HELEN KELLER IN HER STORY
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HELEN KELLER IN HER STORY
PHOENIX LEARNING GROUP, 1953
BLACK & WHITE
GRADES 5–12
48 MINUTES
DESCRIPTION
Portrays all parts of Helen Keller's life. Shows her early life, her education, and work. Also depicts her
travel experiences, showing the notables she met. Ends with her speech lessons and dally living habits.
1955 Academy Award winner for best documentary.
GOALS
1. To examine the life of a person who is disabled.
2. To dramatize life lessons that one person can give others.
3. To draw parallels between deaf-blindness as it existed in the past and exists in the present.
4. To aid in the study of the biographical form of literature.
INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES
1. State the effects of the onset of deaf-blindness on a person at birth, or
during infancy.
2. Obtain facts about Helen Keller's life.
3. Deduce what lessons of life Helen Keller taught others.
4. Examine the medical, educational, and vocational services available to
deaf-blind people today.
BEFORE SHOWING
Review the SCRIPT for vocabulary and language concepts.
DISCUSSION ITEMS AND QUESTIONS
1. What happened to Helen Keller when she was 15 months old? What was the result?
2. How do you rate the medical treatment she received then?
3. How long did Helen have to wait until she learned to communicate, read, and write? Describe her
behavior at that time.
4. Under what circumstances did Helen Keller begin to understand the communication processes?
5. How did Helen learn to communicate? How did she learn, to read and write? How did she learn to
read lips?
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6. Helen wanted to learn to speak and had a good speech teacher, but her speech never was good.
Why did this upset her?
7. What kind of work did she want to do?
8. Who did she live with for fifty years? What was the name Helen gave this person?
9. How did Helen develop her senses of touch, smell, and taste?
10. What help did she obtain in her work and travels?
11. What countries did she visit?
12. What celebrities did she meet?
13. What unique experiences did she have?
14. Describe what you think were her greatest accomplishments.
15. Explain her philosophy of life as described in the media.
16. What were Helen's goals in life? Did she accomplish all of them?
17. How did Helen obtain friendship and love? Draw parallels between her methods and other
people's.
18. People talk about being "free to be me." Did Helen have the freedom of choice or opportunities to
exercise her free will? State instances to support your opinion.
19. What transforming factor was most important in Helen's life? Think positively, then negatively.
20. How did Helen feel about being deaf and blind? Why did she say she would choose blindness over
deafness?
21. If you had to choose, would you choose blindness over deafness or deafness over blindness? Why?
22. People consider Helen Keller a legendary figure, but she was also a human being. Cite one instance
from the media that shows how lovable and human she was.
23. Who was Louis Braille and what is the Braille alphabet?
24. Why was Helen such a good communicator?
25. How did the media portray Helen's disability in 1953? How would it be portrayed today? Do you
think the media would be produced the same way? Why? Why not?
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Revised May 2010APPLICATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
1. List what and how we learn through our sense of hearing and by our
sight.
2. Blindfold yourself and attempt to communicate with classmates and to
move throughout the classroom.
3. Write a letter to Helen Keller as if she were living today.
4. Write a personality profile of Helen Keller, describing her physical,
mental, and emotional characteristics.
5. Write a brief biography of Helen Keller.
6. Analyze the stages of adjustment to a disability: shock, disbelief,
denial, anger, bargaining, mourning, and acceptance. How does this
apply to you?
7. Visit a class for the deaf-blind in your community. Observe how they
are taught. In what ways is it different from the way you are taught?
8. Determine if your school or community offers these accommodations to deaf-blind persons:
accessible public transportation, interpreters for educational or social activities, assistance with
shopping and banking, and opportunities for employment.
9. Invite a medical person to speak about the causes of deaf-blindness, medical improvements to save
hearing and sight, and assistive devices for the deaf-blind.
10. Research the services available for the deaf-blind throughout the United States.
RELATED RESOURCES
DCMP
The DCMP Helen Keller Webpage
The Miracle Worker (with Melissa Gilbert as Keller)
The Miracle Worker (based on the play by William Gibson)
Tragedy to Triumph
Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan (1928 Newsreel Footage) & Helen Keller
Meeting First Lady Grace Coolidge (1926 Newsreel Footage)
VIDEO
The World at His Fingertips. Library, Inc., New York. 1987.
PAMPHLET
“Facts About Deaf-Blindness.” Washington. D.C.: Hearing-Vision
Impaired Programs. Gallaudet University, 1985.
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Revised May 2010WEBSITES
The following websites complement the contents of this guide; they were
selected by professionals who have experience in teaching deaf and hard
of hearing students. Every effort was made to select accurate,
educationally relevant, and "kid-safe" sites. However, teachers should
preview them before use. The U.S. Department of Education, the National
Association of the Deaf, and the DCMP do not endorse the sites and are
not responsible for their content.
Helen Keller Kids Museum
Helen Keller Services for the Blind
The Time 100 profile for Helen Keller
Google timeline results for Helen Keller
Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education
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Revised May 2010SCRIPT
This desk belonged Of special interest
to Helen Keller. is this Academy Award Oscar
It is now in a room presented in 1955 to the best
theatrical documentary of the year,
at the American Foundation
for the Blind. the film you're about to see,
Helen Keller In Her Story.
I'm Patty Duke Astin.
Produced by Nancy Hamilton
I have a special interest
in Helen Keller. and narrated by
Katharine Cornell,
I played her
In The Miracle Worker, both friends
of Ms. Keller,
in the play,
and the film. the film is fascinating
The uncontrollable child as a portrayal
of The Miracle Worker of an extraordinary woman
grew to be world-famous, and as a documentary
at its best.
bettering the lives
of millions of blind The film takes Keller's life
through 1953,
and deaf-blind people
around the world. though she lived
until 1968.
She is the subject
of more than 400 books, In the intervening years,
thousands of articles, she continued her work
and many, many films. for blind and deaf-blind people,
Here in the Helen Keller Room, usually with the American Foundation
along with her desk, for the Blind,
are many mementos which continues
of her life and work: that work today.
awards, medals, letters, citations, Wherever and whenever
there was an opportunity
gifts from blind
and deaf-blind people.
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Revised May 2010to champion the rights (female narrator)
of blind people, In this room sits
a remarkable woman.
the foundation and
Ms. Keller were there. She is Helen Keller.
She was the guiding spirit She does not see
of the organization the book she is reading.
and continues so today. She sees nothing.
To perpetuate that spirit, She does not hear the rustling
curtains behind her.
the foundation
is reissuing this film. She hears nothing.
We hope it will serve She is deaf, deaf and blind.
as a reminder
But if you enter her room,
that blindness, deafness, she will know.
or any other handicap
Your footfall will tell her
need not be a deterrent you are coming.
to a useful, busy, They'll tell her who you are
and happy life. if she knows you,
Ms. Keller had such a life. as she knows Polly Thomson.
I'm sure you will agree Polly has been
with Helen 40 years.
that this film preserves
For half of these, she's been
the indomitable spirit Helen's only companion,
of Helen Keller.
Helen's eyes and ears.
I hope you enjoy this film
as much as I have. She talks with Helen
by a finger system
Thank you.
in which each letter
♪ has a sign, like this.
In reaching out beyond
her dark and soundless night,
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Revised May 2010Helen depends most on touch. It is the acute disappointment
Two other senses remain: in not being able
to speak normally.
There is taste,
and there is smell. It is the acute disappointment
The scent of objects in not being able
and places and people to speak normally.
tells Helen much that we learn Longingly, I think how much
with eyes and ears. more good I might have done
Her hand is her chief link if I had only acquired
with the world: natural speech.
with Polly, with Anne, Longingly, I feel how much more good
the part-time helper, I could have done
with everyone she encounters. if I had acquired
normal speech.
With her hand,
she reads Anne's lips. But out of this
sorrowful experience,
She answers with her voice.
I understand more fully...
It is an unnatural voice
and her great sorrow. But out of this
sorrowful experience,
Helen has never learned
to speak clearly. I understand more fully...
This isn't strange, all human strivings...
for since she was a baby,
all human strivings...
she has not heard a word
nor seen lips forming one. thwarted ambitions...
Let Helen, thwarted ambitions...
with Polly's help, tell you.
and the infinite capacity
It is not blindness or deafness of hope.
that brings me my darkest hours.
and the infinite capacity
It is not blindness or deafness of hope.
that bring me my darkest hours.
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Revised May 2010(narrator) Annie Sullivan, herself
The story of Helen Keller half blind as a child,
has become a legend her vision
that belongs to the world. never fully restored,
She was born in 1880 broke through the darkness
in Tuscumbia, Alabama, and silence of Helen's life.
the eldest child With minute,
of Capt. Arthur H. Keller painstaking steps,
and Kate Adams Keller. she led Helen into realizing
that around her
Born a normal, healthy baby,
was an unimagined world
she had an illness of sight and sound,
at 19 months
that communication was possible
that left her blind, between human beings.
deaf, and mute.
Once Helen's quick intelligence
Until she was nearly 7, was freed, it leaped ahead.
she lived in darkness She learned the meaning
and silence, of reading.
alone beyond human reach, Within three months,
unaware, untaught. with ruler and pencil,
Then Helen's mother she had written
read a travel book her first letter.
by a great Englishman. At 9, she was corresponding
The author spoke of a school with a famous preacher,
where a deaf-blind girl Phillips Brooks.
had learned miraculously At 10, she could call herself
to read and write. a published writer.
From the Perkins Institute With Annie always beside her,
for the Blind
fingerspelling every lesson
came Helen's liberator, into her hand,
young Anne Mansfield Sullivan.
Helen was going to school.
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Revised May 2010From Annie's hand to Helen's flowed "Come walk with me,
the classroom lectures. and I will tell
She learned to read "What I have read
in five languages. in this scroll of stone;
Helen learned "I will spell out this writing
the seemingly impossible. on hill and meadow.
She learned to speak. "It is a chronicle wrought
by praying workmen,
Now she and Annie both voiced
one ambition: "The forefathers
of our nation--
that Helen should try
for college. "Leagues upon leagues
of sealed history
Educators shook their heads
as the two settled to their task, awaiting an interpreter."
summers and winters Helen was living now
of tireless preparation in a farmhouse near Boston.
from Annie's hand Annie Sullivan
to Helen's. had married John Macy,
♪ and they shared the house
with her.
In 1904, Helen Keller
graduated cum laude Old friends visited them:
from Radcliffe College. her classmates
from college;
Blind, deaf,
but no longer mute, great men who had
long championed her:
she was ready to face
the world. Alexander Graham Bell,
inventor of the telephone,
Now she began writing
articles and books who had encouraged Annie
during Helen's early training;
about the needs
of the deaf and the blind. Mark Twain, who called
Helen and Napoleon
She also wrote a poem
in blank verse.
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Revised May 2010the most interesting figures By now she was one of
of the 19th century. the most famous women in the world.
She was visited With letters pouring in,
by her sister, Mildred,
there began that bondage
and by her mother. to the mailbag
Helen was working hard that Helen Keller
to improve her voice was never to escape.
so that she might lecture Soon she and Annie
as well as write. needed a secretary,
Of this first lecture and they found one,
she wrote:
a young Scotswoman
"I wonder if anyone has ever made named Polly Thomson.
his first appearance
1919 saw them in Hollywood.
"upon the platform
with keener anguish. They were welcomed
by Hollywood's royalty,
"Terror invaded my flesh.
Douglas Fairbanks
"My mind froze, and Mary Pickford.
my heart stopped beating.
Helen had agreed
I kept repeating, to make a picture.
'What shall I do?'"
♪
With outward calm, she and Annie
went on the platform. The movie was called
Deliverance.
She spoke,
Annie interpreted, With the exception
of a manufactured plot
and together they showed
how Helen had learned to speak. to provide romance
For all Helen's fears, and an elaborate Hollywood attempt
the audience rose to her. at symbolism,
It was the beginning the picture was a forerunner
of a five-year lecture tour. of the documentary film.
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Revised May 2010It showed how Helen It is the only existing record
could type of Annie Sullivan's voice.
and write braille When I saw
Helen Keller first,
and how she could dance.
she was six years
It showed her and eight months old.
with her mother
She had been blind
and with her brother, and deaf and mute
Phillips Keller.
since her 19th month
It showed her first as the result of an illness.
aeroplane ride,
She had no way of communicating
a daring feat at that time. with those around her,
[engine roaring] except a few imitative signs
rrrrr
that she had made
Then, of course, for herself.
the movie climaxed
A push meant "go,"
with a typical and a pull meant "come,"
Hollywood spectacle finish.
and so on.
Many people were shocked
She had observed
that Helen that we did not use the hands
would make a movie.
when we were talking
They were aghast to each other,
at her next step, vaudeville.
and I let her see,
♪ by putting her hand on my face,
For two years, how we talk with our mouths.
Helen and her teacher
She felt the vibration
trouped the vaudeville circuit, of the spoken words.
earning their daily bread.
Instantly, she spelled,
A part of their so-called act "I want to talk with my mouth."
was later filmed.
That seemed impossible,
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Revised May 2010but after experimenting And with the second finger
for a time, on the nose,
we found that placing her hand the nasal sounds,
in this position-- the [n].
the thumb resting on the throat, [n]
right at the larynx,
The [m].
the first finger on the lips,
the second on the nose-- [m]
we found The first word
that she could feel she learned to articulate
the vibration was the little word it.
of spoken words.
With the hand in this position,
For instance,
the throat: I made the vowel [i].
She feels the g, [i]
the hard g.
She felt it.
[g]
[i]
[g]
[i]
And on the lips, she feels,
Then I made the t.
the, uh--and
the k sound. [t], [t]
[k], [k] [t]
[k], [k] She feels it with the finger
on her lips--
On the lips,
she feels the b. on my lips.
[b] Then I put
the two letters together
[b]
to form the word it.
And the [p].
it
[p]
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Revised May 2010And the first word was learned. In a day
when venereal disease
After her seventh lesson,
was not a topic for discussion
she was able among women, Helen spoke out.
to speak the sentence
She was recognized
word by word: not just as a wonder,
I but as a wonder worker.
I Great men and women of her time
wished to know her.
am
She made Coolidge smile.
am
President Hoover received her
not and her fellow members
not of the First World Conference
for the Blind.
dumb
Franklin D. Roosevelt
dumb befriended her
now. in her efforts
for the handicapped.
now.
Like all the great, she was asked
(narrator) to launch a ship.
Calling attention to the needs
of the blind and the deaf, Like all the great,
she was made an Indian.
Helen worked endlessly
♪
to gain for their
more enlightened treatment, Writers wondered at her.
more schools, more homes; Artists sculpted her.
above all, to make people understand Poets drew inspiration
from her.
that the greatest service
to the blind To the world, the miracle
was Helen Keller.
is the prevention
of blindness.
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Revised May 2010To Helen, the miracle to begin an Australian-wide
was Annie Sullivan. lecture tour.
Then in 1936, She has brought light
and hope and courage
Helen's teacher, companion,
and beloved friend to thousands
of afflicted people.
for nearly 50 years,
Annie Sullivan, died. Blind and deaf,
Polly Thomson-- Ms. Keller could never learn
to speak normally.
warm, devoted, well-trained
for this unique job-- When she addresses
young students,
was there to take Annie's place
at Helen's side. her artificially acquired monotone
From that day, is interpreted
she has never left it. by Ms. Thomson
♪ for children with partial
or aided hearing.
Together they follow
Annie's star, I know every step of the road
you are traveling...
from continent to continent
they go. I know every step of the road
you are taking...
To Britain, Italy, Greece,
New Zealand. and I rejoice at your cheer
and determination...
Perpetual beggars,
they call themselves, and I rejoice at your cheer
and determination...
in the cause
of the handicapped. because the obstacles
you meet are many.
The newsreels of the world
have come to know Helen. because the obstacles
you meet are many.
(male newsreel announcer)
Helen Keller arrives And when you go out to life's struggles
at Kingsford Smith Airport and adventures...
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Revised May 2010And when you go out to life's struggles visits a village
and adventures... set apart for the blind.
you will raise a banner... Keller's visit marks
a new era.
you will raise a banner...
When she explains segregation
for the deaf who follow you. is bad for the blind,
for the deaf who follow you. authorities act promptly.
(male newsreel announcer) Seeing inhabitants are being
At Wahroonga School encouraged to settle there.
for Blind Children,
The name has been changed
Helen meets Alice Betteridge from Ha'ivrim,
of Victoria,
meaning "Village of the Blind,"
also blind, deaf, and dumb.
to Or Adonai,
Today, Ms. Betteridge achieves meaning "Light of God."
a lifelong ambition
(male newsreel announcer #3)
as Helen Keller speaks to her In Johannesburg, the children
of St. Vincent's School for the Deaf
in the only language
she can understand. have been rehearsing their
percussion band for weeks
[indistinct conversation]
for the visit
I'm glad to see you at last. of Helen Keller,
I'm glad to see you at last. the deaf-blind American
who surmounted her cruel handicaps
(male newsreel announcer)
If Helen Keller could see to become world-famous.
the excitement The band is a triumph
on Ms. Betteridge's face, of patience,
it alone would make the trip for none of these children
worthwhile.
can hear a single note
(male newsreel announcer #2) they're playing.
As guest of Israel,
the famous Helen Keller [bells ringing]
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Revised May 2010[whistle tweets] (narrator)
tweet, tweet, tweet Nowhere is Helen
more widely appreciated,
[cymbals crash in rhythm]
clang, clang, clang, clang more deeply honored,
than in Japan.
From the blind children
of South Africa, The needs of their blind
and deaf have been great,
Helen Keller takes home
a message in braille and twice she has toured
their islands
bearing cordial wishes
to the children of America. in aid of their afflicted.
(male newsreel announcer #4) Schoolchildren line
For the first time each route she takes,
since before the war,
singing songs especially written
Helen Keller pays a visit for her.
to Japan
Rich and poor alike
as a guest cherish her.
of the United States government.
She is respected as a woman
In Tokyo and other cities, and revered as a saint.
the population turns out Hiroshima and Nagasaki
to cheer this American were still recovering
left blind and deaf from the atomic bomb
by an affliction.
when Helen Keller went there
To the Japanese people, on pilgrimage.
Ms. Keller's life ♪
is an example
In a lake of shrines,
of what hope and determination
can do, the Japanese created
an everlasting shrine
for she has conquered darkness
and isolation to the memory of the great teacher
Annie Sullivan.
to become a world figure.
Helen lights the first candle.
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Revised May 2010The people of Japan will see Polly knows it pleases Helen
that the light never goes out. to wait upon her.
When Helen is not on public errands, Everywhere else,
she's at Arcan Ridge, except in her own house,
the Connecticut house Helen must be waited upon
built by friends by Polly.
so that she and Polly Here, where every table,
might have every chair,
a roof and walls every dish in the cupboard
of their own. is her friend,
Mornings at Arcan Ridge Helen can move freely
begin around 5:00. and independently.
For Helen, they begin ♪
as they end, with a Bible.
Though in this quiet house
"The heavens declare
the glory of God, Polly need not speak aloud
to Helen, she usually does.
"and the firmament showeth
his handiwork. It helps to drive back
the silence.
"Day unto day
uttereth speech. The first concern of the day
is the weather,
"Night unto night
showeth knowledge. to know how to dress for
the morning walk with her dog.
"There is no speech
nor language Clear but cold.
where their voice She checks with
is not heard." her braille thermometer.
Polly, meanwhile, She is right.
has brought up the breakfast.
In her dressing,
Sometimes something is missing Helen is completely independent.
from the tray,
She knows her clothes
and it is Helen and where to find them,
who goes to fetch it.
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Revised May 2010even to a stray belt. Even at home, they carry
the responsibilities
♪
and obligations
Every morning of public figures.
Helen goes for a walk
Their desk is never clear.
along a thousand-foot handrail
The mail piles up
built by a friend while they are away,
to guide her.
and every morning,
A thousand feet where more comes in.
she is alone and free.
The bulky packages
The walk seldom varies, are books in braille.
but for Helen it is always full They must wait.
of small, unexpected events.
The letters will be
♪ gone through
Helen has known after Polly finishes spelling out
from childhood the morning headlines.
what those with sight Helen is emphatic about keeping
cannot realize, in touch with world events.
that one does not need eyes But the mail looms large.
to see the world.
A few of the letters
♪ are personal ones,
A patch of herbs that was here but most of them are requests
last summer is gone. for something.
By 8:00, Helen and Polly From New Zealand:
have made their beds,
(man #1)
Polly has finished "Would you send a message
household tasks, to the Royal Blind Institute?"
and their business
of the day begins.
♪
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Revised May 2010(narrator) In her work,
From Massachusetts: she will not indulge herself
(woman #1) because she is handicapped.
"I have written a pamphlet
on teaching the deaf. "Everyone has his own handicaps,"
Helen says.
Please let me have
your comments." "It just happens to be
the handicap of the blind
(narrator)
From India: that they cannot see,
for the deaf that they cannot hear."
(man #2)
"I am going blind. She does her own typing.
Can you help me?" Her speeches she does
on her braille typewriter
(narrator)
From New York: so she can go over them
herself for corrections.
(girl)
"I have chosen you The machine
as the subject of my paper. has only six keys
Would you write me a letter because all braille letters
about yourself?" are made
(narrator) by the combination and placement
After the mail, Helen goes of six raised dots.
to her study to work.
For her letters, she uses
There are reports a regular typewriter.
to be made,
She is fast and accurate,
speeches and articles
to be prepared. but she has Polly
check her letters.
So far as possible,
she does her own research. Being blind, she cannot
permit herself
She locates
her reference books casual mistakes
of the seeing.
by the braille lettering
along the edge. If there are mistakes,
Helen types the letter again.
19
Described and Captioned Media Program
VOICE 800-237-6213 | TTY 800-237-6819 | E-MAIL info@dcmp.org | WEB http://www.dcmp.org
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Revised May 2010♪ The talk may turn to politics
or world affairs.
From the vibrations
of a buzzer, Helen has strong views
Helen knows when it is time and has the courage
for lunch. to express them,
The glint of crystals even when they're not popular.
is the one thing
She also likes a good story
Helen thinks she remembers seeing
before she went blind. and appreciates a joke
as much as anyone else.
Flowers are among
her greatest pleasures. So they spend their days
at home.
Helen's home
is not a sad place, Scarcely a week goes by
because she is not that Helen's calendar
a sad woman. doesn't call them
She's extraordinarily gay. to a conference
or lecture.
She goes toward each experience
with the joy of a child. In this case,
it is to a meeting
On weekdays, there are
only three for lunch, of the American Foundation
for the Blind.
Helen and Polly and Anne,
Today, the foundation
who comes in to help is submitting for her approval
with housework.
a device for communicating
Their days are too full with the deaf-blind
for social engagements.
and for enabling the deaf-blind
But at teatime, to communicate with each other.
they relax
The keyboard activates
and catch up little metal prongs
with their personal mail.
that speak directly
Friends may come in. to the fingertips in braille.
20
Described and Captioned Media Program
VOICE 800-237-6213 | TTY 800-237-6819 | E-MAIL info@dcmp.org | WEB http://www.dcmp.org
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Revised May 2010It is perhaps the most we can perhaps
direct means yet invented more easily understand
of making contact with those why Helen says if she had
who are both deaf and blind. a choice between afflictions,
"Now," Helen types out, she would choose blindness.
"anyone can speak to us directly."
The deaf, cut off
Helen is interested in a great deal from the world
that is being done
by lack of hearing
to find new ways and speech,
of helping the handicapped.
need all the encouragement
At the Dyker Street Nursery, she can give.
they are experimenting
But perhaps those to whom Helen gives
with placing sightless children her time most gladly
and seeing children together.
are those who, like herself,
It is important to accustom are both deaf and blind.
the blind
There are perhaps 25,000
to normal, everyday life. of them in this country.
At the Lexington School In the 50 years
for the Deaf, since Helen graduated,
she watches children at play. there is only one other
to have achieved a college degree,
Today they have a new game.
Robert Smithdas of St. John's
From blowing a piece of paper, in Brooklyn.
they are learning to say They enjoy life and work
"who," "what," "when," why," like the rest of us.
like ordinary children. Their fortitude should
make us recall,
She follows the progress
of older girls learning to talk. in respect to our own
small difficulties,
Watching their struggles
with speech, a truth spoken long ago:
21
Described and Captioned Media Program
VOICE 800-237-6213 | TTY 800-237-6819 | E-MAIL info@dcmp.org | WEB http://www.dcmp.org
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Revised May 2010"I cried because Afterwards, of his face,
I had no shoes she said,
until I met a man "I felt the courage
who had no feet." and thought that carried him
The newly handicapped through such great years
young men of the world's history."
who have come back From a life lived
from Korea disabled mostly for others,
command as much attention Helen manages to save
some part for herself.
as did their brothers
in the Second World War. There are necessary things
like shopping.
Then, as now, she and Polly
The excitement of the city,
tramp the corridors
of our military hospitals, its vibrations under
her feet, she loves.
bringing hope to the amputees,
the blind, and the disabled. She enjoys the labor
of choosing and buying.
Meeting Helen, seeing what
she has made of her life, ♪
gives them more courage She and Polly must shop
to reshape their own. with economy.
For her services, she was cited Though it is Helen's job
at the close of World War II. to look well in public,
Then the leader of our armies, they must also shop
later the leader of the nation, with care.
Dwight D. Eisenhower welcomed her Helen's hats,
to the White House back through the decades,
and thanked her himself. are a minor footnote
on the history of our times.
Helen Keller asked
the president Like her hats, the artists
she has encountered
if she might have the privilege
of seeing him. also summarize an era:
22
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Revised May 2010Joe Jefferson when (narrator)
he played Rip Van Winkle, When Helen takes time to relax,
she is a merry companion.
Caruso at the height
of his fame, She is interested in everything
and everybody.
Ethel Barrymore when she was
in Declasse, Spending an evening with
Robert Helpmann, the dancer,
Melchior as Siegfried,
and Guthrie McClintock,
Benny Goodman the director,
at Carnegie Hall.
she seizes the opportunity
Years ago, the young Heifetz
played for her. to catch up
with the amusement world.
Years later, Gladys Swarthout
sings for her. The theater gives
her full measure,
♪ Bless the roofs
and chimneys tall ♪ for she reads a play
before she goes.
♪ Let thy peace
lie over all ♪ Dance forms she must feel,
♪ Bless us all so Helpmann volunteers
that we may be ♪ to show her the difference
♪ Fit in order between classical ballet
to dwell with thee ♪ and the modern dance.
♪ Bless us all ♪ Mr. McClintock does not feel
Mr. Helpmann made his point
♪ That one day
we may dwell ♪ and suggests they take Helen
to study modern dancing
♪ On high with thee ♪♪
at close range.
That is beautiful.
Helen has been to
It is like my daily prayer. Martha Graham's recitals,
(Polly) but this is the first time
That is beautiful. she has been to a rehearsal.
It is like my daily prayer. ♪
23
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Revised May 2010Polly must spell the action Obviously, Helen's sense
into Helen's hand, of the world--
but she is aware its shape, its textures,
of the rhythm and movement its forms--
through vibrations comes to her
in the floor. through her sense of touch.
[resonating] But her knowledge of the world
bong, bong, bong comes to her through books,
As Martha Graham realizes, and for books
she is indebted,
Helen's hands need not
even touch the drums as are all the sightless,
to feel intensely to a blind Frenchman,
their vibrations. Louis Braille,
[lively piano music] by whose invention the blind
of all nations can read.
Though Helen has been
to their performances, It was to honor his memory
it is only in a rehearsal that Helen, in 1952,
that she is able to discover went to France.
the line of body and limb At the Paris Foundation
for the Blind,
that is the living pattern
of the dance. she writes the address
to give
Once Helen wanted
to feel a lion. on the 100th anniversary
of his death.
Annie Sullivan informed
the zoo. "A notre maniere.
A lion was fed. "In our way, we the blind are
as indebted to Louis Braille
Helen entered the cage
as mankind is to Gutenberg."
and felt the lion
from its head to its tail. Helen's speech is only a part
of the world's tribute.
♪
24
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Revised May 2010Today, 100 years There is peace and quiet.
after his death,
There is music.
he is being taken to lie
in the Pantheon, [jazz piano tune plays]
the burial place There are also the dishes
of France's great. to be washed.
Behind his coffin As Polly washes the dishes,
march the blind of Paris. Helen shells pecans.
♪ Helen keeps a careful check
on Polly.
And later, at the Sorbonne,
But when the radio
Helen Keller delivers is playing,
the address in his honor.
it is hard to keep
[speaking in French] Helen's hands on her work.
[speaking in French] Then there is bed.
(narrator)
Afterward, Helen Keller, "This then is the message
Louis Braille's great disciple, which we have heard of Him
is made Chevalier "and declare unto you,
of the Legion of Honor.
"that God is light
[man speaking in French]
and in Him
[applause] is no darkness at all."
♪ Funding to purchase and make
this educational production
(narrator)
Then, from time to time, accessible was provided by the
there is home again, U.S. Department of Education:
where they sit among familiar things PH: 1-800-USA-LEARN (V)
with curtains drawn or WEB: www.ed.gov.
and are simply old friends.
25
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Revised May 2010You can also read
