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Perhaps the most celebrated prodigy of the early 20th century, William James Sidis would grow up to become the poster child for the perils of early fame.īorn in New York City in 1898, Sidis was the child of Russian immigrant parents, both high achievers themselves. So what became of these dazzlingly bright prospects of yesteryear? Here, in brief, are the very different tales of Sidis, Benson and Crane, as well as Stoner, Jr. Benson would later remember Nathalia Crane, a precocious poet of 12, as being there as well, although if she was, contemporary news accounts seem to have missed her.
#Movie music prodigy boy full#
Though the full guest list may be lost in time, the party’s attendees included William James Sidis, a young man in his twenties who had been a freshman at Harvard at age 11, and Elizabeth Benson, a 12-year-old who was about to enter college. “Surely there is no better way in which to spend one’s millions,” the New York Times quoted her as saying. The founder of an organization called the League for Fostering Genius and herself the mother of a famous prodigy named Winifred Sackville Stoner, Jr., Stoner wanted to introduce the celebrated children to one another and to connect them with rich patrons who might bankroll their future feats. Meanwhile, for parents wondering whether they might have one under their own roof, the papers ran helpful stories like “How to Tell If Your Child Is a Genius.”Īt roughly the height of the prodigy craze, in 1926, Winifred Sackville Stoner, an author, lecturer, and gifted self-publicist, had the ingenious idea of bringing some of the little geniuses together. Others treated them simply as amusing curiosities, suitable for a Ripley’s “Believe It or Not!” cartoon, where, indeed, some of them eventually appeared. “Infant Prodigies Presage A World Made Richer by A Generation of Marvels,” gushed one New York newspaper in 1922. Generally the press covered them with reverence, if not awe. children and other spectacularly precocious youth who made the best stories, of course.
Few subjects were of more human interest than children. The early 20th century marked the rise of tabloid newspapers, which put greater emphasis on human interest stories. Ironically, Alfred Binet, the Frenchman whose name the test immortalized, had not set out to measure the wattage of the brightest children but to help identify the least intelligent, so they might receive an education that better suited them.Īlso contributing to the prodigy craze was a change in the nature of news itself. So, for example, a 6-year-old whose test performance matched that of a typical 6-year-old was said to have an average I.Q., of 100, while a 6-year-old who performed like a 9-year-old was awarded a score of 150.
#Movie music prodigy boy series#
was based on comparing his or her mental age, determined by a standardized series of tests, to his or her chronological age. Then, in 1916, Stanford University psychologist Louis Terman published the Stanford-Binet test, which made the term intelligence quotient, or I.Q., part of the popular vocabulary.Ī child’s I.Q.
#Movie music prodigy boy cracker#
An early intelligence test had been demonstrated at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893-the same exhibition that introduced Americans to such wonders as the Ferris wheel, Cracker Jacks and hula dancing. The recent advent of intelligence testing, which allowed psychologists to gauge mental ability with seemingly scientific precision, is one likely reason. While every generation produces its share of precocious children, no era, before or since, seems to have been so obsessed with them.
#Movie music prodigy boy movie#
Much like the movie stars, industrial titans and heavyweight champs of the day, their exploits were glorified and their opinions quoted in newspapers across the United States. In the first few decades of the 20th century, child prodigies became national celebrities.
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