Dr. Feelgood Read Online Free
Author: Richard A. Lertzman, William J. Birnes
photographer, Shaw had almost unlimited access to the popularly termed jet-set of the 1950s by virtue of his acclaimed magazine spreads featuring Audrey Hepburn, Pablo Picasso, Brigitte Bardot, Elizabeth Taylor, Danny Kaye, Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, Yves St. Laurent, and countless other high-profile notables in art, literature, and show business around the world. But the 1950s was also the decade of the Red Scare and the blacklist. With Senator Joseph McCarthy’s hearings stoking the flames of fear, the American public became obsessively paranoid over the threat of Communist infiltration of American institutions, especially in the entertainment industry and halls of government. Mark Shaw, therefore, was the consummate fly on the wall, snapping away his photos and privy to intimate conversations held in unguarded moments, conversations of which he took very careful note.
Shaw also presented an additional opportunity to his handlers at the CIA. Because of his relationship with friends in high places, Shaw had established a relationship with the Kennedys and ultimately became the official Kennedy family photographer after JFK won the 1960 election. But, before that, Mark Shaw introduced his old friend Chuck Spalding to Dr. Jacobson. Soon Spalding, as well as Shaw, would become addicted to the substance in Max’s magic injections. Thus, when Jack Kennedy called and complained of his lack of stamina during the campaign, Spalding placed the confidential phone call asking Max to consult with the then-Massachusetts senator, who was running for president against vice president Richard M. Nixon.
It was in the early fall of 1960, just before the celebrated, first televised presidential Kennedy-Nixon debate, when Spalding made the call. “Can you handle this consultation with utmost secrecy?” Spalding asked before finally identifying his former roommate by name. It was vital that Jacobson take extreme steps to avoid any public scrutiny. The last thing JFK needed was to be spotted visiting this strange Manhattan doctor. JFK had already been outed in the media over his health issues, and his campaign staff had spent time dispelling those potentially harmful rumors. Kennedy-the candidate’s Addison’s disease, constant back pain, high stress, migraines, and gastrointestinal disorders all had to be kept secret from the public.
There was acute vigilance by the Kennedy staff to keep JFK’s illnesses under the radar. JFK’s father, Joseph Kennedy, had carefully guarded this secret from the moment his son became a congressman and later passed this duty on to son Bobby. However, in May 1962, rumors swirled that JFK was under the care of Dr. Jacobson. Esquire magazine’s managing editor, Harold Hayes, commissioned writer and Jacobson patient Arthur Steuer to do a story about JFK’s employing Dr. Jacobson as his physician. Jacobson, who by 1962 felt secure in his position with JFK and was not shy at boasting about his treatment of the president, told Steuer of his relationship and history with the president. This caused a flap in the media that had to be quieted; the Kennedy advisors strongly believed that any leak of the president’s illness would weaken the office of the president and strongly derail his influence, and Jacobson was later scolded for his loose talk. 1
The task fell to none other than Mrs. Kennedy’s chief of staff and social secretary Letitia Baldrige, who responded to Mr. Steuer’s inquiry on White House letterhead, saying that her brother, Howard Malcolm Baldrige, Jr., a former secretary of commerce, was going to use Dr. Jacobson for his Marie-Strumpell disease, implying that it was not JFK who would receive treatment from the doctor. 2 But, despite any cover-ups to the press, it was John F. Kennedy who invited Dr. Jacobson to the White House to treat him and Jackie, and it was he who ultimately asked Jacobson to move into the White House so he could be close at hand.
But none of what was in the future was
Shaw also presented an additional opportunity to his handlers at the CIA. Because of his relationship with friends in high places, Shaw had established a relationship with the Kennedys and ultimately became the official Kennedy family photographer after JFK won the 1960 election. But, before that, Mark Shaw introduced his old friend Chuck Spalding to Dr. Jacobson. Soon Spalding, as well as Shaw, would become addicted to the substance in Max’s magic injections. Thus, when Jack Kennedy called and complained of his lack of stamina during the campaign, Spalding placed the confidential phone call asking Max to consult with the then-Massachusetts senator, who was running for president against vice president Richard M. Nixon.
It was in the early fall of 1960, just before the celebrated, first televised presidential Kennedy-Nixon debate, when Spalding made the call. “Can you handle this consultation with utmost secrecy?” Spalding asked before finally identifying his former roommate by name. It was vital that Jacobson take extreme steps to avoid any public scrutiny. The last thing JFK needed was to be spotted visiting this strange Manhattan doctor. JFK had already been outed in the media over his health issues, and his campaign staff had spent time dispelling those potentially harmful rumors. Kennedy-the candidate’s Addison’s disease, constant back pain, high stress, migraines, and gastrointestinal disorders all had to be kept secret from the public.
There was acute vigilance by the Kennedy staff to keep JFK’s illnesses under the radar. JFK’s father, Joseph Kennedy, had carefully guarded this secret from the moment his son became a congressman and later passed this duty on to son Bobby. However, in May 1962, rumors swirled that JFK was under the care of Dr. Jacobson. Esquire magazine’s managing editor, Harold Hayes, commissioned writer and Jacobson patient Arthur Steuer to do a story about JFK’s employing Dr. Jacobson as his physician. Jacobson, who by 1962 felt secure in his position with JFK and was not shy at boasting about his treatment of the president, told Steuer of his relationship and history with the president. This caused a flap in the media that had to be quieted; the Kennedy advisors strongly believed that any leak of the president’s illness would weaken the office of the president and strongly derail his influence, and Jacobson was later scolded for his loose talk. 1
The task fell to none other than Mrs. Kennedy’s chief of staff and social secretary Letitia Baldrige, who responded to Mr. Steuer’s inquiry on White House letterhead, saying that her brother, Howard Malcolm Baldrige, Jr., a former secretary of commerce, was going to use Dr. Jacobson for his Marie-Strumpell disease, implying that it was not JFK who would receive treatment from the doctor. 2 But, despite any cover-ups to the press, it was John F. Kennedy who invited Dr. Jacobson to the White House to treat him and Jackie, and it was he who ultimately asked Jacobson to move into the White House so he could be close at hand.
But none of what was in the future was
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