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While Douglas’s book didn’t have much connection to the reality of RMSF research, he was correct about this: the real people who died doing this research deserved a better death. 

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When Douglas’ book “Green Light” was published in 1935, U.S. Public Health Service leaders must have greeted it as a lucky coincidence. They were beginning a public relations campaign focusing on the National Institute of Health (NIH—then singular). They wished to secure funding during the Depression to move the NIH from a small campus in the heart of Washington, D.C. to a spacious campus in Bethesda, Maryland, where state-of-the-art research buildings could be constructed, and the public health mandate of the NIH could be expanded. The public relations campaign focused heavily on newspapers.


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Lucy Salamanca of the Washington Star greatly aided the campaign with her series “The G-Men of Science”. “G-men” was slang in the 1930s for the FBI agents who were combating organized crime and bank robbers. Salamanca borrowed the term to describe the heroics of NIH scientists. The 12-part series focused on diseases such as typhus, malaria, tularemia, encephalitis, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Her article “Tick is Conquered: Scientific G-Men Perfect Vaccine Against Rocky Mountain Scourge After Six Experimenters Lose Lives” is mostly accurate, although it does rely on sensational language about the NIH’s “magic brews” to engage the reader. One can imagine that her description might also have embarrassed Dr. Roscoe Spencer:

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Image: “Tick is Conquered,” Lucy Salamanca, Washington Star, March 28, 1937, page F-4.

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Of course, you haven’t made the big time unless you’re in the movies; when Lloyd Douglas’ book “Green Light” made it to the movie screen in 1937, even more Americans became familiar with Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) research. The movie cut most of the book’s religious conversations and added more to the love story. It also included Dr. Newell Paige testing the RMSF vaccine on himself, as Dr. Roscoe Spencer had done in real life—perhaps the screenwriters had read Lucy Salamanca’s article.

Directed by Frank Borzage, the movie starred Errol Flynn as Dr. Paige. Flynn was known for his swashbuckling roles and wanted a more dramatic role.  The tale of self-sacrifice, love, and loyalty did well at the box office, pulling in $1,254,000 domestically and becoming Warner Brothers Studios’ second most popular film in 1937.

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In this publicity photo for the movie “Green Light”, Dr. Newell Paige (on right, played by Errol Flynn) emphasizes a point by poking the chest of fellow RMSF researcher Dr. John Stafford (played by Walter Abel). Warner Bros., 1937.

An article in TIME Magazine stated:

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“Dr. Spencer…is as modest as he is short. But his work in proving the tick transmission of deadly Rocky Mountain spotted fever (in some places it kills nine out of ten) and developing a protective vaccine has brought him a public reputation. He was idealized as the hero of Lloyd Douglas' novel, Green Light—moviegoers know him as the man (Errol Flynn) who went into the Rockies after ticks.”

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  • (Quote from “Medicine: Spencer for Voegtlin,” TIME, Monday, June 28, 1943.)

It’s not known what the RMSF researchers in Montana thought of the movie. Perhaps they referred to Spencer as “Errol” in private

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