dr. is a good friend of this library. he's a former library trustee, and we've known him for many years, a strong supporter of the library. and his research into the life of president roosevelt in his health. he's a medical doctor. he's board certified neurology, is in practice for more than 40 years. and current president of the neurological association of new

jersey, dr. la mesa, is also a former member of the new jersey state of medical examiners and former president of the new york society of medical history. he's also he's avid magazine writer, magazine collector, and has written on that as well. magazines in the american experience. and it was published in conjunction with an exhibit down at the go-go club, which i remember very clearly was very nice. dr. lazar's book, fdr unmasked 73 years of medical cover ups that rewrote history is now available, and we like to welcome welcome steve to the team today. good. morning a brief excerpt from chapter 12. the weather in washington, d.c. on the morning, march 4th, 1933. fdr is first. inauguration day was, frigid and gloomy, matching country's mood. america were facing a future

certain only in its bleakness bank, failures and foreclosures on farms and homes were on the rise. the new york stock exchange had suspended trading, acquiescing to tradition a dow herbert hoover rode with his successor on a one and a half mile parade route from the white house to the capitol. franklin waived his silk top hat and flashed his famous grin in response to the cheering crowds to camouflage the president, flexibility to war, inability to walk. inaugural chairman dr. carey grayson. woodrow wilson's former physician and no stranger to presidential cover ups, had a wooden passageway construct it from the capitol rotunda to the site of the swearing in on the east front film of franklin traversing the final 35 feet down a ramp to the speaker's podium. shows his body upper body

swaying back and forth as he propelled himself toward lectern with his son james. on his left. neither franklin's cane nor his vice grip on james's arm is visible. even the oath of office had to be staged to create the impression that franklin was standing unassisted facing chief justice charles evans use his right hand raised his left surreptitiously grasping for support with a 17th century dutch family bible open to the first epistle to the corinthians before. once he had been sworn in the 32nd president pivoted to grasp the specially constructed lectern with both hands, and spoke the words that would become the most memorable. he ever uttered. this great nation will endure. it has endured. will revive and will prosper. let me assert my firm that the only thing we have to fear is

fear itself of nameless, unreasoning unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed to convert retreat into advance, he said. many of the millions listening across the nation on the radio to their new president's patrician voice doubtless were thinking, what does he know about? fear? had he ever had to worry about going without a meal, losing a job, or forced to abandon his or her home, or. but franklin had fear. illness had more than once brought him to the brink of death. every time he went out in public, he faced the prospect of falling flat on his face. and in 1930, he heard most three, most terrifying in the english language. you have cancer. my name is dr. steven lomazow.

during over 40 years as a neurologist. a good portion of my job has been unraveling medical mysteries and educating patients. and clear understandable language. as i have done in this book for the last years. though one of my greatest passions has been in researching the most complex, most highly guarded, and most historically important medical of all the truth of the health of franklin delano roosevelt. the conclusions i have drawn are based on the weight of the evidence, much of it presented and analyzed in this book. this medical biography for the first time. if some of my assertions are not entirely documents able beyond a reasonable doubt. i have said so. for example the scenario i laid out about just another of franklin's illnesses, his cancer. much of what you are about to hear, though, is not speculation but fact. fdr unmasked discusses the swarms of illnesses that he was

confronted with crippling polio frequent viral and bacterial infections, a nearly fatal hemorrhage. his friend vincent astor's yacht in, 1934. life gastrointestinal bleeding in the months leading up to pearl harbor swamp fever, a disease he made up to human and deflect from another of his medical crises. attacks of excruciating abdominal pain, two incurable cancers, countless surgeries to camouflage lives and treat the pigmented lesion above his left eye and in his last years, severe cardio vascular disease and frequent epileptic seizures. just to mention a few new revelation. aids and fdr unmask and clues from the archive of a previously obscure cancer surgeon who befriended fdr and began treating him in 1930 while he was governor of. new york also discussed in

detail the first time is the relationship between and his relative by marriage. vincent astor, the closest male friendship of life and most excitingly to me as a physician, a medical cover up that began two decades after fdr death that attempted to literally rewrite history. after reading the subtitle of this book, one might ponder how medical cover ups can last for 73 years. for a man who lived for only 63 years, the first began in 1921, after the 39 year old former assistant of the navy and vice presidential candidate contracted a children's disease. franklin's political mentor, louis howe, told him that if the extent of his paralysis ever public, his career was using house word kaput. from that point on severity of his disability from polio intentionally minimized.

polio was a roadblock that took fdr years to get to the point. running again for public office. contrary to books published 2016 and 2022, the disease did not provide him with an infusion of empathy that carried him to the president to see what did carry to the presidency was an extraordinary intellect, determination and ambition attributes tempered in his youth as the only child of an equally and domineering mother. even before. 21 polio medical problems had intervened at virtually every milestone of his career. his association with howe, for instance, came about in 1912, when fdr was about to run for a second term as new york state senator and landed flat on his back with a potentially fatal case of typhoid fever. howe conducted a successful campaign with an invisible

candidate and the victory in 1912 addressed a letter of congratulations to the and revered future. even eleanor's permanent emotional break, her husband came to a head 1918 when she discovered love letters from lucy mercer in his after he had contracted a severe of spanish flu, the deadliest pandemic in human history. from the time he reentered public life in 1928 as governor of new york, franklin, his family his inner circle advisers and teams of physicians assiduously disguised the state of his health, promoting the fantasy of a robust leader who was always in excellent physical condition for. a man his age. and why did i choose the the of fdr as the sphinx. for the book cover. i don't have what.

that ancient egyptian relic renowned for continuously telling a riddle it would never answer. reporters were baffled about franklin's potential decision to run for an unprecedented third term, that they had a paper maché image of him fashioned as the sphinx, complete with trademark cigaret holder and snake glasses and presented to presented it to him at annual gridiron club banquet. the president was so fond of this parody, he used it as the centerpiece for the oddities room that he opened he opened his library. this library. a year later, fdr sphinx has now been returned to a deservingly prominent position in the permanent exhibition. only a few yards from here. and i urge you to go see. time magazine wrote. in june 10th, 1940, the mystery. last week, franklin delano

roosevelt, 58 years old, seven generations removed from a dutch settler of 1644, son of a country gentleman, and the belle of the hudson valley was the head of the last great still at peace with 33 weeks left of his second term. yet all although he was in his eighth year as president although he had moved worked, eaten, laughed, exhorted, prayed in the intense glare of public scrutiny. although every facial grimace, the tone of his voice, each manner ism, the dark mole, his left eyebrow, the mole on his right cheek. all of these were public property, intimate to every u.s. citizen. still, there was no in the u.s. who could answer the question who is franklin roosevelt? the press was complicit in the deception during his lifetime. no photograph of nor even any political cartoon. fdr in a wheelchair or in any compromise raising position,

came to light. america's highest circulating weekly magazine, liberty, became a regular platform to, dismiss any idea of ill health that arose and reinforced the medical myth of fdr. his superhuman vitality beginning with his speech nominating al smith for the in 1928. virtually everything the public knew about fdr is what they heard directly from on the radio. what they read about him in newspapers and magazines. and what they saw in edited newsreels and retouched photographs. even heart disease was not admitted until 25 years after his death, and then only as part of a new and even larger cover up to conceal other serious medical problems. these deceptions dominate the narrative of franklin's health. the scheme was so successful that in fact, except for polio, virtually nothing was known about his health. for decades after he died. a comprehensive independent

paper written in 1957 stated quote, the evidence to date shows only partial signs or traces of a deteriorated physical condition at the most critical time. the election 1944. only and omniscient observer could forecast the succeeding events with certainty, unquote. what the paper reveal is that the medical orchestrated by fdr physician ross macintyre and, his press secretary, stephen early, had been wildly successful. even the full extent of, his polio did not appear in print until hugh gallagher's 1985 book, fdr splendid deception. but those were only the cover that took place during his lifetime, two decades after his death. fdr, his daughter anna, and her husband, her physician conspired with dr. howard bruyn, the who had treated him for the last

years of his life to write history, write history. the hoax was perpetrated by literally manufacture, bring a detailed false medical narrative and publishing that bogus account in a prominent medical journal. this narrative sought among other deceptions to dispel any idea of fdr having been the sick man at yalta, nor of him having any cognitive or neurological at all. the deception was specifically meant to hoodwink the great historian james macgregor burns, who the late 1960s unwittingly accepted the false. he was being fed and enthused incorporated that set of falsehoods into his second fdr biography, soldier of freedom. that book won pulitzer prize in 1971 and january 1970. burns had written bruen to inform him that the of soldier of freedom had been delayed by the publisher to build interest

and fill that gap. burns would be writing a magazine article to run as cover feature of saturday review. to coincide with a medical paper be published in april 1970 at the fifth anniversary at the 25th anniversary of fdr death. and here is the cover of that magazine. the subtitle quote the young cardiologist an emergency summons to conduct a hard examination, unquote this characterization this characterization is just part of the deception. broun was not young, but rather a full professor of medicine at the highly prestigious columbia college of physicians in surgeons and one of america's leading clinical cardiologist. he had graduated from johns hopkins medical school in, 1925. this young man was recruited in 1942 at age 37 with one child and another on the way

specifically to take care of the president. and incidentally, he treated eleanor bruni's disclosures. burns wrote, which are full and authoritative as anything we are likely to have on the matter will force us to revise the most and most interpretation of the significance of roosevelt's condition during his final year. this was surely music. the ears of the three coconspirators. burns book remains the primary for most, most subsequent biographies with respect to fdr, his health, the final years. i call that paper the gospel according to brewin anna never said anything publicly, and she died in 1975. but bruen continued to promote and enhance the deception in interviews and films. and shortly before his death in 19 until and shortly until shortly before his death 1995.

at age 90. his last interview was with doris kearns goodwin, who included portions of it in book no ordinary time, which also won the pulitzer for biography in 1995. conventional belief still holds that other than polio, fdr was completely healthy until march 1944, when dr. bruhn wholly unsuspected congestive heart failure. after allegedly examining him for the first time, the examination supposedly took place because anna had felt that the presidential physician ross mcintyre was not delivering medical care to her father. so the story goes until his death caused by a stroke that came as a, quote, bolt out of the blue, unquote. on april 12, 1945, fdr, no serious medical problems other than high blood pressure and gallstones ostensibly has dramatically weight loss, was due to a enforced diet. and he cared little about his

health and never asked doctors anything about it because. quote, he had a job to do unquote. none of. this is true, margaret. daisy, certainly fdr has devoted closest companion as historian geoffrey ward has aptly labeled her, perpetrated her own cover up. she edited diary to exclude mention of of fdr serious and life threatening illnesses. cognitive problems or seizures. and left the intentionally incomplete document under her bed to be discovered after her death in 1991. at 99. equally important, maybe more important, daisy had been named archivist of this library at its opening in 1941 and likely exerted contents. editorial control of all its contents until she retired in 1963 to fully comprehend the motivation behind these cover ups. one must understand the

incredible magnetic personality of fdr and the love and loyalty he generated in those fortunate enough to be taken into inner circle. two weeks before fdr died. howard brown sat down with daisy stokely in warm springs and told her quote you realize that like all people who work with this man, i love him. if he told me to out of a window, i would do it without hesitation, unquote. the good doctor and the wily ms.. oakley continued. jump through that window. for half a century, fdr has epilepsy. it sounds shocking but true. first described in fdr a deadly secret. my 2010 biography written with journalist eric fetterman, has since confirmed to be true by my colleagues and their most prestigious journal. the seizures, which occurred frequently after 1943, are the

best way to ascertain whom was participating in a medical cover up by virtue of their about reporting them. these shocking events, though not understood at the time for their true medical significance, were nonetheless described by well over a dozen observers. yet others who surely witnessed scores of them, including his frequent campaign agents, his doctors, his daughter and his wife, did not. the first female cabinet member, frances perkins, who had known fdr from his days as a new york state senator, described the seizures to columbia university historians in 1955, quote, the change in his appearance had to do with the oncoming of a glassy eye and an extremely drawn look around the eyes and cheeks and even sort of a dropping of the muscles of the jaw on the mouth as though they weren't working exactly when he fainted, as he did occasionally, not for many years, but for several. that was all accentuate that it

would be momentary, it would be very brief, and he'd be back again, unquote, even. and i mistook these episodes for what she called little brain bursting that she described to a close friend. a record of that conversation was found at the herbert hoover library at north branch, iowa, as well as other about fdr health. that, thanks to these are certainly never made it to hyde park. fdr en also presents for the first time the story of relationship with vincent astor. one cannot truly understand fdr without examining that close relationship, among other, astors hosted on his palatial 263 foot yacht norman for medical treatment and. acted as as a personal spy master for over a decade. vincent was the son, john jacob astor, the fourth, the wealthiest man to go on the titanic and to two up in 1912, which just claimed another five

victims a 20. he was a 20 year old harvard freshman and, a primary beneficiary of his father's enormous estate. a few years, astor, the fourth, had named his best and his brother in law to the executor of that estate. that just happened to be fdr. half brother rosie, who assigned franklin's law firm to represent the astor family while franklin nearly ten years older than vincent. by the time their friendship blossomed in 1912, they, in vincent's words, grown to become the same age vincent and franklin shared a love for the sea and used voyages as a retreat to avoid the press. mr. astor discovered early the solace of the sea time in 1928. reporters not infest the ocean, said vincent. the social gulf between american eyes is not so much measured in money as in newspaper headlines. fdr harbored similar sentiments, referring to his cruises, quote,

the only place can get away from people telephones and uniforms. to learn more about this fascinating relationship, simply google, astor and franklin roosevelt and a highly informative and exquisitely documented article written by a researcher while employed at this will be found at the top of the list. fdr first cruise aboard normal hal was an early 1933 just after he'd been elected president and ended with an assassination attempt on him during a speech in miami, florida, by an immigrant bricklayer that instead killed the mayor of chicago. the other guests who regularly sailed aboard that were almost exclusively the gentry. that astor was most comfortable with and collectively became as the normal gang. one member of that gang, though, was very different. dr. w leslie hightower, a physician of modest means from

mobile, alabama, had trained in new york city in 1929 as a cancer surgeon at the institution that became today's memorial sloan-kettering cancer center. and then in 1930 at cornell university's prestigious new york hospital, heider was introduced to vincent astor, the chief of staff of that hospital. another member of the normal hall gang, a young heiress, helen hooper brown, had been treated by heider, the hospital and became enamored. his competence and demeanor likely the young doctors to the chief of staff, helen hooper, was the wife of lathrop brown, fdr schoolmate at groton and his apartment maid at harvard. fdr had served, at best as best man at the hooper brown wedding, and lathrop had done likewise for franklin and eleanor in 1905. dr. hightower's unknown archive first revealed in fdr in masks, provides rock solid that he began treating fdr. he was governor of new york

shortly before that fateful, which likely involved surgical treatment of the president elect. vinson had written dr. heider to tell him, quote, for obvious reasons on this particular trip, it will be absolute essential to have a member of your particular profession on board. and i don't know of anybody who would in as well as you. a stunning, handwritten postscript added, quote, our primary preliminary trip will have to be kept under the hat until our principal guest gives out, unquote, another. previously on unknown letter from dr. heider to his is the best eyewitness record of his intimate friendship with fdr and astor, as well as the events surrounding the attempt. heider and vincent, though strange bedfellows, remained lifelong friends. paperwork for. every trip taken by fdr during, his presidency is preserved in separate files of the famous trip files the library.

fdr is cruise aboard normal overseas. 1934 was particular eventful. a telegram in the file addressed to fdr at the white house from a jacksonville, florida cancer radiation treatment specialist requests a meeting just before the departure of normal aboard ship to demonstrate how to use a medical device he had invented that would be of quote great benefit to the cancer patient unquote. dr. heider was the ship's doctor. the file reveals an unexpected medical complication and its cover up, which necessitated a week's of the cruise. franklin son james and elliott were hurriedly summoned to the ship likely as transfusion donors. the cover up included and communications between normal and fdr as press secretaries in miami washington a letter written just after the crisis by his press secretary reads, quote, robby, which was an

alias. fdr was actually astor's dashing was really, really very was really very very ill, unquote. james contacted dr. heider about the normal voyages while preparing his 1958 memoir, not and acknowledged without a doubt that he knew that heider had been the president's doctor, yet made no mention. heider, in the final manuscript. he also concocted a detailed story to explain brother's elliott's presence. so why does all of this matter? the present narrative of the life, of the consequential person of the united states. of the 20th century is incomplete. and in many cases false. the gospel, according bruin, fdr, indeed a very sick man, yalta, and had battled serious for decades previously until the narrative of franklin's life has been set straight, especially

with to his health the magnitude of his accomplishments cannot be properly assessed. fdr unmasked goes a long way towards achieving that end. thank you. i look forward to questions. thank you. that's very gratifying, i believe. if anybody has a question you've been asked to step up to the microphone microphone, all we question was. yes, sir. on. to what degree was eleanor apprized of fdr actual circumstances and condition. well, the only medical records we have from fdr his health come from illinois's files. now as you know fdr and eleanor had had parallel lives, but she

was aware of and in fact, when asked about his health, she generally denied there was any problem. that's in the book. uh huh. the great catherine smith wrote the book on resilience. thank you. you've met a lot of resistance in the fdr industry, i guess about your theories and your proof. can you talk a little bit about that. well, again, i've been doing what i do for the last 50 years. i entered medical school in 1972. i am this all unfolded my eyes and we had some some interesting success in 2010. but book goes a lot farther, particularly with respect to being treated as for cancer. while he was. dr. heider is a dr. hightower's records are brand new and all

things about vincent astor who was indeed his most is closest male friendship of his adult life. also enhance is exactly what we're talking about history historians have pretty well burned into the stone and sometimes it's hard to rewrite history. that's why that's the subtitle of the book. i am confident that with time the truth which is i'm talking about will come out now. always, always, again. like i said, the end. does this make fdr as accomplishments worse or does it does it shine a good on him? and the answer to that is, as i said, that if understand what he had to go through, the time that he was going through it fighting terminal diseases, making up diagnoses, doing anything you can to get what he had done, his fortitude and his determination and his marvelous carried him to be the greatest of the 20th century.

and it enhances what he did. it doesn't diminish it from diminish it at all. dr. lemay as we talked your book a couple of times, when it was in progress, what i found most compelling was your analysis of the mole or the or whatever on his left eyebrow, which was obviously visible. so how that over the course of time, i wonder you could elaborate on that. well again, interestingly, as you know fdr founded warm springs and his his idea about hydrotherapy caused him to buy warm springs and literally roosevelt was one of the most one of the best and most rehabilitative physicians in the 1920s. and if not american history.

but one of the things that he liked to do and one of his treatments for his men, for his for his polio, he felt that being in the sun was a very, very important thing. and he wrote letters to people saying. it's even best if you do it completely naked. but if you can't do that, do it with the bathing suit. this letters or that was his treatment. now, of course, when you have a a blotch over your eye and what wasn't known at the time, was the relationship between radiation of the sun and the development of melanoma. so sometime around 29, 1930, he heard those three words and heider, just like dr. bruen was recruited to take care of it, is an interesting person. his own son is he had a son was born in 1945. so have had long conversations with him. he actually shunned the the lifestyle of the rich and famous. went back to mobile, alabama,

and became an obstetrician where he delivered babies and operated on people often for very minimal amount of recompense. he was very friendly. vincent throughout his life, the richest man in world would come to visit him in alabama. his latest, i know of 1952, because that's the last time bill remembers it. so there's so many things in this. go to that website. you, my friend. my, my, my coworker cohort will villanova wrote it at the library. it's a fab list document and you'll learn all about things you really never knew before after your life. what we don't we know something about after his life. what we don't know is what we don't know. and now i think we've learned a lot more. but there's a long way to go even as yet. so i thank you for that. okay. thank you. thank you, bill.

your new book, milton