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Snake Oil, Hustlers and Hambones
Long before television and radio commercials beckoned to potential buyers, the medicine show provided free entertainment and promised cures for everything from corns to cancer. Combining elements of the circus, theater, vaudeville, and good old-fashioned entrepreneurship, the showmen of the American medicine show sold tonics, ointments, pills, extracts and a host of other "wonder-cures," guaranteed to "cure what ails you." While the cures were seldom miraculous, the medicine show was an important part of American culture and of performance history. Harry Houdini, Buster Keaton, and P.T. Barnum all took a turn upon the medicine show stage. This study of the medicine show phenomenon surveys nineteenth century popular entertainment and provides insight into the ways in which show business, advertising, and medicine manufacture developed in concert. The colorful world of the medicine show, with its Wild West shows, pie-eating contests, clowns, and menageries, is fully explored. Photographs of performers and of the fascinating handbills and posters used to promote the medicine show are included.
Olympians of the Sawdust Circle
The culmination of more than thirty years of research, Olympians of the Sawdust Circle is an attempt to identify every major and minor player in the American circus world of the nineteenth century. This A-Z guide lists: surname, given name, dates of birth and death (if known), type of entertainment (and function) with which the individual was associated, and the companies and dates by whom the person was employed. Every researcher and library interested in American circus history will need this seminal guide. An absolutely astonishing piece of scholarship.
Amphitheatres and Circuses
Originally serialized in the New York Clipper, T. Allston Brown's history of circus and arena performances remains a foundation stone of all subsequent research into this field. Theatre and circus historian William L. Slout provides an introduction framing Brown's narrative, plus a comprehensive index, and contemporaneous illustrations.
Ink from a Circus Press Agent
One of the most colorful breed of men in 19th-century circusdom was the press agent, whose duty was to act as "an umpire between the show and the newspapers," and promote his company's greatness in order to generate public interest in advance of the performances. Charles H. Day, one of the leading "puffers" of his time, was particularly active between 1872-87, but unlike many of his colleagues, was also published widely in the entertainment newspapers and magazines. William L. Slout has collected together the best of Day's colorful and evocative essays of 19th-century circus life, and has also added a helpful Circus Personnel Reference Roster, notes, and detailed index.
Popular Amusements in Horse and Buggy America
Well-known theatre and circus historian William L. Slout here collects together 29 first-hand accounts of 19th- and early 20th-century popular amusements, including summer resorts, watering places, agricultural fairs, World's Fairs, the circus, vaudeville, theatre, and amusement parks. Complete with index, introduction, and contemporaneous illustrations.
For Want of Wings
In 1872, a young graduate of Yale University named Thomas Russell unearthed the bones of an 83,000,000-year-old dinosaur in western Kansas. The rare fossil, an avian dinosaur with teeth and flightless wings, proved that birds evolved from reptiles. More than a century later, Russell’s great-granddaughter set out to retrace her ancestor’s forgotten expedition. Part detective history, part memoir, For Want of Wings is Jill Hunting’s captivating account of her journey into prehistory, national history, and family history. In her quest to piece together fragments of her family’s past, Hunting ends up crisscrossing the United States, from California to Connecticut. On her first trip acros...
Fun and Fancy in Old New York
This is a second collection of 20 essays serialized in the "New York Clipper" between 1868-69 under the title, "Reminiscences of a Man About Town," with three additional pieces included that are also believed to have been penned by well-known man-about-town Tom Picton (1822-91). The "Clipper" was a major sporting and theatrical weekly issued between 1853-1924. Picton's memories of the clubs and theatres popular in New York City between roughly 1835-50 form the basis of these highly entertaining and historically informative reflections. Complete with illustrations, notes, and comprehensive index. Professor Emeritus William L. Slout is the premier circus historian of his time, having edited or written several dozen books on theatre and circus life, in addition to such noteworthy plays as "The Trial of Dr. Jekyll." He lives and works in Southern California.
The History of the Haverstock Tent Show
Although rural America supported more than seven hundred tent repertoire groups during the first half of the twentieth century, little is known about the many players and companies that strolled the land to bring live entertainment to small towns. Thus, Robert Lee Wyatt's chronicle of a pioneer dramatic tent repertoire company is more than just a fascinating story; itis also a particularly significant piece of American theater history. Founded in Roosevelt, Oklahoma, in 1911 by Harvey (Haver) and Carlotta (Lotta) Haverstock, the Haverstock Tent Show proved to be one of the most enduring of these tent theater companies--and of family enterprises. Rolland Haverstock, the founders' son, played ...
Old Gotham Theatricals
These recollections of New York theatre life from the 1830s-1850s are selected from "Reminiscences of a Man About Town," a series of articles by Col. Tom Picton published in the New York Clipper between 1868-69. The impressions of the time are made vividly real from the actual experiences of the writer, who often mingled with the performers and directors. Complete with notes, index, and contemporaneous illustrations.
Broadway Below the Sidewalk
The Broadway of the 1860s in New York City began at Bowling Green at the southern tip of Manhattan, and extended all the way to Tarrytown. During this period concert saloons entertained a sizeable portion of the Broadway night life. Variety entertainments were performed in converted theatres amid a barroom atmosphere, where patrons were attended by "pretty waiter girls." Taken from the pages of the New York Clipper, these contemporaneous pieces describe a world of entertainment long forgotten. Complete with index and notes.
