[ExI] road to wellville, was: RE: morality

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: spike at rainier66.com <spike at rainier66.com> 
...

>...Next post.  spike


>...Daniel, there is a book called Road to Wellville by Coraghessan Boyle, a
very talented writer who produced a fine historical comedy as his rooky
card.  The movie version was entertaining as all hell and was filled with
carefully-researched historical accuracy.  It was about John Harvey Kellogg
and his quirky ways, how he started the breakfast food industry...spike 


It has been nearly 30 years since I saw the Wellville movie, so I rented it
and found my perspective has changed a lot.  I remembered the movie as much
funnier than it is: if it is to be called historical comedy, it is dark
comedy indeed.  Back in those more carefree days 30 years ago, everything
was funny to me.  I read the book after seeing the film and realized the
film contains a number of fairly big historical inaccuracies that were not
in the book.  Kellogg didn't die in his 70s demonstrating a dive.  He died
of pneumonia at age 91. 

 In the book, Kellogg tried to cure asthma by having patients breathe...
radon.  That part is historically accurate: Kellogg really did that at his
health institution.  It is unclear how many patients he killed that way, for
many of them would have developed lung cancer some few years later.  In the
movie version, Matthew Broderick's love interest (Lara Flynn Boyle) was
suffering "green sickness" which is now called chlorosis or hypochromic
anemia.  In those days it was thought green sickness was caused by female
virginity.  So... Boyle arranges with Broderick to cure that, but in the
book she was being treated by inhaling radon.  When the cure makes the
problem worse, they compensate by using more of it until Ida Muntz perishes.
Hey, Hollywood.  They needed to sex up a good book in order to make a movie.

In retrospect, I am hesitant to recommend the movie.  The book is excellent
however, if one is interested in that kind of thing.

spike