There are lots of different cultures in this country, and they tend to show up in the forms we build. The showman represents one kind. He makes carnivals. Carnivals are usually short term events, meant to distract, often with the vulgar and are with us for some good and obvious reasons, we enjoy the vulgar and we need to be distracted. We know its crap and we want it.
It's no longer as prevalent as it used to be. Traveling events like this are just too expensive. Maybe more importantly, it's not as bizarre as some of the other distractions we are now capable of creating. Those slippery people still exist and there maybe even more of them because the carnival now is everywhere; through the Internet, at the movies, and especially, on the news.
One of the first showman of this kind to appear on TV was Liberace. He was a showman posing as a pianist. Here was an affected Louise the 14th style sycophantic male surrounded by faux-gold, bangles and badly played music, representing high culture. It was a parody that most people did not 'get', like they didn't 'get' Wally Cox or Mr. Peepers. Luckily, he played Chopin so badly that there was never a poisonous connection established between the two. Memories of Liberace never come to the surface when I hear Chopin today.
Liberace was a cheesy phenomena and a joke at the same time. It's happened before and it is happening again. Now, without the humor.