Anne Bancroft & Patty Duke in THE MIRACLE WORKER (1962). ~Trivia~ Although Patty Duke had been playing Helen Keller in the play for more than a year, she almost didn’t get the part in the film adaptation. The studio felt that she looked too old to play a seven-year-old. However, they decided to use Duke after deciding to use Anne Bancroft, who played Duke’s original Annie Sullivan in the play. | the.vintage.era

On this day in 1887, 21-year old Anne Sullivan took on a new pupil in Tuscumbia, Alabama: Helen Keller. She worked hard to teach Keller, who was blind and deaf, how to communicate. The two remained close until Sullivan’s death in 1936. 🎥 Seriously Amazing Objects: Legends | Smithsonian Channel