Hamlin's Wizard Oil Explained

Hamlin's Wizard Oil was an American patent medicine sold as a cure-all under the slogan "There is no Sore it will Not Heal, No Pain it will not Subdue."

History

First produced in 1861 in Chicago[1] by former magician John Austin Hamlin and his brother Lysander Butler Hamlin, it was primarily sold and used as a liniment for rheumatic pain and sore muscles, but was advertised as a treatment for pneumonia, cancer, diphtheria, earache, toothache, headache, and hydrophobia.[1] It was made of 50–70% alcohol containing camphor, ammonia, chloroform, sassafras, cloves, and turpentine, and was said to be usable both internally and topically.[2]

Traveling performance troupes advertised the product in medicine shows across the Midwest,[3] [4] with runs as long as six weeks in a town. They used horse-drawn wagons and dressed in silk top hats, frock coats, pinstriped trousers, and patent leather shoes—with spats.[5] They distributed song books at the shows and in pharmacies.[6] [7] Performers included James Whitcomb Riley, singer and composer Paul Dresser from Indiana,[8] and southern gospel music progenitor Charles Davis Tillman.

At these gatherings John Austin Hamlin delivered lectures replete with humor borrowed from the writings of Robert Jones Burdette.[9]

Grinnell College research points out that the Hamlins claimed efficacy for Wizard Oil on not only human beings but also horses and cattle, one poster displaying an elephant drinking the product by lifting the bottle with its trunk. Bottles came in 35¢ and 75¢ sizes.[10] Carl Sandburg inserted two versions of lyrics titled "Wizard Oil" together with a tune into his American Songbag (1927).[11]

John Austin Hamlin would use the profits of Hamlin's Wizard Oil to found and manage Chicago's Grand Opera House. [12]

In 1916, Lysander's son Lawrence B. Hamlin of Elgin, by then manager of the firm, was fined $200 under the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act for advertising that Hamlin's Wizard Oil could "check the growth and permanently kill cancer."[1]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Chapter 7: Good Old Days. Alft. E. C.. Elgin: Days Gone By. Elgin History. 2009-09-25. 2019-04-29. https://web.archive.org/web/20190429103938/http://www.elginhistory.com/dgb/ch07.htm. dead.
  2. Web site: Patent Medicines. Long. Jim. February–March 1993. Herb Companion. 2009-09-25.
  3. Book: Anderson, Ann. Snake oil, hustlers and hambones: the American medicine show. McFarland & Company. 2000. 112. 0-7864-0800-6.
  4. Book: McNamara, Brooks. Brooks McNamara

    . Brooks McNamara. Step right up. University Press of Mississippi. 1995. 249. 0-87805-831-1.

  5. Web site: Chapter 12: Medicine Show. Young. James Harvey. 1961. . Princeton University Press. 2009-09-25.
  6. Book: Strasser, Susan. Public culture: diversity, democracy, and community in the United States. Marguerite S. Shaffer. University of Pennsylvania Press. 2008. 376. Sponsorship and Snake Oil: Medicine Shows and Contemporary Public Culture. 978-0-8122-4081-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=k8G7gftI87cC&pg=PA95.
  7. Book: Humorous and sentimental songs as sung throughout the United States by Hamlin's Wizard Oil Concert Troupes in their open air advertising concerts. Hamlin's Wizard Oil Co.. CIHM/ICMH Microfiche series, no. 50670.. 33. 0-665-50670-8. 855363136.
  8. Web site: Henderson. Clayton W. Paul Dresser. Indiana Historical Society. 2012-10-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20120921030745/http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/library-and-archives/notable-hoosiers/paul-dresser. 2012-09-21. dead.
  9. Book: Carson , Gerald . One for a man, two for a horse: A pictorial history, grave and comic, of patent medicines. Garden City, New York. Doubleday. 1961. 37.
  10. http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/sst/f01/sst395-01/PublicPages/PerfectDrugs/Kendra/USMedicineShows/HamlinWizardOil/index.html Grinnell College site "Perfect Drugs" on "Hamlin's Wizard Oil Company"
  11. Carl Sandburg, The American Songbag (San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1927), pp. 52-54. Sandburg indicated that his selections were arranged by Henry Francis Parks on the basis of recollections by Harry E. Randall as communicated to Neeta Marquis. The likelihood is that Sandburg added some of his own influence.
  12. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30929061/john_austin_hamlin_obit/ "Grand Opera House Founder is Dead," Chicago Tribune, May 21, 1908

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