[Your purchase of Christmas Seals]
[Helps Fight TB All Year Long!]
[Animated billboard reading Your Tuberculosis Association]
[Presents]
["Rodney"]
[Designed and Directed by Lu Guarnier.]
[Animation: Don Towsley, Cliff Augustson, Preston Blair, Robert Soria.]
[Story: E.R. Murkland - Stan Russell]
[Backgrounds: Herman Olinsky, David Salter, Van Kaufman, Bud Simpson.]
[Music: Jack Shaindlin.]
Camera: C.J. Foster]
[Produced by Film Graphics Inc. Supervised by Film Counselors, Inc.]
[Music]
[Narrator]: It's not the biggest town in the state and it's not the smallest.
It's an average town and people here are pretty much like people anywhere.
For instance, take Rodney
[Rodney strides down the street confidently, past storefronts and his fellow townspeople.]
[Narrator:] He's courteous and he's friendly.
[Guy sitting on steps:] Hey, here comes Rod. Hi ya, Rod.
[Rodney:] Hi ya.
[Narrator:] He's popular too.
[Girl standing on sidewalk:] Hello, Rodney.
[Rodney:] Hi ya.
[Music]
[Narrator:] He's good at sports.
[Rodney rushes down the football field, ball tucked under his arm.]
[Narrator:] He's law-abiding.
[A policeman blows his whistle while holding his hand out. Rodney stops on the street corner.]
[Narrator:] And he's helpful.
[Rodney helps an elderly woman carry a stack of packages across the street.]
[Narrator:] And Rodney's smart enough to get a physical checkup once a year,
[The doctor listens to Rodney's heart, checks his height, weight, temperature, and blood pressure.]
including a chest x-ray.
[A spinning x-ray film with background music]
[The doctor and Rodney stand together examing X-ray film propped on a table.]
[Rodney:] Gee doctor, is that what I look like?
[Doctor:] Hmmm.
[Rodney:] What's the matter?
[Doctor:] Seems to be a spot here, son.
[Rodney:] A spot, where, in me?
[Doctor:] Here in your lobe. But we can't tell whether it means anything just from this x-ray.
We'll have to make some other tests such as a tuberculin test.
[Rodney:] Tuberculin test?
[Doctor:] And we'll get another x-ray.
[Rodney:] Another x-ray? What's it all about? Am I sick?
[Music]
[Doctor:] Well, Rodney, the laboratory test and this new x-ray show that you have active TB,
tuberculosis.]
[Rodney:] Tuberculosis, me? You must be wrong, doc. I've never felt better in my life.
[Doctor:] Early TB doesn't have to have symptoms.
You have it even though you say you never felt better.
[Rodney:] What's that mean? Am I a goner? I'm too young to die.
People my age don't get TB. It must be something else. Maybe it's just a touch of asthma.
Don't you think it's asthma, doc?
[Doctor:] Slow down, son. People any age can get tuberculosis.
Because you've had regular physical checkups,
we found your TB before it had a chance to get really bad.
Early tuberculosis like yours can be cured.
Sure, it takes a little time.
[Rodney:] Say, what is TB anyway?
[Doctor:] Well, it's a disease caused by the tubercle bacillus, a germ.
These germs get into the air around us.
They can stay alive in the air all right, but they'd rather be in a place where it's warm and moist and dark,
like your lungs, where they can multiply and grow and get plenty of food.
[Rodney:] Food, me?
[Doctor:] Yes, you, you're their food. If the germs get into your lungs and your body
doesn't fight back fast enough, then you get active TB and you can spread germs.
[Rodney:] How about that? Well who spread it to me? How'd I get it?
[Doctor:] Well, there's no knowing exactly. Maybe you've been around people who had TB
and didn't know it. They're spitting, sneezing, and coughing can load the air with TB germs.
[Rodney:] Gee, I always thought TB was something found only in places like slums.
[Doctor:] Sure, in any crowded place disease can spread faster, to more people,
and these people may not be able to get enough good food, rest, and medical checkups.
But Rodney, germs don't know one person from another. Rich or poor, little or big,
anyone can get TB.
[Rodney:] I guess coughing, sneezing, or spitting is bad anywhere.
[Doctor:] It sure is, but everyone has the same good chance to be cured if TB is found early,
as early as yours.
[Rodney:] Okay, how do we start curing it? What sort of medicine do I take?
[Doctor:] The best medicine for you is plenty of rest.
[Rodney:] I'll start today. Afternoon naps?
[Doctor:] No, the best place to rest is in a tuberculosis hospital.
[Rodney:] Hospital? But I can't go way off somewhere. I've never even been out of the state.
I'd rather rest at home. Besides, I don't want to go.
[Music]
[Narrator:] So, Rodney entered the hospital, but it wasn't up in the mountains
and it wasn't off in a desert.
[Zoom in on large white building in a bucolic setting with music playing.]
[Rodney:] This where I'm going to stay, doc?
[Doctor:] That's right.
[Rodney:] Right here near home? Well this isn't so bad.
[Doctor:] Of course not, Rod. What's going to get you well is good food and rest,
mostly rest. You don't have to go to a special planet. We can cure TB in any planet, because you
can get plenty of rest and the proper food in any tuberculosis hospital, wherever it is.
[Rodney:] Gee, my folks can come here to see me... and my girl.
Hey, you're sure they don't have it?
[Doctor:] All the tests we've made show your folks are okay, Rod. And we'll keep further
check on them to make sure they stay that way. That's another reason for coming here, Rod.
It protects your family and friends.
[Rodney:] Say Doc, what do I do to keep in shape around here?
I can take a good workout once in a while, can't I?
[Doctor:] Son, you're sick. Look, if you had a broken foot,
do you think it would be smart to kick a football with it?
If your back was sprained, would you mow the lawn?
It's the same with your lungs, you want to keep them as quiet as possible
so they'll heal.
Do you know that just running takes fifty breaths a minute? Even walking takes twenty-five.
You stay in bed and you'll be using your lungs as little as possible.
Sometimes when a lung can't heal, even with complete bed rest,
an operation can collapse it so it doesn't have to do any work at all.
The other lung does all the breathing necessary until the diseased lung heals
and can go back to work again.
But we're not going to try that now. You can see why we want you here instead of at home.
Home just isn't designed for the kind of rest you need.
[Music]
This hospital is. And if you should need drugs or surgery,
the hospital doctors and nurses are right here to give them to you.
[Music]
[Narrator:] Rodney caught on.
The thing that would cure him now was not activity but rest.
The medicine was rest, good food and plenty of rest.
It didn't happen overnight, but the rest began to do its job.
Gradually his lungs began to heal, to get well.
He could use them more and more until finally, one day...
[Rodney strides down Main Street with his girl.]
[Guy:] Hey, Rod's back. Hi ya, Rod.
[Rodney:] Hi ya.
[Guy #2:] Gee, Rod was lucky.
[Narrator:] Lucky, no.
Rodney was smart,
smart enough to have a medical checkup
and an x-ray once a year.
[Music]
[The End. National Tuberculosis Association. Copyright 1950.]