Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – more commonly called Lou Gehrig’s Disease after it’s most famous sufferer – is perhaps one of the cruelest diseases known to medicine. For reasons still not fully understood, the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord responsible for controlling voluntary muscle movement shrivel and die. As this happens a person’s muscles become weaker and more atrophied until at last they cannot move at all. The heart keeps beating and the mind keeps working, but a person afflicted with ALS is doomed to eventually becoming a prisoner trapped within their own body. Although there are some therapies that can slow down the progression of the disease, there is no cure.
Complications from ALS claimed the life of Angela Lansbury’s half-sister Isolde Denham in 1987. To honor her, Angela offered her talents to the ALS Association and is featured in three public service announcements (two for radio, one for television) designed to make people aware of the disease and encourage them to donate to the cause of research to find a cure.
The PSA produced for television is particularly compelling in its stark imagery. Trading heavily on Angela’s best-known role as Jessica Fletcher, there is a distinct Murder, She Wrote feel to the analogy of ALS as the unseen – and presumably unavoidable – bullet. “If you don’t know anything about ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, know this: it attacks your body,” Angela, seated on a plain wooden stool in a featureless grey space, says. As she speaks a gun is raised, aimed at her, and fired – but the bullet travels at an agonizingly slow speed. “Eventually your body will stop working - your legs, arms, your lungs – but your mind still works. You know what’s coming but you can’t do anything about it.” Her point is illustrated by the deliberate path of the bullet, of which she is still seemingly unaware. “But with your support in funding for global research the ALS Association can help people with ALS …” – here she moves aside just in time for the bullet to slam harmlessly into the wall behind her – “do this.” And she stands up and walks away, having “dodged the bullet” of Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
It’s a well-crafted PSA, no less remarkable for how much memorable information it delivers in such a short space of time. If you haven’t see it on television you can find it on YouTube, and I encourage you to do so – it really needs to be seen to be appreciated. There is also a behind the scenes accompanying video that describes how the project came to be. Isolde, I think, would be proud.
