Difference between revisions of "Traveling Medicine Show"

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This is the opening paragraph defining Traveling Medicine Shows and introducing the dossier

How much is your health worth, Ladies and Gentlemen? It's priceless, isn't it? Well, my friends, one half-dollar is all it takes to put you in the pink. That's right, Ladies and Gents, for fifty pennies, Nature's True Remedy will succeed where doctors have failed. Only Nature can heal and I have Nature right here in this little bottle. My secret formula, from God's own laboratory, the Earth itself, will cure rheumatism, cancer, diabetes, baldness, bad breath, and curvature of the spine. (Anderson 1)

Origins

The European Mountebank

The predecessor to the traveling American medicine man was the European mountebank, well known throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance for selling their medicinal wares at fairs, street corners, in market squares or wherever they could gather a crow of onlookers (McNamara 3). Scholars acknowledge, however, that it was the Italian quacks of the 17th century that typify the European mountebank (5).

Every day, Venice's St Marks Square would be packed with half a dozen platforms where various mountebanks would try for the crowd's attention. Music could play and the showman would open up his trunks, displaying his medicinal wares for the audience, while he delivered a long presentation of half an hour or longer (5).

Like the later American medicine shows, European mountebanks would integrate various forms of entertainment into their show. In Italy and France, mountebank's would often draw upon elements of Commedia del Arte, a popular street theater art form of the time built around familiar stock characters (6). Overall, however, the European mountebanks were seen by the people as a combination of entertaining showmen and word-twisting deceivers. One way this becomes clear is through an examination of the different names used to refer to them: “montimbanca, cantimbanca, or saltimbanca” would refer to the musical and acrobatic feats they performed on their platforms, or “ciarlatano (from ciarlare, to chatter)” the origin of the term "charlatan", which emphasized the verbosity of the mountebank and and “ciurmatore (from the Latin carmen, or charm)” referencing their magical feats which the mountebank's displayed to lure in the public (Henke).

Colonial America

While it is not definitively known by scholars when the European mountebank entered the colony, by the early 18th century we begin to see mentions of the presence of medical "quacks" in America. One of the first written mentions of the colonial medicine man occurs in William Smith's 1757 work The History of the Province of New York...to the Year M.DCC. XXXII. Smith notes that "Quacks abound like Locusts in Egypt and too may have recommended themselves to full Practice and profitable Subsistence. This is the less to be wondered at, as the Profession is under no Kind of Regulation...Any Man at his Pleasure sets up for Physician, Apothecary, and Chirurgeon" (Smith quoted in McNamara, 8).

The other reason we know about the growing presence of the medicine man in the colonies in the 18th century is the legislation that was passed in response to their practices. In 1772 in New Jersey, an act regulating medicine in the colony included a piece aimed at the suppression of mountebanks, while in 1773 Connecticut passed the "Act for suppressing of Mountebanks" (McNamara 8). Overall, despite of the official opposition, scholar Bruce McNamara argues that "the mountebank remained the delight of the crowd" (McNamara 10).

For most of the 19th century, the American mountebanks continued in the tradition of their European predecessors, performing Often dressed in exotic costumes, the American medicine man of the 19th century would gather together people at court days and draw people in with feats of magic, hypnotism, ventriloquism or exhibitions of trick shootings. By the 1850s more local elements began to be integrated, including banjo tunes and blackface stolen from minstrel shows. By the 1870s, however, the American patent medicine industry took hold of the mountebank performance and began to transform it to suit their needs.

Structure & Technique

The Art of the Sell

Ballyhoo: The Entertainment of the Show

Although the medicine show's primary purpose was to sell products and make money, the also served a purpose of providing entertainment to the rural masses. The entertainment's job was to pull in crowds and make them feel indebted to the show, increasing the likelihood for purchases. The medicine show utilized popular entertainment forms of the era, and created a variety show atmosphere, providing a breadth of entertainment interspersed with plugs for medicine and health products. The following is a brief description of some of the entertainment traditions popular at the time that medicine shows borrowed from and how they were integrated into the act of selling patent medicine.

Although not as respected or high-brow as the shows of the large cities' theaters, the medicine shows provided pure fun and entertainment to large crowds throughout the country. It should always be kept in mind that medicine shows, unlike vaudeville or minstrelsy, were always intended to sell products. The entertainment was just the Ballyhoo: the way to attract a crowd and boost sales.

Museums

Early American museums were meant to be clean, family fun for a respectable crowd of people. Unlike museums of today, these were almost entirely privately owned ventures that housed a variety of interesting exhibits. When these fell out of favor and profitability, showmen of the day took it upon themselves to open their own museums, with the express purpose of appealing to a more base, low-class style of people. These Jacksonian institutions featured freak shows, exoticism, art, magic, wax figures, fossils, and much more. Unlike today's more 'high-class' context of museums, these were very much everyman places of enjoyment. (Anderson 49)

The history of the museum in America cannot be discussed without mention of America's finest entertainment provider, P.T. Barnum, whose American Museum located in New York City at the corner of Ann Street and Broadway housed several popular exhibits, including the first aquarium in the United States. Places like these led more high-society, types to create more state-sponsered and 'honorable' museums housing fine art, leading to the museum tradition we see today. (Anderson 50)

The link between these stationary museums and the traveling medicine show was the smaller versions known as Dime Museums. Dime museums were "designed specifically as stationary medicine shows" (Anderson 53). Often times placed in store-fronts in order to draw in visitors, these museums contained penny arcades, curio halls, and various legitimate and illegitimate 'artifacts' of history and the world. This was an early form of entertainment meant to draw in people in order to purchase a product wholly separate from the actually entertainment itself. This concept is what spurred the medicine show movement that reigned for over 50 years. (Anderson 52)

The Circus

Already mentioned as the founder of the American Museum, P.T. Barnum is perhaps most associated with the circus, the traveling entertainment that provided thrills and attractions for non-city dwellers who were unaccustomed to the museums found only in large cities. Like these museums, circuses often provided a variety of attractions, not necessarily connected in any way. Performers, acrobats, illusionists were mixed in with stationary exhibits like those seen in the proprietary museums. (Anderson 54)

Circuses were based on the idea that rural townsfolk were underexposed to the world, and the circus was the medium through which they could experience exotic entertainment and ideas, a concept the medicine show would exploit to equal success. A major draw for the people were the exotic animals of the circus. "At the beginning of the nineteenth century the three primary types of traveling entertainment were the menagerie, the circus, and a combination of the two." (Eckly 2)

Wild West Shows

Similar to the circus, the wild west show contained a variety of acts and exploits, although centered around the idea of the American Cowboy and the Native American. While the circus has unknown and varied origins, the wild west show is clearly the domain and concept of one man, William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody. Originally started from the tradition of exhibiting Native Americans, wild west shows came to valorize the American Cowboy, a conception that was losing practical application. (Anderson 58)

The wild west shows created an American folklore unto themselves, heroizing the Cowboy, exploiting the exoticism of Native Americans, and producing cheap thrills with gun-shows and animal exhibitions. Traveling medicine shows, besides taking the variety formula, also exploited this newfound American folklore in their entertainment, especially the mysticism surrounding Native Americans, which can be seen in the use of Indian Medicine Shows [see The Kickapoo Indian Show] (Anderson 61)

Minstrel Shows

Perhaps the most direct influence on the traveling medicine show was the minstrel show, another purely American performance 'art' that dominated American culture in the mid 19th Century. Although a variety act that included both music and acting, the biggest marker of the minstrel show was the blackface characters, the most well-known being the 'Jim Crow' character (or caricature). These minstrel clowns, obviously racist by today's standards, were meant as a sort of reminder to white audiences of the inferiority, class-wise, of the African race, as well as just a source of silly, low-brow entertainment. It is important to note, however, that the shows were not deliberately attacking the African race. Rather, they simply saw the conception of the ignorant Negro as a valuable avenue into comedy. In fact, some minstrel groups were made up entirely of black members, still using blackface as it was the tradition of the show.

The minstrel shows usually had a host, who besides telling jokes of his own, introduced the various comedic sketches and musical numbers. Comedy and music were the main focuses of the minstrel show, and this carried over into the medicine show format. Comedy usually took the form of humorous monologues, or short sketches featuring two or three actors. The music was often times folk numbers that many of the audience members would be familiar with, creating a stronger bond with the audience.

The minstrel shows began to lose favor as the Civil War raged on in the late 19th Century. Slavery and the African population was a more loaded topic. However, there was still a desire for the type of variety entertainment minstrel shows provided, especially in the South and rural West. The medicine show took a lot of the traditions of the minstrel show that were no longer in the spotlight, and utilized them for its own purpose. (Anderson 74-82)

Vaudeville

Much like minstrel shows were the form of entertainment in the middle of the 19th Century, the time from 1875-1925 "belonged to vaudeville" (Anderson 83). Next to the minstrel show, vaudeville provided more material and formats for the medicine show than any other popular form. Vaudeville, also a variety show, also established the conception of having a variety of entertainment styles with no need for connection or relation. You could show comedy routines, dances, and plays all together only tied together by a shared stage. Early vaudeville is most often seen as decedent from British music hall shows, providing a theatrical 'revue.'

Vaudeville is often seen as belonging to the city, and in many ways this is true. Large theaters and music halls in cities like New York and Boston were seen as the premier venues for all acts, especially vaudeville. However, the excess of performers and need for money forced many companies and individual acts to hit the road and tour the country, often times using the growing train network as means of transportation. This is where many of the medicine shows got their performers, aspiring vaudevillians looking to hone their craft and make some money. Future vaudeville and radio stars like Harry Houdini, Al Jolson, and Red Skelton got their starts on medicine shows stages. The medicine show also provided them with a variety of roles and helped teach the art of improvisation. Since the show traveled, their had to be constant changes to the acts and playing to particular towns. Many times, performers would have to have multiple talents and the ability to be incorporated into various acts, as the show needed. (Anderson 83-90)

Temperance Plays

Some of the more interesting additions made to the medicine show were the temperance and morality plays. Comedic sketches were always a part of the show, drawing directly from minstrelsy and vaudeville. However, as the temperance movement grew and Southern religious fervor stayed strong, medicine showmen realized they needed to tap into these movements in order to increase sales.

The temperance movement in America began in the early 19th Century, around 1820, mostly coming from religious groups. Sobriety started being seen as a pathway to God. The movement grew and grew over the years, and by the time medicine shows were gaining in numbers, large sections of the country were awash "blue laws" and general distrust of alcohol. The medicine shows would incorporate this sentiment into their acts and pitches, showing short plays that highlighted the dangers of drinking, or the strength of religion. This would later be incorporated into the pitch of the medicine, stating that it could serve as a replacement for these dangerous liquors. They were right in many ways, most clearly in that alcohol and other narcotics were a major ingredient in most patent medicines. The temperance movement was distrustful of alcoholic beverages, but medicines were not seen as an ail on mankind. Medicine showmen utilized this to great success in the later decades of the 19th Century. (Anderson 92-95)

Advice from a Showman

Notable Medicine Shows and Showmen

The Kickapoo Indian Show

The Oregon Medicine Company

Hamlin's Wizard Oil

Downfall of the Traveling Medicine Show

Legislation

Early 19th Century America was resistant to new economic legislation, as the colonial conception of less government and states' rights was still going strong. The first attempt to regulate medicine on a federal level came in 1892, when a law stating a medicine must be up to a "professed standard" passed the Senate; however, the bill failed to pass the House. (Anderson 156)

A major reason for early bill failures at both the Federal and State level was combined efforts of the Proprietary Association and advertising industry. However, by 1905, the Proprietary Association began to divide into various factions. This led to the first piece of Federal legislation to be passed in 1906: The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. This bill stated that all addictive drugs be listed on the labels of food and medicine. Many patent medicine manufacturers actually saw this as a victory against a more strict bill, and listed all the laudanum, cocaine, opium, morphine, and alcohol on every medicine with no worry. (Anderson 157)

The patent medicine industry continued successfully in the early 20th Century until the 1930s brought new legislation and regulation. The most influential of these was the formation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), two regulating bodies meant to curb false advertising and more honest labels. Other organizations that formed at this time that helped lead to the end of the patent medicine industry were the American Medical Association (AMA), American Pharmaceutical Association (APA), and Consumer's Research, a militant consumer advocacy group. (Anderson 158)

The final nail in the coffin came with the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938, that required proprietors to list all ingredients and reveal all relevant facts. This also led to regulating medical devices, a long-time medicine show staple. (Anderson 159)

New Technology

Traveling medicine shows also grew out of favor due to the fact that they no longer became the primary source of entertainment for rural America. Neww technologies such as movies and radio extended beyond the cities to influence the rural areas. The first movie theaters opened in the early 20th Century in major US cities and quickly spread into rural towns and cities through train shows and later new theaters built. Medicine shows thrived upon the fact that small rural towns rarely saw outside entertainment, so movies provided strong competition for the attention of rural audiences.

The other encroaching medium that challenged the medicine show's dominance over rural entertainment was radio. Once again, entertainment was provided, this time for free (with advertising, of course), but directly into people's homes. Ironically, radio programs often took their formats directly from medicine show tradition, mixing entertainment, music, plays, directly into the advertising. (Anderson 159-161)

Tradition Today

Traveling Medicine Show Glossary

Bibliography

Anderson, Ann. Snake Oil, Hustlers, and Hambones: The American Medicine Show. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2000

Eckly, Wilton. The American Circus. Boston: G.K. Hall and Co., 1984.

Wagner, Paul and Steven Zeitlin. Free Show Tonight. http://www.folkstreams.net/film,68

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