Step Right Up

A loose, cheerful survey of that uniquely American phenomenon, the medicine show, with such attendant wonders as Indian acts, acrobatics, and slapstick comedy routines. Circus, lecture tour, variety act, traveling medical practice and pharmacy in one, the medicine show in the 19th century formed one of the infrequent, cherished links between the big bad world and small-town America. The central focus was of course the combined medical harangue and sales pitch, accompanied by on-the.spot diagnosis and cure with Wizard Oil or Kickapoo Indian Sagwa. A few shows were accredited representatives of commercial firms; most sold standard remedies under their own name. The Indian shows, which flourished in the 1880's and '90's, featured troupes of real Indians, grunting supposed testimony to the power of the secret Indian herb remedies which the white men were for the first time EVER privileged to divulge. In one form or another the medicine shows prospered into the 1930's, when the electronic competition started to usurp (and sharpen the wits of) their hick audience; a few survivors remained, astonishingly, through the 1950's. McNamara's emphasis is on engaging detail (much of it from the memoirs of the performers) rather than systematic chronology or cultural history (though the standardized comedy bits get a good deal of attention as a spontaneous popular art form); he refrains from underlining such obvious and melancholy points as the close kinship of the medicine show to the TV drug commercial. There's a certain amount of repetition (inevitable in this low-keyed casual approach), but McNamara projects an amiable relish for the sheer enterprising rascality of it all. (Kirkus Reviews)