[Tone]

[National Library of Medicine, HF0737, This transfer made: 04/13/06, Length: 00:14:25]

[Screen dark]

[Music]

[Your Tuberculosis Association presents]

[Two Lives]

[Planned and Supervised by Film Counselors, Inc.]

[Produced by International Motion Picture Studios, Incorporated]

[Players: Kirk Alyn, Ellen-Cobb Hill, Richard Grayson, Wyrley Birch]

[Producer, Ben Gradus; Production Manager, Walter Sachs; Cameraman, Fred Porrett; 

Editor, Julius Goldstein; Unit Manager, Irving Sachs]

[Directed by Erwin Scharf]

[Music]

[Sounds of a toy train rolling around a track]

[Boy:] Woo Woo! Woo Woo!

[Girl:] Faster, faster!

[Boy:] Can you make it go faster, Grandpa?

[Jim:] Well, we can try, but remember, we've got to slow down on the curves.

[Boy:] Can you make it go still faster?

[Jim:] Still faster. Oh dear. 

Fast, faster, the young just have to go fast, don't they? 

I should understand that after what happened,

how many years ago was it...40, 43, I guess. 

When I was 21 I was ready to take the measure of the world. 

I was working on a surveying crew during my vacation from state college. 

It was hard work, but I was in a hurry to get ahead. The opportunities made me want to stay on

rather than go back to architectural school in the fall, and then another thing, there was Jennifer.

[Music]

She had tried as well as she could to persuade me to finish school, but one day I asked Jenny to marry me.

I said that I'd work hard, and I promised we'd be happy together. 

Did I keep that promise? I think I did. 

We decided quickly and it wasn't a mistake. 

I worked up to the job of field superintendent with the company. 

I remember my first day in charge of the crew, old man McGovern saying we'll never bring the job in on time.

We did. 

The next year we had a son. Junior looked...I guess all babies look that way. 

I certainly remember 1917 and '18. 

As an army engineer, I had another job that had to be done quickly. 

Then, I returned to Jenny and our son. We were all together again. 

I worked hard; I spared no effort, least of all my own. 

Time became a challenge to me; again and again I won out over time,

and finished jobs ahead of schedule.

[Music]

May 14th, 1925 was a day that ended like any other work day.

[Steam whistle blows]

Not an important date on the calendar but an important one to me and my family.

[Music]

[Jim collapses]

[Jenny:] Jim, are you getting ready?

[Music]

Jim, did you hear me, Jim, what's the matter?

[Jim:] Just feeling tired, very tired.

[Jenny:] You've been coming home tired for months now. Are you sick, Jim?

[Jim:] I'll be all right in just a couple minutes.

[Jenny:] I'm getting a doctor.

[Jim:] I was wrong, it wasn't a matter of minutes. The doctor said I'd be all right in about a year. 

There was no doubt about it, after all the medical tests were made he said I had tuberculosis. 

I had to remain in the hospital for treatment, for rest, complete rest for about a year. 

The first six months to be spent on my back, in this room resting, wasting time. 

At night it was even worse.

I worried about my family. How would they manage without me? 

I felt completely helpless. 

Slowly, too slowly it seemed to me, I began to feel better. 

The weeks and months passed. Then it was spring. 

When I went down for my periodic checkup, the doctor showed me that the area of disease

was now quite small. 

I felt as strong as I had ever felt, why couldn't I be discharged now and go back to work? 

The doctor said that the disease was still dangerous 

and that it was out of the question for me to leave now. 

Then he told me that I had to give up the idea of ever going back to my old job, once and for all.

That was a tough blow. 

He tried to soften it by letting me go home to visit for a few days. 

Every moment of my freedom was precious. 

I didn't even stop to call Jenny. 

I wanted to surprise her, wanted to see her face when I walked into our home.

[Music]

The surprise turned out to be on me. 

Jenny had been working. That meant little Jimmy rushed off to school in the morning, 

not seeing his mother until evening. 

It wasn't fair to the boy nor to Jenny either, not so long as I was able to do a day's work myself. 

I had to make up for lost time. There was a job to be done and I'd been hired to do it. 

However, it was work for a healthy man and whether I'd admitted it or not, I was weak, still sick.

[Music]

Once again, I was in the hospital. 

I'd tried to hurry. 

I'd gone too fast. Now the prescription was at least another year, maybe longer. 

For days, I felt terribly alone and depressed. 

Neither the friendly old man who was my new roommate nor the nurses could penetrate

the curtain of my helplessness. 

Yet it was my roommate Pop who finally made me realize that I must forget the past

and start over with a new life.

Pop loved to grow things. 

One day in talking about his plants, I think Pop was really trying to tell me something.

[Pop:] Plants certainly do good here, this begonia my sister sent is blooming already.

[Jim:] Well maybe this is a fine place for plants, but not for me. 

I can't just lie here. 

They say it's a year, suppose it's more?

[Pop:] I ain't one for wasting time, it's all just a question of getting started.

[Jim:] What do you mean?

[Pop:] Say, looks like this thing's rooted. 

Took its own time all right. Some decide to root fast and some decide to root slow 

and some just can't make up their minds. 

It's all according to nature.

[Jim:] I begin to understand what he meant. I realized that I too had to grow again.

I had to start a second life and I had help, for my doctor was all things in one, surgeon, counselor and friend. 

He took me back to my college days, to my three years of architectural courses. 

Now, they suddenly offered the prospect of a new life; I had found something to start with, something to build on. 

Soon I was well enough to listen to some sharp criticism. 

The doctor imitated the way I used to walk and then he gave me some sound advice.

I've never forgotten his words. 

Slow down to normal, slow down to normal.

This became the key to my new life when I left the hospital, September 19, 1927. 

I found a job in a busy architect's office.

It was a big step forward and I brought along a whole set of new attitudes including patience. 

At least one of my coworkers didn't seem to understand that I was completely safe to be near. 

Like a number of people, he didn't realize that your doctor won't let you go back to work

 if you're liable to spread TB. 

Of course, the doctor watched my progress closely. 

In the evenings, Jimmy and I would do our studying together. 

When I took the state licensing exam for an architect's license, I really had to pass two tests. 

In the middle of the exam an old habit came back.

I found myself working faster, hurrying in order to finish ahead of schedule. 

A moment later I caught myself. 

What's your hurry Wilson? I asked. You've got plenty of time. Slow down to normal. 

I am proud, very proud of that piece of parchment.

In the next few years I designed all types of buildings, little and big. 

In 1939, my son Jim got his license and came into the office as a junior partner. 

When Jim returned from the service in 1945 he began to take on most of the work, not that I couldn't put in a full day myself.

Regular checkups by the doctors proved that my health was good, 

but now I could afford to take things easier. 

Then, one morning in 1950 we got an invitation to submit a design for an exciting project. 

Jim realized how much it would mean to me to design a TB wing for the new hospital. 

When do you get started, he asked? 

Immediately, I told him. 

But, I suppose in a way I got started the day I left the hospital 23 years ago. 

Now I'd finished. 

When the job was finally completed it turned out to be the most modern tuberculosis hospital 

in our part of the country. 

It had operating rooms that reflected the latest achievements in medical science

in the fight against tuberculosis. 

Here in the laboratory, doctors and technicians kept abreast of the latest developments 

in anti-TB drugs. 

Here was an up-to-date x-ray room with the latest of equipment. 

In this modern tuberculosis hospital patients had an opportunity to retain old skills

 and learn new ones to start their second lives. 

I consider this the greatest achievement of my life, 

so the day the hospital opened was the day I retired from business. 

Then there was only one name on the door, that of Jim Jr. I didn't have to worry about my son,

I knew he'd do a fine job and besides I'd been promising Jenny a second honeymoon. 

We went back to Niagara Falls of course, but it was good to return to our children and grandchildren, 

to the quiet excitement of peaceful surroundings, to the fullness and expectations of my second life.

[Girl:] Can it go again, Grandpa?

[Boy:] It's not broken we can fix it, can't we?

[Jim:] Oh, of course, all you have to do is get it back on the track...and slow down to normal.

[Music]

[THE END, National Tuberculosis Association]

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