NFL Quiz: Among coaches with at least 100 career victories
(including playoffs), 3 have winning percentages in excess of
.700. Name them. [Hint: All 3 are post-1950] Answer below.
JFK”s Health
Of course all of you know a little about just how poor John F.
Kennedy”s health was. But I”m sure there is something here
you may not have known before. And no, this doesn”t have
anything to do with his dalliances on the side. This is a PG-13
site, after all. [Actually, it is interesting to note how even on his
inauguration night, JFK was escorting actress Angie Dickinson all
over town, while Jackie caught up on some sleep. But we”ll save
that for down the road.]
No, this is about the fact that, as historian Paul Johnson put it,
“Strictly speaking, Jack was never fit to hold any important public
office, and the list of lies told about his body by the Kennedy
camp over the years (was) formidable.”
JFK was always sick, even as a child. His brother Bobby once
remarked, “When we were growing up together, we used to
laugh about the great risk a mosquito took in biting Jack – with
some of his blood the mosquito was almost sure to die.”
Did you know that Jack had enrolled first at Princeton, not
Harvard? He became so ill at Princeton, however, that he
withdrew, sat out a year, and then went on to the other.
I mentioned in a previous Bar Chat that JFK had received the last
rites from the Catholic Church at least 4 times as an adult. The
main culprit was Addison”s disease, an adrenal gland failure which
led to severe spinal problems. Kennedy, who was born in 1917,
had been diagnosed with the disease at an early age. It was once
considered terminal, but in 1939 it was discovered that cortisone
could maintain Addisonians, as they were called, in relatively
normal lives.
Jack got into the Navy despite his debilitating back pain; accepted
without having to take a physical exam. You all know the story
of his truly heroic episode while captaining the PT boat in Asia.
The flip side was that episode became part of the “cover” down
the road.
In 1947, JFK was in London when he was struck down with
tremendous pain. Pamela Churchill, Winston”s daughter-in-law,
took him to the London Clinic where a doctor told her, “That
young American friend of yours, he hasn”t got a year to live.”
In 1949, the Mayo Clinic discovered that cortisone taken daily
could help Addison patients. And later, pellets, which when
implanted in the thigh released the hormones necessary for 3
months at a time, also became part of JFK”s treatment.
During a trip to Vietnam and Japan in 1951, Kennedy came down
with a fever of 106 (one of the constant side effects of Addison”s
because it affects your body”s ability to fight off infections and
what would otherwise be simple colds). He was given last rites
before he recovered and was brought back home.
In the fall of 1954, then Senator John Kennedy underwent serious
back surgery where he had two spinal fusions in an attempt to
relieve the chronic pain. Back then, he had used crutches much
of the time to relieve some of the pressure. Doctors knew that
there was a very real chance he may not survive the surgery.
While the surgery helped some, he was still a very sick man for
the rest of his life. During the campaign for the presidency in
1960, LBJ, while still under consideration for the nomination
himself, had repeated rumors circulating in the press about JFK”s
health. The latter”s campaign would issue denials.
Kennedy was stoic about his pain. But those televised debates
with Richard Nixon that won him the election (you could argue,
however, that this was just one of the factors in an incredibly
close race) were not as “easy” for JFK as they appeared to be.
JFK was injected with all manner of vitamins, painkillers, human
placenta and amphetamines before each one of them. He
wouldn”t have been able to make it through otherwise.
The morning after his election, a reporter asked Jack about
Addison”s disease. JFK replied without hesitation, “I never had
Addison”s disease. In regard to my health, it was fully explained
in a press statement in the middle of July, and my health is
excellent.” [Richard Reeves]
But the statement was not true. The New York Times even ran a
headline the morning after the inauguration, a few months later.
“2 Doctors Find Kennedy Is In Excellent Health,” a declaration
fed to the paper by JFK”s staff. All the while, a team of doctors
was assembling the treatments that would be necessary to keep
this new president ticking. Or, as Reeves puts it, “Kennedy was
more promiscuous with physicians and drugs than he was with
women.”
In fact, JFK was something of a medical marvel. He was kept
alive by a complicated daily combination of pills and injections.
He was practically taking something different every hour. And
still those 106 degree fevers were an almost regular occurrence.
Addison”s disease has additional side effects. It changes the skin
color so that one has the look of a permanent tan. Hair stays thick
and brown for life. But the constant cortisone treatments tend to
puff up the face. They also increase one”s sex drive.
JFK was administered to by two doctors, initially, who saw to his
every need, medication wise. A third doctor had become a
regular during the campaign, Dr. Jacobson, or “Doctor Feelgood”
as he was known to his Hollywood clients. Dr. Jacobson was the
amphetamine doctor and he became part of the traveling retinue.
In the spring of 1961, JFK was on his first European trip when he
held a summit with Khruschev in Vienna. Kennedy was in great pain
yet it was important that he project a strong image to his Soviet
counterpart. Jacoboson injected him right before the meeting.
When Bobby Kennedy learned of the treatments that Dr.
Feelgood was giving his brother, he asked that the drugs be tested
by FDA chemists but, as far as I can determine, that never
happened.
What we do know is that the other two doctors who had been in
JFK”s employ for years provided the novocaine and cortisone
injections for the pain. Dr. Feelgood”s amphetamines were
mostly for energy.
Less than two weeks after his summit with Khruschev, JFK was
flat on his back, requiring a cherry picker to lift him onto Air
Force One. His personal physician issued a statement, “There is
no serious concern about the President”s health.”
By the Fall of 1961, Secret Servicemen were speculating among
themselves that a 2nd term JFK would be wheelchair bound. He
was receiving novocaine injections up to 6 times a day. Plus,
aside from the amphetamine injections, he was also taking DOCA
tablets daily (desoxycorticosterone). These pills evidently gave
him a rush.
By December of ”61, JFK”s team of doctors finally decided he
needed more extensive exercise and they attempted to reduce the
drug intake. But whenever his back would act up and the pain
was too great, JFK would send out Press Secretary Pierre Salinger
to tell the waiting media that all was OK. As Richard Reeves
writes.
“In politics, the spinal problems he had suffered since childhood
became ”old football injuries” or ”war injuries,” and the fierce
fevers he had suffered all his life became ”malaria from the war.””
Prime Minister Macmillan of Britain once wrote of Kennedy after
a visit. “He suffered agony, he was a terribly brave man. I had
no idea how much he suffered.”
In public, JFK radiated good health. But the fact was that he
spent half of most days in bed. He seldom rose before 9:00 a.m.
and he napped one hour each afternoon. [Actually, I nap quite a
bit myself…but that”s between you and me.]
Paul Johnson writes of the “Camelot” years that the “Media lied
for him, about him, on a scale which it had never done even for
Franklin Roosevelt.”
Yes, without even touching on Kennedy”s active sex life,
Americans knew so little about what was really going on. But,
limiting the discussion simply to policy matters, we are lucky that
this man who was literally drugged out during some of the most
crucial deliberations in our nation”s history, somehow pulled it
off. And for that, I guess we can be grateful.
Sources: “A History of the American People,” Paul Johnson;
“The Presidents,” Henry Graff; “President Kennedy: Profile of
Power,” Richard Reeves…this last book is a super read for those
fascinated in all things Kennedy.
Playboy
And speaking of Marilyn Monroe…oh, where were we?
Actually, since Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez had to cancel
her Democratic fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion, I thought we
might as well briefly cover, or uncover, the fact that in 1953 a
nude photo of Marilyn Monroe appeared in the first issue of a
new magazine. Taken years earlier, Norma Jean Baker signed a
release form…Mona Monroe. A Chicago publisher by the name
of Hugh Hefner bought the rights to the picture for $500.
Hefner originally flirted with the name ”Stag Party,” then settled
on Playboy; a title which suggested a “bacchanalian” lifestyle, one
which might appeal to pleasure seeking readers.
But Hefner was so uncertain that the magazine would succeed, he
didn”t put a date on the first issue, not knowing if he could afford
to publish a second. However, thanks to giving Male America a
chance to peek at Marilyn, 53,000 copies were sold.double
Hef”s expectations. By 1956, circulation was 600,000. Monroe,
by the way, didn”t receive a dime from Playboy for the use of the
photo.
Top 3 songs for the week of 8/18/73: #1 “Touch Me In The
Morning” (Diana Ross) #2 “Live And Let Die” (Wings)
#3 “Brother Louie” (Stories)
Quiz Answer: Vince Lombardi, 105-35-6, .740; John Madden,
112-39-7, .731; George Seifert, 116-43-0, .730. George Allen
had a winning percentage of .705 for the regular season, but a 4-7
playoff record pulled him down to .684 overall.
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
