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Buffalo Bill's Wild West

During the latter part with the 1800's there may not have been anything quite as popular as reenactments of the wild west plus particular the performances put on by Buffalo Bill Cody and his awesome Wild West. Cody beyond a doubt a knack for knowing what the public wanted to see. He have also been a person who lived the wild west life coupled with the relationships to recruit the individuals who could make his dreams which f people arrived at life.

One in the things that made Buffalo Bill's Wild West different from most some other type of late 1800's entertainment was the fact that his performers for most instances weren't actors. They were the genuine article. At one point within the middle 1880's, Cody persuaded the truly great Lakota Sioux Chief Sitting Bull to join his traveling show. Although Sitting Bull only toured with the show some four months he was extremely popular and earned about $50 per week. The Sioux chief also made a serious lot of money during now selling autographs with a fascinated public.

The Amazing Female Sharpshooters

When it came to sharpshooters Cody had little difficulty finding top-notch performers. Buffalo Bill recruited two from the best shots the previous west produced. One was Annie Oakley who had been raised in Ohio and also the other, somewhat less known today, would are actually a woman named Lillian Smith from southern California.Lillian Smith would embark on to do with other wild west shows during her career including Mexican Joe's Wild West, The 101 Ranch Wild West Show and Pawnee Bill's Wild West. While all of these performance companies had a good following it was Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West that gained the most world wide attention.

So what were some of the sharpshooting talents with the little known Lillian Smith? She could hit a plate thirty times in fifteen seconds. Her act also included breaking ten glass balls over a string after which she shot the strings without missing once. Her act also included shooting with a glass ball thrown in the air and after intentionally missing the first three times, shatter the ball to be with her fourth shot.http://www.oakleysunglasses-sale.us. Sounds pretty impressive. Lillian also picked inside the name "California Girl" which was used extensively during her time with Bill Cody's show. Later, she would use other stage names.

Because the events happened such a long time ago there's a bit of disagreement as to how and when Bill Cody first discovered Lillian Smith. One story is which he saw her at a Los Angeles shooting gallery while on a trip on the city. Another says which he actually discovered her when his Wild West was performing in 1886 in Erastina on Staten Island in New York. Regardless, it's thought that Lillian, who preferred to do with two Winchester Rifles, joined the Wild West in 1886 on the ages of fifteen. Cody reportedly was fascinated along with his new young sharpshooter.

Annie Oakley aka Phoebe Ann Mosey along with her husband Frank Butler, another sharpshooter, joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1885. Oakley was twenty-six in the time. The mixture of both Oakley as well as the "California Girl" Lillian Smith around the same show bill didn't workout too well. At least not how Cody would've liked. While both performers were undoubtedly excellent sharpshooters, Lillian was some eleven years Oakley's junior and promoted herself because manner. Lillian seemed to be known to become a lttle bit rough talking and manner much less refined as Oakley's. Lillian Smith had also grabbed a husband by the name of Jim Kidd. Kidd would be a cowboy and champion roper who also had a reckless demeanor. A collision between the two personalities was inevitable. There was times that words were exchanged between the two and the situation deteriorated. Everything between both the stumbled on a head in 1887 while these were in England for the six month compilation of performances in London, Birmingham and Manchester during the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria's reign.

Trouble During the Tour of England

The most popular story regarding what happened in England had to perform with meeting the Royals. Supposedly both female performers gave a large amount of focus on Queen Victoria upon their meeting along with response the Queen had complimented both. When the London newspapers printed a story regarding the meeting between the three women the press gave the most of publicity to the "California Girl". That certainly didn't help an already fragile relationship. At exactly the same time that it seems that Annie was creating a hard time witnessing Cody's fondness for that "California Girl". In addition to that, Oakley seemed to be competing against a whole new teenage sharpshooter inside troupe named Johnny Baker. All in all, Oakley's as well as her husband's, relationship with Buffalo Bill Cody was going downhill fast. There have been also accusations made that Liilian Smith's husband, Jim Kidd, wrote a slanderous letter against Oakley's reputation and name. Therefore of the tension, accusations and ill-will, Oakley and her husband quit Cody's Wild West in 1887 at the conclusion of the tour of England.

After Buffalo Bill's Wild West

The California Girl stayed with Cody for the short while after Oakley's departure but by 1889 she was gone from Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Oakley mended the fence with Cody and returned to his organization. The California Girl wound up divorcing Jim Kidd. Lillian went through two other short marriages and then wed a man named Frank Smith, another old Buffalo Bill sharpshooting performer. Lillian eventually transferred to Oklahoma in 1907 where she joined up using the popular Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show. There she performed underneath the name of "Princess Wenona", a fictionalized Sioux princess. During on this occasion she also made appearances with Pawnee Bill's Wild West. Liilian Smith (The California Girl, Princess Wenona) finally retired from show business in 1920 and passed away a decade later in Ponca City Oklahoma which has been also the home of the 101 Ranch Wild West Show.

Annie Oakley took with the illustrious show business career with Buffalo Bill's Wild West. In 1901 Oakley was seriously injured in a very train wreck on a trip while using Wild West and chose to retire from traveling in 1902. At that time she entered acting in the stage play called The Western Girl. The play was written to be with her and she or he was in a situation to rope and shoot as part of her role. Incredibly, Annie Oakley continued with shooting demonstrations into her 60's. She also worked for assorted social causes during this time such as promoting women's rights. Around 1922 she'd intentions of making a show business comeback but it absolutely was also at on this occasion that she and her husband were involved inside a serious car wreck. What's amazing is the very fact that even after this automobile accident, and because of it, having to use a steel brace, she performed again in 1924 and again set shooting records. Unfortunately her health went downhill in 1925 and she or he passed away a year later in 1926 in Greenville Ohio of pernicious anemia. She was buried in Brock Cemetery in Greenville.

What's very worthwhile relating to this story is that, beyond a doubt, both Annie Oakley and Lillian Smith were excellent sharpshooters. In fact, you may state that they represented the superior two female sharpshooters the planet has ever known. Which one was better is really a question which could donrrrt you have a solution or even the answer is by using whomever you could ask. Before Lillian Smith left Buffalo Bill's show, the flamboyant showman offered a $10,000 prize to anyone who could out shoot Lillian. Because it proved nobody accepted the challenge which included Annie Oakley. As far for their personal life was concerned, Annie Oakley definitely had the better. Annie Oakley's marriage to Frank Butler lasted where Lillian experienced several relatively short marriages. One thing which is remarkable is when both women continued to execute in some manner though their later years. Annie Oakley passed away at 66 a lot of age and Lillian Smith at 59.

Their Place in History

Aside from other personality and age differences when both women performed together in Bill Cody's Wild West, the greatest difference was how their reputation and fame fared in later years. Annie Oakley not only received better press coverage during the early 1900's, but as years went by after each had passed away, Annie Oakley appears being the one that caught the public's lasting fascination. Annie Oakley was inducted in to the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth Texas. There is also the Annie Oakley Center at the Garst Museum in Greenville Ohio. There seemed to be motion pictures depicting lifespan of Annie Oakley also as the stage play, Annie Get The Gun. There might be very little found today of all time books regarding Lillian Smith. We have also not been successful in locating memorials or exhibits concerning her career. The one thing that both of the performers certainly had in common was their unparalleled sharpshooting ability.

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