{"id":1456,"date":"2015-08-20T06:15:59","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T06:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/americanyawphist118x15x1\/?post_type=chapter&p=1456"},"modified":"2015-08-20T06:15:59","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T06:15:59","slug":"rodeos-wild-west-shows-and-the-mythic-american-west-2","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/sanjacinto-atdcoursereview-ushistory2-1\/chapter\/rodeos-wild-west-shows-and-the-mythic-american-west-2\/","title":{"raw":"Rodeos, Wild West Shows, and the Mythic American West","rendered":"Rodeos, Wild West Shows, and the Mythic American West"},"content":{"raw":"\u201cThe American West\u201d conjures visions of tipis, cabins, cowboys, Indians, farm wives in sunbonnets, and outlaws with six-shooters. Such images pervade American culture, but they are as old as the West itself: novels, rodeos, and Wild West shows mythologized the American West throughout the post-Civil War era.\r\n
[caption id=\"attachment_822\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"500\"]\"Calamity<\/a> American frontierswoman and professional scout Martha Jane Canary was better known to America as Calamity Jane. A figure in western folklore during her life and after, Calamity Jane was a central character in many of the increasingly popular novels and films that romanticized western life in the twentieth century. \u201c[Martha Canary, 1852-1903, (\"Calamity Jane\"), full-length portrait, seated with rifle as General Crook's scout],\u201d c. 1895. Library of Congress<\/a>.[\/caption]<\/div>\r\nIn the 1860s, Americans devoured dime novels that embellished the lives of real-life individuals such as Calamity Jane and Billy the Kid. Owen Wister\u2019s novels, especially The Virginian<\/i>, would establish the character of the cowboy as the gritty stoics with a rough exterior but the courage and heroism needed to rescue people from train robbers, Indians, or cattle rustlers. Such images were further reinforced, particularly in the West, with the emergence of the rodeo added to popular conceptions of the American West. Rodeos began as small roping and riding contests among cowboys in towns near ranches or at camps at the end of the cattle trails. In Pecos, Texas, on July 4, 1883, cowboys from two ranches, the Hash Knife and the W Ranch, competed in roping and riding contests as a way to settle an argument and is recognized by historians of the West as the first real rodeo. Casual contests evolved into planned celebrations. Many were scheduled around national holidays, such as Independence Day, or during traditional roundup times in the spring and fall. Early rodeos took place in open grassy areas\u2014not arenas\u2014and included calf and steer roping and roughstock events such as bronc riding. They gained popularity and soon dedicated rodeo circuits developed. Although about 90% of rodeo contestants were men, women helped to popularize the rodeo and several popular women bronc riders, such as Bertha Kaepernick, entered men\u2019s events, until around 1916 when women\u2019s competitive participation was curtailed.Americans also experienced the \u201cWild West\u201d imagined in so many dime novels by attending traveling Wild West shows, arguably the unofficial national entertainment of the United States from the 1880s to the 1910s. Wildly popular across the country, the shows traveled throughout the eastern United States and even across Europe and showcased what was already a mythic frontier life.William Frederick \u201cBuffalo Bill\u201d Cody was the first to recognize the broad national appeal of the stock \u201ccharacters\u201d of the American West\u2014cowboys, Indians, sharpshooters, cavalry, and rangers\u2014but Cody shunned the word \u201cshow\u201d when describing his travelling extravaganza, fearing that it implied exaggeration or misrepresentation of the West. Cody instead dubbed his production \u201cBuffalo Bill\u2019s Wild West\u201d and tried to import actual cowboys and Indians into his productions. But it was still, of course, a show. It was entertainment, little different in its broad outlines from contemporary theater. Operating out of Omaha, Nebraska. Buffalo Bill created his first show in 1883. Storylines, punctuated by \u201ccowboy\u201d moments of bucking broncos, roped cattle, and sharpshooting contests, depicted westward migration, life on the Plains, and Indian attacks.\r\n
\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_836\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1000\"]\"Portrait<\/a> William Frederick \u201cBuffalo Bill\u201d Cody helped commercialize the cowboy lifestyle, building a mythology around life in the Old West that produced big bucks for men like Cody. Courier Lithography Company, \u201c\u2019Buffalo Bill\u2019 Cody,\u201d 1900. Wikimedia<\/a>.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nBuffalo Bill was not alone. Gordon William \u201cPawnee Bill\u201d Lillie, another popular Wild West showman, got his start in the business in 1886 when Cody employed him as an interpreter for Pawnee members of the show. Lillie went on to create his own production in 1888, \u201cPawnee Bill\u2019s Historic Wild West.\u201d He was Cody\u2019s only real competitor in the business until 1908, when the two men combined their shows to create a new extravaganza, \u201cBuffalo Bill\u2019s Wild West and Pawnee Bill\u2019s Great Far East\u201d (most just called it the \u201cTwo Bills Show\u201d). It was an unparalleled spectacle. The cast included Mexican cowboys, Indian riders and dancers, Russian Cossacks, Japanese acrobats, and aboriginal Australian performers.\r\n\r\nCody and Lillie knew that Native Americans fascinated audiences in the United States and Europe and both featured them prominently in their Wild West shows. Most Americans believed that Native cultures were disappearing or had already, and felt a sense of urgency to see their dances, hear their song, and be captivated by their bareback riding skills and their elaborate buckskin and feather attire. The shows certainly veiled the true cultural and historic value of so many Native demonstrations, and the Indian performers were curiosities to white Americans, but the shows were one of the few ways for many Native Americans to make a living in the late nineteenth century.\r\n\r\nIn an attempt to appeal to women, Cody recruited Annie Oakley, a female sharpshooter who thrilled onlookers with her many stunts. Her stage name was \u201cLittle Sure Shot.\u201d She shot apples off her poodle\u2019s head and the ash off her husband\u2019s cigar, clenched trustingly between his teeth. Gordon Lillie\u2019s wife, May Manning Lillie, also became a skilled shot and performed under the tagline, \u201cWorld\u2019s Greatest Lady Horseback Shot.\u201d Both women challenged expected Victorian gender roles, but were careful to maintain their feminine identity and dress.\r\n\r\nThe western \u201ccowboys and Indians\u201d mystique, perpetuated in novels, rodeos, and Wild West shows, was rooted in romantic nostalgia and, perhaps, in the anxieties that many felt in the new \u201csoft\u201d industrial world of factory and office work. The cowboy, who possessed a supposedly ideal blend \u201cof aggressive masculinity and civility,\u201d was the perfect hero for middle class Americans who feared that they \u201chad become over-civilized\u201d and looked longingly to the West.","rendered":"

\u201cThe American West\u201d conjures visions of tipis, cabins, cowboys, Indians, farm wives in sunbonnets, and outlaws with six-shooters. Such images pervade American culture, but they are as old as the West itself: novels, rodeos, and Wild West shows mythologized the American West throughout the post-Civil War era.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Calamity<\/a><\/p>\n

American frontierswoman and professional scout Martha Jane Canary was better known to America as Calamity Jane. A figure in western folklore during her life and after, Calamity Jane was a central character in many of the increasingly popular novels and films that romanticized western life in the twentieth century. \u201c[Martha Canary, 1852-1903, (“Calamity Jane”), full-length portrait, seated with rifle as General Crook’s scout],\u201d c. 1895. Library of Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In the 1860s, Americans devoured dime novels that embellished the lives of real-life individuals such as Calamity Jane and Billy the Kid. Owen Wister\u2019s novels, especially The Virginian<\/i>, would establish the character of the cowboy as the gritty stoics with a rough exterior but the courage and heroism needed to rescue people from train robbers, Indians, or cattle rustlers. Such images were further reinforced, particularly in the West, with the emergence of the rodeo added to popular conceptions of the American West. Rodeos began as small roping and riding contests among cowboys in towns near ranches or at camps at the end of the cattle trails. In Pecos, Texas, on July 4, 1883, cowboys from two ranches, the Hash Knife and the W Ranch, competed in roping and riding contests as a way to settle an argument and is recognized by historians of the West as the first real rodeo. Casual contests evolved into planned celebrations. Many were scheduled around national holidays, such as Independence Day, or during traditional roundup times in the spring and fall. Early rodeos took place in open grassy areas\u2014not arenas\u2014and included calf and steer roping and roughstock events such as bronc riding. They gained popularity and soon dedicated rodeo circuits developed. Although about 90% of rodeo contestants were men, women helped to popularize the rodeo and several popular women bronc riders, such as Bertha Kaepernick, entered men\u2019s events, until around 1916 when women\u2019s competitive participation was curtailed.Americans also experienced the \u201cWild West\u201d imagined in so many dime novels by attending traveling Wild West shows, arguably the unofficial national entertainment of the United States from the 1880s to the 1910s. Wildly popular across the country, the shows traveled throughout the eastern United States and even across Europe and showcased what was already a mythic frontier life.William Frederick \u201cBuffalo Bill\u201d Cody was the first to recognize the broad national appeal of the stock \u201ccharacters\u201d of the American West\u2014cowboys, Indians, sharpshooters, cavalry, and rangers\u2014but Cody shunned the word \u201cshow\u201d when describing his travelling extravaganza, fearing that it implied exaggeration or misrepresentation of the West. Cody instead dubbed his production \u201cBuffalo Bill\u2019s Wild West\u201d and tried to import actual cowboys and Indians into his productions. But it was still, of course, a show. It was entertainment, little different in its broad outlines from contemporary theater. Operating out of Omaha, Nebraska. Buffalo Bill created his first show in 1883. Storylines, punctuated by \u201ccowboy\u201d moments of bucking broncos, roped cattle, and sharpshooting contests, depicted westward migration, life on the Plains, and Indian attacks.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Portrait<\/a><\/p>\n

William Frederick \u201cBuffalo Bill\u201d Cody helped commercialize the cowboy lifestyle, building a mythology around life in the Old West that produced big bucks for men like Cody. Courier Lithography Company, \u201c\u2019Buffalo Bill\u2019 Cody,\u201d 1900. Wikimedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Buffalo Bill was not alone. Gordon William \u201cPawnee Bill\u201d Lillie, another popular Wild West showman, got his start in the business in 1886 when Cody employed him as an interpreter for Pawnee members of the show. Lillie went on to create his own production in 1888, \u201cPawnee Bill\u2019s Historic Wild West.\u201d He was Cody\u2019s only real competitor in the business until 1908, when the two men combined their shows to create a new extravaganza, \u201cBuffalo Bill\u2019s Wild West and Pawnee Bill\u2019s Great Far East\u201d (most just called it the \u201cTwo Bills Show\u201d). It was an unparalleled spectacle. The cast included Mexican cowboys, Indian riders and dancers, Russian Cossacks, Japanese acrobats, and aboriginal Australian performers.<\/p>\n

Cody and Lillie knew that Native Americans fascinated audiences in the United States and Europe and both featured them prominently in their Wild West shows. Most Americans believed that Native cultures were disappearing or had already, and felt a sense of urgency to see their dances, hear their song, and be captivated by their bareback riding skills and their elaborate buckskin and feather attire. The shows certainly veiled the true cultural and historic value of so many Native demonstrations, and the Indian performers were curiosities to white Americans, but the shows were one of the few ways for many Native Americans to make a living in the late nineteenth century.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to appeal to women, Cody recruited Annie Oakley, a female sharpshooter who thrilled onlookers with her many stunts. Her stage name was \u201cLittle Sure Shot.\u201d She shot apples off her poodle\u2019s head and the ash off her husband\u2019s cigar, clenched trustingly between his teeth. Gordon Lillie\u2019s wife, May Manning Lillie, also became a skilled shot and performed under the tagline, \u201cWorld\u2019s Greatest Lady Horseback Shot.\u201d Both women challenged expected Victorian gender roles, but were careful to maintain their feminine identity and dress.<\/p>\n

The western \u201ccowboys and Indians\u201d mystique, perpetuated in novels, rodeos, and Wild West shows, was rooted in romantic nostalgia and, perhaps, in the anxieties that many felt in the new \u201csoft\u201d industrial world of factory and office work. The cowboy, who possessed a supposedly ideal blend \u201cof aggressive masculinity and civility,\u201d was the perfect hero for middle class Americans who feared that they \u201chad become over-civilized\u201d and looked longingly to the West.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

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Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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