Clark Stanley

Clark Stanley (born in Abilene, Texas, according to himself; the town was founded in 1881) was an American herbalist and quack doctor who marketed a "snake oil" as a patent medicine, styling himself the "Rattlesnake King" until his fraudulent products were exposed in 1916, popularizing the pejorative title of the "snake oil salesman".

Career

Stanley claimed that, starting in 1879, after eleven years working as a cowboy, he studied for more than two years with a Hopi medicine man at Walpi, Arizona. This supposedly included learning the "secrets of snake oil". With the help of a Boston druggist he began marketing his product at Western medicine shows. In 1893 he and his rattlesnakes gained attention at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. He was fined $20 , while the term "snake oil" would go on to become a popular euphemism for ineffective or fraudulent products, particularly those marketed as medicines or cures.