Buffalo Bill’s British Wild West

Started by J P Weyers on Monday, March 14, 2022
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Britain was full of expectation during the early months of 1887. Her Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India had been on the throne for half a century – most of that time spent out of the public spotlight in mourning for her husband and consort, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who died of typhoid in 1861, aged 42.

But there was an exception. Without seeking anyone’s official permission, the United States of America announced its intention to send a large delegation to the festivities. Britain’s ‘American cousins’ planned to celebrate the Jubilee in a unique way, giving tens of thousands of Britons flocking to London for the event a special transatlantic treat.

https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/buffalo-bill-s-british-w...

https://www.achac.com/zoos-humains/the-spectacle-of-difference-from...

The middle of the nineteenth century saw the birth of new forms of mass entertainment culture in the United States, marked by extravagance, sensational spectacles, and an insatiable appetite for the unusual. In New York, Barnum’s American Museum, devoted to the exhibition of “freaks”, opened in 1841 and soon became the most popular attraction in the country, seen by some forty million visitors by 1868. In 1871, Barnum created P.T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Circus, and started touring the world, with colossal success in Europe. After collaborating with Barnum, Buffalo Bill launched his Wild West Show in 1882, exploiting this mythology through life-size performances that included Red Indians, cow-boys, horses and buffalos. These grandiose shows contributed to the ways in which Europeans perceived of Indians. Among the “star” performers one could find Calamity Jane, Geronimo and Sitting Bull, as well as several Moroccan, African, and Japanese actors, and even a French infantryman…

By 1889, a new level of showmanship had been attained, with the Wild West Show sweeping through Europe. After London, Buffalo Bill made his way to Paris for the Universal Exhibition, accompanied by two hundred and fifty Indians, two hundred horses and twenty bison, before heading to triumphant shows in Lyon and Marseilles. The show was attended by over fifty million spectators in the two thousand towns and cities in which it stopped, across a dozen countries. The figure of the African warrior also proved an important one as a result of the Zulus European Tour in 1853. At the same time, the first universal exhibitions were being held, in London 1851 and 1862, New York in 1853, Paris in 1855, then Metz in 1861, and Paris again in 1867, marking the advent of a new dimension in the exhibition process. Henceforth, human beings would play a key role in all efforts at representing the diversity of human life, and the “savage” would be there to entertain and attract audiences.

The Zulus European Tour (1853)

Eleven men, one woman and a child arrived in London in March 1853 after a two-month voyage from South Africa, at the very moment when the Zulus’ military exploits enthralled the British public. During their eighteen-month stay in Europe, the group were required to actively participate in spectacles featuring “authentic” examples of their everyday “exotic” lives and ceremonial rituals, in shows that proved to be enormously popular with the public.

Wild West Shows List:

A Girl of the Plains – Texas Nell – Alkali Pete
Allen Bros. Wild West (1929-1934) – Charles and Mert H. Allen
Arlington & Beckman’s Oklahoma Ranch Wild West (1913) – Edward Arlington and Fred Beckman
A. S. Lewis Big Shows (1910)
Austin Bros. 3 Ring Circus and Real Wild West (1945)
Barrett Shows and Oklahoma Bill’s Wild West (1920)
Bee Ho Gray‘s Wild West (circa 1919-1932)
Booger Red’s Wild West Show (1904-1910)
Broncho John, Famous Western Horseman and his Corps of Expert Horsemen (1906) – J. H. Sullivan
Bros. Wild West Show (1929-1934) – Charles and Mert H. Allen
Buck Jones Wild West Show
Buckskin Ben’s Wild West and Dog and Pony Show (1908) Benjamin Stalker
Buckskin Bill’s Wild West (1900)
Bud Atkinson’s Circus and Wild West (early 1900s) – Toured Australia in 1912
California Frank’s All-Star Wild West (1911) – Frank Hafley
Cole Younger & Frank James Wild West (1903)
Colonel Cummins’ Wild West Indian Congress and Rough Riders of the World – Frederick T. Cummins
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show for Kids
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders
Diamond Dick’s Congress of World’s Western Champions
Fred Akins Real Wild West and Far East Show (1909-1910)
Gene Autry’s Flying A Ranch Stampeed (1942)
Hardwick’s “Great Rocky Mountain Wild West Show” (1884)
Indian Bill’s Wild West and Mexican Hippodrome (1903)
Irwin & Hirsig Wild West (1910)
Irwin Brothers Cheyenne Frontier Days Wild West Show (1913-1917)
Jones Bros.’ Buffalo Ranch Wild West (1910)
Kit Carson Buffalo Ranch Wild West Show (1913)
L. O. Hillman’s Wild West Aggregation (1900-1920)
Luella Forepaugh-Fish Wild West Shows (1903)
Miller Bros. 101 Ranch Real Wild West (1907-1916 & 1925-1931)
Montana Franks Shows
Pate Boone Wild West Show
Pawnee Bill‘s Wild West Show
Tex And Mex Wild West
Texas Jack’s Wild West (1901-1905)
Tim’s McCoy’s Real Wild West
Wiedemann’s Shows (1906-1911)
Wiedemann Bros Shows
Wiedemann Bros Big American Show and Custer’s Last Charge
Wiedemann’s Kit Carson Show
Zach Mulhall’s Congress of Rough Riders and Ropers

The William F. Cody Archive: Documenting the life and times of Buffalo Bill

_____

BUFFALO BILL'S WILD WEST.
[photo]

LLAGANA LTPS

EARL'S COURT, LONDON, 1892.
STAFF OF "BUFFALO BILL'S" WILD WEST COMPANY.
COL. W. F. CODY ("BUFFALO BILL"), PRESIDENT. NATE SALSBURY, VICE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR.
ALBERT E. SHEIBLE Business Manager LEW PARKER Contracting Agent
CARTER COUTURIER Advertising Agent WILLIAM LANGAN Supply Agent
JULE KEEN Treasurer WILLIAM SWEENEY Band Master Cowboy Band
JOHN M. BURKE GENERAL MANAGER

https://codyarchive.org/memorabilia/wfc.mem00279.html

Last Show in
1916
Final years
Buffalo Bill continued to perform in his Wild West show until 1916, although at age 71 he often had to be helped onto his horse backstage.

FRESH ATTRACTIONS AT THE "HORTY."

FOR the Bank Holiday period, plenty of additional attractions are forthcoming at the Horticultural Exhibition and Buffalo Billeries. Nothing of its kind is more soothing than the soft, sweet singing of the Zulu Choir of about a dozen Zulu vocalists, male and female. They sing, and sing remarkably well, in their habits as they live in Zululand, and charm you with their melodious glees and songs; capping their mellifluous ditties with a Zulu "Witch Doctor" comedy, which recalls Rider Haggard's latest romance. Then for housewives there is a valuable lecture on electric cooking, with practical demonstrations of the culinary art; and Messrs. Crumpton's lucid lecturer deserves a special vote of thanks for his remarkable clearness and distinctness.

Colonel Cody and Major Burke, for their part, have enlivened the wonderfully engrossing "Wild West Show" with fresh features of prairie life,

JOKORIAL
LONDON DAY BY DAY & NIGHT BY NIGHT.

THE Horticultural Show at Earl's Court is really wonderful. What with gardens lighted by electricity and gardens illuminated by Vauxhall lamps; what with bands galore, Zulu singers, the marvellous maze, and [drawing] SCOUT GUIDE & TRAPPED YAH WAUGH UGH the refreshments, there is enough to satisfy any sightseer for several days; but when Buffalo Bill and his wild Indians, coursing Cossacks, and merry Mexicans are thrown in, the visitor wants to pitch his tent inside and stay a week, so that he might get a chance of viewing half of the wonders which are on show.

The Indians may not pitch their tents, but by the aid of a piece of burnt stick and a penny box of paints, they ornament them after the style of the days of our earliest youth, when we used to paint pictures, face, hands, and pinafore all at the same time.

When you see painted in red and blue what you would take to be a house broom mounted on two pairs of tongs, you will know that is a horse; and the chief who stands outside the tent is probably known on the wild prairies as "The Horse that scratches his Nose with his Hind Hoof." The other pictures are [drawing] equally fine, and in their unlikeness to anything on the earth, or in the waters under the earth, they bear resemblance to the efforts of a disciple of Whistler.

Tony very nearly got into trouble with some of the stalwart Buffalo Billies by whistling "Get yer 'air cut." Milly, however, made peace, and certainly the long-haired gentlemen are very attentive to ladies. They offered to take Milly round the show, and made a great fuss of her. Tony got jealous and asked for an introduction to Miss Oakley, [drawing] KENSINGTON CUM TEXAS TEX-US BY SURPRISE whom he tried to mash. The crack lady shot, however, put him off somewhat by asking him to allow her to shoot a pipe from his mouth. It was quite safe, as we told the plateface, for the young lady could not miss if she tried to, as any one can imagine who has seen her wonderful feats.

Tony having remarked to Colonel Cody that riding bucking horses was easy enough, for all one had to do was to stick on, and to go up and down when the horse did, Guillaume le Buffalo offered him a mount. The plateface accepted the offer, and before an excited multitude was placed upon the back of a quadruped, which would in most establishments be cured of its fun by being turned into cat's meat.

Then man and horse rose in the world, then they came down, and this was repeated so many times that anyone could see that the animal was playing catch with its rider. However, it suddenly changed its tactics and wouldn't catch the plateface as he came down from the skies, and then our beauteous boy hit the arena with a thud—a big dent still marks the place.

If you don't believe me go and see for yourself, for you are bound to enjoy the show

Philip

I believe you said your grandfather met Buffalo Bill. Mine did also. It was one of the thrills of his childhood to shake his hand.

Robert

Robert

He saw one of his shows about 1912 and still mentimed it in the 1970 's

My grandfathers father took him across the river to St. Louis to see a show. Says he shook his hand. He was born in 05 which used to make me wonder if that was possible.

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