The Roosevelts: An Intimate History A Film by Ken Burns January 30th is the birthday of the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882). He was born in Hyde Park, New York, to one of the oldest and most prominent Dutch families in the city. His father made money in railroads and coal, and Roosevelt’s mother doted on her son, so much so that later in life, when he married Eleanor Roosevelt, his mother lived next door to them in her own townhome, which Roosevelt’s wife did not appreciate. When he was five years old, his father took him to the White House. Grover Cleveland, who was then president of the United States, greeted the boy by saying, “I have one wish for you, little man: that you will never be president of the United States.” He was 39 years old in the summer of 1921 and on vacation in the Bay of Fundy when he went swimming in the icy waters, went home to nap, and woke up with no feeling in his legs. At first, doctors thought he had blood clots or spinal lesions. He was finally diagnosed with infantile paralysis, or polio, and retreated from public and political life to rehabilitate himself. He swam three times a week in a pond and in the Astor pool. He visited the thermal mineral baths in Warm Springs, Georgia, and eventually bought it, making sure children and less fortunate adults could get therapy and care. In the 1920s, most people with disabilities were banished to asylums. Buildings then did not have adequate access and most wheelchairs were clunky and once-size-fits-all. Roosevelt designed his own wheelchair: it had a seat like a dining chair, slim and efficient, and bicycle-like wheels. Roosevelt said, “Once you’ve spent two years trying to wiggle one toe, everything is in proportion.” He and a friend began throwing annual “Birthday Balls” to raise money for polio research and care (1933). The tag line for the dances was “Dance so that others may walk.” The balls became so popular that an organization was started called the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. Children were encouraged to donate 10 cents apiece to form a “march of dimes” all the way to the White House, and that’s how the March of Dimes got its name. A young researcher named Jonas Salk benefited from the donations; he eventually developed the polio vaccine.
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