Charlatan
America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him and the Age of Flimflam
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Narrated by:
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Johnny Heller
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By:
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Pope Brock
About this listen
In the meantime, despite mounting evidence that his quack treatments killed many patients, Brinkley became a millionaire, and his pioneering use of radio not only kick-started country music as a national force in America but also invented the whole concept of radio advertising. He also became the first politician to campaign over the airwaves when he ran for governor of Kansas.
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Editorial reviews
Charlatan tells the audacious true story of quack doctor John Brinkley, who became fabulously wealthy in the 1920s implanting goat testes into impotent American men. Johnny Heller's vigorous performance of this tale of the ultimate hustler will keep listeners on the edge of their seats, tracking John as he accomplishes an unbelievable litany of achievements, including establishing himself as a respected authority on sexual rejuvenation, pioneering radio advertising, and running for governor of Kansas. It took Morris Fishbein, editor of the American Medical Association's journal, 15 years to bring Brinkley to justice - but when he finally got him into court, it was high drama. Wildly entertaining and completely bizarre, Charlatan is proof that truth is often stranger than fiction.
Critic reviews
"Hugely amusing [but also] dark and cautionary, a reminder of the high price of gullibility and ignorance." ( Washington Post Book World)
"If Hollywood hasn't already optioned Pope Brock's Charlatan....what's keeping it?" ( Newsweek)
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By 1920, the movies had suddenly become America's new favorite pastime and one of the nation's largest industries. Never before had a medium possessed such power to influence; yet Hollywood's glittering ascendancy was threatened by a string of headline-grabbing tragedies - including the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the popular president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, a legendary crime that has remained unsolved until now.
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Everybody's a dreamer...
- By Steven on 01-08-15
By: William J. Mann
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Jack London
- An American Life
- By: Earle Labor
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Jack London was born a working class, fatherless Californian in 1876. In his youth, he was a boundlessly energetic adventurer on the bustling West Coast - an oyster pirate, a hobo, a sailor, and a prospector by turns. He spent his brief life rapidly accumulating the experiences that would inform his acclaimed best-selling books The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Sea-Wolf.
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Glad I chose this
- By SherryH on 04-14-19
By: Earle Labor
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Oh, Florida!
- How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country
- By: Craig Pittman
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Oh, Florida! To some people it's a paradise. To others it's a punch line. As Oh, Florida! shows, it's both of these, and, more important, it's a Petri dish, producing trends that end up influencing the rest of the country. Without Florida there would be no NASCAR, no Bettie Page pinups, no Glenn Beck radio rants, no USA Today, no "Stand Your Ground" - you get the idea.
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A book about the author's political views - boring
- By L. Burney on 03-03-17
By: Craig Pittman
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Destiny of the Republic
- A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
- By: Candice Millard
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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James A. Garfield may have been the most extraordinary man ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back. But the shot didn’t kill Garfield. The drama of what happened subsequently is a powerful story of a nation in turmoil.
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Marvelous, Magnificent, Millard
- By Mel on 02-08-12
By: Candice Millard
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Splendid Solution
- Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio
- By: Jeffrey Kluger
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Salk became a cultural hero and icon for a whole generation. Now, at the fiftieth anniversary of the first national vaccination program, and as humanity is tantalizingly close to eradicating polio worldwide, comes this unforgettable chronicle. Salk's work was an unparalleled achievement, and it makes for a magnificent listen.
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Excellent book
- By Tim on 08-10-06
By: Jeffrey Kluger
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King of Hearts
- The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery
- By: G. Wayne Miller
- Narrated by: Patrick Cullen
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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G. Wayne Miller has dramatically and meticulously reconstructed an amazing true story: how a group of renegade Minnesota surgeons, led by Dr. Walt Lillehei, made medical history by becoming the first doctors to operate deep inside the human heart.
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Loved every minute
- By Brian on 02-05-08
By: G. Wayne Miller
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Good Day!
- The Paul Harvey Story
- By: Paul J. Batura
- Narrated by: Paul J. Batura
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In Good Day!: The Paul Harvey Story, author Paul J. Batura follows the remarkable life of one of the founding fathers of the news media. Paul Harvey started his career during the Great Depression and narrated America's story day by day, through wars and peace, the threat of communism and the crumbling of old colonial powers, consumer booms and eventual busts.
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Should have been better
- By Royce Brown on 12-21-09
By: Paul J. Batura
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The Colony
- The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles on Molokai
- By: John Tayman
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1866, 12 men and women and one small child were forced aboard a leaky schooner and cast away to a natural prison on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Two weeks later, a dozen others were exiled, and then 40 more, and then 100 more. Tracked by bounty hunters and torn screaming from their families, the luckless were loaded into shipboard cattle stalls and abandoned in a lawless place where brutality held sway. Many did not have leprosy, and most of those who did were not contagious.
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Interesting
- By Matt on 10-31-06
By: John Tayman
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The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
- By: Edmund Morris
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 26 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time. Described by the Chicago Tribune as "a classic", The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt stands as one of the greatest biographies of our time. The publication of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt on September 14th, 2001 marks the 100th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt becoming president.
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Very, very good, but very, very long.
- By Mike From Mesa on 03-29-13
By: Edmund Morris
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New World Coming
- The 1920s and the Making of Modern America
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Jazz. Bootleggers. Flappers. Talkies. Model T Fords. Lindbergh's history-making flight over the Atlantic. The 1920s was also the decade of the hard-won vote for women, racial injustice, censorship, social conflict, and the birth of organized crime.
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My High School History Class Never Told
- By Charles Stembridge on 06-29-04
By: Nathan Miller
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The Curse of Beauty
- The Scandalous & Tragic Life of Audrey Munson, America's First Supermodel
- By: James Bone
- Narrated by: Marianne Fraulo
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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As America was stepping into the modern era, one great beauty became the artist's model of choice. Her perfect form became the emblem of the Gilded Age and appears on the greatest monuments of New York and the nation. Supermodel, actress, icon - her beauty paved the way for a life of glamour, passion, and ultimately tragedy. Her name is Audrey Munson.
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Fascinating
- By Аmazon Customer on 04-06-17
By: James Bone
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Get Capone
- The Secret Plot That Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster
- By: Jonathan Eig
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Jonathan Eig blows the lid off the Al Capone story. Based on never-before-seen government documents and newly discovered letters written by Al Capone himself, Get Capone presents America's greatest gangster as you’ve never seen him before.
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Get this book
- By Jonathan on 05-13-10
By: Jonathan Eig
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What listeners say about Charlatan
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Betty
- 05-21-08
Fascinating
This book is funny and sad, but most of all just mind-boggling. It proves in spades the observation (attributed to P.T. Barnum) that "There's a sucker born every minute." The only reason I didn't give it five stars is the mediocre narration, which included some startling mispronunciations. My favorite was "precis" pronounced PREE-sis.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Roy
- 04-27-09
Got Your Goat?
Pope Brock in his entertaining and informative book, "Charlatan," tells the story of John Brnkley who became a medicine man early in the last century. He became famous for transplanting goat testicles into impotent men. That is not the entire story, however.
It seems America has always been interested in circus side shows, quick cures, and hucksters in general. Today we carry on the tradition in reality shows, The Learning Channel programs on the odities of humanity and other entertainments. John Brinkley capitalized on that tradition.
Most interesting to me was the discussion of Brinkley's move into radio and how he turned it into a money machine. As a boy, I remember his station broadcasting (along with XEG - DelRio) the Carter Family, the Light Crust Dough Boys, and so forth. We could travel across the country at night and hear the DJs peddle medicine, music, and autographed pictures of Christ. It was a hoot at the time for sure.
The book takes the listener back to a simpler (?) time where anything was possible and we all believed. I did not give it four stars because it wanders in places and is a little over written in spots. Otherwise, "Charlatan" is an interesting change of pace. The reading is excellent.
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Overall
- Barry Ezell
- 06-11-10
Highly entertaining history
The book and the narration were both great. This is the kind of well-researched book that changes the way you view the recent past and present. Brinkley wasn't just an evolution of the snake oil salesman, he had an important role in the rise of the modern A.M.A., medical marketing, and even country music.
Johnny Heller's narration was brisk, old-timey when appropriate, and you could tell he enjoyed the book. Yes, he mispronounced Gila monster but to deduct stars for one or two mispronounced words is pedantry.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Dave
- 01-22-21
Strange Science Don't Wanna Miss!
Excellent telling of the bizarre story of Doc Brinkley. Any fan of Old Weird America should not miss this...and observers of the current day might find there's nothin my new under the sun! Heller's perfect for this reading and Brock is perfect.
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Overall
- susan nenadic
- 02-08-09
nix the narrator
Fascinating subject, but the narrator was amateurish beyond belief. He did not prepare by checking pronunciation of words. "Precis" he pronounced pre-sis. He did not realize that Gila monster is from the Spanish so it is "Hila" not a g sound. He called Pavia, Italy, PA' via when it is Pa- VI'-A. Kudos to the author; nix the narrator.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Brett Barker
- 04-18-08
Fascinating!
I selected this book because of the sheer quirkiness of the description. However, once start, I couldn't stop listening. It is a fascinating look into a part of American history that I knew almost nothing about (but after finishing the book am amazed that I didn't).
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2 people found this helpful
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- D. Goulian
- 12-29-23
Not as interesting as I had hoped.
I was on a tear after listening to two great books on turn-of-the-century fraudsters (Empire of Deception and The Murderous Dr. Cream). So, I was hopeful this book would be just as good. But it didn’t hold me, and I abandoned the story about 1/3 of the way. Why? A number of reasons:
First, unlike the other two books, the narration was just not great. It was a bit harder to understand. The pace was odd (too fast?), sentences and words seemed to run together, and I often found myself trying to figure out what I had heard. With an audible book, you don’t really know if the that’s the narrator at fault or the writing.
Second, the story just was not that compelling. Interesting, yes. But from the beginning it was just sad example after sad example of gullible men and their fixation on a perceived lack of libido that drove them to this crazy doctor who was more than happy to take their money for seriously questionable results.
Maybe it would have gotten better if I had stuck with it. But I was also holding it to a high standard having just finished the two books mentioned earlier. So despite my high expectations, I had to let this one go.
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Overall
- Howdy Nekochan
- 06-24-08
incredible story
The story is amazing, the narration not so much. The author has done such a good job that it's worth overlooking the mispronounced words and ridiculous character voices.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Christopher
- 05-09-08
Dr. Brinkley from Del Rio
I first heard of "Dr. Brinkley from Del Rio" in a routine by the late country comedian Jerry Clower. Such was Brinkley's influence on country music and broadcasting.
Pope Brock does a wonderful job in telling how Brinkley achieved that fame (or infamy, depending on your point of view) and the relentless attacks by the A.M.A. as a result.
This 5-star book gets a 4 because, unfortunately, Johnny Heller's performance is a little too monotonic and not paced right.
Highly recommended for history, music, and political afficionados.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Andy
- 07-28-13
Illuminates a period in America, lively narration
Excellent book about a historical misfit. The writing is top-notch, and the writer incidentally manages to provide a subtle and illuminating depiction of America at the turn of the century.
Excellent narration-- the writer seems to be plucked right out of the 1910s with surprising inflections and all.
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2 people found this helpful