Best of Picture from the Past
Singer entertained church, but wasn't asked to return
By John S. Baggerly
Henry Duffy, owner of a Pacific Coast chain of stage theaters, and his wife, actress/singer Dale Winter, once attended Los Gatos' Christian Science Church on E. Main Street. The church, constructed in 1927, replaced an older church located on upper Broadway.
Duffy and Winter were often in the public eye--he for the movie stars he brought from San Francisco to Los Gatos for weekends and she for her signature song, which longtime Los Gatan Betty McClendon recalls ran, "When I first wandered down into town in my sweet little Alice blue gown, I was both proud and shy as I felt every eye."
McClendon also notes that after Winter sang for the congregation, Duffy remarked jokingly to friends on the sidewalk, "That may the last time she sings here because she didn't get a hand on her entrance." McClendon, Los Gatos' senior dance teacher, had an insight into Duffy's theater chain because her older sister, Bryce Mattenberger, worked in the office of the Alcazar Theater in San Francisco.
Duffy's theaters were in Los Angeles, San Francisco (Alcazar and also the President), Oakland, Portland and Seattle. Duffy had a connection with Hollywood movie studios to use inactive lesser movie stars to act in his theaters, including wide-mouthed comedian Joe E. Brown and long-legged comedienne Charlotte Greenwood.
It was painful to Los Gatans, and particularly to members of the local Christian Science Church, when the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner Sunday supplements recalled Winter's past in Chicago. As a young woman, Winter, chaperoned by her mother, toured the Orient and, upon returning to Chicago, found work in a nightclub owned and operated by gangster Giacomo "Big Jim" Colosimo.
One of this writer's daughters, Caroline Shank of Los Osos, found further information on the Internet. Colosimo emigrated from Calabria, Italy, to Chicago in the 1890s and was allegedly a pickpocket, pimp and Black Hand extortionist while making an honest living as a street sweeper. He later impressed First Ward aldermen and worked as a Democratic precinct captain and thug, collecting tributes for corrupt aldermen.
In 1902, Colosimo married Victoria Moresco, a madame much older than himself. They opened a second brothel and soon gained control of several others. In a few years Colosimo owned 200 brothels and was also into gambling, extortion and other criminal activities.
In 1909, Colosimo himself was threatened by Black Hand extortionists. Needing help in dealing with this threat, he sent for his nephew in Brooklyn, Johnny Torrio. The men who threatened Colosimo were soon found dead, even though Colosimo had, in Torrio's eyes, gotten lazy and complacent. He showed no interest in new ventures. Prohibition had just gone into effect in January of 1920, and Torrio wanted to seize the opportunity to move into bootlegging. Meanwhile, Colosimo deserted Victoria to marry 19-year-old singer Winter.
On May 11, 1920, one week after marrying Winter, Colosimo was found shot behind the right ear in his own restaurant. The killer was never found. Some years later, Winter married Duffy. Colosimo was refused a Christian burial for one sin only. It was not murder, theft or rape, but simply having divorced his wife to marry Winter.
All of this brings to mind a Duffy play, The Wooden Kimono, which is about the head of a household building his wooden coffin in the basement.
John Baggerly is now semi-retired. This column is from the Los Gatos Weekly-Times archives.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
