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March of Dimes Polio had come and gone in epidemic cycles in the United States since the 1920s. Its common name was "infantile paralysis". In the 1950s, it absorbed the imagination of parents, medical researchers, and fundraisers more than any other source of disability, though other disabling conditions were far more widespread. There were historical reasons for this.When Franklin Roosevelt--America's most famous polio "victim"--took an interest in the old spa at Warm Springs, a number of political associates and lobbyists offered to raise money to pay for the services and therapies that FDR thought should be offered there. Some of them, like Carl Byoir, were top experts in the relatively new fields of promotion and public relations. The team came up with the idea of a series of nationwide President's Birthday Parties, balls that would raise money for infantile paralysis. All the tools of modern promotion were employed: radio spots, movie-star endorsements, stunts, tear-jerking stories. Artist Howard Chandler Christy (famous for the "I-Want-You" Uncle Sam poster) did a poster of a crippled child. Airman Wiley Post flew Byoir cross country to advertise the parties. The President addressed the parties on a nationwide radio hookup. The Presidential Birthday Parties raised enormous amounts of money, and the donors came from all walks of life. The balls were successful, in part, because they enlisted local charities and officials to help, and returned half the money raised to the local groups to dispense. As the organization expanded, The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis acquired a new name: Singer Eddie Cantor dubbed the tiny contributions from countless people a "March of Dimes". The success of this new, national, media-driven charity campaign became a model for numerous other fundraisers. |
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