Yours truly,
H. L. Roberts, Business Manager.
“Eighty-three per cent. of the people have some Rectal trouble. THIS IS THE DAY OF SPECIALISTS. Why not fit yourself to specialize in Proctology?”
The fourth page is a post card addressed to “H. L. Roberts, Room 1126, Masonic Temple, Chicago.” On the reverse side there is a printed statement which the recipient is expected to sign to the effect that he is interested in “Dr. Ogden’s Clinic” and wishes to have “full particulars of the course.”
A visit to Room 1126, Masonic Temple, failed to disclose the name of H. L. Roberts, either on the door (or doors, for there are two rooms having this number) or on the office building directory board. In fact, Rooms 1126 seem to contain a somewhat miscellaneous assortment. The signs, either on the door or on the directory board, show that there is a public stenographer (who operates a “Mailing Service,” and does “Addressing, Mailing, Multigraphing, Mimeographing”), a bookstore, a chocolate company, a publishing company, a lumber company, and one or two other concerns; but the name of “H. L. Roberts” does not appear. Incidentally, no “H. L. Roberts” is to be found listed in the Chicago telephone directory.
A few yards away from Rooms 1126 and on the same floor there appears the name, “Dr. Willard E. Ogden” on Room 1102.
According to our records, Willard Ealon Ogden was born in 1866. Before taking up the study of medicine he seems to have been a preacher. In 1899 he was graduated by the Saginaw Valley Medical College, Saginaw, Mich. He was licensed in Michigan in 1900, in Illinois and Indiana in 1913, and in Wisconsin in 1921. From 1900 until 1904 he practiced in Lyons, Mich.; from 1906 until 1911 he was at Ionia, Mich.
In 1911, he was in Grand Rapids, Mich., and was associated with Burleson and Burleson, an advertising pile cure concern. From some of the voluminous Burleson advertising on file, we learn that they “cure all diseases of the rectum (except cancer);” and claim to have “the most successful method ever discovered,” and to have cured “many desperate cases that have been given up to die.” Furthermore, they “guarantee to cure in every case or make no charge.”
On Jan. 1, 1914, Ogden was sending out a card to physicians in which he stated that he had removed from Grand Rapids, Mich., and LaPorte, Ind., to 36 W. Randolph St., Chicago, and that he would limit himself “exclusively to the treatment of diseases of the rectum.” Later, Ogden was sending out an advertising booklet filled with testimonials.
In 1914, Ogden was carrying display advertisements in Chicago papers reading, in part, in large back-faced type: “Piles Cured Absolutely Without Knife, Anesthetics, Pain or Loss of Time.... Cure Guaranteed or Money Refunded.”