From 1935 until her death in 1996, Birdie Reeve Kay ran a secretarial service in the Hyde Park Bank Building. She answered phones, transcribed tapes, and typed papers for University of Chicago students. It was no secret Birdie was once a vaudeville star. Billed as the world’s fastest typist, she wowed audiences with her effortless speed and her photographic memory. Birdie once played 20 men at chess simultaneously, beating them blindfolded. But just as Birdie was no ordinary stenographer, she was also no run-of-the-mill survivor of show business.
While Reeve initially won over the local press for his moxie, he became unhinged as his school failed. One ad asked potential investors whether they stood with the “Supporters of Merit,” who represent “everything noble and right,” or with the “Throttlers of Merit,” a group comprised of “‘Christ-Killers’ and everything derogatory in life.”
Video courtesy University of South Carolina, Movie Image Research Collections
Thomas died in 1944. Remarried, Birdie poured her talents into her business. A winsome 1982 profile in the Hyde Park Herald mentioned Birdie had once been invited to meet President Calvin Coolidge in the Oval Office, but avoided her unsettled childhood. Her father’s system of shorthand was “as unorthodox” as his two-fingered typing system, Birdie admitted. Her office at the Hyde Park Bank Building is now occupied by a clinical psychologist. v
