Post : Polio on TV and the Movies
URL : [link removed]
Posted : May 13, 2024 at 9:35 am
Author : Vincent Iannelli, MD
Tags : Brady Bunch, herd immunity, Jay Gordon, Lassie, measles outbreaks, movies, polio, pre-vaccine era, The Crippler, The Giant Gila Monster, TV Shows
Categories : Anti-Vaccine Propaganda
When anti-vaccine folks mention measles and the Brady Bunch, remind them how polio was depicted on TV and in the movies...
Measles is highly contagious ( [link removed] ) , which is likely why ALL of the Brady kids got sick.
Or how measles was depicted in non-sitcom type shows for that matter...
Polio on TV and the Movies
But let's start with polio ( [link removed] ) .
> "With the subject of poliomyelitis very much in the news these days and with the public thus extra-mindful of the prevalence and the terrors of the disease, the Music Hall has a timely picture, as well as a tender and moving one, in M-G-M's "Interrupted Melody.""
>
> Screen: The Defeat of Polio as Personal Drama; ' Interrupted Melody' Tells Singer's Story
In the pre-vaccine era ( [link removed] ) , polio ( [link removed] ) was known as "the Crippler" because of the way it often left kids, at least those who survived, in leg braces and with crutches.
[link removed] In the 1950s classic, The Giant Gila Monster, the hero spends all of his money to buy braces for his sister with polio.
Polio ( [link removed] ) wasn't depicted as a mild disease in any of these movies or TV shows, including:
I'll Cry Tomorrow - the story of Lillian Roth. Includes Eddie Albert who suffered the crippling effects of childhood polio.
Interrupted Melody - the story of opera star Marjorie Lawrence and her battle with polio.
The Five Pennies - the story of bandleader who has to leave the music business and move after his daughter gets sick with polio
Time Table - a doctor and a fake patient who supposedly had polio steal the payroll from a train
Jungle Jim - Jungle Jim finds what could be a cure for polio in the jungles of Africa
Never Fear - a young dancer is crippled by polio
The Fireball - a roller-skating champion but gets sick with polio
The Passionate Stranger - the husband of the main character is immobile because of polio
A Man to Remember - a 1938 movie about a local doctor who saves his town, which becomes the only one in the area to avoid a polio epidemic
As Men Love - a 1917 movie in which polio sweeps through a city and a couple need to call on a doctor for help after he had been banished from their home.
Polio ( [link removed] ) was depicted as "the Crippler" as everyone knew it to be.
[link removed]
Never Fear featured wheelchair dancers from the Kabat-Kaiser Institute ( [link removed] ) / rehab center for polio patients.
Not that measles ( [link removed] ) was always depicted as a mild disease either though!
Measles on TV and the Movies
Anti-vaccine folks ( [link removed] ) like to bring up the Brady Bunch ( [link removed] ) episode, but they conveniently leave out other shows that depicted a much more serious side to measles infections.
[link removed] By 1969, when the Brady Bunch kids had measles, measles deaths were down to 41 in the United States, from a recent high of 683 just before the first measles vaccine was introduced. Maybe that's why they felt comfortable depicting measles as a less than serious disease. Measles was still killing American kids when the episode aired though.
For example, in The Doris Day Show in 1970, “Today’s World Catches the Measles,” one of the characters is described as being listless, develops a fever, and is eventually diagnosed with measles.
What happens next?
His contacts are put under quarantine ( [link removed] ) .
Timmy: I changed my mind about wanting the measles if it makes you feel like this.
And in a 1958 episode of Lassie: “The Crisis” – Ruth finds out that Timmy has been exposed to measles at school after he and Paul leave on a long drive to buy a calf. Several of his classmates has just been diagnosed with measles and his doctor came to his house to check on him, fearing that he might be sick too.
Did you ever read or watch Gone with the Wind?
Scarlett O'Hara marries Rhett Butler, but he wasn't her first husband.
Her first husband was Charles Hamilton and he died just before their son was born. He died after developing pneumonia and having measles.
[link removed] Anti-vaccine pediatricians will be remembered as a punch line when measles is finally eradicated.
So much for measles being a punch line...
More on Vaccine Preventable Diseases on TV and in the Movies
* Vaccines on TV and in the Movies ( [link removed] )
* Grave Reminders of Life Before Vaccines ( [link removed] )
* Polio Survivor Stories ( [link removed] )
* Remembering Measles ( [link removed] )
* Remembering When Everyone Had Measles ( [link removed] )
* Screen: The Defeat of Polio as Personal Drama; ' Interrupted Melody' Tells Singer's Story ( [link removed] )
* Dr. Jay and argumentum ad bradi bunchium ( [link removed] )
* Measles is more dangerous than we thought, and vaccines are as safe as we thought ( [link removed] )
* Posts Mislead About Measles, MMR Vaccine Amid Recent Outbreaks ( [link removed] )
* The Polio Crusade ( [link removed] )
* Movie producer Jonathan Cavendish tells the story of his parents in new movie 'Breathe' ( [link removed] )
* Paralyzed by Panic: Measuring the Effect of School Closures During the 1916 Polio Pandemic On Educational Attainment ( [link removed] )
* ‘A Movie Paralysis’: Defining Cinema during the Polio Epidemic of 1916 ( [link removed] )
--
Manage Subscriptions
[link removed]
Unsubscribe:
[link removed]
