorothea%20childs

[shellyesq]

She is very interesting.   

http://caenlucier.com/blog-press/tag/San+Francisco+History

A survivor of both the 1906 earthquake and subsequent great fire, 31 Alta traded hands several times prior to the 1920s but the most infamous inhabitant of throughout the last century was a reputed Russian noble, Myrtokleia Sawvelle who, according to David Myrick’s San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill, converted the brick dining room and kitchen into a “night club.” Myrick reports that printed cards were sent to a prospective clientele announcing her Telegraph Hill Tavern as having “all the atmosphere of the Montmarte with a Marine view.”

According to Myrick, Myrtolkleia (who came to be known as Myrtle) served tea at two in the afternoon, followed by dinner at six and supper after ten; while a Sunday morning brunch was offered from eleven to two.

On that eventful night in February 1927, Myrtle’s guests must have been carousing on the balconies and howling at the moon late into the night. However, the neighbors on Telegraph Hill were not putting up with it that night. The constabulary were called, and the Black Maria arrived to escort Myrtle and her party to the city jail for the rest of early morning.

Myrtle not only had considerable skill in the culinary arts and the charm to be a gracious hostess, but she was also a pro at public relations. While the press headlined the story “Wild ‘Tea Party’ Raided”, her account painted for the reporters a not unusual evening of tea and art appreciation. Apparently, Myrtle was giving a private exhibition of a new work of art by Elwood Decker described as “an esoteric blue damsel charging through a red fog.”

    “We were sitting around admiring Elwood Decker’s new painting,” relates Myrtle Sawvelle’s account in the press. We weren’t even drinking anything but tea and I was making a pan full of biscuits for a little supper when the police came and made us all get in that black wagon. Some of the guests who arrived late were making quite a bit of noise but we didn’t realize that this was disturbing anybody, she said. We are going to start all over again with a tea room and this time there will be no nights in jail.”

— Myrtle Sawvelle

According to Myrick, it was not to be. Her food was exotic, her liquor was good — but her timing was poor because her teas were taking place during Prohibition. Her homemade brews landed her in jail again for 90 days, and she was promptly appointed jailhouse cook. Tackling her new job with gusto, Myrtle became the heroine of her fellow inmates. Her fellow prisoners never ate so well, in or out of jail, and it was a sad day when she was liberated. A year later, Myrtokleia retired to Carmel.

http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/sfm/1973.htm

The hangouts were: the Casa Beguine, a wonderful restaurant then entering its decline — Mama and Papa Beguine were growing old, and their customers were deserting Bohemia for the Establishment; the Telegraph Hill Tavern, run by a great cook and great lover and bad poet, a lady who called herself Myrtokleia, after a character in The Songs of Bilitis

[shellyesq]

She circulated a petition about being a member of the Communist Party.  https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=OT19320623.1.3&srpos=31&e=-------en--20--21--txt-txIN-myrto-------1

There is a Dorothy C. Sawvelle & Carl F. Sawvelle who divorced in San Francisco in 1928.  https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76370101/  Maybe that's where the name Sawvelle mentioned above came from?  The filing for divorce was done under the name Dorothea in 1927.  https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76370265/

[shellyesq]

Dorothy Sawvelle "Myrto" was held in jail because of a raid on her tavern in 1929.  https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76370437/

Just found the answer to the Dundas question - Dan Dundas & Myrto Sawvelle got a marriage license in 1945 in San Francisco.  https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76370486/

[shellyesq]

Dan Dundas was listed as married on a 1946 passenger list, so perhaps he & Myrto tied the knot by then.  https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-894V-Z7H5?i=412&cc=1923888&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3A24L1-T9H

Looks like Dan was married to someone else in 1948 - https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GBVH-WSK?i=1167&cc=1849982&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQ2SR-1V66

[Erato]

Oh, shellyesq, I can't thank you enough!  You've opened Pandora's box and given me a whole weekend of amusement.  And it couldn't happen at a better time because Quito has been 100% locked down for the next two days. 

As I said, my grandmother's information has always proved to be correct but, in many cases, she left out the interesting details.  I don't think she was white-washing, exactly, but maybe just skimping on the less seemly parts of the story.