Dr. George C. Nichopolous - 88

[VeuveClicquotNJ]

"Dr Nick" - the "Dr Feelgood" whose over-prescribing of narcotics, methamphetamines, barbituates, laxatives and sleeping pills helped Elvis Presley into an early grave has died at the age of 88.

http://wreg.com/2016/02/25/elvis-pre...ulos-has-died/

VCNJ~

[Mcafgr]

Surprised he did not OD on his own pills. 10,000 pills prescribed for Elvis. A little excessive. Anywho...RIP

[seurtoFW]

Goodbye everybody!

[JimC]

I guess even better living through chemistry must come to an end.

RIP, I guess.

[AngieDFan]

Well he got to live to 88, Elvis not so much.

[stephenmiller]

Doctor Nick was, according to those close to Elvis, was swayed by the fame and charisma of Elvis, when he should have stayed a doctor. Elvis would give him a gold Mercedes or Cadillac and even gave him a very expensive house in Memphis complete with pool and racquetball court

[Tony Trout]

"Dr Nick" - the "Dr Feelgood" whose over-prescribing of narcotics, methamphetamines, barbituates, laxatives and sleeping pills helped Elvis Presley into an early grave has died at the age of 88.

http://wreg.com/2016/02/25/elvis-pre...ulos-has-died/

VCNJ~

Dr. Nick was not the "Dr. Feelgood" that you're thinking about - that "Dr. Feelgood" was Dr. Max Shapiro who was another drug supplier for Elvis in the late 1960s and until Elvis's death in 1977.

Doctor Nick was, according to those close to Elvis, was swayed by the fame and charisma of Elvis, when he should have stayed a doctor. Elvis would give him a gold Mercedes or Cadillac and even gave him a very expensive house in Memphis complete with pool and racquetball court

Correct. Nick got caught up in the "rock star" lifestyle and let his professional relationship go from that to a friendship when it should have stayed "doctor/patient" and Nick can even be seen in the movie "Elvis On Tour" three times. Once in the beginning scene where Elvis's limo pulls into the arena and then again backstage in Little Rock, AR and then once again on April 4, 1972 as Elvis is boarding a private plane to fly to buffalo, NY for the first show of the April, 1972 tour.

Dr. Nick did, in fact, try to control Elvis's drug use. He's admitted that he did....but, for someone like Elvis, if he couldn't get it from Nick, he was going to get it somewhere else. Linda Thompson, Elvis's live-in girlfriend from 1972-1976, asked Dr. Nick what she should do since Elvis wouldn't stop taking the drugs and he said, "Leave," because he knew that, since Elvis was an addict by June '73, there was no way that Elvis was going to stop - and he didn't want to and he didn't know how to stop.

One time, at Graceland in the 1970s (by this time, the drug use had started getting out of control big-time) Nick was upstairs with Elvis (he also doctored Vernon and Minnie Mae, Elvis's grandmother as well as any of Elvis's entourage in the TCB band) and Elvis was very angry that Nick wouldn't give him what he wanted from his black doctor bag so Elvis told him, "Fine! The next time you're up here, I'll just blow the son-of-a-bitch apart and get what I want!"

How does a doctor fight someone like that? He tried replacing some pills with placebos (sugar) but Elvis caught onto Nick's little trick because he wasn't getting the buzz he wanted from the medication.

There was also a Dr. Boyers (his opthamologist - the late Dennis Roberts was just his eyeglass maker. Dennis did not treat Elvis for any eye problems) who gave out drugs and then there was also Elias Ghanem, the former Las Vegas, NV boxing commissioner (now deceased) and even others.....but everybody always blamed Nick, which wasn't fair because the other doctors were just as guilty of prescribing him medications that he did not need. Yes, he did have several honest-to-goodness health issues but, none too severe as to have to write out Dilaudid (a very strong painkiller used only for Cancer patients - and it was proven at the autopsy that Elvis did not have any type of cancer in his body - even though people like the late Charlie Hodge, Kathy Westmoreland & Dick Grob continued the myth of Elvis having Cancer for many years. However, Elvis was in such bad shape by 1976-1977 that his entourage were secretly taking bets or guessing how long Elvis had to live.

Lamar Fike was right, though, when (in the summer of '77 just as Elvis was filming "Elvis In Concert" for CBS, he said, "He'll never see the snow fly, boys, I promise you!" Lamar knew Elvis was dying - and they couldn't do a thing to stop it from happening. If they tried talking to him, such as what Red & Sonny & Dave Hebler did, they wound up out on the streets with no job.

Dr. Nick didn't just lose his medical license for over-prescribing drugs to Elvis. There was also Jerry Lee Lewis and even Dr. Nick's own daughter.

[choff]

Dr. Nick was not the "Dr. Feelgood" that you're thinking about - that "Dr. Feelgood" was Dr. Max Shapiro who was another drug supplier for Elvis in the late 1960s and until Elvis's death in 1977.




Correct. Nick got caught up in the "rock star" lifestyle and let his professional relationship go from that to a friendship when it should have stayed "doctor/patient" and Nick can even be seen in the movie "Elvis On Tour" three times. Once in the beginning scene where Elvis's limo pulls into the arena and then again backstage in Little Rock, AR and then once again on April 4, 1972 as Elvis is boarding a private plane to fly to buffalo, NY for the first show of the April, 1972 tour.

Dr. Nick did, in fact, try to control Elvis's drug use. He's admitted that he did....but, for someone like Elvis, if he couldn't get it from Nick, he was going to get it somewhere else. Linda Thompson, Elvis's live-in girlfriend from 1972-1976, asked Dr. Nick what she should do since Elvis wouldn't stop taking the drugs and he said, "Leave," because he knew that, since Elvis was an addict by June '73, there was no way that Elvis was going to stop - and he didn't want to and he didn't know how to stop.

One time, at Graceland in the 1970s (by this time, the drug use had started getting out of control big-time) Nick was upstairs with Elvis (he also doctored Vernon and Minnie Mae, Elvis's grandmother as well as any of Elvis's entourage in the TCB band) and Elvis was very angry that Nick wouldn't give him what he wanted from his black doctor bag so Elvis told him, "Fine! The next time you're up here, I'll just blow the son-of-a-bitch apart and get what I want!"

How does a doctor fight someone like that? He tried replacing some pills with placebos (sugar) but Elvis caught onto Nick's little trick because he wasn't getting the buzz he wanted from the medication.

There was also a Dr. Boyers (his opthamologist - the late Dennis Roberts was just his eyeglass maker. Dennis did not treat Elvis for any eye problems) who gave out drugs and then there was also Elias Ghanem, the former Las Vegas, NV boxing commissioner (now deceased) and even others.....but everybody always blamed Nick, which wasn't fair because the other doctors were just as guilty of prescribing him medications that he did not need. Yes, he did have several honest-to-goodness health issues but, none too severe as to have to write out Dilaudid (a very strong painkiller used only for Cancer patients - and it was proven at the autopsy that Elvis did not have any type of cancer in his body - even though people like the late Charlie Hodge, Kathy Westmoreland & Dick Grob continued the myth of Elvis having Cancer for many years. However, Elvis was in such bad shape by 1976-1977 that his entourage were secretly taking bets or guessing how long Elvis had to live.

Lamar Fike was right, though, when (in the summer of '77 just as Elvis was filming "Elvis In Concert" for CBS, he said, "He'll never see the snow fly, boys, I promise you!" Lamar knew Elvis was dying - and they couldn't do a thing to stop it from happening. If they tried talking to him, such as what Red & Sonny & Dave Hebler did, they wound up out on the streets with no job.

Dr. Nick didn't just lose his medical license for over-prescribing drugs to Elvis. There was also Jerry Lee Lewis and even Dr. Nick's own daughter.

Great post !!!

I too had heard in the past that Elvis' entourage were secretly taking bets guessing how long Elvis would live. I also seem to remember reading many years ago they were doing the same thing within the Memphis news media too. I think it was Mason Granger who then was an anchor for local WMC channel 5 who had said even they knew at WMC about Elvis and the drugs but of course they couldn't report on that since well who would believe them ?? Considering that Rick Dees was such a big disc jockey in Memphis at the time I wouldn't be surprised at all if even he and the other jocks at WHBQ were taking bets as well.

[VeuveClicquotNJ]

I knew about Max Shapiro - that's why I put "Dr Feelgood" in quotes

[Tony Trout]

I knew about Max Shapiro - that's why I put "Dr Feelgood" in quotes

I understand that.....but the way it was worded made it sound like you were referring to Dr. Nick as "Dr. Feelgood." In your post, it looked like this (and I apologize for paraphrasing), "Dr. Nick, The 'Dr. Feelgood' whose over-prescribing of drugs led Elvis Presley to an early grave,"

See what I meant?