Maybe before Trump. Now, Trump is already making stuff up about Clinton’s health; if Clinton actually had a health problems, Trump would think, Bonanza!
My understanding is the general public was aware Roosevelt had had polio but wasn’t aware how bad it had effected him. Most people believed he had difficulty walking when in fact he was virtually unable to walk.
*A.J.: You’ve said it yourself a million times. If there had been a TV in every living room sixty years ago, this country does not elect a man in a wheelchair. *
Martin Sheen to Michael Douglas “The American President”
What I can’t understand is why the illustration for this column looks like Harry Truman.
Is that even a Slug Signorino illustration? Doesn’t look like his style at all.
People believed FDR had beaten polio, but that doesn’t translate directly to him walking again. Many must have assumed he needed leg braces. A famous film clip makes him look like he’s walking but he barely takes a step unaided. Some number of people knew he was usually seen in a wheelchair, how many would be hard to establish. Many members of the media would have seen him in a wheel chair or heard that he couldn’t walk but weren’t allowed to report it. Apparently some story was printed about it by his political opposition, but it didn’t get widespread circulation. There are stories that photographers who caught him in a wheelchair or being carried would have their film confiscated.
This might have been an issue in his first election but it doesn’t appear as if the American public would have cared much after that. During the war it was probably a good idea to keep the secret so that our enemies didn’t use it in propaganda, though maybe they wouldn’t have been believed anyway.
People then knew what polio was, they would have suspected he was permanently affected by it, and he wasn’t a young man when he first ran for president, people surprised on hearing about it after his death may have been more surprised that it was kept secret than anything else.
Look at the bottom. See the tall “S”? That’s the start of his signature. It looks like only part of the original drawing is there as you can see only the first few letters of Signorino.
I looked at some old newspaper reports, and there seemed to be quite an accurate impression of Roosevelt’s paralysis. Members of the public knew that he was paralyzed and used a wheelchair. This was a bit of an issue in 1932, but was readily dispelled by the accurate impression of great vigor that Roosevelt gave at his speeches. After that his paralysis, though no secret, did not seem to be much of an issue, although there were occasional more general concerns about his health. We now know that these concerns were misplaced in the 1930s, but should have been taken much more seriously in the 1940s, particularly in 1944.
I see it now, thanks. This drawing is really a departure from Slug’s usual style.
Probably because it’s a rare attempt to draw a particular real person.
I thought it was Steve Jobs at first.
I remember being (as a child in the 50s) vaguely confused by it all—Roosevelt had been paralyzed—No he hadn’t—… Which one was supposed to be the Evil Twin, anyway?
I asked my mother about this once, she was 12 when FDR was elected. She said that of course people knew FDR couldn’t walk…polio was a big scare and public swimming pools were closed if a case broke out. It just wasn’t considered polite to show pictures of him in a wheelchair, according to Mom
People (all people not just politicians) try to conceal information which they perceive will hurt them. Eighty years ago it was much easier to achieve this than it is today. Little Nemo has it right when he says the public knew FDR had sufferred from polio but had no appreciation of how crippled he was.
What was much worse was the way in which Woodrow Wilson’s stroke in 1919 was kept (by his family) from the Vice President, let alone the general public.
Today’s media may be intrusive, but I’m happy that they would prevent that sort of concealment happening today
At least he wasn’t mentally diabled as a few presidents have been in recent memory. Given the choice I’d opt for a president with a physical disability instead of a mental one.