{"id":143,"date":"2009-11-16T12:48:51","date_gmt":"2009-11-16T19:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tonahangen.com\/wsc\/hi207\/?p=143"},"modified":"2009-11-16T12:49:27","modified_gmt":"2009-11-16T19:49:27","slug":"mythbuster-buffalo-bill-cody-hunter-or-celebrity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tonahangen.com\/wsc\/hi207\/?p=143","title":{"rendered":"Mythbuster: Buffalo Bill Cody: Hunter or Celebrity?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wild
If you, like myself, thought that what made Buffalo Bill Cody famous was the buffalo, you may have been deceived. In researching this project I expected to find articles expressing how great a hunter Buffalo Bill was and how many buffalo he slaughtered, but instead I found an abundance of information on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Buffalo Bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Wild West.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This show put on by Buffalo Bill was apparently \u00e2\u20ac\u0153for more than thirty years one of the largest, most popular, and successful businesses in the field of commercial entertainment.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (1)<\/p>\n

After the Civil War, William F. Cody began hunting buffalo at first to survive. In his own words, Cody described one experience; \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Raising [my gun] to my shoulder I fired, and killed the animal first shot. My horse then carried my alongside the next one, not ten feet away, and I dropped him at the next fire. As soon as one buffalo would fall, Brigham would take me so close to the next, that I could almost touch it with my gun. In this manner, I killed eleven buffalo with twelve shots.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (2) Eventually, Cody would be hired to kill twelve buffalo a day to be paid 500 dollars a month. During this period, Cody killed roughly 3,000 buffalo. (2)<\/p>\n

Bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s show business career began on December 17, 1872 with a show called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Scouts of the Prairie.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (3) Soon, the Buffalo Bill Combination was created that had shows usually featuring Buffalo Bill, Texas Jack, and Wild Bill Hickok. The Buffalo Bill Combination lasted until 1882, at which point Buffalo Bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Wild West was started. Because of the show, cowboys became more accepted in American culture, previously being considered heathens with the name cow-boy intended as an insult. The Wild West shows \u00e2\u20ac\u0153demonstrated bronco riding, roping, and other skills that would later become part of public rodeos.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (3) It also featured \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dramatic narratives such as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThe Attack on the Deadwood Stagecoach\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and historical re-enactments like \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCuster\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Last Stand.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (4)<\/p>\n

Buffalo Bill \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchad a great love and concern for people.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (3) His shows frequently portrayed Indians as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThe American\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and treated his former foes with respect and dignity. He was a supporter of women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rights and the women that performed in his show were paid equally with the men. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even been said that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the women in the Wild West often out-rode and out-gunned the men.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (3) One famously known woman is Annie Oakley, also known as Little Sure Shot.<\/p>\n

Although Buffalo Bill Cody certainly was a great hunter and did his fair share of decreasing the buffalo population in the West in the 1800s, I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fair to say that his work as a show producer and celebrity surpass the title of hunter in his case. His success with Buffalo Bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Wild West Show has gone down in history and has since changed the way that American\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s viewed cowboys and cowgirls. William F. Cody may have gotten the name Buffalo Bill from hunting, but kept it because of his increased popularity as a celebrity of the Wild West.<\/p>\n

Author: Kelsey Hinchliffe<\/p>\n

Bibliography:<\/u><\/p>\n

[1] Kaplan, Amy, and Donald Pease. Cultures of United States Imperialism<\/a><\/i>. US: Duke University Press, 1993. 164. <\/p>\n

[2] Russell, Don. The Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill<\/a><\/i>. OK, US: University of Oklahoma Press, 1960. 87-89. <\/p>\n

[3] Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave<\/a> [http:\/\/www.buffalobill.org\/history.htm]<\/p>\n

[4] Kasson, Joy. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West: Celebrity, Memory, and Popular History<\/a><\/i>. 1st ed. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 2001. 4-6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you, like myself, thought that what made Buffalo Bill Cody famous was the buffalo, you may have been deceived. In researching this project I expected to find articles expressing how great a hunter Buffalo Bill was and how many buffalo he slaughtered, but instead I found an abundance of information on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Buffalo Bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Wild […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mythbusters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tonahangen.com\/wsc\/hi207\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tonahangen.com\/wsc\/hi207\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tonahangen.com\/wsc\/hi207\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tonahangen.com\/wsc\/hi207\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tonahangen.com\/wsc\/hi207\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.tonahangen.com\/wsc\/hi207\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147,"href":"http:\/\/www.tonahangen.com\/wsc\/hi207\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tonahangen.com\/wsc\/hi207\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tonahangen.com\/wsc\/hi207\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tonahangen.com\/wsc\/hi207\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}