{"id":17967,"date":"2019-11-21T11:00:04","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T16:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=17967"},"modified":"2019-11-25T09:37:23","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T14:37:23","slug":"vd-at-the-movies-public-health-service-world-war-ii-venereal-disease-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2019\/11\/21\/vd-at-the-movies-public-health-service-world-war-ii-venereal-disease-films\/","title":{"rendered":"VD at the Movies: Public Health Service World War II Venereal Disease Films"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Circulating Now welcomes guest blogger John Parascandola, PhD from the University of Maryland to explore the use of film in public health campaigns against venereal disease.\u00a0 His essay explores two films from the U.S. Public Health Service <\/em>held in the National Library of Medicine’s historical audiovisual collection and now highlighted in our <\/em>Medicine on Screen: Films and Essays from NLM<\/a> project.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The United States Public Health Service released several venereal-disease education films in the 1930s and 1940s as part of a broader campaign against venereal disease (VD)<\/a>.\u00a0 Two of the best of these, produced in cooperation with the Hollywood filmmaking industry, were Know for Sure<\/em><\/a> (1941) and To the People of the United States<\/em><\/a> (1944).<\/p>\n

The Public Health Service (PHS) had been operating a venereal-disease program since World War I, when concern over the number of Army recruits infected with syphilis or gonorrhea led Congress to enact a law that created a Venereal Disease Division in the PHS.\u00a0 With the end of the war, Congress lost interest in the venereal-disease problem, and funding for this purpose declined dramatically.<\/p>\n

When Thomas Parran was appointed Surgeon General of the PHS in 1936, however, he wasted no time in launching a new national campaign against venereal disease. Parran had served as chief of the PHS Venereal Disease Division earlier in his career and had never lost interest in the subject.\u00a0 In the early 1930s, he was detailed by the PHS to New York to serve as State Health Commissioner, and he made venereal disease a priority of his administration.\u00a0 In one well-known incident, Parran made headlines in 1934 when he canceled a radio address at the last minute because he was told that he could not mention syphilis or gonorrhea by name on the air.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Thomas Parran, Jr. (1892\u20131968)
National Library of Medicine #101443908<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Parran’s articles in magazines and his 1937 best-selling book, Shadow on the Land<\/em><\/a>, were instrumental in breaking down the taboo in the popular press against the frank discussion of venereal disease.\u00a0 He sought to focus the battle against venereal disease on scientific and medical grounds, rather than placing an emphasis on moral or ethical views concerning sex. Parran did not completely ignore moral issues related to sex, but in the words of historian Allan Brandt,<\/p>\n

\u201cThough he sought to avoid offending the social hygienists [who emphasized behavioral reform], Parran downplayed the moral argument.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Parran also played a key role in the passage of the National Venereal Disease Control Act in 1938, which provided Federal funding through the PHS to the states for venereal-disease control programs, as well as supporting research into the treatment and prevention of venereal disease. As a part of its efforts to combat venereal disease, the PHS launched an educational campaign that involved issuing posters, brochures, and other publications on the subject, an effort that was stepped up when the United States entered the war in December of 1941.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"An <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Included among the weapons in the campaign\u2019s arsenal developed by the PHS in this period were motion-picture films.\u00a0 In 1942, PHS physician James A. Dolce wrote to a colleague:<\/p>\n

“We feel very strongly that motion picture films are a most important medium for health education.\u00a0 Well-written and produced films not only command large audiences, but, as you know, actually instill more information into observers than does any other teaching aid.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

PHS began producing films about venereal disease (VD)<\/a> even before the United States entered the war.\u00a0 Just a year after he assumed the office of Surgeon General, Parran arranged for the PHS to collaborate with the American Medical Association (AMA) in the production of Syphilis – A Motion Picture Clinic<\/em><\/a> (1937).\u00a0 This 80-minute sound film, however, was not aimed at the general public but at clinicians.\u00a0 It consisted of several segments featuring leading syphilologists lecturing on various aspects of the disease, essentially a group of \u201ctalking heads,\u201d with occasional visual presentations or demonstrations.\u00a0 PHS also released two silent VD films that year, Syphilis of the Central Nervous System – A Preventable Disease<\/em> (aimed at health professionals) and Syphilis: Its Nature, Prevention and Treatment<\/em> (aimed at lay audiences).\u00a0 The annual report of the PHS for fiscal year 1938 indicated that this latter film was in great demand.<\/p>\n

These early films were not very sophisticated from a cinematic point of view.\u00a0 In the case of the film designed for lay audiences, Syphilis: Its Nature, Prevention, and Treatment<\/em>, a later reference to it by a PHS staff member termed it “amateur” in nature.\u00a0 He also noted that although it was useful in its time, it had become outdated and outmoded by 1940.\u00a0 It was silent and has been described as more of a slide lecture than a film.\u00a0 The fact that this film was \u201cin great demand\u201d in 1938 may be more a reflection of the paucity of good VD education films for lay audiences than of the quality of the product.<\/p>\n

Also in 1938, PHS produced a motion picture that made much better use of the film medium, Three Counties Against Syphilis<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 The film tells the story of a PHS syphilis control program developed in 1937 in three counties in southeastern Georgia.\u00a0 The program was aimed at African Americans in a rural environment.\u00a0 PHS sponsored a mobile trailer clinic that traveled through these three rural counties and provided blood tests and treatment for syphilis.\u00a0 The film documented the program but presumably could also be used as a VD-education film, spreading the message that syphilis can be diagnosed and cured. It is painfully ironic that at the same time that PHS was promoting this program for African Americans, it also was conducting the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment.<\/p>\n

Recognizing that it was not in a position to develop professional-quality films on its own, the PHS contracted with the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to produce Three Counties Against Syphilis<\/em>.\u00a0 A PHS staff member explained in 1937 that USDA had \u201ca very complete motion picture unit upon which it spends several hundred thousand dollars a year\u201d and that its staff included people with experience working for commercial film studios.\u00a0 He believed that PHS could retain more control over the film and get the work done more cheaply by using USDA than by contracting with an industrial film company.<\/p>\n

As the conflict in Europe intensified, and the prospect of American involvement became more likely, efforts to prepare for war increased, as did concerns about venereal disease as it might affect the military and essential defense industries.\u00a0 The PHS intensified its campaign against venereal disease, which included the production of further films.\u00a0 Among these were Know for Sure<\/em><\/a> (1941) and To the People of the United States<\/em><\/a> (1944).\u00a0 These films were intended to warn the public about the dangers of venereal disease and of the need to seek diagnosis and treatment….<\/a><\/p>\n

To read the full essay<\/a> and to see the films go to NLM\u2019s <\/em>Medicine on Screen<\/a>, a curated portal including original research on selected films from NLM\u2019s collection.<\/em><\/p>\n

John Parascandola received his PhD in the history of science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.\u00a0 After spending a postdoctoral year at Harvard University, he returned to Madison to join the faculty of the School of Pharmacy and the Department of the History of Science at the University of Wisconsin.\u00a0 In 1983, he moved to Bethesda to serve as Chief of the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine.\u00a0 He held that position until 1992, when he became the Public Health Service Historian.\u00a0 Since retiring from the federal government in 2004, Dr. Parascandola has been an adjunct faculty member in the Department of History at the University of Maryland, College Park.\u00a0 He has published several books and numerous articles, including <\/em>Sex, Sin, and Science: A History of Syphilis in America (Westport, CT and London: Praeger, 2008).<\/em><\/p>\n

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