THE BIZARRE CAREERS OF JOHN R. BRINKLEY

Perhaps the most famous quack in American medical history, John Brinkley (1885–1942) is a quirky biographer's dream. In the 1920s, he claimed he could cure impotence by transplanting goat glands into aging men; he quickly attracted the enmity of the American Medical Association, which would become his lifelong nemesis. Brinkley built a hospital and a radio station in Milford, Kans., and, through a cunning understanding of the symbiosis between radio advertising and his medical practice, made himself a millionaire. When the Federal Radio Commission (an FCC precursor) caught on, it revoked Brinkley's radio license for prescribing medication over the airwaves. At the behest of the AMA, Kansas regulators revoked his medical license, too. Brinkley responded by running for the Kansas governorship in 1930, campaigning against political corruption and excessive regulation. He lost, but just barely. A year later, Brinkley built a "borderblasting" radio station in Mexico, where he broadcast live performances by Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Hank Williams and plenty of self-serving commentary before being shut down by the Mexican government. Still, Brinkley prospered: he moved to Texas, organized a new hospital where he attracted thousands of patients a year for his "goat gland" operation, and bought a mansion, yachts and lots of diamond jewelry. Lee, a historian at the University of South Dakota, is a bit defensive about his subject: he endeavors mightily to depict Brinkley as an entrepreneur, media trailblazer and political heavyweight. And yet Brinkley remains essentially a con man, the P.T. Barnum of American medicine. While this is not for the general reader, those interested in American charlatanism will enjoy the tale of this "showman par excellence." 24 b&w illus. (Apr.)

Forecast:Brinkley "remains well known in Kansas," writes Lee, so this may evoke strong regional interest.