From about 1870 until World War I, the medicine show was a major form of American popular entertainment, rivaling the traveling circus in popularity. The antecedents of the medicine show date back to the performances of European mountebanks—quack doctors who worked from small temporary stages. The harangues of these quacks were accompanied by performances from popular entertainers. Musicians, circus acts, jugglers, conjurers, and comedy-players became allies of these pitchmen.

By the early 1700s acrobats and street performers were all over the colonies. Quacks and peddlers, working alone or with a few assistants, soon allied themselves with these performers. Selling from the back of a wagon (the high pitch) or from a tripod set up on a street (the low pitch), the medicine men gathered a crowd, entertained it, and peddled fake panaceas that caused little or no harm. Their remedies and potions were generally harmless concoctions...