You think today's 18-30 crowd has problems "adulting"?
It ain't a new phenomenon, as this never-reprinted tale from Hillman's Mr Anthony's Love Clinic #1 (1949) proves!
You may well ask: "Who the hell is this Dr Phil wannabe?
To start with, he wasn't actually "John J Anthony".
His name was Lester Kroll.
He wasn't a doctor,...or even a licensed therapist!
In fact, he was a high school dropout!
But he had a great voice, so he became a radio disc jockey!
He suffered clinical depression and sought therapy...which gave him an idea.
Utilizing his sons' names (John and Anthony) he created the persona of "John J Anthony" and his show dropped the music format, creating what many historians consider the first interactive "talk radio" show!
If you're wondering why people accepted him without question as an authority on such things, he claimed he was the director of the Institute of Martial Relations on the campus of Vassar College...then a women-only university!
(So, no, the Institute didn't exist!)
He suffered clinical depression and sought therapy...which gave him an idea.
Utilizing his sons' names (John and Anthony) he created the persona of "John J Anthony" and his show dropped the music format, creating what many historians consider the first interactive "talk radio" show!
If you're wondering why people accepted him without question as an authority on such things, he claimed he was the director of the Institute of Martial Relations on the campus of Vassar College...then a women-only university!
(So, no, the Institute didn't exist!)
His top-rated radio show became the basis for a licensed romance comic from Hillman in 1949.
But the show's name (Good Will Hour, later The John J Anthony Hour, wasn't dramatic enough!
So the comic was given the catchier title "Mr Anthony's Love Clinic"!
The comic seems to have been based on actual situations drawn from episodes of the radio show, but since so few of them survived to the present in any form, there's really no way of knowing!
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