[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

incurred the wrath of physicians.
Elizabeth Kenny could have been a hospital nurse, yet chose to be a
bush nurse, traveling long distances on horseback (or in a buggy) to serve
those without access to medical help. The more Rosalind learned about
Elizabeth Kenny, the more determined she was to play her on the screen.
However, her other film commitments delayed the project, which was still
in the planning stages, consisting merely of a desire but lacking a script,
co-stars, and, most important, studio backing.
Rosalind s breakdown caused another delay; yet even during that
period of enforced rest, she continued to devise a strategy to get the film
made. Once she recovered and started work on Roughly Speaking, in which
Louise s daughter develops polio, she knew that film was the dress rehearsal
for Sister Kenny (1946), in which she would have to age over a longer period,
with an accompanying weight gain that, for an actress with Rosalind s wil-
lowy frame, meant realistic padding.
Like Louise Randall Pierson, Elizabeth Kenny (1880 1952) was a his-
torical figure. In the mid 1940s, the average American was acutely aware of
104 LOSING TO LORETTA
infantile paralysis or polio, as it was usually called for which there was
still no cure. Some may have also known about Elizabeth Kenny, who was
awarded the title of  Sister for serving on hospital ships during World War
I; they may also have read that she treated polio patients by wrapping their
limbs in heated strips of cloth and massaging (or, as she would have said,
 reeducating ) their muscles. To her credit, Sister Kenny never claimed she
had effected a cure, which, she insisted, was only possible with a vaccine.
Unfortunately, she died two years before the Salk vaccine became available
in 1954. She always considered her treatment, which she carefully distin-
guished from a cure, as an alternative to the immobilizing braces and splints
that produced no improvement. The medical establishment, at the time a
formidable patriarchy, felt otherwise and seized every opportunity it could
to denounce her then-controversial therapy.
Rosalind first met Sister Kenny in 1940, when she came to the United
States, hoping that American doctors would be more impressed by her suc-
cess rate and less concerned about her lack of a medical degree. Upon her
arrival in Los Angeles, Sister Kenny became Rosalind s houseguest. Rosalind
knew then that Sister Kenny s life had to be portrayed on the screen with
herself as star. The studios, however, were cool to the idea. Finally, Rosalind s
RKO connection paid off. In 1945 RKO agreed to make the film, as part of a
four-picture deal the studio s way of indulging Rosalind in order to get
more pictures from her, as RKO did with Mourning Becomes Electra (1947),
The Velvet Touch (1948), and Never Wave at a WAC (1952).
Although Rosalind knew that Sister Kenny s appeal would be limited, she
identified so strongly with the character, particularly her unwavering belief
in her treatment, that she was determined to be as authentic an Elizabeth
Kenny as possible. By observing Sister Kenny in operation, Rosalind learned
to massage children s limbs so realistically that she could have passed for
a physical therapist. A gray streak in the hair may have been sufficient for
the middle-aged Louise Randall Pierson, but for Elizabeth Kenny, whose life
spanned two world wars, Rosalind needed a silver wig and considerable
padding for a woman in her sixties, as Sister Kenny was in 1945, the year in
LOSING TO LORETTA 105
which the film ends. When Sister Kenny must confront her nemesis, an
arrogant doctor who has done everything in his power to discredit her,
Rosalind, figureless but defiant, holds her ground like a champion orator,
determined to worst her opponent but to no avail. Sister Kenny s
American visit did not produce the results for which she had hoped, nor
could the film claim otherwise. Although she was welcomed at Rochester s
Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota, the National Foundation of
Infantile Paralysis refused to endorse the Kenny method. Just when it seems
that Sister Kenny will end on a note of defeat, the children, whose muscles
have been  reeducated and whose mobility has been restored, greet her
with a rendition of  Happy Birthday, so that the camera can dolly out on a
misty-eyed but radiant Rosalind. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]