Max Jacobson (July 3, 1900 – December 1, 1979) was a German-born[1] New York physician, nicknamed “Miracle Max” and “Dr. Feelgood”,[2] for the “vitamin injection” treatments that made them happy and gave them seemingly limitless energy. Jacobson’s panacea was 30 to 50 milligrams of amphetamines – the mood-elevating neural energizers also known as speed.
After fleeing Berlin in 1936,[3][4] Jacobson set up an office on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where he treated a number of famous names including Yul Brynner, Truman Capote, Maya Deren, Cecil B. DeMille, Marlene Dietrich, Eddie Fisher, Alan Jay Lerner, Mickey Mantle, Marilyn Monroe, Zero Mostel, Elvis Presley, Anthony Quinn, Nelson Rockefeller, and Tennessee Williams.[5][6][7]
Waiting for a booster shot in Jacobson’s office was not unusual. He did business at all hours: When Alan Jay Lerner was working around the clock on a musical, he might see ‘Miracle Max’ five times daily, sometimes as late as 11 p.m. Truman Capote found Jacobson’s shots caused “instant euphoria. You feel like Superman. You’re flying. Ideas come at the speed of light. You go 72 hours straight without so much as a coffee break.”
Dubbed “Dr. Feelgood”, Jacobson was known for his “miracle tissue regenerator” shots, which consisted of amphetamines, animal hormones, bone marrow, enzymes, human placenta, painkillers, steroids, animal organ cells and multivitamins.[8][9]
Of course Jacobson’s mixtures merely concealed his patients’ symptoms without meeting their emotional needs. Moreover, long-term use of amphetamines in Jacobson-size doses can cause paranoia and symptoms of schizophrenia, and discontinuing it suddenly often causes sudden extreme depression and reappearance of the symptoms that led to amphetamine use in the first place.
Still, short-term relief is better than none to him who suffers, and particularly to him who carries a heavy burden of responsibility. And so it was that Jacobson came to treat the First Patient.
It’s now well-known that John F. Kennedy’s vigorous public image was a facade. In fact, it concealed infirmities that often left him unable to climb a flight of stairs or put on his own socks. His pharmacopoeia was terrifying, as historian Robert Dallek writes: “Steroids for his Addison’s disease, pain-killers for his back, antispasmodics for his colitis, antibiotics for urinary-tract infections, antihistamines for allergies and, on at least one occasion, an antipsychotic … for a severe mood change that Jackie Kennedy believed had been brought on by the antihistamines.”
Mutual friends introduced JFK to Jacobson during the 1960 campaign. John F. Kennedy first visited Jacobson in September 1960, shortly before the 1960 presidential election debates.[10] The first shot elevated his mood. From then on, it was clear sailing. Jacobson was part of the Presidential entourage at the Vienna summit in 1961, where he administered injections to combat severe back pain. Some of the potential side effects included hyperactivity, impaired judgment, nervousness, and wild mood swings. Kennedy, however, was untroubled by FDA reports on the contents of Jacobson’s injections and proclaimed: “I don’t care if it’s horse piss. It works.”[11] Jacobson was used for the most severe bouts of back pain.[12] By May 1962, Jacobson had visited the White House to treat the President thirty-four times.[13][14]
Jacobson himself became increasingly bizarre during the late 1960s. His amphetamine purchases became sufficient for more than 100 strong doses daily. He was buying a weekly average of 1,270 needles and 650 syringes. Favored patients could describe their symptoms by mail or telephone; Jacobson mailed them vials and disposable needles without an examination. According to one of his nurses, “When he gave an injection he would just spill … his medical bag on the table and rummage around amid a jumble of unmarked bottles and nameless chemicals. … He would see 30 patients or more a day. He worked 24 hours a day, sometimes for days on end … he was injecting himself with the stuff.”
As one patient later recounted, “My last shot was a blood-red thing about a foot long. I went blind for two days, and when my eyesight finally came back, I threw away all my speed and hung up my works on the living room lampshade.”
In 1969, one of Jacobson’s clients, former Presidential photographer Mark Shaw, died at the age of 47. An autopsy showed that Shaw had died of “acute and chronic intravenous amphetamine poisoning”.[13]
In early December 1972, Jacobson’s practice was exposed in the city dailies. Under questioning Jacobson’s staff admitted to buying the large quantities of amphetamines to give many high level doses. He was charged with 48 counts of unprofessional conduct. The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs seized Jacobson’s supply, and his medical license was revoked in 1975 by the New York State Board of Regents.[15]
Jacobson attempted to regain his license in 1979 but was denied. A state spokesmen stated that the then 79-year-old Jacobson didn’t seem ready to enter into the “mainstream of practice” again. Jacobson died in December 1979.[13]
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1. Hastedt, Glenn P. (Nova Publishers). White House Studies Compendium. 2007. p. 289. ISBN 1-60021-680-3.
2. William Bryk (September 20, 2005). “Dr. Feelgood: Past & Present”. The New York Sun. p. Online edition (not paginated).
3. Bly, Nellie (1996). The Kennedy Men: Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets. Kensington Books. p. 103. ISBN 1-57566-106-3.
4. Leamer, Laurence (2002). The Kennedy Men: The Laws of the Father, 1901-1963. HarperCollins. p. 527. ISBN 0-06-050288-6. “Dr. Jacobson was a German Jew who had fled Berlin before the war…”
5. Richard A. Lertzman & William J. Birnestitle (May 2013). Dr. Feelgood: The Shocking Story of the Doctor Who May Have Changed History by Treating and Drugging JFK, Marilyn, Elvis, and Other Prominent Figures. Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 978-1-62087-589-6.
6. Pendergrast, Mark (2000). For God, Country and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and The Company That Makes It. Basic Books. p. 255. ISBN 0-465-05468-4.
7. Rabinovitz, Lauren (2003). Points of Resistance: Women, Power &Politics In the New York Avant-garde Cinema, 1943-71 (2 ed.). University of Illinois Press. p. 87. ISBN 0-252-07124-7.
8. Bly, Nellie (1996). The Kennedy Men: Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets. Kensington Books. pp. 103–104. ISBN 1-57566-106-3.
9. Richard A. Lertzman & William J. Birnestitle (May 2013). Dr. Feelgood: The Shocking Story of the Doctor Who May Have Changed History by Treating and Drugging JFK, Marilyn, Elvis, and Other Prominent Figures. Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 978-1-62087-589-6.
10. Leamer, Laurence (2002). The Kennedy Men: The Laws of the Father, 1901-1963. HarperCollins. p. 450. ISBN 0-06-050288-6.
11. Kempe, Frederick (2011). Berlin 1961. Penguin Group (USA). pp. 213–214. ISBN 0-399-15729-8.
12. Reeves, Richard (1993), President Kennedy: Profile of Power, pp. 42, 158-159.
13. a b c Bryk, William (2005-09-20). “Dr. Feelgood”. The New York Sun. Retrieved 2009-03-05.
14. Giglio, James M. (2006-02-20). The Presidency of John F. Kennedy (Second Edition, Revised ed.). University Press of Kansas. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-7006-1436-3.
15. Post, Jerrold M.; Robins, Robert S. (1995). When Illness Strikes the Leader: The Dilemma of the Captive King. Yale University Press. p. 69. ISBN 0-300-06314-8.
Further reading:
Richard A. Lertzman & William J. Birnestitle (May 2013). Dr. Feelgood: The Shocking Story of the Doctor Who May Have Changed History by Treating and Drugging JFK, Marilyn, Elvis, and Other Prominent Figures. Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 978-1-62087-589-6.
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