The Goat Doctor

Dr. John R. Brinkley is possibly the most interesting man you have never heard of.  This guy is so fascinating it just blows my mind that nobody has turned his life story into a movie.  I realize that I'm a little wordy on this one but the story is just too good!



I don't always try to fool the masses, but when I do,
oh wait, I usually do that.  I'm good at it too.

John Romulus Brinkley was born July 8th, 1885 in the hill country of North Carolina.  His father had been a Confederate Army medic and earned his living as a medicine man. His mother/cousin, Sarah Burnett, was his Father's 4th wife's niece who had come to stay with the family for a short while. It is also worth mentioning that his father (the medicine man) had thrice been a widower to continually younger women who would die of mysterious illnesses.


As Brinkley reached adulthood he decided he would follow in his father's footsteps and become a physician.  After failing out of or being expelled for failure to pay tuition from a number of colleges he decided to forgo the degree and took to the road posing as a Quaker doctor.  He would stop in rural towns and in an elaborate "medicine show" cure a couple of lucky passers through (not locals) and then sell several bottles of his patented medicine before skipping town.

During this same time Brinkley wed a childhood classmate Sally Wilke, John and Sally worked the medicine show together for a while before settling in Chicago where he again started med school and went to work at the telegraph office.  The Brinkley’s had a child and when things became rocky the couple split.  John kidnapped his daughter and fled to Canada offering his wife the ultimatum of reconciling or never seeing her daughter again.  The couple got back together and moved around the Midwest and south where John would pose as a "undergraduate physician" for a time until being discredited and relocating. 

Finally in 1912 John got his degree.  A shady diploma mill called Kansas City Eclectic Medical University agreed to give Brinkley a Doctorate based on the credits he had earned (and a fee).  With his new degree Brinkley opened a clinic in Greenville, SC with another "doctor" named Crawford.  Brinkley and Crawford advertised a cure for manly vigor. They injected colored water for $25 a pop that was said to cure impotence and then after only 2 months they skipped town having never paid a penny to rent, utilities, or their other creditors.

Brinkley and Crawford next landed in Memphis where Brinkley met Young Minnie Jones, a friend of Crawford's, and after a four-day courtship Minnie and John were married even though John was still married to Sally Brinkley. While on their honeymoon Brinkley was arrested in Knoxville and extradited to Greenville where he was put in jail for practicing medicine without a license and for writing bad checks. Brinkley told the sheriff that it was all Crawford's fault, and gave investigators enough information that they were able to nab Crawford. The two former partners met again in jail. 



"How YOU doin'?"

After his run-in with the law and being bailed out by his new father-in-law Brinkley was also able to get his college debts paid off and spent a year attending college seemingly now on the straight and narrow, he graduated in 1915 from the same Kansas City school that had given him a fake degree.  He then went to work as the plant doctor for Swift & Co. Lard where he became fascinated with the physiology of the animals they would slaughter, especially the goats which he felt to be the most virile of all the animals. 

During WWI Brinkley was drafted as a medic but was unable to serve being "sick with a nervous breakdown" and was discharged after only 2 months. Now jobless, Brinkley moved to Milford, KS after seeing an advertisement stating the town needed a doctor.  This is where the story REALLY gets interesting. In Milford Brinkley performed his first operation to restore male virility and fertility by implanting the testicular glands of goats into the scrotum of a male patient.  The patient reported it a success (I mean, who wouldn't) and the media took the story and ran with it.  Brinkley's office was soon filled by men of a certain age, and when the first patient's wife gave birth to a baby boy (about 7 months after the operation) Dr. Brinkley became a national success overnight performing his operation on movie stars and politicians. His marketing department advertised his abilities to turn men into "the ram that am with every lamb" while Brinkley performed his (mostly) harmless operation on so many men a day that he started to get sloppy.  He would use unsanitized instruments, frequently while drunk, in less-than-sterile places (occasionally the waiting room on busy days). It goes without saying something was bound to go wrong and it did on more than one occasion. Brinkley would be sued more than a dozen times for wrongful death between 1930 and 1941.

"Now hold still, this will only hurt a lot....."

All of these operations made Brinkley a rich man.  To further his goat gland message and to satisfy his need to entertain Brinkley built a radio station in Kansas.  The radio station played a mix of popular country music and Brinkley's voice for hours at a time. In addition to advertising the goat operation Brinkley had a show on his radio station called The Medical Question Box where he would read listener mail asking about medical problems and he would then prescribe medicines available only at members of the "Brinkley Pharmaceutical Association" Most of these medicines were over priced homeopathic treatments or placebos but Brinkley was paid a cut for all of the sales and got even richer.  

In 1930 the American Medical Association revoked Brinkley's license after a spy had witnessed the doctor's operations first hand.  In true Brinkley fashion he launched a write-in campaign for Kansas Governor using his radio station.  He planned to reinstate his one medical license once elected.  His campaign rallies featured music stars from his radio station, German and Swedish speaking staffers to appeal to the large number of immigrants in rural Kansas, and the charisma of good ol' doc Brinkley.  Brinkley won the election with roughly 40% percent of the votes but before announcing the winner to the public, the Kansas Attorney General (who had put the final stamp of approval on revoking his medical license) announced that only votes placed for J. R. Brinkley and not those for Doc, Doctor, or John Brinkley would be counted meaning that instead of Doc Brinkley, Harry Hines Woodring was to be the next governor of Kansas.  Shortly after the FCC revoked Brinkley's broadcaster's license in an effort to shut down his still lucrative medical practice (he hired licensed doctors to perform the procedure) and pharmaceutical sales. Undeterred, he just moved his transmitter to Mexico.

At this time (early 30s) Mexico was pretty irritated with the U.S. Government for a number of things including not leaving any AM bandwidth for  Mexican stations to operate in.  As a result, they issued Doc Brinkley a license to build a 50,000 kilowatt radio station that even located in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico could still be heard throughout Kansas and most of the midwest.  Not satisfied with that, Brinkley convinced the Mexican government to let him increase that to first 125,000 kilowatts and later 1 million kilowatts.  It is said

I'm on a Mexican - whoah - radio

Brinkley's radio station could be heard all the way to Canada on clear nights and closer to home in Texas it could be heard even without a radio.  There are reports of hearing Brinkley's station on barbed wire fences, bed springs, and even dental fillings.  Broadcaster shifts at the station had to be shortened due to frequent nosebleeds and headaches.  Brinkley's new station followed much of the same format that his old station had showcasing up and coming roots and country music stars and selling Brinkley's potions (now by mail).  He even opened another hospital in the nearby small town of Del Rio, TX where the locals were happy to have the inflow of money and could care less what the AMA and federal government said about the good doctor.

In 1938 Morris Fishbein of the AMA published a two-part series called "Modern Medical Charlatans" that included an expose of Brinkley's checkered career and education. Brinkley sued Fishbein for libel and $250,000 in damages (about $5 Million today). A Texas jury found for Fishbein, stating that Brinkley "should be considered a charlatan and a quack in the ordinary, well-understood meaning of those words".  The jury verdict unleashed a barrage of lawsuits against Brinkley, by some estimates well over $3 million in total value. Also around this time, the IRS came knocking on Brinkley's door.  It seems the good doctor had never paid taxes.  He declared bankruptcy in 1941, the same year the U.S. and Mexico reached an agreement on allocating radio bandwidth which included a clause that shut down Brinkley's station.

Brinkley died penniless and alone in his home in Del Rio, TX on May 26th, 1942.  At the time of his death he was under investigation by the FBI for mail fraud.

Hemingway

I have always been fascinated by fiction.  In the simplest form it's an elaborate lie told to entertain us; a fish story as it were (Hemingway fans should find this funny).  Some writers are more honest (Hunter S. Thompson comes to mind) and lead daring lives, do crazy things, nearly kill themselves on several occasions, and then write about their adventures.  Other authors create entirely fiction worlds and situations from the comfort of their home and use them to act out fantasy sometimes for their satisfaction as much as ours.  The best authors, like Hemingway, do both of these things to create something not quite fact and not quite fiction but somehow better then both.

Hemingway.  Simply mentioning his name conjures up images of cigar smoke and scotch, romantic European battlefields, safaris to the wildest corners of Africa, and... well, six-toed cats.  Born and raised in the well-to-do Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Hemingway left home for a lifetime of travel while still a teen. He drove an ambulance in WWI. Hung out in Paris with the greatest poets, authors, and artists of the 20s. Worked as a field reporter during the Spanish Civil War. Watched the Normandy Invasion from on deck of a landing craft.  Nearly died in a plane crash while on safari in the Congo (twice). Then went on to write books about all of these events, and not just books but masterpieces that make us ask who and what we are, where and when we should do something about it, and, most importantly, why.

Those familiar with his life may say that Hemingway was a chauvinistic pig who drank too much, loved himself above all others, had weird cats, and then went crazy and unloaded two barrels of buck-shot into his mouth (and they would be right), but set all of that aside and just read The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms, or any of his other works.  If you do I promise you won't be disappointed.  These are some of the greatest books ever written and anyone can identify with the struggle against world and self that all Hemingway stories have in common.

And yes, polydactyl (Hemingway) cats have six toes and look like some kind of science experiment... Google it.

Error Coins, the Funky Side of Numismatics

Welcome to the Freaky Side of Coin Collecting.

In numismatics there are many details to look for and many different types of coins and currency to collect.  One area that is often over looked by the new collector is mint-made errors.  Error coins and currency are those lovable mistakes that are usually caught by the mint before they ever get a chance to reach circulation.  But, no one is perfect.  Sometimes these errors make it out of the mint, and you are certainly a lucky duck if you find one in your change.  Here are a few different kinds of error coins to look for. 

Planchet Preparation Errors

To prepare lancets on which to strike coins, a mint first purchases strips of metal of the correct composition of the coin to be produced. These strips are fed through a blanking machine that cuts them into the metal disks on which the coins are struck, which are known as blanks or lancets.  The shape of the coin, whether it be circular, rectangular, or any other shape, is determined by the manner in which the blanking machine shapes the lancets. At this stage, the blanks are type 1 blanks. Next, these type 1 blanks go into an upending mill, which gives the blanks an upended rim, which is where the rim becomes slightly raised and rounds off to the center of the lancet. Lancets with upended rims are called type 2 lancets.

Clipped Planchet

Occasionally a misdeed can occur where the strip of metal is not fed through the blanking machine far enough. When this happens, the punches strike an area of the strip which overlaps the hole left by the previous strike. The result is a blank with a piece missing, which is called a clipped lancet. A clipped lancet may be straight, curved, ragged, or elliptical.

Die Crack, Break, Chip or Clash

When the coin is stamped with the die, there are a multitude of problems that could occur.  A die crack will result in a coin that has a raised, jagged line on its surface.  A die break or chip will show a raised unstuck area on the coin.  And a die clash which occurs when the obverse and reverse dies strike each other because a lancet is not between them. Due to the tremendous pressure used, the parts of the image of one die may be impressed on the other. When lancets are then fed between them the resulting coins receive the distorted image. A well-known example is the "Bugs Bunny" Franklin Half Dollar of 1955, where part of the eagle's wing from the reverse gives Franklin the image of protruding teeth.

"Ehhh What's Up Doc?"

Overate/Repented Date or Mint Mark

This can happen either by accident or intentionally.  In the past, to save money the mint would use a die until it broke.  When the years would change, the dies were altered to show the new year.  This resulted in a faint previous date to show on the coin.   As for mintmarks, a die technicians punch the coins with a mint mark.  If the first punch is faint the technician would stamp the coin again.   

Double strike

If a coin fails to be properly ejected from the striking chamber after being stuck and the dies come down again to strike the coin again, a double strike occurs. Double strikes can occur with the second strike off center or on-center. In the same way triple and multiply struck coins occur.

Missing Clad Layer

A clad coin with one of the clad layers missing either before the coin is struck or which is loose and falls away after the strike. The side of the coin with the clad layer missing will be copper colored showing the exposed copper core of the coin. The other side of the coin is normal.

Split Planchet

If the impurity is severe enough, it can case the lancet to split into two halves obi. and rev. If the lancet splits before the strike, the resulting coin will be thin and have detail on both sides but often intermingled with rough striations from the impurities. If the lancet splits after the strike, one side will have full detail and the other side will be blank and striated. In either case the coin will be thin.

Lamination

Dirt and impurities in the metal of the lancet can manifest themselves as cracks and peels on the struck coin.

Butterfly Fold

Fold along the corner of a note which after the cutting process results in an excess flag of paper, sometimes roughly resembling a butterfly's wing.

Double Denomination

Error note featuring mismatched front and back values (eg. $10 face design with a $5 back design)

Missing Printing

When currency is printed, it is printed in a series of passes.  Sometimes bills are released missing first, second or third printing.  Which results in missing serial numbers, seals or detail. 

Star Note

 Modern note with a star symbol in the serial number distinguishing it as a replacement for a note that was removed because it contained a flaw that was caught. Please note, early U.S. currency, generally before Series 1899, often contain stars and other symbols as part of the normal serial number and do not represent replacement issues.

There are many more errors to look for but this is enough to get you started.  Once you get bitten by the error coin/currency bug you will start looking through your collection to see if you have any errors.  Once considered mistakes, these errors make the coins just a bit more special.  

Oops! Looked Straight to Me! (The story of Topeka's streets)

Dear Topekans,



Frye Giles one of
Topeka's founding fathers
 



Have you ever looked at a map of our fair city?  If so you have probably noticed the odd angle that much of the downtown area sits at.  This angle is responsible for the easily confused addresses we all know and love like 117 S.W. 6th Ave. and 117 S.E. 6th Ave. (Both are fantastic businesses worthy of your patronage by the way) 

I had always known about this strange angle but put no thought into how it came to be until I read Thirty Years in Topeka: A Historical Sketch by Frye Giles.  Giles was one of the founders of Topeka and wrote his book, Thirty Years in Topeka, about the town's first three decades.  Giles relays some fascinating first hand information about the founding of T-Town like why its crooked.

Map of Topeka

In January of 1855 the task of laying out Topeka was started.  Those doing the work did not have proper survey equipment and were relying on an older survey of the area and what they thought was an east-west portion of the Kansas River to start cutting out streets.  Downtown and much of the early parts of the city were laid out based off of this work.

A few years later a federal survey was conducted of the area and as it turned out Topeka Boulevard, Kansas Avenue, and all the other streets were 18 degrees east of true north.  During this same time several other small towns like Eugene, Potwin, and Tennessee Town were founded near Topeka but with streets facing cardinal directions.  As Topeka grew it began to annex these towns and streets had to be lined up creating all of the strange triangle shaped parks and strange corners near the hospitals, in East Topeka, and elsewhere. 

So now that you know the story stop by and check out our 1887 map of Topeka that shows this transition in detail or pick up a copy of Thirty Years in Topeka for yourself.  We also have lots of other great books about the history of our fair city as well as postcards, photos, and more. 

Our beloved map wall!

What the "Eph" is Ephemera?

One question we are asked on a regular basis is “What is  ephemera?”, so here is a quick breakdown of what exactly is ephemera. 

Ephemera:

Noun Things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time. Items of collectible memorabilia, typically written or printed ones, that were originally expected to be discarded after use but have now become collectibles.   The most fascinating and broad category of collectible we sell is ephemera. It includes everything from matchbooks to telephone books, posters to postcards, and so many countless forms of advertising it would (and has) taken entire books to describe them all.  In our store we focus on a few key areas of ephemera including:   Postcards -   Collecting postcards is just plain fun. No matter what you like be it local history, humor, nature, people, planes, trains, or automobiles postcards have it all.  Postcards became popular in the late 19th century and continue to be mailed even today.  Real photo postcards from the 1910s and 20s are considered by collectors to be the most valuable but don't discount the "artistic" cards.  Some of these full color cards can also bring top dollar because of rarity or artist collectability.  A postcard collection can be started with pocket change and never stop growing so the next time you are looking for something to do stop by and browse through our thousands of cards starting at $0.25!   Advertising -   Ever wonder who decorates TGI Fridays and Bennigan's?  We don't either, but we are sure they would love to browse our Ad Ephemera.  Posters, flyers, and magazine ads from the "classic" era of the 40s, 50s, and 60s are always a great way to start an ad art collection.  We also like matchbooks, labels, flyers, calendars, and even some newspaper clippings.  "And remember folks, if your ephemera is not authentic Oddfellow's brand ephemera you have settled for less!"    Local - Local ephemera is just that, Topeka, KS and nearby photography, pamphlets, official documents, stock certificates, yearbooks, etc.  And while Topeka is our favorite, we have a collection of ephemera items from many Kansas small towns as well.  We have files dedicated to local ephemera and try to keep it organized too.

So there you have it, ephemera is collectable paper items that were originally intended for short term use.  Now, what do you have around the house that will be considered ephemera one day?

Grand Opening!

We have been open for a month now, but that was our "soft" opening.  Our grand opening is this Friday!  We would love for you all to come out and see the changes we have made, the new selection we have brought in and maybe even score yourself a cookie! 

Gary Krohe will be on location to sign his new book Portraits of Troy! 

And everything in the store will be 10% off all day!  See you then!

Hello

Hi! Welcome to our blog.

 

We are Brandon and Martie Rison the owners of Oddfellow's Fine Books and Collectables in Topeka, KS. Here we will talk about how to collect books, coins, and all sorts of other fantastic stuff.  We will provide reviews of some of our favorite books and answer questions you may not even know you had like:  Why is our currency called the dollar?  What makes a book collectable?  What exactly was Edgar Allan Poe's problem?

 

These are a few of our favorite things......

So for today's question we will answer one you are probably asking yourself now, "What the heck is a Numismatic Bookman?"  Numismatics is the study of, collecting of, or selling of currency which can be anything from paper money to coins, tokens, and all sorts of varied and strange objects.  A bookman is (in addition to my favorite font) someone who sells books for a living. In our particular case we operate a small used and collectible bookstore with a twist. In addition to great reading copies on subjects as varied as poetry, military history, art, religion, etc. we also offer an ever growing selection of scarce and rare, first edition and one-of-a-kind books with a focus on  children's stories, modern fiction, and early Kansas.  Our coin cases are as eclectic as our shelves; we buy and sell silver dollars, 19th century paper money, mint proof collectables, and even some foreign coins.  In addition to the books and coins we also carry antique maps, stamps, Topeka and Kansas memorabilia, collecting supplies, and ephemera (fear not, an ephemera blog post is soon to come so you will not need to Google this word).  Whether you collect or not we promise to inform, entertain, and even amaze you with our posts so check back often and learn why we are a couple who choose to be Oddfellow's.

 

Also check out or Facebook page or Twitter feed for more oddness and even a special or two.  You can view some of our books for sale online here.  Or if you want to get extra crazy and contact us directly, you can do so with the following information:

 

Oddfellow's Fine Books & Collectables

117 SW 6th Street

Topeka, Kansas 66611

(785)235-1181

 

We look forward to getting to know you all!

Brandon and Martie Rison