| Notes |
- This info appeared in 2 newspapers that I know of:
The Indianapolis Star dated: July 21, 1924
and the following which appeared in:
NY American
Brooklyn Addition
Monday, July 21, 1924 22 pgs 3 cents
No 14,978. Daily.
Copyright, 1924 by Star Company.
JILTED TWICE AT ALTAR BY MILLIONAIRE
JILTED TWICE; Disappears
This radiant choir singer, Alice Golding, of Newton Centre, Ma, waited in vain twice in a church filled with friends for her millionaire fiance.
"I felt like a girl who had blown a beautiful bubble and watched it burst in the air," she said. Now she is missing and her family and friends are wondering on her future course.
RICH SUITOR RUNS AWAY AS GIRL WAITS IN FILLED CHURCH
Brookline (Mass.) Manufacturer, Forgiven by Pretty Choir singer After Flight, Agrees Ceremony on Following... (Missing part of page)
Missing Again When (missing) is ready for wedding.
Girl's Disappearance (missing) Second Fiasco adds (missing) in love tragedy at (missing) Centre; Mother Hints: (missing)
Special Dispatch to the N.Y. American
Boston, Suffolk Co., Ma, July (missing)
Twice jilted at the altar by millionaire fiance (missing) days!
That has been the fate of Alice Golding, choir singer of poetic temperament, who has achieved musical fame at twenty. The prosaic William Andrew Luce, wealthy president of the Morris Ireland Safe Company, No. 64 Sudbury Street, twice failed to appear to marry her, while the eager wedding guests were assembled. And he had vowed undying love.
He is forty-nine - an age at which a suitor is supposed to know his mind. But Luce, when found in a Bridgeport hotel after he had failed to show up at the altar the first time, confessed to stage fright - or something very akin to it.
FRIENDS CROWD CHURCH
Everything was ready, after many weeks for preparation, for that marriage ceremony. Rev. Father Timothy Curtain, pastor of the Church of the Sacred Heart in Newton Centre, where miss Golding sang, was to say solemn high mass at the ceremony.
Hundreds of friends, who either knew the contracting parties personally, or else felt they knew the bride because they had heard her sing so often on noted occasions, were gathered in the church last July 2.
The bridesmaids - some of Newton's prettiest girls - were ready to march down the aisle. Came the wedding hour. The pastor was ready to begin the service. The bride, looking as lovely as a dream picture in her satins and orange blossoms, was there - expectant. Her parents and her sister were waiting.
The guests chattered happily. Still no groom and best man appeared. Women glanced toward the rear of the church. Where was the groom?
SEARCH FOR BRIDEGROOM
A hurried consultation was held after a while, while rumors began floating about. Alice's sister. Frances - who once had worked as secretary to Mr. Luce- suddenly exclaimed: "Come on Alice, we'll rush to his apartment. Maybe he's sick."
The motor car that was to carry the bride and groom on the start of their honeymoon was requisitioned. The two of them dashed to Luce's home in exclusive Brookline - No. 1647 Beacon Street.
They rang the doorbell. There was no answer. Then suddenly the door jarred open. The two young girls tip-toed in.
They found no one there. On a mantel-piece was a note addressed "To Alice." It read:
"Dear Alice:
I did not have the courage to tell you. A final difficulty has been added, so there is nothing to do but to give up our dream. I am under the doctor's advice. Am leaving to-morrow morning for a complete rest, ALONE - (heavily underscored.) You can imagine my feelings. I am so sorry about you and the annoyance caused you and your mother. I expect you will never forgive me. But what can I do? "BILL."
Alice turned, gasping, to her sister: "Oh, what am I to do? I loved him! And all my friends at the church,too!"
The grieving bride was taken to her home, No. 171 Cypress Street, Newton Centre. The pastor dismissed the wedding congregation and a hunt by the male friends of Miss Golding began for the bridegroom.
The truth wasn't known - then.
Almost immediately Luce was found in a Bridgeport hotel, whither he had fled before the ceremony. He admitted he had changed his mind. He did add:
"If she'll have me after this, I'll keep my word and marry her."
That information was rushed to the bereaved and humiliated girl. Looking up through her tears, she said:
"I forgive him - I forgive him. Having your sweetheart come to you begging for forgiveness is like having the first days of love over again."
WAIT IN VAIN AGAIN
So the wedding was set for the next day -July 3. The marriage license, still in the groom's pocket, would still be valid.
But would the marriage be held even then?
That's when friends asked one another. they remembered that there had been religious differences between the two. Miss Golding wished the ceremony held in her religion. Luce at first demurred. Finally he consented, but again was reluctant to accede to the bride's wish that their children, if any, be reared in her faith. But at last he consented to that, also.
July 3 dawned beautifully for Alice Golding. Again dressed in satins, with the orange blossoms in her hair, she awaited the (missing)ng hour. She told her bridesmaids:
" I know he'll be there this time. Oh, I know he will be there, I have forgiven him."
The hour came. Friends had (missing) Again the wedding bells (missing) th. An automobile con-(missing) brides party drew up (missing) but no groom was (missing) gain that waiting - that (missing) heads inside, and the (missing) sing of a nervous tension (missing) se standing in the vestibule.
Again the bridegroom failed to appear! (missing) Bide again returned home. In tears No word was received from the groom - no explanation of any kind. And this time he couldn't be found, either.
MOTHER HINTS AT SUIT
But the girl was found by a reporter sobbingly, she declared: “When I was jilted I felt like a girl who had blown a beautiful rainbow bubble and watched it burst into thin air. That bubble I blew - together Bill and I watched it, tinted with the rosey hue of dreams, floating idly on the winds of love. But it was left for me alone to behold the strange shattering of all my dreams."
In spite of the differences in their ages, in spite of his twice jilting her, she declared, when first seen: "I loved him, I loved him. It wasn't for his wealth. That had no influence on me. It was his personality."
The jilted girl's mother said: "No matter what people may think, Alice will never marry that man. And there may be a suit for breach of promise, too."
But alice's mind seemed above such material considerations.
GIRL IS MISSING NOW
While Luce was still missing the girl disappeared also. At first it was believed that possibly the two of them were secretly married somewhere - the license was still good for almost six months.
The girl, it was understood, was staying with her aunt at No. 399 Langley road, Newton Centre, but callers there couldn't find her. The mystery now is, where has she gone?
Luce returned to his business - and silent.
It was titian-haired Alice Golding's marvelous voice - as well as her demure looks - which first attracted Luce two years ago. He had been a widower for a year. Frances Golding - Alice's sister - introduced them.
Luce began to shower attentions on the singer. One night, after he had known her for quite a while, he asked, hesitatingly: "I wonder - would you mind coming to my apartment early this evening? I'll have some women members of my family there as chaperones."
The girl accepted the invitation.
She sang for them those songs of the heart which appeal to all men weary in life's struggle. Luce saw a resemblance between her and his first wife. And their names were the same, too - Alice. And both were singers.
One night she said "yes" to his ardent proposals. Then everything was prepared for the wedding. The invitations were sent out, the bridesmaids were chosen, and Alice Golding began to dream of an eternal happiness. But that was only a dream - shattered, as so many things of this world are.
Luce failed twice to appear at the altar. Since then he has returned to his office. The girl has failed to return home. (end of story missing, 1line)
-----
headline from Indianapolis star read:
Bride to be left twice at alter within two days
Now Alice Golding, 20 years old, is missing and William Andrew Luce, 49, who was to wed her returns to Boston and says nothing.
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Old Dead Relatives
Abt 1905 - ?
