Dr. Feelgood - Richard A Lertzman and William J Birnes

 

Of course, I have known about such doctors - maybe not this one specifically, although it's possible - but I did not know of the extent of celebrities who availed themselves to such medical specialists. I certainly had no idea - which was the point - of John F. Kennedy's numerous illnesses and weaknesses and injuries. The way he is described here, he sounds like a near-cripple that Max Jacobson brought to life and gave him his presidential career!

The doctor’s personal story is fascinating, as he began his career in Germany, but had to escape to Praque when the Nazis came to power (he was warned of his upcoming arrest by a grateful Nazi patient), then to Paris and eventually to New York. The tales of this progression are fascinating, but it is when he starts his practice in America that he begins to treat major celebrities - Cecil B DeMille, among them.

(As an aside, I think it is fairly hilarious that his second wife was named Nina Hagen!)

His fame and practice continued to grow in New York and his list of clients - if this book is to be believed - is almost beyond belief! I won't list them all here (there is an appendix at the end of the book), but there are harrowing tales of addiction caused by Jacobson's "magic elixir", and careers rising to great heights and terrible depths.

There is certainly speculation and sensationalism in this book and I believe that the narrative needs to be taken with a grain of salt. When the authors get into the Marilyn Monroe affairs with JFK and Bobby Kennedy and intervention by the CIA, there is no way that they could know for a fact the things that they intimate. But, it all makes for a good story! Same with the conspiracy theory of JFK's murder, in which they conflate basic knowledge of the event and basically say that it is a fact that the CIA was behind it. I'm not saying that this isn't plausible, but it seems that the authors purposely confuse basic facts just so that no one takes them too seriously.

After a few patients had severe side effects and some even died, there was finally a investigation into the doctor's methods and eventually he lost his license and, even though some patients stuck with him til the end, he was disgraced and died in infamy.

This is a wild story, if even a fraction of it can be believed! Fascinating and enthralling and at just a few hundred pages, it is a quick'n'easy read. Check it out for some crazy tales of 60's celebrities and presidential misbehavior! (The story of JFK running through a hotel naked is a new one for me!)