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Title details for Charlatan by Pope Brock - Available

Charlatan

America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam

by Pope Brock
Johnny Heller
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available
The rise and fall of the greatest medical con man of all time.


This is the enormously entertaining story of how a fraudulent surgeon made a fortune by inserting goats' testes into impotent American men. "Doctor" John Brinkley became a world renowned authority on sexual rejuvenation in the 1920s, with famous politicians and even royalty asking for his services. His nemesis was Dr. Morris Fishbein, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, but it took him fifteen years to destroy Brinkley in a dramatic courtroom showdown. In the meantime, despite mounting evidence that his quack treatments killed many patients, Brinkley became a millionaire, and his pioneering use of radio not only kick-started country music as a national force in America but also invented the whole concept of radio advertising. He became the first politician to campaign over the airwaves when he ran for governor of Kansas.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 19, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400126071
      • File size: 251278 KB
      • Duration: 08:43:29

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Perhaps the most striking fact about Brock's account of twenties' and thirties' hucksterism--and, specifically, the ultimate "snake oil salesman," John R. Brinkley--is its revelation that the obsession with virility fueling the popularity of such modern-day chemical enhancers as steroids and Viagra is nothing new. As Brock makes clear, most of the fraudulent "remedies" that "flimflam men" like Brinkley promoted were hyped as cures for impotency. Johnny Heller's twangy voice resonates with the expansive openness of the Midwestern environs where the book takes place and with just the right plaintive nasality when he's mimicking Brinkley himself. Brinkley's roly-poly nemesis, Morris Fishbein, was an equally colorful figure from the turbulent era between the two World Wars. Classic Americana. J.S.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 19, 2007
      John Brinkley, who grew up poor in rural North Carolina but attended Rush Medical College in Chicago, got his start touring as a medicine man hawking “miracle” tonics and became famous for transplanting goat testicles into impotent men. Brinkley built his own radio station in 1923, hustling his pseudoscience over the airwaves and giving an outlet to astrologers and country music. His nemesis was Dr. Morris Fishbein, the buoyant, compulsively curious editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association
      whose luminary friends included Sinclair Lewis, Clarence Darrow and H.L. Mencken. Fishbein took aim at Brinkley in JAMA
      , lay publications and pamphlets distributed by the thousands. Even after the Kansas State Medical Board yanked his medical license in 1930, Brinkley ran twice for governor of Kansas and almost won. Finally, Brinkley sued Fishbein for libel and lost in a spectacular showdown. Brock (Indiana Gothic
      ) did tremendous research on this rollicking story, but the result is at times unfocused, overwritten and digressive, borrowing just a little too much from the overblown rhetoric of its subject. 8 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW
      .

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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