I am and have been thinking George Brody is his real name too.
I'm still a little intrigued by this Lydia "Dodie" Valencia from SF. I can't get too far though without the Ancestry membership. There is some kind if inquisition to see if she was poisoned? born 1879 died in 1948. So she would be the right age for a birth mother to GB. Though, her grave is marked Baird and some other guy James Dunphy is also listed as a husband...( James Dunphy has another interesting criminal history- but it looks like he was in prison( based on ripping off a bank he managed for about 145 grand or something) in 1940. The date he turned himself in to the cops was prior to the Aug 5, 1941 of the incident where George Brody slapped that guy. I didn't get far enough to see what happened after Dunphy turned himself in and if and for how long he was in prison. Interestingly the picture on "Dodie's" stone at her grave looks like it was for two persons, and the left half was never filled in so I am unsure if anyone is buried next to her or not.
There is also some directory of some kind, Berkeley College or Library that has boxes of microfiched negatives from a lot of old early 1900 photos.
As you know we just have bits and pieces of a time line right now. We can work on one.
Another direction..... When I looked up the Polk Directories I did so not online, but at the Joliet IL Library in Will County...... I do remember they had almost all the years and I just flipped through the pages for last names, found addresses years and names so went that route- when researching my family from that area. If Brody is listed in any of the local Polk directories, it may show others with those same addresses, possibly relatives of his. We could always find out what is available at the Berkeley Library prior to going there and put together a list or idea of what we want to look for.
As for the union, it may have changed names or combined with another union. We might be able to do some digging by calling union halls, or just digging around. I'd imagine they would have a list of union laborers somewhere, just where.
Also, I don't know if the barbers and hair dressers in SF or in California are still part of a union. They are not in IL... but each state is different.
with Brody's being into the hotels, perhaps earlier in life as a younger man he might have worked as a barber in one of the finer hotels? Then got in some trouble or couldn't get along with people and started living off the grid? Just a thought