Buffalo Bill on Stage

3: Wild Times with Wild Bill

• 43 • • C h a p t e r t h r e e • WildTimeswithWildBill •••• By heavens, you are safe with Wild Bill, who is ever ready to risk his life and die, if need be. —John Burke, The Noblest Whiteskin Following the first season’s triumphs, newfound fame, and break from Buntline, Cody and Texas Jack planned their next season. Cody returned to New York City to a warm welcome from William B. Freligh, manager of the Bowery Theatre. Commencing August 28, he would play the lead in Buffalo Bill, King of the Border Men, the play he attended only eighteen months previously when he had stood tongue-tied on the same stage with no thought of ever becoming an actor. Now, he was once again about to meld his real self with his theatrical persona. The drama, reconstructed and embellished with “Novel effects, Startling Tableaux, Thrilling Realistic Situations and a powerful cast,” opens at the Cody family cabin, where villain Jake McKanlass murdered Buffalo Bill’s father.1 Twenty years later, Buffalo Bill has grown up and is seeking vengeance. In act 1, Cody wounds Jake, who next kidnaps Bill’s sister Lettie. During a pursuit, Buffalo Bill tires and crawls into a hollow log to sleep. Unfortunately, during a powwow, Indians throw the log into chapter three 44 • their campfire. By tossing some gunpowder around, Buffalo Bill escapes and watches the explosion scatter the Indians. “A lot of music and a minimal plot encumber the last act,” which concludes with a knife fight between the protagonists and results in Lettie’s rescue.2 “As Mr. Cody acted his own character, criticism is out of the question,” jotted the New York Clipper, “yet it may be said that, as he becomes more familiar with stage business, his performances are more enjoyable.” Had Cody accepted Freligh’s first offer, his stage presence may have eventually improved, but his initial reluctance to embark on a histrionic career enabled him to return with confidence on his own terms. Texas Jack and Mlle. Morlacchi married in Rochester, New York, on August 31, 1873.3 While the newlyweds honeymooned, Joseph P. Winter replaced Jack in the drama. Frederick G. Maeder, who originally adapted the play from Buntline’s novel, took the role of the Old Vet. Critics considered Maeder a good eccentric comedian, but he was best known as a prolific playwright.4 His wife, Rena, played Kitty Muldoon, and Richard W. Marston was Snakeroot Sam.5 Harry Irving joined the troupe and many years later enjoyed telling stories about the old days. Buntline, he had heard, “decided to quit the company for the lecture platform, for he was as fluent a talker as he was a writer.” When he learned Cody was in New York, Buntline invited him and his troupers to the lecture hall, suggesting Buntline’s dismissal was somewhat amicable. A talented speaker, Ned had the audience in tears, then in gales of laughter. Throughout it all, he held a large pitcher from which he would occasionally drink. Everyone assumed it held water until, as he went along, “he was getting unusually oratorical. His face got redder . . . telling us of the awful things that would happen to any man who took a drink.” Finally Cody leaned over to Irving and asked, “‘What do you suppose he’s got in that pitcher? I believe it’s whiskey.’ He was right. . . . [P]retty soon Buntline got all tangled up in his words and had to be carried out of the theatre by the arms and legs.”6 A week after his marriage, Texas Jack rejoined Cody. John M. Burke, who had served as Morlacchi’s manager during the first season, accompanied him. Born in Washington, D.C., Burke had been an actor, manager, drama critic, and city editor. Over the course of the next thirty-four years, he would become one of Cody’s most constant and devoted companions. Buntline’s discourses could convert a drunk away from the bottle, and he entertained more than a generation with his stories. But Burke, for all Wild Times with Wild Bill • 45 Cody poses with a .42-caliber Remington rifle and a revolver in his belt, c. 1875. Courtesy Buffalo Bill Historical Center (P.69.131), Cody, WY. chapter three 46 • his experience in publicity, “seldom constructed an intelligible sentence, although he so entangled flowers and figures of speech that the lack of...