I Got Me a Man Named “Doctor Feelgood”

By the late 1930s, German refugee Max Jacobson, M.D., had established a general practice on the Upper East Side catering to writers, musicians, and entertainers who nicknamed him “Miracle Max” or “Dr. Feelgood” 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 — mixed with multivitamins, steroids, enzymes, hormones, and solubilized placenta, bone marrow, and animal organ cells.

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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.”

Did you watch Mad Men last night and find it, um, more inscrutable than usual? This 2005 New York Sun story might clear some things up. (More at the Post, too.)