Snake Oil, Hustlers and Hambones: The American Medicine Show (Hardcover)

~ Ann Anderson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"well illustrated and documented, as well as entertaining"--C&RL News

Product 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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 190 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company (July 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786408006
• ISBN-13: 978-0786408009
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #679,176 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book!, September 14, 2000

By	Cathy Loup (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This terrific book is as fun as it is informative. Anderson's exhaustive research is evident on every page, and her writing style is perfect: spare enough to let the color of the topic shine through, but never dry. As she relates the history of the medicine show, she shows how modern medicine, advertising and entertainment evolved together; her skill at illuminating these linkages gives the book even more weight and depth. It's an outstanding work of scholarship...and a damned good read!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hucksters, and Hambones, December 26, 2001

By	Michael S. Breid (Eureka Springs, Arkansas United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ann Anderson has done her homework. Finding information about early medicine shows is about as easy as finding a fossilized T-Rex's tooth. Anderson has done a superb job with this work and I recommend it very highly to anyone interested in the "beginning entertainment" of the United States.

Arkansas Red-Ozark Troubadour
Eureka Springs, Arkansas

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it!, August 21, 2000

By	Lynn Pitzer (Mountain View, CA USA) - See all my reviews

A thoroughly entertaining and informative book with a subject matter I never thought would interest me. Having an advertising background, I was intrigued and facinated by the history of the medicine show and the impact it has had on our culture from a media standpoint. Well written, incredibly reasearched, and fun to read. Read it!