[Music]

[A group of teens assembles, climbs into their cars, and heads to the movies.] 

[Tires screech as car drives off.]

[Kansas State Board of Health In Cooperation with the U.S. Public Health Service Presents] 

[The Innocent Party] 

[Technical Advisors Al F. Schaplowsky, William F. Schwartz, Lee E. Van Winkle,

Virginia Pence, Lawrence A. Brennon, G. Martin, M.D.] 

[Music]

[Betty:] Thanks, Don.

[Don:] Ready to go now? 

[Mrs. Turner:] Betty, you and Don aren't leaving are you? It isn't late.

[Betty:] Well, I think we'd better, Mrs. Turner. But we had a wonderful time. Thank you so much.

[Don:] That's the trouble with going steady with a girl like Betty, Mrs. Turner. Her mother always expects her home by 11. 

[Mrs. Turner:] Well, you come back again.

[Betty:] Uh-huh. We will. 

[Mrs. Turner:] Good night.[Betty:] Good night.

[Music]

[Don:] Kind of quiet tonight.[Betty:] Uh-huh.

[Music]

[Betty:] Don?[Don:] Hm-hm?

[Betty:] You know what? I've never felt about anyone, well, the way I feel about you.

[Don:] Gosh, Betty. I think you're wonderful too.

[Betty:] Hey, you better watch out [laughter]. You're getting on the wrong side of the road.

[Don:] Let's pull off the road for a few minutes.

[Betty:] Well, I have to be home by 11, remember? Uh-huh. [laughter].

[Don:] Okay.

[Music]

[Don:] Are you sure you have to be home right away?

[Betty:] Well...oh, I guess not. Not for a while anyway.

[Music]

[Don and Betty are sitting in the car; Betty is tearful.]

[Don:] Betty.

[Betty:] Let's go home, Don.

[Don:] Okay.

[Music]

[Nicky:] Hey, Don, boy. What's the matter? Looks like you got deep thoughts.

[Don:] Oh, just thinking something, Nicky. That's all. Just thinking.

[Nicky:] Still dreaming about the little queen over in the city? Did Betty find you a changed man?

[Don:] Hey, you come off that right now. Listen, Betty's not that kind of girl and you remember it.

[Nicky:] Okay. Okay. Just forget I mentioned it.

[Don:] Say, Nicky?[Nicky:] Yeah.

[Don:] You know those girls in the city the other night?

[Nicky:] Yeah.

[Don:] You think they might have had something?

[Nicky:] You bet they did. Oh, you mean. No. Just forget about it, buddy. 

They're just a couple of good kids who want to have a little fun.

[Don:] Well, I don't know, Nicky. Something happened.

[Nicky:] What do you mean something happened?

[Don:] Well, I've got some sort of sore down there.

[Nicky:] Oh, don't worry about it. It's probably just a pimple or something. 

The same thing happened to me and it cleared up all by itself.

[Don:] Well, maybe. But I think I'll have to go see a doctor just to be sure.

[Nicky:] Well, suit yourself. Personally, I'd just forget all about it.

[Music]

[Dr. Carlson:] Well, there they are. 

Take a look at this.

[Don:] Is it something bad, Dr. Carlson? Do you know what it is? 

[Dr. Carlson:] Well there's no doubt about what it is, Don. 

Those little corkscrew things are the germs of syphilis.

[Don:] Syphilis? Gosh, doctor, I...

[Dr. Carlson:] Now, take it easy. It isn't the end of the world for you. 

We can cure syphilis, especially if we find it in the early stages such as yours.

[Don:] Are you sure it's syphilis, doctor? 

[Dr. Carlson:] The darkfield examination is proof enough. 

We'll also run a blood test on you before you leave.

[Don:] I don't know. I don't know how I got it. I haven't done anything. 

[Dr. Carlson:] Don, let's be straightforward about this. I'm not here to make a moral judgment,

but you and I know that it was contracted through sexual intercourse with an infected person.

[Don:] Well, I heard you could get something like this from a toilet seat or something. 

[Dr. Carlson:] About as much chance as being hit by a meteor.

[Don:] What am I going to tell my dad? 

[Dr. Carlson:] The best thing is to tell him the truth. 

I'll talk to him if you want me to. 

Don, there are some things you should know about this disease of yours. 

Now here we are. This is the sore you have, Don. 

It's called a chancre. It is usually painless. 

Sometimes it looks like this. And sometimes like this. 

When it appears on or around your sexual organs, you've probably got what we call primary syphilis.

[Don:] Boy. It's pretty awful looking. 

[Dr. Carlson:] Well now, actually the appearance of a chancre is rather fortunate. 

Sometimes a sore does not appear. 

Or it's so small that you wouldn't notice it. 

Now, when that happens the disease might go unnoticed for years.

[Don:] Well, what happens if you don't find it right away? 

[Dr. Carlson:] Well, the results can be tragic in many instances. 

Syphilis can cripple you. Blind you. Destroy your brain. 

And, of course, it may kill you eventually.

[Don:] Well, you did say it could be cured though, especially in an early case like mine. 

[Dr. Carlson:] Yes. In the stage you have we can knock out the spirochete in a hurry.

[Don:] Spirochete? What's that? 

[Dr. Carlson:] Well, that's the corkscrew-shaped thing that you saw on the microscope. 

Like this. 

These germs enter the body when you have sexual intercourse. 

They burrow under the skin. 

Usually causing a chancre to appear where they entered. 

They work their way into the blood stream and the chancre on the skin disappears. 

Now, that happens to quite a few people who think they're all right after the sore clears up. 

Now Don, I'll have to have the names of the girls you had sexual relations with. 

And, naturally, this is confidential.

[Don:] There haven't exactly been dozens. As a matter of fact, I know exactly where I got it. 

There was this one girl over in the city, Barbara Meyers. 

[Dr. Carlson:] Well now, tell me everything you can about this girl, Don. 

You see, the Health Department over there will want to contact her to see that she's examined

and treated before she gives the disease to someone else.

[Don:] I'm afraid I don't know her address. As a matter of fact, 

I'm not even sure that's her real name.

[Dr. Carlson:] Anybody else, Don?

[Don:] No, sir. Just that one girl. 

[Dr. Carlson:] Are you being honest with me, Don?

[Don:] I told you. There's this one girl over in the city and that's it. 

[Dr. Carlson:] Now, look here son. 

I've admired your courage for coming in here and facing up to the facts. 

But you get it through your head that you're dealing with a deadly disease. 

Not some common cold or a case of the chicken pox. 

If you think you're doing some girl a favor by protecting her good name and reputation, 

you're wrong. You're terribly wrong.

[Don:] I've said all there is to say. There is no other girl. 

[Dr. Carlson:] All right. If there's no other girl, we'll leave it at that. 

But before we do, I want to show you something. 

Now, come here. 

I've showed you the symptoms of syphilis as they appear in the male. 

Generally the chancre appears on or around the external sex organ. 

Many boys who contract syphilis have a good chance of spotting it when the danger appears. 

With a girl, however, it 's not quite as easy. 

You see, a girl could develop a chancre way up inside like this,

and never know that she had syphilis. 

Of course, if she's lucky, it will appear out in the open like this. 

Now we don't have to worry about this. do we, Don?

You say there's no other girl who might have become infected by you.

[Don:] Even if a girl had it and didn't know it, she'd find out, wouldn't she? 

I mean, there'd be other signs. 

[Dr. Carlson:] Yes. Yes, sometimes there are other signs. 

In the secondary stage, a few weeks or months after the primary chancre disappears,

she may develop a sore throat. 

Patches of her hair may come out. 

Or her skin may break out in a rash like this. 

Then again, the symptoms of secondary syphilis may be so slight that they go unnoticed. 

If she doesn't go to a doctor, or if a doctor isn't looking for syphilis, it may never be detected. 

You see, the secondary symptoms, like a primary chancre, 

also will disappear even without treatment.

[Don:] Well, you'd find it for sure when you had a blood test before you got married. 

They'd discover it then.

[Dr. Carlson:] Now, that would be a lovely wedding present for a girl to discover  

that she had syphilis a few days before the wedding. 

And in some states some people can get married even without a blood test. 

But suppose she had undetected syphilis? 

Inactive in the latent stages. 

She might go for years thinking that she's all right. 

Then before she knows what's happening to her, she goes insane or becomes a hopeless cripple. 

Here's something else, Don. 

Congenital syphilis. 

Look at this baby. 

Its mother infected it before it was born because she had syphilis and didn't get treated. 

Now, you say there is no other girl, Don. 

But if you're lying to protect a girl, just consider what it might cost her.

[Don:] But she might not even have it. 

[Dr. Carlson:] You can't take that risk. Only a doctor can tell you for sure.

[Don:] She's a nice girl, doctor. I don't want her to have to go through all this if she doesn't have to. 

[Dr. Carlson:] All right, Don. It's your decision. 

But if you're the young man I think you are, you'll bring that girl in to see me.

[Don:] I have to think about it, doctor. 

I've got to have time to think about it.

[Music]

[Don:] She might not even have it. 

[Dr. Carlson:] Only a doctor can tell. You can't take that risk.

[Music]

[Don, thinking to himself:] I may have given Betty syphilis. Syphilis.

[Music]

[Dr. Carlson voiceover:] She'll never know until it's too late. She goes insane or becomes a hopeless cripple.

[Music]

[Don walks along, thinking.]

[Music]

[Betty emerges from the doctor's office.]

[Dr. Carlson:] Now, there's something I want to tell both of you. Now, what's happened is past. 

You both have the disease and you will both have to be treated. 

Now, you took a risk by doing something that society condemns. 

Perhaps you didn't realize some of penalties involved.

[Don:] Betty, I didn't. 

[Dr. Carlson:] Betty, I know that you blame Don. 

But you should thank him for one thing.

[Betty:] Which thing, doctor? 

Shall I thank him for giving this to me or for adding me to his list of girls. 

Just what do I thank him for?

[Don:] For gosh sakes, Betty, I didn't mean to do this to you.

[Betty:] What is it, doctor? What do I thank Don for? 

[Dr. Carlson:] Just be thankful he brought you in in the first place. 

And be thankful he brought you before it was too late. 

Now, we've caught this thing in time. 

We can take care of it. 

You and Don are both going to be all right.

[Betty:] You may be right, doctor. But right now, I'd rather be dead. 

[Dr. Carlson:] I know. 

But you're thinking only of this moment. 

Tomorrow you'd rather be cured.

[Music] 

[THE END A Centron Production]