Word: 1920s
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...this is reminiscent of progressive education in the late 1920s, when a wave of eccentric schools were founded to carry out the earnest theories of John Dewey and other educational philosophers. Free schools, though, are motivated less by ideology than by despair with public education. Sensing that despair, in fact, some big public school systems are creating their own versions of free schools. Philadelphia's Parkway School, for example, holds classes not in a school building but in museums and business establishments around the city...
Died. Gertrude Kappel, 86, opera star of the 1920s and '30s; in Munich. A specialist in supersoprano parts by Wagner and Strauss, Kappel was admired both for her beautiful voice and her ability to dig deeply into the psychology of opera's more peculiar characters. She sang Elektra in the Metropolitan's first production of the Strauss opera in 1932, upsetting some critics by her classical vocalism in this frenzied role, sending others into raves even for her vivid dancing. Among her admirers was Richard Strauss himself, who at the time preferred her Elektra to all others...
Died. Leland Hayward, 68, flamboyant Broadway producer; of a stroke; in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. Hayward's career began in the 1920s, when he produced some 20 feature films. "They stunk," he said, and people agreed. In the mid-'20s, a nightclub owner wished aloud that he had an attraction "like the Astaires," adding that he would pay $4,000 for them. Hayward promptly turned agent and arranged the deal. "I decided this was my line of work," he said after collecting his 10% commission. After that, he steered the careers of James Stewart, Judy Garland, Clark Gable, Henry...
Died. Bebe Daniels, 70, film star of the 1920s and '30s; of lung cancer; in London. Born into a theatrical family, she made her stage debut when her mother carried her onstage at the age of ten weeks. At four she was a trouper; at seven she was in movies. "Whatever I missed as a child," she once said, "I didn't mind missing." At 14 Bebe became Harold Lloyd's leading lady and at 18 achieved stardom after she signed with Cecil B. De Mille, later playing opposite Wallace Reid and Rudolph Valentino. She married Actor...
Died. Harold Lloyd, 77, comedian whose screen image of horn-rimmed incompetence made him Hollywood's highest-paid star in the 1920s; of cancer; in Hollywood. He usually played a feckless Mr. Average who triumphed over misfortune. "My character represented the white-collar middle class that felt frustrated but was always fighting to overcome its shortcomings," he once explained. Lloyd usually did his own stunt work, as in Safety Last (1923), in which he dangled from a clock high above the street; he was protected only by a wooden platform two floors below...