Robert "Cupid" Stewart Sparks (1871–1932) was a Los Angeles City Council member in the 1920s. He was the first person to represent the 5th District under a new city charter effective in 1925. Earlier, he was given the nickname "Cupid" while he managed Los Angeles' marriage licensing bureau for 19 years. Robert, along with his wife, ran an informal matchmaking service throughout Los Angeles County. Biography Sparks was born on March 31, 1871, in Anoka, Minnesota, the son of Henry Sparks. He graduated with an engineering degree from the University of Minnesota in Saint Paul and moved to Los Angeles in 1894 to engage in the real-estate business; he was married to Edith McGinty of that city the same year. They had one son, Richard. Sparks entered the office of the County Clerk as deputy in charge of the marriage-license division in December 1912 and there was given the nickname "Cupid" during his tenure. He was ousted as deputy in 1920 after L. E. Lampton was elected clerk,. Tension with Clerk Lampton began as Robert refused to publish news of marriage licenses being issued to movie stars. These included the marriage of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford as well Charlie Chaplin and Mildred Harris. Robert also operated an informal matchmaking service from "having received thousands of letters from lonely men and women asking for his assistance in securing mates." He and his wife would "study the letters, and from the descriptions given we match up the requirements as best we can, and then I put the husband-seekers and wife-seekers in touch with each other by letter. Hundreds of marriages have resulted." Robert said he would continue the practice after his election to the City Council in 1921 but "out of office hours." In 1923, on the occasion of his 29th wedding anniversary, he noted that he had issued more than 200,000 marriage licenses and gave this advice to husbands: Self-preservation and protection is the first law for husbands, and to have a happy married life, such as I have had, remember the anniversaries with gifts for the wives. They expect it. If husbands do this and storm clouds arise, and the matrimonial lute shows signs of piping some sour notes, the wives recall that their husbands, alone and unaided, did remember the anniversaries, and the difficulties melt away. Between 1923 and 1925 Sparks returned to the real-estate business and also