"Painless Parker" And The Visiting Medicine Shows
John Denton
In the early teens of the century, there were some so-called "Medicine Shows" that traveled around the countryside to demonstrate and advertise their products or services. Among these were the famous "Painless Parker" and one that came to Canarsie alongside our house and set up a tent for the actors who performed on a large stage right out in the open every evening and drew a crowd of three or four hundred people every night during a couple of weeks of the summer. It was sponsored by the dental firm of Healy & Bigelow from Fulton Street, which was well known at the time. For a couple of nights each week, Dr. Healy would extract a tooth from anyone in the audience who wanted a tooth out free-of-charge, as long as the "patient" came up on the stage where they had all the necessary equipment to show how painless he could do it.
There were three show people who traveled with this attraction: George MacGregor, a comedian; Dick Demarest, a magician; and Frank Colligan as MC, who also acted in the different sketches which they put on each night to entertain the crowds. After about three weeks they moved to an empty lot alongside a house on Conklin Avenue and the railroad right of way to show the people at the other end of Canarsie.
 | | Gangler's was a legitimate circus on East 88th Street, but was visited by many "Medicine Men. Canarsie Historical Soc. |
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After a couple of weeks there, they left Canarsie and went to the Ridgewood section alongside the Dekalb Avenue trolley car barns and then they went from there to Aqueduct near the horse racing track. I went a couple of times a week after coming out of school to stay with them until after their show in the evening and then, after the Aqueduct performances, I lost track of where they went.
I was very friendly with all of them and, after a couple of months, Frank Colligan moved to Can-arsie, living for a while on Avenue K and East 94th Street, then on Rockaway Parkway across from the firehouse.
He had children who grew up here and were known to all the old timers.
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