Broida Family (Click for Family Tree)

[NOTE: Photo updated 13 May 2015 with higher resolution scan and enhancements.]

Previous posts (see notes below) about Buster Brodie revealed that his real name was Max Broida, and that he performed in the circus and vaudeville, as well as silent and ‘talkie’ movies.

We were thrilled to receive a comment on the second of those posts from DAC of Austin, Texas, stating that she had a picture of Buster Brodie that she would like to send to someone in the family. A quick email correspondence provided an address for mailing the image, and a bit of provenance: she and her daughter found it in a small antique store in Georgetown, Texas. Once we do a high resolution scan, the image will be donated to the Broida Family Collection at the Saul Brodsky Jewish Community Library in St. Louis, Missouri. We can’t thank DAC enough for rescuing this unique image and then contacting us through the blog to share.

Buster is easy to identify- he was bald by 1928, so it is Buster standing in the back, taller than most of the other people. He is just to the left of the hanging lantern on the far left. His bald  pate blends somewhat with the light background. If the picture is enlarged, one can tell that he was wearing a bow tie. He would have looked very dapper- and his family would be proud, as so many of them worked in the clothing business.

The sign on the Hunt Hotel in Culver City, California, reads as follows:

“Largest Number of LITTLE PEOPLE

EVER ASSEMBLED UNDER ONE ROOF

IN AMERICA

at HOTEL HUNT

CULVER CITY CALIF   OCTOBER 7th 1928″

Of course, research would be needed…

So I Googled ‘Hunt Hotel” and learned that it was still in existence. It is across from, and near to, movie studios, including MGM in its day, and was a wild place full of “movie stars, bookies, and bums.” The hotel was, and still is, used as a location for many film shoots, both interior and exterior- Laurel & Hardy fans may recognize it from some of their films. Stories abound, including that John Wayne won it in a poker game from Charlie Chaplin for $1- apparently untrue. The hotel had fallen into disrepair as the community did, but when the movie studios came back to Culver City, the hotel was purchased and refurbished to its former glory.

At first, the thought was that maybe the get-together in the picture had to do with, “The Wizard of Oz” since the hotel housed many of the Little People who played Munchkins in that movie. But… that movie was released in 1939, and the date on this image was 1928.

More research…

The online article, “The Culver Hotel: Harry C. Culver’s Flatiron of Fun” By Hadley Meares, March 28, 2014 at www.kcet.org provided the reason for this get-together. MGM was filming a version of Jules Verne’s 1874 novel, “L’Île mystérieuse” (“The Mysterious Island”), which was a sort of prequel to “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” The movie included undersea human-like creatures with a duckbill helmet (head?); the Little People who played these parts were housed at the Hunt Hotel, as had been many Hollywood stars. The article states there were 40 Little People at the hotel in 1928 who posed for this picture- I only count 34.) The hotel topped both numbers in 1938, when 124 Little People were brought from all over the country to stay at the Culver City Hotel- it’s new name- while appearing in “The Wizard of Oz” as Munchkins and flying monkeys.

How did Buster Brodie/Max Broida end up in this group picture? He was short, to be sure, but was not a dwarf as far as we know. Was he a part of the extras in this movie? He is uncredited, if so, and no evidence has yet been found that he was in this movie- except possibly this picture. It is also conceivable that Buster answered a casting call for ‘little people’ for the MGM film- he had been in other MGM productions so this is plausible even though he was likely not technically a Little Person. Another possibility is that some of these Little People were members of “Singer’s Midgets,” a vaudeville group that Buster may have worked with during his time in vaudeville; they appeared in movies in the 1930s, including, “The Wizard of Oz.” Buster had also worked in the circus as a young man, and may have known some of these persons from those years.

The answer to how and why Buster was included in this picture may never be known, but we are so grateful for a genealogical act of kindness by DAC that brought up these questions, and for sharing this special picture with us so we can share with the world.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Talented Tuesday: Max Broida-Now Starring as Buster Brodie- http://heritageramblings.net/2015/04/07/talented-tuesday-max-broida-now-starring-as-buster-brodie/

The Real Max Broida, AKA Buster Brodie- http://heritageramblings.net/2015/04/10/the-real-max-broida-aka-buster-brodie/

2) Broida Family Collection at the Saul Brodsky Jewish Community Library- http://www.brodskylibrary.org/archives.php

3) Leo Singer/”Singer’s Midgets” article on Wikipedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Singer

4) The Hunt/Culver Hotel-

http://www.culverhotel.com/default.aspx?pg=history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culver_Hotel

http://www.hotelsoftherichandfamous.com/travel/North-America/United-States/California/Culver-City/Hotels/Culver-Hotel

“The Culver Hotel: Harry C. Culver’s Flatiron of Fun” By Hadley Meares, March 28, 2014, is an excellent article, an interesting read, and provided the solution to our mystery-

http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/columns/lost-landmarks/the-culver-hotel-harry-c-culvers-flatiron-of-fun.html

http://www.culvercitynews.org/latest-news/ghosts-and-hollywood-glamour-inhabit-a-landmark/

5) “The Mysterious Island,” 1929, MGM resources-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysterious_Island_(1929_film)

http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/M/MysteriousIsland1929.html

http://www.allmovie.com/movie/v103465

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020198/

A fun image of the lobby card from the movie, which may be under copyright so cannot be posted, but worth the click-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lobby_Card_for_the_1929_version_of_The_Mysterious_Island.jpg#/media/File:Lobby_Card_for_the_1929_version_of_The_Mysterious_Island.jpg

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images. Click to enlarge images.

Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Broida Family (Click for Family Tree)

We shared the above sweet image in a previous post, but have recently found the Marriage Record Report for this special day:

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Family treasure chest of photos.

2) “Colorado Statewide Marriage Index, 1853-2006,” index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-25803-17277-72?cc=1932434 : accessed 14 April 2015), Brittendall, Herbert L.-Brunk, Leslie F. > image 479 of 4574; State Archives, Denver.

3) Wedding Wednesday: Theodore “Dave” Broida and Lucy M. Shatzke, 1916, published 01/28/2015 on HeritageRamblings.net: http://heritageramblings.net/2015/01/28/wedding-wednesday-theodore-dave-broida-and-lucy-m-shatzke-1916/

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images. Click to enlarge images.

Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Broida Family (Click for Family Tree)

Joseph J. Broida was the oldest surviving son of ten children born to John Broida and Sarah Gitel Frank Broida, both immigrants from Lithuania. Joseph grew up in Pittsburgh, living at various addresses in the 1880s-90s, with his father a merchant at ‘Broida & Yourkansky.’

In 1900, Joseph is found with his parents and youngest brother in Denver, Colorado, working as a clerk in a clothing house. Joseph was probably with them so that he could help earn a living; the family also had boarders in the home- a husband who was a tailor, his wife, and their two children, with the parents from Russia, as were Joseph’s parents. Joseph’s mother was ill with tuberculosis, and likely they went to Denver hoping for a cure. Sadly that was not to happen, and Gitel died in 1901.

The family moved back to Pittsburgh, but still were not all together, as some of the boys who had gone to St. Louis (instead of Denver) stayed there after their mother’s death. Joseph and some of his brothers were enumerated in their father’s household in 1910, along with their step-mother. Interestingly, the census also lists Joseph and his wife of 4 years, Fannie Glick, with their 3-1/2 yr old son Gilbert plus his brother Philip, Philip’s new wife Bessie, and brothers Theodore and Louis in Joseph’s household on 15 Apr 1910 at 228 Center Ave. So they were enumerated twice. (There is no date on the enumeration in John’s household.) Joseph was working as a bookkeeper in a wholesale store per the census with him as head of household; he was noted as a machinist in the other 1910 census, which does not seem correct from all the other information known about Joseph.

[Edited 05/05/15: indexing error and hard to read, but most probably is “merchant” instead of “machinist.”]

In September of 1918, Joseph registered for the World War I draft. He was 36 years old and described as short, medium build, with brown eyes. ‘Color of Hair’ was listed as Bald, Brown. He was a Purchasing Agent for Frank & Seder, a department store in Pittsburgh. (There were family ties to Mr. Frank, as Joseph’s mother Gitel was a Frank.)

By 1920, Joseph had his wife and two children enumerated with him, plus his sister-in-law Sadie Glick. He was a buyer in a department store, likely Frank & Seder. The household was similar in 1930, with the addition of one more child, son Donald. Sadie Glick still lived with them.

When their father John Broida died in Israel in 1938, both Joe and his brother Louis were listed as living at 6306 Forward Ave. in Pittsburgh per the official “Report of death of an American citizen.”

In the 1940 census, Joseph was listed as divorced. Two of his children, Irene and Donald, were living with him, plus a servant; Gilbert was married and in his own household by 1940. Joe was a purchasing agent in a department store, and daughter Irene worked in a department store as a saleslady. No occupation was listed for 18 year-old Donald, but he probably was in school, as he had completed 2 years of college by then, and he later became an officer in the military, which required a four-year degree. Irene had completed 4 years of high school, and her father had completed 1 year of college, so education was valued in the family.

The ‘War to end all wars’ did not, and Joe Broida registered for the World War II Draft in 1942. He was 59 years old, still working at Frank & Seder, and living at 6306 Forward Ave. in Pittsburgh, PA. His description stated he was 5’6″ tall, 140 lbs, with gray eyes, brown hair, and a light complexion.

Joe Broida died on 18 December 1958 in Pittsburgh, PA, at the age of 76, and is buried in Beth Shalom Cemetery in Pittsburgh.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) 1900 US Federal Census- Year: 1900; Census Place: Denver, Arapahoe, Colorado; Roll: 120; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 0126; FHL microfilm: 1240122. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

2) 1910 US Federal Census, [John] Jacob Broida head of household- Year: 1910; Census Place: East Pittsburgh Ward 3, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1293; Page: 21A; Enumeration District: 0064; FHL microfilm: 1375306. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.

3) 1910 US Federal Census, Joseph J. Broida head of household- Year: 1910; Census Place: Pittsburgh Ward 5, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1300; Page: 13B; Enumeration District: 0335; FHL microfilm: 1375313. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.

4) 1920 US Federal Census, Joseph J. Broida Head of Household- Year: 1920; Census Place: Pittsburgh Ward 13, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1522; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 525; Image: 211. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

5) 1930 US Federal Census, Joe J. Broida Head of Household- Year: 1930; Census Place: Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1978; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 0235; Image: 287.0; FHL microfilm: 2341713. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.

6) 1940 US Federal Census, Joe J. Broida Head of Household- Year: 1940; Census Place: Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: T627_3663; Page: 63A; Enumeration District: 69-403. Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

7) World War I Draft Registration Card for Joseph Jacob Broida- Registration State: Pennsylvania; Registration County: Allegheny; Roll: 1908758; Draft Board: 10. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.

8) World War II Draft Registration Card for Joseph Jacob Broida- The National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; World War II draft cards (Fourth Registration) for the State of Pennsylvania; State Headquarters: Pennsylvania; Microfilm Series: M1951; Microfilm Roll: 34. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

9) Most of this information has been posted on the Find A Grave memorial for Joseph Jacob Broida- http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=144823565

10) Family treasure chest of photos.

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images. Click to enlarge images.

Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Broida Family (Click for Family Tree)

Incredible resources spring up on a daily basis, whether they are just becoming available online or whether they are just now showing up in my search results. A  recent find is the University of Denver’s “Digital DU.”

Some of our Broida family went to Denver around 1900 (John and Gitel Broida, and their sons Joseph Broida and Harold Broida), then returned to Pittsburgh after Gitel died; Pittsburgh was where many of the family had settled earlier. (See previous posts, including this one about the Broidas in Denver.) A son who had stayed in Pennsylvania with family while his mother was ill, Theodore “Dave” Broida, married in Aurora, CO, in 1916, then lived in the Denver area and raised a family. It was puzzling why Dave moved to Denver, of all places, but the recent repository find gives us some clues. So do recent serendipitous comments when talking with the generations that were closer to the time and people.

One dear cousin who is an incredible, deep well of Broida information told me this week that Gerald Broida told her years ago that young Jewish boys used to ride the trains west, selling candy to passengers; his father, Dave Broida, was one of them. One day Dave got off the train in Denver, fell in love with the place, and decided to move there. Gerald had also commented that the 1916 wedding of Dave Broida and Lucy Shatzke was the first Jewish wedding in Arapahoe County, Colorado.

A second conversation that same night with a different family member revived her memories of Dave Broida sending the three sisters a box of 100 pieces of Double Bubble Bubble Gum from Denver occasionally during the war years, when food and candy was rationed. Bubble gum used latex rubber for its chewiness, but rubber and manufacturing facilities were needed more for tires for jeeps and military trucks, gaskets, seals, inflatable vests, etc., so bubble gum was hard to come by in the mid 1940s. The young girls rationed out their sweet treasure of bubble gum from their great-uncle, and no doubt were envied by friends. “Dave and Lucy [Broida] were in the candy business” she said also, and the light bulb went on. Here was more information to corroborate that Dave had been one of the young boys selling candy on a train as they were off to see the world. A rest stop in Denver with the clean air (compared to polluted Pittsburgh) and beautiful mountains even higher than those of Pennsylvania may have made him realize he had found the home for his heart. He would have had knowledge of candy wholesalers to buy his wares for the train, so getting into the candy business later would have been logical.

In the 1920 US Federal Census, however, Dave was mistranscribed as being a ‘machinist’ but is actually a ‘merchant’ in the furniture business.

The next US census, in 1930,  lists Theodore D. Broida as a salesman for novelty goods. That could be candy and all those impulse items at the register. A 1940 census entry has not yet been found for the family, but would be very useful. City directories or newspapers might have more information to verify Dave’s occupation, so a Google search was next. The search found The West End Press article above. While about G. Broida being in a wrestling tourney at a weight of 145 pounds (he was 17 then), Gerald Broida was Dave and Lucy’s son. The link led to “Digital DU.”

There are 633 hits on The West End Press at “Digital DU” but “Broida” does not have any hits, so either the search engine does not go into pages of the newspaper, or else I haven’t figured out how to use the website. (There is an advanced search and even a how-to, but still no Broida results though we know there is at least one mention in the newspaper.) A note to the digital librarian may help, so that is on the agenda. Looking through other areas of the site, however, showed more interesting areas to peruse. There is a “Special Collections and Archives” section that provided more clues to our family story. Apparently Denver, as suspected, was a location that a lot of people with ‘consumption’ (tuberculosis), such as Gitel Broida, moved to, looking for a cure for their disease. It became a problem for Denver to grow so fast, and more sanitariums were founded to serve those who needed medical care. The Digital DU website lists the “Jewish Consumptives Relief Society Records” from the organization founded by Eastern European Jewish men in 1904 (so too late for Broida records), many of whom had the disease themselves. (See image of Patients Undergoing Heliotherapy– likely Gitel Broida underwent the same treatment years earlier.) The Jewish population of Denver was growing and thriving as well, and the Special Collections and Archives contain Jewish artifacts as well as documents.

This website appears to be worth investigating further, especially how to navigate and search more effectively.

Searching nearby universities and their digital libraries is a great resource for family historians- otherwise, how would we have known that Gerald Broida weighed 145 lbs. in 1945 and wrestled in a Jewish league?

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) 1930 US Federal Census for Joseph Shatzke, head of household- Year: 1920; Census Place: Aurora, Adams, Colorado; Roll: T625_155; Page: 18B; Enumeration District: 8; Image: 207. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

2) 1930 US Federal Census for Theodore Broida, head of household- Year: 1930; Census Place: Denver, Denver, Colorado; Roll: 232; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 0220; Image: 1045.0; FHL microfilm: 2339967. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.

3) Jewish Consumptives Relief Society Records – http://digitaldu.coalliance.org/fedora/repository/codu:32554

Patients undergoing heliotherapy- http://digitaldu.coalliance.org/fedora/repository/codu:60066

4) Special Collections and Archives- http://digitaldu.coalliance.org/fedora/repository/codu%3A17451

5) The West End Press article- http://digitaldu.coalliance.org/fedora/repository/codu%3A55006/B121.02.0010.0006.00016_access.pdf/access

6) Denver University’s Digital DU– http://digitaldu.coalliance.org

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Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

(Click for Family Tree)

Today is a good opportunity to thank the individuals and organizations who so generously share their resources with others. The above obituaries are available as part of the Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project found at http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/pjn/index.jsp.

Although these periodicals are no longer published, these articles are still under copyright, since they were published after 1923. A reply to my email to Carnegie Mellon University concerning permission to publish let me know that CMU just ‘facilitate[s] electronic access’, and she forwarded information about Rodef Shalom Congregation in Pittsburgh, the copyright holder. Their archivist thanked me for asking permission- we all know so many do not- and gave me the right to publish these newspaper clips to help tell the story of our family. She also said,

“We would like as many people as possible to discover, as you have, this rich resource, which includes information applicable to areas way beyond Western PA.”

(She did ask me to cite the articles with at least the name of the project and link as above, which many genealogists do not, sadly.)

What a wonderful mission for an organization! Knowledge should be free for all. While I do recognize the costs of archiving, digitizing, developing and maintaining websites, etc., and thus do not mind paying for a website to aggregate large amounts of data for easy searching, such as Ancestry.com, free use of old material is a refreshing concept. It will help us learn more about our past, and thus help us navigate our future.

Thank you, Rodef Shalom Congregation, CMU, and all the other organizations who freely share their treasures!

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) See citation on image.

2) Email correspondence 04/02/2015 and 04/07/2015.

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Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.