IRISH-IN-UK-L Archives

From: "Jean R." <>
Subject: [Irish-in-UK] Wm. CODY & Annie OAKLEY -- "Buffalo Bill"Show/Manchester, England (1903)
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:19:30 -0700

SNIPPET: Re William F. CODY's "Buffalo Bill" Wild West Show -- Per a list
member, CODY's roots were in Co. Tipperary. (See story about the show's
visit to Manchester, England, below).

Petite & pretty Annie OAKLEY (1860-1926), an American markswoman, starred in
Buffalo Bill's Wild West show for 17 years. She was popular throughout the
United States and Europe. She was an expert shot with a pistol, rifle or
shotgun. Once, with a .22 rifle, she shot 4,772 glass balls out of 5,000
tossed in the air on a single day. At 90 feet she could hit a playing card
with the thin edge toward her, and puncture a card 5-6 times while it fell
to the ground. (Since then, free tickets with holes punched in them have
been called "Annie Oakleys"). Ms. OAKLEY once shot a cigarette from the
mouth of the German Crown Prince (later Wilhelm II) at his invitation.

Annie was born Phoebe Annie Oakley MOZEE on 13 Aug 1860, in a log cabin in
Patterson Township, OH. She began shooting at age 9. After her father
died, she supported the family by shooting small game. On a visit to
Cincinnati she shot a match with Frank E. BUTLER, a vaudeville star. She won
the match, and later married BUTLER. She joined his act, and became its
star. Only 5 feet tall, she was called "Little Sure Shot." Annie OAKLEY
joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West show in 1885. At the height of her fame, she
was seldom seen without her Stetson. A poster featuring her as the star
advertised Annie as "The Peerless Lady Wing-Shot." The musical play "Annie
Get Your Gun" later portrayed her life, and film star Barbara STANWYCK made
a glamorous "Little Miss Sure Shot" in the film "Annie Oakley. " Some
vintage postcards with her image are exceedingly collectable and valuable.

Show travels abroad -- Per article by Peter CLOWES in the Feb 1999 issue of
"Best of British, Past & Present" magazine published in England, the
pedestrians who waited for the tramcar on a mild autumn day in 1903 could
hardly believe it - for clattering and lurching along cobbled Hyde Road in
Manchester was an open-top tram full of Red indians! They were part of
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show which made several tours of Europe 100 years
ago. Peter shared that his father-in-law, who was then only 15 and revelled
in the western dime novels which were beginning to spread to Britain from
the U. S. was so eager to see the show that when colourful posters
announcing performances in his home town began to appear he was among the
first group of boys to queue for tickets. He later told Peter, "The Indian
chiefs were wearing feathered bonnets and many of the others had single
feathers sticking out of their hair. It was a sight I'll never forget."

Tents were erected in fields at the side of Didsbury Road in Heaton Norris,
a suburb of Stockport, and the Red Indians (Native Americans, as they would
be called today) had their own encampment. "Their wigwams seemed to be
shrouded in smoke from cooking fires," said Peter's father-in-law. There was
a central arena in which cowboys and Indians demonstrated acrobatic riding
and sharp-shooting, and performed feats with lariats and tomahawks. There
was a constant rattle of revolver shots and the star was undoubtedly Annie
OAKLEY, a deadly rifle shot. The show, which gave daily performances for two
weeks, put money into the pockets of several local shopkeepers. There was a
substantial order for horse fodder, for example, and Charles NICHOLLS, a
saddler and farrier, was enlisted to carry out repairs on many of the
horse's harnesses.

CODY ("Buffalo Bill") cantered into the arena on a handsome Palomino. He
was then 57 but still a skilful horseman after achieving world-wide fame in
his youth.

Background -- William Frederick CODY was born in IA but brought in in KS.
When only 14 he became a Pony Express rider and during the American Civil
War he was a dispatch rider. He became a scout for General CUSTER and was
later given the name "Buffalo Bill" for the number of buffalo he killed
while hunting for workers on the Kansas Pacific Railway.

Ned BUNTLINE made Cody famous by describing his adventures in a series of
cheap novels, and in the 1870s CODY launched is Wild West Show. By the early
1890s he was a millionaire and the show - cowboys, Indians, stagecoaches,
horses and all- toured the cities of Europe. By 1913, however, the show had
waned in popularity and after a brief attempt to break into films old man
CODY finished his career by appearing in small travelling circuses in the
United States. The report of his death in 1917 even swept
news of the Great War from the headlines. "Buffalo Bill," a tall man with a
white beard, once persuaded the famed Indian chief Sitting Bull to appear in
his show.

As stated above, his star for many years was Annie OAKLEY, the OH-born girl
who became possibly the greatest shooting celebrity in the world. Sitting
Bull called her "Little Miss Sure Shot" and Queen Victoria told her she was
"a very, very clever little girl." She could slice a playing card held
edgeways by her husband at a distance of 30 paces. Would be interesting to
discover if she had any Irish roots....

Per Mr. CLOWES, this vivacious girl, a petite figure with a winning smile
wearing a Stetson hat and buckskins, was a sensation. She died in 1926 at
the age of 66. He remarked "Little Miss Sure Shot" must have made quite
animpression on his father-in-law when he saw her in 1903; while he often
talked about the real Annie, he seldom mentioned the Indians.

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• [Irish-in-UK] Wm. CODY & Annie OAKLEY -- "Buffalo Bill"Show/Manchester, England (1903) by "Jean R." <>