American Experience: Partners of the Heart

Plot

This 60-minute entry in the PBS American Experience anthology chronicles the unorthodox medical partnership between Alfred Blalock, chief of surgery at Johns Hopkins, and Vivien Thomas, a black man with little more than a high school education. When Thomas applied for a janitorial post at Johns Hopkins in the early '40s, Blalock was impressed by the man's medical knowledge and took him on as a technician. Ultimately, it was Thomas who, in 1944, designed the surgical procedure to correct what was then known as "blue baby syndrome." But racial barriers being what they were at the time, his contributions went ignored, and Blalock reluctantly accepted all the credit. It was not until 1976 that the medical profession formally recognized Thomas with an honorary doctorate. Partners of the Heart combines straight newsreel footage and still pictures with dramatized recreations of the events. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Cast

• Beau James - Dr. Alfred Blalock
• Chris Haley - Vivien Thomas
• Jane Leuders - Dr. Helen Taussig
• Morgan Freeman - Narrator
• Courtney B. Vance - Vivien Thomas

John Dryden - Newsreel Voice

Credit

Monte Achenbach - Associate Producer, Bill Duke - Director, Andrea Kalin - Director, Susan Fanshel - Editor, Barbara Burst - Editor, Joseph Vitarelli - Composer (Music Score), David Franco - Musical Direction/Supervision, John Rhode - Cinematographer, Andrea Kalin - Producer, Lou Potter - Teleplay By, Andrea Kalin - Teleplay By, G. Wayne Miller - Book Author

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