b'Cody took a bit of historical license here as he was with the 5th Cavalry much further to the south when the 7th was slaughtered on the slopes overlooking that Montana River, but it DID meet with the approval of America\'s most famous widow at the time - Libbie Custer herself).Cody had written Mrs. Custer sometime in 1886 - quite fortuitously after Sitting Bull\'s departure from the shows, requesting her approval to stage a production of the Little Big Horn battle, assuring her that he would "spare no expense to do credit to our exhibition and deepen the luster of your glorious husband\'s reputation as a soldier and a man" (Louis Warren, Buffalo Bill\'s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show, Vintage Books, New York, 2003, p. 171). Not only did Libbie Custer approve but gave a ringing endorsement to the shows, exclaiming that they were "that most realistic and faithful representation of a western life that has ceased to be, with advancing civilization" (Carter, p.293). She would often go backstage to centerofthewest.orgwatch the rehearsals, hob-nob with Annie Oakley, and eventually become an honored guest at the show\'s spectacular performance at the old, original Madison Square Garden on November 24, 1886 - the venue\'s 8,000-seats sold out on the first night of performance, This 1894 lithograph poster shows how popular Buffalo Bill\'swith thousands of disappointed attendees turned away Wild West was in America and Europe. - a show that was also the precursor to the Wild West show\'s triumphant, royally sanctioned tour of England the following spring.to be dismantled, loaded, transported, and re-erectedacres required for the show lot, preferably close to the quickly as well as moving all the people, animals andrailroad, to buy the tons of flour, meat, coffee, andBill Cody not only knew how to put on a show, but as equipment needed to operate and perform in it. Theother necessities, and to publicize and advertise. Annie Oakley related earlier, he was first and foremost Wild West show would eventually need a showgrounda kind, generous, and caring employer to all in his of 11 acres. Its arena had seating covered by 23,000In 1899 Buffalo Bill\'s Wild West covered over 11,000company. While the stars obviously earned higher yards of canvas, held by 2 miles of rope secured withmiles in 200 days giving 341 performances in 132wages, Cody ensured that all of the Cowboys, Mexicans, 1,000 metal spikes, and required a team of 175 men tocities and towns across the United States. In mostand the foreign participants received at least $50 a day erect it. The number of animals and people appearingplaces, there would be a parade and two two-hourwith all meals and expenses covered. Cody also made in the performances gradually increased, until, by theperformances. Then the whole show would be struck,sure that the show\'s animals, the horses he loved, the turn of the century, Buffalo Bill was advertising that 600loaded, and moved overnight to the next town" (Paulbuffalo, elk, cattle, and other livestock were well taken men and 500 horses take part. The trains needed grewFees, Wild West shows: Buffalo Bill\'s Wild West, Buffalocare of. There was much controversy when it was to a total of 52 cars, a larger operation by 10 cars thanBill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming). learned that the average Native American participant (if even the great Barnum and Bailey Circus needed whenhe was not a chief or a valued participant) on the other it was touring about the same time" (Buffalo Bill\'s WildThe show\'s program presented a virtual pageant of Oldhand, received just $25 a day, leading to charges that West, Royal Armories Press, London, 1999, p.22). West history, with up to two-dozen separate individualCody and the management were exploiting Indians. or group performances. In this writer\'s possession is aThe Indian bureau began an investigation into this Paul Fees, a former curator of the Buffalo Bill Center ofcopy of the 1898 Buffalo Bill\'s Wild West and Congressaccusation of ill-treatment but to the surprise of the the West, adds the following. "The logistics of the showof Rough Riders of the World program for Greaterinvestigators, every single Indian interviewed said were formidable. The biggest of them all, Buffalo Bill\'sNew York. It features a Grand Revue, followed by "Missopenly and unequivocally that they were treated fairly. Wild West, in the late 1890s carried as many as fiveAnnie Oakley" as the third act. Numerous other actsTrue, the $25 a day was less than what the average hundred cast and staff members, including twenty-fivewould follow, such as Cody\'s young protg, Johnnywhite participant received, but the Indians claimed it cowboys, a dozen cowgirls, and one hundred IndianBaker, demonstrating his shooting skills, a Cossackwas a fair wage. It could be pointed out that (in 1890) men, women, and children. They all were fed threetroupe from the Steppes of Southern Russia, and$25 was darn good money, and for Native Americans, hot meals a day, cooked on twenty-foot long ranges.as this performance was held immediately after thethose wages - plus the all-you-could-eat, three hot The show generated its electricity and staffed its fireconclusion of the Spanish American War, there wasmeals a day policy of Cody\'s would mean the difference department. Performers lived in wall tents duringeven a troupe of Cuban soldiers and members of thebetween being well-treated and well-taken care of or long stands or slept in railroad sleeping cars when the6th U.S. Cavalry who had fought alongside the Cubans.starving on a reservation where life was bleak - with not show moved daily. Business on the backlot was carriedThese acts and others would be followed by the "attack"even a chance of making it in the white man\'s world. on in what one reporter called "a Babel of languages."of Indians on the Deadwood Stage, until right towardsSitting Bull might have been gone, but there were others Expenses were as high as $4,000 per day. the end, at the 21st scene Colonel William F. Codywho spoke up firmly and unequivocally about how himself would appear - shooting glass balls at fullbenevolent and kind Cody had been to them and their Circus great James A. Bailey of Barnum and Baileygallop across the arena to the amazement of thousands.families. Sioux Chief Red Shirt, who fought at the Little joined Cody and Salsbury in 1895 and revolutionizedThe show would conclude with a buffalo hunt and theBig Horn, subsequently joined the Wild West show and their travel arrangements. The show was loaded ontoreturn of Buffalo Bill coming to the rescue of settlersbecame both a trusted partner and lifelong friend of Bill two trains totaling fifty or more cars. Strings of flatwhose cabins were attacked by Indians. Cody (Warren, pp. 358-373).cars could be linked together with ramps for loading wagons from the back forward. Besides performersBut by far what was most dramatic was the ninth act -Cody was not perfect, in his relationship with the and staff, the trains transported hundreds of showCody\'s re-creation of the Battle of the Little Big Horn.Indian but also in his relationships with others and draft horses and as many as thirty buffalo. TheCody originally played the role of George Custer, butincluding his own family. But to the Sioux and the show carried grandstand seating for twenty-thousandas the years progressed, and as Cody wanted to makemembers of the other tribes who worked the Wildspectators along with the acres of canvas necessarythings a bit more dramatic, he had Buck Taylor takeWest show, he was the difference between a decentto cover them. The arena itself remained open to theon the Custer role - with Cody himself arriving onlife and stagnation, starvation, and a soulless deathelements. Advance staff traveled ahead of the showthe scene after the fall of Custer with a banner in theon the reservation. to procure licenses and arrange for the ten-to-fifteenbackground exclaiming - "TOO LATE" (of course Part 3 continues next month.ArizonaRealCountry.com June 2021 21'