Lillian Gish Survived the 1918 Spanish Flu by Jim Patterson

Lillian Gish survived the 1918 Spanish flu. 

Lillian Gish survived the 1918 Spanish flu estimated to have infected 500 million people. 

See pages 218-219 “The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me” Lillian Gish with Ann Pinchot 1969 Prentice Hall. She was stricken before the filming of “Broken Blossoms.”

“I soon realized that the walk home might be more than I could manage. I felt weak and dizzy. There were no benches on the street where I could rest, and several times I had to lie down—under bushes, behind a privet fence, anyplace out of sight os passersby—to regain enough strength to continue. My journey home took four hours. I managed to get into the house just before dark and literally crawled up the back stairs so that no one would see me. I collapsed on the bed, where Mother found me. She hurriedly called a doctor. By the time he arrived, I was delirious, with a temperature of 106 degrees. The doctor told Mother I had Spanish influenza, which was then sweeping the country. In that epidemic, more people lost their lives than were killed in the war [World War I]. Coffins could not be made fast enough; in many sections, the dead were buried in mass graves. At our little studio, five died, including Tessie Harron, Bobby’s sister, who was terrified when she realized she had the disease. I wasn’t frightened; I was too sick to care.

“It was impossible to find a nurse at that time. Mother worried about Dorothy. Dorothy wanted to catch the virus so that she wouldn’t have to leave home. She would come into my room, lean over my sickbed, and breathe deeply. Finally, Mother sent her to the Talmadge's, but she herself stayed home to nurse me. Fortunately, she soon found a fine nurse to relieve her.

“One morning in November, after the fever had abated, I thought I was delirious again, for I thought I heard bells ringing, whistles blowing, cars sounding off their horns. But Mother brought the good news that the war [World War I] was over.

“From that moment on, I started to improve—perhaps because, having seen the war firsthand, I had been even more disturbed by it than most people. Then too, letters poured in from my friends and relatives, as well as messages from the studio that everyone was praying for my recovery. D. W. [Griffith] sent word that neither he nor anyone had been able to work properly since my illness.

“Feeling loved and needed, I made a quick recovery. Still wearing a medical mask, I reported for work and began rehearsing Lucy [her character in “Broken Blossoms.”]”

Albert Bigelow Paine in his 1932 "Life and Lillian Gish," also wrote that Lillian was recovering from influenza prior to filming "Broken Blossoms."

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