Medicine Show
Medicine shows were traveling horse and wagon teams which peddled "miracle cure" medications and other products between various entertainment acts. Their precise origins unknown, medicine shows were common in the 19th century United States, especially in the Old West era, (though they continued up to World War II). They are most commonly associated with "miracle elixirs" (referred to as snake oil), which, it was claimed, had the ability to cure any disease, smooth wrinkles, remove stains, prolong life or cure any number of common ailments. Entertainment often included a freak show, a flea circus, musical acts, magic tricks, jokes, or storytelling.
Read more about Medicine Show: Use in Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words medicine and/or show:
“The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all the other woes of mankind, is wisdom.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“Tell a scoundrel, three or four times a day, that he is the pink of probity, and you make him at least the perfection of “respectability” in good earnest. On the other hand, accuse an honorable man, too petinaciously, of being a villain, and you fill him with a perverse ambition to show you that you are not altogether in the wrong.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)