Case History

The surgeon approached the patient's head with a large, shining power tool. On the wall a sign warned others: PLEASE OBSERVE SILENCE. THE PATIENT IS AWAKE. "Maggie, do you hear me?" said the doctor. "We're going in." The drill hummed. Even a few men in the TV camera crew instinctively turned away.

As played by Teresa Wright on this week's NBC Sunday Showcase, LIFE Photographer Margaret Bourke-White, who seven years ago showed the first signs of Parkinson's disease, relived a major battle against the mysterious, crippling affliction widely considered incurable. In the care of a brilliant New York surgeon, Dr. Irving Cooper, she underwent a rare operation last January, at 54 has returned to relatively normal life and work. The TV show dramatized the moving case history that Maggie Bourke-White wrote for LIFE last spring, with some unfortunate descents to the sort of syrupy embarrassment that inevitably finds its way into TV scripts about personal struggles with sickness.

With Photographer Bourke-White's help, Actress Wright studied her sub:ect thoroughly, mastered the cramped, stilted gestures typical of Parkinsonism. The part of LIFE Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt, whose firm support helped see his colleague through her time of trouble, was well played by Actor Eli Wallach. Although the "living color" was a little too vivid in the script as well as on the screen, the total result was effective.

Dr. Brando? In working out the show, producers and cast had a few problems with the medical profession. After reading the script, Dr. Russell Meyers, chief of neurosurgery at the University of Iowa, sent off a flamboyant, eight-page, single-spaced letter to NBC Chairman Robert W. Sarnoff. Meyers had many complaints, centering on the script's "implicit false optimism." One claim that Dr. Meyers disputed in particular was the script's suggestion that Photographer Bourke-White's surgeon had invented the special technique used in her operation. The technique should be credited, said Meyers, to Meyers. The script was slightly changed to indicate that only some Parkinson cases can be helped by surgery. (Actually, only 10% can be operated on at all.)

Another change in the script was suggested by Patient Bourke-White's own surgeon, who demonstrated that even a dear and glorious physician may behave curiously under TV's hypnotic eye. For the use of his name, Dr. Cooper wanted the right of script approval. (Executive Producer Robert Alan Aurthur changed the doctor's name to "Olson," avoided the issue.) Also the doctor's representatives suggested that his part be expanded, and that Marlon Brando ought to play it. Producer-Director Alex March, who gave the job to an actor named Martin Rudy, observed that "Brando is so devoted to the Method that he would have plunged right into Teresa Wright's head."

"My Payola." There were sponsor problems too. A shampoo manufacturer (John H. Breck Inc.) happened to be paying for the show, and worried about that nasty business of shaving a patient's head before a brain operation. Naturally, the TV Bourke-White could not say, "I'll be glad to have my head shaved," or "This is a great year for wigs--Marlene Dietrich has ten of them," and both lines were exxed out of the script. The producers even had to fight for the dramatically climactic operation scene, since the patient would have to be bald (Actress Wright wore a rubber cap to create the bald effect).

In the midst of all this standard TV bickering, a point of calm was Margaret Bourke-White herself. Did she mind reliving the operation that might have claimed her life? "No," she said. "I'm so grateful to the operation for setting me free that it's beautiful to me." In the final scene, Teresa Wright showed the patient's recovered coordination by bouncing a big rubber ball. Later, the producers gave the ball to Maggie, who said: "I am delighted. This is my payola."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.