Big Chuck Opens His World War II File: FDR in a Wheelchair! RARE!

It is one of the most astonishing facts of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's tenure in the White House.  Few American knew he was forced to use a wheelchair because of his paralysis.  He was never seen in a wheelchair.  And the entire press corps obeyed the unwritten rule to never photograph him using a wheelchair is they saw it.

Would this happen today? I doubt it.

The fact that Roosevelt's use of a wheelchair was so little known makes this video remarkable.  It has just been discovered and is thought to be the only known video of FDR using his rolling chair.  You cannot see the wheelchair but you can clearly see the president (in a white hat) being wheeled down a ramp on a battleship.  Experts and presidential scholars call this video discovery nothing short of amazing.

FDR could personally care less about being confined to a wheelchair but he thought him being seen in one would demoralize the nation in a time of depression and war.  So every effort was made to keep "his secret" from the American public.