Rare Footage Shows FDR Walking at Baseball Game

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.

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. “They worked really hard for people not to think of their president as paralyzed.”

The video was taken with an 8mm camera by James Deshong, a professional baseball player who was standing on the field with his camera.