5 ms·

A newly discovered film shows Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had polio, walking

69 points by wilsonfiifi 8y ago

JJMcJ 8y ago
If you saw Ken Burns' series on The Roosevelts, there was plenty of film of this. FDR had developed a way of moving stiff legged in his braces. It was painful and difficult.
stevespang 8y ago
More Paywall
stevespang 8y ago
More Paywalls . . .
dang 8y ago
Url changed from http://time.com/5325424/video-president-roosevelt-walking/ http://time.com/5325424/video-president-roosevelt-walking/, which points to this.
- _wmd 8y ago
  The Washington Post link is subscription-only at least for users in Europe, and the video itself is hosted on YouTube. It should probably be reverted to the original link
  - neonate 8y ago
    http://archive.is/DuM4w http://archive.is/DuM4w
- madaxe_again 8y ago
  Wapo URL is completely paywalled outside of the US.
Maultasche 8y ago
He was able walk for short distances, but only with difficulty and a lot of pain. He often used a cane to help him out. Winston Churchill records seeing Roosevelt slowly walk over to greet him, and knew how difficult it was for Roosevelt to do that.
- neonate 8y ago
  That's what the article is about, and what the film shows. Apparently there wasn't this kind of footage before.
inteleng 8y ago
The advertisements on this page are absolutely disgraceful.
bane 8y ago
For those here who've never encountered polio or know survivors of it, it's one of the scariest diseases imaginable. My father's generation was one of the last to commonly grow up with it, and medicine was entirely unable to provide much support to sufferers of the virus. I know he grew up in a large family, and I also know that 2 or maybe 3 uncles and aunts of mine were killed in childhood from it. One of my uncles also had it and survived, but was crippled for the rest of his life. He was able to get around okay with braces and a cane until his mid-50s. And then the trauma from the disease finally caught up to him and he spent the rest of his life as a paraplegic with breathing troubles that finally killed him in his early 70s. My father may have caught it, but was able to fight it off. He also has Guillain-Barré syndrome and attributes it to that period. Medicine was so unable to cope with the volume and severity of the patients during the 30s and 40s that "alternative" remedies came into full fashion. In 1949, a researcher named Fred R. Klenner claimed to have found that high doses of vitamin-C could ward off the virus. As a result households stricken with polio often found themselves stuffed to the gills with donations of fruits, vegetables and strangely goats as it was believed that goat milk had high doses of the vitamin. Salk's discovery of the vaccine, the trials around it and the mass global uptake afterwards have almost rendered the virus extinct. But it could almost never happen today.
- r00fus 8y ago
  The anti-vaxxers are either completely oblivious to the treacherous possibility that was life before polio vaccine or willfully ignorant. Either is dangerous for the body public.
- praneshp 8y ago
  > . In 1949, a researcher named Fred R. Klenner claimed to have found that high doses of vitamin-C could ward off the virus. This was referenced in an episode of the tv show House > the mass global uptake afterwards have almost rendered the virus extinct. This is one of the things India (and from what I've heard, Pakistan) did really well. Every year around vaccination time (there used to be two doses taken around a month apart) there used to be almost propaganda like mass advertisements, camps, etc. When I was a kid I knew of a handful of older people that had polio; a kid born today is unlikely to meet someone with polio. Unfortunately, a very small minority is trying to argue that polio vaccination is a conspiracy by [pharma companies | government | rich people] :(
goodJobWalrus 8y ago
Ok, I have to ask, what kind of camera was that? Did we really have film cameras small enough that could be casually carried by tourists in 1935?
- flashman 8y ago
  My guess would be a Kodak 16mm handheld. The Cine-Kodak Model B was introduced in 1923 and a few subsequent models had been released by 1935: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cine-Kodak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cine-Kodak
fredsted 8y ago
Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYN1apQHPx0&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYN1apQHPx0&feature=youtu.be
maxxxxx 8y ago
FDR often leaned on people's arms to get support so he could appear to be walking or standing. In this video he does it too.
philliphaydon 8y ago
The footage was less surprising to me than the fact that Photographers and cameraman had the upmost respect and empathy back then to not video or photograph him walking or getting out of a car or such. In this day n age there is absolutely 0 respect because negative news sells.
saurik 8y ago
> Roosevelt was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He was diagnosed with poliomyelitis at the time, but his symptoms are more consistent with Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS) – an autoimmune neuropathy which Roosevelt's doctors failed to consider as a diagnostic possibility. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_paralytic_illness https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_pa...

69 points by wilsonfiifi 8y ago

If you saw Ken Burns' series on The Roosevelts, there was plenty of film of this. FDR had developed a way of moving stiff legged in his braces. It was painful and difficult.

stevespang 8y ago

More Paywall

stevespang 8y ago

More Paywalls . . .

dang 8y ago

Url changed from http://time.com/5325424/video-president-roosevelt-walking/ http://time.com/5325424/video-president-roosevelt-walking/, which points to this.

_wmd 8y ago
The Washington Post link is subscription-only at least for users in Europe, and the video itself is hosted on YouTube. It should probably be reverted to the original link
- neonate 8y ago
  http://archive.is/DuM4w http://archive.is/DuM4w
madaxe_again 8y ago
Wapo URL is completely paywalled outside of the US.

Maultasche 8y ago

He was able walk for short distances, but only with difficulty and a lot of pain. He often used a cane to help him out. Winston Churchill records seeing Roosevelt slowly walk over to greet him, and knew how difficult it was for Roosevelt to do that.

neonate 8y ago
That's what the article is about, and what the film shows. Apparently there wasn't this kind of footage before.

inteleng 8y ago

The advertisements on this page are absolutely disgraceful.

bane 8y ago

For those here who've never encountered polio or know survivors of it, it's one of the scariest diseases imaginable. My father's generation was one of the last to commonly grow up with it, and medicine was entirely unable to provide much support to sufferers of the virus. I know he grew up in a large family, and I also know that 2 or maybe 3 uncles and aunts of mine were killed in childhood from it. One of my uncles also had it and survived, but was crippled for the rest of his life. He was able to get around okay with braces and a cane until his mid-50s. And then the trauma from the disease finally caught up to him and he spent the rest of his life as a paraplegic with breathing troubles that finally killed him in his early 70s. My father may have caught it, but was able to fight it off. He also has Guillain-Barré syndrome and attributes it to that period. Medicine was so unable to cope with the volume and severity of the patients during the 30s and 40s that "alternative" remedies came into full fashion. In 1949, a researcher named Fred R. Klenner claimed to have found that high doses of vitamin-C could ward off the virus. As a result households stricken with polio often found themselves stuffed to the gills with donations of fruits, vegetables and strangely goats as it was believed that goat milk had high doses of the vitamin. Salk's discovery of the vaccine, the trials around it and the mass global uptake afterwards have almost rendered the virus extinct. But it could almost never happen today.

r00fus 8y ago
The anti-vaxxers are either completely oblivious to the treacherous possibility that was life before polio vaccine or willfully ignorant. Either is dangerous for the body public.
praneshp 8y ago
> . In 1949, a researcher named Fred R. Klenner claimed to have found that high doses of vitamin-C could ward off the virus. This was referenced in an episode of the tv show House > the mass global uptake afterwards have almost rendered the virus extinct. This is one of the things India (and from what I've heard, Pakistan) did really well. Every year around vaccination time (there used to be two doses taken around a month apart) there used to be almost propaganda like mass advertisements, camps, etc. When I was a kid I knew of a handful of older people that had polio; a kid born today is unlikely to meet someone with polio. Unfortunately, a very small minority is trying to argue that polio vaccination is a conspiracy by [pharma companies | government | rich people] :(

goodJobWalrus 8y ago

Ok, I have to ask, what kind of camera was that? Did we really have film cameras small enough that could be casually carried by tourists in 1935?

flashman 8y ago
My guess would be a Kodak 16mm handheld. The Cine-Kodak Model B was introduced in 1923 and a few subsequent models had been released by 1935: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cine-Kodak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cine-Kodak

fredsted 8y ago

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYN1apQHPx0&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYN1apQHPx0&feature=youtu.be

maxxxxx 8y ago

FDR often leaned on people's arms to get support so he could appear to be walking or standing. In this video he does it too.

philliphaydon 8y ago

The footage was less surprising to me than the fact that Photographers and cameraman had the upmost respect and empathy back then to not video or photograph him walking or getting out of a car or such. In this day n age there is absolutely 0 respect because negative news sells.

saurik 8y ago

> Roosevelt was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He was diagnosed with poliomyelitis at the time, but his symptoms are more consistent with Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS) – an autoimmune neuropathy which Roosevelt's doctors failed to consider as a diagnostic possibility. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_paralytic_illness https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_pa...