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

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4SAM said:
it appears that all the children looked alike to each other. Are there any up to date pictures of the surviving children that we can see? Maybe there is someone out there that will recognize them at an older age?
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I believe I read somewhere that there were age progression pics somewhere but that they were very hurtful to the mother and I am not sure what happened to those.

I will also say after reading this thread that it is possible the children left without fuss because they knew the person that lured them out of the house. They may have been told to come with them that their parents needed them. I always think of situations where kids at school walk away with a stranger, usually its because they are told someone sent them etc...whose to say that didn't happen in this circumstance. They may have been taken to another country and told their family was dead, if yours was burned up in a fire or that was what you were led to believe how likely later in life would yu go looking for people that are dead, maybe they just didn't look because they didn't know. Its sad the whole situation. Too many strange happenings for me to just accept all of it was coincidence.
 
I also after leaving my pervious thought wondered about something else. What about the guy they caught stealing that night and who cut the phone lines...anyone ever pursue who is friends were or who he "hung out" with. Is it possible to tie him in to anyone else in the case who tried to cover up details of the search after the fire? Find out who the thiefs friends and cohorts were and you might find more truth. Also, if someone can throw grenades onto the house to start a fire who is to say they didn't knock the kids out with some kind of gas before taking them out, if that is what happened. Also what about chloroform, couldn't they have been removed from the house and knocked out with something like that. Someone said they saw the children in a car watching the fire, which leads me to also believe that my earlier thought could be close to the truth, these kids were probably told they all died in the fire and that's why they didn't look for them later.
 
pickleonfire said:
George Sodder saw a photo of Betty in the newspaper not in a magazine.
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It's been reported as a newspaper in many places, but family provided a letter written by George Sodder to the school stating it was a magazine. See first post in this thread.

I don't remember the username, but iirc there was a verified granddaughter posting here. Lots of interesting stuff to dig through.

Welcome to WS!



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The picture of the ballet class was supposed to have been in a particular issue of Look magazine, according to the letter George Sodder wrote. Except it isn't. I believe there was another issue of the magazine which contained a ballet class picture but Mr. Sodder's granddaughter said it didn't look like the picture she remembered seeing.

There had to have been a picture, although perhaps from some other magazine or some other issue, because the headmistress of the school stated that there was no doubt whatsoever regarding the parentage of the student in question. She did not allow Mr. Sodder to see the child, naturally, but she obviously knew which child his letter referred to.

The picture is a huge mystery. I think Mr. Sodder had to have made an error in the letter he sent, either about the name of the magazine or about the issue the picture appeared in. I also think it's possible his granddaughter misremembers what the photo looked like. She was very young when she saw it and it's very easy for memories to change with time.
 
I think I found what we are looking for. If so, the date is wrong, and it wasn't in a magazine, it was in a newspaper. Which would be two reasons we couldn't find it! Who here has unlimited access to the New York Times paper? It costs money to be able to look at this old paper. New York Times, April 24th 1946. I cannot see the photo. But.... Remember the article said something about a ballet class run by the children's aid society? And all that? The headline for this article, and there IS a photo but it won't let me see it until I pay and I don't have the funds right now to do so.
Archives | 1946
BALLERINAS, 6 TO 8, SCORE HIT IN DEBUT; Children's Aid Society Cast, Trained by Mother of Five, Delights 200 Parents


APRIL 24, 1946

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About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.

Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems. Please send reports of such problems to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

A new type of ballet company made its debut last night at the Children's Aid Society Sloane Center at 630 East Sixth Street with ballerinas ranging in age from 6 to 8. Whirling through a "dance of the flowers" in the center's spring play, "Sleeping Beauty," the premiere danseuses, trained ...

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April 24, 1946, Page 27 The New York Times Archives
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A version of this archives appears in print on April 24, 1946, on Page 27 of the New York edition with the headline: BALLERINAS, 6 TO 8, SCORE HIT IN DEBUT; Children's Aid Society Cast, Trained by Mother of Five, Delights 200 Parents. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
 
If his English wasn't that great, Mr. Sodder may have interchanged the use of the words "Magazine" and "Newspaper". Or his English may have even been good, but used magazine for any publication of that nature. So newspaper may be right and the article, "Ballerinas 6 to 8 score hit in debut" may be the right thing, if someone has access and we can see this photo, it may be the correct one!
 
I was able to get access to the New York Times article from April 24, 1946. I've attached a PDF copy of the article, but the picture at the top left of the page is from Vassar College and is attached to a different article on the page about Vassar going co-ed. Unfortunately, no picture accompanies the ballerina article.
 

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On reading this thread it reminds me of this story.

Years ago there was a fire at a school in Oklahoma which killed 36 people. After the fire a three year old child named Mary Edens was missing and many people believed she had died but in 1957 a lady called Grace Reynolds came forward claiming to be the the missing child. There was a reunion on the t.v. show house party and that's when thing got interesting. To read the rest of the story go to this link:
Journalist honors pledge to family of missing girl
 
To Silvia and daughter: I suggest you go soon as possible to New York and Kentucky. There is the possibility the girl in the school photo should be Betty.
Look for a photo of Century 21 Louisville, Kentucky. Some information related to a business in New York that shows a fat man, with a blue and gray tie on the low side. He resembles your brother Louis.
Search for a man who worked in one local of Cozzoli's Pizza. He retired some years ago.
 
Do you have a link that would take us to the photo or could you post the photo here?
 
I have been following the discussion about Sodder family on this site. Obviously you have been looking for this photo of Ballet dancer girls, that George saw in newspaper... where he was thinking one girl to be Betty. I think it was this photo, that was taken in 1948 - 2,5 years after the disappearance of the children.
 
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Mouse Dance
Two little girls, wearing tutus and mouse ears, perform a 'little mice dance' in rehearsal for a charity performance, London, July 1948. (Photo by Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
 

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When I did a search online for "Betty Sodder Ballet class" I found this picture. The girl on the right looks like Betty.

Has anyone looked for this picture in a magazine from 1948? I have no idea in which magazine this picture was published before. A picture of Betty's magazine has been sought in previous years.
 
I don't believe that's Jennie or Betty.
 
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