History of John Smith Griffin
page 56

Alhambra - 1940

While I was in Chicago preparing my report, the Chief came through and told me that I had been transferred to Los Angeles, California. I was really surprised as I knew that this was one of the choice spots in the nation and as I was a new agent I did not expect to get the assignment. I was to report to work as soon as possible. As soon as we returned to Washington we made preparations to leave for California. The car we had was pretty much a wreck so we decided to buy a new one. We found a blue Pontiac at the Pontiac agency in Rosslyn that we liked very much. It was a demonstrator and the dealer could not get a new one like it so he finally agreed to sell it to us although it had less than 1000 miles on it. We got a good price on it, as I recall (it came to an even $1,000). We were surely proud of it and anxious to start the trip west in it. We decided to leave the day after Christmas. The weather was pretty bad but we bought chains and except for running into some 9-below weather in Omaha, the trip was not too bad.

We arrived in Los Angeles on New Years day, 1940, after having a short visit with the folks in Utah enroute. We found a small furnished apartment out on Western Avenue, about 3rd Street where we decided to stay until we could look around a bit. The day after I arrived I was assigned a case in Yuma, Arizona and told that it was important that I get right on it. So the following day I left for Yuma. I was gone about a week during which time it rained constantly. With Bob couped up in a one room apartment, Dorothy about went crazy and by the time I returned she was ready to pack up our things and start back to Washington.

As soon as I returned we decided that we had to find a better place in which to live. We found a housing development over near Soto and Olympic called Wyvernwood. It was a Life Insurance Company financed development similar to the apartments in which we had lived in Arlington, Virginia and so we rented a two bedroom apartment for 42 a month. Our furniture finally arrived and we moved in. Wyvernwood was a big development having several hundred apartments. The units were usually small buildings having four apartments in them. We were the only occupants of the building when we moved in and we were quite surprised to find that most of the buildings were not occupied. This was quite a contrast to the situation around Washington D.C. where you had to get on a waiting list to obtain an apartment in a similar development. It is also a contrast to conditions as they later developed in Los Angeles.

Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles we met Donald and Margaret Bennion who we had known in Washington. Don went to law school with me. We became very good friends. They lived over in Alhambra and so we decided to try and find a house over near them. We looked all over and even over in Hollywood for a house to rent. I recall that we were looking over in the Hollywood area one day and went by a house that had a for-sale sign on. it. I got out to investigate to see if. I could find the owner and get him to rent the house to us. I looked around and the house appeared to be empty. As I was looking, a man came out the front door and asked if I was interested in buying the house. I recognized the man as a character actor that I had seen in the movies. I don't recall his name but recall that he had no chin; his face just seemed to slide into his neck.

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