Hadacol

Encyclopedia : H : HA : HAD : Hadacol

Hadacol was a patent medicine marketed as a vitamin supplement. Its principal attraction, however, was that it contained 12 percent alcohol, which made it quite popular in the dry counties of the southern United States. It was the product of four-term Louisiana state Senator Dudley J. LeBlanc (1894-1971), a Democrat from Abbeville in Vermilion Parish.

LeBlanc conceived the idea that became "Hadacol" in New Orleans, when he injured a foot. He asked a doctor to give him medication for pain: then he found that what the doctor gave him was a B-vitamin elixir, which he proposed to duplicate with a few changes and market it to a mass consumer market. LeBlanc said that his research showed that multivitamins taken collectively would yield greater results than a single vitamin for a specific problem.

In Chicago, sales of Hadacol were limited to liquor stores by a local official who claimed that an eight-ounce bottle had the kick of three shots of scotch.

LeBlanc created the name "Hadacol" from his former "Happy Days" headache powder medicine. "Happy" became the "Ha", "Days" became the "da," "Company" became the "co", and "l" referred to "LeBlanc." Hence the created named was "Hadacol."

In a 15-month period ending in March 1951, LeBlanc sold more than $25 million worth of the tonic. In another six months, however, the enterprise collapsed under the weight of debtors. LeBlanc was spending more for advertising by that point than he was taking in as receipts.

LeBlanc flooded the airwaves with testimonials to the powers of the brown liquid and turned jingle called the "Hadacol boogie" into a popular recording.

One of the tonic's unusual ingredients, "Diluted Acid Hydrochloric", is what is known as a "hydrochloric wash": a heavily diluted form of the acid that opens the arteries and allows the body's quicker absorption of the other ingredients, which included a 12 percent alcohol base used as a "preservative".

LeBlanc was an entrepreneur in other areas too, but it is Hadacol that made him famous outside Louisiana. He brought in Hollywood celebrities, including Milton Berle, Lucille Ball, Mickey Rooney, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Judy Garland, Chico Marx, and Jimmy Cagney to help him market the product. Admission to the Hadacol gala was two Hadacol boxtops.

Martin Gardner's In the Name of Science (1952) mentions an interview that LeBlanc gave on Groucho Marx's radio program:

When Groucho asked him what Hadacol was good for, LeBlanc gave an answer of startling honesty. "It was good," the senator said, "for five and a half million for me last year."

Hadacol was also the subject of several R&B and Country Swing tunes of the time, such as "Hadacole (That's All)" by the Treniers and "Hadacol Boogie" by Bill Nettles and his Dixie Blue Boys.

External links

[Hadacol bottle and packaging]
[An article about Hadacol, from quackwatch.org]
Dudley J. LeBlanc obituary, Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, October 23, 1971

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.