This picture shows the Kendrick medicine show wagons as they appeared around 1928.  The sign reads: "Free Show, E.C. Gassaway Med. Co., Ft. Worth, Tex."

Notice the bass drum in the second vehicle from the left, also the two or three rows of bench seating in front.  Sanford Kendrick, upon seeing the original posting of this page, sent me a message in which he states:

Was glad to see the picture of our show rigs.  The one with the bass drum was our stage built on a trailer.  We were raised in show business and worked on the stage as soon as we were old enough.  That's how we made it through the depression.  The little boy sitting on the fender of the Model A Ford is my younger brother, Clifford.

A similar shot, taken in 1933 or '34, gives a better idea of what the medicine show bandstand looked like.

In an interview with Duncan McLean, Cliff Kendrick recalled:

And this is where it all started; my old man's medicine show.  Him and my mother toured all over west central Texas selling wonder cures.  Mostly vegetable oil, plus a little bit of whiskey; that's where the wonder came from.

Go back to the Bob Skyles page.