Snake Oil, Hustlers and Hambones
The American Medicine Show
Ann
Anderson
Foreword by Heinrich R. Falk ISBN
978-0-7864-2228-9
photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
200pp.
softcover
(7 x 10)
2005 [2000]
Available for immediate shipment
Description
Long before television and radio commercials beckoned to potential buyers, the medicine show provided free entertainment and promised cures for everything from corns to cancer. Combining elements of the circus, theater, vaudeville, and good old-fashioned entrepreneurship, the showmen of the American medicine show sold tonics, ointments, pills, extracts and a host of other "wonder-cures," guaranteed to "cure what ails you." While the cures were seldom miraculous, the medicine show was an important part of American culture and of performance history. Harry Houdini, Buster Keaton, and P.T. Barnum all took a turn upon the medicine show stage.
This study of the medicine show phenomenon surveys nineteenth century popular entertainment and provides insight into the ways in which show business, advertising, and medicine manufacture developed in concert. The colorful world of the medicine show, with its Wild West shows, pie-eating contests, clowns, and menageries, is fully explored. Photographs of performers and of the fascinating handbills and posters used to promote the medicine show are included.
About the Author
Ann Anderson lives in Portland, Oregon. She works as a freelance writer, teacher, actor and director. Her articles and essays have appeared in Stage Directions, Prevention and Health, among many other publications.
Reviews
"delightful, comprehensive, and well-documented"--Choice
"useful"--Public Library Quarterly
"well illustrated and documented, as well as entertaining"--C&RL News
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Table of Contents & Excerpts
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History/United States/American West
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