Episode Eleven: The Vanishing Act

When they buy their own house in Lombard, Hjalmar decides to change careers. He joins a brokerage house.

The year is 1929.

A bread line during the Great depression.

The firm Hjalmar is working for collapses and the owners go directly to jail.

While never homeless, from the start of the Depression to its end, Shirley's family moves nine times, each time to a worse house than the one before. There are no photos of any of these houses.

Hjalmar is unemployed for a long time, but at first he puts on his business suit every day and goes into the city, pretending he still has a job. As the Depression worsens, he begins to routinely disappear, sometimes for weeks at a time. It becomes a lifelong habit until his old age.

A vaudeville sign for a magician's act.

He leaves his wife and young daughter to fend for themselves. And though they are never without shelter or clothes or shoes or food, they must take what he brings them and live with it.

Where does he go? No one knows. Gambling? Maybe. Are there women involved? Possibly. Shenanigans? Most certainly.

By the end of the Depression, Faye is ailing. She’s a heavy smoker and has what today would be called COPD. The Depression, and/or her marriage, have broken something in her spirit.