What was the name of the disease that Tony had
I saw this for the first time yesterday and loved the film
shareHuntington's chorea...also known as Huntington's disease. It's a neurological genetic disorder that affects muscle coordination and eventually causes dementia.
shareok,thank you (:
shareNo problem. You can look it up on wiki or web MD...it's pretty serious, and from what I understand, ther's STILL no cure for it.
shareWhat I don't understand, though, is that Miriam -- in the book, anyway -- tells Jennifer that Tony is mentally and emotionally a child and always has been. While Huntington's causes dementia later in life, would that affect him at such a young age?
shareOf course, they may have taken liberties when doing the movie and when Sussan wrote the novel, but perhaps Tony had a rare case oh Huntingtons that manifested early in life?
sharePossibly. He could have also had the HD AND had a cognitive impairment besides. Who knows, I guess?
shareWhat would we do without the armchair psychiatrist and their convenient labels to put us in our places and coc block us into mediocre lives? Too many people use credit to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like.
share If you read the book, Miriam is strongly opposed to Jennifer and Tony, she even goes so far as to hire a private detective to follow them, and report to her.
At this point in the book I really hated Miriam and, you were supposed to. When Jennifer gets pregnant, Miriam is shocked, I was thinking, "leave them alone you bitch!" Tony, and Jennifer fight over Miriam, and Jennifer leaves. Weeks later, Miriam shows up at Anne's apartment, here she tells tells Jennifer about Tony, and his 'illness.' She relates that his father had the disease, and that she and Tony had different fathers. As for the mother, she dies giving birth to Tony, and Miriam, who is only 14, raised him herself.
She had to be one tough kid to do this herself, and needed to be father, mother, sister, teacher and nurse all rolled into one. She would have been one fierce tigress, not the nasty, selfish, miserly bitch we think she is.
As I am a retired nurse, who dealt with home health and Hospice care, I know how tough this must have been.
True, the book took a lot of liberties, but what a lot of people don't know was that Jackie Sussan's only child was born with this disease, so it's a case of art reflects life.
As for the movie, it took a lot of liberties with the book and drastically changed the storyline. Anne Marries Lyon, and there is a lot more about Neely, who becomes a real monster. But I won't go into that here, that is for another thread.
Loved the book, hated the movie, and would rather watch "Isn't She Great?" the comedy based upon the making of The Valley of The Dolls.
Fasten you're seatbelts, it's gonna be a bumpy night!
"Jackie Sussan's only child was born with this disease, so it's a case of art reflects life."
I thought her son was born Autistic.
Susann never really gave a name to the disease that Tony had in the book, but it sounded as if it manifested itself in childhood. I don't think it was meant to be Huntington's. In the book, Miriam went with Tony everywhere to avoid having him say something that would give him away, and the only time he and Jen were alone together was in bed. He also reacted extremely childishly on a couple occasions. And he never had physical problems in the book. In the movie he was with Jen alone several times and seemed perfectly normal.
shareThat's what killed Woodie Guthrie.
shareHuntington's is a rare disease... and it's hereditary... if a parent has it, there's a 50% chance any offspring will have it. Although it's described well in the movie.. Tony's symptoms are no where near how this disease progresses. I realize this a movie and they have poetic license.... but a little research, even then would have given them exactly what Huntington's is about....
share