Henry Geiger was born 10 August 1908 in Kings County, New York, to Henry and Alice (Van Vleck) Geiger. Henry and Alice were married around 1907, when he was 30 and she was 31, a first marriage for both. At the time of the 1910 census, Henry was a lumber merchant and Alice a housewife. They lived with her family: her parents—her dad was a lawyer—a sister and her husband, another sister, this one not married, and a 16 year-old Austrian servant, all nestled in a house on Flushing Avenue, in Queens. A decade on, Henry and Alice had moved out, to a place on Beekman Street, in Manhattan.
At this point, the elder Henry was teaching music—judging by his and his later career, he had artistic interests, and selling wood was a way to make ends meet. The family had grown, Henry joined by two sisters, Margaret, aged 3, and Ruth, aged 1. Also living with them was one of Alice’s sister’s, Margaret, and a servant. Before the next census, Margaret had left, and the servant girl was gone, leaving just the nuclear unit: Henry, a voice specialist working on his own accord, Alice, Margaret and Ruth in school, an the younger Henry a newspaper reporter. The family was not flush, but not poor either. They rented the apartment at $90 and did have a radio set. During this period, the younger Henry may also have been on Broadway, as a chorus boy, according to an obituary.
At some point in the 1930s, presumably after 1935, the younger Henry picked up and headed west, ending up in Pasadena no later than 1940, when he was noted by the census. He was a writer, scraping by. He made $750 over the previous year, having worked only 35 weeks. Either business was picking up, or he was on a good run, because the past week he’d worked thirty hours. Henry, then aged 32, was boarding with the 54 year-old Elinor K. Once, a Missouri-born widow. The house was nice, worth about $8,500 and Ms. Once was doing well, bringing in just shy of $2,500 per year. The house was about 9 years old.
At this point, the elder Henry was teaching music—judging by his and his later career, he had artistic interests, and selling wood was a way to make ends meet. The family had grown, Henry joined by two sisters, Margaret, aged 3, and Ruth, aged 1. Also living with them was one of Alice’s sister’s, Margaret, and a servant. Before the next census, Margaret had left, and the servant girl was gone, leaving just the nuclear unit: Henry, a voice specialist working on his own accord, Alice, Margaret and Ruth in school, an the younger Henry a newspaper reporter. The family was not flush, but not poor either. They rented the apartment at $90 and did have a radio set. During this period, the younger Henry may also have been on Broadway, as a chorus boy, according to an obituary.
At some point in the 1930s, presumably after 1935, the younger Henry picked up and headed west, ending up in Pasadena no later than 1940, when he was noted by the census. He was a writer, scraping by. He made $750 over the previous year, having worked only 35 weeks. Either business was picking up, or he was on a good run, because the past week he’d worked thirty hours. Henry, then aged 32, was boarding with the 54 year-old Elinor K. Once, a Missouri-born widow. The house was nice, worth about $8,500 and Ms. Once was doing well, bringing in just shy of $2,500 per year. The house was about 9 years old.