Traveling Medicine Show
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)
Contents
Origins
Medieval Europe
Colonial America
Structure & Technique
The Art of the Sell
Ballyhoo: The Entertainment of the Show
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)
New Technology
Tradition Today
Traveling Medicine Show Glossary
Bibliography
Anderson, Ann. Snake Oil, Hustlers, and Hambones: The American Medicine Show. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2000
Author. Book Title. Publishing location: Publisher, Date.
Author. "Article Title". Journal, volume, issue, page.
