Extremely rare original handbill for the 1951 Hadacol Caravan Show, 5.5 x 8.5, with front reading: “Save your Hadacol Box Tops because Senator LeBlanc’s Sensational new Hadacol Caravan Show…is coming.” The Hadacol Caravan Show was a multi-artist traveling show promoting patent medicine Hadacol and featuring headline stars like Hank Williams, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante, Carmen Miranda, Jack Dempsey, Minnie Pearl, Rudy Valley, Caesar Romero, and others. In very good to fine condition, with wrinkling, light toning, and folds. Hadacol was a patent medicine marketed as a vitamin elixir that contained 12% alcohol, a quality that particularly appealed to dry areas of the South where alcohol wasn’t sold. In 1951, Hadacol owner Senator Dudley LeBlanc of Louisiana promoted Hadacol by sending the Hadacol Caravan Show around the country on a 17-car train called the Hadacol Special. The shows featured bicycle giveaways, beauty contests, and clowns selling the boozy vitamin supplement. In August-September 1951, Hank Williams played the final act of the show and brought people to their feet on a nightly basis.
