Complex sentence: Like her tenant Ricky, Ethel had a music/acting career in vaudeville along with her husband Fred, was a flapper in the 1920s, but they settled down and bought a brownstone apartment in the late 1940s.
Split into simpler sentences: Like her tenant Ricky, Ethel had a music/acting career. She was a flapper in the 1920s and worked in vaudeville with her husband Fred,, but they settled down and bought a brownstone apartment in the late 1940s.