medicine shows
Itinerant cure peddlers
Medicine shows were traveling entertainments in 19th and early 20th century America that used music, comedy, and spectacle to draw crowds—then pitched patent medicines and cure-alls between acts.
The shows were notorious for selling worthless or dangerous remedies with extravagant claims.
The term now evokes any flashy presentation disguising fraudulent goods: His sales pitch was pure medicine show.
- barkersAggressive sidewalk promoters
- pitchmanPersuasive product demonstrator
- quacksPhony doctors or duck calls
- snake oil salesmanFraudulent remedy peddler
- fairsPublic exhibitions and carnivals
peddlers · nostrum · circuses · brass band · crowd · spiel · tall tales · tonics · stage · snake oil · charlatanism · miracle cures · ballyhoo · hustle and bustle · bottle · elixirs · Kickapoo · Wild West
- American folklorePaul Bunyan, tall tales, folk heroes, John Henry, folk narratives
- 1800s AmericaOregon Trail, Trail of Tears, transcontinental railroad, Civil War, Abraham Lincoln
- carnivalparade, costume, float, ferris wheel, roller coaster
- old-time entertainmentcircus, theater, opera, ballet, vaudeville
- curiositiesoddities, curiosities, rarities, wonders, anomalies
- pharmacy historyapothecary, druggist, pharmacopoeia, compounding, apothecaries
medicine showsevidence-based medicine
Clinical care guided by research
clinical trials · medical science · medical ethics · informed consent · patient-centered care
medicine showshospital
Medical treatment facility
teaching hospitals · medical schools · medical clinic · doctor's office · teaching hospital
medicine, show, medicines, shows, medical, medic, medicate, medication, medicinal