Pocahontas Comes to Oakdale

Dr. Borkon extolls the wonders of Pocahontas to the snappy tune of the hurdy-gurdy while one of Oakdale's finest looks on the background to ensure there will be no flim-flam.

Folks of the nineteenth century wanted entertainment as much as any of us in the twenty-first century. Concerts in the park, theater shows and the traveling medicine show provided much gaiety. Oakdale now plays host to Dr. Borkon's show, complete with jokes, stories, trained monkeys and songs accompanied by concert quality music played on a genuine hurdy-gurdy. Of course, if you are feeble, lethargic, asthmatic, bothered by heart palpitations or have aches and pains, you can buy a bottle of Pocahontas Remedies guaranteed to cure or, at least, make you forget your ailments.

Capturing the spectacle is more important to Oakdale's
photographist than sampling the Remedy.

Pocahontas seems to be very popular with the male population of Oakdale.

   Dr. Borkon's wagon was built from a Jordan kit with custom decals and added curtains and stage drapes made from a single ply of facial tissue. The audience is composed of several cast metal figures while the hurdy-gurdy and Dr. Borkon are by Presier. The photographer is from Lindsey, a British company. The bottles and cases are from Presiser.
  Incidentally, the name Pocahontas Remedies is from a brew that Will Rogers sold in his film Steamboat 'Round the Bend made in 1935. The name Dr. Borkon, however, is completely made up and any resemblance to any Kansas City model railroaders, living or dead, is purely coincidental.