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Previously on "The Roosevelts"...
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Theodore was denied a return
to the White House...
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He left power too soon.
He had to be in the arena.
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Then charted a deadly course
into the Amazon...
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We started down the river of doubt
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into the unknown.
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While Eleanor and Franklin
were rocked by betrayal.
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Eleanor Roosevelt
never forgave or forgot
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what he had done.
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And now part 4 of
"The Roosevelts: An Intimate History."
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Campobello was one of the two or three
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most important places in
Franklin Roosevelt's life.
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He'd learned to sail there.
His father had taught him there.
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He'd been going there
since he was a little boy.
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And it was also the place
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where his children got to know him.
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He led the kids on long
walks around the island...
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And he was a real family man
at Campobello.
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And to Eleanor Roosevelt,
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it was the first place she had
ever had a home that belonged
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really to her and her husband
and not to her mother-in-law.
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On Tuesday afternoon, July 6, 1920,
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Sara Delano Roosevelt
was at work in the garden
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of her father's old house
overlooking the Hudson,
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at Newburgh, New York.
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She had seen her daughter-in-law
and the grandchildren off
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to Campobello for the summer.
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Her son Franklin was far away,
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attending the Democratic
Convention in San Francisco.
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A servant called from the house.
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Mrs. Roosevelt was wanted
on the telephone.
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A friend had wonderful news:
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Franklin had just been
nominated for vice president
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of the United States, still another office
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his fifth cousin Theodore had once held.
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Sara was pleased, but not surprised.
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She had taught her boy that
nothing he ever really wanted
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was beyond his grasp.
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She wrote him right
away, sending her regards
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to the son she now believed
would be "our future president."
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"All my love and interest
goes to you," she said,
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"and, as always, is centered in you."
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- sync & corrections by wolfen -
- www.addic7ed.com -
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I think Franklin Roosevelt
is simply irresistible.
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If you see him on film
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with that face and that charm
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and that infinite grace
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and sort of embracing power,
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you can't take your eyes off him.
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And it almost doesn't matter
what he's saying,
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there's just something
riveting about him.
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And then I think there's
just a great drama
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about a guy who is slick and charming
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and graceful as a young man
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who goes through this unbelievable testing
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and then somehow finds within...
In himself, the ambition
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and the power to decide to come back
and then comes back
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and then becomes the
most important President
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of the 20th century.
It's a pretty good story.
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During the 1920s,
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memories of Theodore Roosevelt
would begin to fade,
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and the public's attention
shifted to Franklin and Eleanor.
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The two would find themselves living
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altogether new kinds of lives.
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Awkward and diffident,
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Eleanor would struggle
to emerge from the shadow
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of her mother-in-law and the memory
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of her husband's relationship
with her own Social Secretary
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to become a public figure
and a political power
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in her own right,
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while Franklin... active,
ambitious, gregarious...
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would suddenly find himself
immobilized, powerless,
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isolated, his career at an apparent end.
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And then, displaying qualities
of courage and compassion
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even he may not have
suspected he possessed,
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he would re-emerge in time
to help restore the faith
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of a badly frightened country.
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To some extent,
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Franklin Roosevelt's ease
of life before the polio
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might not have equipped him for
being the leader that he was.
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There was ambition, but
not the ambition attached
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to that huge substance that
later came after the polio.
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What the polio did, I think, was to just
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transform him in many ways.
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He learned by withstanding that adversity
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that he could come through a trial of fire
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and thereby he could help
other people do the same.
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This past year
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has rather got the better of me.
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It has been so full of all kinds of things
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that I still have a breathless,
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hunted feeling.
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During the 20 months that preceded
Franklin Roosevelt's nomination
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for Vice President in 1920,
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American life seemed to
have turned upside down.
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The great war had ended.
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Theodore Roosevelt, who had hoped
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to regain the White House, had died.
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Women finally could vote in every state,
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a new, exciting music
would fill new airwaves,
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and prohibition would
turn millions of Americans
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into lawbreakers.
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Wall Street climbed steadily upward
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as unregulated speculation
in stocks, real estate,
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and commodities attracted
more and more citizens.
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It seemed as if the good
times would never end.
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Aboard the warship that
bore Woodrow Wilson home
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from peace talks in France,
the President told Franklin
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and Eleanor that the
United States must enter
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the new League of Nations that
promised to prevent another war
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or it would break the heart of the world.
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In the end, Wilson's isolationist enemies
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and his own stubborn refusal
to compromise combined
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to keep America out of the League
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and broke Wilson's heart.
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He himself was a virtual
prisoner in the White House,
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partially paralyzed by a stroke,
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unwilling to be seen or heard in public.
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American voters... sick of war,
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plagued by soaring postwar prices,
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and alarmed by labor strife...
Had wearied of reform
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and were increasingly
uninterested in events overseas.
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At Chicago in June of 1920,
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the Republicans nominated
for president an amiable
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but undistinguished Senator
from Ohio, Warren G. Harding.
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To run against him, the Democrats settled
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on another Ohioan, Governor James M. Cox.
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Cox then picked 38-year-old
Franklin Roosevelt
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to balance the ticket.
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He was an easterner with
an independent reputation,
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had a good record in wartime Washington,
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and most important, he bore
a last name the party hoped
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would appeal to independent
voters who had planned
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to cast their ballots for
Theodore Roosevelt.
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Washington. July 17, 1920.
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Dearest babs, today I went
down to the station
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and met Governor Cox.
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A huge, cheering crowd, more enthusiastic
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than any Washington crowd
I have ever seen.
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Tomorrow we see the president at 10:30.
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I still hope to leave Saturday afternoon
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and be with you all at
Campobello Sunday evening.
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I can hardly wait.
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I miss you so, so much.
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Kiss the chicks.
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It is almost a month since I saw them.
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Your devoted "F".
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The two Democratic candidates went
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to the White House the next morning
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to get the ailing President's blessing.
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Tears filled Cox's eyes
when Wilson was wheeled
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onto the South Portico, a woolen shawl
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around his shoulders
despite the summer heat,
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his useless left arm dangling.
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In a voice that could barely be heard,
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he thanked them for coming.
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Cox vowed to continue to call
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for U.S. entry into the League of Nations.
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Wilson managed to say he was grateful
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before he was wheeled back inside.
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Franklin Roosevelt would
never forget the sight
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of the president he'd served for 7 years,
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defeated and helpless.
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On July 25, 1920,
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Franklin Roosevelt steered
the destroyer hatfield
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into Passamaquoddy Bay, went
ashore to join his family
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at Campobello for a few days' rest,
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and was blasted the next day
by a republican newspaper
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for using a "fighting ship belonging
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to the American people
for commuting purposes."
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From now on, everything
in the Roosevelts' lives
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would be subject to public scrutiny.
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A newsreel cameraman soon arrived
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to capture informal footage
of the democratic
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vice presidential nominee and his family.
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Franklin was a natural.
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Eleanor was not.
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She was still virtually
unknown to the public.
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When she claimed to have
no publishable photographs
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of herself, one Washington paper printed
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a picture of someone else.
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Another paper described her as
"essentially a home woman
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who seems especially to dislike
the official limelight"
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and went on to quote a
patronizing "friend" who said,
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"she is too much of a Roosevelt
to be anybody's prize beauty."
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The formal ceremony at which
Franklin was to accept
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the vice presidential nomination
was held a few weeks later,
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on the lawn at Springwood.
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5,000 people turned out
to hear him speak,
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tearing up his mother's lawn
and trouping through her house
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where, as Eleanor wrote,
"for so many years,
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only family and friends were received."
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Franklin spoke for nearly an hour.
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He bravely denied Americans
had tired of reform
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or had lost interest in the world
beyond their borders.
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To reject the League of Nations
would betray the cause
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of peace for which
Americans had gone to war
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and sacrificed so much, he said.
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The odds against victory were high,
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but Franklin hurled
himself into the campaign,
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traveling by train all across the country,
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sometimes delivering 13 speeches a day.
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"During three months in the
year 1920," he remembered,
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"I got to know the country
as only a candidate
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or a traveling salesman
can get to know it."
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Dear Franklin,
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00:12:12,623 --> 00:12:15,446
did you see that Alice
is to go on the stump
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for Harding, and that Auntie Corinne is
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00:12:18,889 --> 00:12:22,414
to speak for him in Portland, Maine?
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Theodore Roosevelt had always encouraged
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his young cousin's political career,
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even though Franklin was a Democrat.
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But in the years after
his death, resentment began
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00:12:34,978 --> 00:12:38,980
to surface among the republican
Oyster Bay Roosevelts.
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00:12:39,606 --> 00:12:40,982
Oyster Bay and the Hyde Park,
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00:12:40,984 --> 00:12:45,987
Hudson River Roosevelts were
very close in the early years.
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In fact, they kept trying
to marry one another.
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It was almost as though
Roosevelts thought
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no one else was quite good enough.
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As the years went by and as FDR
went into the Democratic Party
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and did very well,
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00:13:02,292 --> 00:13:04,328
the remainder of the family
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grew more and more and
more resentful of this...
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This... overly charming fella
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from the minor branch of the family
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00:13:15,921 --> 00:13:18,670
who seemed somehow to them magically
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to be succeeding where they were failing.
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00:13:22,930 --> 00:13:24,773
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. ...
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still hobbling from war wounds
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and now a New York
assemblyman... saw himself
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as his father's rightful
successor in national politics.
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He was sent by the
Republican National Committee
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00:13:37,221 --> 00:13:39,788
to dog Franklin's steps.
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00:13:40,171 --> 00:13:43,458
Franklin was "a Maverick,"
he told a Wyoming rally
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00:13:43,460 --> 00:13:45,961
of his father's old rough riders.
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"He does not have the
brand of our family."
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In late September, Franklin wired Eleanor
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to join him aboard his train.
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He may have missed her,
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00:13:57,269 --> 00:14:01,258
but 1920 also marked the
first national election
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00:14:01,288 --> 00:14:03,579
in which women had the ballot.
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00:14:04,081 --> 00:14:07,032
Democrats hoped they would
rally to the cause of the League
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00:14:07,062 --> 00:14:09,506
and international peace,
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00:14:09,536 --> 00:14:13,499
and seeing Franklin's wife
at his side could only help.
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00:14:14,203 --> 00:14:16,041
Dearest Mama,
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00:14:16,043 --> 00:14:20,912
this is the most killing thing
for a candidate I ever knew.
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00:14:21,432 --> 00:14:25,917
Franklin made two speeches
and drove 26 miles
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00:14:25,919 --> 00:14:30,355
over awful roads before
we ever got any breakfast.
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00:14:30,963 --> 00:14:33,859
There have been two
town speeches since then
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00:14:34,134 --> 00:14:36,653
and at least one platform speech
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00:14:36,683 --> 00:14:40,351
every 15 minutes all day.
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00:14:41,401 --> 00:14:45,055
And now he still has
to get to bowling green
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00:14:45,085 --> 00:14:47,085
for a speech in a hall.
254
00:14:47,087 --> 00:14:49,588
I will never be able to do without
255
00:14:49,590 --> 00:14:54,660
at least 4 large cups of coffee every day.
256
00:14:56,793 --> 00:14:58,834
Eleanor found life aboard the crowded,
257
00:14:58,889 --> 00:15:01,706
smoke-filled train claustrophobic.
258
00:15:02,547 --> 00:15:05,842
But she was also fascinated by
the different kinds of people
259
00:15:05,872 --> 00:15:09,875
she met... even grew to enjoy
the reporters on board...
260
00:15:09,877 --> 00:15:12,818
And found an unlikely new friend.
261
00:15:13,408 --> 00:15:15,881
She had initially disdained Louis Howe,
262
00:15:15,883 --> 00:15:19,384
her husband's closest
aide and chief strategist.
263
00:15:19,386 --> 00:15:22,053
She thought him coarse, crude, cynical,
264
00:15:22,055 --> 00:15:25,457
and insisted on calling him "Mr. Howe."
265
00:15:25,459 --> 00:15:29,283
But he understood her importance
to her husband's career,
266
00:15:29,313 --> 00:15:31,813
encouraged her interest in politics,
267
00:15:31,815 --> 00:15:34,316
consulted her about speeches.
268
00:15:34,525 --> 00:15:36,818
"I was flattered," she remembered.
269
00:15:36,820 --> 00:15:39,821
Before long, she was calling
him "Louis," and they were
270
00:15:39,823 --> 00:15:43,158
keeping one another company
during the endless card games
271
00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:46,995
that filled the candidate's
time between stops.
272
00:15:48,239 --> 00:15:50,137
Dearest mama,
273
00:15:50,367 --> 00:15:54,669
Franklin's head should be
turned if it ever is going to be,
274
00:15:54,671 --> 00:15:58,507
for there is much praise
and enthusiasm for him
275
00:15:58,509 --> 00:16:01,476
personally almost everywhere.
276
00:16:01,699 --> 00:16:06,460
And then we get asked if
he's Teddy frequently.
277
00:16:07,986 --> 00:16:10,185
It is becoming almost impossible
278
00:16:10,187 --> 00:16:12,993
to stop Franklin now
when he begins to speak.
279
00:16:13,023 --> 00:16:15,257
Ten minutes is always 20,
280
00:16:15,259 --> 00:16:17,426
30 is always 45,
281
00:16:17,428 --> 00:16:21,930
and the evening speeches
are now about two hours.
282
00:16:22,785 --> 00:16:26,156
The men all get out and
wave at him in front,
283
00:16:26,186 --> 00:16:30,689
and when nothing succeeds,
I yank his coattails.
284
00:16:31,302 --> 00:16:33,514
At Hyde Park on Election Day,
285
00:16:33,544 --> 00:16:37,212
Sara and Eleanor cast the
first votes of their lives
286
00:16:37,414 --> 00:16:38,914
for Franklin.
287
00:16:38,916 --> 00:16:41,049
They didn't count for much.
288
00:16:41,051 --> 00:16:43,552
Warren G. Harding and his running mate,
289
00:16:43,554 --> 00:16:45,737
Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge,
290
00:16:45,767 --> 00:16:47,739
won in a landslide.
291
00:16:48,194 --> 00:16:49,741
To add insult to injury,
292
00:16:49,743 --> 00:16:52,676
Harding appointed Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.
293
00:16:52,706 --> 00:16:54,913
Assistant Secretary of the Navy,
294
00:16:55,290 --> 00:16:59,117
the post both his father
and Franklin had held.
295
00:16:59,508 --> 00:17:02,120
One republican newspaper
expressed the hope
296
00:17:02,122 --> 00:17:04,912
that for this young Roosevelt,
the job would prove
297
00:17:04,942 --> 00:17:06,942
a springboard to the White House,
298
00:17:06,944 --> 00:17:09,611
even though, "for fifth-cousin Franklin,
299
00:17:09,613 --> 00:17:11,780
"it had proved a political scaffold
300
00:17:11,782 --> 00:17:15,884
from which he suddenly
dropped into oblivion."
301
00:17:16,947 --> 00:17:19,810
FDR tried to be philosophical.
302
00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:23,341
The race had been "a darned
fine sail," he told a friend.
303
00:17:23,533 --> 00:17:25,844
"Every war brings after it a period
304
00:17:25,846 --> 00:17:28,647
"of materialism and conservatism.
305
00:17:29,113 --> 00:17:31,149
"People tire quickly of ideals,
306
00:17:31,151 --> 00:17:33,652
and we are now repeating history."
307
00:17:34,169 --> 00:17:36,154
The American people wanted pause,
308
00:17:36,156 --> 00:17:38,957
they wanted surcease, they wanted rest.
309
00:17:38,959 --> 00:17:40,959
They'd been to war.
310
00:17:41,154 --> 00:17:43,295
They wanted jazz and Martinis
311
00:17:43,297 --> 00:17:47,632
and... literature and the twenties.
312
00:17:48,039 --> 00:17:50,942
Franklin handed out
commemorative gold cuff links
313
00:17:50,972 --> 00:17:54,866
to those who had been closest
to him during the campaign,
314
00:17:54,896 --> 00:17:56,842
including Louis Howe;
315
00:17:57,144 --> 00:17:59,778
his advance man, Stephen Early;
316
00:17:59,780 --> 00:18:02,814
his press spokesman, Marvin McIntyre;
317
00:18:02,816 --> 00:18:05,868
and his secretary, Marguerite Lehand,
318
00:18:05,898 --> 00:18:09,954
whom Roosevelt and everyone
else called "Missy."
319
00:18:09,956 --> 00:18:12,563
They were his "cuff-links gang," he said,
320
00:18:12,593 --> 00:18:16,216
and would remain at his side
for years as he tried to build
321
00:18:16,246 --> 00:18:19,681
upon the national reputation he had made.
322
00:18:19,969 --> 00:18:22,482
Until he could mount a serious campaign
323
00:18:22,512 --> 00:18:26,187
for the presidential nomination in 1924,
324
00:18:26,189 --> 00:18:28,690
he had to earn a living.
325
00:18:28,886 --> 00:18:32,093
He practiced law with old
friends and went to work
326
00:18:32,123 --> 00:18:34,868
as regional vice president of the fidelity
327
00:18:34,898 --> 00:18:37,632
and deposit company on Wall Street.
328
00:18:37,834 --> 00:18:41,708
He admitted it was
"mostly glad-hand stuff."
329
00:18:41,937 --> 00:18:44,906
And like many members
of his class, he plunged
330
00:18:44,908 --> 00:18:49,411
into the heedless financial
speculation of the 1920s...
331
00:18:49,607 --> 00:18:52,914
A fleet of dirigibles that
was supposed to ferry commuters
332
00:18:52,916 --> 00:18:55,417
between Chicago and New York;
333
00:18:55,607 --> 00:18:59,487
a plan to corner the
market in live lobsters;
334
00:18:59,489 --> 00:19:03,658
oil exploration that found
only worthless gas;
335
00:19:03,874 --> 00:19:08,396
slot machines that peddled
pre-moistened postage stamps...
336
00:19:08,599 --> 00:19:11,521
So many dubious schemes that the society
337
00:19:11,551 --> 00:19:13,810
for promoting financial knowledge wrote
338
00:19:13,840 --> 00:19:16,819
to protest his misuse of what it called
339
00:19:17,143 --> 00:19:19,673
a "distinguished and honored name."
340
00:19:21,552 --> 00:19:24,062
In my early married years,
341
00:19:24,064 --> 00:19:27,231
the pattern of my life had been largely
342
00:19:27,261 --> 00:19:29,368
my mother-in-law's pattern.
343
00:19:30,171 --> 00:19:32,731
Later, it was the children and Franklin
344
00:19:32,761 --> 00:19:37,090
who made the pattern, but I began to want
345
00:19:37,120 --> 00:19:41,474
to do things on my own,
to use my own mind
346
00:19:41,504 --> 00:19:45,235
and abilities for my own aims.
347
00:19:46,331 --> 00:19:48,119
3 weeks after election day,
348
00:19:48,149 --> 00:19:50,288
Eleanor lunched with her mother-in-law
349
00:19:50,290 --> 00:19:54,575
and Sara's two sisters, Dora
and Kassie, in Manhattan.
350
00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:56,962
It did not go well.
351
00:19:57,133 --> 00:20:01,132
"They all, in their serene
assurance and absolute judgment
352
00:20:01,134 --> 00:20:04,135
on people and affairs
make me want to squirm
353
00:20:04,137 --> 00:20:07,539
and turn Bolshevik," she told Franklin.
354
00:20:07,714 --> 00:20:10,041
The discovery in 1918
355
00:20:10,043 --> 00:20:11,915
that he had been unfaithful to her
356
00:20:11,945 --> 00:20:14,946
with her own Social Secretary,
Lucy Mercer,
357
00:20:14,948 --> 00:20:18,150
had nearly destroyed
Eleanor's self-confidence.
358
00:20:18,645 --> 00:20:20,919
In marrying Franklin Roosevelt,
she had hoped
359
00:20:20,921 --> 00:20:24,923
to find in him a confidant
and to find in his mother
360
00:20:24,925 --> 00:20:28,075
something like the loving
mother she had never had.
361
00:20:28,438 --> 00:20:30,445
She had found neither.
362
00:20:30,797 --> 00:20:34,214
Her husband was self-absorbed
and harbored secrets.
363
00:20:34,801 --> 00:20:37,969
Her mother-in-law's
first loyalty was always
364
00:20:37,971 --> 00:20:41,139
to her son and her grandchildren.
365
00:20:41,141 --> 00:20:43,413
Working for the Red Cross during the war
366
00:20:43,443 --> 00:20:45,110
had been her salvation.
367
00:20:45,260 --> 00:20:47,739
When peace came, Sara had urged her
368
00:20:47,741 --> 00:20:49,908
to give it up and return home.
369
00:20:49,910 --> 00:20:51,010
She refused.
370
00:20:51,511 --> 00:20:54,846
The war, she said, had made
a life of "nothing but teas
371
00:20:54,848 --> 00:20:57,849
and luncheons and dinners impossible."
372
00:20:57,851 --> 00:21:01,219
She had resolved to find "real work."
373
00:21:02,163 --> 00:21:03,872
Now, back in New York,
374
00:21:03,874 --> 00:21:06,374
she learned typing, shorthand,
375
00:21:06,376 --> 00:21:09,878
and joined the board of
a brand-new organization...
376
00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:12,557
The League of Women Voters.
377
00:21:13,459 --> 00:21:15,706
And she began to make new friends...
378
00:21:15,736 --> 00:21:17,484
Veterans of the suffrage movement,
379
00:21:17,514 --> 00:21:20,238
like the activist Esther Lape
and her partner,
380
00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:23,742
the lawyer Elizabeth Reid...
Who were not only committed
381
00:21:23,744 --> 00:21:27,445
to one another, but to a host of causes.
382
00:21:27,898 --> 00:21:29,614
And she finds her own life
383
00:21:29,616 --> 00:21:33,852
in politics with women she admires.
384
00:21:33,854 --> 00:21:37,188
These become her life-long friends
385
00:21:37,190 --> 00:21:40,525
who are her guides
386
00:21:40,527 --> 00:21:43,795
on the most progressive issues.
387
00:21:44,017 --> 00:21:46,631
"The rest of us were inclined
to do a good deal
388
00:21:46,633 --> 00:21:48,967
of theorizing," Lape remembered.
389
00:21:49,108 --> 00:21:52,993
"Eleanor would look puzzled
and ask why we didn't just do
390
00:21:53,023 --> 00:21:56,191
whatever we had in mind
and get it out of the way."
391
00:21:56,475 --> 00:21:59,800
Like her Uncle Theodore,
like her husband Franklin,
392
00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:03,481
Eleanor Roosevelt would
always crave action.
393
00:22:07,858 --> 00:22:10,501
Sara Delano Roosevelt
had been abroad during
394
00:22:10,531 --> 00:22:12,991
the summer of 1921.
395
00:22:12,993 --> 00:22:16,161
When she returned to
New York on August 31st,
396
00:22:16,163 --> 00:22:18,830
she expected to be met by Franklin.
397
00:22:19,056 --> 00:22:21,333
Instead, she was startled to see
398
00:22:21,335 --> 00:22:24,836
Franklin's half-brother
Rosy there at the dock.
399
00:22:24,838 --> 00:22:28,340
He handed her a letter
from her daughter-in-law.
400
00:22:29,244 --> 00:22:31,343
Dearest Mama,
401
00:22:31,529 --> 00:22:34,491
Franklin has been quite ill
402
00:22:34,521 --> 00:22:37,048
and so can't get down to meet you,
403
00:22:37,050 --> 00:22:40,251
to his great regret.
404
00:22:40,633 --> 00:22:45,636
We are all so happy to have
you home again, dear.
405
00:22:45,638 --> 00:22:48,887
We are having such lovely weather.
406
00:22:49,223 --> 00:22:52,861
The island is really at its loveliest.
407
00:22:54,392 --> 00:22:56,865
Franklin sends all his love,
408
00:22:56,867 --> 00:23:01,369
and we are both so sorry
we cannot meet you.
409
00:23:02,096 --> 00:23:04,873
Ever devotedly, Eleanor.
410
00:23:05,549 --> 00:23:07,542
Sara hurried north to Campobello
411
00:23:07,544 --> 00:23:10,545
as fast as she could go.
412
00:23:13,795 --> 00:23:18,520
The trouble had begun
there 21 days earlier.
413
00:23:19,235 --> 00:23:22,957
Wednesday afternoon, August 10, 1921
414
00:23:23,059 --> 00:23:25,232
had been filled with the kind of activity
415
00:23:25,262 --> 00:23:27,990
for which the Roosevelts were famous.
416
00:23:28,876 --> 00:23:33,351
Franklin took Eleanor, James,
and Elliott for a long sail,
417
00:23:33,353 --> 00:23:36,854
spotted a forest fire on
one of the rocky islands,
418
00:23:36,856 --> 00:23:40,054
and led everyone ashore to put it out.
419
00:23:41,261 --> 00:23:44,362
Then he sailed home again,
took everyone swimming
420
00:23:44,364 --> 00:23:47,732
at the family's favorite
pond two miles away,
421
00:23:47,734 --> 00:23:52,237
and insisted on racing his
sons back to their cottage.
422
00:23:52,532 --> 00:23:54,739
When he got back, he felt funny.
423
00:23:54,891 --> 00:23:57,301
His legs felt funny and he felt feverish.
424
00:23:57,499 --> 00:24:00,495
And he looked at his mail
for a while on the porch,
425
00:24:00,497 --> 00:24:02,346
and then he finally said, "I feel so funny
426
00:24:02,376 --> 00:24:05,257
that I'm going to go to bed,"
and he went upstairs to go to bed,
427
00:24:05,513 --> 00:24:08,683
and he never walked without help again.
428
00:24:10,244 --> 00:24:11,256
The next morning,
429
00:24:11,258 --> 00:24:15,260
when I swung out of bed,
my left leg lagged.
430
00:24:15,500 --> 00:24:18,096
I tried to persuade myself
that the trouble with my leg
431
00:24:18,098 --> 00:24:22,103
was muscular, that it would
disappear as I used it.
432
00:24:23,980 --> 00:24:28,106
But presently, it refused
to work, and then the other.
433
00:24:30,413 --> 00:24:33,111
By the end of the third day,
practically all muscles
434
00:24:33,113 --> 00:24:36,195
from the chest down were involved.
435
00:24:43,205 --> 00:24:45,056
It produces terror,
436
00:24:45,058 --> 00:24:47,392
unreasoning terror.
437
00:24:47,394 --> 00:24:51,229
You just can't believe...
438
00:24:51,231 --> 00:24:55,066
That the legs that you
depended on simply don't work.
439
00:24:55,068 --> 00:25:00,071
And I don't know how to
convey to people the sense...
440
00:25:00,996 --> 00:25:05,349
That suddenly he could not go
to the bathroom, he couldn't go
441
00:25:05,429 --> 00:25:09,386
for the telephone, he couldn't
do anything on his own.
442
00:25:09,416 --> 00:25:13,752
And the limbs that... you know,
he was a great dancer,
443
00:25:14,142 --> 00:25:18,228
he was a great golfer, he loved to run.
444
00:25:18,664 --> 00:25:21,259
None of that would ever happen again.
445
00:25:21,261 --> 00:25:23,428
He dreamed about it all his life,
446
00:25:23,430 --> 00:25:25,443
but he never could do it.
447
00:25:26,461 --> 00:25:29,601
Louis Howe rushed to the island
and bedded down
448
00:25:29,603 --> 00:25:33,026
on a cot just outside his boss' sickroom.
449
00:25:33,056 --> 00:25:35,557
He would never again leave Franklin's side
450
00:25:35,559 --> 00:25:40,061
for more than a few days,
largely ignoring his own family;
451
00:25:40,293 --> 00:25:43,565
the first of many people
who, over the coming years,
452
00:25:43,567 --> 00:25:46,401
would sacrifice their
own lives in the interests
453
00:25:46,403 --> 00:25:49,910
of one or the other of the Roosevelts.
454
00:25:50,701 --> 00:25:54,609
At first, no one, including
baffled local doctors,
455
00:25:54,611 --> 00:25:57,278
knew what was wrong with Franklin.
456
00:25:57,530 --> 00:26:01,299
He shook with fever and
suffered severe pain.
457
00:26:01,301 --> 00:26:03,968
His thumbs refused to work for a time,
458
00:26:03,970 --> 00:26:07,505
and he could not so much
as sign his name.
459
00:26:07,507 --> 00:26:10,380
Eleanor did all she could to nurse him,
460
00:26:10,410 --> 00:26:14,412
administering a catheter
when his bladder failed.
461
00:26:14,671 --> 00:26:18,416
She and Howe took turns
massaging his limbs, too,
462
00:26:18,641 --> 00:26:21,701
despite the severe pain it caused.
463
00:26:22,715 --> 00:26:26,257
Dear Mrs. Roosevelt,
you have been a rare wife
464
00:26:26,259 --> 00:26:30,233
and have borne your
heavy burden most bravely.
465
00:26:31,045 --> 00:26:32,874
You will surely break down
466
00:26:32,904 --> 00:26:36,267
if you do not have immediate relief.
467
00:26:36,572 --> 00:26:39,270
Dr. William Keen.
468
00:26:41,383 --> 00:26:45,076
A nurse was hired
to help ease Eleanor's burdens.
469
00:26:45,106 --> 00:26:49,581
Local physicians continued
to be mystified.
470
00:26:50,006 --> 00:26:52,584
Franklin's fever rose still higher.
471
00:26:52,586 --> 00:26:55,086
He became delirious, cried out,
472
00:26:55,272 --> 00:26:58,089
momentarily lost his religious faith,
473
00:26:58,091 --> 00:27:02,260
could not understand why God,
who had favored him for so long,
474
00:27:02,562 --> 00:27:05,145
now seemed to have turned away.
475
00:27:05,858 --> 00:27:08,957
It's agonizing at first,
absolutely agonizing,
476
00:27:08,987 --> 00:27:11,986
and you're coming in and out
of fevers and you can't...
477
00:27:11,988 --> 00:27:14,656
You don't know where you are
and you don't know what's wrong.
478
00:27:14,658 --> 00:27:18,159
No one told him. They
didn't know what was wrong.
479
00:27:18,161 --> 00:27:21,663
So, for days and days, he lay there
480
00:27:22,087 --> 00:27:24,766
terrified, absolutely terrified.
481
00:27:26,481 --> 00:27:29,771
But it was compounded
in his case by the fact
482
00:27:29,991 --> 00:27:31,974
that everything he had been taught,
483
00:27:33,137 --> 00:27:34,080
um...
484
00:27:34,110 --> 00:27:36,778
persuaded him that he
must not tell other people
485
00:27:36,780 --> 00:27:39,280
how terrified he felt,
486
00:27:39,568 --> 00:27:42,283
so all of it was turned inward,
487
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:45,787
and so there's a lot of talk...
It's perfectly understandable...
488
00:27:45,789 --> 00:27:48,623
About how gallant he was
and how cheerful he was.
489
00:27:48,625 --> 00:27:51,292
And people would say
things, strange things
490
00:27:51,294 --> 00:27:54,796
like "polio never bothered him."
491
00:27:55,198 --> 00:27:58,372
Mrs. Roosevelt said he never spoke of it.
492
00:27:59,956 --> 00:28:01,324
It's absurd.
493
00:28:01,704 --> 00:28:04,205
It was on his mind every day,
494
00:28:04,602 --> 00:28:06,312
almost every hour.
495
00:28:06,676 --> 00:28:09,766
A specialist from Boston was sent for.
496
00:28:09,996 --> 00:28:13,069
He finally made the right diagnosis:
497
00:28:13,499 --> 00:28:17,488
It was infantile paralysis... polio...
498
00:28:18,591 --> 00:28:22,147
A mysterious virus that attacked
the central nervous system,
499
00:28:22,335 --> 00:28:24,832
randomly destroying muscles.
500
00:28:25,071 --> 00:28:27,499
It was an annual scourge.
501
00:28:27,704 --> 00:28:30,382
Little understood, greatly feared,
502
00:28:30,412 --> 00:28:33,562
polio killed or crippled
tens of thousands
503
00:28:33,592 --> 00:28:37,522
of people every summer,
most of them children.
504
00:28:37,747 --> 00:28:41,132
He was 39 years old.
505
00:28:41,425 --> 00:28:44,929
No one could predict how badly
affected Franklin would be
506
00:28:45,104 --> 00:28:47,354
or what his future held,
507
00:28:47,384 --> 00:28:49,884
but he now knew what
had happened to him.
508
00:28:50,168 --> 00:28:51,886
His fever subsided.
509
00:28:51,888 --> 00:28:53,941
His mood changed.
510
00:28:55,097 --> 00:28:58,059
When Sara finally reached
her son's bedside,
511
00:28:58,267 --> 00:29:01,498
he was already back in command of himself.
512
00:29:02,408 --> 00:29:06,067
He and Eleanor at once
decided to be cheerful
513
00:29:06,474 --> 00:29:10,572
and the atmosphere of the
house is all happiness,
514
00:29:10,803 --> 00:29:13,910
so I have fallen in
515
00:29:14,203 --> 00:29:17,712
and follow their glorious example.
516
00:29:19,048 --> 00:29:22,550
Below his waist, he cannot move at all.
517
00:29:22,974 --> 00:29:26,803
His legs that I have always been proud of
518
00:29:27,279 --> 00:29:29,657
have to be moved often,
519
00:29:29,659 --> 00:29:33,352
as they ache when long in one position.
520
00:29:41,441 --> 00:29:45,812
New York City. September 16, 1921.
521
00:29:46,123 --> 00:29:49,344
Franklin D. Roosevelt,
former Assistant Secretary
522
00:29:49,346 --> 00:29:52,369
of the Navy and Democratic
candidate for Vice President
523
00:29:52,399 --> 00:29:55,400
in the last election,
was brought to this city
524
00:29:55,402 --> 00:29:58,275
aboard a special car
from Campobello Island,
525
00:29:58,305 --> 00:30:00,838
suffering from poliomyelitis
526
00:30:01,092 --> 00:30:03,841
and taken to Presbyterian Hospital.
527
00:30:04,032 --> 00:30:06,844
"I cannot say how long
Mr. Roosevelt will be kept
528
00:30:06,846 --> 00:30:09,647
in the hospital," said Dr. George Draper,
529
00:30:09,649 --> 00:30:14,152
"but you can definitely say
that he will not be crippled.
530
00:30:14,406 --> 00:30:17,227
No one need have any
fear of permanent injury
531
00:30:17,257 --> 00:30:18,756
from this attack."
532
00:30:18,984 --> 00:30:20,932
The "New York Times."
533
00:30:22,823 --> 00:30:24,696
From the first, Louis Howe
534
00:30:24,698 --> 00:30:28,699
and Roosevelt's doctors sought
to minimize the seriousness
535
00:30:28,701 --> 00:30:33,204
of his paralysis in order to
keep his political hopes alive
536
00:30:33,206 --> 00:30:35,206
and also out of concern
537
00:30:35,208 --> 00:30:39,110
for Franklin's own
psychological well-being.
538
00:30:39,835 --> 00:30:42,964
He has such courage, such ambition,
539
00:30:42,966 --> 00:30:45,967
and yet, at the same time, such
an extraordinarily sensitive
540
00:30:45,969 --> 00:30:49,637
emotional mechanism that
it will take all the skill
541
00:30:49,639 --> 00:30:53,641
we can muster to lead him
successfully to a recognition
542
00:30:53,643 --> 00:30:56,144
of what he really faces
543
00:30:56,674 --> 00:30:58,646
without crushing him.
544
00:30:58,648 --> 00:31:01,315
Dr. George Draper.
545
00:31:01,802 --> 00:31:03,084
It was 5 weeks
546
00:31:03,114 --> 00:31:07,960
before his doctors
dared try to sit him up.
547
00:31:08,455 --> 00:31:11,298
When they finally allowed
him to be carried the 7 blocks
548
00:31:11,328 --> 00:31:15,330
to his home under cover of
darkness in late October,
549
00:31:15,629 --> 00:31:18,805
his chart still read "not improving."
550
00:31:19,834 --> 00:31:22,337
He was put to bed on the third floor.
551
00:31:22,687 --> 00:31:25,712
His fever returned, his vision blurred,
552
00:31:25,742 --> 00:31:28,743
and he feared for a time
that he might go blind.
553
00:31:29,208 --> 00:31:32,747
He began daily exercises
to stretch his muscles
554
00:31:32,935 --> 00:31:35,583
and evidently overdid it.
555
00:31:35,901 --> 00:31:37,585
His hamstrings tightened,
556
00:31:37,587 --> 00:31:40,588
drawing his knees up toward his chest.
557
00:31:40,955 --> 00:31:42,662
To straighten his legs again,
558
00:31:42,692 --> 00:31:45,693
they had to be encased in plaster.
559
00:31:45,695 --> 00:31:50,198
Each day, wedges were
hammered in behind his knees.
560
00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:52,200
It was agony.
561
00:31:52,202 --> 00:31:54,808
The tendency is for
atrophied muscle to shrivel.
562
00:31:54,838 --> 00:31:56,838
You have to keep it stretched;
563
00:31:57,140 --> 00:32:00,814
that the exercises that
he was made to undergo
564
00:32:00,844 --> 00:32:03,644
were terribly painful, that you were...
565
00:32:03,646 --> 00:32:07,648
All your muscles are stretched
over and over and over again
566
00:32:07,650 --> 00:32:09,984
and you don't seem to be
making any progress.
567
00:32:09,986 --> 00:32:12,653
And, in fact, he was not
making any progress.
568
00:32:13,642 --> 00:32:15,656
"Mother, how does he stand the pain?"
569
00:32:15,658 --> 00:32:18,159
Franklin, Jr. Asked.
570
00:32:18,161 --> 00:32:21,162
"He does," was all his mother could say.
571
00:32:21,164 --> 00:32:23,431
"He does."
572
00:32:23,948 --> 00:32:26,345
His family suffered, too.
573
00:32:26,375 --> 00:32:28,308
James was away at Groton,
574
00:32:28,338 --> 00:32:32,340
but four children still lived at home,
all of them frightened
575
00:32:32,342 --> 00:32:34,842
by what had happened to their father.
576
00:32:35,344 --> 00:32:38,768
Louis Howe took over
16-year-old Anna's room,
577
00:32:38,798 --> 00:32:41,120
and she angrily resented it.
578
00:32:41,150 --> 00:32:43,017
Eleanor lost her own bed
579
00:32:43,047 --> 00:32:45,353
to Franklin's round-the-clock nurse
580
00:32:45,355 --> 00:32:48,456
and had to snatch sleep on a cot.
581
00:32:49,679 --> 00:32:51,960
That winter, Eleanor remembered,
582
00:32:51,962 --> 00:32:54,962
was "the most trying of my life."
583
00:32:55,211 --> 00:32:58,466
One evening, while reading
to her youngest boys,
584
00:32:58,468 --> 00:33:01,469
she began to weep and could not stop.
585
00:33:01,815 --> 00:33:03,971
It was, she said, "the only time
586
00:33:03,973 --> 00:33:06,975
I ever remember in my entire life
587
00:33:06,977 --> 00:33:11,012
going to pieces in
this particular manner."
588
00:33:12,514 --> 00:33:16,368
For Franklin's mother,
all the exhausting exercises,
589
00:33:16,398 --> 00:33:19,687
all the visits from friends
and business associates,
590
00:33:19,689 --> 00:33:22,690
politicians and well-wishers,
all the tensions
591
00:33:22,692 --> 00:33:26,794
in the crowded household,
were bad for her boy.
592
00:33:27,246 --> 00:33:29,547
As soon as it could be
arranged, she believed,
593
00:33:29,577 --> 00:33:32,550
he should return to the quiet of Hyde Park
594
00:33:32,552 --> 00:33:36,887
where she could care for him,
at least for a time, just as she
595
00:33:36,889 --> 00:33:40,691
and Franklin had once cared
for his ailing father.
596
00:33:41,372 --> 00:33:43,424
My mother-in-law thought
597
00:33:43,454 --> 00:33:47,198
we were tiring my husband
and that he should be kept
598
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:51,074
completely quiet, which
made our discussions
599
00:33:51,104 --> 00:33:53,104
somewhat acrimonious.
600
00:33:53,106 --> 00:33:57,477
She always thought she
understood what was best,
601
00:33:57,507 --> 00:34:01,279
particularly where her
child was concerned,
602
00:34:01,281 --> 00:34:05,783
regardless of what any doctor might say.
603
00:34:07,404 --> 00:34:10,021
Franklin found himself again trapped
604
00:34:10,051 --> 00:34:13,691
between the two most
important women in his life:
605
00:34:13,693 --> 00:34:16,194
his wife, urging him to greater effort;
606
00:34:16,196 --> 00:34:19,597
his mother, urging him to rest and relax.
607
00:34:20,231 --> 00:34:22,266
His doctors eventually insisted
608
00:34:22,268 --> 00:34:25,269
that he had to get away
from what one of them called
609
00:34:25,271 --> 00:34:29,696
"the intense and devastating
influence of the interplay
610
00:34:29,726 --> 00:34:33,394
of these high-voltage personalities."
611
00:34:33,773 --> 00:34:36,064
I think, for anyone who's had polio,
612
00:34:36,066 --> 00:34:41,069
it's very hard not to be angry
at able-bodied people
613
00:34:41,071 --> 00:34:44,906
who urge you to be cheerful
and do your exercises.
614
00:34:45,102 --> 00:34:48,409
And I think, in FDR's case,
it was particularly hard.
615
00:34:48,411 --> 00:34:50,884
Mrs. Roosevelt...
616
00:34:51,662 --> 00:34:53,915
Had very firm views about things
617
00:34:53,917 --> 00:34:57,090
like schedules and so on,
and so, if he hadn't done
618
00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:00,121
his exercises by 11:00 in the morning,
619
00:35:00,123 --> 00:35:02,695
she would tell him that
he should be doing them,
620
00:35:02,725 --> 00:35:05,198
and he bitterly resented it.
621
00:35:06,621 --> 00:35:08,596
In Hyde Park, without his wife
622
00:35:08,598 --> 00:35:12,600
and children present,
the constant stress eased,
623
00:35:13,055 --> 00:35:15,937
but the routine set by
hisolicitous mother
624
00:35:15,939 --> 00:35:19,974
was as rigid as it had been
when he was a little boy:
625
00:35:20,438 --> 00:35:22,843
Breakfast on a bed-tray,
626
00:35:22,845 --> 00:35:25,780
up and dressed by 10:00,
627
00:35:25,782 --> 00:35:28,244
lunch with his mother at 1:00,
628
00:35:29,323 --> 00:35:31,099
followed by a nap,
629
00:35:32,188 --> 00:35:33,697
tea at 4:00,
630
00:35:35,041 --> 00:35:36,733
dinner at 7:00,
631
00:35:37,671 --> 00:35:40,120
put to bed by 11:00,
632
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:44,138
with physical therapy
and sedentary hobbies
633
00:35:44,168 --> 00:35:47,232
like building toy boats
and stamp-collecting
634
00:35:47,262 --> 00:35:49,950
to fill the long hours in between.
635
00:35:55,694 --> 00:35:58,902
One day that spring,
Sara made a telephone call
636
00:35:58,932 --> 00:36:01,966
to wilderstein, the home
of the Suckley family,
637
00:36:02,046 --> 00:36:04,185
distant cousins of the Roosevelts,
638
00:36:04,187 --> 00:36:07,127
just up the Hudson in Rhinebeck.
639
00:36:07,443 --> 00:36:10,280
She asked to speak to
Margaret, known to friends
640
00:36:10,310 --> 00:36:12,204
and family as "Daisy."
641
00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:16,214
Her son was lonely, she said,
and needed company.
642
00:36:16,673 --> 00:36:19,217
Would Miss Suckley come to tea?
643
00:36:19,467 --> 00:36:20,663
She would.
644
00:36:22,721 --> 00:36:25,723
Ten years younger than
Franklin and unmarried,
645
00:36:25,725 --> 00:36:28,726
she had been dazzled by him
ever since she'd seen him
646
00:36:28,728 --> 00:36:31,729
at a party, laughing as
he whirled one partner
647
00:36:31,731 --> 00:36:35,233
after another around the dance floor.
648
00:36:35,436 --> 00:36:38,269
Now she found him immobilized.
649
00:36:39,438 --> 00:36:42,440
Daisy felt privileged to sit
with him several times
650
00:36:42,442 --> 00:36:45,610
that spring and summer
on the Springwood lawn
651
00:36:45,612 --> 00:36:49,191
as he pulled himself around
a set of exercise bars,
652
00:36:49,221 --> 00:36:51,782
telling extravagant stories about himself
653
00:36:51,784 --> 00:36:55,086
to keep her entertained
and as unaware as possible
654
00:36:55,088 --> 00:36:57,088
of his helplessness.
655
00:36:57,742 --> 00:37:00,925
"I'm not going to be conquered
by a childish disease,"
656
00:37:00,927 --> 00:37:03,261
he told her again and again.
657
00:37:03,794 --> 00:37:07,265
"My God, he was brave," she remembered.
658
00:37:09,268 --> 00:37:12,142
On June 1, 1922,
659
00:37:12,172 --> 00:37:16,174
Roosevelt's doctors charted
44 of his muscles in red,
660
00:37:16,587 --> 00:37:20,178
ranking them from "normal"
to "totally paralyzed."
661
00:37:20,530 --> 00:37:23,531
Not a single muscle below his ribcage
662
00:37:23,533 --> 00:37:26,033
was better than "fair."
663
00:37:28,003 --> 00:37:31,505
He'd been fitted out with steel braces.
664
00:37:31,930 --> 00:37:34,308
They weighed 14 pounds
665
00:37:34,338 --> 00:37:38,813
and ran from above his waist
all the way to his heels.
666
00:37:38,815 --> 00:37:41,315
Once the catches at his knees were locked
667
00:37:41,562 --> 00:37:43,584
to keep his legs from buckling,
668
00:37:43,586 --> 00:37:46,254
it took two people to haul him to his feet
669
00:37:46,256 --> 00:37:50,324
and a third to slide
crutches under his arms.
670
00:37:51,660 --> 00:37:55,162
Braces allowed him to stand; Not to walk,
671
00:37:55,164 --> 00:37:57,932
but to stand, at least to be upright.
672
00:37:58,528 --> 00:38:00,935
But if you wear them
for any amount of time,
673
00:38:00,937 --> 00:38:04,105
they begin to hurt, and
if you stand for an hour
674
00:38:04,107 --> 00:38:07,642
to give a speech, you are
in pain during that speech.
675
00:38:08,636 --> 00:38:11,646
At first, he simply
hung from his crutches,
676
00:38:11,928 --> 00:38:15,121
then managed to drag
his legs across a room,
677
00:38:15,340 --> 00:38:19,153
finally began to try to make
his painful way alone
678
00:38:19,155 --> 00:38:21,822
down the drive that led from Springwood
679
00:38:21,824 --> 00:38:24,325
to the Albany Post Road.
680
00:38:25,961 --> 00:38:28,802
He made it only once.
681
00:38:29,454 --> 00:38:32,333
Coming back even as far as he did
682
00:38:32,335 --> 00:38:34,435
required enormous effort,
683
00:38:34,437 --> 00:38:36,938
hours and hours of exercise,
684
00:38:36,940 --> 00:38:41,442
all of it aimed at somehow magically
685
00:38:41,444 --> 00:38:44,111
making his muscles work again.
686
00:38:44,113 --> 00:38:46,278
They never worked again.
687
00:38:46,308 --> 00:38:50,217
So what he did was master
a series of techniques
688
00:38:50,865 --> 00:38:53,221
for getting around a little bit.
689
00:38:53,629 --> 00:38:56,146
The first one was to be on crutches,
690
00:38:56,176 --> 00:38:59,677
and he was able to swing
his body through.
691
00:39:00,101 --> 00:39:04,181
It's an extremely dangerous way to move.
692
00:39:04,493 --> 00:39:07,006
His legs are in rigid braces
693
00:39:07,036 --> 00:39:10,037
so that he's sort of like a tower,
694
00:39:10,039 --> 00:39:13,763
and you have to swing the
bottom of the tower through,
695
00:39:13,793 --> 00:39:16,294
through those crutches with each step.
696
00:39:16,296 --> 00:39:18,796
You can't really go up and down steps,
697
00:39:18,798 --> 00:39:21,465
and you can't go very far
before you get exhausted.
698
00:39:24,532 --> 00:39:26,687
It's a bit traumatic when you're 16
699
00:39:26,689 --> 00:39:29,190
to see your father, whom you've regarded
700
00:39:29,192 --> 00:39:31,192
as a wonderful playmate,
701
00:39:31,194 --> 00:39:35,196
who took long walks with
you, could out-jump you,
702
00:39:35,491 --> 00:39:37,698
walking on crutches,
703
00:39:37,700 --> 00:39:41,202
struggling in heavy, steel braces.
704
00:39:41,204 --> 00:39:44,272
And you see the sweat
pouring down his face
705
00:39:44,710 --> 00:39:47,608
and you hear him saying, "I must get down
706
00:39:47,610 --> 00:39:52,613
the driveway today, all the way
down the driveway."
707
00:39:52,822 --> 00:39:55,116
Anna Roosevelt.
708
00:40:04,429 --> 00:40:05,876
One day that June,
709
00:40:05,878 --> 00:40:09,046
Eleanor received a phone
call from a stranger,
710
00:40:09,048 --> 00:40:12,216
a lively-sounding woman
named Nancy Cook,
711
00:40:12,218 --> 00:40:14,552
who said she was the Executive Secretary
712
00:40:14,554 --> 00:40:18,756
of the new women's division
of the State Democratic Party.
713
00:40:19,324 --> 00:40:21,258
Would Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt
714
00:40:21,260 --> 00:40:24,629
be willing to speak at
a fund-raising luncheon?
715
00:40:25,087 --> 00:40:29,133
Eleanor hesitated... she
dreaded speaking in public...
716
00:40:29,135 --> 00:40:32,803
But Louis Howe and her
husband insisted she do it.
717
00:40:32,805 --> 00:40:35,306
It would help her to resume
the independent life
718
00:40:35,308 --> 00:40:37,030
that meant so much to her,
719
00:40:37,060 --> 00:40:40,695
and it would keep the Roosevelt
name before the public,
720
00:40:40,697 --> 00:40:44,754
something Howe and his boss
were always eager to do.
721
00:40:46,627 --> 00:40:48,352
The luncheon speech went well,
722
00:40:48,354 --> 00:40:51,189
and she got to know Nancy Cook
and Cook's partner,
723
00:40:51,191 --> 00:40:54,461
Marion Dickerman, a reformer and educator
724
00:40:54,491 --> 00:40:57,695
who in 1919 had been the first woman ever
725
00:40:57,697 --> 00:41:00,364
to run for the New York State legislature.
726
00:41:00,616 --> 00:41:02,443
For some 15 years,
727
00:41:02,473 --> 00:41:05,986
they would be among
Eleanor's closest friends.
728
00:41:06,137 --> 00:41:09,106
To some on the Oyster Bay
side of the family,
729
00:41:09,108 --> 00:41:12,610
her new friends were
"female impersonators,"
730
00:41:12,612 --> 00:41:15,780
but Franklin saw how important
they were to his wife
731
00:41:15,782 --> 00:41:18,282
and to the work he and Eleanor hoped
732
00:41:18,284 --> 00:41:21,652
would keep his political hopes alive.
733
00:41:21,986 --> 00:41:25,156
The women, in turn, admired his courage
734
00:41:25,158 --> 00:41:27,792
and appreciated his counsel.
735
00:41:27,794 --> 00:41:30,861
He called them part of "our gang."
736
00:41:31,282 --> 00:41:34,198
Eleanor began organizing
the Democratic women
737
00:41:34,200 --> 00:41:37,701
of Dutchess County, and with
coaching from Louis Howe,
738
00:41:37,703 --> 00:41:40,486
overcame a nervous tendency to giggle
739
00:41:40,516 --> 00:41:42,845
while speaking to an audience.
740
00:41:43,054 --> 00:41:45,165
"Have something to say," Howe told her,
741
00:41:45,195 --> 00:41:47,195
"say it, and sit down."
742
00:41:47,497 --> 00:41:50,998
Louis Howe was as important
to Eleanor Roosevelt
743
00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:53,167
as he had been to Franklin Roosevelt.
744
00:41:53,169 --> 00:41:56,504
He realized early on
that if Franklin was going
745
00:41:56,506 --> 00:41:59,173
to be President, she had
to have a role to play
746
00:41:59,175 --> 00:42:02,843
beyond the standard one of
being a mother and a wife.
747
00:42:02,845 --> 00:42:07,348
And he's the one who told
her how to speak in public,
748
00:42:07,690 --> 00:42:11,263
that she should not fear
expressing her opinions,
749
00:42:11,293 --> 00:42:15,055
and much later told her
he would like to make her
750
00:42:15,057 --> 00:42:17,291
President of the United States.
751
00:42:17,557 --> 00:42:20,795
She got her first real taste
of raw politics
752
00:42:20,797 --> 00:42:23,430
on Election Day in 1922.
753
00:42:23,721 --> 00:42:26,267
Some of the Democrats
she drove to the polls
754
00:42:26,269 --> 00:42:29,270
in Poughkeepsie, just down
the road from Hyde Park,
755
00:42:29,272 --> 00:42:31,605
had been paid for their votes.
756
00:42:31,607 --> 00:42:36,310
She was appalled by the bribery,
but delighted by the outcome:
757
00:42:36,312 --> 00:42:39,480
Al Smith, Franklin's old political ally
758
00:42:39,482 --> 00:42:41,982
and sometime critic, easily beat
759
00:42:41,984 --> 00:42:44,952
his republican opponent for governor.
760
00:42:45,401 --> 00:42:47,455
Over the coming months, she would join
761
00:42:47,457 --> 00:42:49,623
the women's city club of New York
762
00:42:49,625 --> 00:42:51,792
and the women's Trade Union League,
763
00:42:51,794 --> 00:42:53,961
making even more new friends
764
00:42:53,963 --> 00:42:57,465
and taking on new causes
and responsibilities
765
00:42:57,467 --> 00:42:59,467
everywhere she went.
766
00:42:59,469 --> 00:43:01,969
I was thinking things out
767
00:43:01,971 --> 00:43:04,944
and becoming an individual.
768
00:43:04,974 --> 00:43:06,974
Had I never done this,
769
00:43:06,976 --> 00:43:11,312
perhaps I might have been saved
some difficult experiences,
770
00:43:11,314 --> 00:43:16,350
but I have never regretted
even my mistakes.
771
00:43:16,928 --> 00:43:20,855
They all added to my understanding
772
00:43:20,857 --> 00:43:23,357
of other human beings.
773
00:43:35,437 --> 00:43:38,439
A little over a year
after he was stricken,
774
00:43:38,441 --> 00:43:41,442
FDR decided to try to go back to work
775
00:43:41,444 --> 00:43:43,944
at the fidelity and deposit
insurance company
776
00:43:43,946 --> 00:43:46,180
in Downtown New York.
777
00:43:46,804 --> 00:43:49,683
On October 9, 1922,
778
00:43:49,685 --> 00:43:51,882
the Roosevelt family buick pulled up
779
00:43:51,912 --> 00:43:54,538
in front of 120 Broadway.
780
00:43:54,568 --> 00:43:57,441
The chauffeur opened the back door.
781
00:43:57,443 --> 00:43:59,610
Franklin extended his legs
782
00:43:59,612 --> 00:44:02,613
and locked his braces in place.
783
00:44:02,815 --> 00:44:04,083
A large crowd gathered
784
00:44:04,113 --> 00:44:06,216
to watch this big guy get out of a car.
785
00:44:06,218 --> 00:44:07,718
They didn't know who he was.
786
00:44:07,720 --> 00:44:12,223
And he then got on his crutches,
which he was very new to,
787
00:44:12,225 --> 00:44:16,694
and very slowly began pulling
himself into the lobby.
788
00:44:17,546 --> 00:44:19,697
He got into the lobby.
789
00:44:20,105 --> 00:44:24,034
His chauffeur was expected
to put a foot in front
790
00:44:24,036 --> 00:44:28,038
of one of the crutches
so that he wouldn't slip.
791
00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:31,041
Somehow, that didn't happen.
792
00:44:31,043 --> 00:44:35,045
The crutch went out from
under him and he fell.
793
00:44:36,148 --> 00:44:39,884
He had to pick his legs up
to get them in front of him
794
00:44:39,886 --> 00:44:42,743
and asked for people to help him up.
795
00:44:43,189 --> 00:44:46,023
He kept smiling and laughing
the whole time as though
796
00:44:46,025 --> 00:44:48,397
this was the funniest thing
that had ever happened,
797
00:44:48,427 --> 00:44:50,928
that it happened all the time,
that it was a joke,
798
00:44:50,930 --> 00:44:52,930
no one needed to worry.
799
00:44:52,932 --> 00:44:56,434
People finally did help him up.
He got on the elevator.
800
00:44:56,436 --> 00:44:59,937
He went up to a welcome
back lunch organized
801
00:44:59,939 --> 00:45:02,106
by his secretary, Missy Lehand,
802
00:45:02,108 --> 00:45:05,109
and he didn't return for months.
803
00:45:08,986 --> 00:45:12,116
Florida. March 5, 1923.
804
00:45:12,118 --> 00:45:15,119
Dearest Mama, the west coast of Florida
805
00:45:15,121 --> 00:45:17,755
is wholly wild and tropical.
806
00:45:17,757 --> 00:45:21,425
I have been in swimming, and
it goes better and better.
807
00:45:21,427 --> 00:45:25,496
I'm sure this warmth and
exercise is doing lots of good.
808
00:45:25,744 --> 00:45:28,999
I am sunburned and in fine shape.
809
00:45:29,191 --> 00:45:30,422
Franklin.
810
00:45:31,504 --> 00:45:34,338
In February of 1923,
811
00:45:34,340 --> 00:45:38,008
Franklin and Eleanor;
Franklin's valet, Leroy Jones;
812
00:45:38,010 --> 00:45:41,512
and his Secretary, Missy
Lehand, all traveled south
813
00:45:41,514 --> 00:45:45,015
to the Florida Keys, where
he had rented a houseboat,
814
00:45:45,017 --> 00:45:47,518
hoping that several weeks in the sun
815
00:45:47,520 --> 00:45:50,221
might help rebuild his legs.
816
00:45:50,623 --> 00:45:53,724
Eleanor did not stay aboard for long.
817
00:45:53,904 --> 00:45:55,798
She found the days boring
818
00:45:55,828 --> 00:45:59,330
and the nights "eerie and menacing."
819
00:45:59,332 --> 00:46:01,999
It's nice to think that
Franklin and Eleanor
820
00:46:02,001 --> 00:46:05,424
were brought together
again by polio somehow.
821
00:46:05,454 --> 00:46:06,873
They were not.
822
00:46:06,903 --> 00:46:10,165
They, in fact, were driven
further apart by it.
823
00:46:10,626 --> 00:46:13,527
She began a career of her own
824
00:46:13,529 --> 00:46:15,529
with his encouragement.
825
00:46:15,531 --> 00:46:20,034
He spent months and months
and months away from her,
826
00:46:20,036 --> 00:46:23,537
trying to rebuild his muscles.
827
00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:28,542
He largely ignored his
children during that time.
828
00:46:28,544 --> 00:46:33,347
And it's simply... it's a
romantic myth. It's not true.
829
00:46:33,836 --> 00:46:35,349
With Eleanor away,
830
00:46:35,351 --> 00:46:38,352
Missy Lehand served
as Franklin's hostess
831
00:46:38,354 --> 00:46:40,521
and companion, setting a pattern
832
00:46:40,523 --> 00:46:43,691
they would follow for the next 20 years.
833
00:46:43,693 --> 00:46:47,194
She was catholic, unmarried,
half his age,
834
00:46:47,196 --> 00:46:51,865
and more than half in love
with the boss she called "F.D."
835
00:46:52,233 --> 00:46:55,491
He was fond of her as well,
and some who knew them would
836
00:46:55,521 --> 00:47:00,157
always wonder about the
nature of their relationship.
837
00:47:00,159 --> 00:47:02,159
There's no question
that Franklin Roosevelt
838
00:47:02,161 --> 00:47:03,660
was the love of Missy's life.
839
00:47:03,662 --> 00:47:06,830
She loved him from the time
she was 18 until she died,
840
00:47:06,832 --> 00:47:09,733
and she was a central
figure in his little world.
841
00:47:10,081 --> 00:47:11,757
Missy seemed to understand
842
00:47:11,787 --> 00:47:13,838
his slightest shift of mood.
843
00:47:13,968 --> 00:47:17,763
"She knows when he is bored
before he realizes it himself,"
844
00:47:17,793 --> 00:47:19,265
one visitor remembered.
845
00:47:19,295 --> 00:47:21,662
"She can tell when he is really listening
846
00:47:21,692 --> 00:47:23,831
and when he is merely being polite,
847
00:47:23,833 --> 00:47:26,000
which no one else can."
848
00:47:26,002 --> 00:47:28,536
Her devotion was complete.
849
00:47:28,800 --> 00:47:34,875
Suitors came and went, some hoping
to gain access to her boss through her.
850
00:47:34,877 --> 00:47:38,179
None could compare with him in her eyes.
851
00:47:38,423 --> 00:47:42,016
Sara called her son's secretary
"nice little Missy,"
852
00:47:42,287 --> 00:47:45,019
but worried that people
would talk about his spending
853
00:47:45,021 --> 00:47:48,861
so much time alone with
a woman not his wife.
854
00:47:49,364 --> 00:47:52,059
Eleanor seems never to have objected,
855
00:47:52,061 --> 00:47:55,229
even to have been grateful
to know that her husband had
856
00:47:55,231 --> 00:47:59,066
the sort of admiring
companionship he always craved
857
00:47:59,068 --> 00:48:02,069
and which she could not provide.
858
00:48:02,422 --> 00:48:05,406
She's rather philosophical
859
00:48:05,408 --> 00:48:07,875
about Missy Lehand.
860
00:48:07,877 --> 00:48:10,544
In fact, in 1923,
861
00:48:10,546 --> 00:48:13,263
Eleanor Roosevelt writes an article called
862
00:48:13,293 --> 00:48:16,839
"The women of Tibet" in which she writes,
863
00:48:16,869 --> 00:48:20,037
"it has been brought to my attention
864
00:48:20,039 --> 00:48:24,375
that the women of Tibet
have many husbands,
865
00:48:24,377 --> 00:48:28,879
which seems to me a very good thing
866
00:48:28,881 --> 00:48:31,882
because so many husbands
867
00:48:31,884 --> 00:48:35,386
have so many wives."
868
00:48:35,777 --> 00:48:38,389
And Missy Lehand is her junior wife.
869
00:48:38,391 --> 00:48:40,391
I mean, she accepts Missy Lehand,
870
00:48:40,393 --> 00:48:42,893
she cares about Missy Lehand,
871
00:48:43,301 --> 00:48:45,896
and she recognizes the important role
872
00:48:45,898 --> 00:48:49,335
that Missy Lehand plays in his life.
873
00:48:50,609 --> 00:48:52,136
Franklin loved everything
874
00:48:52,138 --> 00:48:54,371
about life aboard the houseboat:
875
00:48:54,373 --> 00:48:57,875
Fishing, crawling from
deck to deck out of sight
876
00:48:57,877 --> 00:49:01,378
of curious strangers, defying prohibition
877
00:49:01,380 --> 00:49:04,882
by sharing rum drinks in
the evenings with old friends
878
00:49:04,884 --> 00:49:08,085
who found the time to come down
and be with him,
879
00:49:08,087 --> 00:49:10,754
and being lifted in and out of the water
880
00:49:10,756 --> 00:49:14,825
with a pulley arrangement
of his own devising.
881
00:49:15,107 --> 00:49:18,328
He had grown sideburns by
the time he came north again
882
00:49:18,330 --> 00:49:20,998
that spring, and when his mother saw him,
883
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:24,001
she thought he looked
so like his late father
884
00:49:24,003 --> 00:49:27,471
that she burst into tears.
885
00:49:28,121 --> 00:49:30,307
In May of 1923,
886
00:49:30,309 --> 00:49:33,143
nearly two years after he was stricken,
887
00:49:33,145 --> 00:49:36,313
12 months after Roosevelt's
doctors first tested
888
00:49:36,315 --> 00:49:38,482
44 of his muscles,
889
00:49:38,484 --> 00:49:40,484
they saw him again.
890
00:49:40,486 --> 00:49:42,653
7 had improved.
891
00:49:42,655 --> 00:49:45,155
7 had deteriorated.
892
00:49:45,157 --> 00:49:47,658
The rest were unchanged.
893
00:49:47,919 --> 00:49:50,160
Months of hard, lonely work
894
00:49:50,162 --> 00:49:53,664
had yielded no measurable overall gain
895
00:49:53,666 --> 00:49:56,133
in strength or stability.
896
00:49:56,135 --> 00:49:58,635
He still was trying somehow to walk
897
00:49:58,637 --> 00:50:03,640
on what one physician called "flail legs."
898
00:50:04,651 --> 00:50:06,310
I am very much disheartened
899
00:50:06,312 --> 00:50:08,979
about Mr. Roosevelt's ultimate recovery.
900
00:50:08,981 --> 00:50:11,982
I cannot help feeling that
he has almost reached
901
00:50:11,984 --> 00:50:14,485
the limits of his possibilities.
902
00:50:14,487 --> 00:50:17,988
I only hope I may be wrong in this.
903
00:50:17,990 --> 00:50:20,491
Dr. George Draper.
904
00:50:20,493 --> 00:50:22,993
When his doctors told him
further progress
905
00:50:22,995 --> 00:50:27,331
was unlikely, he refused
to accept their verdict.
906
00:50:27,814 --> 00:50:29,833
He never made peace with the notion
907
00:50:29,835 --> 00:50:32,336
that he was going to not improve.
908
00:50:32,338 --> 00:50:36,206
He always thought that rules
were not written for him,
909
00:50:36,208 --> 00:50:39,710
that somehow he would
find a way to walk again,
910
00:50:39,712 --> 00:50:43,213
and it really was a sort of delusion
911
00:50:43,215 --> 00:50:46,550
that he lived with, really, all his life.
912
00:50:46,552 --> 00:50:48,719
One after another, he tried
913
00:50:48,721 --> 00:50:51,221
and abandoned supposed "cures."
914
00:50:51,485 --> 00:50:53,424
Nothing worked.
915
00:50:53,426 --> 00:50:56,427
"Polio was a storm," one of Roosevelt's
916
00:50:56,429 --> 00:50:58,929
physiotherapists taught her patients.
917
00:50:58,931 --> 00:51:03,934
"You were what remained
when the storm had passed."
918
00:51:05,781 --> 00:51:07,938
Those were the lonely years.
919
00:51:07,940 --> 00:51:11,108
For a long while during
this time of illness,
920
00:51:11,110 --> 00:51:13,877
we had no tangible father,
921
00:51:13,879 --> 00:51:16,880
no father-in-being whom we could touch
922
00:51:16,882 --> 00:51:19,583
and talk to at will,
923
00:51:19,585 --> 00:51:22,085
only an abstract symbol,
924
00:51:22,087 --> 00:51:26,213
a cheery letter written from
off somewhere on a houseboat.
925
00:51:27,279 --> 00:51:30,494
Neither Anna, nor I, nor my brothers
926
00:51:30,816 --> 00:51:33,530
had the guidance and
training that I think father
927
00:51:33,532 --> 00:51:35,732
would have given us
928
00:51:35,734 --> 00:51:38,402
had he not been involved
in his own struggle
929
00:51:38,404 --> 00:51:43,407
to re-establish a useful life for himself.
930
00:51:44,046 --> 00:51:46,009
James Roosevelt.
931
00:51:47,512 --> 00:51:50,786
Between 1925 and 1928,
932
00:51:50,816 --> 00:51:53,817
Franklin would spend
more than half his time...
933
00:51:53,819 --> 00:51:57,321
116 of 208 weeks...
934
00:51:57,323 --> 00:51:59,656
Away from home, struggling
935
00:51:59,658 --> 00:52:02,626
to find a way to regain his feet.
936
00:52:02,628 --> 00:52:07,631
Eleanor was with him
just 4 of those 116 weeks,
937
00:52:07,633 --> 00:52:11,303
and his mother was with him for only two.
938
00:52:12,720 --> 00:52:14,243
Jacksonville, Florida.
939
00:52:14,273 --> 00:52:17,149
Saturday, February 2, 1924.
940
00:52:17,576 --> 00:52:20,792
FDR went on board and put
the boat in commission,
941
00:52:20,822 --> 00:52:24,537
and the trunks were duly
unpacked, fishing gear stowed,
942
00:52:24,567 --> 00:52:28,902
and library of the World's Worst
Literature placed on shelves.
943
00:52:30,405 --> 00:52:34,107
1924 was the year Franklin
had once planned
944
00:52:34,137 --> 00:52:36,076
to run for the White House.
945
00:52:36,078 --> 00:52:39,413
Instead, he spent weeks
drifting off the Florida Keys
946
00:52:39,415 --> 00:52:42,583
that winter with Missy Lehand.
947
00:52:42,819 --> 00:52:45,753
This time, she remembered,
he was so depressed
948
00:52:46,030 --> 00:52:49,757
he rarely made it on deck before noon.
949
00:52:51,214 --> 00:52:52,259
I think the main difference
950
00:52:52,261 --> 00:52:55,429
between Theodore and FDR
is the fact that Theodore
951
00:52:55,431 --> 00:52:58,932
could always outrun his
depressions, his demons.
952
00:52:59,317 --> 00:53:02,436
Because FDR was paralyzed,
he had to absorb them,
953
00:53:02,438 --> 00:53:04,772
he had to think about them,
he had to sit with them
954
00:53:04,774 --> 00:53:06,224
in a certain sense.
955
00:53:13,433 --> 00:53:15,282
Dearest Franklin,
956
00:53:15,655 --> 00:53:18,619
I have wanted you home the last few days
957
00:53:18,621 --> 00:53:21,622
to advise me on the fight I'm putting up.
958
00:53:22,022 --> 00:53:25,292
Mr. Murphy and I disagree.
959
00:53:25,444 --> 00:53:30,447
I imagine it is just a question
of what he dislikes most:
960
00:53:30,449 --> 00:53:35,219
giving me my way or
having me give the papers
961
00:53:35,221 --> 00:53:38,722
a grand chance for a story.
962
00:53:39,648 --> 00:53:42,726
There's one thing I'm thankful for.
963
00:53:43,282 --> 00:53:45,635
I haven't a thing to lose
964
00:53:46,113 --> 00:53:49,840
and, for the moment, you haven't, either.
965
00:53:52,570 --> 00:53:54,738
Eleanor, not Franklin,
966
00:53:54,740 --> 00:53:56,907
went to political war that spring
967
00:53:56,909 --> 00:53:59,910
against Charles Murphy,
the Tammany Hall boss
968
00:53:59,912 --> 00:54:01,634
who had outmaneuvered her husband
969
00:54:01,664 --> 00:54:06,133
during his first term as a
State Senator 13 years before.
970
00:54:06,506 --> 00:54:09,308
She and her new friends
had already driven
971
00:54:09,338 --> 00:54:13,207
all over the State,
organizing Democratic women.
972
00:54:13,536 --> 00:54:16,944
The issue now was who would
pick two woman delegates
973
00:54:16,974 --> 00:54:20,114
and two delegates-at-large
to the National Convention
974
00:54:20,116 --> 00:54:24,618
in July... men like Murphy,
who had always run things,
975
00:54:24,620 --> 00:54:26,620
or the growing number of women
976
00:54:26,622 --> 00:54:29,495
she'd been recruiting for the party.
977
00:54:29,525 --> 00:54:32,526
When Murphy insisted
on remaining in charge,
978
00:54:32,528 --> 00:54:35,696
she publicly warned him at
a Democratic women's dinner
979
00:54:35,698 --> 00:54:40,034
of what would happen if he
failed to share power fairly.
980
00:54:40,036 --> 00:54:44,571
It is always disagreeable to take stands.
981
00:54:44,573 --> 00:54:48,175
It is always easier to compromise,
982
00:54:48,177 --> 00:54:51,745
always easier to let things go.
983
00:54:52,237 --> 00:54:56,250
To many women, and I am one of them,
984
00:54:56,252 --> 00:54:59,253
it is extraordinarily difficult
985
00:54:59,255 --> 00:55:01,255
to care about anything enough
986
00:55:01,257 --> 00:55:05,259
to cause disagreement
or unpleasant feeling,
987
00:55:05,946 --> 00:55:09,263
but I have come to the conclusion
988
00:55:09,265 --> 00:55:12,366
this must be done for a time
989
00:55:12,368 --> 00:55:14,868
until we can prove our strength
990
00:55:14,870 --> 00:55:19,840
and demand respect for our wishes.
991
00:55:19,842 --> 00:55:22,843
When Murphy still refused
to change his ways,
992
00:55:22,845 --> 00:55:26,780
Eleanor appealed directly
to Governor Al Smith.
993
00:55:27,082 --> 00:55:29,216
He overruled Murphy.
994
00:55:29,218 --> 00:55:32,091
Thanks to her, the women, not the boss,
995
00:55:32,121 --> 00:55:35,389
would pick their own delegates-at-large.
996
00:55:35,741 --> 00:55:39,743
Franklin wrote her to tell her
how proud he was.
997
00:55:39,745 --> 00:55:43,246
You need not be proud of me, dear.
998
00:55:43,248 --> 00:55:48,023
I'm only being active
till you can be again.
999
00:55:48,053 --> 00:55:52,712
It isn't such a great desire
on my part to serve the world,
1000
00:55:52,924 --> 00:55:57,460
and I'll fall back into
habits of sloth quite easily.
1001
00:55:57,462 --> 00:56:00,964
Hurry up, for as you know,
1002
00:56:00,966 --> 00:56:04,634
my ever-present sense
of the uselessness of things
1003
00:56:04,636 --> 00:56:08,638
will overwhelm me sooner or later.
1004
00:56:14,393 --> 00:56:17,313
I think there are ways in which polio,
1005
00:56:17,315 --> 00:56:21,317
ghastly as it was, did help him.
1006
00:56:23,154 --> 00:56:26,557
If he had not... had polio,
1007
00:56:26,587 --> 00:56:29,560
he would have been a leading
candidate to run for President
1008
00:56:29,862 --> 00:56:31,734
during the republican twenties,
1009
00:56:31,764 --> 00:56:34,331
and we would never
have heard of him again.
1010
00:56:34,852 --> 00:56:37,834
Governor Al Smith had known
Franklin Roosevelt
1011
00:56:37,836 --> 00:56:40,670
since his days in the State Senate.
1012
00:56:40,672 --> 00:56:43,507
They had not much liked each other,
1013
00:56:43,509 --> 00:56:46,843
but they had become allies
of a kind over the years,
1014
00:56:46,845 --> 00:56:50,847
and as the 1924 presidential
race drew closer,
1015
00:56:50,849 --> 00:56:54,017
the governor asked Roosevelt
to serve as chairman
1016
00:56:54,019 --> 00:56:56,520
of citizens for Smith.
1017
00:56:56,934 --> 00:56:59,022
FDR agreed.
1018
00:56:59,204 --> 00:57:02,281
It was a chance to get back
into national politics,
1019
00:57:02,311 --> 00:57:05,112
at least behind the scenes.
1020
00:57:06,131 --> 00:57:08,465
When the man who was
going to put Smith's name
1021
00:57:08,467 --> 00:57:12,970
into nomination died, Smith
asked who should replace him.
1022
00:57:12,972 --> 00:57:15,305
"Roosevelt," an aide answered,
1023
00:57:15,307 --> 00:57:19,590
because "you're a bowery mick
and he is a protestant patrician
1024
00:57:19,620 --> 00:57:23,313
and he'll take some of
the curse off you."
1025
00:57:23,795 --> 00:57:27,569
Roosevelt again agreed,
even though it meant
1026
00:57:27,599 --> 00:57:29,486
he would run the risk of appearing
1027
00:57:29,488 --> 00:57:31,989
in front of thousands of people.
1028
00:57:31,991 --> 00:57:33,991
If he so much as stumbled,
1029
00:57:33,993 --> 00:57:36,159
their pleasure at seeing him again
1030
00:57:36,161 --> 00:57:39,163
would turn instantly to pity.
1031
00:57:39,746 --> 00:57:44,067
He refused to be seen in his wheelchair.
1032
00:57:44,069 --> 00:57:47,726
In the library of the house
on East 65th Street,
1033
00:57:47,756 --> 00:57:51,925
he and his eldest son,
James, measured off 15 feet...
1034
00:57:51,927 --> 00:57:55,929
The distance between the rear
of the platform and the podium...
1035
00:57:55,931 --> 00:57:59,521
And practiced covering
it over and over again
1036
00:57:59,551 --> 00:58:02,019
on two crutches.
1037
00:58:03,996 --> 00:58:06,523
He was grinning as he waited
for his introduction
1038
00:58:06,525 --> 00:58:10,200
at noon on June 26, 1924
1039
00:58:10,230 --> 00:58:12,435
at Madison Square Garden,
1040
00:58:13,165 --> 00:58:15,832
but he gripped James' arm so hard,
1041
00:58:15,834 --> 00:58:19,703
it was all his son could
do to keep from crying out.
1042
00:58:20,212 --> 00:58:24,129
Then, as 12,000 people held their breath,
1043
00:58:24,159 --> 00:58:26,827
James handed him his second crutch
1044
00:58:26,829 --> 00:58:29,796
and he began his slow, careful movement
1045
00:58:29,948 --> 00:58:31,948
toward the microphones.
1046
00:58:32,315 --> 00:58:33,854
When he reached the podium,
1047
00:58:33,884 --> 00:58:36,920
everyone in the garden stood to cheer.
1048
00:58:36,950 --> 00:58:40,924
He had to keep standing for more
than half an hour as he spoke
1049
00:58:40,926 --> 00:58:45,734
and did not dare lift either
hand for fear of falling.
1050
00:58:46,404 --> 00:58:49,266
But he was determined that no one forget
1051
00:58:49,582 --> 00:58:52,741
his introduction to Al Smith.
1052
00:58:52,955 --> 00:58:55,772
He has a power to strike
1053
00:58:55,774 --> 00:58:58,275
at error and wrongdoing
1054
00:58:58,277 --> 00:59:02,179
that makes his adversaries
quail before him.
1055
00:59:02,795 --> 00:59:04,593
He has a personality
1056
00:59:04,623 --> 00:59:07,334
that carries to every hearer
1057
00:59:07,336 --> 00:59:09,595
not only the sincerity,
1058
00:59:09,625 --> 00:59:12,839
but the righteousness of what he says.
1059
00:59:13,120 --> 00:59:17,616
He is the "happy warrior" of
the political battlefield...
1060
00:59:17,646 --> 00:59:20,647
Alfred E. Smith.
1061
00:59:29,797 --> 00:59:32,659
The next day, Eleanor's friend
and confidante
1062
00:59:32,661 --> 00:59:36,163
Marion Dickerman dropped in to see FDR.
1063
00:59:36,165 --> 00:59:39,666
He was sitting up in bed,
exhausted but elated.
1064
00:59:39,915 --> 00:59:43,136
"Marion," he said, "I did it!"
1065
00:59:44,472 --> 00:59:47,975
In the end, Al Smith failed
to get the nomination.
1066
00:59:48,253 --> 00:59:50,477
After 103 ballots,
1067
00:59:50,479 --> 00:59:53,981
the weary delegates settled
upon a colorless conservative,
1068
00:59:53,983 --> 00:59:55,983
John W. Davis,
1069
00:59:56,235 --> 01:00:00,538
but Franklin Roosevelt had
made an indelible impression.
1070
01:00:01,950 --> 01:00:04,307
From the time Roosevelt made his speech,
1071
01:00:04,337 --> 01:00:07,811
he has easily been the foremost
figure on the platform.
1072
01:00:09,313 --> 01:00:11,787
That is not because of his name.
1073
01:00:12,058 --> 01:00:14,317
There are many Roosevelts.
1074
01:00:14,759 --> 01:00:17,320
It is because, without
the slightest intention
1075
01:00:17,322 --> 01:00:19,823
or desire to do anything of the sort,
1076
01:00:19,825 --> 01:00:24,428
he has done for himself what he
could not do for his candidate.
1077
01:00:26,540 --> 01:00:28,598
Roosevelt took no further part
1078
01:00:28,600 --> 01:00:31,501
in the 1924 campaign.
1079
01:00:31,789 --> 01:00:34,504
It's one thing just to try
to get back on your feet.
1080
01:00:34,656 --> 01:00:36,242
He had a special problem,
1081
01:00:36,767 --> 01:00:39,826
and the special problem was
that he wanted to return
1082
01:00:39,828 --> 01:00:44,164
to public life, and that pity was poison.
1083
01:00:44,355 --> 01:00:48,168
He could not be seen to be...
1084
01:00:48,170 --> 01:00:51,543
To use the word always
used then... crippled.
1085
01:00:51,573 --> 01:00:54,574
He had to be thought lame.
1086
01:00:58,429 --> 01:01:02,054
Meanwhile, Eleanor
remained in the thick of things.
1087
01:01:02,084 --> 01:01:05,085
Her late Uncle's son,
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.,
1088
01:01:05,237 --> 01:01:08,238
was running against
Al Smith for Governor,
1089
01:01:08,240 --> 01:01:11,074
and she had neither forgotten nor forgiven
1090
01:01:11,076 --> 01:01:15,378
her cousin's attacks on
her husband 4 years earlier.
1091
01:01:15,627 --> 01:01:18,754
Calvin Coolidge was
now in the White House;
1092
01:01:18,784 --> 01:01:21,751
President Harding had died in office.
1093
01:01:21,976 --> 01:01:25,755
Harding's administration had been
rocked by a bribery scandal
1094
01:01:25,757 --> 01:01:28,758
involving the illegal lease
of government oil fields
1095
01:01:28,760 --> 01:01:33,697
in Wyoming at a place
called Teapot Dome.
1096
01:01:34,043 --> 01:01:36,199
Ted and Archie Roosevelt had
1097
01:01:36,201 --> 01:01:38,073
both been accused of involvement
1098
01:01:38,103 --> 01:01:41,838
and called upon to testify
before Congress.
1099
01:01:41,840 --> 01:01:45,809
Neither had actually
been guilty of wrongdoing.
1100
01:01:45,811 --> 01:01:49,312
But Eleanor, Nancy Cook,
and Marion Dickerman
1101
01:01:49,314 --> 01:01:51,648
followed Ted around the state anyway,
1102
01:01:51,650 --> 01:01:55,407
in a car topped with a giant
papier mache teapot,
1103
01:01:55,437 --> 01:01:58,372
steam pouring from its spout.
1104
01:01:58,927 --> 01:02:01,875
Eleanor denounced her cousin at every stop
1105
01:02:01,877 --> 01:02:04,378
as "a personally nice young man
1106
01:02:04,380 --> 01:02:07,380
whose public service
record shows him willing
1107
01:02:07,382 --> 01:02:10,283
to do the bidding of his friends."
1108
01:02:10,831 --> 01:02:14,454
One evening, her tricked-out
car turned up unannounced
1109
01:02:14,456 --> 01:02:16,623
at the Farmington, Connecticut home
1110
01:02:16,625 --> 01:02:19,626
of Theodore Roosevelt's sister, Bamie.
1111
01:02:19,628 --> 01:02:23,035
Eleanor asked if she and her
friends could spend the night.
1112
01:02:23,683 --> 01:02:25,565
Bamie took them all in,
1113
01:02:25,567 --> 01:02:28,568
even though they were
maligning her nephew.
1114
01:02:28,570 --> 01:02:31,872
She loved her niece, she said.
1115
01:02:32,527 --> 01:02:35,642
Eleanor would later admit
her Teapot Tour
1116
01:02:35,644 --> 01:02:37,811
had been "a rough stunt."
1117
01:02:37,813 --> 01:02:41,648
Ted Roosevelt would never forgive her.
1118
01:02:42,024 --> 01:02:43,150
On Election Day,
1119
01:02:43,152 --> 01:02:45,652
Calvin Coolidge swept the country,
1120
01:02:45,654 --> 01:02:48,155
including New York State.
1121
01:02:48,157 --> 01:02:50,824
The unregulated orgy of easy credit,
1122
01:02:50,826 --> 01:02:55,328
inflated real estate values,
and wild Wall Street speculation
1123
01:02:55,618 --> 01:02:58,231
would continue without letup.
1124
01:02:58,601 --> 01:03:01,568
But Al Smith was re-elected governor,
1125
01:03:01,570 --> 01:03:05,739
beating Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Badly.
1126
01:03:16,018 --> 01:03:18,919
It's a very big question
as to whether or not,
1127
01:03:18,921 --> 01:03:21,421
if Franklin Roosevelt had not had polio,
1128
01:03:21,423 --> 01:03:24,091
he would have been able to
connect as deeply as he did
1129
01:03:24,093 --> 01:03:26,093
to the common man.
1130
01:03:26,710 --> 01:03:30,096
Eleanor said, "great suffering
can change a person."
1131
01:03:31,152 --> 01:03:34,801
And in his case, I think it did
connect him with other people
1132
01:03:34,803 --> 01:03:37,137
who had also had
difficulties in their lives
1133
01:03:37,139 --> 01:03:38,906
in a way that he might
not have felt before.
1134
01:03:38,936 --> 01:03:41,396
He always loved people;
He was always gregarious,
1135
01:03:41,426 --> 01:03:44,861
but now he needed them, that
was his connection to life.
1136
01:03:47,113 --> 01:03:49,516
It's tempting and probably true to say
1137
01:03:49,518 --> 01:03:52,685
that polio gave FDR the gift of empathy.
1138
01:03:53,253 --> 01:03:55,188
There was no suffering
1139
01:03:55,190 --> 01:03:59,826
that he could not in some sense relate to.
1140
01:04:00,164 --> 01:04:04,330
And also the... just as the irons
were clapped on his legs,
1141
01:04:04,332 --> 01:04:08,001
the steel entered his soul
by having to fight through
1142
01:04:08,003 --> 01:04:12,839
the constant pain of therapy
that was unforgiving
1143
01:04:12,841 --> 01:04:17,343
in its demands and not very
fulfilling in its success.
1144
01:04:18,746 --> 01:04:22,248
I think it taught him that
there were certain things
1145
01:04:22,502 --> 01:04:25,251
which he could not overcome
1146
01:04:25,253 --> 01:04:29,723
by the easy gifts that he had been given;
1147
01:04:29,875 --> 01:04:32,809
that is, there's some
things you can't charm,
1148
01:04:32,811 --> 01:04:36,401
there's some things
you can't use guile on,
1149
01:04:36,431 --> 01:04:38,887
that you have to really
1150
01:04:39,246 --> 01:04:42,936
have a goal in mind and try to get there.
1151
01:04:43,748 --> 01:04:46,361
Roosevelt remained a very devious person,
1152
01:04:46,391 --> 01:04:49,392
but he had big goals
and he met a lot of them,
1153
01:04:49,394 --> 01:04:52,896
and I think polio had
a lot to do with that.
1154
01:04:55,944 --> 01:04:58,067
While Eleanor was campaigning
1155
01:04:58,069 --> 01:04:59,742
against her cousin Ted,
1156
01:04:59,772 --> 01:05:03,373
Franklin had traveled
south to rural Georgia,
1157
01:05:03,375 --> 01:05:06,376
where he'd been told bathing
in mineralized waters
1158
01:05:06,378 --> 01:05:10,380
at a ramshackle resort near
the tiny town of Bullochville
1159
01:05:10,382 --> 01:05:12,988
might help strengthen his legs.
1160
01:05:13,527 --> 01:05:16,019
He loved the warm, buoyant water
1161
01:05:16,021 --> 01:05:19,022
that allowed him to stand
with unbraced legs
1162
01:05:19,024 --> 01:05:22,025
for the first time since 1921,
1163
01:05:22,305 --> 01:05:24,361
so long as he held on tightly
1164
01:05:24,363 --> 01:05:26,963
to a rope or the edge of the pool.
1165
01:05:27,480 --> 01:05:30,800
"I feel that a great cure
for infantile paralysis,"
1166
01:05:30,802 --> 01:05:34,938
he wrote to his mother, "could
well be established here."
1167
01:05:35,422 --> 01:05:38,148
He decided to buy the place.
1168
01:05:38,178 --> 01:05:39,943
The price for the Battered Inn,
1169
01:05:39,945 --> 01:05:43,446
a cluster of tumble-down
cottages, two pools,
1170
01:05:43,448 --> 01:05:49,285
and 1,200 acres of
piney woods was $195,000.
1171
01:05:49,751 --> 01:05:51,560
Eleanor objected;
1172
01:05:51,640 --> 01:05:55,141
all 5 children were
still in private school.
1173
01:05:55,418 --> 01:05:59,145
He was risking nearly
2/3 of his inheritance.
1174
01:05:59,147 --> 01:06:02,649
She thought he would
inevitably lose interest.
1175
01:06:03,005 --> 01:06:07,154
He bought it, nonetheless,
officiated at a ceremony
1176
01:06:07,156 --> 01:06:10,390
renaming the little town Warm Springs
1177
01:06:10,692 --> 01:06:14,194
because it was thought more
saleable than Bullochville,
1178
01:06:14,196 --> 01:06:18,403
and hoped both to attract
wealthy guests to the old hotel
1179
01:06:18,433 --> 01:06:22,168
and to provide aftercare
for fellow polios.
1180
01:06:23,571 --> 01:06:25,572
As word of his presence spread,
1181
01:06:25,574 --> 01:06:28,408
other polio patients, desperate for help,
1182
01:06:28,410 --> 01:06:31,011
began to turn up on the train,
1183
01:06:31,013 --> 01:06:34,286
some simply shipped south by families
1184
01:06:34,316 --> 01:06:37,918
who had been unable to do
anything for them at home.
1185
01:06:38,588 --> 01:06:40,692
One arrived aboard a freight car
1186
01:06:40,722 --> 01:06:43,723
in a wooden cage his brother back home
1187
01:06:43,725 --> 01:06:46,226
had banged together
to keep him from being
1188
01:06:46,228 --> 01:06:49,729
thrown around too much
by the hurtling train.
1189
01:06:49,731 --> 01:06:53,867
There, among his fellow
patients and away from the press,
1190
01:06:53,869 --> 01:06:56,870
with Missy Lehand to act as his hostess
1191
01:06:56,872 --> 01:06:59,539
and handle his correspondence
with the Democrats
1192
01:06:59,541 --> 01:07:02,709
he continued to cultivate
all across the country,
1193
01:07:02,711 --> 01:07:04,878
he could be himself.
1194
01:07:04,880 --> 01:07:06,880
He didn't need to be self-conscious
1195
01:07:06,882 --> 01:07:08,882
about his withered legs,
1196
01:07:08,884 --> 01:07:12,852
could exercise as he wanted,
at his own pace,
1197
01:07:13,315 --> 01:07:18,358
could even wear his braces on
the outside of his trousers.
1198
01:07:22,040 --> 01:07:24,712
The hotel never did work out.
1199
01:07:24,742 --> 01:07:26,966
Prospective guests were scared off
1200
01:07:26,968 --> 01:07:29,977
by the presence of polio patients.
1201
01:07:30,007 --> 01:07:32,806
Roosevelt would never make any money
1202
01:07:32,808 --> 01:07:37,310
and eventually turned
Warm Springs into a foundation.
1203
01:07:37,312 --> 01:07:39,813
But Eleanor was wrong;
1204
01:07:39,815 --> 01:07:41,981
he never lost interest,
1205
01:07:41,983 --> 01:07:44,851
never backed away.
1206
01:07:45,581 --> 01:07:47,770
So it slowly became the Nation's
1207
01:07:47,772 --> 01:07:50,773
Premiere Rehabilitation Center for polios.
1208
01:07:51,022 --> 01:07:54,127
And Roosevelt became
almost obsessed with it,
1209
01:07:54,157 --> 01:07:57,063
raising money for it and helping people.
1210
01:07:57,065 --> 01:08:01,067
For him, personally, it was
all kinds of things.
1211
01:08:01,069 --> 01:08:04,637
It was the first project
that he had ever had
1212
01:08:04,639 --> 01:08:07,140
which he absolutely ran on his own.
1213
01:08:07,142 --> 01:08:08,568
He'd worked in the Navy Department,
1214
01:08:08,598 --> 01:08:12,295
but as an Assistant Secretary,
which deeply troubled him.
1215
01:08:12,297 --> 01:08:15,298
This was his creation,
1216
01:08:16,003 --> 01:08:17,973
and it allowed him
1217
01:08:18,003 --> 01:08:21,910
to be un-self-conscious about polio.
1218
01:08:22,397 --> 01:08:24,941
It's hard to convey,
1219
01:08:24,943 --> 01:08:27,844
especially a person who was as beautiful
1220
01:08:27,846 --> 01:08:30,346
as Franklin Roosevelt had been,
1221
01:08:30,348 --> 01:08:33,974
that he suddenly had withered legs.
1222
01:08:34,213 --> 01:08:37,585
I don't care how magnetic
and self-confident
1223
01:08:37,615 --> 01:08:39,823
you are or think you are.
1224
01:08:39,825 --> 01:08:42,826
To know that people are staring at them
1225
01:08:42,828 --> 01:08:45,862
is something that you
never really get over.
1226
01:08:46,173 --> 01:08:49,866
And at Warm Springs, he
could not wear his braces
1227
01:08:49,868 --> 01:08:53,036
and go to the swimming
pool and have everybody see
1228
01:08:53,038 --> 01:08:55,371
how small his legs were,
and it didn't bother him
1229
01:08:55,373 --> 01:08:58,742
because there were people
there with worse problems.
1230
01:09:00,244 --> 01:09:02,245
You would howl with glee
1231
01:09:02,247 --> 01:09:04,747
if you could see the clinic
in operation at the side
1232
01:09:04,749 --> 01:09:08,251
of the pool, and the patients
doing various exercises
1233
01:09:08,253 --> 01:09:11,755
in the water under my leadership.
1234
01:09:12,378 --> 01:09:16,702
They are male and female,
of all ages and weights.
1235
01:09:17,461 --> 01:09:20,310
In addition to all this,
I am consulting architect
1236
01:09:20,340 --> 01:09:23,444
and landscape engineer
and giving free advice
1237
01:09:23,474 --> 01:09:26,353
on the moving of buildings,
the building of roads,
1238
01:09:26,383 --> 01:09:29,727
setting out trees, and
remodeling the hotel.
1239
01:09:34,579 --> 01:09:37,931
He was the sort of king of Warm Springs.
1240
01:09:38,343 --> 01:09:40,600
He knew everybody in town,
1241
01:09:40,602 --> 01:09:44,104
and he loved being one of them
1242
01:09:44,306 --> 01:09:48,574
and being the number one
of them at the same time,
1243
01:09:49,177 --> 01:09:51,895
and that was true all his
life in everything he did.
1244
01:09:51,925 --> 01:09:54,681
He loved to be surrounded by people,
1245
01:09:54,967 --> 01:09:57,951
all of whom knew that he was number one.
1246
01:10:00,279 --> 01:10:02,622
Warm Springs was the first project
1247
01:10:02,624 --> 01:10:07,227
he had ever undertaken meant
largely to benefit others.
1248
01:10:07,396 --> 01:10:11,564
He began to call himself
"old Doctor Roosevelt."
1249
01:10:11,566 --> 01:10:14,567
He devised pioneering water exercises,
1250
01:10:14,569 --> 01:10:17,237
hired physiotherapists to work with him
1251
01:10:17,239 --> 01:10:20,006
and his fellow patients in the pool,
1252
01:10:20,008 --> 01:10:22,342
and paid local "push boys" to wheel them
1253
01:10:22,344 --> 01:10:25,712
to and from the water.
1254
01:10:25,714 --> 01:10:28,214
Well, we actually... we
got them up in the morning,
1255
01:10:28,216 --> 01:10:31,217
bed-bathed them, dressed them,
1256
01:10:31,414 --> 01:10:34,921
fed them, and take them
to wherever they had to go.
1257
01:10:34,951 --> 01:10:37,078
If they were going to get
therapy, we had to take them
1258
01:10:37,108 --> 01:10:39,609
to the therapy room; If
we were going to the pool,
1259
01:10:39,611 --> 01:10:41,878
we had to load them on
an old make-shift bus
1260
01:10:41,880 --> 01:10:44,347
and take them down the hill.
1261
01:10:44,655 --> 01:10:48,390
There was lots of fun, you know,
pool play and stuff like that.
1262
01:10:48,420 --> 01:10:51,770
Of course, he liked to get
in there with the patients...
1263
01:10:52,590 --> 01:10:55,091
And he'd duck you if you got in that pool.
1264
01:10:55,093 --> 01:10:57,198
If you got within reach,
yeah, he'd duck ya, dunk ya,
1265
01:10:57,228 --> 01:10:59,428
whichever one you want to call it.
1266
01:10:59,598 --> 01:11:02,532
Anyway, your head would go
under the water. Heh heh!
1267
01:11:02,534 --> 01:11:06,324
Well, he was... he was jolly.
1268
01:11:06,354 --> 01:11:09,856
And he was standing at the door.
1269
01:11:10,176 --> 01:11:15,795
He was shaking hands with all
the patients that came that day.
1270
01:11:15,797 --> 01:11:20,800
We all had nicknames, and when he met me,
1271
01:11:20,802 --> 01:11:24,304
he said, "little girl, what is your name?"
1272
01:11:24,306 --> 01:11:26,306
I told him "Suzanne."
1273
01:11:26,308 --> 01:11:31,311
"I love that name, Suzanne,
but I'd like to call you Suzie.
1274
01:11:31,313 --> 01:11:34,747
Is that all right?" And I said, "uh-huh."
1275
01:11:34,899 --> 01:11:37,900
And guess what we called him.
1276
01:11:37,902 --> 01:11:39,902
"Rosy."
1277
01:11:39,904 --> 01:11:42,905
And when we called him Rosy,
1278
01:11:42,907 --> 01:11:45,180
it was always when he drove up
1279
01:11:45,210 --> 01:11:47,644
in front of Georgia Hall.
1280
01:11:47,646 --> 01:11:50,647
We would be out there...
"Hey, Rosy, hey, Rosy"...
1281
01:11:50,649 --> 01:11:53,149
And he loved it.
1282
01:11:54,017 --> 01:11:56,202
"Doc Roosevelt's" prescription called
1283
01:11:56,204 --> 01:11:58,705
for sunshine, swimming,
1284
01:11:58,707 --> 01:12:01,040
gentle exercise, and massage,
1285
01:12:01,042 --> 01:12:04,377
and above all, "belief
on the patient's part
1286
01:12:04,379 --> 01:12:07,213
that the muscles are coming back."
1287
01:12:07,672 --> 01:12:10,521
The physical progress
he and the others made
1288
01:12:10,551 --> 01:12:12,218
may have been minimal,
1289
01:12:12,220 --> 01:12:16,222
but their psychological
progress was beyond measure.
1290
01:12:16,441 --> 01:12:19,225
Oh, he was always happy
1291
01:12:19,415 --> 01:12:24,731
and he gave the impression
1292
01:12:24,733 --> 01:12:29,569
that it just made you want to achieve
1293
01:12:29,983 --> 01:12:31,893
everything you could
1294
01:12:31,923 --> 01:12:35,425
and to be more like that he was.
1295
01:12:37,902 --> 01:12:40,433
And if we saw him do it,
1296
01:12:40,463 --> 01:12:42,232
we wanted to do it.
1297
01:12:42,234 --> 01:12:45,869
The only thing that I had
a big problem with...
1298
01:12:46,478 --> 01:12:48,106
Those old, gray steps
1299
01:12:48,136 --> 01:12:51,441
that had 4 different sides to it.
1300
01:12:52,236 --> 01:12:55,344
You would learn how
to go up and down them,
1301
01:12:55,346 --> 01:12:58,848
and I didn't want to try it.
1302
01:12:59,044 --> 01:13:02,024
But when I saw the rest of them doing it
1303
01:13:02,054 --> 01:13:04,554
and he was standing there watching,
1304
01:13:04,556 --> 01:13:07,056
I wasn't about to give up.
1305
01:13:07,058 --> 01:13:11,061
I thought, "fall or not fall,
I'm going to try."
1306
01:13:11,620 --> 01:13:14,297
And I made it.
1307
01:13:14,818 --> 01:13:19,269
To see someone so famous
1308
01:13:20,337 --> 01:13:23,337
who suffered from exactly
the same problems
1309
01:13:23,367 --> 01:13:27,487
that you suffered from
meant an enormous amount
1310
01:13:27,517 --> 01:13:30,046
to all of the people that went there.
1311
01:13:30,048 --> 01:13:32,048
Most of the people who went
there went there, really,
1312
01:13:32,050 --> 01:13:34,050
out of despair, at least at first.
1313
01:13:34,052 --> 01:13:37,053
They couldn't... there
wasn't any other place to go.
1314
01:13:37,301 --> 01:13:40,213
And here was this laughing giant,
1315
01:13:40,521 --> 01:13:41,243
um...
1316
01:13:41,273 --> 01:13:44,060
who would kid them and would get...
1317
01:13:44,062 --> 01:13:48,064
And would make the kind
of awful, sick jokes
1318
01:13:48,066 --> 01:13:52,068
about being handicapped that
other handicapped people love,
1319
01:13:52,070 --> 01:13:54,571
but that you can't share
with anybody else.
1320
01:13:54,573 --> 01:13:56,573
He loved doing that.
1321
01:13:58,435 --> 01:14:00,893
He declared himself vice president
1322
01:14:00,923 --> 01:14:02,895
in charge of picnics.
1323
01:14:02,897 --> 01:14:05,398
His favorite spot was a rocky overhang
1324
01:14:05,400 --> 01:14:07,533
called Dowdell's Knob.
1325
01:14:07,535 --> 01:14:10,536
Whenever a patient seemed
about to give in to despair,
1326
01:14:10,538 --> 01:14:12,538
he once told a friend,
1327
01:14:12,540 --> 01:14:16,542
he or she should be brought
to Dowdell's Knob right away.
1328
01:14:18,325 --> 01:14:21,297
One look at the glorious
view, he believed,
1329
01:14:21,299 --> 01:14:23,800
would provide the will to go on.
1330
01:14:33,420 --> 01:14:37,046
Eleanor now had a place
of her own as well,
1331
01:14:37,048 --> 01:14:40,049
a symbol of her growing autonomy.
1332
01:14:41,441 --> 01:14:43,553
Back in 1924,
1333
01:14:43,555 --> 01:14:47,557
Franklin, Eleanor, Nancy Cook,
and Marion Dickerman
1334
01:14:47,559 --> 01:14:50,059
had spread a picnic blanket on the shore
1335
01:14:50,061 --> 01:14:53,298
of a meandering stam on Roosevelt land
1336
01:14:53,328 --> 01:14:56,302
two miles east of Springwood.
1337
01:14:56,568 --> 01:14:59,569
Springwood was always
closed for the winter,
1338
01:14:59,571 --> 01:15:01,738
and they'd all agreed it was a shame
1339
01:15:01,740 --> 01:15:05,541
Hyde Park wasn't available
to them all year round.
1340
01:15:05,743 --> 01:15:09,217
Franklin volunteered to build
Eleanor and her friends
1341
01:15:09,247 --> 01:15:11,920
a stone cottage of their own.
1342
01:15:11,950 --> 01:15:15,591
"My missus and some of her
female political friends want
1343
01:15:15,621 --> 01:15:18,455
to build a shack on a stream
in the back woods,"
1344
01:15:18,457 --> 01:15:20,490
he wrote a local contractor.
1345
01:15:21,009 --> 01:15:24,227
It took a little over a year
and a half to complete
1346
01:15:24,441 --> 01:15:27,730
and would eventually include
a small furniture factory
1347
01:15:27,732 --> 01:15:31,234
in an adjacent building,
employing local craftsmen
1348
01:15:31,236 --> 01:15:34,237
and overseen by Nancy Cook.
1349
01:15:34,678 --> 01:15:38,741
For a time, Eleanor, Cook,
and Dickerman all lived
1350
01:15:38,743 --> 01:15:41,744
in a single dormitory
room in an atmosphere
1351
01:15:41,746 --> 01:15:45,520
reminiscent of Allenswood,
the English Boarding School
1352
01:15:45,550 --> 01:15:48,818
that had meant so much to her as a girl.
1353
01:15:48,820 --> 01:15:52,822
"The peace of it,"
Eleanor said, "is divine."
1354
01:15:54,324 --> 01:15:57,326
Once the Val-Kill Cottage was completed,
1355
01:15:57,328 --> 01:16:00,496
Eleanor rarely slept at Springwood again
1356
01:16:00,498 --> 01:16:04,066
unless Franklin happened to be there.
1357
01:16:04,578 --> 01:16:06,703
Actually, FDR is relieved
1358
01:16:06,733 --> 01:16:09,639
that Eleanor Roosevelt
has a new community,
1359
01:16:09,791 --> 01:16:14,127
and they begin to create
not only two separate courts,
1360
01:16:14,129 --> 01:16:17,363
but two separate lives.
1361
01:16:17,365 --> 01:16:21,868
And they meet for all the
reasons they need to meet
1362
01:16:21,870 --> 01:16:24,370
to promote political
things that they're going
1363
01:16:24,372 --> 01:16:27,874
to promote together,
including FDR's career,
1364
01:16:27,876 --> 01:16:34,714
but it's really a question of
parallel lives at this point.
1365
01:16:37,338 --> 01:16:41,270
If women believe they have a right
1366
01:16:41,272 --> 01:16:44,273
and duty in political life today,
1367
01:16:44,486 --> 01:16:49,245
they must learn to talk
the language of men.
1368
01:16:49,247 --> 01:16:51,914
Against the men bosses,
1369
01:16:51,916 --> 01:16:55,340
there must be women bosses
1370
01:16:55,370 --> 01:16:58,128
who can talk as equals.
1371
01:16:59,338 --> 01:17:02,675
In the mid-1920s, Eleanor Roosevelt became
1372
01:17:02,677 --> 01:17:06,345
something of a boss herself
and used her clout on behalf
1373
01:17:06,347 --> 01:17:10,016
of progressive causes on which
most of her male counterparts
1374
01:17:10,018 --> 01:17:13,352
preferred to waffle:
The League of Nations,
1375
01:17:13,354 --> 01:17:17,857
the 5-day work week, an
amendment to end child labor.
1376
01:17:17,859 --> 01:17:21,027
She even got herself
arrested walking a picket line
1377
01:17:21,029 --> 01:17:23,930
in support of striking box workers.
1378
01:17:24,522 --> 01:17:27,266
And because of the
tragedies caused by alcohol
1379
01:17:27,268 --> 01:17:29,402
within her own family,
1380
01:17:29,404 --> 01:17:33,206
she also publicly supported prohibition,
1381
01:17:33,208 --> 01:17:36,442
even though her husband
was silent on the subject
1382
01:17:36,444 --> 01:17:40,780
and maintained ready supplies
of gin and rum and scotch
1383
01:17:40,782 --> 01:17:44,283
at Warm Springs and in an upstairs closet
1384
01:17:44,285 --> 01:17:46,786
in their New York home.
1385
01:17:50,043 --> 01:17:52,664
Eleanor's new and independent life
1386
01:17:52,694 --> 01:17:55,862
meant that she had less
time for her children.
1387
01:17:55,864 --> 01:17:59,532
They were alternately
ignored and indulged.
1388
01:17:59,969 --> 01:18:03,036
One by one, she would
dutifully escort James
1389
01:18:03,038 --> 01:18:06,773
and Elliott, Franklin Jr.,
and John to Groton,
1390
01:18:07,043 --> 01:18:09,943
and she continued to clash
again and again
1391
01:18:09,945 --> 01:18:13,613
with her mother-in-law, who
spoiled all her grandchildren
1392
01:18:13,615 --> 01:18:17,450
and sometimes murmured to them
that she was their real mother;
1393
01:18:17,452 --> 01:18:20,286
Eleanor had only borne them.
1394
01:18:20,758 --> 01:18:23,623
Anna, the eldest, may have suffered most
1395
01:18:23,625 --> 01:18:26,960
from the ongoing tensions
within her family.
1396
01:18:26,962 --> 01:18:29,128
She adored her absent father,
1397
01:18:29,130 --> 01:18:31,631
but also sympathized with her mother,
1398
01:18:31,633 --> 01:18:34,300
who, while Anna was still in her teens,
1399
01:18:34,302 --> 01:18:36,803
confirmed to her the rumors she had heard
1400
01:18:36,805 --> 01:18:40,378
about her father's romance
with Lucy Mercer.
1401
01:18:41,168 --> 01:18:43,910
She was forced by her
mother and grandmother
1402
01:18:43,912 --> 01:18:46,579
into making a formal debut at 18
1403
01:18:46,581 --> 01:18:50,083
and failed to go to college,
in part because her grandmother
1404
01:18:50,085 --> 01:18:54,153
believed educated women
scared off suitors.
1405
01:18:54,795 --> 01:18:57,657
Barely 20, she married Curtis Dall,
1406
01:18:57,659 --> 01:19:01,661
a wall street broker
ten years older than she.
1407
01:19:01,875 --> 01:19:05,164
Many years later, explaining
her early marriage,
1408
01:19:05,166 --> 01:19:08,062
she said she'd simply wanted
to get out, away from
1409
01:19:08,092 --> 01:19:12,672
the complications that
continued to divide her family.
1410
01:19:17,611 --> 01:19:20,113
In the spring of 1928,
1411
01:19:20,115 --> 01:19:22,115
Al Smith was the frontrunner
1412
01:19:22,117 --> 01:19:24,617
for the Democratic
nomination for president
1413
01:19:24,619 --> 01:19:27,287
and asked Franklin to nominate him again
1414
01:19:27,289 --> 01:19:30,289
at the Upcoming Convention in Houston.
1415
01:19:30,731 --> 01:19:33,292
"I'm telling everyone
you are going to Houston
1416
01:19:33,294 --> 01:19:35,795
without crutches," Eleanor wrote Franklin
1417
01:19:35,797 --> 01:19:40,299
at Warm Springs,
"so mind you stick at it."
1418
01:19:40,673 --> 01:19:43,302
This time, he needed no urging.
1419
01:19:43,304 --> 01:19:46,806
To demonstrate to the delegates
that he was making progress
1420
01:19:46,808 --> 01:19:50,309
toward becoming a potential
candidate in his own right,
1421
01:19:50,311 --> 01:19:52,478
he knew he had to be able to walk...
1422
01:19:52,480 --> 01:19:55,448
Or seem to walk... on his own.
1423
01:19:55,874 --> 01:19:59,786
For weeks at Warm Springs,
he labored at mastering
1424
01:19:59,788 --> 01:20:03,956
what his physiotherapists
called a "two-point walk"...
1425
01:20:03,958 --> 01:20:07,493
The slow, rocking gait
he would employ in public
1426
01:20:07,495 --> 01:20:09,968
for the rest of his life.
1427
01:20:10,223 --> 01:20:12,637
His whole leg would be put forward,
1428
01:20:12,667 --> 01:20:14,656
and then the other side
would be put forward
1429
01:20:14,686 --> 01:20:16,686
and then the other side
would be foot forward.
1430
01:20:16,688 --> 01:20:19,355
It was painful, it was very slow,
1431
01:20:19,357 --> 01:20:21,357
and it was very precarious.
1432
01:20:21,359 --> 01:20:25,361
If he got jostled,
if the wind blew too hard,
1433
01:20:25,764 --> 01:20:28,865
if one of his bodyguards forgot
1434
01:20:28,867 --> 01:20:31,534
or relaxed, he could go to the ground,
1435
01:20:31,536 --> 01:20:34,504
so he was in constant fear
that that was going to happen.
1436
01:20:36,174 --> 01:20:38,174
At the Houston Convention,
1437
01:20:38,176 --> 01:20:42,111
he used his new technique to
make his way to the podium.
1438
01:20:42,402 --> 01:20:46,282
Thousands of onlookers stood
again to cheer his progress,
1439
01:20:47,140 --> 01:20:50,286
and now he was strong
enough to use one hand
1440
01:20:50,288 --> 01:20:53,289
to acknowledge their applause.
1441
01:20:53,491 --> 01:20:55,491
Smith won the nomination...
1442
01:20:55,493 --> 01:20:58,995
And then, to Roosevelt's
astonishment, insisted
1443
01:20:58,997 --> 01:21:02,999
that he run for Governor
of New York in his place.
1444
01:21:03,001 --> 01:21:05,557
Louis Howe thought it madness.
1445
01:21:05,587 --> 01:21:08,588
Republicans and their
candidate Herbert Hoover
1446
01:21:08,590 --> 01:21:12,225
were riding a tide of prosperity in 1928.
1447
01:21:12,227 --> 01:21:16,396
Smith's catholicism and open
opposition to prohibition
1448
01:21:16,398 --> 01:21:20,233
made a Democratic victory
still more unlikely.
1449
01:21:21,103 --> 01:21:23,236
Eleanor... already committed
1450
01:21:23,238 --> 01:21:27,106
to heading Democratic women's
work for Smith's candidacy...
1451
01:21:27,108 --> 01:21:30,610
Felt that if her husband
ran and somehow won,
1452
01:21:30,612 --> 01:21:33,613
it might mean for her
the loss of the separate
1453
01:21:33,615 --> 01:21:37,984
and fulfilling life she'd
worked so hard to build.
1454
01:21:38,439 --> 01:21:40,486
And Missy Lehand told Franklin,
1455
01:21:40,678 --> 01:21:42,811
"don't you dare run."
1456
01:21:42,841 --> 01:21:46,109
She didn't want to give him
up to public life, either.
1457
01:21:46,806 --> 01:21:49,279
Roosevelt himself was torn,
1458
01:21:49,281 --> 01:21:52,448
even ducked Smith's calls for a time.
1459
01:21:52,450 --> 01:21:56,953
But in the end, he gave in
and agreed to run for governor.
1460
01:21:56,955 --> 01:21:59,789
"When you're in politics,"
he told a friend,
1461
01:21:59,791 --> 01:22:02,525
"you've got to play the game."
1462
01:22:03,007 --> 01:22:06,529
Republican newspapers
denounced Smith for persuading
1463
01:22:06,531 --> 01:22:10,099
what they called a "crippled" man to run.
1464
01:22:10,627 --> 01:22:14,470
It was a "pathetic and
pitiless act," one said.
1465
01:22:14,472 --> 01:22:16,305
Privately, Smith thought
1466
01:22:16,307 --> 01:22:18,808
Franklin was little more than an invalid.
1467
01:22:18,810 --> 01:22:21,449
"He won't live a year," he told a friend.
1468
01:22:22,184 --> 01:22:23,813
But he assured the press,
1469
01:22:24,016 --> 01:22:26,916
"a Governor doesn't have to be an acrobat.
1470
01:22:26,918 --> 01:22:29,085
We do not elect him for his ability
1471
01:22:29,087 --> 01:22:31,587
to do a double back-flip."
1472
01:22:34,024 --> 01:22:36,526
To demonstrate he was up to the job,
1473
01:22:36,528 --> 01:22:39,028
Roosevelt campaigned through every one
1474
01:22:39,030 --> 01:22:41,531
of New York's 62 counties...
1475
01:22:41,533 --> 01:22:43,700
Something no candidate for governor
1476
01:22:43,702 --> 01:22:45,902
had ever done before.
1477
01:22:46,225 --> 01:22:48,905
He did all he could
to minimize the impact
1478
01:22:48,907 --> 01:22:51,774
of his disability on the voters:
1479
01:22:52,125 --> 01:22:55,278
"No movies of me getting
out of the machine, boys,"
1480
01:22:55,280 --> 01:22:57,780
he'd shout to the newsreel cameramen
1481
01:22:57,782 --> 01:23:01,617
as he arrived for a speech,
and they obliged.
1482
01:23:08,929 --> 01:23:11,442
On Election Night, Franklin, Eleanor,
1483
01:23:11,472 --> 01:23:15,631
and Sara waited for the returns
at Democratic Headquarters
1484
01:23:15,633 --> 01:23:18,668
at the Biltmore Hotel in Manhattan.
1485
01:23:18,670 --> 01:23:22,171
It was quickly clear that
Al Smith and the Democrats
1486
01:23:22,173 --> 01:23:24,512
had suffered a terrible defeat.
1487
01:23:24,542 --> 01:23:27,277
Smith carried only 7 states;
1488
01:23:27,279 --> 01:23:31,281
even his own State of New York
went to Herbert Hoover.
1489
01:23:32,549 --> 01:23:36,553
Franklin and Eleanor left
for home well before midnight,
1490
01:23:36,555 --> 01:23:40,056
convinced Franklin's
candidacy had also failed,
1491
01:23:40,058 --> 01:23:44,127
even though all the returns
were not yet in.
1492
01:23:44,747 --> 01:23:47,964
But Sara Delano Roosevelt stayed put.
1493
01:23:48,299 --> 01:23:49,966
By 4:00 in the morning,
1494
01:23:49,968 --> 01:23:53,469
Franklin was going to win
a narrow victory.
1495
01:23:53,789 --> 01:23:57,350
A friend called room service
and, because of Prohibition,
1496
01:23:57,380 --> 01:23:59,447
ordered milk, not champagne.
1497
01:23:59,477 --> 01:24:03,680
with which to toast her
son's surprising triumph.
1498
01:24:05,182 --> 01:24:08,685
FDR would occupy still
another of the offices
1499
01:24:08,687 --> 01:24:11,360
his cousin Theodore had held
1500
01:24:11,390 --> 01:24:14,190
on his way to the presidency.
1501
01:24:17,421 --> 01:24:19,762
Al Smith had assumed Franklin would be
1502
01:24:19,764 --> 01:24:23,099
a mostly-absentee governor,
allowing him somehow
1503
01:24:23,101 --> 01:24:25,601
to retain power through the men and women
1504
01:24:25,603 --> 01:24:28,243
he'd appointed to State Office.
1505
01:24:28,540 --> 01:24:31,507
He was quickly disabused of that notion.
1506
01:24:32,072 --> 01:24:35,712
FDR fired Smith's two closest aides.
1507
01:24:35,714 --> 01:24:38,715
"I've got to be the governor
of the State of New York,"
1508
01:24:38,717 --> 01:24:42,819
he told a friend,
"and I have got to be it myself."
1509
01:24:43,135 --> 01:24:46,322
Al Smith would never forgive him.
1510
01:24:47,658 --> 01:24:49,659
The morning after the election,
1511
01:24:49,661 --> 01:24:52,837
a reporter had asked
Eleanor if she were excited
1512
01:24:52,867 --> 01:24:56,499
by her husband's triumph.
"No," she answered.
1513
01:24:56,501 --> 01:24:58,668
"If the rest of the ticket didn't get in,
1514
01:24:58,670 --> 01:25:00,770
what does it matter?"
1515
01:25:00,772 --> 01:25:03,439
I felt Governor Smith's election
1516
01:25:03,441 --> 01:25:06,609
as president might have meant something,
1517
01:25:06,611 --> 01:25:11,447
but whether Franklin spends
two years in Albany or not
1518
01:25:11,716 --> 01:25:14,684
matters comparatively little.
1519
01:25:15,642 --> 01:25:18,855
It will have pleasant and
unpleasant sides for him,
1520
01:25:18,857 --> 01:25:23,059
and the good to the
State is problematical.
1521
01:25:23,061 --> 01:25:27,063
Crowds, newspapers,
etcetera, mean so little,
1522
01:25:27,512 --> 01:25:29,565
it does not even stir me.
1523
01:25:31,397 --> 01:25:33,603
As the First Lady of New York,
1524
01:25:33,605 --> 01:25:37,940
she reluctantly resigned her
political and lobbying posts.
1525
01:25:37,942 --> 01:25:41,768
But she refused to give up
the job that meant the most to her...
1526
01:25:41,798 --> 01:25:43,779
teaching American history
1527
01:25:43,781 --> 01:25:46,949
and 19th-century literature 3 days a week
1528
01:25:46,951 --> 01:25:50,853
at the Tod Hunter School
for girls in Manhattan.
1529
01:25:50,855 --> 01:25:54,524
It gave her an opportunity
to instill in her students
1530
01:25:54,526 --> 01:25:58,194
some of the qualities her
own beloved schoolmistress,
1531
01:25:58,196 --> 01:26:01,931
Mademoiselle Souvestre,
had instilled in her:
1532
01:26:02,179 --> 01:26:05,256
Open-mindedness, independent thinking,
1533
01:26:05,286 --> 01:26:07,620
social consciousness.
1534
01:26:07,622 --> 01:26:10,385
"I teach because I love it,"
she explained.
1535
01:26:10,415 --> 01:26:12,975
"I cannot give it up."
1536
01:26:12,977 --> 01:26:15,478
She organized the household in Albany,
1537
01:26:15,480 --> 01:26:19,354
assigning Missy Lehand
a bedroom larger than hers,
1538
01:26:19,384 --> 01:26:21,884
found space for her circle of friends
1539
01:26:21,886 --> 01:26:24,720
as well as Franklin's, and toured prisons
1540
01:26:24,722 --> 01:26:27,390
and hospitals on her husband's behalf,
1541
01:26:27,392 --> 01:26:30,226
remembering his exhortation
to lift the lids
1542
01:26:30,228 --> 01:26:33,830
on cooking pots to check
whether people were getting
1543
01:26:33,832 --> 01:26:37,667
the quality of food they
were supposed to get.
1544
01:26:39,169 --> 01:26:44,674
And she sometimes stood in for
him at political events as well.
1545
01:26:44,676 --> 01:26:47,176
Dear Franklin, arrived
1546
01:26:47,178 --> 01:26:50,880
at the Staten Island
Democratic Lunch 12:30,
1547
01:26:50,882 --> 01:26:53,883
stood and shook hands till 1:30,
1548
01:26:53,885 --> 01:26:58,387
ate till 3:30, talked till 5:20,
1549
01:26:58,389 --> 01:27:01,891
home here at 6:40, nearly dead.
1550
01:27:02,492 --> 01:27:05,895
You are the finest Governor ever,
1551
01:27:06,160 --> 01:27:09,398
and I have all the virtues
1552
01:27:09,669 --> 01:27:12,401
and would gladly have
dispensed with half of them
1553
01:27:12,718 --> 01:27:15,872
could I have left at 4:00.
1554
01:27:16,543 --> 01:27:18,374
Soon after becoming Governor,
1555
01:27:18,376 --> 01:27:21,210
Franklin ordered that
wherever Eleanor went,
1556
01:27:21,212 --> 01:27:23,913
she be accompanied by corporal Earl Miller
1557
01:27:23,915 --> 01:27:25,687
of the New York State Police,
1558
01:27:25,767 --> 01:27:28,101
who would serve as her bodyguard.
1559
01:27:28,800 --> 01:27:31,104
He's not just her driver and her guard,
1560
01:27:31,387 --> 01:27:33,206
he's her buddy.
1561
01:27:33,208 --> 01:27:35,742
He teaches her how to shoot a pistol,
1562
01:27:36,686 --> 01:27:38,680
how to shoot a rifle
1563
01:27:38,710 --> 01:27:40,613
without breaking your shoulder.
1564
01:27:41,079 --> 01:27:43,115
He teaches her how to dive.
1565
01:27:43,117 --> 01:27:46,052
He is her great friend,
1566
01:27:46,372 --> 01:27:49,288
and they spend hours and hours together.
1567
01:27:49,290 --> 01:27:52,658
She has a lot of fun with Earl Miller.
1568
01:27:52,660 --> 01:27:56,329
He was handsome,
high-spirited, and devoted.
1569
01:27:56,581 --> 01:27:59,749
Eleanor was flattered by
his attention and pleased
1570
01:27:59,751 --> 01:28:03,085
to be asked for advice
about his many girlfriends.
1571
01:28:03,087 --> 01:28:06,422
Miller became a member
of her closest circle,
1572
01:28:06,424 --> 01:28:09,592
even starred with her
in a homemade parody
1573
01:28:09,594 --> 01:28:13,529
of a Douglas Fairbanks
Movie, filmed at Val-Kill
1574
01:28:13,531 --> 01:28:16,032
by Marion Dickerman.
1575
01:28:21,856 --> 01:28:26,392
The "New York Times."
October 25, 1929.
1576
01:28:26,789 --> 01:28:28,894
The most disastrous decline
1577
01:28:28,896 --> 01:28:32,064
in the biggest and broadest
stock market of history
1578
01:28:32,066 --> 01:28:35,568
rocked the financial district yesterday.
1579
01:28:36,163 --> 01:28:38,637
It carried down with it speculators,
1580
01:28:38,639 --> 01:28:41,574
big and little, in every
part of the country.
1581
01:28:42,362 --> 01:28:44,276
Losses were tremendous,
1582
01:28:44,278 --> 01:28:47,279
and thousands of prosperous
brokerage and bank accounts,
1583
01:28:47,281 --> 01:28:51,384
sound and healthy a week ago,
were completely wrecked
1584
01:28:51,386 --> 01:28:53,652
in the strange debacle
1585
01:28:54,142 --> 01:28:56,989
due to a combination of circumstances,
1586
01:28:56,991 --> 01:28:59,992
but accelerated into a crash
1587
01:28:59,994 --> 01:29:01,233
by fear.
1588
01:29:10,318 --> 01:29:13,506
Americans had survived panics before,
1589
01:29:13,508 --> 01:29:16,175
but they had experienced
nothing remotely like
1590
01:29:16,177 --> 01:29:19,845
the great depression that began
with the stock market crash
1591
01:29:19,847 --> 01:29:23,349
in the autumn of 1929.
1592
01:29:23,351 --> 01:29:27,620
Within 12 months, the number
of jobless more than doubled.
1593
01:29:27,622 --> 01:29:30,623
Within another year,
it would double again,
1594
01:29:30,625 --> 01:29:33,392
with no recovery in sight.
1595
01:29:33,394 --> 01:29:37,430
Kansas farmers burned
their wheat to keep warm.
1596
01:29:37,432 --> 01:29:39,432
Kentucky coal miners survived
1597
01:29:39,434 --> 01:29:42,601
on Pokeweed and Dandelion Greens.
1598
01:29:42,603 --> 01:29:45,604
Ten Pennsylvania convicts out on parole
1599
01:29:45,606 --> 01:29:47,478
asked to be locked up again.
1600
01:29:47,508 --> 01:29:51,110
Life beyond prison walls was too hard.
1601
01:29:51,597 --> 01:29:54,613
Everyone seemed to feel the effects.
1602
01:29:54,979 --> 01:29:58,284
In Manhattan, Franklin Roosevelt's
own son-in-law,
1603
01:29:58,286 --> 01:30:02,788
Curtis Dall, lost his job and
his home in Westchester County
1604
01:30:02,790 --> 01:30:07,293
and had to move with Anna and
FDR's first two grandchildren
1605
01:30:07,295 --> 01:30:11,397
into the Roosevelt house
on East 65th Street.
1606
01:30:12,352 --> 01:30:14,400
Just a few blocks to the west,
1607
01:30:14,402 --> 01:30:17,069
homeless men built tar-paper shacks
1608
01:30:17,071 --> 01:30:19,405
in the heart of Central Park.
1609
01:30:19,407 --> 01:30:22,174
They had nowhere else to go.
1610
01:30:22,176 --> 01:30:25,011
Like hundreds of thousands
of desperate people
1611
01:30:25,013 --> 01:30:27,012
all across the country,
1612
01:30:27,014 --> 01:30:30,016
they named their temporary
village "Hooverville"
1613
01:30:30,018 --> 01:30:33,019
after the President whom
they had come to blame
1614
01:30:33,021 --> 01:30:35,788
for everything that had happened to them.
1615
01:30:39,292 --> 01:30:42,795
Americans differed over
what caused the depression
1616
01:30:42,797 --> 01:30:45,798
and what should be done about it.
1617
01:30:45,800 --> 01:30:48,301
But Herbert Hoover's grim personality
1618
01:30:48,303 --> 01:30:50,970
and his repeated, unconvincing promises
1619
01:30:50,972 --> 01:30:53,639
that recovery was just months away
1620
01:30:53,641 --> 01:30:57,643
combined to persuade a
growing majority of Americans
1621
01:30:57,645 --> 01:30:59,912
that a change was needed.
1622
01:31:00,859 --> 01:31:04,917
Meanwhile, Franklin Roosevelt
took more bold action
1623
01:31:04,919 --> 01:31:07,420
than any of his fellow governors.
1624
01:31:07,422 --> 01:31:09,588
He championed public power,
1625
01:31:09,590 --> 01:31:14,593
put unemployed men to work on
state conservation projects,
1626
01:31:14,595 --> 01:31:18,264
created the temporary
emergency relief administration,
1627
01:31:18,266 --> 01:31:20,433
the first state agency in the country
1628
01:31:20,435 --> 01:31:23,602
to provide public relief
for the unemployed...
1629
01:31:23,604 --> 01:31:26,939
"Not as a matter of
public charity," he said,
1630
01:31:26,941 --> 01:31:30,242
"but as a matter of social duty.
1631
01:31:30,244 --> 01:31:32,945
In the final analysis," he declared,
1632
01:31:32,947 --> 01:31:36,282
"the progress of our
civilization will be retarded
1633
01:31:36,284 --> 01:31:40,286
if any large body of
citizens falls behind.
1634
01:31:40,288 --> 01:31:42,788
Without the help of thousands of others,
1635
01:31:42,790 --> 01:31:44,957
any one of us would die,
1636
01:31:44,959 --> 01:31:47,893
naked and starved."
1637
01:31:49,798 --> 01:31:51,397
In 1930,
1638
01:31:51,399 --> 01:31:53,566
Roosevelt was re-elected governor
1639
01:31:53,568 --> 01:31:56,802
by almost 3/4 of a million votes.
1640
01:31:58,305 --> 01:32:01,807
"I do not see how Mr. Roosevelt
can escape becoming
1641
01:32:01,809 --> 01:32:04,810
the next presidential
nominee of his Party,"
1642
01:32:04,812 --> 01:32:07,713
the State Democratic Chairman
told the press,
1643
01:32:08,254 --> 01:32:12,451
"even if no one should raise
a finger to bring it about."
1644
01:32:12,950 --> 01:32:16,455
Even Ted Roosevelt reluctantly agreed.
1645
01:32:16,457 --> 01:32:19,959
"Well, as far as I can see,
the republican ship went down
1646
01:32:19,961 --> 01:32:22,628
with all on board," he wrote his mother.
1647
01:32:22,630 --> 01:32:26,632
"Cousin Franklin now, I suppose,
will run for the presidency,
1648
01:32:26,634 --> 01:32:29,635
and I am already beginning
to think of nasty things
1649
01:32:29,637 --> 01:32:32,071
to say concerning him."
1650
01:32:33,923 --> 01:32:35,674
The most serious hindrance
1651
01:32:35,676 --> 01:32:37,843
to FDR's winning the nomination
1652
01:32:37,845 --> 01:32:40,846
were persistent rumors about his health.
1653
01:32:40,848 --> 01:32:43,349
People whispered that infantile paralysis
1654
01:32:43,351 --> 01:32:45,351
had affected his mind,
1655
01:32:45,353 --> 01:32:49,054
even that he was actually
suffering from syphilis.
1656
01:32:49,056 --> 01:32:52,058
To offset them, Roosevelt secretly paid
1657
01:32:52,060 --> 01:32:56,562
a freelance journalist named
Earle Looker to "challenge" him
1658
01:32:56,564 --> 01:33:00,065
to prove his fitness for office
and write up the results
1659
01:33:00,067 --> 01:33:02,368
in "Liberty" Magazine.
1660
01:33:02,370 --> 01:33:06,372
Then, also behind the scenes,
Roosevelt provided the money
1661
01:33:06,374 --> 01:33:11,110
to pay 3 leading diagnosticians
to look him over.
1662
01:33:11,112 --> 01:33:14,113
The examination itself was legitimate.
1663
01:33:14,115 --> 01:33:17,616
All 3 doctors signed a statement
pronouncing Roosevelt
1664
01:33:17,618 --> 01:33:21,620
in fine shape, aside from
the aftereffects of polio,
1665
01:33:21,622 --> 01:33:25,124
though one of them... an
implacable republican...
1666
01:33:25,126 --> 01:33:28,627
Privately told his colleagues
he wanted it understood that
1667
01:33:28,629 --> 01:33:33,833
"so far as I'm concerned, this
doesn't go for above the neck."
1668
01:33:33,835 --> 01:33:36,836
July 16, 1931.
1669
01:33:36,838 --> 01:33:39,171
Well, sir, we got away
with the "Liberty" article,
1670
01:33:39,173 --> 01:33:41,173
despite all obstacles.
1671
01:33:41,175 --> 01:33:44,844
I think we can be sure that
at least 7 1/2 million readers
1672
01:33:44,846 --> 01:33:47,413
are sure you are physically fit.
1673
01:33:47,415 --> 01:33:49,415
Earle Looker.
1674
01:33:49,702 --> 01:33:53,919
FDR would never again
feel the need to speak in detail
1675
01:33:53,921 --> 01:33:56,789
about his health to any journalist.
1676
01:33:58,861 --> 01:34:03,295
As the 1932 Democratic Convention
opened in Chicago,
1677
01:34:03,297 --> 01:34:05,965
Roosevelt was the clear front-runner,
1678
01:34:05,967 --> 01:34:09,036
with a reputation as
one of the most activist
1679
01:34:09,066 --> 01:34:12,338
and effective governors in the country.
1680
01:34:12,340 --> 01:34:17,343
I call on you, whose standards
I see before me,
1681
01:34:17,345 --> 01:34:20,846
to here and now testify
to your determination
1682
01:34:20,848 --> 01:34:24,850
that the candidate of this
convention shall be and must be
1683
01:34:24,852 --> 01:34:27,853
that incarnation of Thomas Jefferson,
1684
01:34:27,855 --> 01:34:30,356
Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York!
1685
01:34:36,830 --> 01:34:39,331
Still, he had 9 rivals,
1686
01:34:39,333 --> 01:34:43,102
including his embittered
old ally, Al Smith,
1687
01:34:43,104 --> 01:34:45,604
and the conservative speaker of the house,
1688
01:34:45,606 --> 01:34:48,340
John Nance Garner of Texas.
1689
01:34:48,342 --> 01:34:50,943
It took 4 ballots...
1690
01:34:50,945 --> 01:34:53,546
And the second place on
the ticket for Garner...
1691
01:34:53,548 --> 01:34:55,948
For Roosevelt to win the nomination.
1692
01:34:55,950 --> 01:34:57,950
... for President of the United States.
1693
01:35:02,811 --> 01:35:05,825
Custom still required
the candidate to wait weeks
1694
01:35:05,827 --> 01:35:09,295
to be formally notified of his nomination.
1695
01:35:09,607 --> 01:35:11,797
We have a perfect day for this trip,
1696
01:35:11,799 --> 01:35:14,300
and I am very happy to be
going out to Chicago,
1697
01:35:14,302 --> 01:35:17,236
and everybody knows the
reason why I'm so happy.
1698
01:35:17,238 --> 01:35:20,239
In an electrifying break
with that tradition,
1699
01:35:20,241 --> 01:35:24,243
FDR decided to fly from Albany to Chicago
1700
01:35:24,245 --> 01:35:27,246
to accept the nomination right away.
1701
01:35:33,186 --> 01:35:36,355
Louis Howe handed him his speech.
1702
01:35:43,330 --> 01:35:45,331
My friends
1703
01:35:45,680 --> 01:35:50,336
of the Democratic National
Convention of 1932...
1704
01:35:52,839 --> 01:35:57,343
I appreciate your willingness
1705
01:35:57,813 --> 01:36:00,846
after these 6 arduous days
1706
01:36:01,305 --> 01:36:03,849
to remain here,
1707
01:36:03,851 --> 01:36:06,852
for I know well...
1708
01:36:07,836 --> 01:36:10,356
The sleepless hours
1709
01:36:10,358 --> 01:36:13,859
which you and I have had.
1710
01:36:19,866 --> 01:36:24,370
The appearance before
a national convention
1711
01:36:24,372 --> 01:36:27,373
of its nominee for President
1712
01:36:27,375 --> 01:36:30,743
to be formally notified of his selection
1713
01:36:30,745 --> 01:36:35,247
is unprecedented and unusual,
1714
01:36:35,249 --> 01:36:40,252
but these are unprecedented
and unusual times.
1715
01:36:42,715 --> 01:36:46,592
29 years earlier, Theodore Roosevelt
had promised
1716
01:36:46,594 --> 01:36:49,595
the American people a "Square Deal."
1717
01:36:49,894 --> 01:36:53,098
Now, 11 years after polio seemed
1718
01:36:53,100 --> 01:36:55,601
to have crushed his political hopes,
1719
01:36:55,603 --> 01:36:59,605
Franklin Roosevelt made
a promise of his own.
1720
01:36:59,607 --> 01:37:04,109
On the farms, in the large
metropolitan areas,
1721
01:37:04,111 --> 01:37:07,112
in the smaller cities and in the villages,
1722
01:37:07,114 --> 01:37:10,382
millions of our citizens cherish the hope
1723
01:37:10,881 --> 01:37:14,386
that their old standards
of living and of thought
1724
01:37:14,388 --> 01:37:16,755
have not gone forever.
1725
01:37:17,294 --> 01:37:20,259
Those millions cannot
1726
01:37:20,261 --> 01:37:22,761
and shall not hope in vain.
1727
01:37:30,270 --> 01:37:33,077
I pledge you,
1728
01:37:33,679 --> 01:37:36,609
I pledge myself
1729
01:37:37,244 --> 01:37:40,613
to a new deal for the American people.
1730
01:37:59,532 --> 01:38:03,035
President Hoover had grown so unpopular
1731
01:38:03,037 --> 01:38:06,538
that one of Roosevelt's defeated
rivals for the nomination
1732
01:38:06,540 --> 01:38:10,042
told FDR all he had to do to win
1733
01:38:10,044 --> 01:38:12,978
was to stay alive till November.
1734
01:38:12,980 --> 01:38:16,482
With the depression deepening,
a double line of policemen
1735
01:38:16,484 --> 01:38:20,260
armed with rifles now
ringed the U.S. Capitol
1736
01:38:20,290 --> 01:38:22,554
to keep out demonstrators.
1737
01:38:23,093 --> 01:38:26,058
When 17,000 mostly jobless
1738
01:38:26,060 --> 01:38:28,594
veterans of the Great War
and their families
1739
01:38:28,596 --> 01:38:32,097
descended on Washington to
demand an immediate payment
1740
01:38:32,099 --> 01:38:34,266
of a bonus they'd been promised,
1741
01:38:34,268 --> 01:38:36,302
Hoover called out the army.
1742
01:38:36,723 --> 01:38:39,672
The veterans were brutally
driven from the Capital.
1743
01:38:40,681 --> 01:38:42,474
Roosevelt told an aide,
1744
01:38:42,476 --> 01:38:45,344
"this will elect me."
1745
01:38:47,414 --> 01:38:49,915
Still, he took no chances.
1746
01:38:50,244 --> 01:38:53,786
Roosevelt campaigned hard
all across the country,
1747
01:38:54,160 --> 01:38:56,789
promising help for "the forgotten man
1748
01:38:56,791 --> 01:39:00,292
at the bottom of the economic pyramid,"
1749
01:39:00,820 --> 01:39:03,295
attacking Hoover for inaction,
1750
01:39:03,553 --> 01:39:05,964
and simultaneously pledging to slash
1751
01:39:05,966 --> 01:39:09,401
the federal budget by 25%.
1752
01:39:09,403 --> 01:39:14,406
Hoover denounced him as
"a chameleon on plaid."
1753
01:39:30,257 --> 01:39:33,258
Now, when Americans spoke of Roosevelt,
1754
01:39:33,260 --> 01:39:36,762
they meant Franklin, not Theodore.
1755
01:39:37,426 --> 01:39:39,967
"The Oyster Bay Roosevelts have become
1756
01:39:39,997 --> 01:39:43,402
the out-of-season Roosevelts,"
a friend wrote.
1757
01:39:43,860 --> 01:39:46,572
Theodore Roosevelt's
younger sister, Corrine,
1758
01:39:46,574 --> 01:39:50,748
would cross party lines
to vote for FDR that fall.
1759
01:39:51,206 --> 01:39:54,780
But Alice Roosevelt longworth,
tr's eldest daughter,
1760
01:39:54,782 --> 01:39:59,518
campaigned hard against him
aboard president Hoover's train.
1761
01:39:59,829 --> 01:40:03,522
There we were, the Roosevelts,
1762
01:40:03,524 --> 01:40:07,526
hubris up to the eyebrows,
beyond the eyebrows,
1763
01:40:07,978 --> 01:40:12,531
and then who should come sailing
down the river but Nemesis
1764
01:40:12,533 --> 01:40:16,135
in the person of cousin Franklin.
1765
01:40:16,518 --> 01:40:19,805
And at Sagamore Hill,
Theodore Roosevelt's widow,
1766
01:40:19,807 --> 01:40:22,474
Edith, was so infuriated at receiving
1767
01:40:22,476 --> 01:40:26,478
some 300 congratulatory
messages from people
1768
01:40:26,480 --> 01:40:30,249
who mistakenly thought
Franklin was one of her sons
1769
01:40:30,251 --> 01:40:34,253
that she made an unprecedented
appearance at a Republican Rally
1770
01:40:34,255 --> 01:40:38,090
in Manhattan to introduce
the republican incumbent,
1771
01:40:38,092 --> 01:40:42,094
just to make it clear that
this Oyster Bay Roosevelt
1772
01:40:42,096 --> 01:40:45,864
would also be voting for Herbert Hoover.
1773
01:40:45,866 --> 01:40:49,868
Someone once asked Sara Delano Roosevelt
1774
01:40:49,870 --> 01:40:53,372
why so many of the Roosevelts
of Oyster Bay seemed
1775
01:40:53,374 --> 01:40:56,375
so hostile to her branch of the family.
1776
01:40:56,377 --> 01:40:59,878
She didn't know, she said,
but "perhaps it's because
1777
01:40:59,880 --> 01:41:03,315
we're so much better-looking
than they are."
1778
01:41:03,317 --> 01:41:05,818
Sitting down here next to me
is Mrs. Roosevelt,
1779
01:41:05,820 --> 01:41:08,821
my wife, and my granddaughter,
1780
01:41:08,823 --> 01:41:12,124
Anna Roosevelt dall, on her lap.
1781
01:41:12,126 --> 01:41:14,460
What's our campaign slogan, Sistie?
1782
01:41:14,462 --> 01:41:16,462
"Happy days are here again."
1783
01:41:16,464 --> 01:41:18,464
"Happy days are here again."
1784
01:41:18,466 --> 01:41:20,132
Good. That's right.
1785
01:41:22,636 --> 01:41:26,638
On Election Night, November 8, 1932,
1786
01:41:26,640 --> 01:41:30,142
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
won the presidency
1787
01:41:30,144 --> 01:41:32,144
of the United States of America
1788
01:41:32,146 --> 01:41:34,146
by 7 million votes
1789
01:41:34,148 --> 01:41:38,417
and carried 42 of the 48 states.
1790
01:41:38,419 --> 01:41:42,921
His party took control
of both houses of congress.
1791
01:41:42,923 --> 01:41:45,424
It was the greatest Democratic victory
1792
01:41:45,426 --> 01:41:48,894
in more than 3/4 of a century.
1793
01:41:49,177 --> 01:41:52,398
In the Philippines, where
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.
1794
01:41:52,400 --> 01:41:54,400
Was serving as Governor-General,
1795
01:41:54,402 --> 01:41:56,902
he identified himself to a reporter
1796
01:41:56,904 --> 01:41:59,772
as the President-elect's "fifth cousin,
1797
01:42:00,368 --> 01:42:02,775
about to be removed."
1798
01:42:07,191 --> 01:42:10,783
I was happy for him, of course,
1799
01:42:10,785 --> 01:42:13,952
because I knew that in many ways
1800
01:42:13,954 --> 01:42:16,955
it would make up for the blow
1801
01:42:16,957 --> 01:42:20,359
that fate had dealt him.
1802
01:42:20,845 --> 01:42:25,364
But for myself, I was... deeply troubled.
1803
01:42:25,366 --> 01:42:29,034
As I saw it, this meant the end
1804
01:42:29,036 --> 01:42:33,372
of any personal life of my own.
1805
01:42:34,874 --> 01:42:38,877
I had watched Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt
1806
01:42:38,879 --> 01:42:43,382
and had seen what it meant to
be the wife of the President.
1807
01:42:43,384 --> 01:42:48,387
The turmoil in my heart was
rather great that night and...
1808
01:42:48,389 --> 01:42:51,890
The next few months were
not to make any clearer
1809
01:42:51,892 --> 01:42:54,393
what the road ahead would be.
1810
01:43:04,695 --> 01:43:06,271
During the 4 long months
1811
01:43:06,273 --> 01:43:09,775
between Roosevelt's election
and his inauguration,
1812
01:43:09,777 --> 01:43:12,344
the depression got still worse.
1813
01:43:12,699 --> 01:43:15,514
Stocks, bonds, farm prices...
1814
01:43:15,516 --> 01:43:19,051
Everything continued to spiral downward.
1815
01:43:19,442 --> 01:43:22,054
Anxious depositors withdrew their savings
1816
01:43:22,056 --> 01:43:25,057
in frenzied runs on banks.
1817
01:43:25,059 --> 01:43:27,559
Nearly 400 of them failed
1818
01:43:27,561 --> 01:43:30,562
in January and February alone.
1819
01:43:34,049 --> 01:43:36,001
President Hoover called repeatedly
1820
01:43:36,003 --> 01:43:40,005
upon the president-elect to
join him in what he called
1821
01:43:40,007 --> 01:43:43,108
"co-operative action" to end the crisis.
1822
01:43:43,110 --> 01:43:45,110
Roosevelt refused,
1823
01:43:45,112 --> 01:43:47,613
wary of being trapped into supporting
1824
01:43:47,615 --> 01:43:51,517
orthodox policies of which
he did not approve.
1825
01:43:51,519 --> 01:43:54,019
Off the record, the President-elect told
1826
01:43:54,021 --> 01:43:59,825
a reporter the country's
troubles were not yet "my baby."
1827
01:44:00,129 --> 01:44:02,995
FDR visited Hyde Park,
1828
01:44:02,997 --> 01:44:05,430
rested at Warm Springs,
1829
01:44:05,432 --> 01:44:07,933
then went to sea for 12 days,
1830
01:44:07,935 --> 01:44:10,002
fishing in the Caribbean
1831
01:44:10,004 --> 01:44:12,838
and sleeping aboard
a palatial yacht owned
1832
01:44:12,840 --> 01:44:16,842
by an old Hudson River
friend, Vincent Astor.
1833
01:44:26,786 --> 01:44:31,023
I got this idea when I was 17 years old.
1834
01:44:32,603 --> 01:44:35,461
I see a lot of things I see in my mind.
1835
01:44:35,863 --> 01:44:40,365
I see a lot of poor people are
hungry for a piece of bread.
1836
01:44:40,367 --> 01:44:42,567
People want bread,
1837
01:44:42,597 --> 01:44:45,070
don't have bread to eat.
1838
01:44:47,333 --> 01:44:48,573
In my mind,
1839
01:44:48,575 --> 01:44:52,077
the idea is to kill the President
in one country.
1840
01:44:52,297 --> 01:44:55,080
After he is killed, kill another,
1841
01:44:55,082 --> 01:44:57,582
and then kill another.
1842
01:44:57,584 --> 01:45:00,085
Giuseppe Zangara.
1843
01:45:02,588 --> 01:45:05,591
The President-elect's fishing trip ended
1844
01:45:05,593 --> 01:45:08,093
at Miami, Florida on the evening
1845
01:45:08,095 --> 01:45:11,496
of February 15, 1933.
1846
01:45:11,893 --> 01:45:13,999
Roosevelt stopped his car
1847
01:45:14,001 --> 01:45:17,002
to speak to the crowd that
had gathered to see him.
1848
01:45:19,940 --> 01:45:23,442
Mr. Mayor, my friends in Miami,
1849
01:45:23,444 --> 01:45:26,445
I am not a stranger here
1850
01:45:26,447 --> 01:45:30,949
because for a good many years,
I used to come down here.
1851
01:45:30,951 --> 01:45:34,286
But on my coming back,
I have firmly resolved
1852
01:45:34,288 --> 01:45:36,355
not to make it the last time,
1853
01:45:36,357 --> 01:45:38,356
and to see all of you
1854
01:45:38,358 --> 01:45:40,859
and to have another wonderful 10 days
1855
01:45:40,861 --> 01:45:43,362
or two weeks in Florida waters.
1856
01:45:43,364 --> 01:45:45,864
Many thanks.
1857
01:45:46,842 --> 01:45:48,367
A deranged Italian immigrant
1858
01:45:48,369 --> 01:45:52,304
named Giuseppe Zangara was
waiting with a revolver.
1859
01:45:58,079 --> 01:46:00,979
He hated "all presidents," he said later,
1860
01:46:00,981 --> 01:46:03,482
and "everybody who is rich."
1861
01:46:03,484 --> 01:46:07,919
He had hoped to shoot Hoover;
Now he wanted to kill Roosevelt.
1862
01:46:09,551 --> 01:46:12,830
He got off 5 shots and hit 5 bystanders,
1863
01:46:12,860 --> 01:46:15,360
including the Mayor of Chicago,
1864
01:46:15,362 --> 01:46:20,287
who happened to be standing
next to the president-elect.
1865
01:46:20,317 --> 01:46:23,318
FDR never flinched.
1866
01:46:23,738 --> 01:46:26,822
He refused to take cover,
ordered the secret service
1867
01:46:26,824 --> 01:46:30,325
to lift the mortally
wounded mayor into his car,
1868
01:46:30,327 --> 01:46:33,829
held onto him during
the race to the hospital.
1869
01:46:34,333 --> 01:46:35,998
Eleanor was in New York.
1870
01:46:36,000 --> 01:46:38,500
Franklin called to reassure her.
1871
01:46:38,880 --> 01:46:41,182
"He's all right," she said afterwards.
1872
01:46:41,212 --> 01:46:43,505
"He's not the least bit excited.
1873
01:46:43,507 --> 01:46:46,174
These things are to be expected."
1874
01:46:47,677 --> 01:46:51,513
Like Theodore Roosevelt
nearly 21 years earlier,
1875
01:46:51,515 --> 01:46:56,518
Franklin seemed unaffected
by coming so close to death.
1876
01:46:56,520 --> 01:47:00,022
"There was nothing," an aide
who spent that evening with him
1877
01:47:00,024 --> 01:47:03,525
remembered, "not so much
as the twitching oa muscle,
1878
01:47:03,527 --> 01:47:08,030
"the mopping of a brow, or
even the hint of a false gaiety
1879
01:47:08,032 --> 01:47:13,035
"to indicate that it wasn't
any evening in any other place.
1880
01:47:13,037 --> 01:47:18,040
I have never seen anything
in my life more magnificent."
1881
01:47:24,847 --> 01:47:28,350
At his inauguration 17 days later,
1882
01:47:28,352 --> 01:47:30,352
gripping James' arm,
1883
01:47:30,354 --> 01:47:34,356
Roosevelt would demonstrate
another kind of courage.
1884
01:47:36,159 --> 01:47:38,660
In 40 of the 48 states,
1885
01:47:38,662 --> 01:47:41,163
all the banks were closed.
1886
01:47:42,665 --> 01:47:46,168
The stock exchange suspended trading.
1887
01:47:47,670 --> 01:47:51,673
Industrial production had
been cut almost in half.
1888
01:47:53,676 --> 01:47:58,180
Nearly half of all American
farmers faced foreclosure.
1889
01:47:59,901 --> 01:48:02,684
Almost one out of 3 wage-earners...
1890
01:48:02,686 --> 01:48:05,687
Some 14 million men and women...
1891
01:48:05,689 --> 01:48:08,190
Was without work.
1892
01:48:09,179 --> 01:48:11,193
When their families were included,
1893
01:48:11,195 --> 01:48:16,198
at least 40 million people had
no dependable source of income.
1894
01:48:19,451 --> 01:48:22,504
You, Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
1895
01:48:23,096 --> 01:48:24,792
do solemnly swear...
1896
01:48:24,822 --> 01:48:28,110
It was very, very solemn
1897
01:48:28,112 --> 01:48:32,114
and a little terrifying.
1898
01:48:32,613 --> 01:48:36,118
You felt people would do anything
1899
01:48:36,120 --> 01:48:41,123
if only someone would
tell them what to do.
1900
01:48:43,626 --> 01:48:47,129
One has the feeling of going it blindly
1901
01:48:47,131 --> 01:48:51,133
because we're in a tremendous stream
1902
01:48:51,135 --> 01:48:54,803
and none of us know where
we are going to land.
1903
01:48:54,805 --> 01:48:56,805
... of my ability
1904
01:48:56,807 --> 01:49:00,308
preserve, protect, and
defend the Constitution
1905
01:49:00,310 --> 01:49:03,311
of the United States, so help me God.
1906
01:49:07,422 --> 01:49:10,318
Americans everywhere were waiting to hear
1907
01:49:10,320 --> 01:49:13,288
what the new president had to say.
1908
01:49:13,290 --> 01:49:16,792
I shall ask the congress for
the one remaining instrument...
1909
01:49:16,794 --> 01:49:19,294
He would promise bold action
1910
01:49:19,296 --> 01:49:21,463
and call upon Congress to grant him
1911
01:49:21,465 --> 01:49:26,134
"broad executive powers to wage
a war against the emergency."
1912
01:49:26,675 --> 01:49:29,107
... as great as the power
1913
01:49:29,137 --> 01:49:31,922
that would be given to me if we were,
1914
01:49:31,952 --> 01:49:34,576
in fact, invaded by a foreign foe.
1915
01:49:39,082 --> 01:49:43,618
This nation is asking for
action, and action now.
1916
01:49:46,623 --> 01:49:48,623
But it was another line
1917
01:49:48,625 --> 01:49:51,793
his frightened fellow
citizens remembered best.
1918
01:49:52,206 --> 01:49:55,797
It echoed hard-earned lessons
that had informed the lives
1919
01:49:55,799 --> 01:49:59,301
of first Theodore and
then Eleanor Roosevelt
1920
01:49:59,303 --> 01:50:03,305
and now informed his life as well.
1921
01:50:03,307 --> 01:50:05,307
So, first of all,
1922
01:50:05,309 --> 01:50:08,310
let me assert my firm belief
1923
01:50:08,648 --> 01:50:12,814
that the only thing we have to fear is
1924
01:50:12,816 --> 01:50:15,018
fear itself...
1925
01:50:15,048 --> 01:50:18,820
Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror
1926
01:50:19,245 --> 01:50:21,823
which paralyzes needed efforts
1927
01:50:21,997 --> 01:50:25,827
to convert retreat into advance.
1928
01:50:26,385 --> 01:50:27,829
In every dark hour of our...
1929
01:50:27,831 --> 01:50:30,754
"The only thing we have
to fear is fear itself,"
1930
01:50:30,784 --> 01:50:34,319
in some ways, is inspired nonsense.
1931
01:50:34,321 --> 01:50:37,322
If you're worried about
putting food on the table,
1932
01:50:37,707 --> 01:50:40,826
that's something real to fear,
that's not fear itself.
1933
01:50:40,828 --> 01:50:45,997
And yet, like all great works
of fiction, all great stories,
1934
01:50:45,999 --> 01:50:50,502
that line captures the willing suspension
1935
01:50:50,504 --> 01:50:54,506
of disbelief that makes anything possible.
1936
01:50:54,508 --> 01:50:57,509
And somebody watching the
speech... Tommy Corcoran,
1937
01:50:57,511 --> 01:51:00,078
who later went to work
for Roosevelt... said that
1938
01:51:00,080 --> 01:51:05,083
the moment was like Excalibur
being pulled from the stone
1939
01:51:05,085 --> 01:51:09,588
and that you just had a sense,
"this guy can do it.
1940
01:51:09,838 --> 01:51:11,590
He can lift us up."
1941
01:51:47,072 --> 01:51:55,246
- sync & corrections by wolfen -
- www.addic7ed.com -
1942
01:52:17,666 --> 01:52:20,330
Tomorrow night on "The Roosevelts,"
1943
01:52:20,360 --> 01:52:22,928
FDR champions sweeping new programs...
1944
01:52:23,029 --> 01:52:25,030
Social security represents
1945
01:52:25,060 --> 01:52:29,835
a redefinition of the
American Social Contract.
1946
01:52:29,936 --> 01:52:32,270
While confiding in a discreet friend...
1947
01:52:32,790 --> 01:52:34,696
Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt
1948
01:52:34,726 --> 01:52:37,442
evidently don't get on together.
1949
01:52:37,693 --> 01:52:40,695
As the shadow of war hangs over Europe.
1950
01:52:42,702 --> 01:52:45,778
Par 5 of
"The Roosevelt: An Intimate History,"
1951
01:52:45,808 --> 01:52:47,022
tomorrow night.
1952
01:52:47,362 --> 01:52:51,640
These extraordinary Americans
all share one thing in common:
1953
01:52:51,741 --> 01:52:54,514
A past they never knew... until now.
1954
01:52:54,544 --> 01:52:55,394
"it's incredible!"
1955
01:52:55,424 --> 01:52:58,698
In his new season on PBS, Henry
Louis Gates, Jr. helps them
1956
01:52:58,799 --> 01:53:01,233
uncover the truth about
where they come from.
1957
01:53:01,568 --> 01:53:03,939
S. Field "I can't believe that
these documents even exist!"
1958
01:53:04,671 --> 01:53:07,106
Get to know them, as they
discover who they really are.
1959
01:53:07,341 --> 01:53:09,693
K. Alexander "that's pretty amazing."
1960
01:53:09,723 --> 01:53:13,185
Finding your roots with
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
156482
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