One of the earliest forms of entertainment on the frontier was the medicine show. They were touring acts which traveled by wagon and peddled their “miracle cure” patent medicines and other products between various acts of entertainment.
They had developed from the European mountebank shows and were especially common in the United States in the nineteenth century, especially on the western frontier. Some continued until World War II.
These medicine shows usually promoted “miracle elixirs” which were often referred to as “snake oil liniment.” Claims were made that these “miracle elixirs” were able to cure disease and illness as well as smooth wrinkles, and prolong life or cure a wide variety of ailments. Each show had their own “patent medicine” which almost always was unpatented; however, the use of the term “patented” made it sound official and authentic.
The entertainment which was a part of the medicine show often included a freak show, a flea circus, musical acts, magic tricks, jokes, or storytelling. Each show was directed by a man posing as a doctor who created a crowd with a standard speech which he used to gather a large crowd.
While con artists have been around since the classical times, the advent of entertainment and medicine sales in western culture originated during the Dark Ages in Europe. At the time, circuses and theatres were banned and performers had only the marketplace or patrons for support.
“Mountebanks” traveled through towns and small villages, selling their “miracle drugs” by offering open-air street shows and a miraculous cure at the same time. The 1828 edition of the Noah Webster’s American Dictionary defines MOUNTEBANK as: “One who mounts a bench or stage in the market or other public place, boasts of his skill in curing diseases, and vends medicines which he pretends are infallible remedies; a quack. Any boastful or false pretender; a charlatan; a quack.”
Some synonyms for MOUNTEBANK are: fraud, pretender, imposter, fake, charlatan, deceiver, phoney, and faker. Itinerant peddlers of dubious medicines appeared in the American colonies before 1772, when early legislation prohibiting their activities was enacted.
During the nineteenth century, traveling mountebanks gave way to more polished and perfected medicine shows which promoted the burgeoning patent medicine industry. In 1858, at least 1,500 patent medicines were identified which provided enterprising imposters a wide variety of products to sell.
The earliest newspaper record of a medicine show being performed in South Dakota was reported in the June 21, 1887 issue of the Yankton Press and Daily Dakotaian. The city of Yankton had been billed for the appearance of Bozzarro’s Indian Medicine Show which was described as “An entertainment of such an unusual order as to demand the universal condemnation of the dentist fraternity.”
Bozzarro, who was the boss of the show, had with him two athletes and three or four musicians who drew a crowd by their performances. After the crowd had been assembled, Bozzarro drew teeth from spectators without medicine or anything to relieve the pain. He concluded the entertainment by selling pain killing medicine. One has to wonder how Bozzarro escaped Yankton with all his teeth?
The June 22, 1911 edition of The Citizen-Republican which was published in Scotland, South Dakota reported: “Scotland has quite the appearance of a carnival this week. The Lucas Medicine Show with various attractions is running on upper Main Street; the Teeton Wild West Show is running at the west end of Main Street; on Wednesday Gollmar Brothers’ big shows were here, the fire boys are giving drills each evening preparing for the contests at the tournament; a ball game Tuesday afternoon; a dance Wednesday evening after the big show; a school election Tuesday and a bond election today. Truly there are amusements to meet all tastes.”
The front page of The Mobridge News of April 11, 1913 printed a signed article by W. F. Whittecar, Justice for Corson County, in which he voiced his disappointment in the citizens of the county.
“The Medicine Show,” he wrote, “pulled five or six hundred dollars out of the town last week ($15, 862 or $19,034 today). The junk they sold would probably make a cigar sign sick, but their every little movement stunt on the closing night set a part of the audience going. Why is it that people in general have not intelligence enough in our community to know that those patent medicine men are nothing but fakers and only make their living by graft and misrepresentation? People who spend their money with these people and get beat should be made the laughing stock of the community in which they live and are not entitled to any sympathy whatever.”
In 1918 the Nebraska Legislature passed a law which attempted to define useful and nonuseful occupations. Later, the attorney of Loup County wanted to know “if parties going around with wagons, selling medicine, or connected with medicine shows are engaged in a useful occupation.”
The Attorney General replied: “In my opinion, that is clearly a question for the jury in light of all the facts and circumstances surrounding the same.”
Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory Times-Advocate on July 17, 2024