Winston Doty
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Winston and Weston Doty (February 18, 1914 – January 1, 1934)Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica - records were twin child actors active for several years during the
silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...
era. The Doty twins were among the casualties of the Crescenta Valley flood (the "New Year Flood of 1934") .


Biography

Winston and Weston – originally Winston and Wilson, though the latter was later changed after the two began appearing in silent films – were born in Malta, Ohio, sons of Lawrence "Jack" and Olive Doty. Their father was a stage and radio actor who had separated from his wife when the boys were fairly young.US Census Records 1920–1930


Careers

The brothers lived with their mother in Chicago, Los Angeles, and later in Venice, California. Between 1922 and 1924 Winston and Weston Doty appeared in a handful of silent film shorts, among them "Our Gang," 1922 with Anna Mae Bilson and Jackie Condon, ''
One Terrible Day ''One Terrible Day'' is a 1922 American silent short film, the first entry in Hal Roach's ''Our Gang'' (''Little Rascals'') series to be released. Directed by Robert F. McGowan and Tom McNamara, the two-reel short was released to theaters on S ...
'', and one full-length feature, ''
Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...
'' (1924). In 1930 Olive Doty was employed in Los Angeles as an investment manager while her boys clerked at a local grocery store after school hours. Later the twins enrolled together at the
University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...
where they became popular members of the USC
cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...
squad.


Death and legacy

In late 1933, wildfires burned many of the trees and much of the grass in the
Crescenta Valley The Crescenta Valley is a small inland valley in Los Angeles County, California, lying between the San Gabriel Mountains on the northeast and the Verdugo Mountains and San Rafael Hills on the southwest. It opens into the San Fernando Valley at t ...
in Los Angeles County, California. In the final week of 1933, rain inundated communities in the Crescenta Valley including La Crescenta, Montrose, La Cañada, and Tujunga. On the night of December 31, 1933, the Doty brothers attended a party at a friend's house in Montrose with their dates: Mary Janet Cox (from the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles) and Gladys Isabel Fisher (from
Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...
). At midnight, the brothers called their mother to wish her a Happy New Year. At some point during the drive home, the Doty brothers and Winston's date (Gladys Isabel Fisher) perished when a deluge of water caused by heavy rains swept through the Crescenta Valley. The resulting flood killed scores of people, and destroyed hundreds of homes. Of the four in the Doty brothers' car, the only one to survive was Weston's date: Mary Janet Cox.''San Antonio Light'' (San Antonio, Texas) January 20, 1934 pg. 3 Winston and Weston were interred together at the Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery in Santa Monica. In April of 1935, the brothers' father Jack Doty died alone in his hotel room in Chicago at the age of forty-two."Stage Radio Actor Found Dead in Bed" – ''The Oakland Tribune'', April 14, 1935 pg.46


Sources


External links


Infamous New Year’s Day Flood, Los Angeles Basin, 1934
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Doty, W American twins American male child actors American male silent film actors People from Malta, Ohio 1914 births 1934 deaths Deaths in floods Natural disaster deaths in California Male actors from Ohio University of Southern California alumni Burials at Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica 20th-century American male actors Our Gang