San Antonio College Library

This documentary tells the story of Dr. Jonas Salk, who developed the vaccine that conquered polio, the most feared disease of the 20th century. A horror movie could not be more dramatic; polio is a mysterious disease that preys on children, killing them or leaving them crippled. As President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a victim of polio, inspires the public to send in their dimes to fund research, some of the money goes to an ambitious young scientist,...

"When a waiting world learned on April 12, 1955, that Jonas Salk had successfully created a vaccine to prevent poliomyelitis, he became a hero overnight. Born in a New York tenement, humble in manner, Salk had all the makings of a twentieth-century icon-a knight in a white coat. In the wake of his achievement, he received a staggering number of awards and honors; for years his name ranked with Gandhi and Churchill on lists of the most revered people....