| Today's new generation of health buffs probably | | | | Los Angeles Times who rewarded Brinkley with |
| don't know him. But is his time, Dr. John R. | | | | lots of free publicity. What made the questionable |
| Brinkley was a popular "physician" who attracted | | | | operations even more attractive were Brinkley's |
| both publicity and controversy. Aside from being a | | | | bold pronouncements that they not only made |
| promoter of a quack impotence cure that was | | | | men fertile and virile but could also cure acne, |
| sought by many celebrities, the enterprising | | | | insanity, influenza, and high blood pressure. |
| Brinkley was also a radio talk show host, aspiring | | | | Seeing the potential of radio as an advertising tool, |
| politician, and Nazi sympathizer among others. | | | | Brinkley built his own radio station KFKB in 1923. |
| Brinkley's rags to riches to rags story is truly | | | | Aside from the usual radio fare of live |
| remarkable and clearly illustrates how far men will | | | | performances by local performers and musicians, |
| go to treat impotence - the constant inability to | | | | the station dished out Brinkley's brand of crazy |
| have or sustain an erection to perform sexual | | | | advice to listeners. He gave prescriptions on the |
| intercourse. Experts say about 30 million | | | | air that were filled at the National Dr. Brinkley |
| Americans are suffering from this condition. | | | | Pharmaceutical Association that was run by |
| Brinkley's colorful career began in 1917 while | | | | pharmacists who made lots of money selling |
| working as a house doctor in the Swift | | | | colored water. The kickbacks Brinkley received |
| meatpacking company in Kansas. It was there | | | | from this operation made him a wealthy man. |
| that he observed the energetic mating activities | | | | In 1930, Brinkley's medical and radio station |
| of goats. A year later, a farmer approached him | | | | licenses were revoked by the Kansas State |
| and complained about his poor sex life. Brinkley | | | | Medical Board and the Federal Radio Commission |
| jokingly replied that the farmer needed goat | | | | respectively for fraud. But that didn't stop him |
| glands to perk him up. The man agreed and | | | | from continuing his shady operation. In retaliation, |
| Brinkley got his first patient for a controversial | | | | Brinkley ran for governor of Kansas as an |
| cure that would soon make him a millionaire. | | | | independent candidate. That would enable him to |
| "Most doctors would have ignored the bizarre | | | | appoint his own members to the medical board |
| request, but Brinkley was not like most doctors. | | | | and regain his medical license. He organized a |
| In fact, he wasn't a doctor at all. Although he had | | | | massive write-in campaign where he said he was |
| spent three years at Bennet Medical College in | | | | being persecuted by the medical establishment |
| Chicago, he'd never graduated. He called himself a | | | | and promised to set up free clinics and cure all |
| doctor on the basis of a $500 diploma he had | | | | diseases if he won. Although he received a lot of |
| purchased from the Eclectic Medical University of | | | | votes, Brinkley lost due to invalidated and |
| Kansas City, Missouri. As absurd as it sounds, this | | | | "misplaced" ballots. |
| piece of paper gave him the right to practice | | | | Stripped of his medical and radio licenses, Brinkley |
| medicine in Arkansas, Kansas, and a few other | | | | moved to the Roswell Hotel in Del Rio, Texas |
| states," revealed Dr. Joe Schwarcz, director of | | | | where he continued his medical practice under |
| McGill University's Office for Chemistry and | | | | radio station XER (later called XERA). Between |
| Society. | | | | 1933 and 1938 he supposedly made $12 million |
| What made Brinkley stand apart from the other | | | | which he used to buy diamonds, cars, aircraft, a |
| quacks was his well-oiled publicity machinery that | | | | yacht, and a mansion where he relocated his clinic. |
| consisted of press releases, advertisements, and | | | | In spite of his huge fortune, Brinkley couldn't cure |
| direct mail campaigns. Though scorned by the | | | | himself. He suffered three heart attacks and his |
| medical community, his goat gland operations | | | | leg had to be amputated due to blood clots. As a |
| became an instant hit with many men who were | | | | result of numerous lawsuits, he died penniless in |
| charged $750 dollars per transplant. When the | | | | 1942. |
| demand for the operations increased, Brinkley | | | | Brinkley's radical operation certainly sounds absurd |
| offered human gland transplants for $5,000 that | | | | in today's medical marketplace that offers a lot of |
| he obtained from death row inmates. | | | | safe and effective treatment options for |
| The testimonials Brinkley received from "satisfied" | | | | impotent men. One of them is Erectasil, a lotion |
| patients helped advance his lucrative career. One | | | | that acts on the source of the problem to help |
| of them was Harry Chandler, the owner of the | | | | men rise to the occasion. |