PUBLIC HEALTH AND MEDICINE ON THE RADIO Alyssa LaGuardia

RADIO AS A MEDIUM  First used in the 1920s  Forced a listener to actively create visual images  “ Tantalizing, yet perplexing new medium”  Carried human voice directly into family home  Symbiotic relationship between radio stations and health departments  Featured broadcasts with physicians and experts, Q&A sessions, etc.  Use of radio drama

READINGS  Baltimore City Health Department: Keeping Well Radio Drama  Dr. Smith of Lemmon Street January 20, 1940 (small pox)  More Terrible than Tigers (diphtheria)  Dr. Ashley on ignorance & stupidity – “no pill or powder for that disease”  Calls for vaccination Also,  Naomi Rogers, “American Medicine and the Politics of Filmmaking: Sister Kenny (RKO, 1946), in Medicine’s Moving Pictures

RADIO CLIP: SISTER KENNY EPISODE sister-kenny-ep-307/17  0 - 1:15  6:30 - 9:44

DUPONT’S CAVALCADE OF AMERICA BROADCASTS  Hundreds of 30 minute dramas from October 1935 – March 1953 on CBS and NBC  Featured scientific discoveries and the social history of medicine  Told true stories but allowed for dramatic liberties  Worked on by historians and writers  Hired best actors and full orchestra to accompany the action  DuPont as sponsor: “Better things for better living through chemistry”  Focused on heroes of science and medicine like doctors and nurses

SISTER KENNY EPISODE 307 NOVEMBER 20, 1942  Description: The story of the Australian nurse who developed a method of treating Polio.  Cast:Madeleine Carroll, Elizabeth Kenny (author, guest speaker), Betty Garde, Alfred Shirley, Kenny Delmar, Larry Robinson, Will Geer, Karl Swenson, Frank Readick, Adelaide Klein, Everett Sloane, Edwin Jerome, Ted Jewett, Norris Houghton (adaptor), Homer Fickett (producer, director), Clayton Collyer (announcer), Arden Cornwell (composer), Donald Voorhees (conductor)  First Line: The clouds of mystery covered disease. Mystery and fear.  End of Show: After the drama, Madeleine Carroll introduces Sister Elizabeth Kenny who appears on the program, speaking from Minneapolis. Next week, Cavalcade will commemorate the first year of war in 'Road to Victory', narrated by Carl Sandburg. RKO will shortly produce a film based on the life and work of Sister Kenny. This is the National Broadcasting Company.

OTHER SCENES IN THE CLIP  Develops her clinical method  Uses blankets, rubberized cloths, heat packs, and hot compresses  Opposes immobilizing children's bodies with plaster casts or braces  Expresses her principles of muscle rehabilitation  “Up goes your elbow, out turns your wrist”  Goes to Minneapolis to work on more cases  Kenny treatment centers were opened throughout the U.S.  Ex: Sister Kenny Institute in Minneapolis

RESOURCES  sister-kenny-ep-307/17  ericaPage04   Media and Medicine Lecture, 11/4/2014 (Graham Mooney, Ph.D.)  Baltimore City Health Department, “Dr. Smith of Lemmon Street,” Keeping Well Radio Drama No. 45,” 20 January  Baltimore City Health Department, “More Terrible than Tigers (diphtheria),” Keeping Well Radio Drama No. 197, n.d.