The Bizarre Careers of John R. Brinkley

March 11, 2002
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.

April 1, 2002
One Clement Wood published the official biography of so-called goat-gland doctor Brinkley in 1937. Drawing heavily on archival material that became available 40 years later, Lee offers a documented, unbiased, and thorough second account that suggests that Brinkley wasn't really a charlatan and quack (his medical education was somewhat better than average for his time) but " was" a first-rate con man. Born and raised in Appalachian North Carolina, Brinkley learned telegraphy and made it his passport out of North Carolina to obtain a medical education. In 1913 he married Minnie Jones, who, besides making Brinkley a bigamist, contributed substantially to his surgical, business, and political careers. Lee describes Brinkley's goat-gland transplant work, his various hospitals, his radio stations, his campaigns for governorship of Kansas, and his support of the American fascist movement in a lively manner, and is to be commended for his attention to Brinkley's battles with the American Medical Association, especially with AMA officer and historian Morris Fishbein. A high-quality biography of a once famous, then notorious, but now little-known figure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)