I've had this book, which belonged to my grandfather Sig Levy, for many years sitting on a table. I'd glanced through it a few times but it wasn't until this blog prompt came up that I spent more time with it. Remember, my grandparents saved everything.
Here's the first page.
When I looked at this it occurred to me to search for it to see if I could find any history on it. While I didn't find history, I did find an identical book selling on eBay for $31.45.
Look at that - a Profit and Loss Statement for May. Actually, there are pages and pages for each month but this is just an example.
And on the opposite side of each month is individual years - this is 1931-1936.
Even though my father thought I'd be a good accountant, I quickly realized that profession was not for me. So I'd really have to study this to figure out what it all means.
I found the salary detail interesting - this is from Jan 1-June 30, 1941. I laugh to myself that each time the four brothers were listed it is always in age order - Herb, Leon, Sig, Ben. So they each made $1500 dollars over 6 months or $250 per week. In today's dollars that would be $4618 per month.
And look at that - a couple of other Levys were working with the firm. Herb Levy, Jr. was Herb's only son. And Robert Levy was Sig's oldest son and my uncle. In 1941 Rob would have been just 21 years old and about ready to enlist. I can see that the following 6 months (July 1 - December 31, 1941) he earned $117 and the following six months was just $18. Probably just a part time job.
And Herb's daughter, Barbara, also worked for the firm in 1944 and made a whopping $92 for the year.
The commission page was especially interesting to see what properties sold for back then.
I looked up the house at 647 No. Van Ness Avenue, built in 1932, and Zillow shows the estimated value of $260,000 today. And the house at 610 Pine Avenue, built in 1935, has an estimated value of $592,352.
Levy Bros. was a successful business until 1965 after Ben's death left Sig as the only remaining brother. Hopefully, the business never experienced a "Loss".
This is so much fun. To see the comparisons to today's dollars.
ReplyDeletePlus they earned commissions so not a bad living. Thanks for visiting!
DeleteWhat a great resource. It really gives a sense of the costs at the time, which also puts those salaries into perspective.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of notes that mean nothing - I wonder what he was thinking when he added those.
DeleteI'm glad you took a closer look at the BOOKS. Did you know about all the Levy kids who worked there too? Comparing prices then and now is always fun - we paid more for our car than we did our first house. HA
ReplyDeleteI knew about Herb Jr. but not the others. From what I know, kids working in the business is what ultimately caused the brothers to split apart.
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