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Pawnee Bill's Historic Wild West
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The opening paragraph in the original Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show Program
read, "The scenes you are about to witness are laid in Oklahoma, the home of
the wily Pawnees, during the turbulent days, before the advent of the railroad
and the telegraph. The actors are genuine frontier heroes
who have, in many cases, participated in the occurrences which they reproduce
for you today with mimic realism.”
Although
the Wild West Shows were advertised as being “mimic realism,” they were laced
with fantasy and grandiosity. Pawnee Bill got his start in
show business with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1883. His
was in charge of the Pawnees, whose job was to rob stagecoaches, dispatch
palefaces, and otherwise act the part of traditional Plains Indians.Pawnee
Bill recalled, “The Pawnee Indian show proved ovation in every town, and
its popularity was acclaimed in every city visited.”
In 1888 Pawnee Bill opened his own show. The Philadelphia
Dispatch said, “It far surpasses any previous attempt in that direction
in magnitude and variety of performance.” In this
exhibition, 165 horses, mules, and scouts were used. Among
the various tribes represented were the Pawnee, Comanches, Kiowas, Kaws, and
Wichitas.
Cowgirl Race
Pawnee Bill’s show was now in direct competition with Buffalo Bill’s show.
Pawnee Bill had several years of successes and failures. He
had a spell of bad luck with the weather, poor crowds, and other disasters.
(Buffalo Bill was also experiencing hard times due to defaulting on loans made
by Cody.) When Pawnee Bill was asked to bring his show to Europe
and the Far East, he performed for royalty there. He also
greatly enlarged his show by adding two-horse standing races, races between
Mexicans, cowgirls, cowboys, Indians, and two-horse and four-horse chariot
races.
His
wife, May Lillie, was billed as the "$5,000 Challenge Horseback Shot."
He also featured a Mexican contra dance on horseback a Mexican band of
ten pieces, a cremation by the Mojave Indians, and Little Virginia Ellis, the
“only survivor of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.”
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The Ethnological Congress
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In
1901 Pawnee Bill sensed the need to expand and number and types of acts or
exhibitions in the performance arena, as circus companies and other wild west
shows began stiff competition for the entertainment dollar. Pawnee
Bill countered by adding ethnic groups gathered on his world tours. There were
museum side shows featuring Arabian Acrobats, the Human Pin Cushion, the Fire
King, a contortionist, an India rubber man, a snake charmer, a knife/battle ax
fight, the Big-Footed Boy, the Spotted Sisters, performing Sioux, African and
American songs, dance, and acrobatic feats. American
Indians were always an important and popular show attribute and remained his
best attraction. Other ethnic groups, including “Mexicans,
Gauchos, Arabs, and Cossacks,” added excitement and pageantry.
The
expanded show, “Pawnee Bill’s Wild West and Great Far East” represented an
amazing aggregation of performers, circus type side shows, and animals.
In
a 1906 show program, much emphasis was placed on the diverse ethnic groups
associated with the show: “Men and women of every tribe of every
nation, Cossacks, sandwich islanders, Cinggalhese, Japanese, Bushmen, Arabs,
Chinese, South Aftricans, Arabians, Filipinos, South Sea Islanders, Hindos,
Mexicans . . .”
This
“Mastodonic Exposition” was often called “The Ethnological Congress.”
Assembling people from so many different cultures and requiring that
they all work together was quite an accomplishment, considering that many of
the cultures represented were currently or recently at war with on another.
In
1908, in an effort to help his old friend and competitor, who was once
again in trouble from unpaid loans, Pawnee Bill bought into the Buffalo
Bill Wild West Show, eventually gaining full ownership only to restore
Buffalo Bill to a full partner. Commonly called “The
Two Bill’s Show,” the combined group was billed as “Buffalo Bill’s Wild
West and Pawnee Bill’s Great Far East." The Far
East division of the combined show contributed to one of the largest
exhibitions of its kind. It was written: “As
a show, Pawnee Bill’s Wild West was always a universal favorite, but
this feeling has been increased a hundred fold since adding the Far East
department. He is the only showman in the world today
who has dared to transport the Orient and all of its strange people to
the very fireside of America.”
The
combined show ended in Denver on July 20, 1913 during the grand entry
when six deputy sheriffs, one armed with a writ, entered the show
grounds and informed Pawnee Bill that the entire property of the Wild
West and Far East Show had been attached, including the ticket wagon
with all its private papers and business records and $6,000 in cash. Buffalo Bill had continued to make loans, many unknown to his
partner.
Thus
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Pawnee Bill’s Far East shows died. Buffalo Bill went to North Platte to be confronted by his family
and more creditors. Pawnee Bill returned to his home
in Pawnee, where he continued business in several areas of interest.
Buffalo
Bill died in 1917. Pawnee Bill wrote, “Time
smoothes everything. Buffalo Bill died my friend.” The
Wild West Show also died.
Information
provided by the Oklahoma Historical Society.
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