Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Six Sentence Story - Therapy

One never knows the memory a cue is going to going to stir up or the story that awaits to be discovered because of that memory. I am linking this story to Six Sentence Stories - Therapy hosted by Denise of Girlie on the Edge's Blog.


 

Within the four-room building in Erie, Pennsylvania the compound began to take shape and was promoted by the father and then the son as they considered ways to attract the public.

The timing was perfect considering the plethora of ways people were dying, often suddenly and without the care of a physician because of distance, and of being unable to quickly notify a doctor, not to mention that transportation could be slow.

Ailing people were ready to treat their symptoms without resorting to gathering herbs, and so the small pills applauded in the ads in the newspapers seemed to be almost a panacea and became a staple in many medicine cabinets beginning in the latter part of the 19th century and through more than half of  the 20th century when the FTC filed a complaint.

It was 1943, wartime, but the FTC was ready for action against the company they claimed was misleading the public with their false advertising and labeling.

Could it be, wondered some that their tried and true beloved pills were really just some quack therapy and that the FTC was creating quite a hullabaloo?


It wasn’t until 1959 that the final decision was made when the Supreme Court refused to review the FTC’s order and then denied the company’s appeal to keep its original labeling including the word liver and the use of misleading advertisements about a little pill that that was said to do so much more than be merely a laxative.

16 comments:

  1. That was the clue! All of a sudden "liver pills" came to mind. I imagine there were many "regular" people thanks to those pills, lol.
    Thank you, Pat for a well written, informative glimpse into the past :)

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    1. HaHa. Regular indeed. I checked out the newspaper articles and ads and it was astounding the number of ailments these little pills were supposed to cure! The ads in the beginning didn't proclaim to be such cure-alls, but as the years went by the ads really relied on people's desperation or gullibility.

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  2. I enjoyed reading your story.
    -- Long time ago, people all over the world relied more on placebo effects, didn't they?

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    1. I suspect that was the case back then. It makes me wonder what meds and therapies people use now that will someday be laughed at.

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  3. ah ha! (I was trying to connect the word 'laxative' to a pill, then saw the (Carter's) Little Liver pills reference...
    I knew of the name, and the ads, but never knew they were intended as laxatives... but then again I was very young
    lol
    fun Six

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    1. Given the number of ailments some of their ads said they cured, I'm guessing many people took them for reasons other than constipation. After the FTC got involved, it was discovered that the main ingredient was a laxative.

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  4. very good. I was reminded of all kinds of remedies from my childhoos. Also, plethora is one of my favorite words. that and Dearth. so visible. Great job.

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    1. Thank you. I was introduced to the word plethora by one of our daughters when she was in high school. Whenever I hear it or use it, I think of her.

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  5. I remember my grandmother always had Carter's Little Liver Pills in her medicine cabinet. Love your six sentence stories!

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    1. One of my grandfathers always had Carter's Little Liver Pills in the medicine cabinet, but I am not sure why it was that he took them. I know that he suffered from migraine headaches and the pills were advertised as being a remedy for headaches as well as a lot of other things. Glad you enjoy the stories.

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  6. Educational six! Always like learning new things!

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    1. Thanks, Lisa. I enjoy the research behind writing the stories.

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  7. Carters Little Liver Pills. If it sounds too good to be true...

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  8. we are the pill society, Pat. I remember the disaster that was thalidomide pills and the tragic consequences to new born babies.

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  9. That was interesting and done in a fun way. Cool take on the prompt!

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