"

Well, your comments certainly sound authoritative!  Why do you privilege Friedrich's narrative over Bazzana's?  His biography is quite clear on this point: ""[Glenn's] birth certificate gave his name as 'Gold, Glenn Herbert.'  The family name had always been Gold, and when his grandfather...established the family business in 1913, he gave it the name 'Gold Standard Furs' (pun presumably intended).  All of the documents through 1938 that survive among Gould's papers give his surname as 'Gold,' but beginning at least as early as 1939 the family name was almost always printed as 'Gould' in newspapers, programs, and other sources; the last confirmed publication of 'Gold' is in the program for a church supper and concert on October 27, 1940."" (Bazzana, Wondrous Strange, 24).

Now, I don't want to stand in the way of your sanctimoniousness, but I believe that documentary evidence weighs in as the only proof of historical fact.  Your quotation from Friedrich offers no documentary evidence  only an undated business card.

Bazzana goes on to discuss the regrettable climate of increasing xenophobia that apparently prevailed in Toronto at the time, and the influence this may have had on the (documented!) name change, but any thoughtful person can surmise from the dates (1939-40) that this may have been the case.

In any event, this entire discussion is much less ""problematic and harmful"" (whatever that means) than inane and boring.  The information is anecdotal, and of mild and passing interest, but really, WHO CARES on way or the other?  "