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Authors: Kate Clifford Larson
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disappearing.” Whenever one of these episodes occurred, the children were whisked away to another room or sent outside to wait until the doctor left, and only then were allowed to resume their activities.None of them dared ask what was wrong with Rosemary.
Gloria Swanson recalled Joe’s rage when she asked about Rosemary’s condition. Joe had met Swanson not long after the family’s move to Riverdale. At that time, she was one of the most famous movie stars in the world. Smart, ambitious, and hard-driving, Swanson had made some bad investment decisions and contractual commitments that threatened her financial solvency. Through mutual business associates, Kennedy was introduced to her as the man who could straighten out her disordered finances and take over the management of her production company. Joe’s experience with theaters, and now with FBO, enabled him to talk to Swanson with an expert’s understanding of the movie industry and a banker’s eye to financing and running a business profitably. They embarked on an illicit affair that lasted several years. Early in their liaison, Swanson overheard Joe talking on the phone with someone regarding the then ten-year-old Rosemary. He was “agitated” and annoyed with the person on the other end of the line.Apparently, Joe was trying to get an unidentified doctor to treat Rosemary and “cure” her. He offered to purchase a new ambulance for the hospital if the doctor would take Rosemary as a patient. The telephone call ended abruptly. Swanson suggested that Joe bring Rosemary to meet with her personal physician in California, Dr. Henry G. Bieler.Bieler advocated a therapeutic diet as an alternative to drug therapies to cure a variety of illnesses. Swanson, like many other Hollywood stars, had followed his regimen and believed he held the key to lasting good health and mental well-being.
“I had seen him [Joe] angry with other people, but now, for the first time, he directed his anger against me,” Swanson wrote in her autobiography. “It was frightening. His blue eyes turned to ice and then to steel. He said they had taken Rosemary to the best specialists in the East. He didn’t want to hear about some three-dollar doctor in Pasadena who recommended zucchini and string beans for everything.” Swanson persisted, encouraging him to consider Bieler. Joe reacted even more harshly: “I don’t want to hear about it! Do you understand me?
Do you understand me?
”She knew never to ask Joe about Rosemary a second time, and Joe never mentioned her again, either. Later, Swanson approached Eddie Moore about the scene. He warned her that Rosemary was “a very sore subject with the boss.” Tapping the side of his head, he looked at Swanson and said of Rosemary, “She’s . . . not quite right.”
Educating Rosemary at home was not ideal. The lack of social interaction with other children outside of home denied her a typical childhood experience. Watching her siblings now go off to school every day was difficult for her. In spite of Rose and Joe’s efforts to treat her as if she were unimpaired, Rosemary had difficulty understanding why she was treated differently than other children.
With Rosemary’s disabilities becoming more evident and the gap between her and other girls her age ever widening, Rose and Joe reconsidered advice to place their daughter in an institution.
During Rosemary’s childhood, the distinction between the intellectually disabled and the mentally ill was rarely made. Instead, according to psychological definitions of the day, “idiots” were the most severely disabled, classified as those with the intellectual capacity of a two-year-old or younger; “imbeciles” as those with a three- to eight-year-old mental capacity; and “morons” as those with an eight- to twelve-year-old capacity.These labels limited society’s understanding of people with intellectual and physical disabilities, and lacked nuanced interpretation of the causes
Gloria Swanson recalled Joe’s rage when she asked about Rosemary’s condition. Joe had met Swanson not long after the family’s move to Riverdale. At that time, she was one of the most famous movie stars in the world. Smart, ambitious, and hard-driving, Swanson had made some bad investment decisions and contractual commitments that threatened her financial solvency. Through mutual business associates, Kennedy was introduced to her as the man who could straighten out her disordered finances and take over the management of her production company. Joe’s experience with theaters, and now with FBO, enabled him to talk to Swanson with an expert’s understanding of the movie industry and a banker’s eye to financing and running a business profitably. They embarked on an illicit affair that lasted several years. Early in their liaison, Swanson overheard Joe talking on the phone with someone regarding the then ten-year-old Rosemary. He was “agitated” and annoyed with the person on the other end of the line.Apparently, Joe was trying to get an unidentified doctor to treat Rosemary and “cure” her. He offered to purchase a new ambulance for the hospital if the doctor would take Rosemary as a patient. The telephone call ended abruptly. Swanson suggested that Joe bring Rosemary to meet with her personal physician in California, Dr. Henry G. Bieler.Bieler advocated a therapeutic diet as an alternative to drug therapies to cure a variety of illnesses. Swanson, like many other Hollywood stars, had followed his regimen and believed he held the key to lasting good health and mental well-being.
“I had seen him [Joe] angry with other people, but now, for the first time, he directed his anger against me,” Swanson wrote in her autobiography. “It was frightening. His blue eyes turned to ice and then to steel. He said they had taken Rosemary to the best specialists in the East. He didn’t want to hear about some three-dollar doctor in Pasadena who recommended zucchini and string beans for everything.” Swanson persisted, encouraging him to consider Bieler. Joe reacted even more harshly: “I don’t want to hear about it! Do you understand me?
Do you understand me?
”She knew never to ask Joe about Rosemary a second time, and Joe never mentioned her again, either. Later, Swanson approached Eddie Moore about the scene. He warned her that Rosemary was “a very sore subject with the boss.” Tapping the side of his head, he looked at Swanson and said of Rosemary, “She’s . . . not quite right.”
Educating Rosemary at home was not ideal. The lack of social interaction with other children outside of home denied her a typical childhood experience. Watching her siblings now go off to school every day was difficult for her. In spite of Rose and Joe’s efforts to treat her as if she were unimpaired, Rosemary had difficulty understanding why she was treated differently than other children.
With Rosemary’s disabilities becoming more evident and the gap between her and other girls her age ever widening, Rose and Joe reconsidered advice to place their daughter in an institution.
During Rosemary’s childhood, the distinction between the intellectually disabled and the mentally ill was rarely made. Instead, according to psychological definitions of the day, “idiots” were the most severely disabled, classified as those with the intellectual capacity of a two-year-old or younger; “imbeciles” as those with a three- to eight-year-old mental capacity; and “morons” as those with an eight- to twelve-year-old capacity.These labels limited society’s understanding of people with intellectual and physical disabilities, and lacked nuanced interpretation of the causes
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