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Four White Horses and a Brass Band : True Confessions from the World of Medicine Shows, Pitchmen, Chumps, Suckers, Fixers, and Shills.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- McNeal, Violet.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Medicine shows.
- Women--Social conditions.
- Women.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (272 p.) ill
- Edition:
- 1st ed.
- Place of Publication:
- La Vergne : Feral House, 2019.
- Summary:
- Violet McNeal ran away from her family's rural Minnesota farm in the late 1880s and fell under the spell of conman and patent medicine 'doctor' Will Archimbauld, who hooked her on opium and promises of fame and fortune. Violet soon learned to become Princess Lotus Blossom, and was the best pitchman, nostrum seller, and conwoman to roam the west in a torch-lit wagon. Four White Horses and A Brass Band is her story of life on the road with the medicine show, and reveals the secrets of the conman's trade.
- Contents:
- Cover
- Copyright
- Title Page
- Contents
- 1. Making Medicine
- 2. Only Suckers Work
- 3. Perfume Beans and Pickpockets
- 4. Tapeworms and Tiger Fat
- 5. A Fifty-Cent Flop and a One-Dollar Toy
- 6. Princess Lotus Blossom
- 7. The Yokohama Medical Institute
- Photo Section
- 8. “For Men Only”
- 9. The Tattooed Dragon
- 10. “…The First Man that Comes Into the Office…”
- 11. The Dago was a Jealous Man
- 12. Cocaine Bugs
- 13. Rejuvenation
- Appendices
- I: Pitches, Spiels, and Ballyhoos
- II: Talk Like a Pitchman Generated by AI.
- Notes:
- Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.
- Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.
- ISBN:
- 9781627310932
- 1627310932
- OCLC:
- 1511103336
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