It is a Herculean task to remember everything that took place in the last fifty-five years. Everything I say may not be entirely in sequence because I have no notes of any kind and some things I may forget and others I may repeat. The Great Depression started in 1929 when the bottom fell out of the New York Stock Exchange. The Banks started calling loans, foreclosing on homes and businesses. Many reputable restaurants that were in business long before Paulson and I started the Maison Paul were going under and being taken over by the Board Of Trade. Many of them closed.

Fortunately for us, I had instigated a policy from the beginning to pay our bills weekly, to maintain good credit, and to set aside some reserve cash for a rainy day. Martha and I curtailed our living expenses because it was often impossible to draw even five cents a day from the restaurant.

During the later part of 1931 and the beginning of 1932 we often didn't even take in $75.00 in receipts. The payroll was often more than our income. My partner Paulson had just gone through bankruptcy and I had to buy him out. I ended up sole owner of the restaurant. We had originally contracted to pay $700.00 a month with an escalation clause from 1925 on. We had a ten-year lease and by 1931 we were paying $1,350.00 a month. With the decline in business I became panicky and I went to see our landlord. I made an appointment and went to his office to discuss the rent. There was a little silver plate on his desk and I placed the keys to the restaurant on the tray and told him, "Mr. Lester, I'm sorry to tell you that unless you are willing to come to my assistance I cannot keep the place open any longer. I have to put the lock to the door. You will either go into the restaurant business or you'll find someone else to rent the place. I doubt that anyone in his right mind, no matter how much money he has, would dare to step in there in this day and age."

He asked me what was wrong and I said that when I signed the lease with him I never expected such a catastrophic depression. Two thirds of the stores on Market between Grove, Hyde and Larkin Streets were empty. You could rent any one and name your own price. I explained to him that I wasn't big enough to keep going forever and that if he wanted to put me into bankruptcy, then I was at his mercy. He asked me what I wanted and I asked him to reduce the rent down to $600.00 per month for as long as these economic conditions lasted. If later, things improved, I would gladly increase the rent.

I wanted the agreement in writing so that I could at least continue my business with the hope that I could survive. He agreed and I continued in business. Things were still going from bad to worse. Sometimes we had more people applying for employment or for a handout than we had customers. Those were most trying days. Eventually our lease expired and a new lease was drawn up in 1934. We paid either the minimum of $600.00 rent, with an escalation clause or a percentage of 5% for food and 7% of bar sales, whichever was higher.

(Editors note: The Maison Paul restaurant was located at 1214 Market Street, on the north side, between Hyde and Larkin Streets, directly across from the Whitcomb Hotel. It had an entrance on Market Street and another in the back on Grove Street. The City Hall was a block and a half away to the west; the State Building was a block and a half away to the north; and the Federal Building was a block away to the east. It was the best restaurant in the entire area. On the main floor it had a large dinning room with booths on two sides and tables in the middle. It had a banquet room upstairs, in the mezzanine, which could seat as many as eighty people. As a result of its strategic location, its good food and its cosmopolitan atmosphere, it attracted as its patrons judges, supervisors, State and Federal congressmen, politicians, civil servants, union leaders and, of course, the leaders of the Greek Community. Boudoures got to know them all. He developed enormous political influence and he used it judiciously to help his fellow Greek-Americans. The courts were located in the City Hall. During jury deliberations it was a requirement that the jurors go to lunch as a group. Cost of the lunch was shared by the trial attorneys. The restaurant at which they ate was selected by the sheriff or bailiff that accompanied the jurors.Budoures was somehow able to work out a deal with the powers that be to get the sheriffs and bailiffs to bring the juries to the Maison Paul. It was not unusual to see anywhere from one to three juries a day having lunch and/or dinner there. During the Depression these juries helped the restaurant survive and eventually thrive. Boudoures developed a massive ego. He was a lamb when he first came to this country in 1911. By 1936 his business was once again thriving. His activities in the AHEPA together with his involvement with the church give him the status of a lion, the king of the Greeks. Within the next fifteen years, as a result of two major miscalculations, fed by his ego, he became the goat of the Greek-American Community.)