BROIDA Family (Click for Family Tree)
Our beloved Max Broida, AKA Buster Brodie (1886-1948), should never surprise me- but somehow he always does. So it seems he is still entertaining people…
This was an exciting find- we had found no World War I or II draft cards for Max despite searching for years. The sudden appearance of this card was actually more than surprising– astoundingly, somehow we have had his name wrong all these years??? His real first name was… “Maurice”???
No, we have never seen that on a census, voter’s list, in a movie set of credits or database. No family records known to us show his name as anything other than ‘Max Broida’ or ‘Buster Brodie.’ No portrait has that name on the back, even the lovely portrait he shopped around to studios that had all his details written on the back, by Max/Buster himself.
We know this is “our” Max/Buster because the handwriting matches and he listed Joseph J. Broida in Pittsburgh as the person who would always know his address. Joseph was the oldest of the seven Broida brothers, and the address Max gave for him matches up with Joseph’s own WW II draft card for 1942 and the 1940 census. The home address Max gave, 5640 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood, California, is a known residence for him. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was listed as his birthplace- check- and his birthdate as Oct 11, 1885. Oops- 1886 is the year listed in most of his records, and there was no advantage re: the draft for him to make himself a year older. (If you are noticing the math doesn’t work, good math skills, but Max- er, Maurice, er, Buster- registered in April of 1942, so had not yet had his October birthday when he would turn 57.)
On the back of the draft card his height was listed as 4′ 9½” and weight 122 lbs.- “our” Max was a small person, with his height 4′ 10″ and weight 107 lbs on the back of his studio portrait, when he was much younger. The box for “Bald” was checked, and that fit our Max perfectly, since he often billed himself as, “The Hairless Man.”
The Registrar of the local draft board in Los Angeles, California would have been there as Max completed the card, and there were penalties for falsifying information, so it seems that Max- er, Maurice, er, Buster- would have filled the card out truthfully.
Even without all this cross-checking, it so obviously has to be “our” guy- at the very top of the card, Max- er, Maurice, er, Buster- added, “Known as Buster Brodie.”
He also listed his mailing address as being the same as his residence, but then added “Buster Brodie (for mail).”
We have one last section that confirms it all:
This confirmation of occupation, plus he also signed his name as “M Max Broida” in addition to Buster Brodie.
And then, not one to stop researching, a look at the Social Security record for Max- er, Maurice, er, Buster- noted his birth year as 1885. So it is more likely that year was correct as compared to census information, etc.
And then another surprise. Under the Social Security Applications and Claims Index on Ancestry.com, the transcribed notes (no original images) stated that in Jan 1937, his name was listed as Buster Brodie- and also, Maurice Max Broida.
Well, this skeptic is sold- nice to meet you, Maurice Max Broida, AKA Buster Brodie. I am off to review yet again those censuses and voter registrations that listed a “Max M. Brodie” [middle initial possibly for Maurice?] living in Los Angeles. We have not found other persons in the census in that area that could be Maurice-Max-Buster, so have wondered for years whether that salesman job was the pay-the-rent persona of Maurice/Max/Buster. Stay tuned!
Notes, Sources, and References:
- Various draft cards, censuses, city directories, etc., found at Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, etc. See previous posts on Max Broida for more details.
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