Know for Sure

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DATE: 1941

LENGTH: 21 min

CATEGORY: Educational & Instructional, Sound, Black & White

DIRECTOR: Lewis Milestone (uncredited)

PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: Research Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, US Public Health Service

Warning: The film contains explicit images of disease and intrusive medical treatment. Viewer discretion advised.

Summary

Convinced that motion pictures could convey information more effectively than almost any other medium, the United States Public Health Service, led by Dr. Thomas Parran, produced or contributed to about a dozen films on venereal disease in the 1930s and ‘40s. Some were aimed at clinicians, others at soldiers, and others at the public. Parran and his colleagues at the PHS sought to frame the battle against VD as a public health concern—how to prevent it, how to treat it—rather than a moral one focused on abstinence….Read the Essay

View another film featured in the essay.

To the People Title text over stars and stripes.

DATE: 1944
LENGTH: 22 min
PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: Walter Wanger, US Public Health Service
CATEGORY: Educational & Instructional, Sound, Black & White

Supplementary Materials

Film Stills from Know for Sure

People celebrate as a man paint's "and son" on a shop window.

Two men have a physical confrontation over a retail counter.

A Doctor's office window sign reads "M.D. Paxton Specialist in Men's Diseases.

A revolver laying in an open hand next to bottles labeled Paxton's Panacea.

In the Collections of the National Library of Medicine

NLM Historical Audiovisuals Collection

Explore digitized films on venereal disease in the NLM Digital Collections

NLM Prints & Photographs Collection

The shape of a man overlaid with blood vessels with a tourniquet around his left arm. — Make our men as fit as our machines: regular physical check-ups…with blood tests, mid 1900s
*National Library of Medicine #101439384*

The shape of a man pouring a dose of medicine into a spoon overlaid with news clippings and advertisements for "cures." — No Home Remedy or Quack Doctor Ever Cured Syphilis or Gonorrhea, mid-1900s
*National Library of Medicine #101450677*

An illustration of a green hand pulling up a calendar page to reveal a b&w photo reproduction showing a large crowd of people. — Syphilis: A Million New Victims Each Year, ca. 1945
*National Library of Medicine #101450678*

The shape of a man with a tourniquet around his right arm. — Know for sure – get a blood test for syphilis, mid 1900s
*National Library of Medicine #101453071*

A threshold placed so a couple is about to cross it — Know for sure: get blood tests before marriage, 1944
National Library of Medicine #101438702

NLM Rare Book Collection

Venereal Disease and National Defense, by Federal Security Agency, United States Public Health Service, 1941

Pages from a United States Public Health Service pamphlet.

Sex Hygiene and Venereal Disease by U.S. Surgeon-General’s Office, 1943

Cover of a War Department information pamphlet.

Related Resources from the National Library of Medicine

Online Resources

Visual Culture and Public Health Posters

Visual Culture and Health in Profiles in Science

PubMed Central Full-Text Journal Articles

PubMed Central® (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM).

Explore current and historical research on sexually-transmitted diseases.

MedlinePlus Consumer Health Information

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Find current, accurate health information about sexually-transmitted diseases.

External Resources

Articles and Websites

Read a 1955 article about the American Social Hygiene Association’s continuing efforts against prostitution, vice, and venereal disease.

Visit the website of the American Sexual Health Association (formerly the American Social Hygiene Association.)