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 Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam
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In 1917, after years of selling worthless patent remedies throughout the Southeast, John R. Brinkley–America’s most brazen young con man–arrived in the tiny town of Milford, Kansas. He set up a medical practice and introduced an outlandish surgical method using goat glands to restore the fading virility of local farmers.
It was all nonsense, of course, but thousands of paying customers quickly turned “Dr.” Brinkley into America’s richest and most famous surgeon. His notoriety captured the attention of the great quackbuster Morris Fishbein, who vowed to put the country’s “most daring and dangerous” charlatan out of business.
Their cat-and-mouse game lasted throughout the 1920s and ’30s, but despite Fishbein’s efforts Brinkley prospered wildly. When he ran for governor of Kansas, he invented campaigning techniques still used in modern politics. Thumbing his nose at American regulators, he built the world’s most powerful radio transmitter just across the Rio Grande to offer sundry cures, and killed or maimed patients by the score, yet his warped genius produced innovations in broadcasting that endure to this day. By introducing country music and blues to the nation, Brinkley also became a seminal force in rock ’n’ roll. In short, he is the most creative criminal this country has ever produced.
Culminating in a decisive courtroom confrontation that pit Brinkley against his nemesis Fishbein, Charlatan is a marvelous portrait of a boundlessly audacious rogue on the loose in an America that was ripe for the bamboozling.Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
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Author: Guest
Charlatan is a thoroughly enjoyable (and pertinent even today!) tale of medical quackery a man who spent years battling against the country's leading quack. The self-style "Doctor" Brinkley had no formal medical training and purchased his degrees. He started selling patent medicine for sexual problems (and other ailments) but soon found his niche. About 1919 he began transplanting goat testicles in men: $750 a pop. That's $750 back then, and no credit given. But you did get to visit the goat pen behind the clinic in Kansas to pick out a young billygoat of your choice.
By today's standards, the operations were eye-popping in terms of the lack of attention to asepsis/antisepsis. Gangrene and lockjaw were among the perils one too often faced. Brinkley got very rich, and very famous: he twice ran for governor of Kansas and was narrowly defeated both times. When the Kansas Medical Board came down hard on him (at last), Brinkley moved to Del Rio, Texas, and set up the most powerful radio station in the world just across the border. This staion was used to broadcast the program Medical Question Box which would answer questions for a fee and which promoted quack medicine available through mail order. Pulling in a million dollars a year (in 1930s dollars, not 2008 dollars) was no mean feat.
Nemesis, in the form of Dr Morris Fishbein, finally proved to be Brinkley's undoing. Fishbein spent his life fighting and exposing medical quackery, and regularly wrote articles for the JAMA. It took Fishbein 10 years to bring down Brinkley: the climax of the book is a magnificently described court case where Brinkley was a disaster on the stand. The author notes that Fishbein sometimes was overzealous in his pursuit of what he considered quackery--occasionally going after what are respectable areas of medicine nowadays. But even so, this is not a tale about an Inspector Javert pursuing Jean Valjean. Justice does triumph in the end, more or less.
This is a wonderfully written book about quackery, gullibility, money, politics, and the appetite of the public for medical cures. We can look back at the 1920's and 30's with relief that we're better off because of the diligence of the Fishbeins. But at the same time "alternative" medical treatments abound nowadays. You can go into almost any large drugstore chain and buy water labelled as medicine for earaches and the like (which is probably harmless but not helpful) and herbal products which can kill you. Quackery lives on. Ou sont les Fishbeins d'antan? to mangle a famous line. Brock's book reads like a good mystery, with well-drawn characters, a great storyline, a climactic trial, and some lessons for today. You'll enjoy this.
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Author: Guest
Charlatan is a fast-moving historical account of a little known businessman operating primarily in the 1920's and 1930's. Improbably, the man, John Brinkley, was the first to bring selling snake-oil type cures to the prime-time. Charging incredible fees to revive the failing sex lives of men by implanting animal glands, Brinkley became a millionaire many times over. In the process, he revolutionized everything from radio advertising to product merchandising and bundling to target marketing. He was one of the first to do targeted, repeat mailings customized to the prospect. And of course his products and surgical maneuvers didn't work, or at least caused much more harm than good. Which resulted in a slew of critics including the fledgling American Medical Association. It's up and coming advocate and eventual president was on a countrywide tour to bring down Brinkley, reminiscent of the partisan infighting between our Bill and Hillary Clinton of today vs. the Right Wing Republicans.
There's rarely a dull moment in the book; it almost reads as well as Barbarians at the Gate. However, caveat emptor, some of the subject matter--due to Brinkley's offerings--is necessarily raunchy and in my mind too graphic. The prose is inconsistent at times and is more likely to become ragged than slow down. On the positive side, it has all the ingredients to thrill: a rakish rich Frenchman, a protagonist who learned from the master con men, media coverage, a trial, an encounter on an oceanliner, and famous authors like Steinbeck and HL Mencken become involved with the characters. It's an effervescent book that's particularly telling in an age where consumers are increasingly turning to homeopathic and other 'cures' while the television is droning on with drug ads that federal regulations require list every side effect...a downstream result in part of John Brinkley's panache and ultimate con.
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Author: Guest
If you like historical fiction/non-fiction, if you liked Heyday or The Great Train Robbery, or any one of a number of similar books, then you will likely be pleased by Charlatan. Most pleasing, I thought, were the copious references provided at the end. The selected bibliography was very good, indeed.
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Author: Guest
I couldn't put this book down, and couldn't stop from telling other people about it.
I don't want to give away too many details, but it was amazing, fun, and yet sad, to learn that an American in the 20th century could earn millions, win popular acclaim, hobnob with the rich and famous, and nearly win election as a governor - all because people believed that, er, goat glands could bring them renewed life and, er, virility.
There are many other odd twists to the story, from popular music to media history to the rise of the American Medical Association.
It's an oddball slice of history told with the wry wit the story deserves.
This book will rejuvenate your reading.
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