The Play
Sunrise at Campobello chronicles the life of future American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt from the brutal onset of his infantile paralysis (polio) to his triumphant return to political life three years later. The curtain rises on the large living room of his summer home at Campobello in Canada’s New Brunswick province. Several of the Roosevelt children run in and report the day’s outdoor activities to their mother, Eleanor. Soon Franklin bounds in behind them. He is a forty-year-old man, fit, strong, and in the prime of life. The pleasant family chatter continues with some good-natured bickering among the children.
With Eleanor and Franklin momentarily alone, he reveals that the swim did not refresh him as it usually does. Franklin unexpectedly stumbles and grabs his back. He dismisses it as a spot of lumbago.
Scene 2 opens three weeks later to a changed world for the Roosevelts. The normally robust Franklin has fallen seriously ill and has been diagnosed with polio. His legs are paralyzed, he cannot sit up unsupported, and for a time, cannot even hold a spoon. Sara, Franklin’s mother, and Louis Howe, his friend and political adviser, have joined the family to assist with Franklin’s care. Sara, Eleanor, and Louis discuss Franklin’s condition and their interrelationships become clear. Sara, an indomitable matriarch, disapproves of the chain-smoking Howe, who she thinks enjoys riding on Franklin’s coattails. Eleanor, who respects Howe’s abilities, carefully defends him to her overpowering mother-in-law. Nevertheless, they all seem united in their love and devotion to the stricken Franklin.
Scene 3 takes place one month later, when preparations are under way for Franklin’s trip home to New York City. The journey begins with townsfolk carrying him downstairs into the living room on a stretcher. Though weakened from his illness, he still displays good humor and banters with Louis. Always the political mastermind, Howe discloses that he has diverted the press from Roosevelt’s true route and plans for their first glimpse of Franklin to be from the train. Pleased with Louis’s shenanigans, Franklin dons his familiar fedora hat, his favorite cigarette holder, and his Scottie dog Duffy, and is carried out of the home.
Act 2 is set in the Roosevelt home in New York City eight months later. Franklin is now quite adept at maneuvering his wheelchair and can crawl up the stairs to his bedroom. However, his usual high spirits have begun to wear thin, and at times he is grumpy, rude, and short-tempered.
Franklin reveals to Eleanor that the illness has created within him a deep loneliness and episodes of despair. He explains that in the beginning only his faith gave him the strength to endure. In the intervening months, Louis Howe has been busy promoting Eleanor as a political speaker to keep the Roosevelt name in the public eye. Eleanor lacks natural ability, but she gamely makes her best effort. However, the situation has taken its toll on everyone. Later, while reading to the children, Eleanor uncharacteristically breaks down crying.
While Howe works toward a political career for Franklin, Sara attempts to persuade him to retire to the family home at Hyde Park, where he can administer the estate and retire from public life. Franklin firmly states that he refuses to surrender to invalidism.
In the final act, Eleanor and Howe encourage Franklin to nominate Governor Al Smith for president at the Democratic National Convention. Reportedly, the governor has been considering asking Franklin to do the honors. Franklin understands that he will need to walk (in his heavy braces and crutches) from his wheelchair to the podium and then speak standing upright for...
(This entire section contains 707 words.)
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forty-five minutes. Yet he and Howe realize that this speech will make or break Franklin’s political future. As anticipated, Smith arrives and asks Franklin to give the nomination speech. Franklin accepts.
The final scenes are at the Democratic National Convention in Madison Square Garden. After being introduced, Franklin rises from his wheelchair and walks the ten painful steps to the podium. The cheering swells while the band plays “Sidewalks of New York.” He reaches and holds onto the lectern, hands the crutches to his son, and waves to the crowd, smiling broadly. The roar continues as the curtain falls.
Dramatic Devices
Roosevelt’s wheelchair is a prop of major symbolic importance and visual impact in Sunrise at Campobello. When he appears onstage sitting in the wheelchair, it is a startling moment for the audience. Although the general public was aware of his disability, the discreet contemporary press did not publish photographs of him in the wheelchair. To see the president, who had bravely led the country through two crises, the Great Depression and World War II, humbled by disability historically made a huge impression upon Americans, and, in the theater, conveyed a sense of intimacy with the audience.
Additional props related to Roosevelt’s illness take on similar significance, including his crutches and braces and the difficulties he experiences adapting to their use. Yet his proudest moments come when he rises above the constraints of these props, as in the stretcher scene, where he manages to emerge resplendent, optimistic, and cocky despite being crippled and unable to walk. The scene in which he crawls across the stage, demonstrating the extent of his helplessness and boundless determination to overcome his disability, is deeply poignant. Finally, the podium in Madison Square Garden represents the difficult challenges ahead for Roosevelt, and his ultimate success in overcoming them.
The stage lighting accomplished by oil lamps during hours of darkness not only conveys the cozy atmosphere of a summer cottage on an island but also suggests that this is an earlier era, when the medical profession was less advanced.
Sunrise at Campobello is a historically accurate play, as opposed to plays based on historical events or persons, which invent situations and characterizations, such as Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus (pr. 1979, pb. 1980). In addition to conducting considerable research into Roosevelt’s life, Dore Schary took special pains to portray accurately Roosevelt’s manner of speech at this time and consulted with Eleanor Roosevelt in order to depict it correctly. The dialogue effectively characterizes an aristocratic family, where French is spoken and taught by a governess, William Shakespeare is read aloud, cultured conversation is valued, and courtesy and noblesse oblige are observed.
Historical Context
Introduction
Many nostalgically gaze back at the 1950s, often painting it as an era of untainted simplicity. This was a decade where tract housing boomed and suburbs blossomed, entwining the American dream with visions of white picket fences. Yet, to encapsulate the fifties solely in this light overlooks the shadowy McCarthy witch hunts, espionage draped in the guise of patriotism, and the burgeoning racial tensions that ignited the civil rights movement.
Religious Revivalism
By the close of the 1940s, the once burning flame of religious revivalism, kindled during the 1930s, had all but flickered out, smothered by fraudulent clergy and questionable figures at its helm. Enter Billy Graham, hailing from Charlotte, North Carolina, who reshaped the landscape. After his graduation from Wheaton College in Illinois in 1943, Graham became a local pastor and spearheaded the national Youth for Christ movement. In 1947, he formed a traveling revival troupe, gaining fame two years later with a notable appearance in Los Angeles. Graham adeptly harnessed the power of television and radio, ascending as one of America's most esteemed and recognized religious icons. His efforts not only revived evangelism's legitimacy but also secured him a role as a spiritual advisor to President Nixon during his tenure in Washington.
The Army-McCarthy Hearings
It is astonishing to consider the widespread influence wielded by an otherwise obscure senator in such a brief span. On February 9, 1950, Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin stepped before the Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, and commanded national attention. His shocking revelation of a list supposedly containing the names of 205 communists within the U.S. State Department sent shockwaves across the country. Bafflingly, no one ever laid eyes on this list, yet the mere suggestion of its existence plunged the nation into chaos.
The aftermath of McCarthy's unfounded allegations proved even more bewildering. State Department officials and various others found themselves embroiled in Senate hearings despite the glaring absence of incriminating evidence. Careers were shattered and reputations torn apart by McCarthy's unbridled ambition. Pushed by attorney Roy Cohn and his supporters, McCarthy compiled a list of suspected communists among prominent Hollywood figures. The consequences were dire for those accused—blacklisted and rendered unemployable, effectively extinguishing their professional lives.
Espionage in the United States
The detonation of the atomic bomb on November 1, 1952, followed by the Soviet Union's development of the hydrogen bomb on August 12, 1953, blindsided the United States. American officials were left puzzling over how the Soviets had achieved this groundbreaking technology so swiftly.
Probing into the Soviet atomic advancements led to Harry Gold, an American chemist privy to secrets from a New Mexico weapons laboratory. Further investigation implicated Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as intermediaries facilitating the exchange of information between Gold and David Greenglass, a soldier and Ethel's brother. The Rosenbergs, despite admitting their communist ties, proclaimed their innocence against the espionage charges. Nevertheless, they were convicted and faced execution in June 1953.
Civil Rights
Thurgood Marshall, attorney for the NAACP, took a stand when he appealed the lower court's decision preventing Linda Brown from attending an all-white public school merely four blocks from her home. This battle thrust Topeka, Kansas, into the spotlight amid a highly publicized racial clash.
The initial ruling, rooted in the separate but equal doctrine established by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896, was challenged by Marshall. His efforts culminated on May 17, 1954, when the Supreme Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, dismantling the legal framework of segregation.
While numerous schools complied with this landmark decision, Little Rock, Arkansas, stood resistant. President Eisenhower deployed 1,200 U.S. Army paratroopers to escort nine Black students into their classrooms, despite opposition from the Arkansas National Guard initially ordered by the governor to impede their entry.
On December 1, 1955, the arrest of Rosa Parks, a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger, ignited a year-long boycott of the city buses by African Americans. Montgomery suddenly found itself at the heart of the civil rights discourse. Parks' defiance inspired a wave of nonviolent protests, including sit-ins by African Americans who, rather than retaliating, used these peaceful means to expose the viciousness of the white majority's aggression. The stark contrast of passive resistance against violence garnered African Americans sympathy and support from liberals, moderates, and even previously indifferent whites.
Ultimately, Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic "I Have a Dream" speech during the 1963 March on Washington, D.C., propelled the civil rights movement to the forefront of American political consciousness.
The Cure for Polio
Polio, often referred to as infant paralysis, emerged as a terrifying seasonal epidemic, targeting infants and young children with vicious intensity during the hot, languid days of summer. While some fortunate souls experienced only mild symptoms, others faced a grim fate—left helplessly paralyzed, sometimes for life, or confined within the mechanical embrace of an iron lung. This daunting device encased its users, applying air pressure to mimic the natural rhythm of breathing. Tragically, in some cases, the disease delivered a final blow: death.
In a bold stride toward hope, 1954 marked the year when Dr. Jonas Salk embarked on trials for a vaccine he meticulously crafted at the University of Pittsburgh. His ambition was nothing short of eradicating the virus. By 1955, his efforts bore fruit, as the vaccine received the green light from the Food and Drug Administration, marking the end of polio's reign of terror in the United States.
Literary Style
Chronicle
The play unfolds as a vivid tapestry of pivotal moments from a significant era in FDR’s political saga, specifically the thirty-four months heralding a defining public appearance that would alter the course of his career. Each act meticulously follows the timeline, with dates marking the opening of scenes to emphasize the historical fidelity and gravity of the depicted events. At its core, the drama revolves around FDR's monumental efforts to conquer his illness, both personally and politically. The first act paints a poignant picture of the initial onset of FDR’s paralysis and the rippling shock that affects the Roosevelt family. As we move into the second act, Schary delves into the depths of FDR's perseverance and internal battles against overwhelming odds. Ultimately, the final act portrays FDR mustering the valor and determination not merely to win over Governor Smith but to stride before the throngs at Madison Square Garden and advocate for Smith as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Climax
The story's apex, where tension reaches its zenith, unfolds in the electrifying moments just before FDR steps onto the stage. With nerves crackling, he adjusts his braces, aided by his son, as Sara arrives in a display of solidarity. Her concerns about the "howling mob outside" fuel a brief yet predictable clash of apprehension between mother and son. Throughout the unfolding drama, their relationship has been strained over FDR's political future. Yet, when FDR dismisses the commotion as customary, Sara unexpectedly shifts her stance, indicating it’s "hardly the time" for political lectures—she yearns merely to impart a heartfelt "God bless you." This touching moment dissolves any lingering doubts within FDR, breaking through the previously escalating tension. It is a pivotal moment underscored by Howe’s acknowledgment of Sara's gesture as a peace offering amid their usually charged interactions, humorously likening Sara to a seasoned politician.
Foreshadowing
The author masterfully weaves foreshadowing throughout the narrative, kindling anticipation that FDR will steadfastly pursue his political ambitions despite formidable physical challenges. For instance, an earlier scene where FDR struggles to rise from his chair poignantly foreshadows the climactic moment when he stands poised to step onto the Madison Square Garden stage and champion Smith's nomination. This technique infuses the tale with a fresh layer of suspense and thrill, breathing new life into a story that is otherwise well-worn in the annals of history.
Point of View
The play unfolds from an omniscient perspective, with events narrated in the third person, eschewing any direct audience address or personal revelations from the characters. Instead, the audience gleans insights through observing the characters’ dialogues and interactions with each other. This dynamic interplay enriches the characters' portrayal, offering a nuanced understanding of their motivations. For instance, when FDR resolves to rise from his wheelchair, the audience, aware of his recent conversation with his mother, perceives the action as a defiant challenge to her insinuations about his limitations.
Compare and Contrast
1950s: At just two decades old, Al Kaline dazzles the baseball world by batting an impressive .340 in 1955, earning the title of the youngest player to ever clinch the American League batting championship.
Today: Barry Bonds soars to unprecedented heights, launching his 72nd home run of the season, shattering the existing records and etching his name into baseball lore by surpassing Mark McGwire’s recent achievement, the most celebrated since the days of Roger Maris.
1950s: Arthur Miller crafts his iconic play The Crucible, weaving a tale that, at its surface, explores the infamous Salem witch trials of the 1600s, while simultaneously offering a sharp critique of the McCarthy-era communist witch hunts.
Today: The Vatican is engulfed by a storm of public indignation, struggling to address the outcry following revelations of heinous criminal conduct by Catholic priests towards young boys.
1950s: The charismatic Democrat John F. Kennedy, a committed Roman Catholic, embarks on his audacious quest for the presidency, thrusting the conversation about religion into the heart of American politics.
Today: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the eldest of Robert F. Kennedy’s lineage, stands as a trailblazer in the political arena, serving as Maryland’s lieutenant governor and breaking new ground as the first woman from the Kennedy clan to chase a political career.
Media Adaptations
The cinematic rendition of Sunrise at Campobello emerged in 1962, a collaboration between the creative minds of Schary and the visionary director Vincent J. Donehue. This adaptation brought to life the stellar performances of Ralph Bellamy, the enchanting Greer Garson, and the distinguished Hume Cronyn. Warner Brothers offers this gem on VHS for those who wish to experience its timeless allure.
Bibliography and Further Reading
Sources
Atkinson, Brooks, Review of Sunrise at Campobello, in The New York Times Theater Reviews, 1920–1970, Vol. 6, Arno Press, 1971, 1958 Jan. 31, p. 25.
Axelrod, Alan, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to 20th Century American History, Alpha Books, 1999, pp. 285–327.
Gomery, Douglas, ‘‘Schary, Dore,’’ in International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, 3d ed., Vol. 4, Writers and Production Artists, St. James Press, 1996.
Goodwin, Doris Kearns, ‘‘Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945),’’ in Time Magazine, December 27, 1999.
———, No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, Touchstone Books, 1994.
Moore, Deborah Dash, ‘‘Schary, Dore,’’ in Dictionary of American Biography Supplement 10: 1976–1980, Charles Scribner and Sons, 1995.
Rosen, Ruth, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America, Penguin, 2000, pp. 3–36.
Schary, Dore, Heyday: An Autobiography, Little, Brown and Company, 1980.
———, Sunrise at Campobello, Random House, 1958. Sigal, Clancy, Interview, in Los Angeles Times, March 7, 1998.
Further Reading
Davis, Ronald L., Van Johnson: MGM’s Golden Boy, University Press of Mississippi, 2001. This work covers the rise and fall of Van Johnson, Hollywood’s ‘‘golden boy’’ during Hollywood’s ‘‘golden age.’’ This work offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of Hollywood during the time Dore Schary headed up MGM pictures.
Fried, Albert, ed., McCarthyism: The Great American Red Scare, Oxford University Press, 1996. This book covers the period of the late 1940s to the mid-1960s when Americans were routinely persecuted for their lack of patriotism or their sympathy for the Soviet Union. The author demonstrates the absurdity of the times, using speeches, court decisions, letters, memoirs, and so forth as strong supporting evidence.
Schary, Dore, For Special Occasions, Random House, 1962. This text is an account of Dore Schary’s childhood and his parents’ catering business.