Typhoid Mary: The Most Dangerous Woman in America

Starring:Nova
Studio: Wgbh Boston
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Description
The notorious life of "Typhoid Mary."

When six members of a wealthy family contracted typhoid fever in posh Oyster Bay, Long Island, in August 1906, one question puzzled everyone: how could such an upscale summer enclave become infected with this highly contagious "slum disease"? Hired to perform the bacterial detective work, George Soper soon discovered the source of the outbreak was Mary Mallon, a 37-year-old Irish immigrant cook he feared was a "walking typhoid fever factory." But how could this seemingly healthy woman, with no outward symptoms, infect so many people?

At a time when the concept of communicable diseases was not widely understood, the story of "Typhoid Mary" pitted the new science of bacteriology against ancient terrors. Mary's banishment to a quarantine island off Manhattan against her will also revealed the newfound power of health officials who protected the masses while violating individual liberties. Today, with the presence of SARS, HIV-AIDS, influenza, and ebola, public health policies continue to search for the proper balance of protection and freedom.

With stirring dramatizations featuring Marian Tomas Griffin (As the World Turns) and Tony Award-nominee Jere Shea (Guys and Dolls), NOVA shares Mary Mallon's dangerous tale, based on the acclaimed book Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public's Health by Judith Walzer Leavitt.

Special DVD features include: materials and activities for educators; a link to the NOVA Web site; scene selections; closed captions; and described video for the visually impaired.

Description

Interweaving biography and social history, The Most Dangerous Woman in America tells the extraordinary story of Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid Mary. She gained this notoriety by being the first person in North America to be identified as a healthy carrier of typhoid fever. Despite her indignant protests of innocence, she was incarcerated for years on an island in New York's East River. Mary Mallon's saga throws into vivid relief the emerging science of public health and the social, ethical, and legal dilemmas it posed to its pioneers at the turn of the twentieth century. Special DVD features include: materials and activities for educators; a link to the NOVA Web site; scene selections; closed captions; and described video for the visually impaired. On one DVD5 disc. Region coding: All regions. Audio: Dolby stereo. Screen format: Letterboxed.

Customer Reviews:

Be Careful With That Home Made Peach Ice Cream!.......2007-03-11

This is another well produced NOVA offering that this time centers on the infamous "Typhoid Mary!" I've heard the name/ phrase all my life but never really knew it referred to a real person with a real story until viewing this DVD. Her story is well told through dramatic reenactments supposedly using the character's real words, vintage photos, and modern day health and historical experts. And whether Mary was an unknowing victim or a vindictive villain is given fair coverage without reaching a real conclusion.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary (spolier warning).......2006-11-03

Mary Mallon was an Irish immigrant who worked as a cook to several wealthy families. Unfortunately, she was also a healthy carrier of typhoid and most of the families she worked for became sick, some people actually died. As a result she was quarantined twice on an island for individuals similar to herself, the second time was for the remainder of her life.
This was a good documentary: it interweaved re-enactments, interviews from historians, mock interviews from the character actors as the real life participants, and photos from the actual participants and time period covered.
The documentary not only covered the life of Mary Mallon but the social and economic issues of the time that affected the outcome of her life so dramatically. For example, attitudes towards Irish immigrants at the time are examined, advances in medicine, class relations and biases, sexism, urbanization, etc Had any number of these factors been different the legend of "Typhoid Mary" may not have existed or may have been significantly altered.
One problem I had with the documentary was that it was biased and not objective for the most part. I agree that Ms.Mallon was subjected to prejudices which were exacerbated by her being a typhoid carrier, but as another reviewer commented it was hard to sympathize with her on some levels and in many ways she was not a victim but contributed to her own persecution. She refused to acknowledge she was a carrier of the disease in the face of overwhelming evidence which resulted in more people getting sick and in some cases dying. She may have refused to acknowledge this for many reasons, indeed perhaps its what kept her from giving up on life.
At the end of the day it will all boil down to one question for many viewers:is it right to deny a person their civil liberties in order to protect the general public? For many people I think the answer will be yes when that person refuses or is unable to acknowledge the consequences of their actions (although unintentional)resulting in more people getting hurt. The story of "Typhoid Mary" is tragic in that she was not just a captive of the Health Department, but of her own self denial.

Really Eye Catching.......2005-05-28

This Nova episode is something I saw on TV last evening.I knew about Typhoid Mary from historical legend but knew nothing about the facts.And as the actress portraying her so bluntly put it her NAME was Mary Mallon,an Irish immigrant cook living in New York at the turn of the 20'th century.And as this show so properly points out was responcible for one of the most mysterious and often deadly epidemics of the day.Only trouble is that in some significant ways Mary Mallon didn't come off as a particularly sympathetic character-she attacked Dr.Swoop,who inicially informed her of her health status with a fork and constantly avaded the attentions of health service officials trying to track her down,while having killed three people and infecting others,unintentionally of course.
Mary was what was known as a healthy carrier.She was infected with Typhoid and was able to spread it to others but experienced no symptoms herself.There were in fact at least several dozen more like her but because of her unique case she got the most publicity by far.That was all compounded by the fact that dues to sexism and social Darwinism of her time she also became the literal poster child for Typhoid.
She died in the 1930's,near 70 years old and having been exhiled for years on North Brother Island,the American equivilent of a leper colony.The story itself as well as that of much of Mary's life is a tragic and sad one.But all sides made serious errors in judgement,and perhapes Mary's lack of respect over the years may have been due to her constant denials about having carried the disease and lack of remourse for those she's infected.Maybe the idea horrified her too much to bare and it drove her close to madness.She was afterall something of a caregiver and likely resented having been blamed for causing so much misery.That's my personal opinion but nobody as this shows really knew what was going on inside her head.And if this is to prove factual I don't know if we'd want to.So was she a victem or victemizer?Probably both but as such likely too frightened to live with it but to proud to admit it.But anyway this will prove very educational and eye catching.

Wash your hands after you booboo!.......2005-04-01

Some of us must remember when a character in "The Fly" (1986) said, "I'm sure Typhoid Mary was a nice person when you met her socially." For those people and several others, this is a must-see documentary.

As the centennial of Mary's infamy nears, so many issues are true to this day. When diseases arise, society still wants to point fingers. Those afflicted with diseases are often in denial and just make things worse. This film mentions AIDS twice, but it never mentions Patient Zero from Randy Shilts' "And the Band Played On." But this documentary will remind you of that controversy.

Of course, Mary Mallon is a victim of fin-de-siecle sexism, xenophobia, and classism. Like Ms. O'Leary and the Chicago Fire, Irish immigrant women got the blame in that time of eugenics and social Darwinism. Still, Mary is not a sympathetic character. Wash yo' nasty hands, girl! Her bad manners killed 3 people and made dozens of others suffer and yet she never seemed to show remorse, just denial.

There are actors here that may help non-academic viewers enjoy this historical work. However, others may find it cheesy. The actress playing Mary has red hair. However, actual photographs of Mary Mallon suggest that she had brown or black hair. I think the Titian look of the actress is supposed to signify Irishness. Dr. Swoop is played by an actor with the phoniest mustache ever. He may as well have just used a brown magic marker over his lips.

Most of the experts interviewed are from the New York City area. Was this because the controversy arose there? Were they the historians who had evidence most readily available to them? Does the NOVA series and the world center around NYC, anyway? Who knows, but this documentary is very NYC-focused.

There is cool detective work here. One really gets to see how Public Health as a field emerged one hundred years ago. This reminds me of what Allen Berube said about the birth of psychology and how it played a role in homophobia in the military. Public health major should definitely catch this documentary.

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