INFLUENZA 1918 (AMERICAN EXPERIENCE)

Details

• Release Year: 1998
• Genre: Documentary
• Plot: In September of 1918, soldiers at an army base near Boston suddenly began to die. Doctors found the victims’ lungs filled with fluid and strangely blue. They identified the cause of death as influenza, but it was unlike any strain ever seen. It would become the worst epidemic in American history, killing over 600,000—more than all the nation’s combat deaths this century combined. Drawing on remarkable archival photographs and film footage, and interviews with survivors and medical historians, INFLUENZA 1918 tells the powerful story of America’s worst health crisis. Despite recent triumphs over many infectious diseases, medical science proved powerless against the killer virus. In desperation, people turned to folk remedies: garlic, camphor balls, sugar cubes soaked with kerosene. Frantic officials closed schools, factories and churches, and everyone was required to wear a mask. But the virus was unstoppable. Relentless. Lethal. Curiously, this painful event has nearly faded from our national memory. But as this gripping medical thriller proves, it is a story that deserves never to be forgotten.
• Cast: Alfred Crosby, John De Lano, Shirley Fannin, Cathryn Guyler, Linda Hunt, William Maxwell, Anna Milani, Porter Reading, Lee Reay, Barbara Rosencrantz, William Sardo, Daniel Tonkel, Robert Kenner, Ken Chowder, Vincent J. Straggas, Joseph Tovares, Mark Adler
• Director: Robert Kenner
• Runtime: 1:00
• Company: WGBH, PBS Home Video
• Media Format: Movie