The true story of Dr. Max Jacobson, whose addictive meth “cure” made him the most sought after, and dangerous, rogue physician from Hollywood to DC.
Under President John F. Kennedy, the Secret Service had a nickname for German-born New York doctor Max Jacobson: Dr. Feelgood. A member of the presidential entourage, Jacobson offered a unique “energy formula” that guaranteed relief for JFK’s chronic and debilitating back pain. It also gave JFK the vigor, stamina, energy, and crispness to demolish Vice President Richard Nixon in a landmark televised debate, guaranteeing his win for the White House.
What JFK didn’t know was that the injections were powerful doses of highly addictive liquid methamphetamine and steroids, among other ingredients. But JFK wasn’t the only celebrity to depend on Jacobson’s “miracle cure.” Jackie Kennedy, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, Eddie Fisher, Truman Capote, Elizabeth Taylor, Tennessee Williams, Marlene Dietrich—and dozens more—felt the sting of Jacobson’s needle.
Through previously unpublished material and revealing interviews with such celebrities as George Clooney, Jerry Lewis, Yogi Berra, Eddie Fisher, and Sid Caesar, the authors reveal Jacobson’s indirect influence on historical and cultural events, from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the death of Marilyn Monroe and even the filming of the Cecil B. DeMille classic The Ten Commandments. Dr. Feelgood is “totally convincing about…the troubling stranglehold that Jacobson and his untested mind-bending concoctions had on a whole swathes of high society in the U.S. of the sixties, including the White House. Until now, Dr Feelgood has been a footnote in history. We may now have to afford him a more important part in the story of the 20th century.”—Daily Mail (UK)
