ONLY A DOLLAR FOR THE CURE!
By Norris
Chambers
In
the twenties and thirties there was free entertainment in rural areas
and around the outskirts of towns. This free entertainment was free only
if you didn’t fall for the impressive talk of the show master.
It was his job to convince you that you would have a very hard
time living without whatever he was selling.
They called these little traveling shows Medicine Shows. This was
because the product being peddled was some sort of medicine or salve
that would be very good for you. There was one called “ooze oil”
because when you rubbed it on the sprain or arthritis joint the pain
“oozed” out. There was another called “Wizard Oil” because when
you rubbed it on the pain was gone like magic. One entertainer called
his “go-go grease” because the pain had to go when it was applied.
The shows came in several sizes and qualities. Some were in very
large tents with seats for the audience. Sometimes these entrepreneurs
also presented a free movie. The movie was stopped at frequent intervals
and the medicine was vividly described while salesmen passed through the
crowd with shoulder bags loaded with the good stuff! Sometimes the break
offered boxes of candy for a very nominal fee. At times the candy was
supposed to be good for you and at other times it was just described as
delicious. Those who came with some money were almost certain to part
with some of it before the night’s entertainment was finished.
There were also those smaller ones that had little more than a
truck and a camper trailer. The truck bed served as the stage and the
entertainment consisted mostly of two or three musicians playing between
sales pitches. Sometimes there was a magician who performed all kinds of
mystifying tricks. Occasionally there was a “strong man” who
demonstrated his strength by bending horse shoes, supporting several men
on his back or lifting the truck with several people on the stage.
Usually there was an offer to wrestle anyone willing to try their luck.
I never did see any takers on this offer.
One show came through our little town and one of the young
performers started courting a local girl. They married and as far as I
know they lived happily ever after!
Clifton
lived closer to town than I did and he was usually the first to know
about a new medicine show. On one occasion he was given the job of
delivering flyers, or hand bills, to all the residents in the community.
His pay was to be $2.00 for going to every house within five or
six miles of town. This was big money in those days and he recruited me
to help. We rode horses and worked two days getting the word to the
whole community. We must have done a good job because there was a nice
crowd every night the show was there.
A few years later
Clifton
and I and Elbert Hall talked about starting a medicine show. We were
selling peanut butter and advertising over a radio station with our own
band at the time and we wondered if we could sell that “extra
better than any other” peanut butter that way. It was
something that we had never seen done. All the medicine shows that we
had seen sold medicine of some sort. Would the audience that came for a
free show be willing to buy a jar of peanut butter? Unfortunately that
is a question that was never answered. About that time jobs opened up
for the preparedness program preceding WWII and our band dissolved. The
new jobs paid more than we were making peddling peanut butter. The era
of the medicine show also vanished about this time. I have not seen one
since the thirties.
Were the medicine shows fun? They were all fun for the spectators
and judging from the appearance of the performers I would say that it
was fun from their standpoint also. So it had to be fun!
No doubt the one that bought the medicine had fun till the
medicine was gone!
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