Tremendo,
adj., Italian: used, with hyperbolic value, in
order to express one quality to the maximum degree
possible: frightful, most intense, unbearable, appalling.
That's pretty much us.
Okay, I'll bite. Who's "Doctor Emile?"
In the vast expanse of American mythology, certain
men have taken on Olympian proportions. We think of
Paul Bunyan... Davy Crockett... John Henry... Gene Shalit...
Doctor Emile... What? You've never heard of Doctor Emile?
Long about the turn of the previous century, a young
Doctor Emile dreamed of traveling the country with a
medicine show, peddling dubious cure-alls and getting
out of town in the small space of time after collecting
his money and before the townfolk boiled up some tar
and emptied their pillows.
Having no small amount of showmanship in his blood (his
mother was a pianola girl for Andrew Jackson, his father
a character actor in the Yiddish theater), our hero
bought a wagon, attached "Doctor" to his name,
filled up five hundred bottles with his mother's best
oxtail broth, and set out on the road.
He heard people call him a charlatan and a snake-oil
salesman, but unlike his contemporarites, he never denied
the charges. He knew that no matter how restorative
his mother's broth was, it was no replacement for the
simple joy that came from being humbugged. He knew that
the curative part of a Medicine Show wasn't the Medicine
but the Show.
And that's why you've heard of Doctor Pepper, Doctor
Brown, the Smith Brothers and Colonel Sanders, but never
Doctor Emile. Their products could be held in the hand,
eaten, drunk. But Doctor Emile's product was evanescent,
not effervescent... and the best snake oils, the ones
that really work, aren't the ones you drink.
It is to the spirit of Dr. Emile — that irrepressible,
innovative impresario
— that we dedicate this company.
Where's that animation that used to open
the site?
Animation and Love Theme from It Came from Beneath the Kilt!!! by
DC Scarpelli
IN THE MEANTIME... Support Tremendo by purchasing quality Where
the Sun Don't Shine and Theatre Tremendo merchandise!
Hurry, hurry, hurry, kiddies! Step right up and grab your
merch while it's HOT! HOT! HOT! Visit
our online store now!
