William Frederick Cody (Buffalo Bill Cody)
Cody, William Frederick (1846-1917), Actor, better known as "Buffalo Bill"
the Iowan served as a pony-express rider and as a Civil War and Indian Scout. A play called Buffalo Bill, recounting his exploits, appeared in 1871. To capitalize on his renown, he himself began to act in dramas purporting to recount his adventures, such as, The Scout of the Prairies, The Knight of the Plains and Buffalo Bill at Bay. Cody toured in these for nearly a cecade before founding his Wild West Show in 1883. Played in the open air, these entertainments allowed him to re-create vividly the Indian Skirmishes and show off his shooting and riding skills. The Wild West Show took on a major attraction when the great sharpshooter Annie Oakley joined the company in 1885. The show prospered for many years as it toured the entire ,country buteventually competition, the need to out spend that competition and dwindling returns from the public, who were tired of his style and entertainment, forced him to merge with his rival, Pawnee Bills Historic Far West and Great Far East Show in 1909. The combined show continued to run up debts and was closed by bankruptsy in 1915.
Biography---A former member of the Metropolitan Stock Company and riding double for Marlon Davies. The old fashioned , Gallant Bill Cody became a star on the independent market in the 1920''s and was especially well liked by those who steadfastly resisted the flamboyant style of showmen like Tom Mix. Veteran genre director, Harry L. Fraser found him to be one of the most unimpressive western stars he had ever worked with, adding thatCody couldn''t memorize lines no matter how hard he tried. . Not surprisingly, Codys starring westerns in the 1930''s are considered some of the eras best. He last co-starred with his son Bill Cody (1924-1989) in a no-budget series for Spectrum in 1934-1936, but was obviously no longer any threat to virile men like John Wayne or Charles Starrett.
Buffalo Bill Museum, located 907 1/2 Lookout Mountain Road, Golden, Colorado 80401
The Buffalo Bill Museum examines the personal and public life of William Frederick, Buffalo Bill Cody (1846-1917) and seeks to tell his story in the content of the history myth of the American West. It is highly regarded as a research center, focusing on the life and times of Buffalo Bill. The collections of the Buffalo Bill Museum interpret the history of the American cowboy, dude ranching, Western conservation, frontier entrepreneurship and perhaps most importantly,the source of our concepts about the West. The museum reveals how Buffalo Bill, in an age without television or motion pictures,became the worlds foremost communicator about the American West.