The next official record we find of the Criscuolo family at St Pancras is the entry of Antonio on the crew manifest for the Majestic in 1926. He was an 'assistant waiter' working the Southampton to New York route and, as is suggested later, there is a suggestion that this 18-year old stopped in New York for some time.
He next appears on the passenger manifest of the SS Montclare from Southampton to Quebec. The first thing that one notices is that he has been there before - between May and November 1929. He would have been 20 when he arrived and 21 when he went back to the UK.
We also find from that entry on the manifest that he took Canadian citizenship on that first trip because when he went back - on the 17th of April 1930 - he was admitted as a 'returned Canadian'. The obvious conclusion is that the citizenship was necessary to enable him to move and work freely in the country.
We know that he stayed in the Royal York Hotel on his 1929 visit and that he stayed only as long as he needed to in order to pick up his Canadian passport which was issued on 21 November 1929.
The passenger manifest also has him working at the (and I quote) "Grurva Club" in the employ of Mr C Collins. I am forced to the conclusion that 'Grurva' is a misspelling or a phonetic spelling. Groover? Grover? Groova? I have no idea and there is no sign that I shall find out any time soon. In any event, by the 29th of April 1929, he was back in Toronto.
On the 11th of June 1932, he was heading back to Liverpool on the Duchess of Atholl and, asked for is occupation, he professes to be a waiter ... presumably at the Groover or Grover Club or whatever it was called. We also see that he has given the USA as his last place of permanent residence. This is one mobile 24-year old.
On the 21st of June 1932 his younger brother, Luigi, was on the Empress of Australia heading for Quebec. A musician (saxophone being his instrument) he was apparently going to stay with Antonio at 90 Wellington Street, Toronto and one might reasonably conclude that he was going to work at the Grover Club or whatever the hell it was called.
I'm starting to lose track now 'cos I have no record of Antonio returning to Toronto after his trip back to London on the 11th of June but that doesn't mean that he didn't of course.
Luigi's entry on the passenger manifest is interesting. He was carrying £40 in his pocket (£1,336 in modern terms) and he was detained - arrived at Quebec on the 26th of June and released on the 2nd of July ... as in immigrant. But on the 11th of August he was heading back to London on the Alaunia. Did he not make it? Did he hate it? Did the club owner not like him? He was a decent musician like my grampa was. Not in Stan Getz' class but good all the same.
I'm afraid that I can't make head nor tail of it. Tony was an astute business man and left a substantial sum when he died in January 1954 so one assumes that he was up to something constructive here but I have no idea what.
