Authors: Richard A. Lertzman,William J. Birnes
Dr. Feelgood (21 page)
Jacobson’s unregulated distribution and manufacture of amphetamines slowed after his lab was raided by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1965 and his material was removed. However, as there was no federal law under which to prosecute Jacobson, the Bureau’s action was essentially toothless. Max sued the Narcotic Bureau, and no records exist to indicate whether Max’s suit was settled.
Prior to 1970, there were many ambiguous laws and attempts at self-policing by each state’s medical boards. President Richard Nixon sought to remedy this situation, which ended when the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) was enacted into law as Title II of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. The CSA became the federal US drug policy under which the manufacture, importation, possession, use, and distribution of certain substances is regulated. The Act also served as the national implementing legislation for the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Amphetamines were originally placed under Controlled Substances-Schedule III, but moved to Schedule II in 1971 because of their addictive nature; however, injectable methamphetamine had always been on the Controlled Substances-Schedule II. Schedule II substances were not banned or made illegal, such as those on Schedule I, which includes marijuana; however, Schedule II substances have the following attributes:
1. The drug or other substances have a high potential for abuse.
2. The drug or other substances have currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, or currently accepted medical use with severe restrictions.
3. Abuse of the drug or other substances may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence.
Whatever the final verdict on Jacobson—whether he was a misunderstood healer who made his patients feel good or a meth addict who himself suffered from the psychotic effects of the drug—we do know that a number of his patients suffered under his treatment. How he kept both Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy addicted, and destroyed the highest point of Mickey Mantle’s career, attests to Max’s near-psychotic desperation to control others. He was responsible—either directly or indirectly—for the death of his own wife, Mark Shaw, and Bob Richardson. And while he claimed altruism, he was manufacturing drugs without FDA approval in a lab that never passed any inspections while it shipped methamphetamine compounds all over the world.
All of this would eventually catch up with Max Jacobson when he became the subject of a
New York Times
exposé. Ultimately, Max would face his own “final days.”
(from office records supplied by Ruth Jacobson, courtesy of the C. David Heymann Archive)
Alan Jay Lerner
Alice Ghostley*
Anais Nin
Andy Warhol
Andy Williams*
Anthony Quinn
Arlene Francis
Arnold Saint-Subber
Billy Wilder*
Bob Cummings*
Bob Fosse
Bob Richardson
Burgess Meredith
Burton Lane
Cary Grant
Cecil B. DeMille
Chuck Spalding
Cicely Tyson
Claude Pepper
Doris Shapiro
Dorothy McGuire
Eddie Albert
Eddie Fisher*
Edie Sedgewick
Edward G. Robinson
Elizabeth Taylor*
Ellen Hanley
Elvis Presley
Emilio Pucci
Eusebio Morales
Everly Bros.
Felice Orlandi
Franchot Tone
Franco Zefferelli
Frank Sinatra
George Kaufman
Gore Vidal
Greta Stuckles
Gypsy Rose Lee (Rose Havoc)
Harry S. Truman
Hedy Lamarr
Henry and June Miller
Henry Morgan
Hermione Gingold
Howard Cosell
Hugh Martin
Igor Goran
Igor Stravinsky
Ingrid Bergman
Jacqueline Kennedy
Jerry Lewis*
John F. Kennedy
John Hancock (director)
John Murray Anderson
Johnny Mathis
Jose Ferrer
Josh Logan
Judith Exner Campbell
Judy Garland
Katherine Dunham
Kay Thompson
Kurt Braun
Lee Bouvier Radziwill*
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Silman
Leontyne Price
Louis Nizer
Mabel Mercer
Margaret Leighton
Marianne Anderson
Marilyn Monroe
Marion Marlowe
Mark Shaw
Marlene Dietrich
Martin Gabel
Maya Deren
Maynard Ferguson
Mel Allen
Mickey Mantle
Mickey Mantle
Mike Todd
Milton Blackstone
Nancy Olson
Nelson Rockefeller
Niels Bohr
Otto Preminger
Pat Suzuki*
Patrick O’Neil
Paul Lynde
Paul Robeson
Peter Lawford
Peter Lorre
Phyllis McGuire*
Rebekah Harkness
Rex Harrison
Richard Burton
Richard M. Nixon
Rita Moreno
Robert Goulet
Rod Serling
Roddy McDowell*
Ronny Graham
Rosalind Russell
Roscoe Lee Browne*
Rosemary Clooney
Roy Cohn
Sam “MoMo” Giancanna
Sharon Tate
Shelley Winters
Spiro Agnew
Stash Radziwill
Stavros Niachros
Tennessee Williams
Tom Parker
Tony Curtis*
Tony Franciosa
Truman Capote
Van Cliburn
Vic Damone
Vincent Alo (“Jimmy Blue Eyes”)
Winston Churchill
Yul Brynner
Zero Mostel
*Interviewed
1
RAL Mike Samek interview, 1/07
2
Copy of Letitia Baldrige
3
Samek Interview, RAL
4
IRAL interview with Alice Ghostley, 2007
5
RAL Samek interview
6
Been There, Done That
, by Eddie, Fisher and David Fisher, pp. 55-57
7
Jackie Barbara Leaming, 155
8
Leaming, Jackie, pp. 478
9
Eddie Fisher interview, 2007 RAL
10
Capote,
gorightly.wordpress.com/2007/11/25/when-camelot-grooved/
11
Doris Shapiro, pp. 166-167
12
Shapiro, pp. 235-238
13
Max Jacobson’s diaries
14
ibid
15
ibid
16
ibid
17
ibid
18
ibid
19
Patience Abbe,
Around the World in Eleven Years
, 1936, pp. 175-176
20
Mike Samek interview, RAL 1/07
21
http://amphetamines.com/nazi.html
, “Hitler’s Drugged Soldiers,” Andreas Ulrich
22
“Hitler’s Drugged Soldiers,” Ulrich
23
“Hitler’s Drugged Soldiers,” Ulrich
24
Max Jacobson’s diaries
25
Max Jacobson’s diaries
1
The Selfish Gene
, Oxford University Press, 1976
2
Michael Samek, private interview, 1/12/2007
3
Private Interview, 4/30/2007
4
Cambridge, Oxford University Press, 2008
5
Lexing, University of Kentucky Press, 1993
6
New York: the Swallow Press, Harcourt, 1967
7
Interview with Mike Samek, 2007
8
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010
9
Interview with Billy Wilder, July, 1995
10
Tennessee Williams: A Memoir
, New York: Bantam, 1976, p 225
11
Scott Eyman,
Empire of Dreams: The Life of Cecil B. DeMille, New York
: Simon & Schuster, 2010
12
ibid
13
Private interview with Valentina Quinn, July 2007
14
Max Jacobson’s diaries
15
Private Interview, October, 2012
16
Private Interview, March, 2006
17
Private Interview, June, 2011
18
Private Interview, March, 2006
19
Private Interview with George Clooney July, 2007
20
Prentice-Hall, 1960
21
Private Interview with Dwayne Hickman, February, 2007
22
Private Interview with Art Linkletter, April, 2007
23
Interview with Bob Finkel, June, 2005
24
Private Interview, 2008
25
Private Interview, March, 2007
26
Private Interview, November 1996
27
Private Interview, March 1996
28
Private Interview, March, 2007
29
Private Interview, March, 2006
30
Mickey Mantle: The Last Boy and the End of America’s Childhood
, New York: HarperCollins, 2010
31
ibid
32
Curt Smith, The Voice:
Mel Allen’s Untold Story
, New York: Lyons Press, 2007
33
New York: The World Publishing Company, 1970
34
Sixty-One: The Team, the Record, the Men
by Terry Pluto and Tony Kubek, (New York: Fireside, 1989)
35
Private Letter, 11/15/2012
36
November, 2010
37
Private Interview, August, 2006
38
New York: Three Rivers Press, 2000
39
Private Interview, August 2006
40
New York: Random House, 2004
41
Time
magazine, May 24, 1962
42
Dorithy Kilgallen, “Maybe You Didn’t Know,”
The New American
, October 2, 1964
43
Private Interview, August, 2006
44
Private Interview, August, 2006
45
Private Interview, November, 2012
46
Skyhorse, 2012
47
Private Interview with David Heymann, November, 2009
48
Private Interview, December, 2012
49
Choice People: The Greats, Near-Greats, and Ingrates I Have Known
, New York: Morrow, 1984
50
ibid
51
ibid
52
Private Interview with A.E. Hotchner, Movember, 2012
53
ibid
54
ibid
55
ibid
56
ibid
57
ibid
58
ibid
59
ibid
60
ibid
61
ibid
62
ibid
63
ibid
64
ibid
65
ibid
66
Choice People: The Greats, Near-Greats, and Ingrates I Have Known
(New York: Morrow, 1984)
67
New York State Archives, Cultural Education Center, Board of Regents, 4/25/1975
68
ibid
69
Private Interview, 7/15/07
70
ibid
71
Private Interview, 7/15/07
72
NYT
, December 4, 1972, by Boyce Rensenberger with contribution by Jane Brody and Lawrence Altman
73
December, 1973
74
New York State Archives, Cultural Education Center, Board of Medical Education, 4/25/1975
75
NYT
, 4/26/1975
76
Private Interview, August, 2006
77
Private Interview, March 2006
78
Private Interview, November 2010
79
Private Interview March, 2007
80
Alvin Aronson Private Interview, November, 2012
81
New York State Archives, Cultural Education Center, Board of Medicine 4/25/1975
82
ibid
83
NYT
12/4/1972 by Boyce Rensenberger
84
We Danced All Night
, New York: Random House, 1995
85
ibid
86
Private Interview with Alvin Aronson, November, 2012
87
Private Interview, August, 2006
The Authors wish to thank those listed below in helping this book become a reality and sharing their wisdom and thoughts.
The following interviews were held in person, on the telephone or through e—mail between January 2005 and December 2012.
Alan Young—actor
Alice Ghostley—actress
Alvin Aronson—Playwright, patient/friend of Dr. Jacobson
Andy Williams—singer, tv host
Ann B. Davis—actress
Annika Bjork, film historian—Sweden
Art Linkletter—television host, author
Austin “Rocky” Kalish—television writer
Barbara Hall—research archivist at Motion Picture Academy/Marga ret Herrick Library
Barry Grauman—television historian
Bea Schwartz Heymann—writer
Bernard Slade—playwright, television writer
Bill Berle—son of Milton Berle
Bill Cunningham—radio and television talk show host
Billy Wilder—film director, screen-writer
Bob Newhart—television comedian
Boyce Rensberger—journalist
Brooke Garson—Producer
C. David Heymann— author
Carol Summers—film executive
Charles Nadler—executive
Chris Costello—daughter of Lou Costello
Curt Smith—author and speech writer
David Shaw—archivist, author
Del Reisman—writer, producer
Diana McGarvey—researcher
Dorothy Johnson—actress
Dr. Bradford A. Pressman
Dr. David Simons—astronaut, physician
Dr. Jeffrey Kelman—physician, author
Dr. Kim Cameron—Dean of Business, University of Michigan
Dr. Lawrence Altman—physician, journalist