In 1892, a Canadian dentist called Edgar Parker
born Edgar R.R. Parker, 22 March 1872
DUDE WAS ONLY 20 WHEN HE STARTED THIS!?
When the life expectancy is only 40 you gotta get a move on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painless_Parker
He legally changed his first name to “Painless” when he was accused of breaking a false advertisement law by claiming that his dentistry was truly painless.[1][2] When business thrived, he hired assistants and established a chain dentistry business.[2] In the end, Parker ran 28 West Coast dental offices, employing over 70 dentists, and grossing $3 million per year.
That’s also where the concept of a “barbershop quartet” came from. Dentists would have the aforementioned quartet singing loudly outside of their shop to drown out the screaming of patients inside.
One might ask, “why the barber”? Well, they had the sharpest blades in town which made them the defacto surgeon, and before anesthesia, amputations involved at least as much screaming as pulling teeth.
In those days, asking your barber to “take a little off the top” ended in either circumcision or lobotomy.
Either way, hopefully they got a sweet coin as a souvenir.
At least? I would have thought it was the other wag around, sawing off a leg off hurts at least as much as pulling a tooth?
I suppose it depends on how drunk your barber/dentist/surgeon/bartender got you beforehand… and how drunk they got themselves.
