Stuff I'm Reading: Charlatan by Pope Brock

Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam by Pope Brock

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Dr. J.R Brinkley, the world’s greatest quack in the golden age of quacks of the ‘20s and ‘30s, pioneered a technique in which he injected goat testicles into the testicles of men, in an effort to increase their virility. The operation was a fraud, but thousands of patients submitted themselves to this “treatment,” making Dr. Brinkley a very rich man and raising the ire of Dr. Fishbein, the man who eventually brought him down.

Along the way, however, Brinkley also pioneered some non-medical promotional techniques, many of which are still in use today. He helped to popularize early country music, bringing it to the masses as it had never been brought before. His “border blaster” radio transmissions and his airplane tours used in his campaign for Governor of Kansas were the predecessors of many modern political campaign tools. He was a uniquely American creation, almost a folk hero, for whom even the exposure of the fraud he had perpetuated failed to dull his image. And Fishbein’s actions in his effort to bring him down brought about the regulatory teeth of the American Medical Association, thereby (hopefully) ensuring that the doctor you see today has a real degree from a real college and is in fact, licensed to treat you.


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