Birnes William J. - Dr. Feelgood: the Shocking Story of the Doctor Who May Have Changed History by Treating and Drugging JFK, Marilyn, Elvis, and Other Prominent Figures

DR. FEELGOOD

Copyright 2013 by Richard A. Lertzman and William J. Birnes

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file. ISBN: 978-1-62087-589-6

Printed in the United States of America

DR. FEELGOOD

T HE S HOCKING S TORY

OF THE D OCTOR

W HO M AY H AVE

C HANGED H ISTORY

BY T REATING

AND D RUGGING

JFK, M ARILYN ,

E LVIS, AND O THER

P ROMINENT F IGURES

R ICHARD A. L ERTZMAN AND W ILLIAM J. B IRNES

The journey to write this book took us throughout the United States and allowed us to talk to many individuals who were cogent of Dr. Max Jacobson. The authors lived peripatetic lives in our explorations for the truth. The kind generosity of these contributors allowed us to paint a picture of this mysterious physician who had purposely shrouded his life even as he wound a web of addiction from New York, through Washington, to Los Angeles, entrapping his patients in a downward spiral of self-destructive behaviors.

The story began with the intent to document the life of actor Robert Cummings, one of the most important A-list screen and television celebrities of the 1940s and 50s, who wound up desperately broke and alone in an old age home in the San Fernando Valley as a result of his addiction to Dr. Feelgoods methamphetamine injections. But as we began to understand the reach of Dr. Feelgood, his relationship with the Kennedys, the Sam Giancanas organized crime family, and with Frank Sinatras Rat Pack, we knew that this was a far bigger story than we had originally planned to write. We realized that Dr. Feelgood was a part of twentieth-century American political history and his story needed to be documented.

Our research was benefited by many people. We offer plaudits and thanks to those who have helped make this book a reality, especially, first and foremost, the late author C. David Heymann and his wife Bea Schwartz, who helped us with important facts and set us on our course in the right direction. Our other inspiration was actor and director Dwayne Hickman, who, though best known for portraying Dobie Gillis on television, was also a friend of Bob Cummings, who told us the first stories about Max Jacobson. We thank Joan Roberts for her support, as well.

Further acknowledgments go to to Melinda Cummings Cameron and her husband Professor Kim Cameron; television icon Art Linkletter and his wife Lois; Pamela Shoop; actress Julie Newmar; the late singer Andy Williams and press agent Paul Shefrin; journalist Seymour Hersh; socialite Tony Bradlee; Jill Jacobson and her youngest son, Matthew; the late psychiatrist Dr. Lawrence Hatterer; the late Michael Samek; actor Roscoe Lee Browne; playwright Alvin Aronson; physician and pioneering astronaut Dr. David Simons; JFK Secret Service agent Paul Landis; the late Tony Curtis; legendary television and motion picture star Jerry Lewis; singer Phyllis McGuire; the late actress Alice Ghostley; television writers and producers Rocky and Irma Kalish; late television producer Bob Finkel; Hustler magazine owner and publisher Larry Flynt; writer and producer of The Twillight Zone Del Reisman; film editor Stanley Frazen; actress Eileen Wesson; actress Linda Henning; film director Sam Irvin; the late astrologer Sidney Omar; the late Hollywood photographer Wallace Sea-well; Patricia Cummings; talk show host and comedian Joey Bishop; actor Jamie Farr; comedy writer Larry Gelbart (Oh, God, Tootsie, and M*A*S*H); Gary Owens; actor William Schallert; actor Ed Asner; the late film and television director/writer Hal Kanter; the late writer Irving Brecher; the late TV legend Milton Berle and his son Bill Berle; the late producer and writer Leonard Stern; legendary head of the William Morris Agency-Norm Brokaw; super agent Jay Kanter; the late actor Bob Easton; critic writer Shawn Levy; Valentina Quinn, daughter of actor Anthony Quinn; the late singer Eddie Fisher; film director Robert Child (Silent Wings); and actress Ann B. Davis.

We offer a debt of gratitude to pharmacology expert, writer, and Oxford Professor Leslie Iverson; writer Roger Rappoport (The Super Doctors); author Nina Burleigh (A Very Private Woman); author and Professor Robert Dallek; writer Tania Grossinger (Growing up at Grossingers); David and Juliet Shaw (son of Mark Shaw); writer and journalist Jane Leavy (The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle); writer Curt Smith (The Voice: Mel Allen); writer A.E. Hotchner (and co-founder with Paul Newman of Newmans Own brands); animal activist and national television and radio pet expert Tracy Hotchner; Laurel Cummings Jones; writer Linda Jay Geldens (Rod Serling); Washington Internist and author Dr. Jeffrey Kelman; New York Times journalists Jane Brody; Lawrence Altman, and Boyce Rensberger; writer Frederick Kempe (Berlin 1961); writer Gore Vidal; writers and historians Lawrence Leamer and Nigel Hamilton; Broadway producer (with Alan Jay Lerner) Bud Widney; actor Jason Wingreen; Robert Cummings, Jr.; actress Pat Suzuki (Flower Drum Song, the former wife of Mark Shaw); actress Rose Marie; former First Lady Nancy Reagan; film and television director William Asher; Tom Putnam (director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum); and countless others who were of great assistance in the creation of this book.

For Richard Lertzman, Id like to thank my son Matthew David Lertzman for his great assistance and being a loyal travel companion on this adventure.

For Bill Birnes, I want to dedicate this work to my godfathers, Nathan Birnbaum (who once told me to forget everything I was doing and make a movie), and Benjamin Kubelsky, who, ironically, after a century, were both responsible for much of the show business history we describe in this book. And to the Gruskin/Birnes Agency, the inventors of show business merchandise licensing. And finally to The Burns Brothers, an early vaudeville song-and-dance team, and to The Chicken Sisters, who performed on the Jack Benny Program on radio.

When you approach a story, no matter how sensational it seems on the surface, the more you explore its ramifications, the twists it takes, and the bends it makes, the more you come to appreciate and understand the larger picture. This is exactly what we discovered as we uncovered the story of Dr. Max Jacobson, an individual who, in some fundamental ways, influenced American history, even if his influence was tangential rather than immediately intentional. What we discovered and what we want to establish beyond the sensationalism of this story is how a single individual, Max Jacobson, became a lightning rod for any entitypublic, political, or commercialthat wanted to use him because of a synthesized drug he developed that behaves like a fast-spreading virus. He became a drug addict after he injected himself with his own methamphetamine-laced concoctions, and he addicted others, propelled by a psychosis that came from the methamphetamine itself. Even more than a sensational story, this is a fascinating case study of how human connections form, spread, and deteriorate so as to change the course of history. What Max Jacobson did still affects us today in how the press operates and in our war on drugs.