--- ---  # Rare Footage Shows FDR Walking at Baseball Game by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video May 16, 2014 7:06 PM UTC  A view of the inauguration ceremony of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (L). (Photo by Thomas D. Mcavoy//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images) A view of the inauguration ceremony of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (L). (Photo by Thomas D. Mcavoy//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)Thomas D. McAvoy—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video May 16, 2014 7:06 PM UTC In never-seen-before archival footage, President Franklin D. Roosevelt is seen walking during the 1937 Major League Baseball All Star Game in Washington, D.C. In the video, the then-president was wearing braces on his legs and is being aided as he walks up a ramp. The clip is only eight seconds long, but it represents a notable historical find as it’s only the second clip to emerge showing FDR walking, [the Pennsylvania State Archives said.](http://abcnews.go.com/US/fdr-walking-rare-video-clip/story?id=23742561) Roosevelt contracted polio in 1921 and was paralyzed from the waist down, a fact the Secret Service tried to hide. “In some instances, they confiscated cameras and film to protect his image,” Jim Vaughn, executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, [told ABC](http://abcnews.go.com/US/fdr-walking-rare-video-clip/story?id=23742561). “They worked really hard for people not to think of their president as paralyzed.” The video was taken [with an 8mm camera](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/16/fdr-walks-1937-archive-footage) by James Deshong, a professional baseball player who was standing on the field with his camera. Rare Rootage Shows FDR Walking at All-Star Game ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/103238/fdr-baseball/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/103238/fdr-baseball/"},"headline":"Rare Footage Shows FDR Walking at Baseball Game","datePublished":"2014-05-16T19:06:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:09:44.463Z","description":"The Pennsylvania State Archives released on Thursday historical film footage of President FDR, who was paralyzed from the waist down by polio, walking to his seat at a game","url":"https://time.com/103238/fdr-baseball/","keywords":["Newsfeed","U.S."],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8436fab7578c244/69868fe7169ab043232795a0/50500806.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Video","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-video/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8436fab7578c244/69868fe7169ab043232795a0/50500806.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Franklin D. Roosevelt","caption":"Franklin D. Roosevelt","creditText":"Thomas D. McAvoy—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/103238/fdr-baseball/","name":"Rare Footage Shows FDR Walking at Baseball Game"}}]}] ```