THE ROGUISH WORLD OF DOCTOR BRINKLEY

by Gerald Carson ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A wonderful piece of skullduggery was ""Dr."" John Romulus (later Richard) Brinkley who flourished during the '20s to meet with medical and federal resistance through the '30s and who died before his last debacle in 1942. A nobody from North Carolina, he came to medicine through back doors, phony certificates and diplomas, and con games, and achieved fame for himself and Milford, Kansas, with his rejuvenation operations for men in 1917; the radio became his personal mouthpiece and when it was forbidden him here he transferred his station to Mexico and kept right on; he fought the American Medical Academy, the Federal Radio Commission, Income Tax and died befor the Post Office Department caught up with him. The urge for sexual potency furthered his fortunes in Del Rio, Texas, and his hospitals in Little Rock, Arkansas, were another source of income. His three tries for the Kansas governorship were field days for all, and his yachts, cars and planes carried his name to far places. The druggists flourished dispensing his prescriptions for his diagnoses over the radio; the Depression contributed to his wealth; no combination of circumstances defeated him, he simply pulled a switch in his techniques. This humbug's biography (at variance with Clement Wood's (1934) is lively, even bouncy, for the man's ability to make use of human gullibility had genius, his medical and promotion methods were amazing, and he certainly stands as a phenomenon of his times. For those who remember -- and those who do not -- this will be hearty, dumbfounding reading.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Rinehart

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1960

Categories: NONFICTION