Buffalo Bill on Stage

Introduction

• 1 • Introduction •••• It may be said that if Buffalo Bill had never existed it would have been necessary to invent him. —Unknown Frenchman, quoted in brochure on display at the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, Golden, Colorado In an early scene in This Is the West That Was, Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok clamber onto a wagon driven by Calamity Jane. Cody has been out for months killing buffalo to supply the army with meat, but Hickok expresses surprise when Cody describes what he was doing as hunting buffalo. In reality, given the enormous herds roaming the plains, a man could stand in one spot and shoot them from dawn until dusk. Some called this sport, others butchery. As the wagon lumbers into town, Cody bristles at the insinuation he is a buffalo butcher. “Hey! Listen, friend, it takes a heap o’ skill and craw to pick off them brutes.”1 Cody did indeed possess “skill and craw.” Into his seventy-one years on life’s stage, William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody crowded several lifetimes’ worth of careers and adventures. Besides a buffalo hunter, he was a U.S. Army scout, Indian fighter, rancher, businessman, and world-renowned entertainer. A gentleman whose word was his bond, he used his wealth to help out friends, taking care of his sisters’ families as well as his own and letting orphans into his shows for free. “He was totally unable to resist any claim for assistance . . . or refuse any mortal in distress. His philosophy was introduction 2 • that of the plains, . . . more nearly Christian . . . than we are used to finding in the sharp business world.”2 In his later years, he became a conservationist , speaking out against the senseless slaughter of buffalo, as well as an advocate for American Indians and a supporter of women’s suffrage. His early plains years can be conjectured; they weren’t much different from any other youngster’s. Cody recalled he was “quite as bad, though no worse, than the ordinary every-day boy who goes barefoot, wears a brimless hat, one suspender and a mischievous smile.”3 Before he became a public figure and what one theatre manager called “the best drawing card on the American stage,” he had already acquired a reputation as an exceptional frontiersman and hunter.4 His years spent scouting for the army resulted in familiarity with officers whose accounts of Indian campaigns fill history books. Recognizing his charisma and gregarious nature, Lieutenant General Philip Sheridan asked Cody to lead Russia’s Grand Duke Alexis on a lavish hunting expedition in January 1872. Under Cody’s direction, the duke enjoyed a demonstration of how Indians hunt buffalo, a hellish ride in an open carriage, and a personal shooting lesson from Cody himself , leading his biographer to conclude that the occasion was, essentially, Cody’s first Wild West show.5 The widely publicized event brought him a degree of national fame. Completion of the transcontinental railroad opened the West to immigrants , travelers, and sportsmen. After one hunt led by Cody, a “nobby and high-toned outfit” of eastern dignitaries including several generals and newspaper editors returned home raving about the skill and engaging personality of their guide.6 All concurred Cody was a “mild, agreeable, well-mannered man, quiet and retiring in his disposition, though well informed and always readytotalkwellandearnestlyuponanysubjectofinterest,andinallrespects, the reverse of the person we had expected to meet.”7 Already demonstrating instincts for theatrics, Cody was eager and willing to be the center of attention . He impressed the men with his flair for costume, his forte for spreading tall tales, and his ability to organize and lead such a large contingent. From 1883 when he started his Wild West show until his death in 1917, Cody personified the showman extraordinaire. People worldwide acclaimed his name as a star performer. He was known not only to common people from New York to San Francisco, who may have scrimped on groceries to afford seats in his arena, but also to European royalty who could command a personal performance. But what of the period between his early plains years and the start of introduction • 3 his Wild West show? From 1872 until 1886 Cody led a troupe of traveling actors, familiarly known as a “combination,” around the country playing in frontier melodramas. The plays were mediocre at best, often causing theatre critics to shake their heads in wonder at...