Buffalo Bill the Actor

Buffalo Bill was an actor long before he came up with the idea of his Wild West show. 

 From 1872 until 1886 Cody led a troupe of traveling actors, a "Combination," through much of America presenting frontier melodramas. It was during this period that he honed, what would become, his Wild West Show. Bill Cody’s acting debut was in dime novel writer Ned Buntline’s, The Scouts of the Prairie.

In his 14 years with the traveling troupes, he tired of the same dull presentations of the west and wanted to offer a more real show of the west. It was during this time that he added shooting marksmanship exhibitions, and Indian dancers, and started to use animals onstage.

Cody started his, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, in 1883 and three years later acted only in his show. Interesting that it was not Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, but only Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.

Cody’s portrayal of the Wild West toured widely in the United States and was so popular that eight different years the group visited Europe, putting on shows for commoners and crowned heads alike. Cody's show lasted for three decades, an excellent run by anyone's standards. 

Cody had two homes, one in North Platte, Nebraska and another in Cody, Wyoming. To most historians, this was the setting for his version of the west, central Nebraska through all of Wyoming.

How famous was he because of his show? Writer/western historian, Larry McMurtry says he was the most recognizable person in the world during the last part of the 1800s – pretty famous!

Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving.

Wyoming Top 10

Last week I posted numbers 1-5 of my famous Wyoming people top ten, today numbers 6-10 will complete my list. Like my five of a week ago these are in no particular order, only random.

Edgar Wilson (Bill) Nye (1850-1896) - Founded a Wyoming newspaper with one of the most unusual paper names in all of America, the, Laramie Boomerang. Nye was also a, worldwide know, humorist who traveled widely with both James Whitcomb Riley and Mark Twain. His column was so widely read that the Boomerang was sent to every state in the union and to several foreign countries. Nye wrote several political or historical humor books that sold very well. I have read all that I could of him and his writings over the years and posted quite a few times about him. Mostly forgotten now, too bad.

Chief Washakie (1804/1808-1900) - Shoshone chief who was convinced that peace with the whites would be the only sensible thing to do. So well respected by the American government that he was the last Indian leader to be able to pick the land for his people’s reservation. Famous for keeping peace among the Wyoming tribes by fighting and killing Crow Chief Big Robber at Crowheart Butte Wyoming. The two chiefs fought over tribal hunting grounds instead of letting the tribes fight it out.

Curt Gowdy (1919-2006) – Famous sports announcer and personality, possible best known in later years as the voice of the Boston Red Sox. Gowdy spend decades announcing, football, baseball and several Olympics. But what I remember was his job of host of the long running, American Sportsman. Being an avid outdoorsman I loved this fishing and hunting themed show.

Buffalo Bill Cody (1846-1917) – His life and time spanned the end of the old west but his promotion of the old west let it live on for several more decades. His life story has been well documented, from Pony Express rider, to scout and Indian fighter and Medal of Honor winner and Wild West show promoter. A remarkable man in real-life and in fiction. The wonderful Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming is a must see for everyone that yearns for the good old days.

Chris LeDoux (1948-2005) – Some might wonder about this cowboy singer and his place on my list, but none should. He was a world champion bareback rider and wrote songs about life and cowboys and rodeo. Garth Brooks describes his music as a combination of western soul, sagebrush blues, cowboy folk and rock ‘n’ roll. LeDoux sold over five million records and was also an accomplished artist working mostly in bronze.

 “Sleeping on the ground and takin’ a bath in the creek. That’s the stuff that really made it worthwhile, anybody can stay in a motel.” (Chris LeDoux)

 Can’t be any more Wyoming-like than that.

James (Jim) Bridger (1804-1881) - The legendary mountain man spent much of his adult life in Wyoming, and some of it not far from where I sit writing at this moment. Here is a man who never learned to read or write but quoted widely from the Bible and Shakespeare. Couldn’t read a real map but drew maps that helped build the Oregon Trail, find South Pass and the lay-out the Trans-Continental Railroad. Wyoming has a fort, a mountain, mountain range, river, plains, buildings and many more things named after this mountain man, affectionately known as old Gabe.

I know what you are thinking, this is six not five. Never was good at math and it was too difficult to list only ten – this may be the only top eleven ever written.

If only I would have written a top 12, I could have listed myself. Neil Waring - “He wrote the most well-known top-11 in Wyoming history, I could have been famous!

 

 

Tim McCoy

Tim McCoy’s, 1938 version of a Wild West show didn’t last long, bankrupt in less than a month. McCoy’s version was more of an anthropological look at the way the west once was, instead of a Wild West thrill show. With Buffalo Bill, whose show went bankrupt in 1913 after a 25 year run, and others long gone, McCoy had hoped to get Americans and then Europeans interested in the old west once again. But moving pictures and by 1938, talking ones, were enough to satisfy people’s old west cravings. McCoy seemed to be the old, too little, too late.

McCoy grew up in the east but moved to Wyoming and became a cowboy as a young man. He joined the Army during WW1 and again in WW2. He rose to the rank of Colonel in the Army Air Corps and Army Air Force. He was the Adjutant General for the state of Wyoming between the wars and given the brevet rank of Brigadier General at age 28. At the time he was the youngest Brigadier General in the history of the U.S. Army.

In 1942, McCoy ran for the Republican nomination for the open US Senate Seat from Wyoming. He lost in the primary and immediately entered the army again.

McCoy became an honorary member of the Arapaho tribe and was given the name of, High Eagle, by the tribe on the Wind River Reservation.

Tim McCoy continued making movies and touring with other wild west shows after the war ended but never had either the money or the inclination to try his own Wild West show again.

 

Buffalo Bill - He Earned the Name

William F. Cody had to win his famous nickname and by doing it he proved he was indeed Buffalo Bill. Cody had already proved his worth and his nickname to the railroad as legend or facts say he killed nearly 4,300 buffalo over a period of 18 months to feed hard working and hungry railroad crews. But Bill Comstock, chief of scouts at a Kansas plains Calvary fort, challenged the legend of Cody, saying he was the real Buffalo Bill, and Cody needed to prove he was the better hunter.

The game was on and the stakes were $500 per side, pretty steep in those days, and pretty steep in this day for guys like me. Each man was to hunt one full day from eight until eight, the winner being determined by who killed the most buffalo. News of the coming contest brought a special train of fans to watch the action.

As you might have guessed, Cody won, killing 69 buffalo while Comstock killed a very respectable 46.

NOTE – Cody never referred to his breach loading buffalo rifle as a rifle or a gun, instead always as, “Lucretia Borgia,” might sound odd innless you already knew his horse’s name, “Old Brigham. He liked fancy names, as for me I once had a dog named Spot, my dog now is named Bear, think I will name my next one, “Old Brigham,” maybe not.