Recording
Review
Good for What Ails
You: Music of the Medicine Shows, 1926–1937. Compilation produced
by Marshall Wyatt. 48 selections on two discs. Various artists. liner
notes by Marshall Wyatt and Bengt Olsson. 2005. Old Hat CD-1005.
Technologies change, but sales techniques remain the same. From the medieval
mountebanks, who climbed on benches to pitch their often dubious wares,
to the multinational corporations advertising today on television and
the internet, hucksters have always used free entertainment as a come-on
to draw the rubes. Once an audience has been gathered and put in a good
mood by the entertainers, the pitch is made and if enough people fall
for it, there will be more entertainment provided in the future.
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