00:00:00—(Interview begins)—
URTON: At her home in Santa Barbara, California, November 28th, 1986. The
interviewer is Elaine Urton. Mrs. Tonetti is a sister of Robert Hyde, and as
there is great interest in the Mountain Drive community, we hope to find out
from her, her recollections of his early life. Drive community. We hope to find
out from her, her early recollections of his early life. Uh, Mrs. Tonetti, will
you tell me about, uh, Bobby Hyde’s early life? Where?
His birthplace. And something about his parents.
TONETTI: Yes, he was born in 1900, in Chicago, and my family came out here, uh,
when he was very young,
00:01:00maybe 2 or 3 years old. And they felt they fell in love with Santa Barbara and
decided to live here. So my sister and I were born here, and that was the, that
was the number of children that in the family. Bobby was five, five years older
than I, and my sister was two and a half years younger than I. And we lived on
Salsipuedes Street, which a house that my father built. And Salsipuedes means
get out if you can.
URTON: Uh, your father was an artist? Yes. Tell me about his work
00:02:00 .
TONETTI: He was a limner. Limner. And that means he he
did the kind of writing and work on calfskin that the old monks used to do. And
when he when his eyesight failed to a certain extent, he decided to run an
antique shop. So he had a lovely place on Carrillo Street, and eventually he had
to move from there. Somebody, there was some kind of plans that he had to find
another place for his shop. So my brother Bobby built a beautiful adobe, a place
for for the antique shop. And it looks
00:03:00like one of the old houses.
URTON: Is it still standing?
TONETTI: Yes, it's still standing on Carrillo. No, this one is on, um. Oh.
Canon, Canon, Perdido street.
URTON: Oh, yes.
TONETTI: And, um. People, people think that it's a historical house.
URTON: But it was Bobby.
TONETTI: But Bobby built it. Yeah.
URTON: Well, tell me about, um, Bobby's early life. He was always a creative
person, wasn't he?
TONETTI: He was. Yes.
URTON: He could do anything, couldn't he?
TONETTI: Yes. And he always thought of things that other people didn't think of.
Mhm. He originated a lot.
URTON: He must have been an interesting little boy.
TONETTI: He he was he was a he had the regular training. He went to Santa
Barbara High School and then to the University of California.
URTON: In Berkeley?
TONETTI: In Berkeley. Mhm. And
00:04:00uh, he wrote quite a few books, but not enough to support himself on. So he. He
did quite a lot of that's when he started I think the, the Mountain Drive
community. Mhm.
URTON: You remember what year that was. Mrs. Tonetti uh, when that was right
after the war, wasn't it?
TONETTI: Yes. No, I don't remember. Mhm.
URTON: Uh, it would be interesting to know some of the jobs that he held and...
TONETTI: Well he, he worked in the oil fields around uh, Long Beach when he was
married to his first wife, Dorothy Hamilton. And. She she. Had
00:05:00a baby and died. Probably because there wasn't enough medical treatment.
URTON: They didn't know.
TONETTI: Yes. Out on the oil fields. So. That was. That was his first wife.
URTON: And then what jobs did he hold after the oil fields? Um. Some of these
other jobs that you can recall that he...
TONETTI: Well, after I was thinking about Dorothy's death and after her death,
he was crushed and he had this little baby. Susie. Susie. Who's now Susie Macy. My
00:06:00mother helped with the new little baby, and, uh. A good friend, Lydia Tonetti,
fell in love with Bobby and they got married. She. She came from the east, from
Snedens Landing, which is near New York City. And they went back there and he he
built some houses, some beautiful houses in the woods there near Snedens and
wrote. But Bobby was homesick for Santa Barbara, and eventually they moved back.
Back to Santa Barbara. I think that's about when he began to,
00:07:00build houses up on Mountain Drive.
URTON: Now, did he have any children with the second wife?
TONETTI: Yes, um, after, after, while they were living in Santa Barbara.
URTON: And the names of the children that.
TONETTI: Lydia and Bobby's children. Yes. Angie. Angie. Bjorklund. Her name is now.
URTON: Yes.
TONETTI: And? Joe Hyde. Who was the chef and a well known chef. Mhm. And um,
Francois Hyde who is in Saudi Arabia, I guess it is. That's, that's the, that's
00:08:00the number of children that Bobby and Lydia had.
URTON: And then when he married Floppy, they had one child.
TONETTI: Yes. That, that's, uh, his name is Gavin Hyde.
URTON: Does he live in Santa Barbara?
TONETTI: Yes he does. Um. And he. He's, uh, has a stepdaughter that he loves
very much.
URTON: Um, what about travel? Did Bobby travel abroad or.
TONETTI: Yes. Bobby. Bobby. Engineered a trip to Europe in between his
marriages, and took my mother and father and myself in an old car. And we drove
around Brittany. Mhm. And it was very, very interesting time.
URTON: That was your first trip to Europe?
TONETTI: Yes.
00:09:00Mhm. Went all around beyond Brittany down south, the south of France.
URTON: I'm interested in, um, Bobby's father, who was a very fine artist. Uh,
can you tell me more about him? You did tell me something. But, uh, his
influence on Bobby.
TONETTI: Well, I think Bobby had a lot of both. My both my our parents, um, my
mother was very clever and brilliant. Well read woman. And my father was an
artist, and we had a very happy childhood. In this house on Salsipuedes Street.
URTON: Is a house still there?
TONETTI: Yes. Mhm. So I think he had a little of both parents in him.
URTON: Let's
00:10:00talk about the Mountain Drive community. Uh, the buildings, were they all are
made out of, uh, um, adobe or were there all sorts of structures?
TONETTI: Bobby. I was away at the time. I was in the East, but Bobby must have
acquired a lot of land up on Mountain Drive, and whenever someone came along who
wanted to buy, if Bobby liked the people, why he would make all kinds of
arrangements so that they could move up there
URTON: ...and he afford to buy it, too.
TONETTI: Yes, and pay it back little by little, pay for it little by little. And
he taught all of his children to build houses, and they each built a house
00:11:00of their own...
URTON: They did?
TONETTI: ...eventually, yes.
URTON: With their own hands.
TONETTI: Yes.
URTON: That is interesting. Um.
TONETTI: Floppy had two, two sons before Bobby and Floppy were married. Mhm. And
they each had a house.
URTON: And they built their houses too. Well Bobby had a wonderful philosophy of
life, didn't he?
TONETTI: He was, he had a good sense of humor and he was very, very interesting
I think.
URTON: And a very kind person.
TONETTI: Very kind. Yes.
URTON: I used to see him at the Art Museum, uh, quite a bit, but he was sort of
interested in all the arts.
TONETTI: He was interested in everything. Mhm. I can remember that when he was
younger he took up the accordion and he took up the French horn. And he,
URTON: ...and he did well in all.
TONETTI: Yes. And
00:12:00also he was interested in archery. Just you name it, he would be interested.
URTON: And then I heard that there was a, um, a Japanese game he used to play.
TONETTI: Go.
URTON: Go.
TONETTI: But he used before that he played [chess] a lot. And he had a friend
that he he used to correspond with. And they'd make their moves...
URTON: by telephone...
TONETTI: by postcards.
URTON: ...by postcards or telegram.
TONETTI: But then after the, after the chess, Um, he did get he was very
interested in Go.
URTON: Which is a Japanese game, isn't it?
TONETTI: I think so.
URTON: it's a little complicated, isn't it?
TONETTI: Yes. You just sit there and study you for hours. What you were going to
do, what move you were going to make.
URTON: Um, there were many festivals, um, with the, um...
TONETTI: You mean the wine festival?
URTON: Yeah. The people
00:13:00who lived there, they they had many festivals. Do you remember any or did you participate?
TONETTI: I wasn't here then, but I've heard...
URTON: Because I know they celebrated Twelfth Night. And so that was, um...
TONETTI: It was quite a little community. They must have had a lot of fun.
URTON: Wine stomping. Yes. And Bastille Day. Um, tell me about Bobby's career as
a writer.
TONETTI: Well, he wrote 5 or 6 books. There was one of them was called A Little
Family. or A Young Family.
URTON: Was this fiction?
TONETTI: Yes.
URTON: And can you recall any, did he write any travel books or...
TONETTI: No. One of them was written in English as though it were translated
from the Chinese.
URTON: And
00:14:00that wasn't Little Family?
TONETTI: No, that was another one. I can't remember the name right now.
URTON: What an inventive mind he had.
TONETTI: They were short stories.
URTON: Did he write poetry at all?
TONETTI: He probably did. I'm not. I don't think he ever published any.
URTON: Then, of course, he wrote the book. Six More at Sixty. Tell me about
these, the Rodriguez family that he...
TONETTI: Well, they they Bobby and Floppy heard that these children were going
to be separated when their parents died, and so they they decided to be foster,
foster parents to this family. So six children so that they could all be
together. Mhm. And that was a very successful arrangement.
URTON: They had a very happy family life
00:15:00 .
TONETTI: Yes.
URTON: Of course, their own children had by that time grown. Is that right?
TONETTI: So they grown and moved away? Yes.
URTON: What a wonderful thing for them to do.
TONETTI: Floppy would was always glad to, um, go along with anything that Bobby
wanted to do. And of course it was a lot more work for her, but she she did it.
URTON: Um, your brother knew some famous people. Um, I think, uh, Dylan Thomas.
And also he entertained Leopold Stokowski. Can you recall any others?
TONETTI: He built a house for Stokowski.
URTON: Oh, he did in Carpinteria? Is that...?
TONETTI: No. On up on Mountain Drive.
URTON: I didn't know that.
TONETTI: Yes.
URTON: And did he live there, Mr. Stokowski?
TONETTI: I think he did, yes.
URTON: Was he married at that time or?
TONETTI: You see, I was away. So this is all pretty...
URTON: This is all, um, hearsay?
TONETTI: Hearsay, yes.
URTON: Um,
00:16:00Mrs. Tonetti, tell me about the book he wrote about the children. Six more at Sixty.
TONETTI: Well, someone asked him if he was going to write a sequel to that book,
and he had Bobby had a very quizzical little smile, and he smiled and he said,
well, I have to wait and see how they turn out, how the children turn out before
I write the sequel.
URTON: Didn't he make a remark one time that he was going to write another book?
Seven more at Seventy?
TONETTI: I think so.
URTON: And uh Floppy flew up her hands, threw up her hands and said, no.
TONETTI: I think everybody loved Bobby. And he was a leader up there on Mountain Drive.
URTON: Mrs. Tonetti, I want to thank you for, um, this interview, and...
TONETTI: Well, I'd love to. I love talking about Bobby.
URTON: So thank you very much.
00:17:00
