Willard the Wizard of Wanless’s World of Wonders tells “his great joke.” It concerns the naming of his carnival assistant:
Robertson Davies, World of Wonders (1975).
Wikipedia has the poop on Fletcher’s Castoria, now known as Fletcher’s Laxative. The old name can still be seen in fading advertisements: for instance, and for instance. And in full-page advertisements in Life:
[Life, March 25, 1940. Click for a much larger view.]
Related reading
All OCA Robertson Davies posts (Pinboard)
Thursday, March 26, 2020
“Pretty smart”
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comments: 4
When I was a very young child I use to conflate Fletcher's Castoria with the Waldorf Astoria.
That’s wonderful!
I blame the 40's edition of Dr. Spock, who was waaay too fixated on babies' and children's bowel function. So weird, not to mention unnecessary. Our mother favored milk of magnesia (gag) and enemas...both unpleasant.
Yikes. That makes me want to try to find our copy of Dr. Spock. I can’t remember any of this stuff in raising our kids.
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