Buffalo Bill's Wild West Celebrity, Memory, and Popular History

by Kasson, Joy S.

• ISBN13: 9780809032440
• ISBN10: 0809032449
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-10-17
• Publisher: Hill and Wang

Summary

A fascinating analysis of the first famous American to erase the boundary between real history and entertainment Canada, and Europe. Crowds cheered as cowboys and Indians--and Annie Oakley!--galloped past on spirited horses, sharpshooters exploded glass balls tossed high in the air, and cavalry troops arrived just in time to save a stagecoach from Indian attack. Vivid posters on billboards everywhere made William Cody, the show's originator and star, a world-renowned figure.Joy S. Kasson's important new book traces Cody's rise from scout to international celebrity, and shows how his image was shaped. Publicity stressed his show's "authenticity" yet audiences thrilled to its melodrama; fact and fiction converged in a performance that instantly became part of the American tradition. But how, precisely, did that come about? How, for example, did Cody use his audience's memories of the Civil War and the Indian wars? He boasted that his show included participants in the recent conflicts itpresented theatrically, yet he also claimed it evoked "memories" of America's bygone greatness. Kasson's shrewd, engaging study--richly illustrated--in exploring the disappearing boundary between entertainment and public events in American culture, shows us just how we came to imagine our memories.

Author Biography

Joy S. Kasson, author of several books on American history, is a Professor of American studies and English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She lives with her family in Chapel Hill.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Showmanship and Memory	3	(8)
PART ONE: PERFORMANCES
Inventing the Wild West, 1868--86	11	(54)
The Wild West Abroad, 1887--92	65	(28)
At the Columbian Exposition, 1893	93	(30)
Buffalo Bill and Modern Celebrity	123	(38)
PART TWO: PERSPECTIVES
American Indian Performers in the Wild West	161	(60)
Memory and Modernity	221	(44)
Conclusion: Performing National Identity	265	(12)
Notes	277	(24)
List of Illustrations	301	(6)
Index	307