OTL Update

An update on the progress of OTL. Paul continues his search for photographs and information of our dear Patient One. Please read entry below for exciting new details. Wayne is busy filling our schedule for Colorado, as our Denver trip is now just about a week away. Our wonderful interns have been writing out interview transcriptions. Lonnie and Ben have been writing music and setting up meetings with local musicians. Josh keeps everyone in line and on task, as a good A.D. should. Harry has finally come to the realization that his break from editing Midway flicks is over: he has begun the arduous task of post-production. Our British connection, Marisa Benoit, is currently researching odd and experimental cures of the ole' TB. And I've been bothering the National Library of Medicine, as we gather up the awesome collection of old government films on tuberculosis.

Can't wait for you to see this movie.

David Bettencourt

Paydirt?

Reviewing our search for Patient Number One, George Sprague Barrows, we note that he was raised by an aunt alongside a cousin of about the same age, who would have been like a brother to him. While George never had children, his cousin had three: two boys and a girl. The two boys were fairly easy to trace forward in time, and we have tracked down their descendants. The girl, on the other hand, presented a more elusive challenge. At some point, she got married and could no longer be traced by her maiden name. Unfortunately, we have not located a marriage record for her, which would have given us her new name.

Last week, on a whim, I searched for her name in The Providence Journal's database, which stretches back to 1982. And we got lucky! She died in 1987 in Providence. The obituary listed her only surviving daughter and the city and state in which the daughter lived in 1987. Checking an online phone directory, I confirmed the daughter -- who would be George's cousin twice removed, the granddaughter of George's cousin -- was still listed in the same city and state.

So, I gave a call. And the trail grew cold. I tried virtually everyday for a week, but got no answer. Until tonight. I finally reached the woman, named Carol. She was so excited by the call that she interrupted our conversation to pour herself a glass of wine.

Things didn't start promisingly. Carol had never heard of George.

But she had heard of George's sister, Hattie. As a young woman, Carol used to go to Cape Cod to pick up Cousin Hattie and bring her to Rhode Island for family gatherings at Thanksgiving. "She used to sleep in my bedroom with me."

When I brought up the subject of photographs, Carol led on me a detour through a brief recitation of what she knew of her grandfather, George's cousin. The cousin grew up wanting to be a doctor, but he never got the chance. His dream was sidetracked by illness. As a result, he couldn't work indoors, but had to be in the open air. So, he got a job running a streetcar in Providence. Anyone want to guess what illness the cousin contracted?

After I steered Carol back to the subject of photographs, she told me, "My mother saved everything. She had boxes of things that I haven't even begun to open."

Could the producers of On The Lake entice her to go through those boxes now?

"I'd be happy to do it," she said. "I may be able to find something about these people."

I promised that I or someone else from the crew would contact her in a week or two and that I would send her some of the genealogy I had dug up, because she didn't know much beyond her grandfather.

She ended our conversation, "I won't be able to sleep tonight."

She won't be alone.

-Paul Parker

Of Corsets and Garters

We reported earlier of finding a newspaper article that recounted the opening of an office in Providence where prospective patients for the new state sanatorium would be examined. The article advised patients to pack plenty of heavy clothing to dress warmly for open-air sleeping and admonished women against bringing corsets with them.

We have now tracked down the location of the doctor's office in Providence: the site of the modern-day Satin Doll strip club, where corsets are permitted and undressing is expected to be done hotly.

-Paul Parker

See What Patient Number One Saw

View Larger Map

When Patient Number One, George Sprague Barrows, was eight years old, he lived on Sheldon Street in Providence, which is shown above. The dark red, almost brown, house is probably the very building in which George lived. You can click the picture and drag to rotate around the panorama. The view you see is much like what George saw in his day because most of the houses on the street date to his lifetime or earlier.

Hopes Raised...

It's still a long shot, but the search for Patient Number One, George Sprague Barrows, has entered tantalizingly promising ground.

Last night, I spoke with George's cousin thrice removed, that is the great granddaughter of George's cousin. George's cousin was a particularly close relative. He and George were about two years apart in age, and the cousin was the son of the paternal aunt who raised George.

The cousin thrice removed reported that she inherited a bunch of old photographs when her mother -- George's cousin's granddaughter -- died in 1999. Whether George is in any of them and whether they are labeled remain unanswered questions. She promises to check and let us know. She's also going to ask her father about the family when they get together to celebrate Easter today.

And we are still pursuing other descendants of George's aunt, so we have a couple of chances of success.

-Paul Parker

Historical Zeal

In addition to building a collection of historical TB medical texts (a nice addition to my medical-history library), I have started to collect some of the equipment used in the early 2Oth Century to treat tuberculosis patients. Alerted by our assistant director, Josh Fishlock, I bid on eBay for an authentic pneumothorax machine, widely used -- and mentioned repeatedly in our movie. There was actually some intense bidding, but when the auction closed, this gem became mine! I suspect you will see it again, when ON THE LAKE premieres...

Depositions, Transcriptions and Maps

The archival search continues to (slowly) yield interesting details about Patient Number One, George Sprague Barrows. This snippet of map shows the house in which George was born in 1877. It was owned by his paternal grandfather, Rufus Sprague. The larger map from which this was taken paints a good picture of the neighborhood in which George was born and grew up.


Other historical maps have allowed us to pinpoint where George lived in 1905 just before being admitted to the sanatorium. Unfortunately, the site is now a vacant lot on Westminster Street. We're pursuing historical streetscape photos of the area to see whether we can find George's house.

Last night, intern Alex Deciccio and I worked over the phone to transcribe depositions in the divorce case between George's father and stepmother, who was also George's aunt. Below is a not-very-flattering description of George's father, given by his stepmother's sister.

-Paul Parker

From the audition tapes...

Reading from a letter written by a lonesome teenage girl with tuberculosis, Alex McDougall wins the role.

-David Bettencourt

And the Winners are...

Dave and I reviewed tape much of today, and from a very tough field selected these folks for major voice roles in the movie: Yemi Sekoni, general narrator; Patricia Painter, nurse Katharine; Margot Muraszkiewicz, Nita; Alexandra McDougall, Barbara; Chris Kinsella, Ed; Lionel Beauchemin, Dr. Hudson; Glenn Laxton, superintendent Dr. Barnes; Ken Rinn, Dr. Zambarano; and Tim Downs, superintendent Dr. O’Brien. More details soon, including biographies of these nine great additions to ON THE LAKE and a video clip of one of the auditions that blew us away.

To those who tried out and didn't make it, our thanks again. We will need voices for future documentaries, so please stay in touch via our web site.

Pictured is Alex McDougall. We'll post video of her fabulous audition soon.

-- Wayne

The Doc Deepens

We had planned to stop principal shooting after our trip to Denver early next month -- until we explored the story of Drew, whose brother supplied some of the vintage footage we will be using. The brothers spent years at Wallum Lake. Only Drew had TB -- a severe case that required him to be in a body cast for months on end when he was a young boy. He was one of the first to receive some of the early successful treatments. We knew he might be of interest, but when we finally reached him by phone we were blown away. Drew, now in his 60s, has an extraordinary collection of photos and an extraordinary story -- so compelling that Dave and I are zipping down to the small town in North Carolina where he lives to film him. That will be in mid-April. (It's also a good excuse to visit my good friends Andy and Martha Kinnecom, who own and operate a lovely North Carolina Inn. They met Dave not long after I did, all those years ago, when croquet was all the rage here at Midway North.)

We are tempted to say that we hope nothing as compelling comes along now, as we are rich with great stories, but of course if something does, we will have to get it...

-- Wayne

Collecting String

The archival search continues to yield little bits here and there that help give a fuller picture of Patient Number One, George S. Barrows.

Today's lunch hour produced two useful documents, both 19th century court records.

The first, pictured here, is the naturalization petition for George's grandfather, Emanuel J. Barrows. We've known he emigrated from Cape Verde, but this document adds a few salient details:

* He became an American citizen.
* He arrived in this country in New Bedford in 1820.
* He was 14 years old when he arrived.

All of these details give us clues where to look for more information.

The second document is more valuable. When George was an adolescent, his father was involved in a lawsuit. The case file includes depositions from witnesses in the case, which give rich descriptions of George's father and his business and personal lives, as well as anecdotes about the man who shaped young George's life -- and, perhaps, foreshadow the misfortune that was to come.

-Paul Parker

The Hunt for Motion Pictures

Spoke with the wonderful archivist at the National Library of Medicine this afternoon. They have an amazing collection of educational films, slides, and motion pictures about tuberculosis. It seems that our government used film to promote proper care and to highlight our nation's sanatoriums.

Some of these films have never been used in a documentary before and we're excited to be working with the Library to bring these important motion pictures to the big screen.

Here's a brief description of one of the films in their archive, an educational and instructional film from 1940.

"This film tells the story of a girl who contracts pulmonary tuberculosis, following her case from the time of infection through the period of convalescence. It describes, by means of animated drawings, the process of primary infection and reinfection; demonstrates tuberculin tests and X-ray examinations; and portrays hospital treatment, pointing out the importance of rest, nourishing food, fresh air, sunshine, and cleanliness."

I also just finished watching the DVDs from this past weekend's very exciting and very successful auditions at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick. I was so pleased with not only the number of people who showed up, but also the number of quality vocal talents that were heard that day. We've got many tough decisions ahead of us....

And finally...two "did you know" facts that we learned about while researching for this film. Did you know that the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, for a very brief (and unsuccessful) amount of time in the 1840s, actually was home to 15 tuberculosis patients, looking for a cure?

And did you know that Providence, Rhode Island, was one of the first cities to have open-air schools for school children with tuberculosis?

All right. Enough blogging. Time to play some Wii.

---Dave Bettencourt

Of corsets and bloomers

The archival search for Patient Number One, George S. Barrows goes on. Though we haven't learned a whole lot more about him, we have found some useful tidbits about Zam in general.

We have located Census records showing who worked there on a specific date in 1910, 1920 and 1930, as well as who the patients were in 1920. The Census records give a mini-bio of every person listed, including their age, birthplace, heritage and occupation. We know that sanatorium workers in 1930 paid $7 a month rent for their place in the boarding house.

Through Census and other records, we have identified an aunt with whom George Barrows lived for much of his life, including the year in which he was admitted to the sanatorium. We have tracked down the aunt's great grandchildren. Those would be George's cousins twice removed. Unfortunately, they all died in the last 10 years or so. Now, the hunt is on for their children, George's cousins thrice removed. In moments of utter delusion, I let myself fantasize that we will contact a relative who has photographs of George, along with his diaries from his years on the lake. Hey, isn't moviemaking all about dreams anyway?

One of the quirkier bits we have come across is an article that ran in all three of Providence's daily newspapers the week in 1905 that the sanatorium welcomed George Barrows as Patient Number One. Pictured above are the headlines from The Providence Journal. The article refers to Barrows, though not by name, and gives good details about where prospective patients were examined, how much it cost for treatment and what clothing patients were advised to bring with them. The last included the admonition for women to bring bloomers rather than corsets.

Unfortunately for us, George was admitted the same week as a big election and the attention of the newspapers was drawn to that, rather than to doing a detailed story about our man and his new home. We will keep scouring the microfilm to see whether the papers made up for their oversight in the weeks that followed.

-Paul Parker

`Good thing we have movies'

We were not sure what to expect for Sunday’s vocal auditions at Warwick’s Crowne Plaza, and so we were thrilled when a crowd was waiting for us before we began. We auditioned without a break from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – eighty-one people in all. And we would have had more if we had not stopped accepting people at about 2 p.m., when it was evident that we would be unable to finish by closing time if we took more. Our apologies to those we had to turn away, and to everyone who had to wait – upwards of three hours in some cases. But we tried to give everyone a fair chance. Thanks to everyone who came. We will be looking for more voices as we move into future projects, check back here as details become available, and they will soon...

Eighty-one people from many walks of life: professional actors and actresses, radio personalities, teenagers, seniors, people who had been in movies and plays, folks who had never tried out for anything anywhere. Several people blew us away and we will be able to fill all nine slots with exceptional talent. We will be reviewing tape this week and next, and announcing the winners shortly. Again, thanks to everyone who came, and to the Crowne Plaza staff (even if some greedy underpaid butler pilfered Nicole’s tuna sandwich… just kidding, Bettencourt snuck it into his backpack to help feed his family, which ON THE LAKE has brought to the brink of starvation). Speaking of Bettencourt, we all learned how dangerously dictatorial he becomes when he's over-caffeinated. Thank God he is blessed with talent, or there'd be a mutiny.

Two last notes about the crew and our new slogan (for today, at least):

Dave, Lonnie, Ben, Josh, Nicole and I were there all day. Yolanda dropped by for the last couple of hours. Alex and Jeff T. were there. And once again, we were reminded of how energetically and effortlessly we all mesh, which bodes well for OTL and the films beyond.

The last piece is our new slogan: GOOD THING WE HAVE MOVIES.

This is a line from a letter home by Barbara, a wonderful young woman who died of TB at Zam when she was only 18. Barbara’s powerful, heart-breaking story is central to the film. She penned that line when describing how lonely it could get up there at the distant place on the lake, and hearing people read it while auditioning for her voice brought it home. We like it. We like her story, another great tribute to the human spirit – for despite her loneliness, Barbara emerges from her letters, photographs and an on-camera interview with her surviving sister as kind, funny, spirited, and someone we are delighted to immortalize. More on Barbara is in the Feb. 29 post.

-- Wayne

The O'Brien Collection

One of our great finds has been the photo archive kept by the Dr. William O'Brien family. Three of the late superintendent's children will be part of the film -- we have interviewed all three -- and we will use many of the family's photographs. This archive is a treasure, remarkably well photographed (Mom was the main person behind the camera) and vast (we have yet to scan everything). This great shot is a taste of what the family has so kindly provided us. Thanks to Sheila!