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Strange tale of goat testicle doctor at Sundance

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Charlatan doctor Brinkley transplanted billy goats testicles into men to lift their libidoCharlatan doctor Brinkley transplanted billy goats testicles into men to lift their libido (AFP Photo/Pierre Andrieu)

January 25, 2016

Park City (United States) (AFP) - Have you heard the one about the doctor in

Kansas who made a fortune peddling goat testicles to cure impotence?

This may sound like the opening line for a joke, but it's actually the strange

true tale of John Romulus Brinkley, a small-town doctor in 1900s America,

whose rags-to-riches story is the subject of a funny and captivating

documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.

Directed by Penny Lane, "Nuts!" traces Brinkley's unbelievable rise to fame as

he comes up with a surgical method to transplant goat testicles into

impotent men while living in the tiny Kansas town of Milford in 1917.

"I started working on this documentary after coming across a book in the

library about Brinkley called 'Charlatan'," Lane told AFP. "And the whole time

I was reading it, I was thinking, 'did it (his medicine) work?'"

Legend has it that the transplant idea dawned on Brinkley when he was

visited by a farmer named Bill Stittsworth who, gazing out the window at two

copulating goats, asked the good doctor if he could do something about his

"sexual weakness."

"It's too bad I don't have billy goat nuts," Stittsworth tells Brinkley -- as

recounted in the film -- before convincing him to "just put some goat nuts in

me."

As some of Brinkley's "satisfied" customers begin showing off their offspring

and the procedure gains popularity, he enjoys a meteoric rise to fame,

amassing a fortune and a roster of celebrity clients.

- 'Seduced, and maybe fooled' -

That's until his dubious practices gain the attention of the medical

establishment and the federal government, which goes after him and strips

him of his license.

Brinkley responds by getting into advertising, launching a wildly popular

radio station and continuing to peddle miracle cures to his followers.

He also uses his enormous wealth to dabble in politics and almost wins the

governor's race in Kansas.

Story continues

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