(Chapter 10 Opener) Buffalo Bill remained dominant personality and star in Wild West genre for over forty years. Mementoes of the epoch: silver-mounted and Indian-trade-bead-decorated holster rig by George E. Robbins, Miles City, Montana; S&W of Texas Jack; Cody’s 12-gauge Westley Richards shotgun; Indian peace medal of President James A. Garfield term; Cody gauntlets and Wild West show program; and presentation tomahawk of Cody chum “White Beaver,” actually Dr. David Franklin Powell.
P.T. Barnum’s one-day “Grand Buffalo Hunt” in Hoboken, New Jersey, is recognized by many as the earliest Wild West show. The buffaloes had been brought down from Boston, after dedication ceremonies of the Bunker Hill monument. Sundry circus groups put on shows with hints of Wild West programs, and then there was James Capen “Grizzly” Adams’s California Menagerie—presented to New Yorkers with the cooperation of P. T. Barnum.
Stage performances by Buffalo Bill, sometimes with Wild Bill Hickok, date as early as 1869. Hickok got into some mischief, not being able to resist the temptation of firing blanks from his Colt Navys at the legs of actors playing Indian roles. Cody’s melodramatic performances presented a spectacle of shooting and marksmanship, horses, and fireworks. Besides Wild Bill Hickok and (briefly) Ned Buntline, stars were Texas Jack Omohundro, his girlfriend and later wife Mlle. Morlacchi, and a troupe of Indians, both real and made-up.
In the off-season Cody would often guide hunting parties and sometimes serve as Army scout. He killed the Indian Chief Yellow Hand in 1876, and that led to more fame, and the melodrama The Red Right Hand; or, Buffalo Bill’s First Scalp for Custer. Still another stage performer with Cody was Captain Jack Crawford, known as the Poet Scout.
The first successful Wild West show was that created by Buffalo Bill. The buffalo hunt for the Grand Duke Alexis, organized at the request of General Phil Sheridan, and with George A. Custer, was a hint of an institution to come. Cody’s hunting forays with publisher James Gordon Bennett and friends and the Earl of Dunraven were also preludes to the main event.
Unidentified character, whose costume and pose suggest show business association. Back of photograph marked “Old Death on the Trail.”
As a scout, Cody in buckskins, his rifle an English best-quality sporting arm of the type the Earl of Dunraven would have brought on his American hunts.
William F. Cody, c. 1871; already known as “Buffalo Bill” for at least four years. A jingle coined while making his reputation:
Buffalo Bill, Buffalo Bill,
Never missed and never will,
Always aims and shoots to kill,
And the company pays his buffalo bill.
Tintype believed made at Fort McPherson.
Ned Buntline Sharps rifle and leather carrying case; invoiced to E. Z. C. Judson, Stamford, New York, May 4,1877. Sharps president E. G. Wescott agreed to “our best trade discount which we never give except on rifles by the case and to the trade; assuming that you will become so greatly impressed with its merits, that you will be unable to resist the temptation to tell the dear public in some of your ‘yarns’ as to what you think of Sharps’ OLD RELIABLE.” Model 1874 sporting, in .45 2 7/8-inch caliber, 30-inch barrel, double set triggers, number 160009. Inset photo shows Buntline with Cody, Mme. Giuseppina Morlacchi, and Texas Jack, during engagement of The Scouts of the Prairie, written for Cody by Buntline and performed in winter 1872–73 season.
Looking the role of a cavalier with his plumed hat, Cody occupied center stage, with Elisha Green and Wild Bill Hickok at left, and Texas Jack Omohundro and Eugene Overton at right. The occasion was theatrical tour of The Scouts of the Plains in the fall and winter 1873–74 season.
But what propelled Cody into Wild West shows in a serious way was the Fourth of July celebration he organized for North Platte, Nebraska, in 1882. A thousand cowboys competed for prizes in shooting, riding, roping, and bronco busting, and Cody put on a demonstration (with blanks) of pursuing and killing buffalo from horseback. The outdoor event was such a success that authority Don Russell hails it as “the beginning of both the Wild West Show and the rodeo.”
Cody then put together a troupe and performed in the 1882–83 season. While on tour he met with showman Doc Carver, in New Haven, Connecticut. Carver, known as the “Champion Rifle Shot of the World,” had already done a tour of Europe (1879-82) and would take on all comers in a shooting match. Carver was also known as the “Evil Spirit of the Plains.” Briefly, Cody and Carver toured as partners.
Another Cody rival and sometime partner was Captain A. H. Bogardus, a former market hunter who would pioneer the sport of trap shooting. Other showmen associated with Cody in the early years were the Indian fighter Major Frank North, Pawnee Bill Lillie, and cowboys Johnny Baker (“The Cowboy Kid”), and Buck Taylor (“King of the Cowboys”).
On tour in 1883, the show was billed as “The Wild West, Hon. W.F. Cody and Dr. W.F. Carver’s Rocky Mountain and Prairie Exhibition,” with the spectacular opening at Omaha’s Fair Grounds, in May. Before the public’s very eyes was the Deadwood stagecoach under attack, buffalo coursing, the Pony Express, races, bronc riding, roping, steer riding, and the “Grand Hunt on the Plains.” Featured wild animals were buffalo, bighorn sheep, deer, and elk, as well as longhorn steers and wild horses. That first season saw the show play as far east as Newport, Rhode Island, and Boston.
In Hartford, the Courant was so taken by the Wild West that Cody was hailed as “an extraordinary figure” who “sits on a horse as if he were born to the saddle. His feats of shooting are perfectly wonderful….” It was “the best open-air show ever seen,” and Cody “out-Barnumed Barnum.”
Doc Carver and Winchester 1873 rifle. Subheading to caption reads: “As he appeared before H. R. H. the Prince of Wales at Sandringham, April 15th 1879, on which occasion he broke one hundred glass balls consequtively with rifle.”
From a grateful Cody to dime-novel writer Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, butt of Remington over-and-under deringer neatly inscribed, number 5181. Another deringer known, inscribed on backstrap Wm Fielder./from/Buffalo Bill. Engraved, silver-plated, pearl-gripped, and in a silk-lined leather case.
Buffalo Bill’s Colt Burgess lever-action .44-40 rifle, inscribed on other side “Hon. Wm. F. Cody July 26 1883/with Compliments of Colts Co.” Presented to Cody while on tour, in Hartford. The Colt company was always anxious to accommodate Buffalo Bill and his contemporaries. Among Colt handguns made for Cody were specials in single action, double action, and semiautomatic mechanisms. Saddle of c. 1890–95, by Collins and Morrison, Omaha, inscribed with Cody’s name and decorated with round conchos of 1881 silver dollars.
Bogardus & Sons, still more Champion Shots of the World. The Captain’s practice of shooting glass balls launched from traps (instead of live birds released from boxes) led to sport of trapshooting. But not in time to save passenger pigeon from extinction, because of heavy demand for delicacy of squab.
Card at right center is Cody’s own documentation of Remington New Model Army revolver (number 73293), presented to Charles Trego, intimate friend and business associate over some thirty years. A wealth of material documents the revolver as Cody’s personal working handgun from scout, Indian fighter, and buffalo hunter days. Trego was foreman of Cody’s Scout’s Rest Ranch and for years looked after his show horses; also traveled as general manager of the Wild West show. Trego was the model for Frederic Remington’s only monumental bronze, The Cowboy, in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park (1908), and is believed to have served as model for other of the artist’s works as well. Revolver, memorabilia, and documents from collection of Charles Trego family.
1888 poster revealed Cody biography, left nothing of positive image out. One of grandest of numerous Buffalo Bill posters. Note Model 1873 Winchester rifle; Cody preferred Winchesters, and stated in a 1902 program: “As you know, I always use Winchester rifles and ammunition. I have used both exclusively for over twenty years for hunting and in my entertainments.”
Cody’s various partners, for a number of reasons, soon left. But he persevered to become the archetypal Wild West show performer and entrepreneur, and the international superstar of contemporary show business. He was, after all, a real-life hero: Pony Express rider, hunter, Army scout, Union Civil War soldier, professional hunting guide, and veteran of some sixteen Indian fights. His instincts as a showman were superb.
Although Ned Buntline (Edward Z. C. Judson) wrote a handful of dime novels with Buffalo Bill as hero, and they performed together briefly on the stage, Buntline played a minor role in the career of Buffalo Bill. Far more deserving of credit for promoting Cody was Prentiss Ingraham, a prolific author credited with over 1,000 dime novels. For Cody, Ingraham wrote The Knight of the Plains; or, Buffalo Bill’s Best Trail, a play that premiered in New Haven, with Buffalo Bill as star. As a ghost writer for Cody, Ingraham penned approximately eighty-five dime novels, but it was apparently Cody himself who wrote the first autobiography, The Life of Hon. William F. Cody (c. 1879).
Cody played eleven seasons of melodramatic stage appearances before his Wild West outdoors career took off with the Omaha Fair Grounds July 4, 1883, event. These stage performances included shootings and marksmanship, horses, and fireworks.
Stevens rifle, number 25640, inscribed on other side NUTLEY/N.J. One of the most elegant of her firearms collection. Referring to herself as a “crack shot in petticoats,” the world-famed performer did much for the cause of women, not the least of which was beating men at their own game. For her, the woman’s place was not at home.
Gold-plated handguns flashed in sun as Annie Oakley opened their leather case at center arena; were gifts from husband, Frank Butler. Single-shot at left a Stevens-Gould No. 37, other single-shot a First Model S&W; revolver a S&W Model No. 3. Ensemble put together by Butler as presentation, in the 1890s. L. C. Smith shotgun (by Hunter Arms Co.) a 12-gauge “Trap” grade; portraits of Miss Oakley on lock-plates, and her signature gold-inlaid on triggerguard; embellishment attributed to Tiffany& Co. Glass targets were popularized by Miss Oakley and other trick and competition shots.
An Oakley show specialty, firing over shoulder by aiming in mirror. Among other feats was shooting cigarettes out of mouths of dignitaries, among them Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. After World War I began, Annie announced she wished she had opportunity to do trick again, and this time she would miss the cigarette, but not the Kaiser!
Annie Oakley show belt, and husband’s table cover. Cards struck by her .22 r.f. bullets; show tickets came to be commonly known as “Annie Oakleys” from holes punched in them by ticket-takers. A rival of Annie was Miss Lillian F. Smith, “The California Girl,” another prodigy. At fifteen she fired demonstration before editor of The Rifle magazine, who declared she was “a wonder, and it will be difficult, if not impossible, to find her equal in many styles of shooting with the rifle.” Recruited by Buffalo Bill, and accompanied the troupe to England in 1887. Though a gifted shot, she never attained the star status of Miss Oakley.
The “Night Hawk” Colt .44-40, number 127109. A gift from Buffalo Bill to Dr. George Powell, “Night Hawk,” standing at left in c. 1885 photograph. Standing right, brother Dr. William Powell, known as “Blue Eyed Bill” or “Broncho Bill.” Seated right, another brother, Dr. David Franklin Powell, “White Beaver.” Seldom-observed engraved pearl grips. Powells let public believe their Indian names and associations gave merit to patent medicines they hawked.
Presentation Model 1874 Sharps sporting rifle inscribed on butt Texas Night Hawk/to his brother/White Beaver/1877. On top of buttplate, further inscribed Col. Prentiss Ingraham/From D F Powell. M.D./1881. Gifts of firearms within circle of Buffalo Bill and his friends were a part of their friendship; firearms were objects of great moment and meaning in their lives as frontiersmen or enthusiasts of the frontier.
Photographed on Staten Island, 1886, among these Wild West show cowboys was the seventeen-year-old Johnny Baker, reclining at left. Known as the “Cowboy Kid,” Baker was virtually Cody’s adopted son, and became an expert shot, often performing with Annie Oakley—but never outshooting her. Baker stayed with Cody to the end and organized a “Buffalo Bill Wild West Show Co., Inc.” for a year after Cody’s death.
Buck Taylor, original “King of the Cow-Boys.” Taylor, all 6 feet 5 inches of him, became a national hero; could pick up handkerchief from ground while riding full-speed on horseback, rode bucking broncos, and threw steers. Subject of first dime novel with a cowboy as hero, written by Prentiss Ingraham (1887).
When the outdoor Wild West show gathered steam, Cody’s troupe at various times featured Chief Sitting Bull, stagecoach driver John Y. Nelson, and, beginning in 1885, Little Miss Sure Shot, Annie Oakley, with her husband, Frank Butler.
Annie, a child prodigy shot, had been a market hunter at age fifteen (1875), and had beaten the traveling marksman Frank Butler, who then became her partner, manager, and husband, in their own performing act. A leading press agent gave this admiring description:
[Annie] was a consummate actress, with a personality that made itself felt as soon as she entered the arena. Even before her name was on the lips of every man, woman, and child in America, the sight of this frail girl among the rough plainsmen seldom failed to inspire enthusiastic plaudits. Her entrance was always a very pretty one. She never walked. She tripped in, bowing, waving, and wafting kisses. Her first few shots brought forth a few screams of fright from the women, but they were soon lost in round after round of applause. It was she who set the audience at ease and prepared it for the continuous crack of firearms which followed.
It was Chief Sitting Bull, in 1885, who gave Annie the nickname “Little Sure Shot.” She was also known as “the Peerless Wing and Rifle Shot.” Another performer who joined the troupe was trick rider Antonio Esquivel, a brilliant horseman billed as the champion vaquero.
Competitors of Cody were legion. One of the most bitter rivals was Doc Carver, of Carver’s Wild West. Libel suits abounded, and Carver even put out a “list of failures” to squash competition. At the top of the list, Carver put Buffalo Bill. On the bottom was another marksman, Captain E. E. Stubbs, whose billing was “Champion Wing-Shot of the West.”
The popularity of Cody’s Wild West was such that in one July week, 1885, the total attendance was 193,960! Some appearances lasted months, since moving the show around was a logistic nightmare. Shooting would always remain an important part of the program, and bristling with firearms, somehow Cody and company traveled about America without headaches from the police. England, however, would be another matter.
In 1887 the Wild West had its biggest break, with an engagement to perform in London as part of the American Exhibition of the fiftieth Anniversary of Queen Victoria’s reign. Over 200 crew and cast set off by steamer from New York. But when they disembarked in London, Her Majesty’s Customs confiscated the specially loaded ammunition (except the low-powered cartridges firing bullets), requiring the troupe to use blanks supplied by the Woolwich Arsenal. The London Agency of Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Co., Inc., accommodated the Wild West for upkeep of the firearms.
Cody stood at center in front row of London show troupe photograph. At top center, next to American flag, stagecoach driver John Y. Nelson, wearing Colt .44s. Blowup revealed special holsters with inscribed metal plates.
Among the royalty who enjoyed the show were Edward, Prince of Wales, and, at her first attendance of a command performance since the death of her husband, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria. Cody hailed the tour as “an expedition to prove to the center of old world civilization that the vast region of the United States was finally and effectively settled by the English-speaking race.”
In another command performance, Buffalo Bill drove the Deadwood coach with four European kings and the Prince of Wales as passengers. The Prince said to Cody, newly commissioned a colonel (by the governor of Nebraska), “Colonel, you never held four kings like these before.” To which Cody replied, “I’ve held four kings, but four kings and the Prince of Wales makes a royal flush, such as no man ever held before.”
Cody and his show were the hit of London, and he was, to quote the Times, the “hero of the London season.” An American observer wrote that “the greatest, most unapproachable, thoroughly howling success that America ever sent to London was Buffalo Bill….” The show ran from early May to the end of October, and then did engagements elsewhere in England, returning to the United States in May. The popular Annie Oakley left the show at the end of the London engagement, in response to an invitation from Crown Prince Wilhelm (later the Kaiser) in Berlin.
In 1888, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West reopened in the United States, while that same year saw the premier of the Pawnee Bill Historical Wild West Exhibition and Indian Encampment. A former showman with Buffalo Bill, Pawnee Bill had bouts of good and bad luck with his troupe, and for a while he teamed up with Annie Oakley and Frank Butler.
In 1889, Cody and his troupe went on a four-year tour, beginning by returning to Europe. Among the distinguished fans were the Shah of Persia and Queen Isabella of Spain. This tour brought the Wild West to Lyon, Marseilles, Barcelona, Naples, Rome (with a blessing from Pope Leo XIII), Verona, Florence, Bologna, Milan, and Venice. Later the show performed in Innsbruck, Munich, Vienna, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, and other German cities, with the final performance in Stuttgart. Competitors of Cody also appeared in Europe, among them Doc Carver and his Wild American show, which even toured Australia.
Silver-mounted Colt grip butt inscribed De sus amigos/Los Charros/Mexico 1881 and para el mejor Charro/Don/Vincente Oropeza. Number 35521. Brilliant roper, Oropeza was also sometime chief of vaqueros of the Wild West; taught Will Rogers roping tricks.
Custom gold-inlaid and cased for Johnny Baker, Colt Model 1889 .38 New Army and Navy revolver was shipped in 1895, along with a richly embellished Colt .44 Bisley Target revolver, gold-inlaid “Col. W. F. Cody/Buffalo Bill.” Performers like Cody and Baker normally used shot charges in shows, since lead bullets had much longer trajectory. Standard .44-40 charge was approximately 20 grains black powder and 1/2 ounce No. 7 1/2 chilled shot. Most shots taken at 20 yards, often from galloping horse; at that range the pattern was only about 2 to 3 inches—still calling for considerable marksmanship. Colt ledgers show Baker was shipped a smoothbore .44 New Service revolver, with 7 1/2-inch barrel.
Showman and Cody colleague Nate Salsbury owned this engraved and gold-inlaid Colt New Army and Navy double action revolver, number 14669. Made as a cased set, like the Johnny Baker Colt, gun was never fired. Salsbury played a key role in Cody Wild West show career, and their association was considered an ideal partnership. Stepped down as active manager at end of 1894 season, about time revolver was made.
G. W. “Pawnee Bill” Lillie’s Colt .44-40 smoothbore, custom-built on his order by Colt Factory and shipped April 1891; number 140472. Factory ledgers indicate revolver made with “slightly choked” barrel, and that several pairs of similar smoothbore Colt’s were made for Lillie. In 1902 Colt’s gave Lillie a pair of Single-Actions with pearl grips, a gift repeated in 1906.
Alice McGowen, a performer in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. Her rifle a Marlin .22 lever-action, her revolvers Colts.
Mrs. G. W. Lillie, the former May Manning, a Philadelphia girl taught to shoot and made into a Wild West performer by Pawnee Bill.
Center rifle a Marlin Model 1881 inscribed on frame “Capt. E. E. Stubbs/Champion Rifle Shot of the/World,” in .38-55 caliber, silver-plated and blued; number P934. Winchester, Whitney-Kennedy, and other Marlin rifles known similarly inscribed. Marlin (top) and Winchester rifles used by sharpshooter T. H. Ford, whose real name was Thomas M. Pringle. The Marlin a .22 r.f. Model 1892, engraved, and inscribed from factory on barrel; number 123275. The Winchester a Model 1892 specially made in smoothbore, silver-plated and in .32-20 caliber.
Ford’s letterhead quoted Captain Bogardus, Pawnee Bill Lillie, and others, endorsing claims of marksmanship and showmanship. Bogardus held Ford to be “sober and reliable.”
T. H. Ford aiming his pump Winchester .22 with a mirror.
Cody took a break from the European tour, during which he was recruited by General Nelson A. Miles to attempt peacefully extricating Chief Sitting Bull from the situation that would result in the chief’s death two weeks before the Battle of Wounded Knee.
The European tour continued in 1891, with the addition of international horsemanship, making the troupe the “Congress of Rough Riders of the World.” Touring Germany, then Holland, then returning to England and Wales, the show stayed on to 1892, and returned to London. Finally, the finest outdoor Wild West show in history returned to the United States, in October, and prepared for the 1893 season as the biggest entertainment draw at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Actually, the show was located adjacent to the Exposition, but was not an official part of it. Cody and company cleared somewhere between $700,000 and $1 million in the season, an enormous profit.
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West had its heyday from 1887 to 1896, and the numbers of imitators during and after were numerous. Pawnee Bill and his shows merged with Cody for several years; Buck Taylor formed his own short-lived show; Colonel Frederic T. Cummins put together his Indian Congress (featuring Geronimo, Chief Joseph, and Red Cloud); and there was even the Cole Younger and Frank James Wild West (1903). Innumerable Wild West shows performed around the country by the early twentieth century. Some of these outfits were part of circus and carnival acts. An occasional train wreck or other disaster would wreak havoc on a show; a head-on collision with a freight train in 1901 killed a hundred of Cody’s horses and injured Annie Oakley so badly she was unable to perform for a year.
Baton and Colt of Dodge City Cowboy Band’s leader, Jack Sinclair. Band formed in 1881, later moved to Pueblo, Colorado, and still later headquartered in Los Angeles. Performed at wide variety of stock shows, and at inauguration of President Benjamin Harrison. Revolver presented to Sinclair by friends, 1892, and often used to lead band, occasionally fired to punctuate a tune and “to shoot the first man who plays a false note.” On the baton, a musical bar from “Auld Lang Syne.” (Inset) Dodge City Cowboy Band, 1886. These heavily armed musicians are well prepared to deal with music critics.
Showman Arizona Joe holding Winchester Model 1873 presented by factory; frame inscribed Arizona Joe from W.R.A. Co. Rifle had been acquired by Englishman Lord Huntington, after watching Joe perform. Remained in England for many years. One of Col. Ingraham’s dime novels entitled Arizona Joe, The Boy Pard of Texas Jack; subtitled “History of the strange life of Captain Joe Bruce, a Young Scout, Indian Fighter, Miner, and Ranger, and the Protege of J. B. Omohundro, the famous Texas Jack.” Little is presently known about Joe, apparently an intriguing character of his day.
Unidentified shootist, aiming cocked Colt; elaborate Indian pipe bag hung from belt; Winchester at feet.
Frank Chamberlin and wife, Myrtle, billed themselves as first trick roping act to appear in Wild West shows. At left, Frank checks chambers of his S&W Schofield revolver; sidekick held Model 1892 Winchester.
1902 saw the beginning of the last European tour of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. Cody was saddled with debt because of a string of bad investments: the town of Cody, Wyoming; a project in Mexico; an Arizona gold mine; patent medicine with Dr. David F. Powell (White Beaver); and a Nebraska ranching operation. Fortunately, in 1895 the Wild West had worked an arrangement with James A. Bailey, of Barnum & Bailey fame, to help with travel logistics and general business. Bailey had the circus and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West share the use of tour equipment while in America and Europe.
Finally in 1909 Buffalo Bill’s Wild West merged with Pawnee Bill’s Great Far East, known to performers as the “Two Bills Show.” An upcoming rival, however, was the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch, featuring the black cowboy Bill Pickett, creator of bulldogging. The Miller Brothers 101 Ranch also headlined such stars as Tom Mix, Lucille Mulhall (the first cowgirl), and Will Rogers. Even Geronimo put in an appearance at a 1905 event, on the Millers’ Oklahoma ranch.
The 101 Ranch became a national sensation and in the 1912 season put on no fewer than 421 performances, in twenty-two states and three provinces in Canada. During their English tour, 1914, the outbreak of World War I ended the 101 Ranch’s string of successes. The Millers were served an order impressing their “horses and vehicles … for public service.” The war brought an end to the Wild West outdoor shows on the grand scale of the previous thirty years.
Buffalo Bill announced switch to automatics, although he had already been presented a Colt Model 1902 Military automatic gold-inlaid with his name. Savage 32 bore number 33177, and COL.W. F. CODY inscribed on backstrap. Given to the aging showman in 1911.
For Cody his last performances were as part of the 1914 and 1915 seasons of the Sells-Floto Circus and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, and then in the “Buffalo Bill (Himself) and 101 Ranch Wild West, Combined with the Military Pageant Preparedness.” The latter was a production of the Miller and Arlington Wild West Show Co. The tour ended in November 1916, and Buffalo Bill died in Denver on January 10, 1917. Even in death his show business career continued: reportedly his body was sold for $10,000, so that it would be buried at Lookout Mountain, near Denver, and serve as a tourist attraction.
Historian Don Russell’s book The Wild West, or A History of the Wild West Shows lists 116 such shows within the period 1883 to 1957. Such entertainments have been largely succeeded by rodeos, which rarely include firearms. But marksmanship and gunfire were a feature of a majority of the pre-1914 Wild West performances.
The role of the gun in the West was a theme which played in outdoor arenas throughout America and Europe, in Canada, and even in Australia. An arsenal of guns and blank (and often live) ammunition accompanied the troupes. It was marksmanship which gave stardom to the premier female performer of all these shows, Annie Oakley. And it was marksmanship which was a primary focus of the image of the preeminent male superstar, Buffalo Bill.
These shows also established the cowboy as an American hero, helped reveal to the world the mystique of the noble mounted Indian warrior, and launched the West as legend.
Believed to be trick-shooting team, Eagle Eye and wife, Neola, handsomely attired and well armed. Among later-era exhibition shooters, best-known were Ad Topperwein and wife, Plinky. Employed by Winchester factory, Topperweins were billed as “World’s Greatest Shooting Team.” For over sixty years he held world record of shooting 72,491 2 1/2-inch wooden blocks thrown as aerial targets; record set in 1907, over ten-day period.
Gene Autry earned his popularity via live performances, recordings, radio shows, films, and television. Usually he carried two 45s: one in his holster, the other a D45 model Martin guitar. This picture features the first Martin of that design ever made. His silver-mounted gun belt carried one Colt .45, sometimes the gold version with floral motifs by Kuhl, San Francisco, and custom trigger and wide hammer spur, other times the engraved and plated version, with gold GA monogram on backstrap and gold signature on bottom of barrel.
