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:
“Authority, though it err like others,
Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,
That skins the vice o’ the top.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Let this be one invariable rule of your conduct—never to show the least symptom of resentment, which you cannot, to a certain degree, gratify; but always to smile, where you cannot strike.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)