Toth, Charles

Charles Toth, waiter from Boston, Mass.

According to his own later biographical CV, Toth was born in Lindau, Bavaria, on October 8th 1879, but the 1910 census returns, his 1914 naturalisation papers, his 1917 war draft registration and his 1922 passport application all say he was born in Rabfidish (Raabfidisch/Rábafüzes), Hungary, on October 8th 1878. He first came to the USA at the time of the St. Louis Exposition in 1904 and was employed as a brass worker in Los Angeles. He married another Hungarian immigrant there in 1907, Mariska ‘Mary’ Gruber. After staying in the west for eight years, he came east to Boston In 1912 and settled there. He was a waiter in one of the local hotels.

He made two failed attempts in 1922

After two more failed attempts in 1923, Hungarian-American Charles Toth of Boston completed the swim on 9 September 1923, in 16 hours and 40 minutes, missing by two days the expiration of a £1,000 prize offered by the Daily Sketch for anyone who completed the swim, a prize that both Sullivan and Tirabocchi received from a representative of the Daily Sketch waiting on the shore with a cheque in hand.