Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1988
Abstract
Of all the popular culture heroes of the American West, Buffalo Bill stands out as the quintessential frontiersman, hunter, Indian scout, cattle rancher, land speculator, and showman par excellence. The subject of countless dime novels, plays, melodramas, and no fewer than thirty five films, Colonel W. F. Cody was a living legend whose expertise in organizing and touring "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and Congress of Rough Riders of the World" made it one of the largest and longest running outdoor entertainments in history. For more than thirty years, between 1882 and 1913, the Wild West Show toured America and Europe. Many of those shows played only once in a given location, yet each night a dedicated and competent staff provided living and dining quarters for 700 people, as well as feeding and stabling for 500 horses, 18 buffalo, and other assorted animals.
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly WINTER 1988. Copyright 1988 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska—Lincoln.