Salk Poliomyelitis Vaccine Telecast - Group Portrait

Photograph taken behind the scenes of the live telecast on the development of the poliomyelitis vaccine. The photograph was taken on April 12, 1955, during the live telecast informing the American public that the field trial to test the inactivated polio vaccine was successful. The telecast was filmed at Rackham Hall at the University of Michigan. Eli Lilly & Co. funded the hour and a half long broadcast, narrated by Bob Emerick. It was watched by an estimated 54,000 doctors in special screenings in movie theaters and heard by millions of people around the world on the radio.

From left to right: Herb Fleet, Vice President of Medical Communications, Inc. and Account Executive for Eli Lilly’s & Co.; Wes Kenney, the Director of the telecast (DuMont); Al Molinaro, Promotion and Production Director for Medical Communications; his son; Bob Emerick, Narrator; Morris Mayers, Director of Closed Circuit Division of DuMont; Ed Rasp, TV Program Director for Medical Communications; Eric Herud, Chief Facilities Engineer for DuMont; Steve Olshewski, Vice President of Paul Klemtner and Co. and Executive Vice President of Medical Communications, and Paul Klemtner.

Dr. Jonas Salk (not pictured), developer of the poliomyelitis vaccine, received his MD from New York University College of Medicine in 1939.