[riichkay]

shorpy.com


From the original Shorpy post....

"I found this photo, which is dated 1939, in an antique store in Simi Valley, California. It is glued to an album page labeled "House of Chords and Dischords." The picture of that house, which is labeled 1961 N Argyle, is missing. But under these two gentlemen it says "2 inmates."


I had the same problem that the Shorpy poster did, in that she could not see the "1961" over the doorway, it's something of an optical illusion....sometimes I can see it and sometimes not....but it's definitely there, white numerals against a black background on 4 individual tiles tacked together....you need to let your eyes unfocus, like in those hidden image pictures that were all the rage about 30 years ago.

1961 N. Argyle Ave. showed as a 3 unit apartment court in 1939....the structure pictured here was demolished in 1954 to make way for a 24 unit building, which still stands.

The reference to "chords" got me to wondering, were these fellows aspiring songwriters?....players in a studio orchestra, or in one of the big swing bands?....

So it was off to my old friend, the 1940 census, Enumeration District 60-116....a few years back (pgs. 1913 and 1927) I went through this and adjacent census tracts, finding (among others) James M. Cain, Nathanael West, Dorothy Comingore, and (at 2307 N. Cahuenga) the 23 year-old Sidney Sheldon, when he was reading scripts at Universal and earning $44 a week.

The obvious assumption that I am making here is that the tenants in the '39 photo were still in the unit when the enumerator came calling in the spring of 1940...anyway, here's what turned up (for the purposes of the '40 census I believe the term "partner" would equate to today's "roommate").....



So we have...

Eric Johnson....age 33, divorced, from Oklahoma
Arthur Cox....age 32, "m" for married (but there's a line through it, so maybe divorced or separated), he was from Michigan
Victor Johnson....age 37, single, like Eric he was an Okie
Winfield Prentis (I believe he was misidentified, see below)....age 29, single, from New Mexico


The other side of the census ledger has the occupation/income information....



Eric Johnson....theatre manager, he made $1100/yr.
Arthur Cox....self-employed musician (ah, there's our "chords")....zero earnings.
Victor Johnson....electrical engineer, working in "???" products....he was pulling down $1700/yr.
Winfield Prentis, no info other than $300 in earnings


Armed with the tenant names, I checked the '39 and '40 city directories....



In the '39 book Eric Johnson shows up with no further details.





In '39 we add a middle initial for Victor Johnson, here he shows as a geoligist.





The 1940 directory gives us a middle initial for Eric.





The '40 book has Victor listed as an engineer, consistent with the census.





The "Winfield Prentis" of the census is shown as Wynn Prentice in the '40 directory....and we find that he is also a musician, so more "chords".


Arthur Cox was not found in either directory.

So who's in the snapshot?....the Johnsons, the two musicians?....or some combination thereof?