3. Nan's Education

Changes in Schools, Change of Name

Source

Nan Dorland suffered severely from chronic stomach ulcers as an adult, to the point that she underwent abdominal surgeries throughout her life. Her health problems may have had their roots in childhood anxieties. Nan's family moved frequently and, by my count, attended eight schools in ten years. Changing schools can be stressful for children, disrupting their academic performance as well as their emotional functioning.

 

Nan in Grade 9.

 

 

Among the papers that Nan's distant cousin Martin W. Beerman shared with me was a list of schools that Nan attended from Grade 1 through high school, prepared by Nan's father Ernest Danke. Beerman had obtained it from John Danke (1950-2015) - Nan's son with John Albrecht. The column on the right of this list shows the Danke family's home addresses over the years, and has helped me to piece together Nan's school years.

 

The list of Nan's schools prepared by her father, Ernest Danke. Source: Martin W. Beerman.

 

Ernest compiled this list in his efforts to prove Nan's US citizenship. He and his second wife, Ida (Nan's stepmother) had adopted Nan's son John after her death in Toronto, Ontario in 1950. By 1954 they were attempting to procure "derivative" American citizenship (citizenship granted to foreign-born children adopted by United States citizens) for the boy. 

Ernest Danke sent letters like this one to all the schools his daughter Nan attended. Source: Martin W. Beerman.

I will only highlight a couple of the schools Nan attended. While in Grades Three and Four, 1920-1911, Nan attended Laughlin Falconer School, 3020 North Lamon Avenue, Chicago. It was built in 1918 in the Falconer Historic District on land that Nan's maternal grandfather, George C. Hield had subdivided for a residential development. The Falconer District promoted single-family home ownership for Chicago residents, many of whom were immigrants who could walk to work in the nearby manufacturing and industrial areas. Nan and her parents lived in this neighbourhood, about a 3-minute walk from Falconer School. 

Freshman Year at Ward-Belmont College

 

The most stressful school move for Nan took place in 1925-1926 when she was sent to the Preparatory School (high school) of Ward-Belmont College, an all-girls boarding school in Nashville, Tennessee. She lasted, perhaps, one year. Maybe Nan was sent to boarding school due to her mother's ill-health (although Eva Danke did visit her daughter at least once - in November 1925, according the to school's newsletter, The Hyphen). Maybe Nan had become a handful at age 14. Or perhaps Nan's parents simply wanted the best education for their only daughter. 

 

 

Ward-Belmont College campus sited on a former antebellum estate, c. 1910. Source

 

An article in the Nashville newspaper The Tennessean on September 14, 1924 claims that Ward-Belmont College was "easily the leading college of the land in many respects." Its high standards for learning, excellent faculty, high moral atmosphere, and healthy environment meant that "men from all over the United States desire most of all to have their daughters brought into contact with the Southern culture, and nowhere can it be found as in this city, the Athens of the South, and at Ward-Belmont College."

 

I contacted the Alumni Association at Belmont College for her school records but unfortunately a fire in 1972 destroyed all administrative records from the 1920s. I did, however, locate the 1926 yearbook for the College - Milestones - which included her school photo. 

 

Ward-Belmont yearbook, 1926. Nan's Grade 9 photo is second row, far right.

"Along with the rich heritage of cultural and religious values from the two finishing schools for young ladies which combined to form Ward-Belmont," three members of the school's alumni wrote in 1971, "came also the heritage of high moral standards and stringent requirements for deportment which were, perhaps, unparalleled in any comparable school for girls with the possible exception of convents.” Discipline was strict. School rule infractions included wearing makeup, wearing high heels to class, chewing gum, and having a radio in one's room. Smoking and drinking were cause for immediate expulsion. "No infringement of regulations escaped notice or punishment." Benedict, Sarah Bryan, Ophelia Colley Cannon, and Mary Elizabeth Cayce, “The Bells of Ward-Belmont: A Reminiscence,” in Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 30 (4), 1971, pp 379-382.

 

Illustration from Ward-Belmont College yearbook, 1926. Source

This strict southern finishing school may not have suited Nan. By Grade 10 she was back at home with her parents in Illinois attending a public high school. The family had moved to 2372 Burton Avenue, Highland Park, about 25 miles north of Chicago, and just north of Evanston.

 

Move to California  

 

Hollywood Union High School, 1927. Source

In the spring of 1927, the Danke family moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, perhaps due to Nan's mother's declining health. This would have been a difficult move for 16-year-old Nan, who completed her sophomore year at Hollywood Union High School. (The name changed to Hollywood High School in 1940.)

 

Yearbook [Poinsettia] photo of 16-year-old Nan (top row, second from left) in the girls’ choral club at Hollywood Union High, 1927.

 

Theatre Training in California

 

In 1928-1929 Nan attended the Marta Oatman School of Theater, one of the best drama schools in Los Angeles. Dedicated to the discovery and development of talent for stage, screen and radio, Marta Oatman had established her school in 1920. Many actors and actresses made it in Hollywood after graduating from Marta Oatman's school, including Lucille LeSueur, better known as Joan Crawford. 

 

"The first months of work in the adult drama classes are given over to personal development to awaken latent powers in the student and to build to correlate emotions and bodily agents in creative thinking, acting and speaking," the Los Angeles Times reported on June 1, 1929. "After that work is covered, practical technical work continues until the student is ready for play production.”

Los Angeles Times, July 15, 1928

While Nan was attending Marta Oatman's school that two major events occurred. Her mother passed away on November 18, 1929, and she changed her name from Annette Danke to Nan Dorland. 

 

Nan was cast in a variety of stage productions while at theatre school. For example, in July 1930, 18-year-old Nan was using her new name in a one-act play produced by Theater Mart in Los Angeles. She played the role of Sadie McGork in a play called "The Land of Manana" by Jimmy Mac. A reviewer wrote that she played her part "with ease." (Inside the Facts of Stage and Screen, August 2, 1930)

 

Nan set her cap for a career in radio, heading to Chicago in 1931.

 

NEXT: Nan the Radio Star - Part 1 - Click HERE

 

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