George Sodder saw a picture of a young girl in a magazine that he believed was Betty

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Ok, the letter was typed January 27, 1947 which was 1 year,1 month, and 2 days after the fire that destroyed the home which gives credence to the fact that this was a 1946 magazine that the picture appeared in.
 
I have a question for granddaughter to ask her mom-Is she positively sure that this was a ballet class, or could she have dreamed she saw the picture of the ballet class. I know there must have been much talk about it when she was a child, and I was just wondering if perhaps she could have dreamed the part about it being a ballet class.

I was telling my mother a story one day about visiting an aunt's house (which was empty and falling down at the time I was a kid and we kids thought it was ghosty) when she was living there. My mother's reply was "No one has lived in that house since 1948, way before you were born." I was an adult at the time of my dream(?) and I can vividly remember a gathering there with people all around and in my dream I was a little girl.

But it could not have happened. Till this day, it seems so real to me and I still can't believe it was a dream.
Thank you ahead of time.
 
Stanley Kubrick was a staff photographer for Look before starting his feature film career. Of the more than 300 assignments Kubrick did for Look from 1946 to 1951, more than 100 are in the Library of Congress collection. Because of a heightened interest in Kubrick's photography, all Look jobs with which he was associated have been cataloged with descriptions focusing on the images that were printed. Other related Kubrick material is located at the Museum of the City of New York. [11]
 
catsy101 said:
They had one child. This is nothing more than a shot in the dark. Was the child Rugg's? Was it a boy or a girl?
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Can't find any information on the child-whether it was a boy or girl. Still looking for the Look Magazine.
 
drema said:
I have a question for granddaughter to ask her mom-Is she positively sure that this was a ballet class, or could she have dreamed she saw the picture of the ballet class. I know there must have been much talk about it when she was a child, and I was just wondering if perhaps she could have dreamed the part about it being a ballet class.

I was telling my mother a story one day about visiting an aunt's house (which was empty and falling down at the time I was a kid and we kids thought it was ghosty) when she was living there. My mother's reply was "No one has lived in that house since 1948, way before you were born." I was an adult at the time of my dream(?) and I can vividly remember a gathering there with people all around and in my dream I was a little girl.

But it could not have happened. Till this day, it seems so real to me and I still can't believe it was a dream.
Thank you ahead of time.[/quote


The Sodder's saw the picture. That's the reason George went to the school. Many other people saw the picture. Nobody just dreamed of seeing it.
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Teresa, I think what drema meant was: was she sure it was a BALLET class and not a picture of chilren in some other activity. Also, if this was a mob hit to make George pay his dues why would he try and find the children. What I mean is wouldn't he be afraid to bring them home again? Also, wouldn't it have perhaps cost more for the mob to take care of these children than what they would get from George in the long run? Also, if it was a mob hit to get George to pay his dues he would have known it.
 
Rhett said:
Teresa, I think what drema meant was: was she sure it was a BALLET class and not a picture of chilren in some other activity.
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Thank you Rhett. That is exactly what I meant. There is no doubt that a picture existed and Mr. Sodder went to NY. What I meant was since there was a picture in the magazine of May 14, 1946, Look Magazine that were of children in an art class could the part about the ballet class be something that got mixed up. I meant nothing more, nothing less.

I think, no matter how crazy some ideas may seem, it is all a part of getting this puzzle solved. And everyones ideas are important. Someday, someone will come up with the extra way it happened, whether it can be proven or not. I had a pretty good idea as to what happened when I started on this board, but now my opinions have changed altogether because of all the information others have contributed to this board. Whether I agree with all or think some are off the wall, they have given me food for thought.

Where's Catsy?
 
The address listed by Mr. Sodder in the letter: 25 East 78th Street New York, NY, do we know if this address is really in New York or is it located in Brooklyn? If I read my map correctly the address that is located in NY, NY (Manhattan) is only like 5 miles from Little Italy. I plugged in a restaurant that I know is in Little Italy and those were the miles listed. So my question is could this school that Mr. Sodder was looking at in or very close to Little Italy?

My other question is has anyone looked at the yearbooks that are kept in the library's for Betty's picture? All school yearbooks are usually kept even if the school is no longer in existent and are usually at the library's. The family would not need a court order to look at yearbooks so this might be a faster outlet for them to use.

Mel ~
 
I don't know if this will help. But I found a little background on the Louise Krueger of Walt Whitman School.


http://books.google.com/books?id=ib...zF-2tpF&sig=jgAi62MLcbM2LJcNaElhAaDDaeI&hl=en

It looks like she and her husband wrote several books on education. I think it is the Walt Whitman Elementary School.


LOL, I also found a Louise Krueger on a current teachers list (in Phoenix) ,but that couldn't be the same Louise Krueger could it?
http://ww2.chandler.k12.az.us/santan-k8/teachers/default.asp

A history of the building and address of 25 East 78th Street
New York, NY

The school is vaguely mentioned.

It was later sold to a school and a cultural organization.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/realestate/19scap.html

My guess is that Look did an article on the "school and cultural organization"
 
There is more info online about Louise Krueger's husband Harold Rugg than there is about Louise. Harold wrote several books about education and he wrote several textbooks. Louise collaborated on many of the books. He proposed changes in the teaching methods, allowing for more individual expression by the children and addressing their individual needs. He was backed by some big money names including the Rockefellers. Early on his methods were well received, but later the educational community backed off on him and his methods- there were comments like subversive and controversial. Along with the differences in the teaching methods, Rugg was believed to be proposing social changes thru the children's education.

By the time the Sodder children disappeared, Harold and Louise had divorced. I could find where he went and what he did after the divorce, but not what Louise was doing. My "guess" is that most likely if she became director of a school, she was most likely using the methods that she and Harold wrote about. So any creativity would be a big thing. So we may be looking at the wrong focus for the article. Possibly the article was more about the fact that in the new school she was continuing the teaching methods that she and Rugg wrote about instead of being about the children? At the address that is listed, she had to have had some big backing too, it is a mansion.
 
Maybe someone at NYC's Little Red School House would know something about Louise Krueger. It's a well known "progressive" school that has been around since 1921.
 
I googled the address on the letter and found this article in the NYT about the building.

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY
Published: August 19, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/realestate/19scap.html?_r=1&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/W/White,%20Stanford&oref=slogin

A small quote near the end of the article does show that the building was a school. Mayor Bloomburg now owns the building, and there are pictures of it shown.

Mrs. Fish died later that year, and Mr. Fish continued to live in the East 78th Street house until his death in 1923. It was later sold to a school and a cultural organization.
 
Has said she has been forced to quit. She could find no photos that resembled the girl and/or what we were looking for. I am sorry to say. The next thing I have been working on is some new info and questions I have. Hoping granddaughter can answer these for me. Cross your fingers, I have done some over the phone interviews and may have a new piece of information or two.
 
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