# Did Americans Know That FDR Couldn't Walk? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 19, 2016, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288 "2016-08-19T13:08:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Scoodler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@Scoodler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoodler)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/1 "2016-08-19T13:08:28Z")
> [@](#): > > Think about it, though: today there’d be a treacly ten-minute documentary at the DNC about Franklin’s polio, set to soft but stirring music, with poor Eleanor forced to gaze dewy-eyed into the distance. 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! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/2 "2016-08-19T13:16:35Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/3 "2016-08-19T13:51:50Z")
\ ***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” ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/4 "2016-08-19T15:33:30Z")
What I can’t understand is why the illustration for this column looks like Harry Truman. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/5 "2016-08-19T17:13:45Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/6 "2016-08-19T17:20:42Z")
[Link to the column.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3302/did-americans-know-fdr-couldn-t-walk) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/7 "2016-08-19T17:38:03Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/8 "2016-08-19T17:38:21Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Is that even a Slug Signorino illustration? Doesn’t look like his style at all. 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._ ---
**Author:** ![jbaker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/59ef9b/32.png) [@jbaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jbaker)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/9 "2016-08-19T17:49:13Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/10 "2016-08-19T19:21:51Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > 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 see it now, thanks. This drawing is really a departure from Slug’s usual style. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/11 "2016-08-19T19:27:13Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/12 "2016-08-19T19:38:53Z")
I thought it was Steve Jobs at first. ---
**Author:** ![eastcheap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@eastcheap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eastcheap)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/13 "2016-08-19T20:59:18Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > What I can’t understand is why the illustration for this column looks like Harry Truman. I was thinking Woodrow Wilson. > [@running\_coach](#): > > It looks like only part of the original drawing is there as you can see only the first few letters of _Signorino._ [![](http://i.emlfiles1.com/cmpimg/5/9/3/8/1/1/files/735924_dope_160812_fdr_mailing1.gif) ](http://i.emlfiles1.com/cmpimg/5/9/3/8/1/1/files/735924_dope_160812_fdr_mailing1.gif) ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/14 "2016-08-19T23:38:00Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/15 "2016-08-20T00:26:31Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![HenryG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/eb8c5e/32.png) [@HenryG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HenryG)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/16 "2016-08-20T06:31:34Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Lulu8360](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Lulu8360](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lulu8360)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-americans-know-that-fdr-couldnt-walk/763288/17 "2016-08-21T20:24:01Z")
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.