THE STAGE 32 LOGLINES

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DR. BAUM'S AMAZING ELIXIR
By Emilio Corsetti

GENRE: Comedy, Drama
LOGLINE: Patent medicine found locked away in an antique hope chest is thought to be a modern day miracle cure.

SYNOPSIS:

Melissa Desmond and Jackie Bradford purchase an antique hope chest at an estate auction. Inside they discover a GI-Joe doll and twelve bottles of patent medicine from the 1900s. The women take a few of the bottles to an antique store to be sold on consignment. The first bottle sells quickly. The remaining bottles sell even more quickly when they are promoted on the store’s web site. The GI-Joe doll becomes three-year-old Amber’s favorite new toy, much to the dismay of her father, who sees hints of the doll’s masculine influence on his young daughter. The success with the early sales of the medicine bottles convinces Melissa and her husband Michael that they might do even better by selling the bottles themselves on eBay. The bottles are an instant hit. A bidding war ensues. Soon there are signs that the people purchasing the bottles are purchasing them for the curative effects listed on the label and not because of their value as collectibles. Jackie and her husband take the medicine on a dare and discover one of the medicine’s benefits. Amber is given the medicine inadvertently by her father with no ill effects. When a woman claims to have had a tumor shrink after taking the medicine, Melissa decides to have the medicine tested. Could it be that the medicine actually does have some curative powers, or can it all be explained away by the placebo effect? This is the question that Melissa and Michael must answer when they are faced with Melissa’s own diagnosis of breast cancer. This is a story about hope and the power of the mind over the body. It is also a look at our society’s endless search for quick fixes and magic pills. In the end, the viewer is left to decide whether or not Dr. Baum’s Amazing Elixir is a cure all or not. The story of the GI-Joe doll, Amber, and the family’s pet dog, Marcus, is interwoven throughout and has its own surprise ending.

DR. BAUM'S AMAZING ELIXIR

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