This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/29/2022
PAINLESS PARKER (1872-1952). Painless Parker / Dentist. Los Angeles: Western Litho. Co., ca. 1910s. Monochrome lithograph poster. 41 ¼ x 27 7/8”. Four old grommets at top edge; on old linen backing. Numerous creases, chipping, and short tears; old damp-stains with tide lines. A scarce portrait poster of Dr. Painless Parker, the Canadian-born showman-dentist who rose to fame and fortune staging sidewalk dental shows, first on the streets of New York and later in San Francisco. His 50-cent supposedly “painless” tooth extractions were performed on the street with circus-like bombast, the doctor wearing a necklace made of human teeth, beside a wooden pail filled with hundreds more teeth he had personally pulled, accompanied by dancers and a band. Parker even acquired a circus, complete with contortionists, clowns, and a menagerie, to promote his practice. Eventually, after legally changing his name from Edgar to “Painless” to skirt a false-advertising law, Dr. Parker successfully operated an early chain of dental offices spanning several Western states.