100 Years Ago: Polio Struck A Top Young Politician & Forged One of The Greatest U.S. Presidents- FDR
- 'A century ago, polio struck a handsome young politician- and forged one of the country’s greatest presidents.' The Washington Post, By Michael E. Ruane, Aug. 2, 2021. In August 1921, Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken and transformed by a paralyzing disease for which there was no vaccine. - Ed.
- FDR (L) campaigns for VP with Dem. Pres. candidate Gov. James Cox, OH in 1920.
On the morning of Aug. 11, 1921, Franklin D. Roosevelt got out of bed and tried to make it to the bathroom in the summer house on Campobello Island, off the coast of Maine, where he and his family had vacationed since he was a child. He had felt sick the day before. After hours of sailing and swimming, his legs began to ache. He developed an uncontrollable shiver and had gone to bed early. Now, he was worse. He had a fever of 102, and as he struggled across the hall, his left leg gave way beneath him. It was a transformative moment in American history, and the start of the “central event” in the life of one of the country’s greatest presidents, historian Hugh Gregory Gallagher has written.
On that morning 100 years ago this month, the man who would lead the United States through the Great Depression and World War II and expand the way government helped people, was experiencing the first crippling symptoms of polio. He was 39, and the disease would soon place him in a wheelchair for most of the rest of his life. It would alter his emotional makeup, Gallagher has written. It changed the way he viewed the world. And it would launch the exquisite political theater in which FDR engaged so famously on the public stage. His rumpled fedora, jaunty cigarette holder, pince-nez glasses & the steel leg braces that let him stand & appear to walk on his own. “The complete package of props,”.. made [him] seem to the American people as close as a family member,” Gallagher wrote in his 1985 book, “FDR’s Splendid Deception.”
And although he worked hard to obscure the details of his disability, he was, in part, defined by it, admired & remembered for it. The presidential memorial amid the cherry blossoms in Washington depicts him sitting in a special wheelchair he designed himself. Paul Sparrow, director of the FDR Library & Museum said: “I think polio changed FDR. I think polio changed America. I think FDR’s reaction to polio changed the world.” But most of that was in the future. On a Thursday morning in 1921, no one knew what was happening to him. Polio at the time was also called infantile paralysis because it seemed to infect mostly children. The disease is caused by a contagious virus that can lead to severe disability and death, according to the NIH. It is ingested orally and, in the worst cases, enters the central nervous system and destroys motor neurons, causing paralysis of limbs.
Many of those who survived serious infection had to wear painful metal leg braces. There would be no vaccine for 30 years. Exactly 5 summers earlier, in 1916, there had been a terrible polio epidemic along the East Coast, with 27,000 people infected. It was especially bad in NY City where there were 19,000 cases & almost 2,500 deaths. In early August, there were 1,151 cases & 301 deaths, Tony Gould wrote in his 1995 book, “A Summer Plague, Polio & its Survivors.” Tens of thousands of the children of the wealthy were shipped out of town to avoid infection. Cats & dogs were suspected carriers and thousands of strays were gathered up & killed. Guards were placed at the entrances to towns outside NYC to block the arrival of fleeing city dwellers. That summer, the Roosevelt family was vacationing as usual on Campobello Island...
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/08/02/fdr-contracted-polio-100-years-ago/
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- Roosevelt in wheelchair with Fala, Ruthie Bie at Hyde Park home, Feb. 1941.
- FDR, wiki, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt
Though his mother favored his retirement from public life, Roosevelt, his wife, and Roosevelt's close friend & adviser, Louis Howe, were all determined that he continue his political career. He convinced many people that he was improving, which he believed to be essential prior to running for public office again. He laboriously taught himself to walk short distances while wearing iron braces on his hips & legs by swiveling his torso, supporting himself with a cane.
He was careful never to be seen using his wheelchair in public, & great care was taken to prevent any portrayal in the press that would highlight his disability. However, his disability was well known before & during his presidency & became a major part of his image. He usually appeared in public standing upright, supported on one side by an aide or one of his sons...
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* PBS, Polio & Famous People Who Survived It, American Masters
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/tanaquil-le-clercq-public-figures-and-american-masters-who-survived-polio/3063/
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