Professor Farquar and Polecat Annie put on a traveling medicine show to start the second night of the Pickering Horse Show, and a draft horse pull followed Friday night. The show came complete with an Elixir of Life, a bottle of medicine that was perfect for prickly heat to stinking feet and was perfect for nagging wives. And in a concession to the politically powerful temperance movement, it was guaranteed to be 50% alcohol free.
The modern TV commercial found its roots in medicine shows, as well as some common products. For instance, Dr. Pepper was claimed to be a blood tonic, while Coke, with its secret formula that can only be opened by its board of directors by vote, was touted as a cure for colds.
The good professor pulled out a silk handkerchief, imported directly from China and made by a genuine caterpillar there, out of one volunteer’s shirt sleeves; while there was a “yellow scare” back in those days against Chinese immigrants, there was a fascination with things imported from China as well.
There were two pieces of papyrus, supposedly 3,000 years old, from the courts of Ancient Egypt (it was an ordinary roll of toilet paper). Professor Farquar tore his piece up into four pieces, chewed it up, and spit it out into several colors.
Another trick was imported from Germany in 1780. By 1830, it had made its way to American medicine shows; it involved looking constantly at a spinning gyroscope. When it stopped spinning, it looked like Professor Farquar’s head was growing several inches. The person who invented the trick was known as Dr. Mesmer, and he called it “Animal Magnetism,” which he touted as a scientific discovery.
Another one involved Farquar knifing himself in the arm and not getting hurt. He played catch with an invisible ball with some members of the audience, then pulled it out of his bag. Then, he made a bottle disappear.
Professor Farquar and Polecat Annie played a mixture of American Folk songs, cowboy ballads, and bluegrass music, including the Ballad of Jesse James, wrote in his memory after he was shot by Robert Ford in 1882. They both demonstrated some rope tricks as well.
“I don’t play electric,” said Farquar. “My grandfather invented a gas guitar, which worked perfectly until the time it asphyxiated 12 people,” he quipped.
Farquar and Polecat Annie have been married for the last 29 years; he tried to claim it was 47 until Annie shushed him and told him he was being too much like a politician. He said the way to stay married that long was to marry your best friend. “We’ve known each other well before we were married,” he said. He said they never fought, and said he didn’t like a lot of country, saying it was too much about “imbibing and co-dependent dysfunctional relationships.”
By contrast, one of Farquar’s favorite songs was “Tennessee Stud,” about a man and his horse who leave Tennessee to find adventure. The horse is one of the fastest horses around, and they have many adventures together, traveling as far south as Mexico. In one adventure, the hero shot and killed a man over a bet gone wrong. But then the man realized he had a woman he loved, and the Tennessee Stud had a mare. He returns to Arkansas and then Tennessee, where he meets his girl and and the stud meets his mare. The story ends with them having kids and the horses having a young foal.
Farquar started off performing in nightclubs, until he met Annie at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. Annie had a background in vaudeville and magic and had been performing all her life; there was perfect chemistry between the two, and they have traveled and performed ever since. They generally perform in the Midwest, but they have gone as far as Arizona, the northern tip of Minnesota, and Ohio. Their biggest crowd was at Mount Pleasant (IA), in front of 500 people at the threshing show there. “Anytime we can find old shows to perform at, it’s good,” said Annie. They have performed at the Missouri State Fair for 18 years, and they have one daughter and two grandkids.
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