The musical saw, also known as the singing saw, emerged from the Appalachian Mountain region during the early 1800s, forever changing American folk music. This unique instrument quickly became a mainstay for traveling minstrels and medicine shows, eventually earning entrée into the vaudeville scene. Today, the saw tradition is largely carried on through street performers [...]
I have stumbled onto a new obsession that I wanted to share with HeyRubeCircus readers, as I’m sure you will soon find yourself wanting to indulge in this delightful find if you haven’t already; GOOD FOR WHAT AILS YOU Music of the Medicine Shows 1926 – 1937 is a CD compilation of 48 classic medicine [...]
The world of variety entertainment is certainly not what it once was, but there’s a select few carrying on this tradition. Theater-16 is one small company dedicated to preserving these arts, and includes a wide variety of acts ranging from Dr. Goodjohn’s Magical Medicine Show to tarot readings. Today, Theater-16 President, Ernie Guderjahn (aka Erikk [...]
By this point, I think we can all comfortably call ourselves more than novice medicine show aficionados. I want to wrap up this mini-series with an overview of medicine show jargon. Now, you’ll really sound like you know what you’re talking about the next time 19th century traveling entertainment comes up at a party. Afterpiece- [...]
Here, I present to you the third and final installment of folkstreams.net‘s outstanding overview on the history of the medicine show: A typical medicine show might last two hours and was made up of eight or 10 selections, including two or three lectures and their accompanying pitches. Most began with a banjo solo or two [...]
As promised, dear reader, here is more fabulous information from folkstreams.net on the history of the medicine show. Medicine show entertainers had to be astonishingly versatile. Shows depended heavily on repeat business during their stay in a community. To get it, they were often forced to change their bills every night for a run of [...]
This week, I would like to direct our focus to the history of the medicine show. The medicine show bears a number of similarities to the traditional sideshow, and indeed the acceptable acts for these two entertainment genres often overlap. Folkstreams.net has a fantastic overview of the medicine show, and I would like to present [...]