I have previously mentioned some of the celebrities who eloped to Yuma for “quickie” marriages in the years between 1928 and 1956 when Arizona, unlike California, did not have a waiting period or a blood test requirement for prospective couples. Hollywood stars who eloped to the “Gretna Green of the Southwest” included Loretta Young, Bette Davis, Stan Laurel, Burt Lancaster, and many more. In addition, several parents, children, and siblings of California celebrities traveled to Yuma for marriage. Here are some of their stories.
Billy Sunday, Jr. and Julia Mae Sunday–April 30, 1928
Billy Sunday, Sr. was a top professional baseball player in the 1880s who walked away from baseball to become one of America’s most popular barnstorming Christian evangelists of the early 20th century. Billy Sunday, Jr., 27, and Julia Mae Sunday, 27, were remarried in Yuma by Justice of the Peace Earl Freeman on April 30, 1928. (Freeman was not yet known as Yuma’s “marrying judge,” since California’s restrictive “gin marriage” law had only recently gone into effect.) The legality of the couple’s earlier Tijuana marriage had been questioned by their attorney. Unfortunately, the remarriage did not last. Julia Mae, Billy’s second wife, filed for divorce in 1929, and his third wife did likewise in 1931. Billy Sunday, Jr., who worked primarily as a real estate agent, died at age 37 from pneumonia in April 1938.
Ruth Mix and Douglas Gilmore–June 9, 1930
Ruth Mix, 17, and Douglas Gilmore, 27, were married by Earl Freeman at the Yuma courthouse on June 9, 1930. Ruth lied on her wedding license application that she was 18 years old. Although Ruth’s parents were unsuccessful in having Yuma law enforcement officials stop the couple’s wedding, the brief (3-week) marriage was later annulled. Ruth’s father, Tom Mix, the famous movie cowboy, supposedly responded, “I should have taken my horse and gone after them myself.”
Tom Mix – Mabel Hubbell wedding–March 19, 1932
William Henry Gable and Edna Gable–Jan. 10, 1933
William Gable, 62, and Edna Gable, 56, were married at the Yuma courthouse by Justice of the Peace Earl Freeman on January 10, 1933. Edna Gable, William’s third wife, did not need to change her surname since she was the widow of William’s brother Frank.
Mabel Cooper and C.J. Bigelow–April 13, 1933
Jack Shuler and Metta Nadine Prather–May 16, 1936
“Fighting” Bob Shuler was pastor of the 5000-member Los Angeles Trinity Methodist Church for 33 years. He was also a well-known radio minister–until his broadcasting license was revoked in 1933 due to his inflammatory rhetoric. When Bob Shuler died at age 86 in 1965, one writer described the pastor’s legacy as a “ministry of denunciation.” (This Bob Shuler was not related to the later Rev. Robert Schuller of Crystal Cathedral fame.)
“Fighting” Bob objected when his 17-year-old son Jack eloped to Yuma in May 1936 with his high school sweetheart, Nadine Prather. Jack’s newlywed wife, who was not accepted by her in-laws, quickly filed for divorce, which led the Shulers to successfully countersue for an annulment on the grounds that Jack had been under the minimum age (21) for males to marry in Arizona without parental consent.
After graduating from Whittier College, Jack Shuler went on to become a renowned evangelist in his own right, traveling extensively across the United States, as well as Canada and Europe. Following his short-lived Yuma marriage, Rev. Shuler married and divorced twice more. He died at age 44 on December 9, 1962.
Jack Holt’s son and daughter–Dec. 10, 1938 / Nov. 19, 1943
Jack Holt, forgotten today but a leading Hollywood star of the 1930s, had top roles in four movies that were filmed in the Yuma area: “Wanderer of the Wasteland” (1924), “Hell’s Island” (1930), “The Woman I Stole” (1934), and “Trouble in Morocco” (1937). Jack Holt’s son Charles John “Tim” Holt and daughter Elizabeth “Jennifer” Holt both followed him into the acting profession. And both were married in Yuma.
On December 10, 1938 Tim Holt, 21, and Virginia Ashcroft, 20, were married at the Yuma County Courthouse by Judge Henry Kelly. This was the first of three marriages for Tim Holt who went on to appear in many B-westerns, as well as two enduring film classics, “The Magnificent Ambersons” and “The Treasure of Sierra Madre.”
On November 19, 1943 Jennifer Holt, 23, and Captain William Richey, 23, were married at the Presbyterian church by Rev. Acheson. Jennifer filed for divorce after four months. It was the first of her four marriages. Jennifer Holt appeared in 47 (mostly western) films in the 1940s.
Ethel Garland and W.P. Gilmore–Nov. 17, 1939
Ethel Garland, 44, and W.P. “Will” Gilmore, 51, were married by Justice of the Peace Ed Winn on November 17, 1939. Ethel had been the ultimate “stage mother” of Judy and her two sisters, particularly after divorcing Judy’s father Frank in 1927. The Gumm Sisters were a singing and dancing vaudeville act managed by Ethel. Judy, whose given name was Frances Gumm, began her show business career at age 2 as “Baby” Gumm. The sisters, and mother Ethel, eventually changed their professional name to Garland.
Ethel Garland’s marriage to Will Gilmore, a self-described “sales engineer,” ended in divorce four years later. When Ethel Garland died at age 58 on January 5, 1953, she was working for a modest salary as a clerk at the Douglas Aircraft Company.
Fred Astaire, Jr. – Gale Trumbo–September 1, 1956
Fred Astaire, Jr., 20, and Gale Trumbo, 18, eloped to Yuma for a September 1, 1956 marriage at the Lutes wedding chapel, two months before Arizona voters approved a new marriage law. Being under 21, the groom required parental consent which was given in the form of a note from the father, legendary dancer Fred Astaire. The groom was an airman in the U.S. Air Force. The bride was a singer, and it was her desire for a singing career that led Fred, Jr. to file for divorce in 1963. He enjoyed a long second marriage with wife Carol, a painter and photographer who operated a studio in San Luis Obispo, California. Fred worked as a rancher, pilot, dance instructor and choreographer. The Astaires were longtime patrons of the arts in their community.
Charles Chaplin, Jr. and Susan Magnes–August 5, 1958
None of Charlie Chaplin’s four marriages occurred in Yuma–despite repeated reports to the contrary. Rather, it was his son, Charlie Chaplin, Jr., who in August 1958 was married at the Lutes Wedding Chapel in Winterhaven, California. Chaplin and his 22-year-old bride arrived in Yuma expecting a “quickie” marriage, unaware that Arizona’s marriage law had changed more than a year earlier by adding a blood test requirement and a 48-hour waiting period. The enterprising Lutes family had adapted to the new marriage law by opening a second wedding chapel across the state line in Winterhaven, Califorina. Charles Chaplin, Jr. and Susan Magnes were given a blood test in Yuma and then transported to the Winterhaven city clerk’s office to obtain a California marriage license, and then delivered to the Winterhaven chapel–where they obtained their quickie marriage after all! Sadly, Charlie Chaplin, Jr. struggled to find work in motion pictures, and his Yuma marriage ended in divorce, as did a second marriage. When he died at age 42 from a massive blood clot, the wire service report concluded that “the actor never escaped from the shadow of his father.” The burden of fame is often mentioned in biographies and profiles of celebrities, but the burden of “relative” fame experienced by Charlie Chaplin, Jr. and so many others can be an even heavier one.
Yuma History Guy 