Brass Bands and Snake Oil Stands by Dennis Goodwin

This book will take the reader on a word trip back through the recreational landscape of early America. Along the way, he or she will encounter such colorful characters as Blatz the "Human Fish," "Dinner Pail McNutt," "Big-eared Zip," "Sparrow" (a vaudeville performer who would catch ripe pumpkins with his face) and a fast-talking medicine showman who would "cure" corns right through a country bumpkin's shoes with a secret ingredient - gasoline! From the gleaming gold-and-silver stream of the great circus street parades to the pounding of the tambourines of the raucous minstrel shows, the sights and sounds of our country's early entertainment were filled to the brim with a restless energy. Annie Oakley, the Christy Minstrels, the "Boston Bird Man," "Slick and Sleepy" and all the rest will rise from the dusty pages of history and live again for a few golden moments. The reader will meet some of the greatest men and women of our time who stepped into our view on the platforms and stages