Polio Wars (79 page)

24.
McCarthy “Outline,” 2–3.

25.
Kenny to McCarthy, August 26 1942, Mary McCarthy, 1942–1944, MHS-K; Kenny to Dear Dr. Diehl, September 16 1942, Dr. Harold S. Diehl, 1941–1944, MHS-K.

26.
Martha Ostenso quoted in George Grim “Entertainers? Brainerd's Got Dandies”
Minneapolis Sunday Tribune
April 17 1950, 1, 5.

27.
Kenny to Chuter, April 15, 1943, OM 65-17, Box 2, Folder 8, Chuter Papers, Oxley-SLQ; John B. Davies “Sister Kenny Triumphs in America”
Australian Women's Weekly
(March 6 1943) 10: 9.

28.
Mary McCarthy to My Beloved Elizabeth, February 7 1944, Mary McCarthy, 1942–1944, MHS-K; Mary McCarthy to Sister Dear, February 25 1944, Mary McCarthy, 1942–1944, MHS-K.

29.
On Russell's assessment of McCarthy as “a terrific saleswoman; full of Irish palaver” see [Cohn first interview with] Rosalind Russell, August 18 1953, Cohn Papers, MHS-K.

30.
[Cohn first interview with] Rosalind Russell, August 18 1953; see also “Screen News Here And In Hollywood”
New York Times
July 24 1942; “Screen News Here And In Hollywood”
New York Times
September 5 1942.

31.
By 1955 she had starred in 19 career-woman movies; Richard G. Hubler “The Perils of Rosalind Russell”
Saturday Evening Post
(October 1 1955) 228: 78. As Russell commented in 1953, “the plot was always the same, and I used to even get the same desk in each picture”; “The Comic Spirit”
Time
(March 30 1953) 61: 40.

32.
Russell in Roy Newquist
Showcase, A Candid Cross Section of the Show World by the People Who Make It Show Business
(New York: William Morrow & Company, 1966), 396.

33.
“The Comic Spirit,” 42–44; [Cohn first interview with] Rosalind Russell, August 18 1953; Lowell E. Redelings “The Hollywood Scene”
Citizen News
September 26 1946; and see Rosalind Russell and Chris Chase
Life Is a Banquet
(New York: Random House, 1977), 143–147; Rosalind Russell “The Role I Liked Best …”
Saturday Evening Post
(August 2 1955) 228: 104. On the RKO studio reaction “What, a story about cripples and a nurse? No!” see Nicholas Yanni
Rosalind Russell
(New York: Pyramid, 1975), 86. She was married to Danish-born agent Frederick Brisson.

34.
Russell “The Role I Liked Best,” 104; see also “The Comic Spirit,” 44; Redelings “The Hollywood Scene”; Russell and Chase
Banquet
, 145–146, 154.

35.
“Famed Paralysis Nurse Here to Discuss Film”
Los Angeles Times
July 14 1942; Hedda Hopper “Star Nurses An Enthusiasm!”
Washington Post
July 27 1942; [Cohn first interview with] Rosalind Russell, August 18 1953; [Cohn interview with] Rosalind Russell, April 20 1955, Cohn Papers, MHS-K. See also “The Comic Spirit,” 44; Russell and Chase
Banquet
, 143–144.

36.
[Cohn first interview with] Rosalind Russell, August 18 1953.

37.
Ibid.

38.
McCracken, interviews with Rogers, November 1993.

39.
“Famed Paralysis Nurse Here to Discuss Film”
Los Angeles Times
July 14 1942; Hedda Hopper “Star Nurses An Enthusiasm!”
Washington Post
July 27 1942.

40.
Chuter to Dear Sister Kenny, June 29 1943, Wilson Collection.

41.
Kenny to McCarthy, August 26 1942; PJAC [Peter Cusack] to BOC [Basil O'Connor], December 8 1942, Public Relations, MOD-K; Kenny to McCarthy, December 21 1942, Mary McCarthy, 1942–1944, MHS-K. See also “Rosalind Russell” in Mike Steen
Hollywood Speaks: An Oral History
(New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1974), 82; Cohn
Sister Kenny
, 167–169.

42.
Hedda Hopper “Star Nurses An Enthusiasm!”
Washington Post
July 27 1942; McCarthy to My Beloved Elizabeth, October 21 1943, Mary McCarthy, 1942–1944, MHS-K; Kenny to McCarthy, August 26 1942 Cohn
Sister Kenny
, 167–169; Russell and Chase
Banquet
, 12. For Kenny's divorce comment see E. B. Radcliffe “Show Mirror”
Enquirer
[1946], Public Relations, MOD-K.

43.
On the Lance story, see McCracken, interviews with Rogers, November 1993; and see Kenny to Dear Mr. Henry, November 22 1949, Henry Papers, MHS-K; [Cohn first interview with] Rosalind Russell, August 18 1953; [Cohn interview with] Rosalind Russell, April 20 1955; Cohn
Sister Kenny
, 192–193. The story is not mentioned in Russell's autobiography,
Life Is a Banquet
.

44.
[Cohn interview with] Rosalind Russell, April 20 1955.

45.
Margaret Buell Wilder “Noted Nurse Gives Hope To Stricken”
Los Angeles Examiner
[1943], Clippings, MHS-K.

46.
J. B. Hulett, Jr. “The Kenny Healing Cult: Preliminary Analysis of Leadership and Patterns of Interaction”
American Sociological Review
(1945) 10: 365.

47.
McCarthy “Outline,” 16.

48.
Cohn
Sister Kenny
, 203–204. In “Angel of Mercy”
New York Times
November 21 1946 the amount was $100,000.

49.
“Famed Paralysis Nurse Here to Discuss Film”
Los Angeles Times
July 14 1942.

50.
Aubrey Pye, interview by Douglas Gordon and Ralph Doherty, November 8 1980, [transcript of sound recording], Fryer Library.

51.
Kenny to McCarthy, August 26 1942.

52.
Kenny “Data Concerning Introduction of Kenny Concept and Method of Treatment of Infantile Paralysis into the United States of America” [April 1944], Board of Directors, MHS-K; Kenny to Dear Dr. Diehl, September 16 1942, Dr. Harold S. Diehl, 1941–1944, MHS-K.

53.
RKO had, for example, produced
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
(1939) and
I Walked With a Zombie
(1943).

54.
McCarthy to Sister Dear, February 25 1944.

55.
Mary McCarthy to My Beloved Elizabeth, February 7 1944; Russell in Newquist
Showcase
, 396.

56.
Hedda Hopper “Looking at Hollywood”
Los Angeles Times
September 22 1944; Louella O. Parsons “ ‘Roz' Russell Seriously Ill”
Los Angeles Examiner
September 24 1944; Russell and Chase
Banquet
, 146–147.

57.
Hedda Hopper “Fans Object to Cancellation of Film About Sister Kenny”
Sioux Falls (S.D.) Argus-Leader
February 26 1944, Clippings 1944, MHS-K; James F. Bell to My Dear Mr. O'Connor, March 8 1944, Public Relations, MOD-K; Editorial “Heard and Read”
The A-V
(November 1946) 54: 152. On Russell, Hopper, and Kenny see Bernard F. Dick
Forever Mame: The Life of Rosalind Russell
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2006), 103–104.

58.
Kenny to Dear Mary [McCarthy], February 17 1944, Mary McCarthy, 1942–1944, MHS-K; see also Mary to Sister Dear, February 25 1944.

59.
Kenny to Hedda Hopper, [telegram] September 23 1944, RKO-Misc., 1942–1948, MHS-K; and see Louella O. Parsons “In Hollywood: Sister Kenny Protests Blaming of Rosalind Russell for Polio Film Delay”
Los Angeles Examiner
September 27 1944.

60.
Jean Renoir
My Life and My Films
transl. Norman Denny (London: Collins, 1974), 220–221. See also Redelings “The Hollywood Scene”; Erskine Johnson “Hollywood Diary”
Los Angeles Daily News
September 12 1946; “Russell” in Steen
Hollywood Speaks
, 83; Russell and Chase
Banquet
, 145. Russell recalled that Nichols and Renoir had gone to Minneapolis and
returned enthusiastic, and then bought McCarthy off; [Cohn first interview with] Rosalind Russell, August 18 1953. Nichols recalled that RKO executive Charles Koerner had “begged” him to take it, and that he had later gone to Russell's house where he met Kenny and was “terribly impressed”; [Cohn interview with] Dudley Nichols, [c.1955], Cohn Papers, MHS-K.

61.
“The Comic Spirit,” 44.

62.
The other credited screenwriters were Alexander Knox and Mary McCarthy. Most of the featured cast were respected studio actors, without Russell's star reputation. Alexander Knox, a Canadian character actor who played Anneas McDonnell, had been nominated for an Oscar for best actor for his role as Woodrow Wilson in
Wilson
(1944). Kevin Connors was played by Dean Jagger who had roles in
Woman Trap
(1936) and
Revolt of the Zombies
(1936), and as the central character in
Brigham Young
(1940). Kenny's mother was played by Beulah Bondi, a well-known character actor who had played Arrowsmith's mother-in-law in
Arrowsmith
(1931), another mother in
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
(1939), and Jimmy Stewart's mother in
It's a Wonderful Life
(1946), and had been nominated for 2 best supporting actress Oscars in the 1930s [
The Gorgeous Hussy
(1936) and
Of Human Hearts
(1939)].

63.
Dudley Nichols to Dear Mr. Cohn, November 1 [1954], Cohn Papers, MHS-K; [Cohn interview with] Rosalind Russell, April 20 1955.

64.
Milton L. Gunzburg (circa 1910–1991) was the founder and president of Natural Vision 3-D Corporation. He was not credited in the film.

65.
McCarthy “Outline,” 3; Milton Gunzburg to McCarthy, [1942] in Kenny Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.

66.
Kenny to McCarthy, September 1 1943, Mary McCarthy, 1942–1944, MHS-K.

67.
[Cohn interview with] Mrs. Mary McCrae, April [n.d.] 1953, Cohn Papers, MHS-K.

68.
McCracken interviews with Rogers, November 1993; see also Cohn
Sister Kenny
, 195.

69.
“Sister Kenny”
[Sydney] People Magazine
June 20 1951, 7.

70.
Kenny to Dear Mr. Nichols, November 9 1945, [enclosed cable to] Kenny, November 2 1945, [copy in] Cohn Papers, MHS-K.

71.
[Cohn interview with] Rosalind Russell, April 20 1955; [Cohn interview with] Mary McCarthy, April 4 1953, Cohn Papers, MHS-K.

72.
[Cohn interview with] Mary and Stuart McCracken, [El Monte] April 15 1955, Cohn Papers, MHS-K; Chuter to Dear Sister Kenny, September 6 1945.

73.
McCarthy “Outline,” 7.

74.
John F. Pohl and Betty Pohl to Dear Sister Kenny, August 17 1944, Cohn Papers, MHS-K.

75.
Milton Gunzburg “ ‘Sister Kenny:' Rough Outline of Fictionized Fact” [1943], Kenny Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, 82. See also Gunzburg's suggestions that the appearance of paralyzed children be “done for laughs” so that the audience is not “wincing” with the tragedy of children becoming ill, “Rough Outline,” 12.

76.
Pohl and Pohl to Kenny, August 17 1944.

77.
[Milton Gunzburg] “Final Script: Sister Kenny” October 27 1945, Kenny Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.

78.
Kenny with Ostenso
And They Shall Walk
, 18–19. Kenny vaguely mentioned working in a “private hospital” for 3 years and winning “my certificate.”

79.
Curie, born in 1867, a generation before Kenny, was certainly the best-known woman scientist of the early and mid-twentieth century. In 1921 Curie had traveled to the United States, been greeted by President Warren Harding, and been widely feted. She died in 1934 at 67.

80.
Gunzburg “Rough Outline,” 36. Gunzburg also proposed that an angry father or grandfather threaten Brack with a gun and that Kenny save his life, “Rough Outline,” 57.

81.
[Gunzburg] “Final Script.”

82.
John McCarten “Experiment Perilous”
New Yorker
September 28 1946; see also RKO Studios “Call Bureau Cast Service” June 10 1946, Clipping File, Kenny Collection, Margaret Herrick Library.

83.
[Gunzburg] “Final Script.”

84.
Ibid.

85.
On the “somewhat hollow victory of Sister Kenny, who receives the acclaim of the children and families helped by her therapeutic methods but remains a figure on the margin of the medical profession,” see Jacqueline Foertsch
Bracing Accounts: The Literature and Culture of Polio in Postwar America
(Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2008), 170–181.

86.
Pohl and Pohl to Kenny, August 17 1944.

87.
Kenny to Dear Mr. Nichols, August 12 1944, Cohn Papers, MHS-K; Kenny to Dear Mr. Nichols, September 18 1944, Cohn Papers, MHS-K.

88.
Kenny to RKO Studios, August 2 1946, RKO-Misc., 1942–1948, MHS-K.

89.
On the movie “jam-packed with crippled kids” with all but 6-year-old Doreen McCann “actual Institute patients” see anon.
Liberty
October 12 1946; and see Kenny to Edward Donahoe, October 4 1945, RKO-Misc., 1942–1948, MHS-K; Eddie Donahoe to Sister Kenny, October 12 1945, RKO-Misc., 1942–1948, MHS-K. Donahoe told Kenny that in most of the scenes “the little boy, David Martinson, appears. His affliction is spinal abifida [sic], and I don't know whether you would want to use him or not.”

90.
Kenny to RKO Studios, August 2 1946; Kenny to Manager, RKO Studio, August 3 1946, RKO-Misc., 1942–1948, MHS-K.

91.
McCarthy “Kenny” [Script 1943], Kenny Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, 24. This battle would have made sense only if Kenny's background had been portrayed as working-class or lower middle-class. In the film her background is left ambiguous, but in other script versions McCarthy had tried to distance Kenny from nurses' typical class origins by making her family middle class. “When Elizabeth announced to her startled family that she wished to become a nurse, they objected heatedly. They were in quite comfortable financial circumstances, and were horrified that their daughter should set out to take a job of any kind,” McCarthy “Outline,” 5; on the Kenny family home as large and comfortable with many verandas and a beautiful garden, see McCarthy “Kenny,” 2.