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Re: "Brandreth's Pills" BBC Radio 4

Messages in this topic: 4 View All
ottermumcaOct 7, 2010
 

 
After some serious jiggery/pokery and cut and paste editing, I have this in my hot little hand (well, okay, my hard drive). Upload to follow as soon as I can.

--- In just-a-minute@..., "ottermumca" <virgomuse@...> wrote:
>
> This is on "Listen Again" for the next 7 days. Unfortunately I don't
> have the hardware to capture this, but it looks quite interesting.
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pdk2q
> <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pdk2q>
>
> "Gyles Brandreth tells the tale of one of the most influential people
> you've never heard of - his great great grandfather, Benjamin. It's a
> story that takes us from Liverpool in the 1830s to New York, with a cast
> of hucksters, quacks, politicians, millionaires, and medics -- not to
> mention the founders of tabloid journalism and mass advertising.
> Benjamin Brandreth set sail from Liverpool in 1835 with nothing. By the
> time of his death in 1887 he was a New York senator, a landowner, the
> owner of one of New York's biggest hotels, and one of the richest men in
> the country. He had invented the giant billboard, financed Gordon
> Bennett's yellow press and developed mass advertising. How? Brandreth's
> vegetable pills! They were a powerful laxative. Brandreth claimed they
> could cure almost anything, he spent a fortune on advertising, and
> people believed him."
>

 
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