Theodora Bean

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Theodora Bean
A middle-aged white woman with short dark greying hair, wearing a dark top or jacket with a white collar
Theodora Bean, from a 1926 publication
Born
Edna Belle Bean

March 26, 1871
Anoka, Minnesota, U.S.
DiedAugust 5, 1926 (age 55)
New York City
OccupationJournalist

Theodora Bean (March 26, 1871 – August 5, 1926), born Edna Belle Bean,[1] was an American journalist and suffragist. She was a founder and president of the Newspaper Women's Club of New York, and started her own news syndicate, the T-Bean Syndicate, shortly before her death.

Early life and education[edit]

Bean was born in Anoka, Minnesota, the daughter of Martin Van Buren Bean and Louisa Jane McFarlan Bean. Her mother was from Canada; her father was from Maine. Her father was a Union Army veteran of the American Civil War, and ran a hardware store. She attended Carleton College briefly, then moved to Chicago to begin a career in journalism.[2]

Career[edit]

Journalism[edit]

Bean was a reporter at the Chicago Daily News, and in that job interviewed Carrie Nation and covered women's clubs and sports.[3] She moved to New York City, and was Sunday editor for the Morning Telegraph; she also worked for the Evening Telegram. She profiled British singer Clara Butt in 1913,[4] and interviewed artist Beatrice Wood in 1917.[5] She was a founding member of the Newspaper Women's Club of New York in 1922,[6] and was president of the Club at the time of her death.[1] She mentored Louella Parsons in the details of newspaper work.[7] In 1925 she began the T-Bean Syndicate,[8][9] and recruited many fellow journalists to contribute, including Martha Coman, Benjamin De Casseres, Alice Rohe, and Delight Evans;[10] her death in 1926 ended that venture.[2]

Suffrage and other work[edit]

Bean marched in a unit with other women writers, including Mary Hunter Austin, Grace Gallatin Seton Thompson, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Katherine Leckie and Kate Jordan, in a 1911 suffrage parade,[11] and she interviewed Carrie Chapman Catt for the Morning Telegraph in 1912.[12] In 1915, she and others (including Fola La Follette and Alice Duer Miller) wore sandwich boards featuring suffrage arguments on the New York subway, to counter anti-suffrage advertising posters on the cars.[13] She appeared as herself in a silent film, Our Mutual Girl No. 22 (1914); Arthur Conan Doyle also made a cameo in that film.[14][15]

Publications[edit]

Personal life[edit]

"She was handsome, imperious, and abhorred sentiment," Ishbel Ross recalled of Bean in 1936. "She smoked cigars, carried a walking stick, and had a passion for detective stories."[3] Bean lived with writer and actress Marjorie Patterson.[24][25] Bean died in 1926, at the age of 55, after a surgery.[26] On the occasion, Nellie Revell wrote in Variety, "It is a loss that has descended with crushing force upon me and all her other personal friends."[27]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Frey, Caitlin (September–October 2013). "Small Town Girl Makes it Big! Edna 'Theodora' Bean" (PDF). History Center News. 43 (5): 1, 4.
  2. ^ a b "Theodora Bean Dies; Noted News Woman". Editor & Publisher. 59: 40. August 14, 1926.
  3. ^ a b Ross, Ishbel (1936). Ladies Of The Press. pp. 258–259.
  4. ^ a b Bean, Theodora (1913-02-02). "Too Tall for Opera—Butt!". The Buffalo Sunday Morning News. p. 15. Retrieved 2024-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Naumann, Francis (1979-02-01). "The Big Show: The First Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, Part I". Artforum. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  6. ^ "Newspaper Women Club Installs First Officers". New York Tribune. April 10, 1922. p. 31 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  7. ^ Parsons, Louella O. (1944). The Gay Illiterate. Internet Archive. p. 48.
  8. ^ Couch, Hilda J. (November 1925). "Feminine Fleet Streeters". The Smith Alumnae Quarterly. 17 (1): 51.
  9. ^ "Women in Advertising and Journalism". Editor and publisher. 59 (7): 38. July 10, 1926 – via Internet Archive.
  10. ^ "The Syndicate Man". Fourth Estate. 32: 23. May 23, 1925.
  11. ^ "3,000 Women in March for Votes". The Sun. 1911-05-07. p. 7. Retrieved 2024-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Theodora Bean Interview: "Carrie Chapman Catt: The Greatest Woman in Suffrage and the Greatest Story Written About Her"". Women's Suffrage and the Media. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  13. ^ "Suffragists Who Go as Living Advertisements in Subway Find Men Give Them Their Seats". The Sun. 1915-10-31. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Our Mutual Girl No. 22". The La Belle Star. 1914-11-13. p. 10. Retrieved 2024-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Our Mutual Girl". The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
  16. ^ Bean, Theodora (March 14, 1908). "Bearding the Governor: A Sidelight on an Epoch-Making Event". Harper's Weekly. 52 (2673): 20–21 – via Internet Archive.
  17. ^ Bean, Theodora (1908-07-12). "Classic Grecian Knot the Latest Coiffure for Newport Belles and Other Fashion Leaders of 1908". The Brooklyn Citizen. p. 19. Retrieved 2024-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ Bean, Theodora (June 15, 1911). "Hobble Skirt's Doom Forseen; Be Patient, Ye Critical Men". Fort Wayne Sentinel. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ Bean, Theodora (1912-09-22). "The Decline of Courtesy". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2024-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ Bean, Theodora (1912-09-29). "The Field, the Salon, and Politics; A Fact Story of a Remarkable Woman". San Francisco Chronicle. pp. [Blank]. Retrieved 2024-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ Bean, Theodora (1912-12-22). "Anna Case's Own Story; From Church Choir to Grand Opera". San Francisco Chronicle. pp. [Blank]. Retrieved 2024-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ Bean, Theodora (1913-02-16). "Do Motherhood and Art Agree?". The Buffalo Sunday Morning News. p. 16. Retrieved 2024-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ Bean, Theodora (1913-01-19). "'Women! Go to Work! Commands Alda Gatti". Wisconsin State Journal. p. 26. Retrieved 2024-05-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ "Theodora Bean's Funeral" The New York Times (August 10, 1926): 21.
  25. ^ "Mrs. Pep's Diary" Life 85(January 29, 1925): 29.
  26. ^ "Theodora Bean, Writer, is Dead; Was President of Newspaper Women's Club and Head of a Syndicate". The New York Times. August 6, 1926. p. 15. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-17 – via TimesMachine.
  27. ^ Revell, Nellie (August 11, 1926). "Right Off the Desk". Variety. 84 (4): 52 – via Internet Archive.
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