Dr.Jonas Salk administered one of the first polio shots.

On February 23, 1954, a group of children from Arsenal
Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, receive the
first injections of the new polio vaccine developed by Dr.
Jonas Salk (above). Thanks to the vaccine, by the 21st
century polio cases were reduced by 99 percent worldwide.

Though not as devastating as the plague or influenza,
poliomyelitis was a highly contagious disease that emerged
in terrifying outbreaks and seemed impossible to stop.

Attacking the nerve cells and sometimes the central nervous
system, polio caused muscle deterioration, paralysis and even
death. Even as medicine vastly improved in the first half of the
20th century in the Western world, polio still struck, affecting
mostly children but sometimes adults as well.

The most famous victim of a 1921 outbreak in America was
future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then a young
politician. The disease spread quickly, leaving his legs
permanently paralyzed.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt (L), founder of the March
of Dimes to fight polio, is shown at the White House with
Basil O’Connor, who worked with the president in forming
the charity.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an adult victim of polio, founded the
National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which he later renamed
the March of Dimes Foundation, on January 3, 1938. A predominantly childhood disease in the early 20th century, polio wreaked havoc
among American children every summer. The virus, which affects
the central nervous system, flourished in contaminated food and
water and was easily transmitted. Those who survived the disease
usually suffered from debilitating paralysis into their adult lives. In
1921, at the relatively advanced age of 39, Roosevelt contracted
polio and lost the use of his legs. With the help of the media, his
Secret Service and careful event planning, Roosevelt managed to
keep his disease out of the public eye, yet his personal experience inspired in him an empathy with the handicapped and prompted
him to the found the March of Dimes.

Roosevelt talking with two young fellow polio patients at
Warm Springs.

Hector Vincent “Heck Harper” Flateau (1919 – 1998)

HARPER (THE SINGING COWBOY), was a former local 
RADIO PERSONALITY AND KID’S SHOW HOST.

On November 10, 1969, “Sesame Street,” a pioneering TV
show that would teach generations of young children the
alphabet and how to count, made its broadcast debut.

The show is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the
Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) until June 2000) and
was created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett (below).

As of 2018, Sesame Street has won 189 Emmy Awards and 
13 Grammy Awards, more than any other children’s show.