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Spanish Flu PBS — Transcript

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0:03almost broke America apart then remember
0:10my mother put in a white sheet or white
0:12piece of cloth over his face and they
0:14closed the casket
0:17[Music]
0:44in 1918 the United States was a vigorous
0:48young nation leading the world into the
0:51modern age all our fears and anxieties
0:58were directed toward Europe where the
1:00war raged at home we were safe William
1:09Maxwell was growing up in Lincoln
1:11Illinois in 1918 Lincoln was a town of
1:1512,000 people it was perhaps 50 years
1:19old just time enough for the trees to
1:21mature so that they branches met over
1:24the sidewalks the yards were large the
1:26children played in clusters in the
1:29summer evenings on Sunday morning the
1:33church bells were pretty to hear but my
1:36father and had enough of church-going so
1:38we went fishing on Sunday out in the
1:40country with a picnic it was a life not
1:44very much impinge done by the outside
1:46world
1:47[Music]
1:51in Macon Georgia Katherine Guyler was 5
1:56years old
1:57[Music]
1:58my father was a playmate actually and
2:03when he had take me out in his car he
2:06would stop at a grocery store that he
2:08knew and take me in and the owner of the
2:11store in his white uniform would say to
2:15his men go out and shake the candy tree
2:19boys I think I must have known that
2:26candy didn't grow on that tree but I
2:28wouldn't have given up the notion
2:30because he was enjoying it now I was
2:33enjoying it and everybody was enjoying
2:35as you see
2:36[Music]
2:42for a young newspaper woman in Denver
2:45Katherine Anne Porter life was like a
2:48romantic novel I had a job on the Rocky
2:52Mountain News
2:53the city editor put me to covering
2:56theaters I met a boy an army lieutenant
3:00we were much in love
3:05the soldier was the darling of America
3:09patriotism ran unrestrained in the
3:12country newly entered in the Great War
3:16we would march up the streets singing
3:18[ __ ] [ __ ] print the boys of marching I
3:21spied Kaiser at the door and we'll get a
3:25lemon pie and we'll squash him in his
3:27eye and there won't be any Kaiser
3:29anymore it was a good world but it was
3:35an age of innocence we really didn't
3:38know what was ahead
3:42[Music]
3:47some say it began in the spring of 1918
3:51when soldiers at Fort Riley Kansas
3:54burned tons of manure a Gale kicked up a
3:59choking dust storm swept out over the
4:02land a stinging stinking yellow haze the
4:08Sun went dead black in Kansas two days
4:16later on March 11th 1918 an Army private
4:20reported to the camp hospital before
4:22breakfast he had a fever sore throat
4:26headache nothing serious
4:30one minute later another soldier showed
4:33up by noon the hospital had over a
4:36hundred cases in a week 500 that spring
4:4548 soldiers all in the prime of life
4:48died at Fort Riley the cause of death
4:52was listed as pneumonia the sickness
4:58then seemed to disappear leaving as
5:00quickly as it had come for over a
5:06century the booming science of Medicine
5:09had gone from one triumph to another
5:13researchers had developed vaccines for
5:15many diseases smallpox anthrax rabies
5:21diphtheria meningitis with the great
5:26advances in microbiology we were
5:30eliminating mysteries okay the mystery
5:33of what causes this disease the mystery
5:35of what causes this disease the optimism
5:37of being able to visualize something all
5:40we have to do is just look under the
5:41microscope and we'll see the organism
5:44and then take an action and see that
5:47something died off or be controlled that
5:51leads to the thought of invincibility it
5:55seems that the Masters of Medicine
5:57could control life and death there was
6:01nothing that Americans couldn't do we
6:05could even win the war that no one could
6:07win that summer and fall over one and a
6:12half million Americans crossed the
6:14Atlantic for war but some of those
6:18doughboys came from Kansas and they
6:21brought something with them
6:23a tiny silent companion almost
6:30immediately the Kansas sickness
6:32resurfaced in Europe American soldiers
6:37got sick English soldiers French German
6:43as it spread the microbe mutated day by
6:47day becoming more and more deadly by the
6:54time the silent traveller came back to
6:56America it had become a relentless
6:59killer on a rainy day in September dr.
7:09Victor Vaughan Acting Surgeon General of
7:11the army received urgent orders proceed
7:15to a base near Boston called Camp
7:18Devin's Devens was about to change dr.
7:22Vaughn's world forever I saw hundreds of
7:27young stalwart men in uniform coming
7:30into the wards of the hospital every bed
7:34was full yet others crowded in the faces
7:38were a bluish cast a cough prod up the
7:42blood-stained sputum on the day that
7:47Vaughan arrived 63 men died at Camp
7:50Devin's
7:52[Music]
7:59an autopsy revealed lungs that were
8:01swollen filled with fluid and strangely
8:05blue doctors were stunned what in the
8:09name of God was happening to these lungs
8:14when the strange new disease was finally
8:17identified he it turned out to be a very
8:20old and familiar one influenza the flu
8:26but it was unlike any flu that anyone
8:29had ever seen one of the factors that
8:33made this so particularly frightening
8:35was that everybody had a preconception
8:38of what the flu was it's a miserable
8:40cold and after a few days you're up and
8:42around this was a flu that put people
8:46into bed as if they'd been hit with a
8:482x4 that turned into pneumonia that
8:50turned people blue and black and killed
8:53them it was a flu out of some sort of a
8:58horror story they never had dreamed that
9:00influenza could ever do anything like
9:02this to people before soldiers carried
9:07the disease swiftly from one military
9:09base to the next they did it just by
9:13breathing if a individual with influenza
9:21were standing in front of a room full of
9:23people coughing each coughs would carry
9:26millions of particles with
9:28disease-causing organisms into the air
9:31all the people breathing that air would
9:34have an opportunity to inhale a
9:36disease-causing organism doesn't take
9:39very long for one case to become 10,000
9:43cases my first intimations about the
9:49epidemic were that it was something was
9:51happening to the troops it didn't seem
9:54to be any reason to think that it would
9:56ever ever having to do with us and and
9:58yet in a gradual remorseless where he
10:03kept moving closer and closer
10:05for time life in America went on
10:09untouched suffragettes demanded the vote
10:14for women airmail service began zooming
10:18between New York and Chicago flying time
10:2210 hours 5 minutes on September 11th
10:26Babe Ruth's led the Boston Red Sox to
10:29victory in the World Series but on that
10:34same day on the sidewalks of Quincy
10:37Massachusetts three civilians dropped
10:40dead influenza was out in the world
10:48[Music]
10:52from Boston the disease moved down the
10:56eastern seaboard to New York to
11:00Philadelphia and beyond rumors of this
11:06alarming situation had reached this very
11:10small town of 12,000 people in the
11:12Middle West I know that my parents were
11:15worried I paid less attention to their
11:18words that did to the sounds of their
11:20voices and when they discussed it I
11:22heard anxiety my mother was expecting a
11:26baby and so my other mother had no
11:29choice but to take me to my father's
11:32sister's house where we were not
11:33comfortable it was a dark gloomy house I
11:37can best suggest the quality of the
11:38house by saying in the living room there
11:40was a framed photograph of my
11:43grandfather in his coffin it was a very
11:49strange room there was a vase with
11:50peacock feathers in it and my aunt
11:54didn't know I don't know that anybody
11:56else in lincoln knew that peacock
11:59feathers bring bad luck
12:12the first time that I was aware that
12:15something was amiss in our normal living
12:18was when my father told me son most of
12:21the employees are sick we don't have
12:23anyone left to run the store everyone is
12:26home sick or in the hospital sick and
12:29within a week or ten days my father told
12:33me that this sales lady had passed away
12:36and another one had passed away so as I
12:38recall out of they've eight or ten
12:40employees four of them passed away and
12:43the passing away came about so quickly
12:48it was a mild day and we were sitting on
12:51the step diagonally across from us there
12:54was a little girl fifteen year old girl
12:56was just very towards the evening we
13:00heard a lot of screaming going on
13:02and in that same house a little baby 18
13:05months old passed away in that same
13:08family
13:13for a physician it must have been very
13:16very confusing being confronted with
13:19patients that come to you and within 12
13:23hours before you even have a chance to
13:25do anything they're dead this was
13:29happening too fast
13:34even children began to see it coming a
13:38little ditty was heard in playgrounds
13:44[Music]
13:57most officials however failed to
14:00recognize the growing threat royal
14:04Copland health commissioner of New York
14:06City announced the city is in no danger
14:09of an epidemic no need for our people to
14:13worry Copeland would let things take
14:16their own course the first reaction of
14:20the authorities from any of the most
14:22important ones which is flat-out denial
14:25they didn't know what was happening they
14:27didn't know what to do and therefore
14:29they did the human thing which is to say
14:31it's not happening with the war
14:33escalating federal officials continued
14:36to put Americans at risk one September
14:39day they called thirteen million young
14:42men to register for the draft the men
14:45jammed together in school houses city
14:49halls post offices there were two
14:54enormous ly important things going on at
14:55once and there were at right angles to
14:57each other one of course was the
14:58influenza epidemic which dictated that
15:02you should sort of shut everything down
15:03and the war which demanded that
15:07everything should speed up that
15:08certainly the factory should continue
15:10operating you should continue to have
15:12Bond drives soldiers should be put on
15:16boats and sent off to France it's as if
15:20we could as a society only contain one
15:22big idea at a time and the big idea was
15:26the war
15:28with America's tunnel vision focused on
15:31the war throngs turned out for enormous
15:34parades supporting Liberty long drives
15:38in Philadelphia 200,000 sardines in the
15:42streets the crowd linked arms sang
15:45patriotic songs breathed on each other
15:49infected each other and in the days that
15:52followed the flu ripped into
15:55Philadelphia like a freshly sharpened
15:57knife Harriet Farrell's family lived on
16:02Brooklyn Street it was really a terrible
16:06experience for the people it was so many
16:08people sick in our household it was the
16:12four of us in bed and my uncle and aunt
16:16on the third floor apartment with their
16:19son so my mother was canned four seven
16:22six people in our home when my mother
16:28became ill that's when I knew we were in
16:33trouble I only knew it from my child's
16:38eye and my child I was five years old I
16:43wanted to go and get in her bed that
16:45wasn't allowed they didn't want me to
16:48get sick either do you see and they
16:50brought in a little bed into her room my
16:54mother saw me miserable in that little
16:58bed that they'd brought in for me it
17:00tucked me in her bed because she didn't
17:03like to see me unhappy and of course I
17:07promptly got the flu
17:08with her I said you could imagine and
17:10there was fun in that for me until it
17:13became so painful
17:19I was a skinny little boy with an
17:23enormous appetite just as my plate was
17:26put in front of me I felt no desire for
17:29food my aunt will put her hand on my
17:31forehead and got up the table and took
17:34me upstairs and put me to bed because I
17:36had a high fever and I think what
17:40happened was that I slept and slept and
17:43slept and slept
17:45[Music]
17:53no one knew what was causing the
17:56epidemic but there was no shortage of
17:58guesses there were rumors that ran
18:02rampant of all types and sizes and one
18:06of the rumors I remember very explicitly
18:09was that the Germans had planted the
18:11germs for the spread of influenza
18:18flamboyant evangelist Billy Sunday
18:20thought the cause was a simple as sin we
18:25can meet here tonight and pray down the
18:27epidemic Sunday said but even as he
18:31spoke people in the audience collapsed
18:34with the flu
18:39one agonised official in the stricken
18:42east sent an urgent warning West's hunt
18:46up your woodworkers and set them to
18:47making coffins then take your street
18:51laborers and set them to digging graves
18:57[Music]
18:59the flu was now moving into small towns
19:02deep in the heart of the country
19:09Lyrae was living in meadow Utah we were
19:13very concerned in our town because it
19:16was moving south down the highway and we
19:19were next my father was selected as the
19:23health officer we had never had a health
19:26officer in our town before but we felt
19:29now that we needed one and so my dad
19:32went out to the city limits science and
19:34I went with him and we put a sign that
19:37said this town is quarantined
19:40do not stop so we had purposely isolated
19:45ourselves but it wasn't enough the
19:48disease came anyway the mailman brought
19:51it you can't barrier yourself from being
19:58exposed because the person who looks
20:00healthy may be spreading the disease and
20:03that was part of the horror we can't get
20:08away from respiratory diseases of other
20:12people because we all have to breathe
20:23[Music]
20:33[Music]
20:36in Denver Catherine and porters romance
20:40was cut short she too became sick soon
20:44she was delirious but Porter's dashing
20:48young lieutenants stayed by her side
20:52[Music]
20:56he was so patient with me those nights
21:00when I was sick
21:01getting me things and always just
21:04sitting there when I would wake up
21:08he would be there her fever rose so high
21:13that her hair turned white then fell out
21:17there was only that pain only that room
21:22there was only this one moment and it
21:25was a dream of time I remember that time
21:32was a blur as I was lying in that the
21:35upstairs room and I would wake up and it
21:38would be daylight and I wake up the next
21:41time I woke up it would be dark and it
21:44might be dark when I woke up it might be
21:45daylight I had no sense of day night and
21:50I felt sick and hollow inside
21:52[Music]
22:06and influenza hospitals overflowed
22:14emergency relief centers sprang up in
22:17parks and playgrounds but practically
22:22every available doctor and nurse had
22:25been sent to Europe the ones who
22:31remained were asked to perform the
22:33impossible near Chicago a young nurse
22:40named Josie Mabel Brown arrived at Great
22:44Lakes Naval Station and was promptly
22:46assigned a ward with 42 beds and she
22:53walked into the ward and not only were
22:55the 42 beds full but there were boys
22:57that were laying on the floors and on
22:59the stretchers waiting for that boy in
23:02the bed to die they were having raging
23:07fevers and delirium and profuse
23:09nosebleeds and their lungs would
23:11collapse and it would go into this a
23:13horrid bloody pneumonia when the 1918
23:20flu killed which it so often did it
23:23killed because what it did to the lungs
23:25it filled up the lungs with with fluid
23:29and so these people these people drowned
23:32only they didn't drown in the Atlantic
23:34Ocean they drown in their own fluids
23:41[Music]
23:44the epidemic was now a national crisis
23:48something had to be done in many places
23:53officials rushed through laws requiring
23:56people to wear masks in public all of
24:02America it seemed put on masks at last
24:07many thought they were safe
24:09[Music]
24:19but masks didn't help they were thin
24:22than poorest no serious restraint to
24:25tiny microbes it was like trying to keep
24:29out dust with chicken wire
24:34in washington d c-- commissioner Louis
24:37Brownlow banned all public gatherings
24:43he closed the city's schools theaters
24:47and bars he quarantined the sick he did
24:51everything he had the power to do but
24:55the death rate in Washington kept rising
25:00a resolution shot through Congress
25:02giving the Public Health Service a
25:04million dollars to fight the flu
25:07biochemists around the country worked
25:09feverishly to develop a vaccine hundreds
25:14were produced then a researcher in
25:18Massachusetts came up with the most
25:19promising solution hopes rose
25:23perhaps a cure was at hand San
25:27Francisco's mayor wired for a huge
25:29shipment a special envoy carried the
25:33vaccine across the country on the fleet
25:3520th century Express
25:40soon over 18,000 people in the city had
25:43been inoculated
25:44[Music]
25:46but even vaccines didn't help
25:50they thought it was caused by a bacteria
25:53so they made up a vaccine with the
25:55bacteria they thought was influenza but
25:59you can't make a vaccine if you're
26:02looking at the wrong causative organism
26:05they were on the wrong track influenza
26:08was caused by a virus science knew next
26:14to nothing about viruses this time the
26:17optical microscopes they had couldn't
26:19show your virus virus is much too small
26:21for them
26:21nobody would ever see virus until the
26:23electron microscope came along that was
26:26decades after that these poor scientists
26:30were looking for a needle in a haystack
26:33when they didn't know it was a needle
26:35they were looking for and the needle was
26:38too small for them to see no wonder they
26:40didn't find it
26:44medical science at the very moment of
26:47its great rise to power had failed to
26:50provide a cure at that moment I decided
26:54never again to pray about the great
26:57achievements of science the deadly
27:01influenza demonstrated the inferiority
27:03of human inventions victor von with
27:09science powerless many people turn to
27:12folk remedies and quick fixes
27:15there was some quackery that existed at
27:18the time there were all kinds of
27:20gimmicks that were being pursued by
27:23people in desperation
27:28I had Khafre balls and in a little sac
27:31around my neck I know I couldn't stand
27:33myself let alone somebody coming near me
27:35I smelled so bad I guess in those days
27:40[Music]
27:44we use turpentine on sugar we use
27:49kerosene on sugar a few drops
27:54you could smell this medication before
27:56you got too close to them
27:58but it wasn't too bad because so many
28:00people had these different type
28:02medications until we were all smelling
28:04bad
28:05[Music]
28:12everybody was asking for medicine and
28:14there wasn't any
28:15so dad came home and said we've got to
28:17make medicine some way and so in our
28:21kitchen on our cook stove that stood up
28:24about five gallons it wasn't real
28:28medicine but it smelled like medicine
28:30and it tasted like medicine and we put a
28:32lot of honey and it's so that it would
28:34taste pretty good and we passed it out
28:37to everyone who wanted medicine it went
28:39in a hurry that wasn't much left it
28:42didn't do any harm most of them thought
28:46it did good in the middle of a crisis
28:50you have to do something and it's
28:53certainly an American characteristic
28:55that we have to do something even if
28:56it's wrong folk remedies might have been
29:01wrong but doctors were just as helpless
29:05they absolutely didn't know what to do
29:09her treatment of these patients the
29:12ambulances would arrive in the morning
29:14the drivers would bring in for living
29:17patients but the nurses would go ahead
29:20and wrap these patients in the winding
29:23sheets and they would put toe tags on
29:26the boys before they were even dead one
29:31doctor told a patient's wife this is my
29:34twenty-fifth case and I've lost the
29:37first 24
29:39a 12 year old boy was told by his doctor
29:43get on the waiting list for a casket
29:48[Music]
29:51my mother called a doctor because we the
29:54whole family was sick with this flu and
29:55I've been in from baby was very sick to
29:59the point that the doctor thought that I
30:02would not make it and he told my mother
30:04that it was necessary to feed me anymore
30:07because I wasn't going to live
30:10[Music]
30:14in the month of September some 12,000
30:17people died of influenza in America but
30:21those numbers would be dwarfed for the
30:24full horror now began October would be
30:28the cruelest month industry there were
30:34crepes at the door if it was a young
30:36person that could have white crepe at
30:38the door for one say again middle-aged
30:41they put a black and if it was an
30:43elderly one much older they put a great
30:46crepe at the door signifying who died so
30:49there were we were children and we was
30:52we were excited to find out who died
30:55next my father a older brother and uncle
31:01were all engaged in the funeral
31:03directing business we lived in a funeral
31:06home the influenza epidemic became so
31:14bad that the living room the dining room
31:19were all occupied by row upon row of
31:23caskets
31:28the fearsome part or was it that these
31:31were friends of yours that weren't
31:33passing away these were whole families
31:36that you knew these were people you went
31:38to school with or what the church with
31:40it was very eerie very very eerie
31:51the undertaker which was a half a block
31:53away from me had pine boxes on the
31:57sidewalk piled high me and my two
32:01friends were go down there and play on
32:03the boxes
32:04looks like climbing the pyramids up and
32:07down and around and the whole bit
32:09jumping off and my mother told me that I
32:13should never go down in there don't go
32:15on those boxes because there are people
32:16in them that have died these two friends
32:21of mine got sick right after that and so
32:27did I my father being the health officer
32:36was very concerned about the Indians who
32:39were our neighbors they were only six
32:41miles away so dad and the city marshal
32:44rode up there when they to see how
32:46things were going at the Indian camps
32:48and they were horrified at what they saw
32:53after an Indian died his family and
32:57friends would sit around chanting him to
32:59the happy hunting grounds and that
33:01speedy spent all night there and by that
33:05time they were all exposed everybody had
33:07the flute ultimately he killed about
33:11half of the Indians
33:21[Music]
33:25no one was safe in Washington Victor
33:30Vaughn was working late trying to make
33:33sense of the hellish chaos he uncovered
33:37an unnerving fact usually influenza
33:42kills only the weak the very young and
33:45very old but this time it had a
33:48different target people in the very
33:52prime of life from 21 to 29 were the
33:56most vulnerable this infection like war
34:02kills the young vigorous robust adults
34:06the husky male either made a speedy and
34:09rather abrupt recovery or was likely to
34:13die the situation was upside-down and
34:17backwards a disease that's supposed to
34:20be a mild disease is killing people the
34:22people it's killing are the strongest
34:24members the most robust members of our
34:27society for example soldiers in Europe
34:35the flu was devastating both sides
34:3970,000 American soldiers were sick in
34:43some units the flu killed 80 percent of
34:46the men general john pershing made a
34:49desperate plea for reinforcements but
34:52that would mean sending soldiers across
34:54the Atlantic on troop ships there's
35:00nothing more crowded than a troop ship
35:01it's just being jammed in there like
35:03sardines and if somebody has a
35:05respiratory disease everybody's going to
35:07get it
35:10President Woodrow Wilson now faced an
35:12agonizing decision sending the soldiers
35:16would be signing thousands of death
35:19warrants
35:21Wilson gazed out his office window after
35:26a long moment he nodded the troop
35:30shipments would have to continue and
35:34then the president turned to his aide I
35:37wonder if you have heard this Limerick I
35:40had a little bird and his name was
35:43answer
35:52[Music]
35:54I lay like a stone at the farthest
35:57bottom of life the smell of death was in
36:01my own body Katherine Anne Porter was
36:06finally admitted to the hospital but she
36:08was now separated from her lieutenant
36:11she was so sick that she was left on a
36:14stretcher in the hallway left there to
36:18die Porter's newspaper quietly set the
36:22type for her obituary in New York 851
36:31people died of the flu in a single day
36:33but the greatest horror came to
36:36Philadelphia in one week in October
36:40the death rate there was 700 times
36:43higher than normal in October we were
36:48all sick we had headaches pains in the
36:50legs and stomach ramaa Dean and
36:53everything we wore sleeping close to one
36:55another because we only had two beds in
36:57the one room Terry couldn't stay with us
37:00because he was too sick but I was like a
37:03second mother to Harry Harry was always
37:05close to me so when he was very sick he
37:08kept calling me all the time and I was
37:10always beside him so my mother said well
37:13Harry sleep in you going like down my
37:16mother said he he opened his eyes his
37:19eyes went back and forth and he said
37:21went back and forth and he said and
37:24named my name was marina in Italian
37:27naina naina and he died with my name in
37:32his mouth
37:44in Philadelphia death carts roamed the
37:48city it was a scene from the time of the
37:52Black Plague so many people died until
37:57they were instructed to s but wooden
38:03boxes and to put the corpse the people
38:06on the front porches an open truck came
38:11through the neighborhoods and picked up
38:14the bodies still the dead sometimes lay
38:21in the gutters abandoned over at
38:27potter's field they began to use a steam
38:30shovel to dig trenches for graves mass
38:34graves
38:35[Music]
38:41over 11,000 people would die in
38:45Philadelphia alone that October in
38:52Illinois
38:53William Maxwell's mother had just given
38:55birth he was still staying at his aunt's
38:58house my only knowledge of what was
39:02going on was the telephone which I could
39:05hear because my room wasn't near the
39:07head of the stairs and I heard my aunt
39:11say we'll oh no and then if you want me
39:19to and she came into my room and she
39:23tried to tell us how it happened and
39:25that the tears ran down her face and so
39:29she didn't need to tell me I knew that
39:30the worst that could happen it happened
39:36my mother was marvelous and when she
39:40died they shine it out of everything in
39:5631 shocking days the flu would kill over
40:00195 thousand Americans it was the
40:05deadliest month in this nation's history
40:13coffins were in such demand that they
40:16were often stolen Undertaker's had to
40:20place armed guards around their prized
40:22boxes the orderly life of America began
40:30to break down all over the country farms
40:35and factories shut down schools and
40:39churches closed homeless children
40:43wandered the streets their parents
40:46vanished the vibrant and optimistic
40:50nation seemed to be falling apart
41:01people were actually afraid to talk to
41:04one another it was almost like don't
41:05breathe in my face don't look at me and
41:07breathe in my face because you may give
41:09me the germ that I don't want and you
41:12never knew from day to day who was gonna
41:14be next on the death list everybody was
41:23living in deadly fear because it was so
41:27quick so sudden and so terrifying it
41:31destroyed the intimacy that existed
41:35amongst people in those days of the
41:38early 20th century
41:44[Music]
41:56an epidemic erodes social cohesiveness
41:59because the source of your danger is
42:02your fellow human beings the source of
42:03your danger is your wife children
42:05parents and so on so if an epidemic goes
42:08on long enough and the bodies start to
42:12pile up and nobody can dig graves graves
42:15fast enough to put the people into them
42:18then you morality just start to break
42:22down
42:25violence broke out in San Francisco a
42:29Health Department inspector shot a man
42:31who refused to wear a mask in Chicago a
42:36worker shouted occur them my own way and
42:39then cut the throats of his wife and
42:42four children
42:46people were surrounded by traumatic
42:50death and they didn't have any idea how
42:54far it would go
42:55was it gonna kill everybody could this
42:58be the end of the world is this
42:59Armageddon that the street-corner
43:01ministers are preaching about
43:06in Washington Victor Vaughn came to a
43:09frightening conclusion if the epidemic
43:14continues its mathematical rate of
43:16acceleration civilization could easily
43:20disappear from the face of the earth but
43:30a miraculous thing began to happen as
43:33mysteriously as it had come the terror
43:36began to slip away by early November the
43:41flu had virtually disappeared from
43:43Boston the toll in Washington fell below
43:4850 a week even in ravaged Philadelphia
43:53life was returning to normal then on
44:00November 11th the armistice ended the
44:03Great War in San Francisco the scene was
44:08surreal 30,000 people paraded through
44:12the streets all dancing or singing all
44:16very masks
44:23the country had a lot to celebrate not
44:27only was the war over but the worst of
44:30the epidemic was passing in light of our
44:36knowledge of influenza and the way it
44:39works we do understand that it probably
44:41ran out of fuel it ran out of people who
44:44were susceptible it's like a firestorm
44:49it sweeps through and it has so many
44:54victims and the survivors developed
44:57immunity but for some survivors like
45:04Katherine Anne Porter the return of
45:07health was not the end of pain her
45:10dashing lieutenant who had faithfully
45:12tended her was suddenly dead himself of
45:16influenza the lieutenant's death
45:20Porter later said divided her life into
45:25it was one of the most terrible things
45:28that ever happened to me that he should
45:31have died and I should have lived he
45:35died and it seems to me that I died then
45:44in ten when we got out again and went
45:48back to school I was shocked to see that
45:53my friends were not around they weren't
45:56home I would knock on their door and
45:59they would open the door just a little
46:02bit and says doll Jimmy's not here or
46:05Frankie not here and where is he
46:10you'd let your mother tell you they
46:13wouldn't tell me like your mother tell
46:15you I was a pretty lonely kid at the
46:19time because these were my friends that
46:21I played with all those years and I went
46:26to school with and when I lost that way
46:29my whole world changed the epidemic
46:37killed in a very very conservative
46:39estimate 550,000 Americans in ten months
46:42that's more Americans than died in
46:45combat in all the Wars of this century
46:47and the epidemic killed at least 30
46:52million in the world and infected the
46:56majority of the human species as soon as
47:02the dying stopped they're forgetting
47:04again it is in the the individual memory
47:09of great many of us but it's not in our
47:13collective memory that for me is the
47:19greatest mystery how we could have
47:20forgotten anything
47:22so horrendous so massively horrendous as
47:26this this epidemic which killed so many
47:29of us killed us so fast and our reaction
47:34was to forget it why you know why wasn't
47:40that part of our memory or of our
47:44history and I think it's probably
47:47because it was so awful while it was
47:50happening so frightening that people
47:54just got rid of the memory
47:58but it always lingers there as a kind of
48:02an uneasiness if it happened once before
48:05what's to say it's not going to happen
48:07again the more we find out about
48:09influenza virus the more real that fear
48:14becomes
48:15[Music]
48:24the fall of 1918 was a time of horror a
48:28time to forget
48:33but some would always remember I
48:39remember my mother put in a white sheet
48:42of white piece of cloth over his face
48:43and they closed the casket I can't
48:49forget it was very very bad
48:52[Music]
48:59in fact my mother's death wasn't I
49:01realized for the first time and forever
49:05that we were not safe we would not
49:09beyond harm my father did what he could
49:16kept us together as a family but that
49:19time on there was a sadness which had
49:22not existed before there was a deep down
49:24sadness and never quite went away
49:27because I knew people aren't safe hmm
49:34nobody is safe terrible things could
49:38happen to anybody
49:41[Music]
49:57American experience
49:58influenza 1918 is available on DVD to
50:02order visit shoppbs.org or call 1-800
50:06play PBS
50:11[Music]

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