December 7: GENUINE SNAKE OIL. Tim Madigan will give a brief history of the phenomenon of “Snake Oil Salesmen,” peddlers of patent medicine in the 19th and early 20th century who combined showmanship, homemade medicine and old-fashioned larceny, and existed on the fringes of the medical community. Madigan is himself the descendent of “Snake Oil Johnny McMahon,” his maternal great-grandfather, who peddled his wares in the Black Rock area in the early 20th Century – and, as a professor of philosophy himself, some say Madigan is continuing in the family tradition.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 02:07:10 +0000
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