Ledger-Enquirer - 16 October 2004

By Harry Franklin, State Editor

WARM SPRINGS, Ga. - Producers of the HBO movie "Warm Springs" found a perfect place to get leg braces for the movie about Franklin Delano Roosevelt's early years of dealing with polio -- the place where FDR's braces were made.

Ellis W. Florence Jr. attached two pieces of a leg brace Tuesday morning similar to ones FDR wore after he was stricken with polio. Nearby, Tim Butler was drilling holes into the heel of a pair of shoes for a young girl who will portray a polio patient in the movie expected to be shown next spring.

When 32nd President Productions decided to make the movie, they went to the experts at Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation in Warm Springs to hand-make nine pairs of braces that will be worn by cast members. Perhaps the foremost expert in making the type of brace worn by FDR is Florence, a registered fitter in orthotics and an orthotic technician. Seven pairs of braces had been finished and a team was hard at work finishing two pairs by that afternoon so they could be taken to Atlanta where filming was under way.

Thanks to the expert work, the movie will feature braces that are nearly identical to the braces Roosevelt wore. The main difference is his braces were steel and the metal in these braces is largely a lighter aluminum, said Florence, 46, who has built braces for nearly 25 years. "He is the expert," said Tim Butler, the institute's retech operations manager. "This would not be happening if it were not for Ellis Florence, who is the master brace builder." His father, Ellis Florence Sr., worked in the brace shop for more than 30 years, but Ellis Jr. learned much of what he knows from Marion Dunn, Bill Crowder and Doug Hamby, who worked in the department for years. His mother, Annette Florence, also worked at the old Warm Springs Foundation for about 20 years, making corsets for polio patients.

Measuring the leg and then tracing its outline on paper like a child would outline his hands is the first of seven steps in making a brace. Other steps include assembling the uprights and bending them to fit the trace lines, cutting out the aluminum bands that fit around the back of the leg and attaching them to the brace, attaching the joints to the brace, fitting the brace to the leg, cutting and padding the leatherwork and sewing it to the brace and bands, and modifying the shoes to fit the brace.

"I took the measurements for (actor) Kenneth Branagh. He is a real nice fellow," said Florence, who will portray a blacksmith in the movie. "Mr. Branagh put his brace on and started walking right away. He looked like he was already an expert with polio." The team has made three sets of braces for Branagh, the British-born actor playing Roosevelt. He required a pair of short braces and two pairs of long braces, one for his legs and another to be fitted to Branagh's dummy legs. "In the wheelchair, he will sit on his legs and use dummy legs," Florence said.

The institute's orthotic specialists turn out about 200 braces a year. That is only a fraction of the number made in the 1940s when polio was such a scourge. At that time, more than 30 people worked in the brace shop. It takes two days or more to complete a brace. They can cost $2,000 per leg. "When I started, you could probably get a pair for $500," Butler said. "The type braces we mill in the brace shop are not available anymore. We just happen to have some. "They come from Spain, Israel, South and Central America and Scotland just to get this type brace they got 30-40 years ago," he said.

Butler has a deep appreciation for the work done at Roosevelt Institute. He lost a leg in a 1987 car wreck and came to the institute in 1988 as a patient. He was in rehabilitation in 1989 and was hired in 1990. Now he, Florence and other specialists work to see that the same precision is used today as in the distant past so that patients recovering from polio -- and actors -- will find them as comfortable and useful as possible.