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EDITOR'S NOTE
This issue of the POLIO CHRONICLE goes to the printer just a few hours after the national celebration of the President's birthday in a series of benefit balls and parties to further the work of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation. The National Committee for the Birthday Ball for the President is as yet unable to make any statement indicating the results, consequently the editors of the CHRONICLE will report in full in the March issue.

There were plenty of preliminaries to Warm Springs' own birthday party for F.D.R. There were practices and picture-takings and rehearsals galore.

On Saturday, January 20th, newsreel photographers and newspapermen took pictures of an advance celebration. Mrs. Roosevelt, was an honored spectator at the show, as she spent that week-end in Warm Springs resting. The Marine Club, a group of young boys, patients and a-b's, staged a sample meeting -- but didn't reveal the password. There was a square dance -- in wheelchairs. Four couples swung their partners to the old-time fiddling of the Manchester Corkpullers. Hoke Smith, Foundation employee, Fire Chief and Deputy Sheriff, called the dance in best clapping and tapping style.

The dining room of Georgia Hall was the scene of the Warm Springs birthday party in honor of President Roosevelt. About two hundred and fifty persons, including patients, staff and visitors, joined in the celebration. A blessing on the occasion was asked in an invocation by the Reverend W. G. Harry, of Warm Springs. Courses of the banquet were interspersed with entertainment and music. Kirk De Vore's Atlanta orchestra provided dance music for the evening. Leading the stage acts was a black-face singing and dancing act by a trio of physios, Verona Weinberg and the Hudson sisters, Anne and Maude.

"Love in a Wheelchair" was the theme of the next act. With a lambent Georgia moon, soft breezes, and a star-filled sky for atmosphere (Don't you believe that stuff, -- Ed.) three couples gave to the audience the very essence of "Warm Springs Woo." Imagine a triple bout with all the hot-cha songs! Headliners were Margaret McKay vs. Don Russell, Helen Reiss vs. Walter Reiman, and Frances McGaan vs. Charles Tarrant.

Marian Tamini, newest and sweetest songster among the patients, sang. She was accompanied by Mrs. Edgar Bailey.

Then there was a doggy act for the youngsters. Rinny Boy, alleged grandson of the renowned Rin-Tin-Tin, demonstrated the possibilities of canine Cleverness. Following this, Al Enge, cartoonist, presented the children with "Frankie Bears," his conception of sixth cousins to the well-known "Teddy Bears."

Fred Botts, dean of Warm Springs, served as toastmaster and master of ceremonies. He introduced the speakers of the evening. Greenville was represented by State Senator N. T. Culpepper, Judge Henry Terrill and Mr. Gus Huddleston; Manchester by Mr. I.H. Davis and Mr. Henry. Huddleston, and the village of Warm Springs by Mr. S.P. Killian and Captains Reynolds and Wilson of the local C.C.C. unit.

A three-hundred-pound cake (The one you have seen in the newspapers and magazines -- Ed.) was brought in, but, alas, 'twas more a feast for the eyes than for the palate. As Fred Botts said, it was rather "more ornamental than useful." The combination of the thick, hard icing remained to another day for solution.

At ten-twenty o'clock, President Roosevelt spoke to us by radio as he thanked the million or more people in all parts of the nation who had helped make the occasion, in his words, "the happiest birthday I have ever known."