Last week, discussing the adversity my grandfather experienced as a boy, I admitted that his father, Alfred, was likely a Bad Man. I'm going to have to face that story at some point. In the meantime, though (squirrel!), his siblings were interesting people and (next to John's $12M mansion) provided one of my favorite genealogical surprises.
My great-granduncle, David Conrad Feltz, was the eighth and penultimate child born to German immigrants Herman Feltz and Fredreka Manteufel. His parents met in Renfrew County, Ontario, but moved to Detroit, Michigan, five years before David was born on October 17, 1889. He grew up mostly in Detroit, although the family did also spend time in Monroe, a relatively easy streetcar ride to the south, where cheaper lodging and a lot of seasonal fruit-picking and similar plant nursery work could be found.
As a boy, David was shown in city directories as a "Laborer" but by the time he was 17, he was listed as an electrician or sometimes a clerk, working mostly for the telephone company. In January of 1910, 20-year-old David married Adaline Barrett. David's parents and most of his siblings moved to California in May of 1910. His two youngest sisters stayed in Detroit. David is actually listed in city directories both for Detroit and for San Bernadino, California, for the next several years. Adaline obtained a divorce for desertion in 1916, so apparently he chose California and she didn't. Not long after that, David married again, in Los Angeles. According to a newspaper article, he worked as an airplane inspector during the war. In 1920, he filed for divorce and the newspaper quoted the poignant letter from his wife, Gladys Warbury, that he provided to the judge in support of his claim of abandonment. Gladys wrote "I am very sorry if your heartaches are to come now when it seems too late. I had mine, many of them, and suffered through them alone here." A later newspaper mention that same year when he visited his parents in San Bernardino said that he was now "in real estate" in Los Angeles. Gladys went to medical school and became an M.D. -- I would love to know her story! In 1922, David was noted by the Riverside, CA, newspaper as having bought a Willys-Knight Car to support his "constant driving" as a district representative for Marchant Calculating Machines, "one of the greatest inventions on the market." Although I'd never heard of either the car or adding-machine, they were each quite the thing in their time. In 1926, David was the spokesperson for a group of "area sportsmen" who backed Bon MacDougall in a bid to make the first non-stop Trans-Pacific flight, California to Japan. MacDougall was a race car driver and stunt flyer for "The 13 Black Cats," a group of aviators who boasted they'd do anything for a price, and specialized in wing walking and barnstorming and the like. MacDougall lost his shirt at the auto races, however, and the first Trans-Pacific flight was completed in 1931 by someone else (who was just as crazy). David clearly had an eye for the brass ring of opportunity; sadly, luck didn't generally seem to be on his side.
A dog-lover who cultivated some interesting friends, David apparently recognized a need -- and an opportunity: there were no resources for the provision of seeing eye dogs any closer than the opposite side of the continent. In 1937, David partnered with Texas rancher Robert P. Jordan to found the Guide Dog Institute of California in Van Nuys. Jordan's father, Robert S. Jordan, would operate the breeding kennels, blending German Shepherd Dogs and Doberman Pinschers to produce their working stock. At four months, the puppies would be transferred to the Hollywood Dog Training School in Riverside under the tutelage of Carl Spitz.
You may have heard of Terry, a Terrier whose original owners couldn't potty train her, so sent her to Spitz at the Dog Training School. When Spitz called them to say Terry was ready to come home, they said, yeah, you can just have her (in lieu of that training fee). Five years later, Terry, now Spitz's house pet and family favorite, joined Judy Garland to trek the Yellow Brick Road. Spitz gave in to her fans and changed her name officially to Toto a few years later. She was involved in at least 15 additional films. Spitz is also credited with creating the US WW II "War Dogs" program. Clark Gable wrote the foreword to Spitz's book on Dog Training, which discussed the challenge of training dogs once the motion pictures added sound: now the canine cues could no longer be auditory, and hand signals had to be used, instead.
Tragically, the man who was to handle all the husbandry elements, Robert Jordan, Sr., died suddenly less than two months after the Institute was announced. Plans came to a screeching halt. All was not lost, however, and I believe Thor's (and David's) connections helped bring the school to fruition.
In 1929, "The Tailwaggers Club" was founded in England. Members were able to purchase identification tags for their pets and the fees were used to support animal welfare efforts, including pet population control, finding homes for shelter animals and anti-vivisection legislation. The club made it to the United States in 1935, and, in Los Angeles, "the social and screen elite" came together to form a chapter. Bette Davis (yes, that Bette Davis!) was elected president
Somehow Thor von Mantieful, a Doberman Pinscher owned by David Feltz was the first dog registered with Tailwaggers in the U.S., and thus given the title of "Tailwagger No. 1." (You may recognize the latter part of Thor's name as a hail to David's mother's maiden name of 'Manteufel.') According to newspapers, Thor was given honorary membership in many humane societies and he and David made appearances at a number of animal welfare-related events. Carl Spitz's hand seems obvious in the "tricks" that Thor and David would demonstrate as ambassadors for both Tailwaggers and the mission of bringing a Guide Dog program to the west coast.
In 1939, The Tailwaggers Institute announced construction of a $35,000 facility for the training of Guide Dogs in Van Nuys, the first such school outside the east coast. "Tailwaggers Guide Dog Institute for Blind Persons" featured manicured grounds designed specifically with elements for the training of the blind with their new partners, an administration building and three dormitories, plus an air-conditioned kennel. In line with the Tailwaggers strict spay and neuter message, the school now involved no breeding but accepted only adult German Shepherd Dogs for training, up to 30 at a time.
It sounds as though at least one Doberman Pinscher remained involved in the proceedings, however:
The newspapers reported with relief that Thor's leg healed perfectly. At a gala affair in October of that year, Miss Davis, along with philanthropist and Tailwaggers founder Jim Lindsay, presented the first two graduate Guide Dogs to their blind masters.
David and Thor's partnership continued to make the press. In 1945, when David was planning to build a home in Desert Hot Springs, the newspaper announced the anticipated new residency of Tailwagger No. 1 -- and, rather an afterthought, his owner. And since dogs never live long enough, that's where we'll leave them, enjoying the sunsets together in that desert oasis.
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