261. “Crosby Names 60 Aides for Kenny Drive” Baltimore American October 14 1945.
262. John B. Middleton to Mr. George H. La Porte Memorandum November 29 1945, Public Relations, MOD-K.
263. John B. Middleton to Mr. George H. La Porte [Memorandum] Re: Kenny Drive, November 21 1945, Public Relations, MOD-K; A. Harry Moore to Dear Friend, November 21 1945, Public Relations, MOD-K.
264. Arthur Potterton, the Jersey City chapter’s treasurer and a “life-long friend” of Moore’s, agreed to ask him if he knew that the Kenny drive “was being handled by a professional fund-raising concern” and to give him a confidential letter by Don Gudakunst; Major Nicholas Bernard to Public Relations Department Memorandum [Re: Kenny Campaign], October 18 1945, Public Relations, MOD-K.
265. Major Nicholas Bernard to Public Relations Department Memorandum [Re: Kenny Campaign], October 18 1945, Public Relations, MOD-K.
266. Charles K. Barton to My Dear Mr. [Grannell E.] Knox, November 24 1945, Public Relations, MOD-K.
267. NFIP “Program” [script] January 18 1945, FDR-PPF-4885, Comm. Celeb. Pres. Birthday 1945, (1944–1945), FDR Papers.
268. “Will Organize Polio Emergency Volunteers” National Foundation News (June 1945) 4: 29–30.
269. John B. Middleton to Mr. George H. La Porte Memorandum, November 29 1945, Public Relations, MOD-K. Roebling said she had taken on the position out of “personal respect” for the former Governor Harry Moore who was actively campaigning for the KF.
270. James P. Jennings to Dear Mr. [Walker] Wear, December 8 1945, Public Relations, MOD-K.
271. R.W. Gregory to Dear Mr. Joyce, October 25 1945, Public Relations, MOD-K.
272. Kenny “Results of Evidence Presented at the Medical Conference held in Minneapolis December 3rd to 6th [1945],” Public Relations, MOD-K; see also Kenny “I must thank you for your presence here today … ” [December 1945], Marvin L. Kline 1942–1959, MHS-K; Kenny to Dear Mr. President [Kline], December 13 1945, Marvin L. Kline 1942–1959, MHS-K.
273. Kenny to My Dear Mr. O’Connor [form letter], January 18 1946, Public Relations, MOD-K.
274. [List of participants] “Conference On Poliomyelitis, December 3, 4, & 5 1945, Minneapolis, Minnesota,” Record Group 29, vol. 201, file 311-P11-15, National Archive Centre, Ottawa; Savage to O’Connor Memorandum, January 19 1946, Public Relations, MOD-K. O’Connor referred to “Letter #1 by Gudakunst.”
275. Kenny Physical Medicine: The Science of Dermo-Neuro-Muscular Therapy as Applied to Infantile Paralysis (Minneapolis: Bruce Publishing Company, 1946).
276. D. Paul Reed to Dear Member, October 11 1946, Kenny Foundation Fund Drive 1946, MHS-K.
277. [Report] California Intelligence Bureau, November 30 1945, Public Relations, MOD-K; D. Paul Reed to Dear Member, October 11 1946, Kenny Foundation Fund Drive 1946, MHS-K; see also George La Porte to Dear Doctor Robinson [Pittsburgh], November 26 1946, Public Relations, MOD-K.
278. “Kate Smith Heads Kenny Fund Drive” [Minneapolis Morning Tribune] [July 1946] Scrapbook 1945–1952, Henry Papers, MHS-K; “Kate Smith to Head Polio Drive” New York Times August 8 1946. On Kate Smith as embodying “cardinal American virtues” see Robert K. Merton Mass Persuasion: The Social Psychology of a War Bond Drive (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1946), 76, 83.
279. See Heather Green Wooten The Polio Years in Texas: Battling a Terrifying Unknown (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2009), 92–93; David M. Oshinksy Polio: An American Story (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 60.
280. “Physical Therapy Scholarship News” National Foundation News 4 (May 1945) 25–26; Gudakunst [Memorandum] Re: Kenny Institute, November 30 1945, Public Relations, MOD-K; Howard A. Rusk and Eugene J. Taylor New Hope for the Handicapped: The Rehabilitation of the Disabled from Bed to Job (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1946, 1949), 163–164; Roland H. Berg The Challenge of Polio: The Crusade Against Infantile Paralysis (New York: Dial Press, 1946), 156. Note also that two-thirds of the 24 illustrations of Polio and its Problems were devoted to images of patients working with physical therapists; Roland H. Berg Polio and Its Problems (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1948), op. 84–op. 85.
281. “Dear Mr.____” September 19 1946, Public Relations, MOD-K.
282. “The Epidemic of 1946 (as of August 1, 1946) As detailed by Dr. Van Riper at Press Conference, 120 Bwy, NY 5, NY,” Public Relations, MOD-K.
283. George La Porte to Dear Miss McGinn, January 4 1946, Public Relations, MOD-K.
284. Joe Savage to Dear Jim [James Bryan], November 8 1946, Public Relations, MOD-K; see also PJAC to DG et al Memorandum March 20 1944, Public Relations, MOD-K.
285. NFIP “In Daily Battle” [1947], MOD. By 1947 NFIP films included When Polio Strikes, New Horizon, and Accent on Use.
286. Oshinksy Polio, 86–89.
287. Berg The Challenge of Polio, 159–164, 169–170.
288. Anon. [review] “The Challenge of Polio, by Roland H. Berg” New Republic (September 23 1946) 115: 357.
289. H. M. Weaver “Why Chapters Cannot Sponsor Research” [speech given at] Hotel Roosevelt, April 1–5 1946, Public Historical Organizations, MOD. See also Hart Van Riper to Dear Dr. Lewin, May 16 1946, Public Relations, Lewin Files, MOD; George La Porte to Dear Miss McGinn, January 4 1946, Public Relations, MOD-K; The Chapter’s Role in Serving Infantile Paralysis Patients (New York: National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, publication #56, revised June 1948).
290. Chester La Roche to Dear Mr. O’Connor, September 3 1946, Clara and Chester La Roche, 1945–1948, MHS-K.
291. Francis P. L. Cronin to Dear Miss Keeler, January 20 1947, Public Relations, MOD-K.
292. Allen W. Fincke to Dear Mr. O’Connor, September 15 1947, Public Relations, MOD-K.
293. O’Connor to My dear Mr. Fincke, October 8 1947, Public Relations, MOD-K.
294. O’Connor in “Basil O’Connor Interview Monday, Nov 15 [19]44 10:05 to 10:15 KMOX “The Voice of St. Louis,” Public Relations, MOD-K.
295. Gudakunst quoted in Richard Carter Breakthrough: The Saga of Jonas Salk (New York: Trident Press, 1966), 26.
296. Francis Reardon [chairman, Delaware Campaign Committee NFIP] to Dear Mr. Ward, January 22 1946, [enclosed in] Judson D. Ryon to Dear Sister Kenny, February 4 1946, Judson D. Ryon, MHS-K.
FURTHER READING
On medical populism see Kenny Ausubel When Healing Becomes a Crime (Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press, 2000); Alan Brinkley Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression (New York: Knopf, 1982); David Cantor “Cancer, Quackery and the Vernacular Meaning of Hope in 1950s America” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (2006) 61: 324–368; Robert D. Johnston ed. The Politics of Healing: Histories of Alternative Medicine in Twentieth-Century North America (New York: Routledge, 2004); Robert D. Johnston The Radical Middle Class: Populist Democracy and the Question of Capitalism in Progressive Era Portland, Oregon (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003); Eric S. Juhnke Quacks and Crusaders: The Fabulous Careers of John Brinkley, Norman Baker, and Harry Hoxsey (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002); George Wolfskill and John A. Hudson All But the People: Franklin D. Roosevelt and His Critics 1933–1939 (London: Macmillan, 1969).
On medicine, racism, and antisemitism see Gert H. Brieger “Getting Into Medical School in the Good Old Days: Good for Whom?” Annals of Internal Medicine (1993) 119: 1138–1143; Edward C. Halperin “The Jewish Problem in Medical Education, 1920–1955” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (2001) 56: 140–167; Kenneth M. Ludmerer Time to Heal: American Medical Education from the Turn of the Century to the Era of Managed Care (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999); Dan A. Oren Joining the Club: A History of Jews and Yale (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985).
On polio, medical care, and race see W. Michael Byrd and Linda A. Clayton An American Health Dilemma, V. 2: Race, Medicine, and Health Care in the United States 1900–2000 (New York: Routledge, 2002); James P. Comer Maggie’s American Dream: The Life and Times of a B
lack Family (New York: New American Library, 1988); Vanessa Northington Gamble Making a Place for Ourselves: The Black Hospital Movement, 1920–1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995); James H. Jones Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (London: Free Press, 1981); Stephen E. Mawdsley “ ‘Dancing on Eggs’: Charles H. Bynum, Racial Politics, and the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, 1938–1954” Bulletin of the History of Medicine (2010) 84: 217–247; Dorothy Roberts Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty (New York: Pantheon, 1997); Naomi Rogers “Race and the Politics of Polio: Warm Springs, Tuskegee and the March of Dimes” American Journal of Public Health (2007) 97: 2–13.
On Fishbein and medical politics see Edward D. Berkovitz and Wendy Wolff Group Health Association: A Portrait of a Health Maintenance Organization (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988); James G. Burrow AMA: Voice of American Medicine (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1963); Frank D. Campion The A.M.A. and U.S. Health Policy since 1940 (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1984); Jonathan Engel Doctors and Reformers: Discussion and Debate over Health Policy 1925–1950 (Charleston: University of South Carolina Press, 2002): Elizabeth Fee and Theodore Brown eds. Making Medical History: The Life and Times of Henry E. Sigerist (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997); Daniel S. Hirschfield The Lost Reform: The Campaign for Compulsory Health Insurance in the United States from 1932 to 1943 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970); Elton Rayack Professional Power and American Medicine: The Economics of the American Medical Association (Cleveland: World Publishing Co., 1967); Patricia Spain Ward “United States versus American Medical Association et al.: The Medical Anti-Trust Case of 1938–1943” American Studies (1989) 30: 123–153;.
On Crosby, movies and anti-Catholicism see Paul Blanshard American Freedom and Catholic Power (Boston: Beacon Press, [1949] 1958); Bing Crosby as told to Pete Martin Call Me Lucky (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1953); Jib Fowles Starstruck: Celebrity Performers and the American Public (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992); Philip Jenkins The Last Acceptable Prejudice (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003); Les Keyser and Barbara Keyser Hollywood and the Catholic Church: The Images of Roman Catholicism in American Movies (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1984); Ruth Prigozy and Walter Raubicheck eds. Going My Way: Bing Crosby and America Culture (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2007); Donald Shepherd and Robert F. Slatzer Bing Crosby: The Hollow Man (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981); Charles Thompson Bing: The Authorized Biography (New York: David McKay Company Inc., 1975); Frank Walsh Sin and Censorship: The Catholic Church and the Motion Picture Industry (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996).
6
Celluloid
ALL HER LIFE, Kenny loved movies. While running her clinic in Brisbane in the 1930s she had regularly “popped out” for an afternoon show at the local Regents Theater, and in Minneapolis she sought escape from the tensions of her work in the cinema’s fantasy and anonymity.1 But she also saw film as a valuable means of persuasion. When she first came to the United States she brought with her a silent film showing the transformation in her Australian patients, some of whom had been profoundly disabled for many years.2 After only a year in Minnesota she produced another silent film about “the treatment carried out at Minneapolis and its results” and warned Basil O’Connor that if he refused to see it “I will understand the Foundation is not interested in my work and I am wasting my time in [the] U.S.A.”3 Her early films were of poor quality, jerky, and hard to see, and despite her warning to O’Connor she wanted to remain in Minneapolis and improve them. She began to discuss making a sound film with National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) secretary Peter Cusack, editor of the National Foundation News, although they both agreed that for “satisfactory” accuracy they needed to wait until the next polio epidemic.4 In 1942 she showed her “moving pictures” at the American Physiotherapy Association’s annual meeting in June, the biennial nursing conference in July, and during the visit of the American Medical Association (AMA) orthopedic committee in November.5
While these short films were clearly intended to demonstrate the efficacy of her methods to medical professionals, Kenny considered them accessible to lay audiences as well. In 1943, after she had been awarded the 1942 Humanitarian Award by the Variety Clubs, she noticed that other recipients of the award had a film showing their work. She therefore offered Variety officials one of her short silent films, and was gratified when a senior Variety official screened the picture and reported that “it is very good.”6 Members of the women’s auxiliary of the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital heard Kenny had a film “showing you treating children afflicted with Infantile Paralysis” and asked for a copy to show their volunteers.7 Michigan physician Ethel Calhoun asked for a loan of one of her films to help her “spread the ‘gospel’ in Michigan,” suggesting the film would convert viewers into Kenny supporters.8
FILM AND MEDICAL AUTHORITY
By the 1940s, medical films played a critical role in American medicine. They were regularly screened at medical societies and health department meetings, and functioned as entertainment, pedagogy, and on occasion as research. Philanthropies such as the National Tuberculosis Association and the American Social Hygiene Association used films as educational and fundraising tools. Even before the NFIP was established, polio films were widely used, including ones on treatment during acute, paralytic, and postparalytic phases, orthopedic operations, a virological study of the “experimental production of infantile paralysis,” and a study of polio’s epidemiology.9 The NFIP made short films a prominent part of its March of Dimes campaigns and as early as 1938 the head of the NFIP’s committee on the treatment of after-effects proposed buying films to be part of a polio library to be housed in either the Surgeon General’s Library or the library of the New York Academy of Medicine.10
In the 1910s and 1920s many physicians had seen medical films as “undignified and even unethical.”11 Many early films, one commentator recalled, “were made as hobbies to show a particular method of operation” and were not of good quality. Indeed surgeons often had to leave the making of the film to a cameraman who knew little or nothing about what he was filming.12 Films also contradicted the pedagogic philosophy at the heart of professional medical training: that clinical skills should be gained on the job through seeing and touching individual patients.
Still, teachers sought out films to show medical students. Especially popular were those produced by Brooklyn surgeon Jacob Sarnoff, whose films included dissections, medical anomalies, general and plastic surgery, rehabilitation, and anatomy.13 By the 1930s films were used in most medical schools and projection equipment became a crucial part of medical education. The AMA reviewed these films and set up a film loan library.14 During the war the Army and Navy used films to teach surgery and other medical procedures. This experience created great enthusiasm for, as one physician later noted, “what soldier has not been taught complicated techniques by film and don’t they know it.”15
In fields like pediatrics and physical medicine, where diagnosis and therapy involved the visible physical manipulation of the body, films were particularly successful. During the 1930s the AMA’s Council on Physical Therapy (a group of physician specialists) developed a series of films to remind hospital administrators and medical staff of “the importance of physical therapy as an adjunct to the practice of medicine and surgery.”16 At the 1937 AMA annual meeting an exhibit by the American Physiotherapy Association on physical therapy and polio home care included the Kendalls’ 1 hour, 5-reel film on the “Examination, Protection, and Treatment of Convalescent Poliomyelitis Cases.”17
At the annual meetings of medical societies screenings of technical films, usually announcing a new technique and demonstrating its validity and utility, were so popular that they were “clogging the aisles with visitors and interfering with the demonstration of exhibits.” In response the AMA arranged for several cinemas to be set up next to the scient
ific exhibits.18 At the AMA’s annual meeting in 1942 there were 4 theaters adjacent to the exhibits where technical films were shown continuously.19 The widespread use of commercial medical films designed by pharmaceutical companies, food producers, and other manufacturers led some professional societies to try to ensure that films shown in their scientific exhibits were serious contributions to medical science and not propaganda or advertisement. In January 1943, for example, the New Orleans Graduate Medical Assembly sent participants a printed form that had to be filled out if they were planning to show a film. Speakers were warned that “all movie films, except those previously approved by organized medical societies, must be previewed and approved by the Scientific Exhibits Committee before being shown … No exhibits will be accepted which are in any way commercialized.”20
KENNY AND THE POWER OF FILM
For Kenny film was a powerful and transformative medium, opening eyes and changing minds. Not only could it demonstrate the achievements of her method, but, in her eyes, a technical film was a form of scientific proof, a kind of virtual witnessing equivalent to the experiential persuasion conveyed by in-person demonstrations. In her 1943 autobiography she described an incident in Australia in which she had confronted the physical therapist and doctor who were in charge of a child she had been treating. The doctor was impressed with the “satisfactory” changes in his patient, but the physical therapist was more skeptical. Kenny invited her “to see a moving picture which would give her a complete history of the case. She refused to see the picture, began to weep bitterly, and left the clinic.”21 Here, Kenny felt, was an example of the power of film as clinical evidence, so overwhelming that, without even having been seen, it had stripped a professional of her rational equilibrium.
Film could also bear witness to the damage done by orthodox treatment. John Pohl had shown her a technical film showing patients he had treated during his postgraduate orthopedic training in England and Germany in the 1930s. After he had worked with Kenny and changed his view of polio’s therapy and prognosis, Pohl sometimes showed these films as examples “of the unhappy results that had followed the neglect of these symptoms” that Kenny had pointed out to him.22 It was the same film but presented from a very different point of view.
Polio Wars Page 49
