Franklin Delano Roosevelt

 (1933-1945)

Report to Congress, 1945

Context 

In February of 1945, FDR returned from the Conference at Yalta, where he had met with Stalin and Churchill to discuss the post-war configuration of Europe.  Too weak to stand to deliver his address, Roosevelt could no longer hide the physical disability that he had previously concealed from the general public.  Although he had been confined to a wheelchair for years, he asked those present to forgive his "unusual posture of sitting down" and attributed his condition to weariness induced by his long journey.  After this event, one of the last times that he was seen in public, Roosevelt's condition continued to decline until he suffered a fatal stroke on April 12, 1945, only weeks before Germany surrendered on May 7, and five months before the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  

Source:

FDR

Production:

Documentary in two parts for PBS Television 1994, color, mono sound, 50 minutes each episode
Written and Produced by David Grubin
Edited by Susan Fanshel
Contributing Editor Geof Bartz
Narrated by David McCullough
Music Michael Bacon
Cinematography William B. McCullough
Script Development/Editorial Consultant Paul Taylor
Advisers Alan Brinkley, Robart Dallek, William Leuchtenberg, Susan Ware
Creative Consultant Doris Kearns Goodwin
Senior Creative Consultant Geoffrey C. Ward
Episodes 1 and 2 based in part on Before the Trumpet (1886-1904) and A First Class Temperament (1905-1928) by Geoffrey C. Ward