[.ca] Snake Oil, Hustlers and Hambones: The American Medicine Show (ISBN 0786422289)

SNAKE OIL...GOOD FOR WHAT AILS YA:
August 6, 2000 Book Review - SNAKE OIL...GOOD FOR WHAT AILS YA! Ann Anderson SNAKE OIL, HUSTLERS AND HAMBONES The American Medicine Show McFarland & Company,Inc., Publishers As an avid reader with very eclectic tastes, I found Ann Anderson's SNAKE OIL, HUSTLERS AND HAMBONES to be highly satisfying to my literary pallet. I am an actor who has made a living over the years doing T.V. commercials. It has long been of interest to me to know just how this crazy way of marketing came to be. However, any person that has ever watched a T.V. commercial, an info-mercial or read an advertisement in a magazine or newspaper, and wondered why ads are everywhere, will get a kick out of this book. This wonderful, funny, deliciously informative book is simply chock full of "Oh, I didn't know that!" and "So that's how that got started!" moments. She has also thought to delight our eye by including many authentic labels, illustrations and flyers from the periods she discusses. She has managed to be fastidiously scholarly in her research with out being at all dry or dull. Ms. Anderson's writing style is so accessible and real, it makes one feel you're having a cup of coffee and sitting down for a long lively chat with a very interesting friend. It's full of factual information both serious and humorous. It runs the gamut of historically profound and fancifully trivial information. She provides for us the "missing link", as it were, of how we got from there to here. SNAKE OIL, HUSTLERS AND HAMBONES is a darned good read. I'm looking forward to her next book.

Read it!:
A thoroughly entertaining and informative book with a subject matter I never thought would interest me. Having an advertising background, I was intrigued and facinated by the history of the medicine show and the impact it has had on our culture from a media standpoint. Well written, incredibly reasearched, and fun to read. Read it!

Hucksters, and Hambones:
Ann Anderson has done her homework. Finding information about early medicine shows is about as easy as finding a fossilized T-Rex's tooth. Anderson has done a superb job with this work and I recommend it very highly to anyone interested in the "beginning entertainment" of the United States. Arkansas Red-Ozark Troubadour Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Got this Hambone!:
I enjoyed this well-written, informative book. The author placed medicine shows in the context of American society and culture. Who knew that medicine, advertising and show business were so intertwined? A fascinating, fun read. I highly recommend this lively book. Ms. Anderson has a wonderful way of relating a subject that did not, at first, sound like one that could hold me for a whole book. It left me wanting to know even more. A terrific and entertainingly researched tome!

Buy this book!:
This terrific book is as fun as it is informative. Anderson's exhaustive research is evident on every page, and her writing style is perfect: spare enough to let the color of the topic shine through, but never dry. As she relates the history of the medicine show, she shows how modern medicine, advertising and entertainment evolved together; her skill at illuminating these linkages gives the book even more weight and depth. It's an outstanding work of scholarship...and a damned good read!