Free of One’s Melancholy Self
Often prescribed to nervous housewives, a quaalude was something between a sleeping pill and a sedative. First synthesized in the late fifties, by 1965 ’ludes were being manufactured by William H. Rorer Inc., a Pennsylvania pharmaceutical company. The name “quaalude” is both a play on “Maalox,” another product manufactured by William H. Rorer Inc., and a synthesis of the phrase “quiet interlude”—a concept so simple and often so out of reach. Just whisper “quiet interlude” to yourself a few times. Seductive, no? It’s the pill in the “take a pill and lie down” directive thousands of Don Drapers gave their Bettys.
Personally i was lucky enough to have a few years when the english version of Methaqualone Maandrax was still just available on our very black market. In the very early eighties i managed to get several boxes of a South African branded capsules which were that last of this particular drug i have every seen.
There are no mention of Quaaludes in this episode, they just sprang to mind while writing this podcast, yet would certainly have been on Edie’s regular lists.
