When anti-vaccine folks mention measles and the Brady Bunch, remind them how polio was depicted on TV and in the movies…
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.
“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, polio was known as “the Crippler” because of the way it often left kids, at least those who survived, in leg braces and with crutches.
Polio 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 was depicted as “the Crippler” as everyone knew it to be.
Not that measles was always depicted as a mild disease either though!
Measles on TV and the Movies
Anti-vaccine folks like to bring up the Brady Bunch episode, but they conveniently leave out other shows that depicted a much more serious side to measles infections.
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.
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.
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
- Grave Reminders of Life Before Vaccines
- Polio Survivor Stories
- Remembering Measles
- Remembering When Everyone Had Measles
- Screen: The Defeat of Polio as Personal Drama; ‘ Interrupted Melody’ Tells Singer’s Story
- Dr. Jay and argumentum ad bradi bunchium
- Measles is more dangerous than we thought, and vaccines are as safe as we thought
- Posts Mislead About Measles, MMR Vaccine Amid Recent Outbreaks
- The Polio Crusade
- Movie producer Jonathan Cavendish tells the story of his parents in new movie ‘Breathe’
- Paralyzed by Panic: Measuring the Effect of School Closures During the 1916 Polio Pandemic On Educational Attainment
- ‘A Movie Paralysis’: Defining Cinema during the Polio Epidemic of 1916