Max Jacobson. Friend and confidant Chuck Spaulding introduced both John and wife Jackie to the former German refugee after being “saved” from a furious bout of mononucleosis. Bedazzled by his impressive list of celebrity patients, including Judy Garland, Billy Wilder, Yul Brynner, Eddie Fisher, Truman Capote, Alan Jay Lerner, Van Cliburn, Mickey Mantle, and Stavros Niarchos, as a true believer Kennedy was glad to be on such a privileged client list. A week prior to the first nationally televised presidential debate, JFK submitted to the first of countless treatments at the hands of Dr. Feelgood, as Jacobson came to be colloquially known around New York City. At about the same time, Jackie went to Jacobson for relief from the torturing headaches and depression she had developed after the caesarean birth of John, Jr.; to cope with the daily strains of post childbirth, becoming the First Lady and the anxiety-inducing loss of privacy, Jackie joined her husband in a search for deliverance from pain.
